Let the roofing begin................

It’s beginning to look a lot like “roofing” in our neighborhood. As a result of our April hail storm , it seems almost every home needs a new roof—ours included. Some people have hired their roofers and the signs are everywhere. Here’s a sampling of some of the signs we see each day as we go for our walk. Yes, we need a new roof, too. I wonder what our roofer’s sign will look like. Oh, and the advertising fliers and cards continue to show up on our door knob, steps, in the mail box, and some are hand delivered to us as we go walking.

Some people are using the same roofing company, but these are some of the choices

Men at work on one roof----some of the fliers and cards we received

Visiting the Beautiful Northwest

We feel very lucky to have relatives that live in the greater Seattle area. It means we have a reason to visit there often. This year we expanded our trip and included a first-ever Verne and Bessie Thorpe children’s reunion.

Our first few days were spent with Kathy in Monroe. We enjoyed playing board games every chance we got. Kathy and I took her dog Teddy for many walks and went to the fantastic tulip fields in Mt. Vernon while Russ did some household jobs for Kathy. Kathy’s daughter, Wendy, hosted the Easter dinner gathering at her house. We enjoyed great food and company.

Next came two nights at the wonderful Greenlake Guesthouse Bed and Breakfast near downtown Seattle. The children of Verne and Bessie Thorpe gathered together and enjoyed all the amenities of the Bed and Breakfast, as well as the beautiful park and walking trail around Green Lake. Just hanging out together and reliving memories from childhood and talking about our rich heritage was wonderfully wonderful. Russ and I presented each sibling with a beautiful Legacy Family Tree. We were inspired by the Legacy Family Tree our daughter, Julie, gave to us at Christmastime.

Finally, we spent our last five days in Federal Way with my sister, Tamara. My brother Randy joined us and together we all worked on many house projects and enjoyed some good food at Roundhouse Pizza and Azteca.

The pictures below tell the story best. Thanks, family, for a wonderful visit in beautiful Washington.

Easter Dinner at Wendy and Dave's ------------ Tulips at Roozengaarde Gardens

Tulips Fields at Mt. Vernon, WA ---------------------a close up shot


Dinner at Ivar's Salmon House on Union Lake ----- Breakfast at our B&B

One of the lovely rooms at the B&B ---One course of our breakfast prepared by our hostess

Playing the Thorpe/Brown Trivia Game -----Sharlene & Kathy love the B&B robes

View of beautiful Green Lake - - - - Kathy and Randy enjoy a snack in the Sun Room at B&B

Sharlene presents Randy, Tamara, & Kathy with their Heritage Family Trees

Close up of the Verne & Bessie Thorpe Family Tree

It's less scary when.....................

Yes, it’s less scary when you are 2,000 miles away. We were vacationing in Seattle when the storms and tornadoes hit our southern states causing extreme damage and many deaths. We who live in Knox County were lucky to just have somewhat minor damage. Many broken trees, windows, blown off siding, etc. Hail (the size of golf balls) damaged some of the wood trim on our home, ripped through 10 of our window screens, shredded our canopy, tore off rain gutter parts, pulled the post away from our fence and other minor stuff. When we think of what could have happened, we feel lucky. Our prayers and thoughts are with those who were less fortunate. Since we were away our children checked on our house and reported the damage and checked for leaks inside. We’re all waiting for insurance contractors to check our roofs. Many will need replacing. Tomorrow (Sat.) members of our ward, including my husband and sons-in-law will travel to Chattanooga, TN to help with the clean up there. They were hit harder than we were. I’m borrowing pictures my daughters took of the hail so you’ll have a visual of the hail.

Lisa holds hail in her hand with the gathered hail on her decking in the background.

Carter, Jared, & Claire add ping pong balls to show comparison - Lori holds hail from her house.

DAMAGE TO OUR HOME (NOT COUNTING THE ROOF)

This was a beautiful Hosta plant before we left town; now it's mostly torn to shreds.

It's hard to tell, but if you look closely, you'll see many hole in the screens. We will be replacing 10 window screens and we haven't checked the side windows yet. Guess we should do that.