Travel notes

Last week passed by pretty quickly. Mama and I were on the road Monday through Friday. We visited with Grandma and Grandpa Kline twice; once on the way down to Houston and on Thursday as we came back through. We visited with Joshua in Victoria on Wednesday and spent the night with Russell and Cindy Chambers while we were there. We spent the majority of the day with Mom and Dad on Thursday. We got back to the farm on Friday at about 5 pm.

Mama and I are still pretty concerned for Joshua but he is faithful to “his church”. We really wanted him to go to Western Hills Baptist with us but he was adamant that he would only go to his church. His pastor has everyone that joined the church sign a pretty detailed letter of commitment that makes missing a service a pretty serious offence. Hopefully Joshua will come to the point of following the Holy Spirit rather than following a man.

Cindy and Russell are doing very well. Cindy is the daughter of the pastor of the church Joshua goes to so there is prayer needed in their lives as well. They celebrated their fifth anniversary while we were down there. They do not have children yet because Russell has insisted they be out of debt before Cindy gets pregnant - we will see how that goes, but for now he has maintained his stance.

Mama and I went to Western Hills so we could see the family that we had there when we left over twelve years ago. Pastor and Wilma look just the same. Martha Robinson looks the same. Ray, her husband is struggling physically but they are still very faithful. Debbie Rodriguez and her daughter Jesse were there also. Wayne is still working on the church every day – he is 91 this month. We stayed for over an hour after church was over just visiting with everyone. I believe it was the highlight of the trip for Mama.

My Mom and Dad are doing well. They do not attempt much anymore so they are pretty sedentary from day to day. They have good friends that come to see them regularly and Martha, my sister, and her children are close by and help to meet some of the more immediate needs they have.

 I talked to them about Mama and I coming down to get them after Christmas when we are planning on having Maggie come down with her new baby. Cori, Nate and the kids should be there as well and Chase is planning for the visit also. If it all works out it should be a full house and I know Grandma and Grandpa Kline would enjoy the activity for a day or so.

Grandma and Grandpa Thaxton left for West Virginia yesterday morning. They are planning on staying until March of next year. If they do we will have plenty of room at the farm to house everyone, but if I know Grandma they will not miss the gathering of children, grandchildren and great grandchildren at the farm in December; time will tell.

Saturday we got almost two inches of rain. It was both a blessing and a curse. The rain came down so hard that it flooded the shop in several places. Not bad enough to cause any damage but bad enough that I have several items added to my repair list. This week will be a good time to work on those items because I am out of materials for the apartment and I am out of money to get more materials.

I will have plenty to do when I get back to the farm on Thursday evening.