What a week this has been. A really bad loss and some great times. But life goes on and we gotta keep kickin’!
I’ve been trying to write about each day’s events on that day but this week it is Friday and I am just starting to write about Sunday. So much happened Sunday that it could be its own post but I’ll summarize it here like I try to do each day.
Sunday’s Sunday School (which they now call Bible Study) was great. We started a new quarter and are learning about the book of Job first. I’ve read Job several times and most of ya’ll know about it but each time I learn something new about how it applies to my life. God’s good like that!
Our Worship Service was lead by the Youth and College folks. 56 of them went to a Discipleship Now conference in Tennessee. We saw a video showing lots of what they did and experienced there. A second video was of four of them singing Amazing Grace in the old white church in Cades Cove. They lead us in singing it after and my heart was so happy to have Jesus as my Lord and Saving.
Then a Youth age guy, a College age guy, and Ms. Jeri Bankston one of the chaperones all shared with us what the week meant to them. One of the youth sang a beautiful song and our Pastor had a short sermon.
At the end of his sermon, Bro. Avery said he wish we could do this whole Worship Service all over again. I wholeheartedly agreed. Seeing young people love the Lord and seeing them grow in the Lord is one of the highlights of being a mature adult Christian.
After that wonderful Worship Service Chip and I went to Charlie’s Restaurant in Springfield in the pouring rain. Their food is delicious!
Then on to the play I’ve written about, Smoke On The Mountain, staring one of my favorite young men, Jonah KyleTraylor. Click on the link to read all about it if you haven’t already!
Monday sweet Buddy was put under anesthesia to have his teeth cleaned (remember the first vet charged us for it but did not clean them), two teeth pulled, and the torn skin on his eye removed. I surely hope our dogs understand that when we put them through things like that we are doing it because we love them. Here’s his brother Benny patiently waiting for him to come back to us! I never expected a $300 price tag on his teeth cleaning, 2 teeth pulled and his eye skin snipped. I guess I should have but I was calling Buddy the Million dollar puppy the rest of the day!
Their new neck collars came in. Benny’s is light blue and Buddy’s is yellow! 
Tuesday was possibly my second most awful experience only topped by Roy dying last year. We learned that on Monday evening our beloved motorhome, Dora, was involved in a fire and burned to the ground. I plan to write about that as soon as I know a lot more. For now, she was in a KOA Campground storage building with fifth wheels and trailers. Don’t know yet how it started but my heart is having a hard time believing that Dora is no more. I am working with the couple who had Dora in California for a while, the Fire Investigators, our Insurance company, the bank that holds the note. The KOA management will be involved also. Now it’s just a time of waiting to see how it all turns out.
For once I’m happy Roy’s in Heaven because if he was still alive it would crush him like it is crushing me. I think the first couple of days I was pretty much in shock over it but the reality is starting to sink in. She was so good to us carrying us all around the United States and we loved it. I would have had a hard time understanding it is real if they didn’t have the video. Before this video started I’ve been told there were several explosions.
There is an eight minute video of the fire taken by the local TV station I’ll share that when I write the blog post about this devastating event. I really did write more about the fire than I thought I would. This was the last photo of Dora inside. She has her slides drawn in but you can still see how pretty she was.
Wednesday I gathered all the papers and documentation together that I keep and cleared out a lot that is not needed anymore and organized what was left. I realized I needed to do that when I had to find information on Dora for the various people involved. We have a new folder called Buddy and Benny to keep track of them as they grow. I was able to reduce from four expanding folders down to three and they are all well organized now. I was able to do that in between speaking to the bank, insurance, etc.
My sweet friend Becky sent me a letter about Roy passing. It was so kind and made my heart happy. She even said nice things about me! That letter meant so much to me, I will cherish and keep it. Thank you Becky for reaching out! The third time did the trick!
I joined Annie’s Craft Kits and received my first kit. I’ll get one each month for $20. I am hoping to learn to do different types of crafts this way. Here’s my first kit.
Chip cooked what we call Chicken, Soup, and Rice for our dinner after making a 4-quart container of ice cream that tastes exactly like Wendy’s Chocolate Frosty. It is so much easier to make this and it’s perfect! One can condensed milk, one 8 oz cool whip, and a half-gallon jug of chocolate milk. Put it in the ice cream maker and let her rip!
Buddy got groomed on Thursday and seemed to lose half his size! His eye is doing so much better!
Friday was very quiet around here with Chip and Rick out tubing and me home with the two doggies! One of my bottom front teeth fell out today and my toilet backed up. Chip came home sunburned and still recovering today on Saturday! I took some photos of how some newly blooming flowers and plants are doing. And of course, I am sharing them here! We are enjoying seeing bluebirds and squirrels enjoying the corn and bird seeds we now put out there all the time.
These metal butterflies live on the wooden fence Roy built by our motorhome. They were getting worn so I sanded and repainted them. I think they came out nice! 
On Saturday I went to see three of Chad’s children play baseball at Istrouma Baptist in Baton Rouge. Chip was unable to come out in the sun so I pulled my big girl parties up and drove myself there. Only took two wrong turns on my way there. All that didn’t keep me away from the games that were so much fun to watch.
The two youngest girls play on one team and our grandson on another older boys team. Our very youngest granddaughter (in the first photo below) is playing for the first time and really impressed me by how she paid attention, hit the ball, and did well running the bases! I was a few minutes late and missed our middle granddaughter hitting a home run!
After the game, they took me to eat at Jason’s Deli where I had a delicious muffuletta and had some nice visiting time with Chad. Since he was one of the coaches for the boy’s team it was really nice to get to visit with him and all of them at the Deli. I learned today that potato chips taste really good with ice cream. That’s the kind of thing you learn when you go out to eat with little ones!
I drove home from Baton Rouge with no problem, Yay! When I got home I don’t think I moved from the sofa until bedtime! That wraps up my life this week!
BECAUSE HE LIVES 