march madness

so i am not talking about college basketball here, but i just sent the folks on a train back to warsaw before they fly out tomorrow afternoon to head back home. it was a wonderful visit but sad that we were missing a quarter of the family, the brother.

but with the visit of the folks also comes treats from the home front. and since dr. pepper is a little hard to pack up with them because of the weight, why not try dr. pepper flavored jelly beans. that is right, jelly belly has dr. pepper flavored beans. i thought they similar to the actual thing. but i am sure that the real purest would beg to differ with me.


and this is what it looks like every weekend, except this time i was on the same side as mom and dad. this is how we communicate every sunday through the computer. here they are talking to the missing quarter to the family.

family shot. miss you brother.

and this picture requires some explanation, the family visit fell over easter and every year at easter it is a tradition in my family to have a pinata. now this years pinata is extra special because it is a palm tree. (kind of ironic and will explain later.) but most years, it is a christmas pinata bought during the post-season sales.
but it is wonderful that it is a palm tree because, it has been so cold here! the one week that mom and dad come, there is cold snap! so the palm tree was too cute for me to break so we have it set up in the apartment in hopes for warmer weather to come. we understand that it won't be tropical weather that comes along, but right now we will take anything!