Latest News for the Month of
August 2009
Good Golly Miss Molly........ I am so far behind on my updates that I cannot see straight. Bear with me while I try and catch all of you up on the latest.
Life has been absolutely nuts here. Its been a whirlwind 2 months and it looks like the next couple months will bring more of the same. Health issues, buying a new home, travel, moving, packing and the list goes on.
For those of you who may not know, we bought a new home here in Florida. For those of you who may have been hibernating, the real estate prices here in Florida have nose dived. We purchased a home that would have easily sold for $ 125 K just a couple years ago. Its a 3 bed / 2 bath, 2 car garage on 1 acre with an in ground pool. We got the place for $ 55 K. We have seen many homes in our area in subdivisions selling for 40 K that were going for $ 100 K just a short time ago. Foreclosures are rampant here and vacant homes are everywhere. If your an investor or looking for a new home, check out the Florida market in our area.
WE just got back from a trip up North to Tennessee. We managed to get the house all packed there in record time then hauled out of there with the coach and went to Richmond to spend time with the kids. I cannot explain just how much fun it was to be back spending time with them. Ella has grown like a weed and is chatty and hilarious with the things she says. At 5 years old, this girl will floor you with the things she comes up with. Lindy & Kim looked great and are doing well as is Natalia and George. We also had a family cookout with all of us as well as George's family. It was great meeting them and they are an awesome family.
Ally and I managed to sneak away to Buena Vista and spend some time in the mountains. We drove the Blue Ridge Parkway up to Shenandoah Valley and Skyline Drive then headed back again. We also managed some time to get out to our property and checked things there. I am happy to report no one has clear cut our forest there. :)
WE made it back to Bristol and picked up the Penske truck, a 26 ft diesel. WE got the movers in and loaded it and hauled butt for Florida on Friday afternoon. Poor Ally had to drive the truck all the way to Florida. No radio, no cruise control, a noisy diesel and a big truck with a rough ride. But she did an excellent job. I think if she ever wanted to leave teaching she could easily become a big rig truck driver. :)
We were extremely blessed when we got to the house in Florida. 3 of Ally's former students ( and 3 of my former football players ) showed up to offload the truck. This really helped us tremendously and I will be forever grateful for them being there when we needed them. They are awesome kids. Thank you John, Nick and Brendon.
Now starts the hard part of this big move. Trying to get the house in order, start the next round of projects as well as getting everything moved from the resort to the house ( Bus, trailer, boat, classic car and all of our belongings in the shed ). The problem we are having is that we have run out of space. The garage is so stuffed full of things that I cannot get enough room in there to do any work. I am having a hard time finding a place to use my saw's, etc. I need a pole barn badly.
On the health front things are what they are. I did get a new oncologist here in Florida and I really like the guy. A Doctor who is a Sicilian should be interesting. He seems to be very thorough and took the time to go over my case. He will be managing my disease and making sure I follow the treatment protocol set out by Dr. Deeg in Seattle. Dr. Deeg will remain my main oncologist and will steer the ship and Dr. Caradonna will manage my case.
I was happy to report that the Interferon ( chemo ) put me into remission but it was short lived like all my remissions now days. They used to last 6 - 8 months but seem to last only 6 weeks now. Either way its no biggie. More chemo will hopefully put me back into remission again.
I had an appointment with my Homey, Dr. Brockmyre and it was great seeing him again. I always look forward to my visits with him as it gives me the chance to catch up on the latest and greatest in his life. He ran several annual tests and while most were normal, two were a bit of a concern. My cholesterol still is sky high despite med's and my sugar will not come down. I have had numerous tests done and each time my sugar is high. I know there is a lot of diabetes in my family so I am going to have to make some changes I guess.
One nice thing about having this home is that we can get back into a normal routine of eating meals. I am embarrassed to admit that the majority of our meals have been fast food the last few months. We both have gained weight due to this poor diet. So with this move comes a new diet - more salads, fish, chicken and vegetable stir fries and back to once a week outings to restaurants ( instead of everyday trips ). :)
I plan on putting up a new page of the house once I get the chance to sit down and build the pages I need. I also will post pictures of our recent vacation. Bear with me as I have little time for anything at the moment except trying to get settled into our new home. By the way, as always we name our homes and this one is called " La Casa Pacifica ". In Spanish it means " House of peacefulness ".
I hope this finds all of you doing well and that you are all happy, healthy and enjoying the summer. May God bless all of you and your families. Here is to a great month before the start of fall. Enjoy and please be careful out there in whatever your do.
Chris
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