Busy LOL Day

Monday April 9, 2018

We had another cool start to the day but it was sunny and warmed up into the 60’s by this afternoon. Nice day.

We stayed busy from about 5:30 this morning until we returned home at 7:30 tonight. There were bills to pay for the ladies and estate, and lots of errands. We started this morning in Oneonta at the rehab center, went into Trussville to the assisted living, to the bank, Camp Sumatanga and back to rehab for a 4:00 meeting this afternoon. After the meeting we had to go to Walmart to get Aunt Helen some more chocolate kisses and then back to the mountain, stopping at Helen’s and getting a 2 mile walk in with Barry and Donna. It’s always a good afternoon when we get to walk with them. After the walk we were back at Helen’s cleaning out Juno’s car. We finally made it back to the house at 7:30. We just sort of crashed tonight. We have had our hot tea, a little snack, worked on a bill of sale, typed the blog, (sorry no pics today), and now it’s finally time to just relax. Not a very blog-worthy day.

Visit to Grace UMC

Sunday, April 08, 2018

Grace UMCA few weeks ago fellow NOMADS Hiram and Cindy invited us to go to Grace United Methodist Church in Auburn, AL to explain what NOMADS are to the trustees. The date was set for today. We met up in Ashville and began our trip about 8:00 am. We arrived early for 11:00 am service and met with Pastor David to look over the campus and learn more about the church.

Worship at Grace UMCAfter the service we talked to the trustees about the history and mission of NOMADS and some of our experiences on projects. We explained some of the type work we have done and what the church’s responsibilities would be if it decided to host a project. It is a very welcoming and friendly congregation. All in all it was a good trip. And we really enjoyed the drive down and back getting to know Cindy and Hiram better.

After we returned to Pine Mountain we got to enjoy a late evening walk around the track with Barry and Donna. We miss them a lot when we travel.

Back To Blount County

Saturday, April 7, 2018

More flowers

It rained and rained last night. It was really good sleeping weather listening to the rain on the roof of the motor home. However, the alarm clock went off early again this morning. The rain had stopped but the temperature was considerably cooler and according to predictions was going to drop all day. They were right about that but wrong about the rain that returned this afternoon. The forecast now is for a low of 32 with rain/snow mix tonight. I guess this is spring in Alabama. Summer one day and then winter again the next.

Feeding NewdulWe were up again at 5:00 this morning because we needed to be at Aunt Jean’s assisted living by about 8:00 to take care of Newdul the turtle, pick up a few things Jean needed and get the mail. We then had to be in Oneonta at 10:00 to take care of Jean’s admission to the rehab center. They were so nice to go ahead and admit her and let us sign everything this morning. Of course since we had just done all the same for Helen a few weeks ago we guess they trust us now. Everything went very smoothly. We visited with both Aunt Helen and Aunt Jean. Helen seems to be doing quite well. She is scooting around everywhere in the wheelchair and walking around in the room without even a cane. She seemed quite content, smiling and laughing. She didn’t mention going home until right before we left but when we said she still had therapy to do she started talking about something else. Aunt Jean’s room is right next door to Helen so Helen has been going in to check on her. Jean isn’t doing well. She appears to have lost more weight since we saw her the day before we left for Baton Rouge. Debra said she seems better than Wednesday when she got here. She is just so weak. Hopefully therapy will help her as much as it has helped Helen.

A funny thing happened earlier this week at the rehab facility after they admitted Aunt Jean to the room next door to Aunt Helen. Our sister-in-law, Debra, and her sister were there visiting Aunt Jean while Aunt Helen was at dinner when the therapist came in to do an assessment. She asked Debra several questions, then started to get Aunt Jean out of the hospital gown and into clothes. Debra and her sister stepped over to Aunt Helen’s room and sat down. A few minutes later the therapist came in with more questions and after a moment asked “Don’t you think we should go back to Jean’s room? If the resident comes back to this room and finds strangers sitting here it might upset her.” She was really encouraging them to get up and leave the room. That was when Debra realized the therapist didn’t know “the resident of the room” was her aunt too. The therapist must have been pretty horrified that Debra and her sister would just make themselves at home is someone’s room.

After leaving the rehab center, we did some grocery shopping, had a salad for a late lunch and then decided to ride out to Camp Sumatanga to see if we could find our dear friends Dave and Carol Hill. They are leading the NOMADS team at Camp this period. They weren’t home when we arrived but we were able to visit with one of the maintenance guys we have worked with on previous projects. It was great to see him again and then we saw Dave and Carol drive by. We headed out after them and had some good reunion hugs after we caught up with them at a stop sign. We decided to go to Cracker Barrel for Carol and Dave to have a late lunch and visited for quite a while. We shared an apple dumpling that was very big and very good. We would have that again. We had a wonderful time visiting and catching up. We will be working with them in Baton Rouge in about a month.

Dogwood bloomingWe hope to go out to Sumatanga again Monday and have devotion with the team before we go to assisted living again to meet with the director. One of the things we have really noticed since being back in the country is the number of dogwood trees blooming in our woods. The azaleas are also in full bloom. We got two springs this year. Nice.

We then returned to the mountain and visited with Debra at Aunt Helen’s house. Love, love, love our sister-in-law. Thank you, Debra, for all you do. We are now back at the sticks and bricks and are happy all seems fine. It’s been quite a while since we slept in the house. Thankful for a warm house with a good heat pump.

Leaving Baton Rouge

Friday, April 6, 2018

The weather was cool this morning. Had to put on a sweatshirt for the outside work of getting ready to go. It was quickly warming up by the time we left and short sleeve t-shirts were back on. However, it was noticeably cooler when we stopped at the Mississippi welcome center and by the time we arrived in Tuscaloosa it was long sleeves and jackets. Just looked at the forecast for tomorrow at home and the low is 32. No fair! We want to go back to Baton Rouge. Stel and Jodi and Ron and Mary were scheduled to leave today and both decided to stay another week. It’s still cold and snowy in Pennsylvania and Michigan so the Baton Rouge weather seems even nicer to them.

Today was the day for the real goodbyes. Last night we knew we would all see each other this morning but this morning was different. We were all up milling around and walking the dogs and cats. Really didn’t want to say good bye but it was time. Lee Ann and Barrie left just before us this morning headed back to Colorado. We left about fifteen minutes later. This project was so good for us. Thank you God for all the friends who answered your call to ministry in Baton Rouge.

It was an uneventful drive to Tuscaloosa. Traffic was pretty light and it’s interstate all the way. There were the usual distracted drivers and people running red lights in Tuscaloosa but we arrived safely. It’s really raining here now. Should be a good sleeping night. We will leave early in the morning to go to Oneonta to take care of Jean’s admission paperwork. We will be busy the next few days. Hope everyone has a great weekend.