Christmas Eve 2016

Yes, I know it's been just over two months.  I'm still here!  There just hasn't been anything spectacular to blog about.

Billyboy is still working on the pachinko machines, our side business is doing very well.  At some point, he will most likely need to get a "regular" job - but that might be problematic in this area and in his area of expertise.  But we are still chugging along, trusting God to get us to where we need to be.

Over the last few months, we've been attending a different church.  We have been unhappy with our church for a very long time, and we have not attended it in over 2 years now.  And in those two years, we have heard from them exactly once - and then only because I made a mistake on a tithe check we mailed them!  We have discussed going back to the Methodist church and attended one for a few weeks before we realized we did not like that particular church that much.  We've visited a few others and one Sunday we decided to visit a Baptist church that we visited years ago.  We were there on a day when another smaller church was visiting with the idea of combining the two churches, and they would be meeting at the sanctuary close to us.  We really enjoyed it and decided to continue to visit.  And then we realized that we were attending a Baptist church but it's actually a lot closer to some of the things that we enjoyed in the Methodist services.  For one thing, they observe Advent.  I don't know of any other Baptist church that does that.  Some of the prayers are occasionally given by women - which never happens in the Baptist church!  We met with the pastor and really liked him.  Tonight, there was a Christmas Eve service - candle light, and with the final observance of Advent - and Communion/Lord's Supper.  We are either joining it tomorrow or next Sunday (New Year's Day.)

Otter is doing very well.  She's gotten a couple of raises at work and her reviews have been very good.  She's basically been told that she's being groomed for management at some point.  She is a very hard worker and has been full-time for a few months.

Maggie is at my feet at the moment - hogging the blanket I have on my legs.  She's been very playful lately, we switched her back to the Pedigree food because the Iams did not seem to be satisfying her, and I think she likes the Pedigree better.

Froggy's middle kid got married in November.  Otter and I were able to go, it was in McKinney Texas which is a really neat little town.  We finally got to meet Froggy's grandbaby, who is absolutely precious, and he was really cute during his parent's wedding.

OK, that's about it.  Sort of caught up but there really has just been "normal life" going on and that is fine with us.  Especially considering that this time last year, we were expecting Bill to be out of a job at any time.  But we didn't anticipate it being like it was, and that is just one more example of God taking care of us.

Odd Week

Yes, Froggy.  I know.  It's been over a week.

But it's been such an odd week.

The Boss (formerly known as Younger Boss) was out of town on vacation this week.  On Monday, his sister passed away unexpectedly.  He was able to get back in town on Tuesday.  The week has been spent dealing with all the fallout and most of the fallout concerns The Teenager's widow (she's the Boss's mother and that means that it was her daughter that died).  Miss Dorothy is 98 years old, nearly 99 and is very fragile.  Her health is good, considering her age, but she is diabetic and has some other issues.  And now, she is having to deal with the absolute worst nightmare of any parent - no matter what age.  Miss Dorothy was hospitalized on Wednesday, she is better but the doctor wants to keep her there for the next couple of days.  I have not spoken to her, but she is having to deal with the loss of her daughter and it's rough.  The funeral for the lady who died is next week.  At this point, we are all pretty much holding our breath and crossing our fingers that this horrible event is not what causes us to lose Miss Dorothy.  It's hard for me to even type those words.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Froggy's middle child and his fiance are now parents!  Their little boy was born Thursday.  There were some issues with the baby which resulted in expectant mom being hospitalized for a couple of weeks and then she had a c-section yesterday.  He's 3 weeks early, but he made it to the 5 # mark which was the milestone the doctors were hoping for.  His small, but he's perfect.  I am absolutely itching with anticipation and can NOT wait until I get to snuggle him!  She texted me several pictures, no sign of red hair unfortunately.  :)  Otter says he's an adorable little squishy, so I think that Squishy may well be his blog name.  The new dad's nickname was Skipper when he was little so I'm going to continue to call him Skipper but I haven't come up with a good blog name for his fiance, the new mommy.  I'll get there eventually.  For now, we're just all over the moon with happiness.