05

Here is grandchild number 11 born on May 1st, and doing great. Hope all is well with you and it isn't getting too hot too fast for you. My daughter says it is already like a steam bath in Florida. Enjoying getting all my seeds into the ground and enjoying the spring flowers. Not enjoying the resulting aches and pains from all the garden work.

(I asked for permission to include the nude shot and the following was Donna's response.)

I am pretty sure his parents won't mind but don't want any trouble being labeled as porno. HE HE HE Yes, it is one of those bear-skin photos for sure. That is me in the picture holding Jon Paul II and his dad (my youngest son) Jon Paul looking on with such pride. This is his first child. He is now 29 years old.

Right now I am enjoying my hyacinths, tulips, and lilacs. Oh so sweet!!! Yesterday planted my squash, green peppers, nasturtiums, marigolds, radish, broccoli, and tomato seeds. Have one tomato plant in the house that is blooming. It will go out in the garden after the 10th. Also put my dahlia tubers into the ground along with my cleome seeds. My asparagus got set back by the frost so am pampering it with extra watering to see if it will recover. Last week we got down into the 20's for lows and I was so busy trying to cover everything. I thought the asparagus would be okay. I now know it will need covering too from now on with such dips in temp as we had last week.

A walk through of my raspberry patch where I planted one black raspberry and one golden raspberry plant last year revealed a 10 X 10 patch of lots of black raspberry shoots growing. I love them so much. Will come in from the garden many times this year with a purple tongue for sure. Bill hates them because of the seeds.

Just before we left Florida for Michigan I had a terrible bout of pancreatitis. Went on antibiotics and a diet to really watch my sugar. I was one sick cookie and the trip was a hard one for me. I am just starting to feel a bit human again but my fasting blood sugar sometimes jumps up to 120 as it was this morning. Have to monitor it all the time now. The nurse for the HMO wouldn't give me a diagnosis of type II diabetes so I am stuck without insurance for my testing supplies. Didn't know how expensive they were till now. OUCH.... Not only hurts the finger but the pocket book. You probably wondered who that was in the photo for I have lost 30 pounds with this battle.