Sam Finally Gets His Turn

Sam the grand dog (and our grand- dog) is visiting from Florida for a couple of weeks and finally, after he spent time with everyone else, he has come to spend a few days with Norm and Judi. It has been almost a year since we had seen the little fella, but he got just as excited as he always does when Doug pulled into our driveway!

Doug came for lunch, and we had a good time talking about some of his work and his upcoming publi- cations. As soon as they are released I'll put some links to them. I just took a good look at this photo, and the items in the background. Linvilles will recognize the "little green man" made out of railroad spikes that Dad L gave to all of us as a gift one year. The statue of St. Francis was an *ordination gift for Norm from Linda and Amos eons ago. And yes, that really is a blooming white poinsettia. I got it at the retiree's Christmas party in December. It must really like its spot on the desk getting only morning light.

(*this corrects an error in the original post.)

Our dining room as well as our neighbor's garage are filling up with items people have donated for our church's booth at the Gypsy Caravan, coming up on Memorial Day. We are doing it again this year. Somehow on Sunday afternoon we will truck it all to our little rented space on the UMSL campus. If you are coming to the Caravan, stop to see us in C-94.

Meanwhile, Sam is here until the weekend. We are going to try to arrange a playdate for him with Ava, but he is kind of afraid of her. He has already been upstairs to check out the bed. He always sleeps at our feet, which is nice and comforting since he isn't big enough to push us out of bed.

The news about Heather and her baby continues to be good. Korey was born on Monday afternoon via a C-section. We pray for the little guy (he weighed in at 4 lbs, 12 ounces, born 4 weeks early) to gain strength and outgrow the preemie nursery soon, and for Heather to have a smooth return to good health. Proud grandparents Mike and Sandy will return home later this week.