Welcome Fall, Y'all!

Most definitely, I love this time of year...the cooler weather, less humidity, beautiful colors of changing leaves, holidays looming on the horizon.  All part of God's handiwork. 

This time also makes me a little melancholy. October also reminds me that two special men in my life are no longer with us - both my Dad and Carl's Dad had October birthdays.  This Saturday would have been my Dad's 91st birthday.  Carl's dad would have been 96 on the 15th, and Halloween night he will have been gone 24 years.  November 7th will be the 17th anniversary of losing my Mom.  She would have been 91 in December.

Carl's mother is maintaining her health, though her dementia is continuing to increase little by little and she is shrinking some in height and weight, which is to be expected I guess. Currently she is still content at her assisted living facility.  We pray it will remain that way.

But, on to brighter moments...we also have some fall and winter birthdays and anniversaries and happy celebrations with family and friends to come. 

Holidays will be enjoyable this year with Charlie & Nichole closer by and they will celebrate their 1st wedding anniversary on December 24!  Mike has a precious girlfriend.  We have our good health and are now losing some of those many extra pounds. 

Have a blessed weekend...I will share these thoughts which help me through unpleasant times:

Faith = Trust, Reliance on and Obedience to HIM!  Keep the faith, pray and always remember HE is in control of all; even the things we think we can control. 

 

 

Just In Time

I'm about three weeks late in posting about our most recent trip - to Pittsburgh, PA to see our oldest son and daughter-in-law!  We flew up on August 31 and arrived back home Sept. 9.  Just a couple of weeks shy of cool weather and the beginning of leaves changing color, we still enjoyed relatively no humidity and pleasant weather...but mainly enjoyed getting to see our kids!  Charlie is doing great since his heart attack...he's been in cardiac rehab and was released from that Sept. 14.  That event was one I guess I wanted to delete from my summer memories, because I totally left that event out of my recent summer recab post! 

The first Saturday after we arrived, Charlie, Nichole and two of her nurse friends, participated in their first "Zombie Run"!  They had a blast and had so much fun, but all four agreed it was the toughest workout they had ever been through - they were ultra dirty/muddy and sore/bruised all over.  But their happy smiles showed that they were glad they had done this!  Quite an accomplishment for someone just getting over a heart attack, I thought!

Nichole worked except the weekends and one day during our time there, while she took care of business, the three of us took some time to view some sights and see some interesting places.  There are a lot of beautiful bridges and TALL buildings downtown.  We also saw the stadiums where the Steelers play football and where the Pirates play their baseball.  We also saw and toured a submarine, saw a riverboat, and toured through the Carnige Science Center, which was interesting. Sports Works was adjacent to the Science Center, and it was a really neat place.  Charlie was able to experience his first rock climbing wall and I think he'll do more of that in the future!

There were some WONDERFUL places we all got to enjoy for some meal time...three that stood out were "The Cheesecake Factory", "Mad Mex" and "Bonnie & Clydes" -- yummie, yummie!!!  We also had a fresh, warm Amish donut when we went to the farmer's market and saw some amazing handmade furniture...wish we'd brought our car - we might have brought back lots of goodies and maybe even some furniture!  And, we also went to the gym to work off those extra calories we indulged in. 

Fortunately, we had no airport issues at all and arrived safely there and on return.  Our time with our kids and "grand cats" was enjoyable and we are so glad we made that trip.  I'll share a few pics here in a bit!

Also while we were there we learned some great news...Nichole had interviewed for a job in Pensacola!  She was on pins and needles (no medical pun intended) waiting to hear something back, but we learned this week that she had been offered the job and will start on November 5th!  They will head south on October 13th and we can't wait!  Her family is thrilled as well, of course, because they live in Pensacola!  But, for us, 3 hours away is so much better than 20 hours!  God has been watching over them and we know He will again in this move.

Now, here's some pictures from our trip [they are so not in order, sorry):

Onyx - His favorite spot

Pepper - she rules!
 

LOVED this place!!!!
 

Charlie's first climb - Sports Works/Carneige Science Center

Nichole & Charlie outside Bonnie & Clyde's - great food!
 

Beautiful, but makes me appreciate my "small" city!
(So glad we've started our weight loss challenge now!)

One of the City Views
 

Another view from the other side of the river


 

Two of the many beautiful bridges



USS Requin

Entrance to RoboWorld at Carneige Science Center - very interesting



 

Lost in Space fans....Robot

Bad Robot from Lost in Space

 

Star Wars fans - C3PO & R2D2



 

These were just a few of the pictures...trying to gather pics from 2 sources...decided to ease off!  We'll move on to new adventures and new sites...to infinity and beyond!

Happy Birthday Mike

Today is Mike's 31st Birthday!  It seems so unreal to think that 31 years ago we were in Baptist Hospital in Montgomery, holding our second son!  Charlie was 4.5 yr. and was so happy to have a baby brother [until Michael became "mobile" and got into Charlie's toys - then he wanted to send him back!].  Over the years, they have had their differences, but  are pretty close even though the miles separate them...

Mike, hope you have a great birthday - or "birtday" as the family joke goes...we love you and wish you many terrific years ahead!

Through the years....

Mike with big brother Charlie

 

 

Mike at Timberlane Church of Christ Preschool
1985-ish



 



Mike - July 2012



 



 

Winding Down the Summer

Wow!  Summertime has come and gone in a flash!  But, then again, since May our lives have been in a haze.  As posted earlier on, in one week's time, we learned my sweet Daddy had colon cancer, was hospitalized for 5 days, went into Hospice care for 2 and died the next morning...so there were two trips to Mississippi, then on to north Alabama, a couple of weeks later I had arthroscopic knee surgery and a couple of three weeks to full recovery.  We celebrated our 38th wedding anniversary in July, and just last week Mrs. V's 94th birthday and my 59th birthday!  Now school has started, and no pictures to speak of for any of it...

Now, we're off at the end of the week on a new journey...details and pictures are to come!

Have a wonderful week, great Fall and football season to come, and lots of special times shared with family and friends.

It is rare when I have the opportunity to contribute to my Love’s blog.  I consider it an honor.

Melissa was, is, and will always be the most precious blessing in my life, other than my Lord and Savior.  She is my best friend, wife, and the precious Mother of our two wonderful sons.  She is the Secretary (I believe the politically correct title is Administrative Assistant) at the Timberlane Church of Christ, and has been for 27 years now.

Her most difficult job has been putting up with me for 39 years, of which 38 have been spent in marriage, as of the 20th of July.  She denies this, but I and anyone who knows me, knows it to be true.  In the words of my co-workers, “Melissa must be a saint.”  I can only agree; that is exactly what she is.

I thank God everyday for Melissa, and try to tell her that I love her at least once a day (usually 20 or 30).  Some may say that I obsess, but she means that much to my life, love, and spirit.

This day marks her birthday.  It is a precious and special day for me, because without her birth, I would indeed, be an unhappy man.  Her Dad recently passed away, and he will be missed terribly by his family and friends.  Tip was not an easy person to get to know, but once you got to know him, he was a friend for life.  His friends remember him as a wonderful man who expressed interest in their lives and he will be sorely missed.  It warms our hearts to know that he is once again with Olene, Melissa’s sweet Mother.

I will not post Melissa’s age here, although most of her friends know.   She has always looked far younger than her age.  Her inner beauty shines within and without.  I must have done something good somewhere along the line, because the Lord has blessed me with her companionship for all these years.   She has never failed to build me up and back everything that I have attempted through our married life.  That’s saying quite a bit, as I have done some crazy things.  Luckily for me, she has remained by my side through the bad as well as the good.  We both promised that to each other 38 years ago and we have managed to stay the course.

Melissa is her Mother to me in so many ways.  Her Mom was a wonderful, sweet, loving, passionate, and very kind woman.  Melissa has all these qualities and more.   She worries about everybody’s everything.  She wants everything to be right for everyone and thinks constantly about how to make someone’s situation better.  She will do for someone else before she gives a thought to herself, and she has always been a giver and seldom wants to take.  Her friends know this to be true.  In the past, she could seldom say “no” if anything was asked of her, but she has finally learned that she can’t do it all.

I am in awe of Melissa’s writing talent.  It shows itself continuously on her blog.  She writes with passion and as one reads her entries, her feelings and perceptions are truly felt.  I tell her constantly that she should write a book of memories or poems.  She has written wonderful poems in the past and her talent has truly grown over the years.  We all see it, but somehow she doesn’t, which amazes me even more.

I know that Melissa is not happy to have such (basically) wonderful things said about her.  She is somewhat self-conscious about hearing such things, but I have convinced her that her birthday is an important enough event to be placed on her own blog.  She would never do it herself, but I am very willing to post this because I love her dearly and feel the need to sound the trumpets for her loudly.

I Love you, Melissa

Your loving husband and best friend,

Carl

Time Flies...

There hasn't been a huge amount of things to really blog about since my last post, but the major event was our 38th anniversary on July 20th!  Can't believe it's been that long since our "I do's" were exchanged in Montgomery, Alabama, but then again, so many terrific and also heart-wrenching things have happened over these 38 years!  We've watch our two sons grow into strong, handsome men and welcomed a beautiful "daughter" into our family.  We've opened, then closed a business 10 years later, worked through various jobs, lived in several homes, but only two cities.  Tallahassee is now our home since we've been here 27.5 years.  We've lost Carl's father (1988), my mom (1996), and my dad (just this past May 2012).  Carl's mother has moved to Tallahassee and is actually celebrating her 94th birthday TODAY!  She lives in an Assisted Living facility, but is doing well and will be looking for our faces this afternoon to see what we have brought her for her birthday! :)

God is good and faithful and has seen us through the good and the bad, the ups and downs, and He still holds us tight when we think we can't go another step.  We are blessed with health, food, clothing & shelter; good friends, great church home, and loving extended family.

Blessings to you all....

Settling Down

What a whirlwind couple of months! I really do love to blog, but with so much happening, I just haven't had the desire to post.  I really like adding pictures, but don't have those either. One idea I had going full of pictures...let's just say, we can't find the pictures.  They were on the camera, Carl downloaded them all off the camera and just those pictures are no where to be found.  Not sure what happened, but if we find them, I'll go back and do a post.

My brother Max is recovering well - still having some pain with his broken ribs, but overall, so grateful to be alive and able to get around.

That going well, we headed into July.  July 4th morning I sent a text to our son and his wife to wish them a "Happy 4th" -- in a few minutes, we received a call from them - "Happy 4th...I'm in the hospital" -- wwwhhaaat?!  The evening before, around 9pm, Charlie had pains in his chest, numbness in his left arm, cold sweats and nausea.  His precious wife, an RN (yes, I've shared that many times), took him to the hospital and after exams and blood tests, he learned, yes, he had suffered a heart attack.  He's only 35 for crying out loud!!!  So, after we talked and felt reasonably sure he was stable and doing okay for the time being, decided to stay put for now.   On Thursday, he was given a heart cath and he did have some slight blockage and "unstable" plaque.  So, he had to stay put under IVs and various tests until Monday morning, when he had another heart cath.  After determining he would not have to have a stent or other treatment for now, he was released and finally got back home around 6:30 p.m.

So far so good -- Charlie is taking it easy and eating much better and beginning some "cardiac therapy".  We have bought tickets to fly to Pittsburgh at the end of August for nine days and can't wait to see him and Nichole (and our grandcats, Onyx and Pepper). 

Can't believe it's been two months since my daddy died...what a crazy year 2012 has been so far.  I so pray things will settle down for everyone and have a less-hectic remaining 5 1/2 months!  [we have lost several older members at church, and friends have lost loved ones - hand fulls of persons who have gone on to meet the Father]

Have a great week and I hope to check in a bit more often...at least we plan to have pictures for a great post from our trip to PA!