Happy Easter

Happy Easter to all. May the blessings of the season be upon all of you that I love so dearly.

I haven't written much lately. I think the reason has been that I was feeling poorly and not sure why. I do suffer from allergies, so that's always a part of it, but I was also have a feeling of general malaise and a lack of energy. A week or so ago I started having trouble swallowing and when I was able to swallow, it hurt like the dickens. Because the pain was mostly in my chest, I was worried it may be a heart attack (because of family history) but it turns out that I have damaged my esophagus somehow - maybe a pill getting 'stuck' and burning it is one theory - but regardless of the 'how' it has really knocked me on my keister. I'm not able to eat much, but after a few days on medication I think I do feel better. The doctor feels pretty confident that is my problem, but will be doing some additional testing to make certain it isn't something more sinister.

The next few weeks promise to be exciting. I will have (in addition to Sophie and Juliet who I watch several days a week) my grandchildren Ben and Ryann will come visit for several days while their parents are on a short cruise to Mexico. After that my daughter-in-law Beth and my four grandchildren Madeline, Wills, Pierre and Cedric will visit for a week. Hopefully son Steve will be able to join us for a day or so during that time. After that, my niece Tammy and nephew Rick will visit for several days. I'm so excited to see them all and hope I can keep everyone happy and busy. I'm sure we will. The fact that Oregon has no sales tax is always fun for the California visitors, so shopping is always a part of the planned activities.

My art is coming along. I've been experimenting some with my techniques and trying not to be so literal in my painting. Being a little abstract is really rather fun. The two tree paintings are done and are just for fun, the third is of irises and not yet complete, but close.

For some reason the spacing here on my blog between paragraphs either doesn't show up at all (no space) or is a huge gaping hole. I'm not sure why that is happening, but I mention it because the overall look of the blog is distorted and that bugs me.

We had a nice dinner at daughter Amy's last night. She is a very good cook (she didn't get that from me) and the meal was lovely. Then Kerry had a few little projects to discuss. We'll get to those soon. Kerry is among the actively employed members of the family now. She actually has health insurance for the first time since college! We're proud of her and her commitment to this new job and lifestyle.

I've been working on our Stewart genealogy for several weeks and really getting frustrated with the inability to move forward. According to family history, brother Jim remembers our grandmother saying was that the Stewart's came by way of Oregon. In theory, since I live here I should be able to find something, but so far no luck. I'll keep digging away at it. We know our great grandfather was born in Pennsylvania, but the route that brought him to California by way of Oregon is still very unclear. It doesn't help that the name Stewart seems to be as prolific in Pennsylvania as Jones and Brown. Sheesh. I'll find something soon though. I just know it.

Time to start preparing Easter dinner. Kevin and Stephanie and the girls will be coming over. I'm excited to see them. When Kevin finishes school and gets a job, who knows where they'll end up. I hope you all have a wonderful day and a great week.

Love, Debs