All I can say to start of is what a month – as Dorothy stated as she started down the yellow brick road scared and not knowing what was going to happen – lions, tigers, & bears – oh my!!
We started the month off simple and without any worries, Fred has his fifth treatment of chemo which left only one more and we were excited.
We had one of our grandsons, Clayton, turned eight so it started with his birthday party at the skating rink. What an exciting time watching all those kids with all that energy enjoy themselves.
Fred even got into the action and put on skates to show the kids papaw could skate also and to show his kids the old man still has it!!
Then his kids decided they would help him along and one of our older grandson held up the rear to save him – lol
Our youngest son Andy with his wife Lisa and their two kids, Kylie (7) and the birthday boy Clayton (8) getting ready to go skate.
Brian, our middle son, with his two kids, Hunter (8) and Moira (12).
The following Tuesday after the party is when Fred had his fifth treatment. He went in with a bad cough but the doctor did not think it is was much so did nothing about it. Well it turned into a full blown sinus infection and on top of that I came down with one also. So now not only were we dealing with his week of post chemo sickness but he and I both were sick – yuk!!!
One thing I did not tell everyone about last month was the day before Fred’s birthday our coach was hit by lighting. I am a stinker in that each time I see a bad storm coming in I go around and turn things off and unplug them so I was not worried about much. Well we were watching TV and there was a LOUD BOOM and all our power went out. We both looked at each other and said oh hell, and if you had ever seen three 100 lbs. dogs scared you would have laughed to see ours run and jump into our laps. We checked things out and the only thing that we could not get back up was our large TV, so I was on the phone to the insurance company. Things went well and we were being sent the money to replace the TV. Well as things would have it,10 days after being hit, we have another BOOM at 7:00 pm on a Friday evening and this time everything in the coach was plugged in and being used as there was no bad weather in the area. This time though we could not get anything to come back up not even with turning on the generator – our coach was completely dead – no power. Of course it is 98 degrees outside and Fred in his post chemo week, sick with sinus and not being able to take heat and of course Friday evening no insurance agent to be found. Well I just decided – we opened the windows up in the coach and left the dogs for the night and went to a hotel.
To make a long story short we ended up in a hotel for a little over a week and my son took the dogs for us so we did not have to board them. The lighting that hit us had finally worked it way through the coach and had killed our electric system. NOW WHAT!!
We headed out to our trusted RV repair shop on Monday, Russell RV Service in Conroe, TX and they got right on it with our insurance company. We ended up with a new transfer switch, new convertor, new electric boards, new micro/convection oven, and a new refrigerator. I was so excited about the refrigerator as we went to a residential type so now I have more room and even have a freezer that will freeze ice cream. The insurance company was great as they covered all our expenses, even our eating out, and even covered the cost of us taking our son out for keeping the dogs. Adjustor said that was cheaper than if we had boarded them. I guess on the bright side of this, as we are going to be hitting the road in November and now we have a complete new electric system in the coach. God does have a plan even in your darkest hour give him the room to do his work !!! Even though it was scary and we were worried about what to do and what was going to happen things worked out good and I cannot say enough good things about Progressive Insurance Company and Russell RV Service in Conroe.
Finally by the middle of the month all repairs completed, new appliances, new TV and we were back into our spot at Advanced all settled with the dogs and happy to be home again. Fred gets a call from Craig, the park police officer from San Jacinto, as they had a Texas Navy Day on the USS Texas and needed so help. So me made plans and headed for San Jacinto Battleground State Park on the 20th to volunteer our time. The ceremony was put on by the Texas Army along with the Sons Of The Republic of Texas and the Battleship TEXAS Foundation to celebrate Texian Navy Day by honoring those in the Texas Navy of the Republic of Texas.
It was great to see everyone again and after all these months being down due to Fred’s chemo treatments it was fun to be volunteering again. Not hard work as we transported visitors who were elderly and handicap from the parking lot to the ship, but it was great being out doing something again. Afterward we spent some time catching up with everyone we then headed back to the coach.
The last weekend of the month ended up being a busy weekend for us with grandkids. We are enjoying the time we have with them right now as next year our plans have us on the road most of the year. Friday, Hunter and Moira, go to school in Ft. Bend County and this was the beginning of the county fair. The kids in Ft Bend get this Friday off and get free passage to the fair, so with mom and dad working we got the opportunity to take them to the fair. We had not been in a long time as our youngest graduated in the early 90’s and we moved out of Ft. Bend and just had not been back to the fair since. Fun day at the carnival, then shopping, then looking at the animals there for show, listen to the music and of course eating!!!
Hunter came back to spend the weekend with us and Saturday morning we had to head out to Cypress for Clayton’s soccer game, first of the season. What fun it is to see these kids out playing and learning sports and it has been exciting watching them grow in the sport world. His team still plays only 4 on 4 as they are 7 and 8 year old learning the basics. His team this year started the game off rough but then they seem to get together and ended up winning 15 to 5 (not that a score is really kept).
Well glad this month ended and we are moving forward. Lots to look forward to next month as Fred finishes chemo and we can start making our plans to travel again!!! YEA!!
