Welcome back!

It has been a while, it seems, since my last post. Life here on the Island continues to be fabulous. We have had many adventures since February 2012. I attended my first Easter Vigil (an all-Island Episcopal service that is held each year at a different parish - I think it is now my favorite service of the year.) In summer 2012 we sold our home in Virginia (which necessitated a trip there to complete our packing and moving - we will be grateful forever to our housekeepers who took fabulous care of our home and made it exceedingly easy for us to do what needed to be done). Post-house-sale we had a garage built, purchased two kayaks and Mama Bear visited with friends from SIGUCCS in Memphis in the fall (PapaBear stayed home to take care of The Cat). Winter was grand with enough snow for snowshoeing! Mama Bear took many classes (Hebrew scriptures, writing, Norse mythology, and more singing). Papa Bear defended the trash can container from The Squirrel and from The Snowplow!! Ultimate victor: PapaBear!! This past spring Mama Bear and Papa Bear went back to Virginia to visit friends. Mama Bear then went to see her mother in West Virginia, and what was to be a visit to help her go to North Carolina to look at potential places to live turned into a several week visit to help her recover from pneumonia, travel to NC to look at places, travel back to WV to pack, travel back o NC for her move, and unpack. She was a trooper, my siblings were saints, and we accomplished her goal of living close to my sister, being on one level, having her dog with her, and being allowed to smoke in her one-bedroom apartment. She and the dog walk daily - sometimes several times, they are learning the mores of the community, as well as making friends. Papa Bear did an heroic job of taking care of things on the home front. Recently we journeyed to Boston to see Baby Bear and BooBoo. We loved the meals we shared, visiting with BooBoo's parents (who recently moved back to family in Boston), and having fun going to an Indigo Girls/Joan Baez concert (MamaBear) and a game at the Brockton Rox (PapaBear). On the way home, PapaBear purchased a new camera he had been thinking about for a long time. Summer is here and promises to be busy, too. The church yard sale is complete, the Quietside Festival will happen soon, MamaBear and PapaBear have been helping a local parish with computer/network issues (which has been great fun!) MamaBear is doing a Psalms class on Tuesdays, is in two book clubs, and a couple other groups that meet irregularly. MamaBear recently read Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris and found it fabulous. Good times, good friends: come see us sometime!