An Offer We Did Refuse

We got an offer on the house today! I got it in my email, which was new. I had a chance to look it over and gave Holly a call so that she could look at it too. I thought it might be a tad low so Holly and I had a conference call with our agent. First I needed her to explain exactly what the bottom line was. The buyer wanted us to pay all the closing costs and that irked me. But we then found out that the buyer was using an FHA loan and there are some closing cost items that they are not allowed to pay for. I asked our agent for her opinion and she suggested we counter offer by increasing their initial offer by the total of the closing cost. That would give us a higher profit that we believe is fair for our house.

Another issue is that they want to close on Dec 17. Our new house will probably not be ready until Mid-January. We asked if they would entertain a lease-back to us or push the closing date out. We also will use our appliances as a bargaining chip. We were going to sell our washer, dryer and refrigerator but will convey them if everything works out okay.

We hope to hear something back tomorrow! It’s very exciting to be getting somewhere on this sale. We just need to see how things progress. I think this is the buyers first home because I looked his name up in our county’s appraisal roll and didn’t see his name there. And I did another search and he’s either 29 or 30 and apparently single.

If he is not able to change the closing date or do a lease-back, some friends from church have offered us the upstairs of their new house. We’d have to move out of the our house, have everything put in storage and then have it all picked up from storage in Jan and moved in to the new place. But the Army is covering the cost of our move, so we really don’t mind which way it goes. But we really would rather move just once.

More tomorrow!

And yeah – this is Roger… I’m back on the blogging bandwagon again baby!

It Finally Happened

Well, it finally happened to us. Our credit card number was some how stolen last week. Thank goodness our credit card company, Citibank, noticed some suspicious activity on our account and froze it yesterday. I tried to make a purchase at a store and my card would not go through. The cashier's monitor told him to call the bank but he suggested trying it again. Three times later it still didn't work and I could tell he was not going to call the bank. Nice. As far as he knew, it could have been a stolen card. So I used my debit card and called Roger as soon as I left the store. He called Citibank since I was driving and sure enough there were several transactions they wanted us to verify. All of the suspicious transactions were made in San Antonio and the ones I remember the most because they were "interesting" were at fast food establishments for super large amounts of money. Who spends over $100 at McDonald's and Church's Chicken?! I couldn't tell you the last time we ate at McDonald's. We haven't been to San Antonio in months. I don't think I have ever eaten at Church's Chicken.

So our credit card account was closed and we shredded those cards when we got home. A new account was opened for us. It kind of sucks and we have to change our credit card number for all the accounts that drafted from it. I hope we remember them all. We are most interested in how a person gets someone else's credit card number. And also, how people can purchase items without having the actual card in hand. Don't stores have policies against just giving a credit card number without the actual card? Or do these people make a fake card somehow? I don't know how that works, but we had dinner with friends last night and prayed for the person who stole our credit card number. That's about all we can do.

And speaking of San Antonio, Roger and I are headed to Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio this afternoon to attend a briefing so we can use his retirement move from the Army. It's kind of funny, this will be our one and only military move after 15 years. But it's free so we are going to use it. And it will help lessen the blow if we have to move twice because of the timing of the closings of both houses. They will pack our old house, put it into storage and when we are ready to move into the new house, bring all our stuff to it. Not bad. We hope we won't have to put anything into storage but I seriously doubt it will all work out perfectly as we'd like. But we can still hope.

As for the new house, I went by Monday and not much had been done since Saturday, that I could tell. All the windows were in and they had started putting the plywood on the roof. I'll drive by today and see what's new. Although we are excited about it going fast, we have to think about it being built correctly and the timing of the sale of our current home. We'd prefer building sound over fast and we hope to have our house sold before the new one is done. Most houses are selling fast in our neighborhood so we should be good, but we won't know until then. We will put it on the market next week. Please help us deal with all these concerns peacefully by praying for us. Thanks.

Finally moved and settled and G6PD

I know I haven’t posted in a week. I have actually been very busy here and have been so tired at the end of the day that I just can’t find the energy to post. Anyway, know that I am doing fine here in DC. I have been taking classes all week on transitioning out of the Army. The classes are really for people that are retiring after 20+ years or are getting out after their contracts are up. I already have a job and don’t need most of the training, but it’s good to learn anyway.

Last week I started a post but never finished it, so here it is. This is from last Thursday…

“I finally finished in-processing yesterday. The last thing on the list was a meeting with the Company Commander. He’s a fellow Texan and he also ‘pinned’ me on Friday. So, that’s finally done. It took me about three weeks to get it done.

Yesterday I also had a physical therapy evaluation. I asked to get a little more PT in since I’m here and have a good amount of free time. I figure anything I can do to improve the strength in my right leg and arm is good.

I also had an internal medicine appointment with my PCM today to review the lab results from two weeks ago. They confirmed that I do have a G6PD Deficiency. It really is not a big deal. You can read more about it on Wikipedia and MedlinePlus from NIH. I just can’t take certain drugs or eat certain foods. But I’ve lived for 32 years without a problem (except a brain tumor… ahem) so I think I’ll be okay. But Mirna and her kids need to be tested. And I most likely got it from my mom, so she should be tested too.

I told you yesterday that I’d get you up to speed on my housing issues. As I mentioned before, I have to move out of my nice dorm style room now that I’m an E-7. Just so you know, right now my room has plenty of storage space, 11 drawers to be exact, and plenty of cabinet space. It has a twin bed, walk-in closet, restroom with a stand up shower, kitchenette with a sink, stovetop, microwave and fridge, an iMac (which I don’t use), an LCD HDTV, internet access that I use with my laptop, and a small love seat. The setup is pretty cushy, if you ask me. I have windows that open and HVAC that works really well. Really… a very nice setup! This is for the junior enlisted soldiers.

I called the Malogne House on Monday and spoke to the day manager who has been trying to get me a room in a building they call the Guest House. Well, today she let me know that my room was ready. I went over to check it out and boy was I surprised. It was a much smaller room with a twin bed, very small closet, the HVAC did not work and the room was hot as heck, there were only three drawers for storage ad the best part? It had a shared restroom with the room next door. Okay, so you tell me – who has it better? The juniors on the seniors? Anyway, I went back to tell them that the AC was not working but the manager wasn’t there. I know another SFC who fought tooth and nail against moving out of here, but he lost. I know I’m not going to win that battle either, so I’m going to at least fight for a decent room. I’ll let you know how it goes. Maybe I’ll post pics soon so that you can see the difference yourself.”

Okay, that was last Thursday. Well, last Friday Tamra once again helped me move into my new room. I am now staying in a building called Delano Hall. It’s just okay. The room is definitely smaller, but it has a full size bed, mini fridge, mini microwave, an iMac (that I don’t use), an LCD HDTV (which I do use) and it has enough storage space. And the best thing? The AC works! I do share a bathroom with someone, but there are locks so that neither of us can intrude on the other. He’s a little loud and has all kinds of crap all over the sink and lots or protein drink mix everywhere. But I have never seen the guy. I imagine him as a huge guy that could probably squash me like a bug. I hope I never find out.

So far it has been pretty quiet here, but tonight some jeep has been sitting in the parking lot (which my window faces) with its music all turned up. It has been there for the past half an hour with the engine running. I think I just heard the doors close. Oh good… he just left. Now I can go to sleep.

Moved In... Sorta'

Thursday was a very busy day for me. I had to go to the office to finally turn in my badge, turn in some keys, take care of some paperwork, but most importantly... sign and get a copy of my NCOER!!! The ordeal is over! It took a few weeks, but I finally got it in - and it was a pretty good review. But it took so long to get everything done that someone had to drive me to WRAMC for my 1530 doctor apointment (Thanks for the ride Alan - and thank God for that GPS!) I made it to the doctor appointment and it went well. My new PCM is on the ball and should be easy to work with over the next few months. Earlier this week I got a call from a nurse at the clinic at Fort Belvoir - she told me that a test they did on my blood last week came up positive for G6PD deficiency. I'm not going to go into detail about what is now because when I told the doctor he thought it would be a good idea to run the test again to make sure they got it right. He's also going to check my liver enzymes to make sure they're at a decent level. I went down to the lab, they took my blood, and I was off to my apartment to pack. I also finally talked to my Neurologist and we talked about my EEG results. We had a bad connection, so at first I thought he said that they were wildly abnormal... I was confused! But it turns out that he said they were mildly abnormal. He didn't see any epiliptic activity and said that the results were in line for what would be seen in a post brain surgery patient. So, basically nothing to worry about right now. We just need to see how this new drug works over time.

I'm learning how to get to and from WRAMC using the metro system. Buses run pretty frequently on two streets at the front and back of the post. I take a bus to the Silver Spring metro station and then take the red line to Metro Center and transfer to the orange or blue line to get to where most of my friends live. Total time during rush hour is about an hour. I'm guessing that off peak it will take about an hour and a half. I don't think it's too bad - the fact that I can even get around this easily is amazing.

I went home and started packing. A few friends from my new Tuesday night Community Group from church came over to help and after a while we got hungry, so we went to Cafe Asia to eat (I love their food!) They all went home and I continued to pack. With an end in sight I kept at it until 3am when basically everything was pretty much ready to go.

This morning Tamra came over and we got everything loaded into her car and made the trek over to WRAMC. When we got there we had a hard time figuring out where to park to offload the goods. A young Private agreed to watch the car while we unloaded in the circle drive and took everything up. When we finally got everything up to my room on the third floor, my key wouldn't work on the door. Tamra went down to park the car and I went down to the S-4 office to see what was wrong. They told me to call the guy that assigned me the room. I called the SSG that assigned me the room and he said I needed to call S-4. Not so fast! No passing the buck here... he told me to meet him at the S-4 office. It turned out that since I didn't put anything in the room, when they did a walk-through of the rooms, my room was empty, so they assigned it to someone else. Now, this may sound like a Charlie Foxtrot to you, but this is par for the course for an Army operation. Anyway, several phone calls were made, rooms were looked at and by the time we were sure I could have a room on the second floor, two hours had elapsed.

The room is decent. Each room has a walk-in closet, tile floors, a bathroom with a stand up shower, a kitchenette with a small stove, fridge, microwave and sink. There is also a plasma TV and an iMac in each room. The room wasn't exactly clean and the furniture wasn't placed very well, so we methodically moved furniture around, swept and mopped the floor underneath and put it all in new places. It took us quite a bit of time to get everything wiped down and cleaned up. We basically got it to a state where Tamra could take all her cleaning stuff home and I could finish up any odds and ends when I get back on Sunday. It was getting late in the afternoon, so I packed up some clothes for the weekend and we headed out. John, Tamra, Zach, Amanda and I had a nice dinner at Ray's the Steaks between Rosslyn and Court House and then we hung out at John and Tamra's for a bit. Now I'm at Amanda's for the weekend. She graciously offered their spare bedroom to me and I gladly accepted.

Tomorrow we're working on fixing up a run down house in Alexandria and then rest in the afternoon. I feel like I have a lot to do in my room still and that's occupying my thoughts. Amanda offered me some towels and bedsheets that I can use while I'm here. I have towels, but they're thirteen year old brown Army towels. And they gave me bed linens, but they're not fitted and not comfy. Thanks Amanda! I just need to unpack and get everything put away so that it feels like a home away from home. After that, I'll be happy. Please pray for a smooth move-in!

Back to DC Tomorrow

Well, here it is over a month later and I'm already heading back to DC tomorrow. Man, it feels like I just got home! We had a chance to see some of our very good friends while I was here: David, Kate and the kids; Miki, Sean and the kids; Jill N; Jill R; all of our family... but we never got a chance to visit with our very good friends Joy, TJ and all their kiddos! It's been too crazy guys, we'll see you when I get back! We love you and thank you for everything!

We did get to go on that fabulous cruise... and yeah yeah... I know the pics aren't up yet. We have been mega crazy! We had to move back in and then leave, then come back and finish unpacking and we completely redid our home office setup. Then Holly started back up at work again this week while I tried to rest a little bit and take care of other odds and ends around the house. I spent a pretty good amount of time yesterday and today packing and tomorrow I head off at 12:05pm CDT. Thanks to Matt O, in advance, for picking me up at Dulles.

Anywho, my thoughts are all over the place today. I just wanted to let y'all know that we haven't forgotten about you, our loyal readers, and we'll be back on the blog-wagon soon.

Monday, March 13, 2007: Update on My Dad and Reflection on Being Home

My dad had a doctor’s appointment on Friday with Dr. Bond his primary care manager. His blood pressure was 87/55 and his weight was 131. He has gained nine pounds. That’s great. As a result of blood work from this visit, Dr. Bond discovered my dad is anemic and prescribed a multivitamin with iron plus an extra iron supplement. He also told my dad only 75% of people who go through what he did do not survive and 80% usually lose a leg. So my dad said he’d quit griping about his feet, but if you know my dad even a little bit, you know he’ll keep griping. At his appointment today Dr. Kirby, Cardio/Thoracic Surgeon, gave my dad a very thorough exam and told my dad that he looked good. His blood pressure was 98/65. And my dad told him no more cigarettes. My mom said she thinks he means it this time. I hope so! His legs still get tired easily and his feet are still recovering from the gout. He is on antibiotic for that and aspirin for blood thinner, plus the multivitamin and iron supplement now. He’s doing good and planning to go hunting this weekend with his grandson William. I know, he probably shouldn’t, but you can’t keep him cooped up inside too long.

Thanks again for all your prayers. I think my dad will make a slow but complete recovery and has decided to stick around a little longer. Please pray for continued healing, rest, strength, provision and peace for him and my mom.

Well, we’ve been home four days now and it feels so nice to be home. When we arrived we walked through the house by ourselves before everyone showed up to help unload and it was interesting and kind of neat. Our house is a little smaller than we remembered, but just as cute as we left it. And we left a lot of junk here! At first the thought of setting up house again was a little daunting. But that feeling has since left both of us. Thanks to de-cluttering an area before we unpacked and doing the same to what we were unpacking has made the idea of setting up again not so overwhelming. We are getting rid of tons of stuff. Part of our garage is full. Roger wants to have a garage sale, but I’m lazy so I say take it all to Goodwill or Salvation Army. That’s how lazy I am, I don’t care about making money off it. But it’s all coming together. We are almost finished unpacking everything. We really missed our house and are remembering how much we love it.

It is great being home and being in Austin. It’s still the Austin we love, but a lot has changed and we think we can handle all the changes. I was worried about all the development I read about before we moved back and was concerned the Austin I fell in love with years ago would be gone. But I don’t think high rises in downtown or an explosion of retail can take the weird out of Austin. And that’s just what we like.

Keep Austin Weird!

We are HOME!

Well, we’re home. I can’t tell you how good it feels to be back in my very own home. We pulled into the driveway at about 3:30pm and immediately started unloading the trailer. We had it about half unloaded when my dad and friend Denise showed up and they helped us unload the rest. We just put the boxes in the garage into different piles according to the rooms they belong to. We decided to tackle the kitchen first and to dust and make sure everything mechanically is working, including all the light bulbs. As we started going from room to room, we noticed that we had left many things behind. We both began to wonder… if we were able to live with just the stuff in the trailer over the past two years in VA, why would we need the rest of the stuff left in the house? I think that over the coming days, we’ll take a hard look at what we really do and don’t need and try to get rid of a lot of junk. I see a yard sale in the near future!

Our friend Jill, who was in DC recently, also came by for a short visit to say Hi. She brought me a six pack of Shiner Bock, the best beer in the world. We really only got as far as unpacking the kitchen, so we have a lot of work left this coming week. Holly, my dad, Denise and I had dinner at Texas Roadhouse and I broke down and had a steak. I think I jumped the gun because now my tummy feels a little twisted. I think I’m going to wrap this up and get to sleep. It’ll be nice to sleep in our own bed in our own house.

Tomorrow will be another busy day. We have to return the trailer, pick up our mail, wait for the cable guy to hook up the TV and Internet, and just do more unpacking. Thanks to everyone for your prayers – they got us here safely. Now please pray that we can get resettled without getting frustrated. -Roger

We're in Lufkin, TEXAS!

Wow - what a long day... we left Clarksville around 8:45am and just got to Holly's sister's in Lufkin at 11:30pm. We drove 721 miles today which is only six miles more than we drove Saturday... according to the GPS, at least. But it took us much longer - I'm not sure why. Today's drive was a whole lot easier than Saturday's: minimal wind, good weather, good roads, well coordinated stops. Maybe it was the transition from I-40 and I-30 to US59 - who knows. All we know is that we are in Texas and all the long driving is behind us. This puts our total mileage at 1,436 and 26 hours and 19 minutes of driving with an average speed of 56.7 MPH. We're chillin' tomorrow and will be in Austin on Thursday. Thanks to everyone for your prayers thus far! We're going to grab a bite to eat and get to BED.

You know you are in the “real” South when…

You know you are in the “real” South when...

· There’s a sudden appearance of numerous dead animals on the side of the road and dead bugs on your windshield.
· The land becomes completely flat and the highways are lined with crops or swamps.
· State troopers and sheriff’s deputies are hiding behind brush or overpasses waiting to nab the next speeder, aka “revenue”.
· The roads are so bad you don't know if it’s your vehicle with a flat tire or the potholes, "repaired" potholes or gaps in the pavement making all the noise.
· The billboards quote scripture (i.e.: Acts 16:31), ask you eternal questions (“If you died today, where would you spend eternity?”) or just proclaim who is in charge (JESUS), aka “The Bible Belt”.
· Flags, yellow ribbons and red, white and blue bumper stickers appear on every vehicle passing you because the South is more patriotic than any other region in the “Union”.
· You ask for sweet iced tea at a restaurant and you don’t have to add sugar to it and you can actually get “real” southern food.
· teh further south you drive, the trucks get bigger, the temperature rises and the road side stores get more and more interesting.

406 mi to Lufkin, TX

We’re at a Love’s truck stop near Palestine, AR. We’ve driven a total of 1,027 miles from DC and have 406 to go until we get to Holly’s sister’s house. We should be there near 11pm. The weather has been great and the driving easy. It’s finally somewhat flat and it’s not windy so we don’t have to stop for gas so often. And it’s about 70 degrees now – and they’re getting snow in DC on Wednesday… Ha!

Safe in Clarksville, TN

We made it to my sister’s house in Clarksville, TN safe and sound. We pulled in at about 10:15 CST, we moved from Eastern time to Central time when we neared Nashville – so we gained a needed hour. It was kinda funny – we pretty much ate junky road food all day long – when my sister asked us if we were hungry we asked her, “Do you have any salad?” I ate a big salad, her Chinese leftovers and some fruit. We got to see Ariana and we’re headed off to bed. We ended up driving about 713 miles and averaged about 55 MPH – not too bad for driving about ten hours total.

We drove into a great sunset as we entered TN. Check out the pictures – it was quite stunning and seemed to go on for an hour as the colors just changed and changed.

Saturday Evening, March 3, 2007

Well, we’re still on the road. We have 147 miles left on I-40 then 198 miles after that. The driving is a little tough this time around. We’re pulling a bigger trailer this time and the hills and crazy strong winds are killing our speed and gas mileage. We won’t make it to Roger’s sister Mirna’s house until after 10:00 p.m. As I was driving I literally watched the gas gauge wind down. So far we have filled up two and a half times. Thank the Lord we saved some money on the trailer because we’ll be using it all for gas.

Roger’s driving now. I was a little nervous about letting him drive. It’s not that I think anything will happen, but I’m more concerned about what to do and what the end result would be if something did happen. So after three attempts to get some lunch (Sonic-power was out in town, Chick-fil-A sign led us to a mall, finally a Sonic that was open), I was frustrated and agitated, so I let Roger drive. Shortly after he began driving my eyelids started getting heavy and I felt myself get tired. Then I realized that I couldn’t sleep with him driving so I was only getting a little rest letting him drive. I’m going to be tired when we get to Mirna’s. I hope we can sleep in late. Roger slept for a bit maybe 30 minutes total while I was driving.

Starting out this morning was challenging. We left later than we wanted to due to all the things we had to get done. Then we noticed the back tires seemed lower than the day before. So we drove down the street to a convenience store with free air and filled them up. Thank goodness we did because when we got there the rear passenger tire looked scary low. After we got started on Hwy 66, we noticed that we now only had about half a tank of gas. All the running around we did on Thursday took more gas than we thought. So that meant we were going to have to stop sooner than we wanted. Then of course, our own selfishness got the best of us at times, so we weren’t having a ton of fun at first. But of course, we laughed at each other enough to get ourselves right. This doesn’t mean we haven’t had a challenge or two since, but adventure can’t be perfectly smooth.

Okay, more later. This is too long as it is for a moblog.

551 mi to TN

We’re on I-81 where it meets I-64 and it’s just after noon. The good ole GPS says we’ve traveled a grand total of 156 miles and we have 551 to go. It says we’ll be in TN around 8:30 pm, but that doesn’t include stops. The trip has been good so far. We had to fill up the tank on the way out of town and we also had to air up the tires since I totally forgot and one of the rear tires was looking pretty low. It was too – it was supposed to be 35 PSI and it was just over 25. I took some pictures and uploaded them. Check them out on Flickr (link on the right.) By the way – this is totally cool being on the Internet in a moving vehicle!

Off to TN!

Good morning. We're up and heading out the door to my sister's in TN. Yeah yeah... it's almost 8 - whatever. The drive should take about 10-12 hours. It'll be a long drive and since I can get Internet access on my laptop through my phone, I thought I might try some Mobile Blogging, or MoBlogging, as they call it. Check back on the blog throughout the day. If I can't get a post up, I will add pictures from my phone to our trip's Flickr set - look there instead. I'll let you know when we get to TN safe and sound.

Off to bed - long day Saturday

A big thanks to Buddy, Amanda, Ryan, Derek, Jumoke, Pili, Charles, Megan, Ruben, Esther, Ashley, Matt, Julie, John, Tamra, Jana, Kezia, Naomi... your help providing materials, ideas, muscle while we packed everything up and loaded the trailer has been such a blessing to us. All we have to do now is wake up, take our last few items down to the truck and drive off. We had a nice meal at El Pollo Rico (which we're going to miss so much since it's so close and sooo yummy) and then we watched just a little TV and talked. Then our great friends presented us with a scrap book full of pictures from our two years here, and goodbyes from many different people from church. We looked at the pictures, but didn't really get a chance to dive into it. We'll enjoy reading it when we get home to Texas. Thanks again to everyone that had a hand in this wonderful gift.

Our time here has been awesome. I can't believe that we're leaving and that one year has passed since my brain surgery! Time has absolutely flown by. It just ticked past midnight and now it is March 3, 2007. One year ago right now my parents and Holly's mom were here and I was trying to get to sleep knowing that I would undergo brain surgery the following morning to remove my tumor. I didn't know it at the time, but the months following the surgery would be the most trying of my life. But here I am, one year later, driving off on one year to the day of that life changing day. Sometimes, it never seems like it happened. But every day I look in the mirror and I see the scar and my thin patch of hair from the radiation. It reminds me of what happened, and how far I have come. But I didn't do it alone. My wonderful wife, Holly, was there by my side every single day. She is my rock. And our family from Grace lifted us up during that time too. God gave you to us so that we could get through that time. In turn, we gave something back to others that are able to take our experience and somehow get through something in their lives just a little bit easier. I'm happy that God used me for that purpose. I will go through it again if I need to, because I feel I have helped more people having experienced this than anything else in my life. And it has made me a better person in the end.

The next few months will be a challenge for us, but it's nothing we won't be able to handle. But for the next 40 days, I'm on vacation... my first in two years. Man, am I looking forward to it! Lastly, Holly shared with you that I am on the selection list for a promotion to E-7/SFC in the Army. This is great news since it means more dinero and it just feels good to know that I made the cut. I had to take what the Army calls a DA Photo (Department of the Army Photo) and submit it with my promotion packet. I thought I'd share it with you. Good night.

We're Done Packing and Loading!!

Believe it or not, we've completed packing and the trailer is loaded and ready for us to leave tomorrow morning. The U-Haul place did not have a 5x10 trailer so we got a 6x12 trailer for a lower price! It was amazing and an answered prayer since it was going to be a tight fit. We're cleaning out the fridge and then going to get a bite to eat before going to bed at a decent hour. We plant to be on the road by 7am. What a relief that we're done!!

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.

One Day and A Wake-up

Oh my...Roger and I are exhausted. Almost delirious. If there wasn't so much to do, we'd be completely delirious. And if it wasn't for our friends Ruben and Megan, we'd for sure be delirious. It's been a hard day. We had several errands to run. We really needed two full days off to get those last minute things done and visualize what we were really facing boxes and loading wise. But we only had one day and we tried to accomplish it all even if there were slight variations in our plans. One disappointing item was our Goodwill run. We had about six bags of goodies for Goodwill they happily accepted. But they would not take the bedside toilet and shower transfer bench left over from Roger's recovery. They stated some kind of liability/sanitation excuse and sent us on our way. This was our third attempt to get these items to needy hands. Roger immediately called a friend and there may be a solution. But if not, we may have to discard of them which we were hoping to avoid. We were hoping someone who really needed them could have them.

After a day of half hazard attempts at accomplishing last minute errands, Ruben and Megan came to our rescue to help us finish packing and accomplish a mock trailer load in the dining room to see if everything would fit. It's going to be tight, but we are going to try our hardest to get everything to fit.

Roger and I both will feel a ton of bricks lift from our shoulders after the trailer is completely loaded. Please pray the Lord will make room for all our stuff and we hit the road covered with His peace.

Until 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!