Life is good--and reasons why

Okay, I'm back again. I know I've been gone for awhile. Last y'all heard, I was trying to jog. Well, after 2 weeks into it, I increased my jogging time and I ended up hurting my knees and ankles. The pain got so bad I was taking 3 Aleve every 6 hours--and I did this for almost 2 weeks! I finally agreed to see the doctor to make sure I didn't tear anything in my knees, but by the time I got in to see him, my knees were better and only my ankles were hurting. I started doing water walking and water exercises and it helped my knees and ankles sooooo much. I finally made it in to the doctor and he said to lose weight or I was going to end up on all sorts of medicine. My weight was up, blood pressure was up, my cholesterol was up, my triglycerides were up. Not a good thing. Losing weight is so hard.

Alan and I are leaving on an RV trip in less than a week. We're going to Franklin, just south of Nashville, to visit Heidi and Todd, (Heidi just finished running a half marathon in the Nashville race of 31,000 runners! Yeah, way to go Heidi!!) then from there to Shipshewana, IN to visit Amish country in Indiana. From there we might head east to Ohio to see the Amish there, but not sure what the agenda will be after Indiana. We're caravaning with Alan's mom Fern, and her brother Ronnie Bundick. They'll be in Ronnie's motorhome, and have never seen the Amish country so we said we'd kind of show them what there is in Indiana. I think we've gone there every year for the last 4 years. They know me in Lolly's Quilt Store and Yoder's General Store. Heck, Yoder's said they'd hire me for the summer if I ever wanted a job!

When we return from our short travels, Alan and I are probably going back to Tanzania. We've partnered with our church, Terranova, in Georgetown, TX and they want to visit several villages that haven't heard about Jesus. We're going to scout 2 areas and my friend Semeni will travel with us and introduce us to villages and locate translators for the various tribal dialects in each village. We're traveling with missionaries from a humanitarian organization that also wants to survey villages that need water and sanitation devices, wells, etc. It'll be a short 2 week trip, and a final meeting is this week to coordinate travel plans and make sure timing is right and that we have all arrangements made. Pray for us that the swine flu doesn't keep us from making this trip.

I've been busy making quilt tops. I just finished one for granddaughter Tessa. It's called French Cottage Rose (I think). It was fun to piece, and can't wait to get it to the machine quilter's place, Glenna at Legacy Longarm Quilting in Georgetown, TX. She's a great machine quilter! I just finished cutting out Berte's quilt, and I have Nathan's to make. Those 2 are going with me on the motorhome trip. I was going to make Nathan's from turning Twenty but I'm kind of bored with that pattern, so I'm going to find some light colored plaids and make another pattern. He's wanting a quilt from his Mom and one he can curl up in on the couch--not too big and not too small. I've also completed a tent for grandson Landon. Here's some pictures of my projects.

I'm sitting here in Susan's hospital room. She just had bariatric surgery--she had a gastric sleeve done. She should lose a lot of weight very fast. I talked with her doctor and she's doing great. Now I want to have this same surgery. At first I didn't want it, but after being here, now I do. We'll see.

If anyone in the family is reading this, I don't think she'd mind me telling--Susan is engaged to Ronnie Bundick. They've been seeing each other, talking on the phone, and this past weekend Ronnie asked her to marry him. I don't think they've set a date.

Well, that's all I have to type about. I sure miss hearing from everyone, so I figured I better update my blog. My sister Berte finally updated her blog and now mine is updated also. I'll try and do better keeping up with mine.

Mimi