This has seemed like a very long week for some reason. Maybe because we didn't do a lot. Bill had no medical issues, although I felt bad all week-end. The air has been so heavy that breathing was difficult, even after just a few minutes outside.

We helped Ryan and Amanda get a new place Monday. Their old landlord didn't want to fix anything. The bathroom floor was falling in and they hadn't had any lights in the kitchen for more than a month. He would tell them he would be there on a certain day and then not show up, so they gave up on him. Their new landlady is very nice and picky about who she rents to. She also rents just on a month by month basis instead of a lease.

That was the highlight of the week! The rest was just normal stuff-laundry, groceries and trying to stay cool.

We're going to take a little vacation next week. Wednesday is our 24th anniversary. On our 10th anniversary we went to Gatlinburg, taking our time to get there. We're going to do the same thing again, this time heading to Natchez, Miss. The highway that leads out of town is a scenic roadway, The Great River Road, and we're going to take it instead of the interstate. It goes all the way to New Orleans. I don't even know how long we're going to be gone. We'll just play it by ear. We may also come home via the Natchez Trace Parkway which goes from Natchez to Nashville, but I'm not sure about that yet. We're also waiting until after Labor Day to go so may miss a lot of the traffic and holiday travelers.

I'm not going to take the computer, but I will take my tablet since it has all of Bill's medical information. We do still have to plan for that. I'm also not taking any craft work, knitting/crochet even though I have several "works in progress" that need attention. But, I don't want to spend all the free time with that. I am taking reading material and I'm hoping we can get a room right on the river for a couple of nights. Sitting on a balcony reading and watching the river seems like a good thing.

Since I'm not taking the computer I don't know if there will be a post next week or not. But, if there isn't, I will update when we get home, no matter what day it is. I hope everyone enjoys their last holiday of the summer! See you after our adventure!

I certainly hope everyone is staying cool this week. It has been horribly hot here with heat advisories. Had some heavy rain last Sunday evening but hot and humid since.

Nothing out of the ordinary this week. The highlight was going to Jonesboro Thursday to pick up my ring. As soon as I told Bill that Zales had called he had the TV turned off and his hat on! I think he wanted to get out of the house. We were only gone 2 1/2 hours, and 2 of that was driving! We're such shoppers! Did stop at Barnes and Noble but that was it!

I had a good time shopping with Em and the girls last Saturday and Bill did fine by himself. He wanted to know if I needed any help carrying things in and I told him no. I spent $150 and all I got was a 3-pack of footie socks! But, it felt good to be able to help. We let McKenna pick our lunch spot. She wanted Steak 'N Shake but we couldn't even find a parking place so she decided on Hooters. We all brought most of our food home and that's what Bill and I had for supper.

Kayden came and spent the night with us last night. We took him out to eat at Perkins and unfortunately I was sick before we even left the restaurant! I think I just ate too much too fast. But, he's a pretty self-sufficient kid and stayed at the computer. When we went to bed we just told him not to stay up too late. He fell asleep watching TV and Bill turned it way down at 2. When I got up at 7 he was just waking up. He was either on the laptop or the desktop the whole time, only stopped to eat.

Kiyann informed me that she was not spending the night but their step-sister was at their house this week-end so she wanted to play with her.

Brianna is going through a tough time with something going on at church. And, McKenna's kitten she rescued last week died yesterday while they were at school. And, Kayden and Kiyann's uncle was found murdered this morning. A young father with 2 young children. So many hard life lessons for them this week. So, lots of extra prayers for them.

As I said, nothing special happening around here, which is a good thing. We're just trying to stay cool!

Good Morning!

I meant to update this yesterday because today's going to be a busy day. But, due to sheer laziness, I didn't get it done.

Bill started running a fever last Saturday afternoon with chills. He also was a little nauseous. Got some meds in him and finally got him to eat a bowl of soup. Then he started coughing. Changed from just Tylenol for the fever to Tylenol Sinus and by Sunday afternoon he was fine. Our weather was changing again and I think that had something to do with it.

The repairman finally came Wednesday morning and got the stove door back together. Only charged us $20 for gas which is good because the first time I opened the door, the gasket came off! I did use the oven and it worked fine, it's just the idea that after only 4 years, with about 1/2 that time not being used while we were in Florida, it's falling apart. I tried to buy just a door, but they don't sell them that way. So, there's another repairman in town and I'm going to call him. If he can't fix it I guess we'll be looking at another stove.

Today I'm going shopping with Emily and the girls. There's nothing I need, but it's school shopping for them. She found she doesn't need to buy as much as she thought she did so it will be a quicker trip. We're going to a mall in Mississippi. Em's been there before and I'm mainly going to have a day out. Brianna and her friend Madison asked if their boyfriends could go too but I told them no, so Bri said we're going to be power-shopping! They've already made plans to call them when we're 20 miles out so they can meet us at Em's when we get home! Ah to be 15 and in love!

Days when I leave Bill alone are still a little nerve-wracking for me. But, since it's Saturday Ron is off and will probably come to visit and Bill can hang out with him. I'm going to make sure he takes his morning meds and we'll be home before other "critical" meds are due. There's hot dogs and peanut butter for lunch but he has money so he could go buy something to eat if he wanted to. I'll just try not to worry too much!

All for this week, I've got to get a move on! Have a good week-end. If you're sending kids off to school this week, you can breathe a sigh of relief, you made it through another summer!

Happy Saturday! It's been a little trying for us today, but more on that later!

We've had a busy week, at least it seemed like it was busy to me. We took Kayden and Kiyann to their daddy's Sunday afternoon and made it home in time for church. The surprising thing was that Amanda had gone to church that morning and they were all going back that evening! They even went Wednesday night! Maybe things are looking up for them. She also got a callback for a job and starts training tomorrow night!

Tuesday, my birthday, Bill had to have some bloodwork done and we found a lab in Jonesboro instead of using our regular dr. The lab at the dr. can only run part of the tests and the others have to be sent to another lab and take 2 weeks to get the results. The lab we found could do all of the tests and have the results the next day. So, we headed out early in the morning since they were fasting labs. Bill said that the girls was really good. I wondered at her choice of vein since she used one in his forearm instead of his elbow, but what do I know! Then we went to breakfast and the mall to get my diamond ring checked. They found some loose prongs this time so it was sent off to be fixed. Bill had just said that it really seemed like a waste of time to get it checked twice a year, but the repair won't cost anything, so it's now worth it to keep the warranty in place. Then back to Ryan's to pick the kids up and bring them home. They stayed at our house all afternoon since mom was working and Joe was doing some yard work for someone. Bill then took me out for a birthday steak!

We got the results from Stephanie on Thursday and she said all of his numbers looked good and she didn't anticipate the dr. making any changes. She was pleased and said she would see us in 3 months.

It's been horribly hot and humid since Wednesday and we've had several thundershowers, nothing severe but heavy, heavy rain, and then gets even steamier. This pattern is supposed to last into the middle of next week, but it is August!

We finally go the right part in for the oven door. I downloaded a step-by-step guide to replacing the window. So, this afternoon we decided to do it. We got the door taken apart and then then fun began. The little gasket is supposed to be like double-sided tape, and we can get it on and the window on it but as soon as we put the door back together the glass slides back down. So, after working up a tremendous sweat, and getting very frustrated I called a repairman. He won't be able to come until Tuesday, but, since I haven't been able to use it since July 4th, what's a couple more days! Of course it's (the door) now laying in pieces on the dining room table. Ah life!

That's how our week has gone. So, we're going to have a quick lunch and watch the Cubs game this afternoon. Bill said he would take me out to eat tonight since I've had such a frustrating day! Hmmm, maybe I should be frustrated more often!

Another week and another month done! This has been a very good week for us, and profitable!

Bill hasn't had any issues this week. He's been on his treadmill and is moving a little better. I have noticed that when he stands up he waits a minute before he starts to walk. I've been trying to get him to do that for a long time. He's always been one that starts to move as soon as he stands so he's finally realized that if he waits a minute his body responds better.

We made it through McKenna's birthday party. It was pretty hot, but they had a couple of canopies to sit under. Emily could have just done water balloons since they were the hit of the party. They did have fun on the slip-n-slide until it got too muddy. Kenna said the dog had fun sliding on it the next day!

Kiyann's party was Sunday evening and she was excited with all her presents. She especially liked the baby carriage we got her. She said we were just the best! Hers was a pool party and when everyone went out to swim we came home. It was really hot so we didn't want to sit out again.

I check through the medical paperwork and we had not received anything saying that our coverage had changed, so Monday morning I called Mayo Pharmacy. She said it looked like it had not been run through insurance at all. She ran it back through and everything went just fine. The total they had charge was $884 and we are getting a credit back to the card of $852, so that's not too bad. It was very easy to do and she was very apologetic. I did make sure when I ordered his meds yesterday that they ran the insurance while I was on the phone with them.

Our insurance for the house and cars was due yesterday and I had not been happy since we had to change it last year. Our homeowner's carrier told us last year, at the last minute, that to keep the homeowner's policy, we had to also had to have our auto policy with them. Since it was last minute, we had no choice, and our car insurance went way up. So, this year, even though I waited until almost the end, I started doing some shopping. We had had our auto policy with The Hartford for years and was very satisfied with their coverage but I didn't know if they insured in Arkansas. For some reason they don't want to insure here, could it be because of the New Madrid fault? Anyway, Hartford does and we got the homeowners, for $100 less than what we were paying, with better coverage, and the auto for $500 less a year! We saved almost the amount of the other policy for 6 months coverage! So Monday turned out to be a very profitable day and business got taken care of without much fuss!

Emily and Brianna are at a youth conference so we had McKenna Thursday and Friday while Bryan was working. She's no trouble now for the most part. She will be glad when Mom gets home though. She's a mommy's girl and always has been. We took her shopping to spend some of her birthday loot.

The part came in for my oven...and it was the wrong part again! We think we finally have ordered the right one this time. The parts diagram they have is not clear and they don't have a description of the part, so it's really hit and miss.

We're taking the kids to Ryan's again today. Mistie was taking them school shopping today since it's tax free week-end. Tomorrow I'm playing the piano at church while Nita takes a mini-vacation before school starts.

That's it for this week. It's going to get hot now, after July was the coolest on record. We've really liked the cooler weather and I'm not looking forward to the heat. Hope everyone has had a good week and will have a good week-end and coming week.