Jan.Feb.March Catch Up

Three months of 2019 already have passed.  Goodness gracious!!! I can't believe how quickly time flies!  

JANUARY

Mack turned 7 months old on the 9th.  He's developing such a cute personality! 💙

 January 13-15, Jeff did another Mid-Winter Bible Study for the Senior Adults at Antioch Baptist Church in Conway, AR.  He spoke on the Antichrist.  We had a great turnout and some sweet fellowship.  

 This is my sister Kaye and Rob's church and Jeff, Mom and I stayed in their beautiful home.  My sister, Bev, also came from Texas for the conference and stayed with Kaye too.  I didn't take hardly any pictures, unfortunately, but we had a great visit and appreciate so much Kaye and Rob's wonderful hospitality.  The folks at Antioch were also so friendly and gave Jeff a very generous love offering.  Thank you, friends!! (This picture was at a little coffee house in town)

 Jeff and I made a fast trip back to Galena for a couple of days (Mom went home with Bev).  Then we headed south again....our destination was New Orleans for the BMA 2019 Church Workers Cruise.

We stopped in Ft. Smith to eat lunch with Rachel and her sweet family.

 The cruise was out of New Orleans on a Carnival Ship for 5 days (Jan. 19-24)

 We love cruises and enjoyed this one!

 

 Two other couples from our church also went--Aaron and Jenae Polok and Wes and Derenda Shoemaker which made it extra fun!

 

 

 We only had two stops....the first was at Cozumel 

 We love Paradise Beach there!

 

 

 Pretty sunset at sea

 The next stop was Progresso

 

 Every day on the ship, we had sessions we could attend and all 3 speakers did a great job.  At one of the sessions, Jeff got the opportunity to share about the National Meeting coming up in May (he is President of our National Association)

 We had the same table partners each night and had such a great fellowship with them!!

 Nick​ and Marci Jacobsen​, Michael and Christy Treat and Ben and Ellianna Temple

Thanks to Nick for all the hard work in planning this cruise for all of us!

 We appreciate our church for paying for a portion of this cruise and allowing us the opportunity to go!

Saylor Faye turned 9 months on Jan. 22nd

 Kipling Edward turned 3 months on Jan. 23rd

On Sunday, January 27th, Jeff shared with our church family his plans for retirement from pastoring on August 18, 2019.  It is definitely bittersweet for us as we love this church family dearly!  We will have been here 10 years at that time.  We have walked on the mountaintops as well as the valleys with these wonderful folks!  Side by side thru the birth of babies, their kids growing up, weddings, divorces, health crisis's, heartache and sadly, many deaths.  They have loved us well and we will miss them so very much.  But Jeff has gone full steam his whole life and it's time to slow down and enjoy our family and each other.  Please keep this dear church family in your prayers as they seek out the next man to shepherd and pastor them.  We are confident many great days are still ahead in their ministry! 💓💓

 We had planned for years that when we retired, we would move to NWA as all our kids and grandkids lived there.  But then Josh and his family moved to Tennessee in 2017 and Rachel and her family moved to Ft. Smith, AR (an hour plus away from NWA) in 2018.  Deep in our hearts, knowing Andy was also in ministry and that someday God could possibly move he and his family, we started feeling the pull to move back to Conway, AR where we had lived for 8 years in the late 1990's-early 2000's.  It a pretty amazing story how God spoke to Jeff and to me separately telling us that is where we needed to live after retirement.  I won't go into detail here but there was no doubt in our minds of His leading.
About that time, Kaye encouraged Mom to move to Conway in 2019 to a new Independent/Assisted Living facility that was being built which was another reason for us to move there.
Conway will afford more opportunities for Jeff to still minister, teach, fill pulpits/preach occasionally and hopefully write.  With many of our BMA Depts. there and his serving on several committees, it will make it very convenient.  We were members of Antioch Church for 8 years when we lived there before and have many friends still there, which will be a blessing to us.  We appreciate your prayers for this transition and that God will provide us a home that will meet our needs and that we can afford.  A preacher's retirement isn't much but God has never forsaken us and we know He will not forsake us at this season of our lives either!

I really, really dreaded telling my kids of our decision for a variety of reasons.  One of those was that I knew Andy's family, especially, would be very disappointed as they were looking forward to us being close.  But they were all gracious and yielded to God's leading in supporting our decision.

It wasn't but a couple of months later, when God began to work in Andy and Carman's hearts that He was preparing them for a change!  And things took off like a whirlwind in their lives.  On January 28th, Andy officially became the Teaching Pastor at The Mount Church, in Keller, TX.  He would stay in the church parsonage for a month and Carman and kids in Arkansas until the closing on their Arkansas house happened and the closing on their new Texas home.

 On that same day, our son-in-law, Jonathan, began a new job as a Senior Developer for Keona Health (and he is able to work remotely from home)!

 

 We are so proud of both of our guys and praying God's richest blessings on their new careers!

FEBRUARY

Mack turned 8 months old on the 9th

 I went to Centerton for several days the middle of Feb. to lend a hand to Carman.  I watched kids while she went to doctor's appointments, packed, attended a baby shower, etc.  I spent a sweet Valentine's Day with them 💖💖

 Ellie reading to her little brothers

 One day was nice enough to spend some time at a park

 

 And on another very cold yucky day, we spent some time with Chucky (Cheese).  In fact, on that day there was freezing rain overnight and my car was frozen shut so I drove Carman's van, that had been in the garage.  It was crazy to get out in all of that, but the kids had fun, we stayed safe and we gave momma some quiet time while Mack slept.

 Shep is a huge Super Hero fan and has lots of them.  I thought this was so cute of the boys and their "guys!"

 Since Jonathan now works from home, the kids started praying and doing some research as to where God would have them live.  All of their married life, they have lived a long ways from Jonathan's family.  Knowing Jeff and I would be moving to central Arkansas, they started searching for a home that would put them more centrally located between Rachel's family and Jonathan's family.  They decided that Bryant, Benton and/or Little Rock would be a good location.  The homes in Bryant and Benton are very expensive since people are moving out from Little Rock.  So they started looking more in LR, since they don't have to worry about the schools, like many do because Rachel homeschools.  They fell in love with a home in the Hunters Wood division of Otter Creek subdivision in southwest Little Rock.  When they finally were able to go down and look at it in person, they knew this was the home they wanted.  So on Feb. 18th, they made an offer and this home is now under contract.  We are very excited for them!

 They will be about 40-45 minutes from us (after we move to Conway); 50 minutes from Jonathan's brother; 1-1/2 hours from his sister and 2 hours from his folks.  Jonathan has two Aunts in the LR area, etc.  And they will be about 5 hours from both Josh and Andy and their families.  It should be a forever home for their large family and that will be great for them!  They will be moving the end of April.

Mom should be moving to Conway in May.  We appreciate your prayers for her.  She's not looking forward to the move as she will turn 90 in just a couple of weeks.  But it will be a blessing once the move is completed as both Kaye and I (after retirement) will be close by to her and Bev will be about an hour closer.  She's never lived outside the state of Kansas, so a new adventure for her!

She is moving to the Ridgemere Senior Living Facility (just being built)

 

She will be living in one of their Independent Living Cottages.  Very pretty!

Saylor Faye turned 10 months on the 22nd.  She's walking now and just as cute as can be!

 Little Kipling turned 4 months old on the 23rd.  Precious baby boy!

Rachel made her delicious and cute Valentine cookies for our grandchildren!
Thank you, Rach!! 💗💗

 We gathered the weekend of the 22nd, for most probably our last Valentine's outing with the grandchildren/cousins.  Six of them spent the night in a hotel with us (Josh's girls weren't able to come and the babies went home with their mommas).

 These 2 babies that didn't stay overnight 💙💙

 We swam......and no one drowned!  Thank you, Jesus!!

 Each got a little gift

 As did the Tennessee girls, plus the cookies from Rachel....

From the hotel, we brought these 3 home with us to give Carman the weekend to finish packing, etc.

Most probably, their last time to go to church with DeDe and Papa in Galena 😪😪

Mack was excited when Daddy got home late on Sunday

Monday morning breakfast for this little guy: bacon, strawberries and donuts, while watching Paw Patrol.  A little spoiling from his DeDe 💙

We took the 3 kids to Centerton Monday afternoon and stayed til late that night to help in the packing/loading process.  So thankful for the many friends who came and helped our kids! Andy ended up having to rent an extra trailer to get it all loaded.

Man, it was hard to say goodbye that night.😪  We've been so blessed to only be 1 hour and 20 minutes from them since Laine was born.....so 7 hours seems pretty daunting.  But we are thankful for Facetime to keep in touch!

The next day, Andy, Laine and Shep headed to Texas in the big U-Haul truck.  Andy's staff intern Matt and Andy's dog, Hondo also headed to Texas in Andy's truck.  However, sadly, Carman got a migraine and was too sick to drive their van.  So she, Ellie and Mack stayed with her good friend Stephanie for 24 hours until she was up to driving.

They were thrilled when they were all together safely in their pretty home in Ft. Worth!  We are anxious to visit and see their home and church.  Hopefully soon!

Speaking of homes, Josh, Michelle, Avi and Saylor also have a very pretty home in Mt. Juliet, TN (a suburb of Nashville).  We are hoping to get back to Tennessee soon to visit them as well!

MARCH

Mack turned 10 months old on the 9th

(Andy had taken this picture of us that night we were trying to get things packed/loaded)

Saturday night, March 9th, Jeff's blood pressure went thru the ceiling and he was having chest pains and nausea.  At first he refused to go to the hospital.  But when things didn't get better, he finally relented.  In ER, they did a EKG and gave him a couple of nitroglycerin to get his blood pressure down.  The EKG didn't show anything.  But because of his family history (his dad died at 66 from a heart attack; his mom died of congestive heart failure; 2 grandfathers died from heart attacks, etc.), they decided to admit him and do a stress test on Sunday.  So he had his 2nd hospital stay in his lifetime (the first was just last November with the Norovirus).  

Sunday morning, they did the treadmill and echo cardiogram and did discover there was a problem and said they would be doing a heart cath that afternoon.
Even though we told Rachel not to come, she didn’t listen😍. She drove the 3 hours and arrived just as Doctor Stauffer came out to give us his report. Doc was able to go in thru Jeff’s wrist (and not the groin) 👏👏 There was one blockage of 75-80% that he put a “big” stent in and the other blockage of 50% that did not warrant a stent at this time. Thank you Rachel for coming 💓 and to several people from our church who came during his stay. We love you and thank you again for your prayers!  

The leadership at church insisted Jeff take a couple of weeks off which has been a major blessing as he didn't plan to.  The first week, Jeff was still struggling with weakness and some chest pains.  But on Sunday, a week after the surgery, we were able to go to church and just sit back and enjoy worshiping and listening to Pastor Aaron and Pastor Paul both preach excellent messages Sunday morning and Sunday evening.  Later that night, Jeff said he felt better than he had in a long time!  He will be undergoing the sleep apnea testing on March 25th and hopefully with a cpap machine, his insomnia will come to an end.  That will make a huge difference in Jeff's health as well since he hasn't been sleeping for months now.

We are so appreciative of all the love, support, cards, prayers and delicious meals!  We normally aren't on the receiving end of that and felt a little awkward in having those delicious meals brought to us - but, boy, they were a big blessing!!  Thank you, thank you!

Our sweet daughter-in-law Michelle had a birthday on March 12th.  We love you Michelle and are so thankful you are a part of our family! 💗

Saylor will be 11 months old on the 22nd!  WOW!  One more month and she'll be celebrating her first birthday!  We love you, precious girl! 💖

After 5 months of wearing the helmet, she was released from it on March 18th.  Hooray!!  The picture Josh took at the doctor's office today 💕

And on the 23rd this cutie will be 5 months old!  We love you too, baby Kipling! 💙

To round out the month, our middle son, Andy will celebrate his 39th birthday on the 25th.

We love you and are proud of you, Son! 💚

I keep thinking life is going to slow down.....but it's not going to happen for a while!  In about 10 days, Mom, Bev, Kaye & I will spend a week at the lakehouse in Bella Vista, doing some deep cleaning and then hosting a 90th birthday party for Mom.
I'll be helping Rachel out with the kids in April while they pack up and move.
Our National Meeting will be held in Rogers May 6-8.  That shouldn't be stressful for me, but it may be for Jeff since he's the President.
Also in May, I'll be helping pack and move Mom.  Plus our FBC Mother's Day Banquet is in May and it will be another wonderful event but does require a lot of work.  The end of May is Galena Days; June is Bible School; July Jeff will be going on another mission trip to the Dominican Republic and I will be in the throes of packing myself for our move in August.  Whew!  It all makes me tired but I will claim the verse, "I can do all things thru Christ who strengthens me!" Phil. 4:13