A Wild Week!

Hello again! Hasn’t it been a crazy week again? It sure seems like every week around the world is like this anymore. Wars and rumors of war. Crazy, crazy political happenings. Meanwhile, most of us here in the U.S. go on with our lives like nothing is happening. But I guess what can we do except pray about all of it? And believe me, I definitely do that. So in light of that, I will show you what’s been happening in our lives this past week.

But first, I want to show you our set up at our friends house when we were in Spokane. This photo makes our camper look crazy long but it’s only a 30 foot trailer.

We were getting things set up for our Fourth of July bash! We had several friends from church that came over and celebrated the fourth with us. We had a fun potluck and then visited for hours and hours. Paul and Lori have this nice saltwater swimming pool. Since it was 106F on the Fourth of July, it sure looked mighty inviting.

The two puppies had a grand time running around and playing in the backyard. Zoey doesn’t have anywhere to run off leash at home, so she especially enjoyed this. Every morning at 6:00 am, Izzy would come to our camper to ask Zoey to come out and play and they were inseparable the rest of the day. Lori’s garden in the galvanized container was thriving with all of the heat. In the two weeks we were there, her sweet corn shot up over 3 feet!

I took Mom for a haircut the first Tuesday we were home and then she wanted to go out for breakfast. We stopped at a Village Inn where she had her favorite, biscuits and gravy. I couldn’t believe she ate it all! For such a tiny lady, she can really eat when it’s something she enjoys. 💜 Aren’t her fingernails pretty? Piper‘s been doing them for her and Mom loves it. That’s one thing that she always did. She painted her own nails and they were always beautiful. Piper is doing a great job and it helps them bond even more.

Then on Monday of this week, Dennis’s two cousins and his Uncle Al drove down from Minneapolis. They try to do this twice a year to visit with their remaining siblings. Out of 11 siblings totaling 22 aunts and uncles on the Soliday side of the family, these four are the last that are left. Starting in the front, Uncle Al (92), Aunt Joyce (88), Mom (88), Aunt Jean (94). A very few of the cousins were, there because there are literally dozens of cousins, but most of them live all over the country. Left to right, Bonnie, Nancy, Laura, Pam, Roxie, and of course, Dennis.

We had a wonderful time having pizza and cake and visiting for hours and hours. The plan is for them to be back in October for another visit. Uncle Al still goes on 2 to 3 mile hikes every day. At 92, he is an inspiration. He is one of the kindest men I’ve ever met. He used to be a city councilman years ago in the town of Coon Rapids, Minnesota,

Now on the Queen side of the family there were nine siblings. Back when Grandma Queen was still alive they added up her descendants and at that time, she had 86 grandchildren and 59 great-grandchildren. She already had 19 great-great-grandchildren! 

It was quite a shocker for me when I married Dennis. I came from a family of six aunts and uncles and seven cousins total, from both my mom and dad sides of the family! Saying I was a bit intimidated at family gatherings would be an gross understatement.🤣

Miss Piper and Lizzie spent Tuesday night and Wednesday night with us this week. School is due to start the week after next, so we’re trying to get in as much time as we can. Originally she was only going to stay one night, but changed her mind and wanted to stay two. I think she would have stayed with us last night too if we hadn’t had a meeting we had to go to regarding Medicare for me. 

Yes, I’ll be 65 on February 1 and so will finally be eligible for Medicare. Glory hallelujah! This marketplace insurance I’ve been on since Dennis retired literally stinks to high heaven. You pay a fortune for nothing. I’ve just been praying that my pacemaker battery holds out until I hit Medicare. So far so good.  This month I have my annual exam with the cardiologist and my annual physical. Otherwise, I have not gone to the doctor all year because I’m trying to avoid the high cost. We have to pay everything up to $9700 in addition to the monthly premium. Then the insurance will pay a percentage.  Needless to say, a cardiologist visit when my pacemaker is interrogated, was over $800 last year. I have to do both of these visits yearly though, in order to get my prescriptions renewed. Marketplace insurance is a joke in my humble opinion.

This is Piper and the girls favorite place to sit. Right between Papa and I while we watch a movie about a Prince and Princess. Can you tell how much the puppies love her? This young lady won nine purple ribbons at the county fair this year, with three of the items going to the state fair next month. I lost track of what other ribbons she won. She’s a very talented young lady.

On Wednesday night, we had a doozy of unexpected thunderstorm. We knew we were going to get possible thundershowers and rain, but this blew up into something awful. Over 330,000 people in the metro area lost their power. Some are not expected to get it back for 7 to 10 days! The weathercaster said that rates it in the top five of worst storms in Omaha since recorded history. The highest recorded wind speed that I heard was 100.7 mph! They said it’s the equivalent of a category 2 hurricane. And it came out of nowhere, so no one was prepared. There is so much property damage. They closed the airport afterwards because the winds even moved jets around on the jetways and they needed to inspect for damages to the planes in the buildings. We sat here and watched the weather forecast as it was going on and never lost power at all. The tornado sirens did go off, warning people to take cover because of the high winds. Dennis and Piper had been in the swimming pool less than an hour before it hit . It was absolutely crazy how fast it all happened. 

Yesterday Piper and I went to JoAnn’s Fabric and she took a couple of pictures from the car as we drove down 144th, one of the main streets in Omaha. 





These are just a very few of the trees we saw as we drove a relatively short distance down the street. Trees are on houses, decks and cars. Roofs were blown off of buildings. We also received over 2 1/2 inches of rain in a 40 minute period. 

On nearly every corner going south to north, signs in the medians were laying flat down as you see in this photo. We saw at least two dozen signs like this. I thought Piper did a great job taking these photos as we were driving down the road.

Mandy sent me this photo of Brad that evening after the storm, walking down the street with his chainsaw to help the neighbors. They had a tree come down on their fence in the backyard, but it doesn’t seem to have done any damage. Happily their neighborhood is fairly new so the trees aren’t very large. This was the worst time of the year that this could happen because the trees are at their heaviest with leaves and with winds like that, they didn’t stand a chance. 

Well, that’s been our last week. It’s been a busy, busy time. Dennis has run to the store this morning to pick up a few things and I need to make three dozen deviled eggs and a big macaroni salad today because we have a funeral at church tomorrow. We will both be working in the kitchen providing the lunch, but hope to be able to attend part of the service. I grew up with Brian and Kathy in the same small town in Iowa. Their 50th anniversary would have been tomorrow, but Brian passed unexpectedly of an aneurysm in his lung about a month ago. Such a sad time. 

But it will sure be a busy few days coming up again. I’m hoping next week is quieter so we can catch our breath. On top of all this, Dennis did his regular volunteering at the open door mission and had to take the camper into the shop and leave it for some work that was never done when we purchased it. It’s always something isn’t it?

I’m praying for each and everyone of you, that you’ll have a wonderful weekend and be blessed by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I’ll be back to visit again soon.

Blessings and love

Betsy