Month: June 2019

Wednesday June 12, 2019

We have had showers and thunderstorms the past three days but no severe weather in our area. With the intermittent rain we have also had a little cooler temperatures. Nice!

Monday was busy with dental appointments for both of us and then errands and business meetings. We also continued to work on downsizing our stuff at the house. The first time you work on purging your closet it’s easy. The second time through it’s a little harder. Anne says she still has too much to fit in Fred and it’s getting hard. It does feel good to walk in to the closet and see all the empty space. Making progress.

Tuesday we had family meetings for both the LOLs at the Rehab center. Nothing really new going on there. The staff has taken care of some of our concerns and they are providing good care for our dear aunts. We also took care of more errands in Oneonta, shopped for the ladies, took donations to Hope House and stopped by the curb market for fresh veggies and water melon. Love our Alabama veggies.

After one more dental appointment today, we decided to go to Hollywood. Hollywood, Alabama that is. It was an uneventful 2.5 hour drive and we arrived and hooked up Fred just before the afternoon thunderstorms arrived. We will begin working Friday or Saturday preparing for the start of a new church building in Dutton, Alabama a small community a few miles from the small community of Hollywood. Dutton does not have RV parks. Hopefully tomorrow will be a day of relaxing.

Sunday, June 9, 2019

This week everyone is happy that most areas have had rain. The temperatures have been more moderate too – highs in the 80’s rather than 90’s. There has been some flash flooding but nothing that bad in Tuscaloosa. We brought Fred back to Blount County late yesterday and we have had more rain in our area again today.

Last Sunday we took our scanner back to Tuscaloosa after church and started scanning family pictures. We spent about 2 ½ days scanning pictures. We also continued to work in the house, emptying it of over 50 years of our family’s life. It was hard at times and fun at times. Many of our readers have been through this same process. It’s just been very tiring. However, we finally feel we have really made some progress in giving Anne’s mother’s most precious items homes with various family members. We have decided to forego an estate sale. Based on further research and scheduling problems and placement of more items with family members, we decided we would rather just donate to various charities. We will make more calls over the next week or two to schedule pick up of various large pieces of furniture. Hopefully there are no more hiccups.

We came home for the day on Wednesday to check on the LOLs. Anne talked to the NP Monday morning and expressed her concerns about Helen’s cough and Jean’s hand. While we were in Oneonta, we went to Walmart for the Weather Radio event sponsored by Channel 6 and EMA, assisted by the Oneonta Fire Department and Blount County 9-1-1. It gave Max an opportunity to visit with old friends from the National Weather Service, media, and a number of other friends from his work days in Blount County.

Today we went back to Lester Memorial for early worship and Sunday School. We celebrated Pentecost, the gift of the Holy Spirit, today. It was another wonderful worship service with a large crowd. We have two mission teams out today – one in the Philippians, and another in Honduras. Pastor Harvey read an email from the Honduras team reporting two professions of faith were made at services last night and we Skyped with the Philippians team at the beginning of worship. It was great to see and hear them all. Great work happening in both locations. Our 42 member Appalachian Service Project team leaves next Sunday for their week of working on homes. Love the work everyone is doing.

We saw the LOLs again after church today and are happy to report both ladies are improved. Helen’s cough seems to have resolved and Jean’s hand is slowly improving. We will have a little time at home this week before leaving for our project next week so we decided to spend the afternoon going through some kitchen cabinets. We have decided to downsize and dispose of things we don’t need or not using. We don’t want anyone to have to go through what we have been going through to dispose of our stuff in a few years. Should be another exciting and hopefully not too painful journey. Hope you all have a good week.

Sunday, June 2, 2019

We have had nothing but hot, dry days since arriving in Tuscaloosa. It is definitely summer in Alabama. It came a little early this year but it appears it is here to stay. We actually have some areas of the state that are already having drought problems. It may be a long, hot, dry summer.

Friday we spent with Anne’s brothers at her Dad’s office and warehouse and started the process of emptying many years of accumulated “stuff”. There are all sorts of tools (working and nonworking, old and not quite so old) and construction materials in the warehouse. We each found a few items we thought we could use or just wanted for the memory. We then did a sort of inventory of what’s there and agreed to call the trades program for the schools – carpentry, plumbing, electrical, etc. – and offered to give them what they could use for their programs. Hopefully they will be able to use some of the tools and lots of the materials and supplies.

After lunch we decided to escape the heat and return to Anne’s Mom’s house to work on items there. Again progress was made. All day Saturday was spent working at the house. There were times of laughter and of tears. We did finally decided on a realtor and all three of us signed the listing contract on the house. Now, to just get all the stuff out.

Today, Max and Anne went back to Blount County to go to church and check on the Aunts. We saw a really nice sunrise this morning. Our worship service was again a great service of music and teaching as we remembered the ascension of Jesus. Great day at Lester Memorial.

Unfortunately, Helen seems to have developed a summer cold and Jean’s bad hand is looking really bad again. We will be talking to the nurse practitioner in the morning and keeping a closer check on the ladies for a few days. We then had lunch and checked on the houses on the mountain. We returned to Tuscaloosa to meet with an antiques dealer late this afternoon. We still haven’t got our walking in today, but that is next on the agenda. Another long day. Hope everyone has had a great weekend.