Back on the blog!

I have been off the blog quite a bit here recently. With Holly's dad getting sick and having to pack, there hasn't been much time for anything else. Remember that post I put up two weeks ago on my birthday? We got released early from work into a hellacious commute home. Well, that night we were expecting freezing rain, instead we got about seven hours worth of sleet! Pure sleet.In the end we got about four inches of ice. It was like a white Slurpee everywhere. Work delayed our starting time two hours and we trudged back in. The sleet storm was amazing. It was so windy that the sleet was blown onto the windows - it sounded like someone was literally filling up a bucket of pebbles and tossing it at the window, filling it up and tossing it, over and over. It was so LOUD! I didn't sleep very well at all - it was a very interesting night.

Later that same week we found out about Holly's dad's illness and we decided it would be best for Holly to get to Texas to be with him ASAP. At the time, we didn't really know what the outcome would be, so I rounded up a whole bunch of our friends and we did some big time packing all day Saturday. He was doing better on Sunday and I slacked off on the packing, but he declined again on Monday and we picked up the packing again. I think we ended up packing up about half of the apartment. I hated to admit it, but I decided that we should pack more than less "just in case."

Last week we packed again on Saturday and then little by little throughout the week. Pictured above is one of the piles of boxes in the dining room (forgive the quality of my phone camera.) The pic on the right is the office. We got a nice surprise six hour long snow last Sunday that laid down about four inches of thick white wet snow. It was beautiful, but then it started to rain. We were tempted to go out and play in it, but then we'd just end up sloppy wet - not so much fun. We hit full stride this week and as you've read from Holly's posts, it's been just nuts. I think we got ahead of ourselves today and there are still things than need to go into boxes, but all the boxes are sealed up. We'll have to figure out how to fix that tomorrow.

After the load we ended up feeling leery about whether everything is going to fit or not. If it doesn't, we might have to ship some boxes home - that would stink. Here's a shot of the mock load in the apt - what a pile, eh? Anyway, we're tired and ready for some shut eye. We're supposed to get some pretty serious rain tonight - I just hope it doesn't keep me up. By the way,Tamra's mom is doing a little better. She's off the breathing machine and able to converse a little, but she slept for most of the day. They just don't know how extensive the damage is to her brain yet. She need to get more rest before she can really be evaluated. Please continue to pray for them. And as Holly said... more tomorrow.

Good News All Around

Well, we have lots of good news from all around. As you know, my dad went home from the hospital Tuesday afternoon. My mom says he cat naps all day, but he needs a lot of rest. I talked to him yesterday and he says he and his legs get tired very easy. I'm a tad confused with this, but they sent him home with no medications. I asked my mom many questions regarding this but she didn't ask upon his release about meds. Just seems strange to me that a person who just had the serious surgeries and close to death experience that my dad did would be released from the hospital without medications. Anyway, my sister Heather and niece Elizabeth are there today and tomorrow to harass my dad and ensure he's doing what he's supposed to do.

We spoke with our friends John & Tamra Rich this afternoon and Tamra's mom Cheri is doing much better. She is awake and alert and talking some what. She is still heavily sedated and needs lots of rest. Please continue to pray for her.

Roger found out from his First Sergeant this afternoon that he has been added to the promotion selection list for Sergeant First Class. Which means it's pretty much a done deal that he will be promoted. Perfect timing. He was very excited to hear this news. He was waiting for this information for a while. He submitted his packet at the end of January and hadn't heard anything until today.

Okay, I'm getting the look from Roger. I need to get off this computer. We have a few more errands to run before the rain hits. Tonight we will finish finalizing the packing and hopefully mock the trailer load in the dining room. Please pray we get everything done and it all goes smoothly!