April Showers!

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Wascana in the middle of the prairies. The calendar has turned to April, but the showers have been white so far! We're promised some improvement in the weather next week. We're completing our run in Saskatchewan, trying to finish a few things, and preparing for our trip home in the coming week. We moved over to Dad's on Sunday; we'll spend the remainder of this prairie sojourn with him. Bern and Alicia are away in Guatemala with a crew from their school. We've had a special visitor this week as Travis flew out for a visit. It was good to have him with us until Thursday evening. He even got to meet a lot of friends and relatives who gathered for high tea on Thursday afternoon! The markets have continued to be horrible, no good and bad as Trump has continued to abuse them with his silly pronouncements. This week, he targeted Mexico, China, NAFTA and China again! In between, he retracted some of the attacks, so investors, who hate the chaos, withdrew money from the markets and all indices lost value. I lost value along with them, sigh! China announced retaliatory tariffs on Wednesday, so Trump noted that he wasn't really proposing tariffs at all, it was only a negotiating position. So, we had a big relief rally on Thursday, but then, Trump came back to triple the tariffs and Friday was deep red on all indices. Weak US jobs numbers on Friday didn't help either. Now, we're waiting to hear of the response from China. Wendy and Travis worked with grandpa in the shop this week. Grandpa is building a beautiful cedar chest as a keepsake for Trav. 

In the shop, building a cedar chest!

In the sporting world the NCAA Basketball ended with Villanova claiming the prize. The main feature for me this week has been the World Curling Championships held in Las Vegas. Brad Gushue advanced to the playoff round and defeated the US this morning, and then defeated Scotland in the semi-final, this evening. He will take on Niklas Edin of Sweden in the Gold medal game tomorrow. I'm also sparing some attention for the first big event of the golf season which is the Masters Tournament. Lots of drama as usual around that event. Baseball is in the early weeks, while NHL hockey's long grind comes to an end. Next week, they will launch the second season as playoffs get underway. I am cheering for, and expecting, good runs from the Jets, Pens and Leafs. Sadly, we are also facing tragedy in the hockey world—the Humboldt Broncos were involved in an accident on the way to a hockey game. To this point, 15 have lost their lives so the impact is large and terrible. 

Erica was up in LaRonge all week enjoying the cold weather and the hot auditing! They got the update that their CR-V has indeed been written off, so they intensified their search for a replacement, and, today, purchased a 2014 Toyota Venza. Liam was home this week, and Haaken arrived on Friday evening. They brought Haaken with them to Regina, so we're glad to catch up with him as well. Liam is suffering with a cold, so he stayed behind in Prince Albert.

Baileys' 2014 Venza

Erin was mostly on her own this week as Kristian spent most of the week with us over at Great Grandpa's. Wendy prepared meals here as well, so Erin joined us for those. Kristian missed bowling practice on Monday, and was too late for warmups this morning. He's thinking this may have been the cause of his lower scores this week, and truly, he did beat his average in the third game! He has a bowling tournament tomorrow. We'll be interested to see how that turns out. 

Travis flew out to Regina, and we enjoyed spending most of the week with him. Joanna piled up the work for his return! He got back to that on Friday. He is still waiting for the recall on his car to be accomplished—Hyundai are replacing the engine for him. I'm hearing there may be a bit of repair  work, waiting for my return, on Joanna's car, as winter driving has taken a toll. We look forward to returning to be with our family there. 

And that's about enough for this week.