What a Month!!!! July, 2008

July, 2008 will be in my memory for a long time. This month holds an unusual amount of note-worthy happenings. I think I will just make a list!

• July 1--paid bills with my retirement check. had extra bills because I had to pay renters insurance this month and am saving for my dental surgery
• July 2--took the Reynosa church ladies to Sam's, City Club, and Soriana here in Reynosa
• July 3--my favorite brother in law's birthday
• July 4--took Opie and Maxie to be groomed
• July 5--prepared for church, it was really raining!
• July 6--started on my way to church in pouring down rain, soaked before I ever got out of the yard, the engine light came on and I decided to go home. There was church in Lasara, the members took over!!!
• July 7--checked on what to do about the van, made an appointment for early Tuesday morning
• July 8--spent the day at the Ford agency, the throttle body needed to be replaced, also the main coil, etc etc. and the van had to spend the night in McAllen. My neighbor Lupita met me at the international bridge so I could get home.
• July 9--Lupita, the girls and I went shopping at Wal Mart, I picked up lunch, and waited till late afternoon...and got the van back. It cost me all my dental savings and the amount the warranty paid. Now I am back to square one for the dental surgery.
• July 10--took Chiquita for her flea/tick bath and shots
• July 12--I performed a wedding for Nueva Vida church family members
• July 13--good services at church even if attendance was some down
• July 14--took the marriage license to the county courthouse and visited Sis Diana, our assistant financial secretary and praise and worship leader
• July 15 to19--the only normal days this month
• July 20--super wonderful, blessed services at Nueva Vida
• July 21--it looks like Tropical Storm Dolly might hit us, went to McAllen to get some supplies
• July 22--spent all day getting cats and guard dog cages, etc into the house, all the yard stuff into the cathouse/utility room, preparing for Tropical Storm Dolly which is heading our way (it will be the third direct hit of a hurricane I have experienced, although I have been in the edges of several others)
• July 23--all day, we waited and watched. Dolly became a hurricane, winds and rain picked up, it hit land near Padre Island and headed toward Raymondville and Lasara (our church) and the side bands started to hit here about 3 p.m. We lost power off and on. Around 8 p.m. a tree fell on my van. The lights went off for good at 10 p.m. We laid in bed and listened to the storm.
• July 24-- Lights came on at 4:30 a.m. and the wind and rain slowed down and almost stopped by 8 a.m. I can see the windows and the tires of my van...they are good. My garbage collector, Don Ebodio, is coming to remove the tree. Well, by the time he got here, I realized that I would have to remove three trees, branches from the others and I had a leak in the laundry room. The tree came off my van early in the evening...finally....and it has just a small dent. Angels were holding that tree, I am sure. After all the work we did, I was so tired, I could hardly sleep.
• July 25--I checked on the church and the church members. There was damage to some homes, some trees down, some without lights and telephone service, but no one was injured. The church sign blew down and one side (we have a two-sided sign) is gone but no other damage. Praise the Lord! Don Ebodio worked on removing trees and I cleaned the mess in the yard in parts. It is too wet to try to get the cats and guard dog outside yet.
• July 26--due to flooded roads, no electricity, people having to clean up, we decided not to have services on Sunday. It seems there is not even a safe way for me to get there from the south!
• July 27--A big VICTORY..Maxie has been free of seizures for one month today!! I went to McAllen for a newspaper, my mail, and a few groceries. And I rested my weary bones. I found out that my nephew Allen quit his job and he and his wife Anne are moving back to the DesMoines area from Bolivar, Mo. with NO JOB...a big step of faith.
• July 28--had people come to give me estimates on the repair of the fence for the dogs' kennels (it was damaged when the trees came down) and for the roof repair. This is getting expensive....$300 for tree removal, $150 for fence repair, and the owner of the house will pay for the roof repair. The fence cannot be fixed until the trees are completely removed and the roof repair will be scheduled probably for Sept because of all the work that is ahead of mine. The police came and dragged (literally) away two of the men (check on the parade posting from back in May, I think) from the houses behind mine! Pretty noisy and exciting for about 10 minutes. Will it mean more peace for us???
• July 29--My nephew Eric had his 20th birthday. I got the guard dog and the cats back outside...what a stinky presence they have left behind, Franklin (my neighbor's not house broken poodle) and Charleton (their fish) came to spend a week with us while their family is vacationing in Cancun. I made muffins, fixed red grapes, cereal/raisins/almonds/M&Ms in ziplocks and juice pouches for their breakfast and the first part of the trip. We learn that Timo, the 13 year old son, of my dear friends who are missionaries in Malawi, has meningitis. I stayed up all night praying, watching for email/blog information on his condition, praying that an air ambulance will get there and take him to Johannesburg, So Africa to a better facility.
• July 30--the plane finally arrived and he and his parents are in Johannesburg. We have to constantly keep prayers going up for his soon recovery. Meanwhile, I am juggling feeding and walking one guard dog, my two poodles who are very possessive of me and jealous of any attention given to Franklin, my 4 cats, the neighbor's cat Esquishi--they moved to Veracruz 2 years ago and couldn't take him so he lives in the alley and eats at my house--, Franklin, and Charleton the fish. And I am reading and forwarding emails and praying for Timo and the family.
• July 31--Same routine with feeding and walking all the critters, still cleaning up the yard...and it looks like that will go on into next week. Timo is stable but very serious, so we still have to keep the prayers going up. Another friend might just have found a house to buy, a big answer to more prayers.

Tomorrow will be August 1st and I will go to McAllen to get my retirement check and pay bills and do errands. August does not look like it will be a particularly uneventful month either. We have some major events coming up:

• Sis Tammy is having her baby
• Mom is having a little eye surgery on Aug 8
• I am having dental surgery (and afterward will have NO money!)
• We are having a July/August birthday luncheon at church. It was postponed due to Hurricane Dolly
• Franklin and Charleton will still be here for a while
• We are having a back to school service and picnic for the kids at Nueva Vida
• We are also having Reunion Sunday over Labor Day Weekend
• The tree removal will hopefully be finished
• The fence repair will be at least scheduled
• Maxie will celebrate her 5th birthday on Aug 15th
• My niece Melissa has an 18th birthday on Aug 16th
• My niece Allison will be moving to Albuquerque, New Mexico to work with the Navigators in college ministries
• Of course, Timo will be well on the road to recovery!

And God is good! I must remember to cherish every single day!

Victory for Maxie

What a big victory! Today Maxie has been without a seizure for a whole month. We are so excited that we are celebrating with chicken and cake...two of her favorite things!!!

Hurricane Dolly

Hurricane Dolly hit Reynosa and the Rio Grande Valley! It seemed to go on and on and on as the rains came and the wind blew. I felt pretty secure inside my house with Opie and Maxie, the guard dog and four cats. It wasn't too bad while I had electricity and could use my computer.....and then we were in darkness....and silence, except for the constant groaning of the trees and the banging of sheet metal and the pattering and beating of the rain. Opie would see the shadow of a tree blowing and would bark at it. Actually, it did look kind of scary through the curtains. During the early evening hours, a tree in my yard was plucked up by the roots and tossed over my van. Another tree was pulled from it place in the dirt and was leaning on the tree that was on my van. I had to wait all night and till after 8 a.m. today to actually look at my van and see what the damage really was. I could tell that the windows were fine and the tires were good. But how about the roof? For that, I had to wait until Don Ebodio cut the tree away and took it off the van. You would think that we were unveiling an expensive painting or a magnificent statue......and it was just my dirty, leaf-covered van. And there it was! One very small dent!!! I think I will just leave it there to remind me that angels were holding the branches and the trunk as the tree gently fell on top of my van!!! Our God is mighty in the wind and rain but gentle as He cares for His children!!!!!!!

Maxie Update

Maxie has been seizure-free for SIXTEEN days!!!! We are partying with sugared flour tortillas!

A Stolen Bicycle!

Chiquita, my guard dog (and now I only have one guard dog. Sigh!), was barking quite a bit this morning. Finally, I stopped going to check on every person that walked by our gate. And, then the phone call came! Had I heard all the excitement and commotion outside? Lupita, my neighbor, has had a handy man working for her for the couple of days. He needed something from the hardware store and Lupita needed drinking water, so she took him in her Jeep, dropped him off at the hardware store, bought water, and went back to pick up Don Octavio. On arriving back at her house, Don (a polite term for an employee or gentlemen, not his name, by the way!) Octavio noticed that his bicycle was missing. Lupita who is pretty vivacious and easily upset went goofy asking the neighbors about the bicycle. The lady in the yellow house (we don't know her name) which is next door to Lupita's saw the drunk from the last house in the row, take it and ride off. So Lupita stormed over to his house and gave them 5 minutes to produce the bike or she was calling the police. Since the drunk somehow escaped from jail (where he definitely should be), he started yelling and running around like a rooster with its head cut off, blaming his woman. One of the other drunks who hang around that house got all bent out of shape and promised Lupita that if she gave him 10 minutes, he would get the bicycle back. She said he could have 10 minutes and no more. So the guy takes off running, leaving the others yelling and ranting and raving!!!!!!! In less than 10 minutes, the bike was back although it was covered with mud.

Things have quieted down. Chiquita ate her chicken and rice and went to sleep. Opie and Maxie never knew what happened. And, I only heard the story from Lupita as I was safely in my house, talking on the computer to my friends in Africa and Texas about tortillas!!!!!!

Another Update on Maxie

Maxie has been seizure free for 11 days now! And she is a whole lot more active. Opie and I are so happy that she is more like herself.

Maxie Update

Maxie is doing great! As of today, she has been free of seizures for 7 days! She was groomed last Friday and did well. I am so happy!

Things you find in Mexico

* the local homeless mute/deaf guy directing traffic around potholes

*the neighbors stealing my large plastic garbage bag and adding their garbage to mine

*the city garbage truck (very undependable) and the garbage collector with a cart and horse (or mule) racing to get to the garbage FIRST

*roasted corn venders selling in front of the church during the service AND people in the congregation going out to buy their corn AND coming back in to eat it as church goes on

*bottles of beer left on tombstones for the dead

*minibuses running red lights....and the traffic cop is right behind them, watching

*vehicles making left turns across two or three lanes of traffic, acting like the other lanes are "in the way"

*people going through other people's garbage and carting home stuff to then "pick and choose" what they want and/or need and putting the rest back in the garbage so someone else can go through it and cart some more of it home, etc etc etc

*people making steps with stones, bricks whatever so they can reach over your wall and help themselves to lemons and cactus,etc....it is "legal" as long as they are not actually in your yard!

*real siestas from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. during the hot summer weather

*Imagine living in two worlds, this and Texas, both unique and exciting!