Setting up life in the Cottage

As Ray alluded to in his last blog, I was awhile agetting here. On Sunday the 3rd Dallas encountered lightning storms and DFW was closed for 2 hours early in the morning. That probably shut down most of the country and made the flight attendants arm up on extra strength Tylenol before they ever left home! In Nashville my flight was only about an hour late leaving. Landing in Dallas with all flights delayed it seemed that I would make my connection. However, we sat on the runway for an hour waiting for our gate. That's when the attendants' Dale Carnegie training went into high gear. Wow! Some folks just don't understand there are some things in life unavoidable and bad weather and late planes are two. Anyway, I missed that flight so had 3 hours and did what I do best - found food and reading material...

I flew into McAllen about 45 minutes from Sunny Glen because I had AA frequent flyer miles. When you all come see us you will fly into Harlingen on SW (unless you have some miles you need to redeem). The Harlingen airport is 10 minutes from us. I rented a car so that Mike could drive back to McAllen on Monday, returning the car and flying off to Nashville. Even with a 45 minute drive it's an easy commute - freeway as they call it all the way. Good thing as Mike drove off on Monday and then called a couple of hours later to let us know that his flight was cancelled (again due to DFW weather). So I hopped back on the freeway and picked him up catching up on all that had happened since we had last seen him. His flight the next morning was uneventful!

"Is she here? Is she her? Oh, Miss Nancy!" were the cries as I came through the door. Then, "where's the man?" The man??? Oh, Mr. Ray, he will be here tomorrow. Busy few hours visiting with Terry and Adrienne (interim houseparents since April - Terry is campus director), seeing the girls' rooms, helping get them packed for their vacation and getting familiar with the house. Terry and Adrienne had planned to take the girls on vacation but due to a sinus infection, Terry was still a bit under the weather. So one of the young couples (part of the office staff) volunteered for the job. It worked well for me to have them for the week...as they were invaluable! Terry has been affiliated with childrens' homes since he was a child and his parents were houseparents and then he and Adrienne worked in that position at another childrens' home before coming to Sunny Glen about 4 years ago.

One of our largest tasks was to go through all the closets/storage and clean out what was unnecessary, unusable, outgrown, etc. etc. See, all my downsizings over the last 2 years are paying off. In a house this size, I don't want as much as a thumbtack that is not useful! This was a vast undertaking and Adrienne was great! She is one of those people who never seems to run down and no job is too big that she won't tackle it! Yes, she's on my speed dial. Actually, she had been working on this since she moved into the house but as you all know it is a continual job and if you ever get behind there seems to be no digging out!

Ray arrived on schedule at noon on Monday. The girls were pulling out as he was pulling in. So he had to wait until late Friday night to see them. We quickly unloaded the truck and got the beds in shape. The week went entirely too quickly, as we needed at least twice the time. In addition to cleaning out and setting our apartment up, we had doctor's appointments, meeting with insurance reps, training sessions, and red cross certifications. Seems like we passed everything.

This posting was not too interesting, so I hope you skimmed it. Maybe tomorrow I will have time to get into the details of this life.

Love you all. N