We're Back!

Well, we got back from our cruise on Sunday afternoon. Roger & I had a great time. We had so much fun. We highly recommend cruises for vacations. You'll get to see all the pics very soon. Roger is reconnecting our desktop computer as I type (on the laptop) after "blowing it up" on Tuesday in which he uninstalled the operating system and all applications and reinstalled it all. Don't worry, he backed up all our pictures and music and docs. So we'll have those cruise pictures up soon with more details regarding our cruise adventure to come!

We have been constructing cabinets and tables and shelves and a tv stand all week. We decided to redo our office. Before we left for the cruise we downloaded office planning software from Ikea, designed a new office and drove up to Round Rock to the new Ikea and bought it all. Getting it all to fit smartly in the back of our truck took some thought and patience, but we finally got it all in there, covered with a tarp and tied down. The weather has been typical Texas spring weather. Lots of rain, thunderstorms, tornado watches, all the good stuff. But we don't mind. We need the rain bad! Roger and I were just talking today about how the weather was so much better in the Caribbean. Duh! It did rain on us in Jamaica, but we were soaking wet already from our excursion so we didn't care. And a little Red Stripe on the way back to the ship helped us feel better in the pouring rain on our tour boat. I'm telling you we had a blast! I didn't want the cruise to end. We're already talking about our next cruise.

So...this is my first blog since we moved home and I have to say I love being home. Love, Love LOVE being home in our own house. We have been getting it all back in order. We weren't able to mow our grass yet. Not only has it been raining every day keeping the ground too soggy to mow, but our lawn mower which has been sitting in our garage for two years won't start at all. We think we might have left some gas in it which is bad. So we took it down the road to have it fixed along with every one else in Austin trying to mow their grass this spring. Every place we called is backed up at least three weeks with lawn mower repair. So Roger is going to borrow a neighbors lawn mower until we get ours back which will be after he returns to DC.

I also love being back in Austin. We have tried very hard to visit most of our favorite restaurants (without going out every meal) and we still haven't gotten to them all. It's so green and lush here. And so slow. I miss that the most about the South. I will say that I do not miss the Austin traffic. It has not gotten any better since we left even with the creation of several new toll roads (don't even get me started about the toll roads). I think that Austin's traffic is worse than DC Metro traffic. Roger and I got caught in traffic for the second time today and it sucked. From what I can tell so far, afternoon rush hour in Austin starts at 3:00 p.m. and ends at 8:00 p.m. Add on more time during a thunderstorm. I don't even want to know what morning rush hour is like. But I guess I will find out very soon. I return to work on April 9th in NW Austin although we live in SC Austin. I will have to use one of the worst highways traffic wise. And I don't have many other options other than adjusting my work schedule or working from home as much as possible. We'll see how bad it gets before I ask my boss to let me work from home all the time. I can already tell it's not going to be fun.

But I'm still glad to be home. I can't wait for the weather to clear so we can enjoy the outdoors more. Although it's already hot here. Actually it's been hot here since we got back. That's Texas for you.

Okay, I've been rambling enough for now. I'm going to see what else I can get done tonight. We "plan" to be finished with the office by tomorrow. We can't wait so we can enjoy all our hard work. Sunday we're going to try a new church which also meets in a local school. We're excited to see how it is. And our good friend Buddy from DC will be visiting us Sunday afternoon. He's our first visitor from DC and we're super excited about that. Okay, Okay, I know I said enough already. I'm going now. As my South African-American friend says, "Chat to ya later!"

Almost done unpacking and starting to relax

We are still getting unpacked here in Austin. Holly and I have pretty much unpacked the entire house except for the office. We've decided to give the office an Ikea makeover in order to make it more functional for two of us to work in. In the process of unpacking our stuff from Virginia back into the house, we've gotten rid of a lot of stuff. Holly says there are ten moving size boxes in the garage now that we'll be selling in a garage sale sometime soon.

The weather has been beautiful, even though we got quite a bit of rain early in the week. But Central Texas is already in a drought, so we really need it. The wild flowers are already starting to bloom, so maybe we'll get some nice pictures here in the next week or so, especially of the bluebonnets. We're getting to a point where we can relax a bit and enjoy our home. I sure have missed our home and am looking forward to spending the next month here.

Holly's dad is doing very well. He said he was going to go hunting with his grandson, William, but it has been so rainy that we haven't heard if that happened or not. Matt's mom, Sandy, is still undergoing chemo and is stable right now. Please keep praying for her cancer to keep dying off. And I am feeling very well. This time last year I was starting to walk again and getting good use of my arm. It is still hard for me to just comprehend what happened to me just one year ago. God is good. Lately though, I have been having weird twitching in my right foot around my big toe – which is where both of my past seizures started. It is just twitching of the tendons and muscles on the side of my foot, and my right toe also will twitch slightly to the left and back again. It is not like constant jerking activity, so I don't think it is seizure-like; but maybe healing in that area of my brain? I'm just not sure and am going to have to call my doctor and ask him about it. It is tolerable during the day, but is most noticeable at night when I'm laying in bed trying to fall asleep. I can just feel the twitching until I finally doze off. Please pray that it is nothing serious. That's all for now!

Monday, March 13, 2007: Update on My Dad and Reflection on Being Home

My dad had a doctor’s appointment on Friday with Dr. Bond his primary care manager. His blood pressure was 87/55 and his weight was 131. He has gained nine pounds. That’s great. As a result of blood work from this visit, Dr. Bond discovered my dad is anemic and prescribed a multivitamin with iron plus an extra iron supplement. He also told my dad only 75% of people who go through what he did do not survive and 80% usually lose a leg. So my dad said he’d quit griping about his feet, but if you know my dad even a little bit, you know he’ll keep griping. At his appointment today Dr. Kirby, Cardio/Thoracic Surgeon, gave my dad a very thorough exam and told my dad that he looked good. His blood pressure was 98/65. And my dad told him no more cigarettes. My mom said she thinks he means it this time. I hope so! His legs still get tired easily and his feet are still recovering from the gout. He is on antibiotic for that and aspirin for blood thinner, plus the multivitamin and iron supplement now. He’s doing good and planning to go hunting this weekend with his grandson William. I know, he probably shouldn’t, but you can’t keep him cooped up inside too long.

Thanks again for all your prayers. I think my dad will make a slow but complete recovery and has decided to stick around a little longer. Please pray for continued healing, rest, strength, provision and peace for him and my mom.

Well, we’ve been home four days now and it feels so nice to be home. When we arrived we walked through the house by ourselves before everyone showed up to help unload and it was interesting and kind of neat. Our house is a little smaller than we remembered, but just as cute as we left it. And we left a lot of junk here! At first the thought of setting up house again was a little daunting. But that feeling has since left both of us. Thanks to de-cluttering an area before we unpacked and doing the same to what we were unpacking has made the idea of setting up again not so overwhelming. We are getting rid of tons of stuff. Part of our garage is full. Roger wants to have a garage sale, but I’m lazy so I say take it all to Goodwill or Salvation Army. That’s how lazy I am, I don’t care about making money off it. But it’s all coming together. We are almost finished unpacking everything. We really missed our house and are remembering how much we love it.

It is great being home and being in Austin. It’s still the Austin we love, but a lot has changed and we think we can handle all the changes. I was worried about all the development I read about before we moved back and was concerned the Austin I fell in love with years ago would be gone. But I don’t think high rises in downtown or an explosion of retail can take the weird out of Austin. And that’s just what we like.

Keep Austin Weird!

We are HOME!

Well, we’re home. I can’t tell you how good it feels to be back in my very own home. We pulled into the driveway at about 3:30pm and immediately started unloading the trailer. We had it about half unloaded when my dad and friend Denise showed up and they helped us unload the rest. We just put the boxes in the garage into different piles according to the rooms they belong to. We decided to tackle the kitchen first and to dust and make sure everything mechanically is working, including all the light bulbs. As we started going from room to room, we noticed that we had left many things behind. We both began to wonder… if we were able to live with just the stuff in the trailer over the past two years in VA, why would we need the rest of the stuff left in the house? I think that over the coming days, we’ll take a hard look at what we really do and don’t need and try to get rid of a lot of junk. I see a yard sale in the near future!

Our friend Jill, who was in DC recently, also came by for a short visit to say Hi. She brought me a six pack of Shiner Bock, the best beer in the world. We really only got as far as unpacking the kitchen, so we have a lot of work left this coming week. Holly, my dad, Denise and I had dinner at Texas Roadhouse and I broke down and had a steak. I think I jumped the gun because now my tummy feels a little twisted. I think I’m going to wrap this up and get to sleep. It’ll be nice to sleep in our own bed in our own house.

Tomorrow will be another busy day. We have to return the trailer, pick up our mail, wait for the cable guy to hook up the TV and Internet, and just do more unpacking. Thanks to everyone for your prayers – they got us here safely. Now please pray that we can get resettled without getting frustrated. -Roger

Almost Home!

We made it safely to Bryan at noon and will be heading out to Austin shortly after 1pm. We should be in Austin around 3pm. Driving has been good as is the weather. I can’t wait to get home!!!

On our way to Austin

I slept well and fell okay this morning. I do have a bit of a headache, probably from being slightly dehydrated and not getting a whole lot of food in my system yesterday. This morning I had two slices of toast, some 7-Up, water and Gatorade to try to get something in my stomach. Since I feel well enough to travel, we're going to head out shortly to Bryan to see Holly's dad and then Austin. We plan to be in Austin NLT 3pm. Those of you that have volunteered to help unload the trailer - we'll post another update later today with a better ETA.

Really... I mean REALLY sick

Holly’s sister’s kids woke us up this morning as they got ready for school. I decided to get up for a while and Heather was nice enough to make me a small breakfast. The kids left, and I went back to sleep around 8am and woke again around 11:30am. I decided to take a shower but my stomach felt bad. I took some Pepto and showered anyway. An hour later I felt even worse and took more Pepto. Then it hit me… hard. I must have gotten food poisoning from something at breakfast. Heather said her stomach was upset too and we were the only ones that ate eggs. I felt bad and Holly ran some errands with Heather. While they were gone, it got worse. From about 2pm to 7pm I think I threw up three times and had to use the restroom for other duties maybe ten times. Anyway, I haven’t had to visit the restroom for about three hours now, so I had a little bit of 7-Up, Jell-O and saltines. My stomach doesn’t feel 100% better, but I think the worst is over and if I can keep that little bit of food down, tomorrow should be better. So, our leaving tomorrow for Austin hinges on how I feel. I haven’t had much to eat today so I have no idea how I will feel tomorrow. We have another four hours of driving ahead of us and a stop halfway in Bryan to visit Holly’s dad. If we decide to head out, I hope this doesn’t reoccur on the road. Please pray for me and our safe passage to Austin. I’m going to brush my teeth and try to get some sleep.

We're in Lufkin, TEXAS!

Wow - what a long day... we left Clarksville around 8:45am and just got to Holly's sister's in Lufkin at 11:30pm. We drove 721 miles today which is only six miles more than we drove Saturday... according to the GPS, at least. But it took us much longer - I'm not sure why. Today's drive was a whole lot easier than Saturday's: minimal wind, good weather, good roads, well coordinated stops. Maybe it was the transition from I-40 and I-30 to US59 - who knows. All we know is that we are in Texas and all the long driving is behind us. This puts our total mileage at 1,436 and 26 hours and 19 minutes of driving with an average speed of 56.7 MPH. We're chillin' tomorrow and will be in Austin on Thursday. Thanks to everyone for your prayers thus far! We're going to grab a bite to eat and get to BED.

You know you are in the “real” South when…

You know you are in the “real” South when...

· There’s a sudden appearance of numerous dead animals on the side of the road and dead bugs on your windshield.
· The land becomes completely flat and the highways are lined with crops or swamps.
· State troopers and sheriff’s deputies are hiding behind brush or overpasses waiting to nab the next speeder, aka “revenue”.
· The roads are so bad you don't know if it’s your vehicle with a flat tire or the potholes, "repaired" potholes or gaps in the pavement making all the noise.
· The billboards quote scripture (i.e.: Acts 16:31), ask you eternal questions (“If you died today, where would you spend eternity?”) or just proclaim who is in charge (JESUS), aka “The Bible Belt”.
· Flags, yellow ribbons and red, white and blue bumper stickers appear on every vehicle passing you because the South is more patriotic than any other region in the “Union”.
· You ask for sweet iced tea at a restaurant and you don’t have to add sugar to it and you can actually get “real” southern food.
· teh further south you drive, the trucks get bigger, the temperature rises and the road side stores get more and more interesting.

406 mi to Lufkin, TX

We’re at a Love’s truck stop near Palestine, AR. We’ve driven a total of 1,027 miles from DC and have 406 to go until we get to Holly’s sister’s house. We should be there near 11pm. The weather has been great and the driving easy. It’s finally somewhat flat and it’s not windy so we don’t have to stop for gas so often. And it’s about 70 degrees now – and they’re getting snow in DC on Wednesday… Ha!

Off to Texas!

I wish we were "get up before the sun rises and be on the road before the crack of dawn" people... but we are not. No way. I don't think we ever will be. It's just shy of 8am and we'll probably be on the road through Nashville, Memphis, Little Rock and finally to Lufkin aroound 8:30am. I assume we'll be there around 9pm. The weather looks good - near 70 this afternoon en route... so I'm wearing shorts, but it's only 40 right now. I hate mornings.

Still in TN

We’re still here in Nashville at my sister’s house. We decided to take an extra day of rest and take a chance to spend more time with Ariana. The weather here is quite nice – over 60 today. We’ll head out to Lufkin tomorrow and we’ll be home Thursday. If you’re in Austin and can help unload the trailer Thu, send me an email.

Our friend Megan sent me some pics from our last night in Virginia. You can see those pics here: Megan’s Pics.

Lastly, I took some very cute pictures of Ariana taking a bath and there are some other misc pictures of all of us. We’re having great fun here in Clarksville, TN!

Safe in Clarksville, TN

We made it to my sister’s house in Clarksville, TN safe and sound. We pulled in at about 10:15 CST, we moved from Eastern time to Central time when we neared Nashville – so we gained a needed hour. It was kinda funny – we pretty much ate junky road food all day long – when my sister asked us if we were hungry we asked her, “Do you have any salad?” I ate a big salad, her Chinese leftovers and some fruit. We got to see Ariana and we’re headed off to bed. We ended up driving about 713 miles and averaged about 55 MPH – not too bad for driving about ten hours total.

We drove into a great sunset as we entered TN. Check out the pictures – it was quite stunning and seemed to go on for an hour as the colors just changed and changed.

Saturday Evening, March 3, 2007

Well, we’re still on the road. We have 147 miles left on I-40 then 198 miles after that. The driving is a little tough this time around. We’re pulling a bigger trailer this time and the hills and crazy strong winds are killing our speed and gas mileage. We won’t make it to Roger’s sister Mirna’s house until after 10:00 p.m. As I was driving I literally watched the gas gauge wind down. So far we have filled up two and a half times. Thank the Lord we saved some money on the trailer because we’ll be using it all for gas.

Roger’s driving now. I was a little nervous about letting him drive. It’s not that I think anything will happen, but I’m more concerned about what to do and what the end result would be if something did happen. So after three attempts to get some lunch (Sonic-power was out in town, Chick-fil-A sign led us to a mall, finally a Sonic that was open), I was frustrated and agitated, so I let Roger drive. Shortly after he began driving my eyelids started getting heavy and I felt myself get tired. Then I realized that I couldn’t sleep with him driving so I was only getting a little rest letting him drive. I’m going to be tired when we get to Mirna’s. I hope we can sleep in late. Roger slept for a bit maybe 30 minutes total while I was driving.

Starting out this morning was challenging. We left later than we wanted to due to all the things we had to get done. Then we noticed the back tires seemed lower than the day before. So we drove down the street to a convenience store with free air and filled them up. Thank goodness we did because when we got there the rear passenger tire looked scary low. After we got started on Hwy 66, we noticed that we now only had about half a tank of gas. All the running around we did on Thursday took more gas than we thought. So that meant we were going to have to stop sooner than we wanted. Then of course, our own selfishness got the best of us at times, so we weren’t having a ton of fun at first. But of course, we laughed at each other enough to get ourselves right. This doesn’t mean we haven’t had a challenge or two since, but adventure can’t be perfectly smooth.

Okay, more later. This is too long as it is for a moblog.

390 mi to TN

Just before 3pm and we’re still on I-81 just south of I-77. It has been very windy and we are pretty much heading into the wind. We’re going through the gas like it’s going out of style. I think we’re getting about 250 miles a tank, which is just over 16 MPG. 319 miles behind us and 390 to go, so we’re almost half way. We’re averaging 57.8 MPH. More than you need to know, eh?

551 mi to TN

We’re on I-81 where it meets I-64 and it’s just after noon. The good ole GPS says we’ve traveled a grand total of 156 miles and we have 551 to go. It says we’ll be in TN around 8:30 pm, but that doesn’t include stops. The trip has been good so far. We had to fill up the tank on the way out of town and we also had to air up the tires since I totally forgot and one of the rear tires was looking pretty low. It was too – it was supposed to be 35 PSI and it was just over 25. I took some pictures and uploaded them. Check them out on Flickr (link on the right.) By the way – this is totally cool being on the Internet in a moving vehicle!

Off to TN!

Good morning. We're up and heading out the door to my sister's in TN. Yeah yeah... it's almost 8 - whatever. The drive should take about 10-12 hours. It'll be a long drive and since I can get Internet access on my laptop through my phone, I thought I might try some Mobile Blogging, or MoBlogging, as they call it. Check back on the blog throughout the day. If I can't get a post up, I will add pictures from my phone to our trip's Flickr set - look there instead. I'll let you know when we get to TN safe and sound.

Off to bed - long day Saturday

A big thanks to Buddy, Amanda, Ryan, Derek, Jumoke, Pili, Charles, Megan, Ruben, Esther, Ashley, Matt, Julie, John, Tamra, Jana, Kezia, Naomi... your help providing materials, ideas, muscle while we packed everything up and loaded the trailer has been such a blessing to us. All we have to do now is wake up, take our last few items down to the truck and drive off. We had a nice meal at El Pollo Rico (which we're going to miss so much since it's so close and sooo yummy) and then we watched just a little TV and talked. Then our great friends presented us with a scrap book full of pictures from our two years here, and goodbyes from many different people from church. We looked at the pictures, but didn't really get a chance to dive into it. We'll enjoy reading it when we get home to Texas. Thanks again to everyone that had a hand in this wonderful gift.

Our time here has been awesome. I can't believe that we're leaving and that one year has passed since my brain surgery! Time has absolutely flown by. It just ticked past midnight and now it is March 3, 2007. One year ago right now my parents and Holly's mom were here and I was trying to get to sleep knowing that I would undergo brain surgery the following morning to remove my tumor. I didn't know it at the time, but the months following the surgery would be the most trying of my life. But here I am, one year later, driving off on one year to the day of that life changing day. Sometimes, it never seems like it happened. But every day I look in the mirror and I see the scar and my thin patch of hair from the radiation. It reminds me of what happened, and how far I have come. But I didn't do it alone. My wonderful wife, Holly, was there by my side every single day. She is my rock. And our family from Grace lifted us up during that time too. God gave you to us so that we could get through that time. In turn, we gave something back to others that are able to take our experience and somehow get through something in their lives just a little bit easier. I'm happy that God used me for that purpose. I will go through it again if I need to, because I feel I have helped more people having experienced this than anything else in my life. And it has made me a better person in the end.

The next few months will be a challenge for us, but it's nothing we won't be able to handle. But for the next 40 days, I'm on vacation... my first in two years. Man, am I looking forward to it! Lastly, Holly shared with you that I am on the selection list for a promotion to E-7/SFC in the Army. This is great news since it means more dinero and it just feels good to know that I made the cut. I had to take what the Army calls a DA Photo (Department of the Army Photo) and submit it with my promotion packet. I thought I'd share it with you. Good night.

We're Done Packing and Loading!!

Believe it or not, we've completed packing and the trailer is loaded and ready for us to leave tomorrow morning. The U-Haul place did not have a 5x10 trailer so we got a 6x12 trailer for a lower price! It was amazing and an answered prayer since it was going to be a tight fit. We're cleaning out the fridge and then going to get a bite to eat before going to bed at a decent hour. We plant to be on the road by 7am. What a relief that we're done!!

Back on the blog!

I have been off the blog quite a bit here recently. With Holly's dad getting sick and having to pack, there hasn't been much time for anything else. Remember that post I put up two weeks ago on my birthday? We got released early from work into a hellacious commute home. Well, that night we were expecting freezing rain, instead we got about seven hours worth of sleet! Pure sleet.In the end we got about four inches of ice. It was like a white Slurpee everywhere. Work delayed our starting time two hours and we trudged back in. The sleet storm was amazing. It was so windy that the sleet was blown onto the windows - it sounded like someone was literally filling up a bucket of pebbles and tossing it at the window, filling it up and tossing it, over and over. It was so LOUD! I didn't sleep very well at all - it was a very interesting night.

Later that same week we found out about Holly's dad's illness and we decided it would be best for Holly to get to Texas to be with him ASAP. At the time, we didn't really know what the outcome would be, so I rounded up a whole bunch of our friends and we did some big time packing all day Saturday. He was doing better on Sunday and I slacked off on the packing, but he declined again on Monday and we picked up the packing again. I think we ended up packing up about half of the apartment. I hated to admit it, but I decided that we should pack more than less "just in case."

Last week we packed again on Saturday and then little by little throughout the week. Pictured above is one of the piles of boxes in the dining room (forgive the quality of my phone camera.) The pic on the right is the office. We got a nice surprise six hour long snow last Sunday that laid down about four inches of thick white wet snow. It was beautiful, but then it started to rain. We were tempted to go out and play in it, but then we'd just end up sloppy wet - not so much fun. We hit full stride this week and as you've read from Holly's posts, it's been just nuts. I think we got ahead of ourselves today and there are still things than need to go into boxes, but all the boxes are sealed up. We'll have to figure out how to fix that tomorrow.

After the load we ended up feeling leery about whether everything is going to fit or not. If it doesn't, we might have to ship some boxes home - that would stink. Here's a shot of the mock load in the apt - what a pile, eh? Anyway, we're tired and ready for some shut eye. We're supposed to get some pretty serious rain tonight - I just hope it doesn't keep me up. By the way,Tamra's mom is doing a little better. She's off the breathing machine and able to converse a little, but she slept for most of the day. They just don't know how extensive the damage is to her brain yet. She need to get more rest before she can really be evaluated. Please continue to pray for them. And as Holly said... more tomorrow.

One Day and A Wake-up

Oh my...Roger and I are exhausted. Almost delirious. If there wasn't so much to do, we'd be completely delirious. And if it wasn't for our friends Ruben and Megan, we'd for sure be delirious. It's been a hard day. We had several errands to run. We really needed two full days off to get those last minute things done and visualize what we were really facing boxes and loading wise. But we only had one day and we tried to accomplish it all even if there were slight variations in our plans. One disappointing item was our Goodwill run. We had about six bags of goodies for Goodwill they happily accepted. But they would not take the bedside toilet and shower transfer bench left over from Roger's recovery. They stated some kind of liability/sanitation excuse and sent us on our way. This was our third attempt to get these items to needy hands. Roger immediately called a friend and there may be a solution. But if not, we may have to discard of them which we were hoping to avoid. We were hoping someone who really needed them could have them.

After a day of half hazard attempts at accomplishing last minute errands, Ruben and Megan came to our rescue to help us finish packing and accomplish a mock trailer load in the dining room to see if everything would fit. It's going to be tight, but we are going to try our hardest to get everything to fit.

Roger and I both will feel a ton of bricks lift from our shoulders after the trailer is completely loaded. Please pray the Lord will make room for all our stuff and we hit the road covered with His peace.

Until tomorrow...

Good News All Around

Well, we have lots of good news from all around. As you know, my dad went home from the hospital Tuesday afternoon. My mom says he cat naps all day, but he needs a lot of rest. I talked to him yesterday and he says he and his legs get tired very easy. I'm a tad confused with this, but they sent him home with no medications. I asked my mom many questions regarding this but she didn't ask upon his release about meds. Just seems strange to me that a person who just had the serious surgeries and close to death experience that my dad did would be released from the hospital without medications. Anyway, my sister Heather and niece Elizabeth are there today and tomorrow to harass my dad and ensure he's doing what he's supposed to do.

We spoke with our friends John & Tamra Rich this afternoon and Tamra's mom Cheri is doing much better. She is awake and alert and talking some what. She is still heavily sedated and needs lots of rest. Please continue to pray for her.

Roger found out from his First Sergeant this afternoon that he has been added to the promotion selection list for Sergeant First Class. Which means it's pretty much a done deal that he will be promoted. Perfect timing. He was very excited to hear this news. He was waiting for this information for a while. He submitted his packet at the end of January and hadn't heard anything until today.

Okay, I'm getting the look from Roger. I need to get off this computer. We have a few more errands to run before the rain hits. Tonight we will finish finalizing the packing and hopefully mock the trailer load in the dining room. Please pray we get everything done and it all goes smoothly!