BLESSINGS!

In my last blog post I wrote about John having a biopsy for prostate cancer.  Dr. Koch said that the results of the tests he ran showed an eighty percent chance of the biopsy confirming the cancer. Tursday afternoon was biopsy day.  

Friday, we left for Kentucky to pick up our Tiffin motorhome!  How could such a short ride turn into such a looooong ride?  Anticipation?

Saturday morning, we pulled into the dealer's lot and was greeted by our new home on wheels.  All the basement doors were open showing a spic and span basement. Ohhhh that storage.   When we walked inside, I said to John "welcome home!" What a blessing!

We love the extra room, but were surprised with the task of making everything fit.  Having slides changes the storage space in some of the cabinets.  We made a few adjustments and gave a bit more away to make everything fit.
  Early Monday  morning we were awakened to the thrump, thrump, thrump of a helicopter.  John said that he thought he had heard the sounds of a crash earlier. Sure enough, at the end of the drive to the dealers lot there was a head-on crash involving a pickup truck and a smaller compact car.  

loading patient into a Med Evac

The young man in the car had just left work after working the "graveyard" shift.  As he left, it was reported, that he told a co-worker that he was exhausted and was going home to bed.  He never made it home.  He fell asleep at the wheel and ran into the truck.  His condition was reported to be extremely critical.

  I called the dealer yesterday and they reported that he is improving - slowly.  Another blessing.  


It took us a total of four long, hard days to move and arrange everything.  In those four days, John totally abused his body and has paid the price since then.  Each day his condition improves.  But we learned a big lesson.  John cannot do the things that he used to do.  

The Colts plate will come later

John's final task was to put the license plate on the Tiffin!  

He was so tired that he could only put the plate on the back of the Tiffin and he left our Indianapolis Colts plate that rides on the front of the motorhome in the place of honor for a later time.    

Driver, take me to Greenwood, IN!  

We rolled out of the dealer's lot Tuesday afternoon.  It was so good to be on the road in our new home.  The ride is like floating in a bubble through the air.  And we can talk to each other in a normal voice.  No shouting over the noise of a gas engine. What a blessing.  

As you can see, Olivia likes riding in her new home. 

Both dogs are a bit miffed though.  In the Winnebago, they rode on the Dashboard.  No more dangerous traveling.  

Oliver says since he is the elder, he should ride on Mom's legs as she knits.  

Occasionally, both ride on my lap and the knitting is put aside.  



Since we have been back in the Indianapolis area, we have rested and awaited the outcome of the biopsy.  Today, we were given the diagnosis of......  NO CANCER! Another blessing.  

On a lighter note, you can see that Oliver's younger sister, Olivia is not

a beggar.  She just sits behind John with her chin on his shoulder and waits to see if he sneaks a treat to her when mom is not looking.

As you can see in this photo, there is still much arranging to be done.  Much of it is fiber that is waiting to be spun.  But this will wait for a few days. We are delivering pounds and pounds of llama fleece to a processing mill in Wisconsin that will wash, card and spin all the fiber into yarn to be sold on the internet.  

From Wisconsin, we will head to South Dakota to establish residency, title our motorhome, and get our South Dakota driver's license.  

We will probably spend Thanksgiving in South Dakota.  For the first time, we will not have any family to share our Thanksgiving dinner.  That is going to be strange.  

Our prayer of thankfulness will be long this year.  From John coming from death's door to his recovery and our full time living in our new motorhome.  What else could we be blessed with!  Absolutely nothing. 

It is time that we share our abundant blessings with others.  

Oh!  by the way, we closed on the sale of our condo Tuesday.  

Until next time....

Abundant blessings to you.... God is so good!    

We Have a New Great Grand!

New babies are so precious.  Especially when they are our grand children and great grands.  Today, Harper Howe entered the world at 6 pounds 7 ounces and she is just beautiful!  I even have the photo to prove it! 

We have been waiting with a bit of anxiety.  She has created a stir for the last 2 or 3 weeks.  There was an irregular heart beat.  Cause for concern!   An ultrasound showed that there was an umbilical aneurysm and the physicians were fairly confident that the increased pressure created by the aneurysm was pumping too much blood into the heart creating the heart rhythm problem.  But we had to wait until delivery to be sure.  On top of that, our little darlin decided to present her tush, rather than her head.  Therefore, a Cesarean delivery was scheduled for this morning. 

The parents to be were to be at the hospital at 9:00 this morning.  The hospital personnel told them that it was "all clear" for their delivery.  When they arrived, they went through the registration process etc.  And then they waited, oh, oh,  the OR was needed for an emergency delivery.  Then another emergency... they had to wait their turn for the operating room.  Finally, it was time and Harper entered the world, easing every concern we had about her health. 

Megan had visitation all planned.  First she and Adam wanted to be with her for the first hour.  Just a nice quiet time to bond with their loan from God.  Next they wanted the grandparents for the next hour followed by the greats!  We calculated that if Harper was born between nine and ten o'clock, that would mean Meg and Adam would be alone with her from say, ten to eleven, followed by grandparents from eleven to twelve o'clock.  Then, last but not least the  greats at noon.  Now, I added about ninety minutes to that schedule based upon past experience.

I passed some of the waiting time reading and then I decided to spin some yarn.  But when the ninety minutes stretched to two hours, we decided we would make our way toward the hospital, hoping that we would get a call and we would be close by. 

We went to Camping World to make a couple purchases for the motorhome, then drove by Sam's Club. We decided that since it was a Sunday crowd, we did not want to stand in line, so we just moseyed on down the road.  While driving, we called daughter #1 - Karen to see what the progress was and she informed us of the delay, but said she was on her way to the hospital.  We knew from that it was going to be a bit longer, so off we went to our favorite Mexican restaurant to wait.  The good food helped distract us and made the time go quickly and suddenly, we get a text from Meg telling us to come meet our new little one. 

She is so petite and cuddly!  The hospital has swaddling blankets that make them feel nice and secure.  She looked so cute in her white blanket and her pink and white hat.  She's just a "knock out".  Can you tell I'm a bit biased?  Oh well. 

Well, the rest of the day is history. 

Yesterday, we spent time spring cleaning the motor home in preparation for next week's trip to the fiber festival in Wooster Ohio.  I was amazed at how much dust and grit there was from the desert of California.  Now all the wood is cleaned and polished, mirrors are shiny, windows are clean, exhaust fans are cleaned, etc, etc.  I even cleaned closets and drawers!  We are ready to roll and are looking forward to meeting up with our friends that we have  not seen since last fall and those we have not seen for the last month or so.  This begins our busy time with art shows and the fiber festivals.  Having our home on wheels makes our travels more comfortable and we are looking forward to hitting the road on Thursday. 
The gas prices have gone down fourteen cents a gallon.  Nice timing, don't you think? 
Well, it's been a great week and a marvelous weekend.  Till next time....God's blessings to you....

Discouragement & Who do You Trust?

We are to leave for The Fiber Event this Thursday morning.  The motorhome repairs on the toilet leak that ruined carpeting in bathroom and bedroom, the brakes, door and generator were supposed to be completed "in 2 or 3 days".  The motorhome has been in Edmundson's RV for 14 days and counting.  They say they will call with prices "that afternoon" or "tomorrow" and it ends up that I have to call to get estimates. 

Today, we learned that 1. since they have not called us with the estimates, the parts have not been ordered. 2.  they are not standing behind all the repairs for the damages caused by the improper installation of the toilet after the first repair (they don't want to pay for new flooring to cover the damaged areas) and 3.  This comes to another grand total of around $4000.00.  The only thing they say they will do for us is to give us a "military discount".  Big whoop. 

We took the motorhome to them for repairs due to the fact that we were totally impressed with them and their service department when we were shopping for our motorhome.  Mind you,  we just paid the $6000 in January to fix the toilet for the first time, the brakes, new door handle/lock and other things that seemed to come up that they found. 

Now, in all fairness, the motorhome was a super ride out to California and back.  We did not have to stop for one repair (did have an oil change at the 3000 mile interval).  Reading other blogs and finding that many people have to find a RV service, we felt very pleased and satisfied that we did not have a problem like that. (Other than we did discover on our trip out there that the toilet was not working properly).  I called them from California and told them and the answer was, don't worry, we will take care of you. 

So, tomorrow we are going to have a "sit down and discuss this situation" with the powers that be.  If we need to bring Mr. Edmundson into the discussion, we will.  We don't feel that we are being unreasonable asking them to replace the flooring that was damaged. 

As a result of this damage, we will also have to replace the flooring in the front of the coach, but are not asking for that to be included in their repairs.  We are trying to be as fair as we know how.... is there any input out there?  We would love to hear from you if you think we are being unreasonable, then help us see the light. 

On to more pleasant things...The Fiber Event is Friday and Saturday.  (of course, all booth set up and merchandise will have to be transported in our truck rather than in motorhome).  We are looking forward to meeting up with more vendors that we have not seen since last fall.  We started our reunions in Tennessee and Ohio and will see more this week end.

If you are in the area of Greencastle, Indiana this week end, come visit.  You will find some mighty awesome vendors, yarns, fiber and equipment there.   Till then.....God Bless