Nelson News

Greetings from Kansas! Up until now, I haven't had much to report, but we've had a week filled with adventure and news.

I'll start with Lucia, Gene's sister...she had a cardiac catheter last week and we're hoping she doesn't need heart valve replacement surgery. She has yet to meet with the cardiac surgeon, so we're keeping our fingers crossed.

Gene took last week off, for vocal rest. He lost his voice on the last day of his fishing trip, in July and it's not come back. He has been to the doctor, but nothing definitive. He is trying some things the doctor advised (but not all) and thought a week of no talking would help. Not. It was like living with a ghost; I knew he was around, but I was never sure where. I'd holler outside for him, but with no voice, even if he tried to answer me, he can't make enough sound. So I feel like I spent an awful lot of time just trying to locate/keep track of him. The good news is, he got a lot of stuff done around here!

We went horse camping this past weekend, or at least tried to. We woke up very early Saturday morning, inside our new trailer, to the sound of rain. But we didn't care, we were dry and snug! Our camping buddies could not say the same...they neglected the rain fly on their tent and woke up to standing water inside. Not good. Meanwhile, I had an electric heater running along with the coffeemaker. I really like this new trailer! Anyhow, it stayed cold, windy, rainy along with lightning and thunder all morning, so about noon we all decided to call it quits. Sunday, we took the horses to an indoor arena (it was still raining) and Gene took turns riding them both, for about 4 hours. I'm still not riding. Boaz is such a good boy, but green as grass and still has the occasional hissy fit, so he needed work.

Sunday evening we got the news from Carole, that they are moving to Fayetteville, Arkansas. Dave is being promoted within Proctor and Gamble and they're sending him to AR to focus on their WalMart account. He'll start Nov. 1 and Carole and the girls will go at the end of the year. Carole has been teaching a college course at the local JC and wants to fulfill her contract. It's a good move for them, but we hate to see the little grandgirls move 5 hours and 38 minutes away. I've already checked it out on MapQuest. So, I guess there are more road trips in our future. Life's about changes...

More rain today, so far we've got 3/4" in the rain gauge and rain forecast for the rest of the day. I can't believe the first day of fall is this Sunday. I'm sure I didn't finish everything on my summer list!

I think a rainy day calls for baking, so there are probably chocolate chip cookies in my future...Take care and I love y'all!

Joan