the very first sign of spring

I haven't even noticed any crocuses yet (maybe because we still have snow on the ground) but I did see the very first sign of spring yesterday - the tree in the picture is just beginning to bloom. It's still in the 30s and 40s here with snow showers on and off. I'm waiting for the proverbial lamb of the end of March, but I don't think we will see it this year.
We are going to see some warm weather next week - in Oklahoma. Hopefully that will not include tornadoes.
Ellie's first tooth FINALLY poked through on Tuesday! You can barely see it but you can definitely feel it. She's been teething on and off since about 4 months old, so needless to say it's a relief to finally see some results. I can't believe that she's going to turn 1 in just over a week. Her vocabulary now includes, in addition to Mama and Daddy, "up, down, uh-oh, dog, no, Ellie, bye-bye, nose, duck," and several other noises that we can't quite recognize yet but I'm sure she knows exactly what they mean. She also recognizes, but can't quite say yet, the words bath and "sneezy juice" (her Zantac which makes her sneeze everytime she takes it.)

Finished!

For the last month or so, I've been going gung ho on a paper that I'm presenting on Friday. It's done. The relief is palpable. I still need to prepare my presentation, but that's what tomorrow is for. sigh...

It's early spring here - Spring Break is upon us and the students are all off to various exotic locales. We used to refer to the week following Spring Break as "Baked Potato Week," as one can count the leather-like tans that are so jarringly out of place in the middle of a Michigan March. I've always loved Spring Break on campus, as it's so quiet - you can almost hear the sap stirring in the trees. I also love the fact that I can park on the Circle near the botanical gardens as there's no one around. As I was walking in past my favorite, towering white pines this morning, I realized that this is my fifteenth Spring Break here at Michigan State. I remember the first one as vividly as if it were yesterday - I can never forget the moment when the Lord first spoke to me. In the solitude of my first early spring here is when I surrendered my life to Him, and I watched as the winter clouds cleared away.

It is also nearly Ellie's first birthday. Tomorrow she will be eleven months old. We're going to Oklahoma the week before the big day so that she can meet her great-grandmothers and all of the uncles, aunts, and cousins for the first time. It will also be her first plane ride. We'll see how that goes! She's so squirmy right now that I don't know how she will manage to stay on our laps for the duration of the flight, unless she falls asleep.