Driving

The ladies Bible study was good this morning and I have stuck to the regiment for day two of my tooth extraction. I ate carefully chewable food today and the pain is just about all gone. Having licked and sealed 300 envelopes yesterday did not seem to harm the hole in my jaw. I got some work done at the office today and am ready for our local Baptist association messenger meeting Saturday.

We have a lot of driving to do this week. Tomorrow morning will find me driving over to Tyler to go with Bro. Davis to his doctor's appointment. I will drive back to Hillsboro for our evening services and then drive over to Henderson to take Janie's Dad and Mom to their respective doctor's appointments. Friday night we drive back to Hillsboro then Saturday we drive over to association meeting in Corsicana. I figure starting tomorrow we will put in about 700 miles. On our way home from Henderson last Saturday we had a flat tire. We stopped at a station where I pulled a drill bit out of the tire and then plugged the hole. It is still holding air so the plug worked good. The next four days will really put it to the test. The picture is one I took the other day while my father-in-law and I were waiting for our wives to come out of that beauty shop door. God bless you.

Tooth Extraction

The Tooth is gone!! It took her some doing but she got that pesky tooth out of my mouth. The decay under the filling was extensive and it was either a $2000 repair or a $200 repair so I went with the later. "I don't want to make you feel bad but you have worn me out and I have two more extractions to do this morning" the Dentist said as she bid me farewell. It was quite an ordeal and though she was about the size of my wife Janie I thought she was going to break my jaw with the pressure she exerted on that tooth. I have to leave this wad of gauze in my mouth for another 1/2 hour then I can eat things that do not have to be chewed. Tomorrow I should be able to eat normally being careful not to let food get stuck in the hole. I have to rinse it with warm salt water 3 to 5 times tomorrow. The picture is one I took at the dentist's office (Dr. Hurt) in Henderson.

I need to take it easy today because of this tooth so I plan to mow the yard, work on the ladies Bible study lesson for in the morning, work on my thesis, and cook some soup for lunch and supper. I will run over to the church after lunch and get some work done there and then return home to finish off the day. I have already been to the Post Office and the business supply center this morning.

The feeling is beginning to return to my tongue and lips so I think I'll get started on lunch. God bless you.

Tooth Ache

There is a savior. Jesus Christ the righteous. His blood cleanses us from all sins. I am so glad that He sought me and called me to repentance. I am so glad I responded to His call by confessing my sin and asking Him for mercy. I became a child of God in October 1962.

Clint was in Church again today. He seems well though he still has a long road to recovery. What a great Lord's day this has been in spite of the fact that I have a tooth ache. I told my dentist a year ago that I thought I had a problem with this tooth but he said it looked fine to him. It just did not feel right to me. Now it hurts and I am guessing it may need to have a root canal or pulling. Which ever it may be I hope they can do it Monday cause I need some relief. I have not had a tooth ache since 1979 when my only root canal was done. I probably could have had it fixed last Friday but I just chose not to. I felt my tooth should take a back seat for the welfare of others.

Our new cable TV service is working very well. It took us a little bit of head scratching to figure out how to set it up but all in all it was not bad. I was proud we could do it without calling tech support.

The doctoral work is not progressing well. At this rate the deadline will be missed. The best thing to do is set a time for working on it and stick to it. In Henderson helping those in need keeps ending up taking the place of working on the Thesis. Right now the work can be done anywhere but later on it will have to be done at the TBI Library.

Well it is time to head back over to the church house. I have prepared a new sermon this afternoon from the 15th Psalm and I am anxious to preach it. The picture is of supper at my mother-in-law's. She cooked Salmon patties, biscuits, and gravy. These Salmon patties had buttermilk in them and had an interesting flavor. God bless you.

Ayer Jr./Sr. High

I graduated from Ayer Jr./Sr. High school back in 1971. The Taylor's took us out to eat at lunch today and we saw the man who took the pictures at our wedding some 36 years ago. He was stationed at the army base in Ayer back in the 60's. It is a small world when you think about it. He knew all about Ayer, Mass. and remembered it fondly. I have not been to any of our high school reunions though I think it would be interesting to see how everyone turned out. Though fall time in Ayer was always pretty I like the winters in Texas a whole lot better. The picture is one I took in my in-law's back yard today. When fall arrives in East Texas the Spider Lillies come forth and they are beautiful.

Mother is doing well. Janie's parents are doing well. Bro. Davis is not as well. He has been sick and has no appetite. Since we did not have much sleep last night I felt it best to go home in the morning. We plan to stop in and check on Bro. Davis on our way back to Hillsboro. Janie and I are going to go for a walk. God bless you.

Surgery

Mother came through her surgery okay. She was nauseated afterward and her blood pressure was very low after they gave her something for the nausea. After a bit they checked her again and it was up enough to let her go. We made it home about 12:30 and she was still nauseated. She lay down on the couch and we began the regiment of replacing her "Swiss Mask" every 10 minutes. We have to dip this thing in ice water to keep it cold. The picture is of my brother at her bedside after the surgery. He is sitting with her right now and Janie and I will go back over there this evening to spend the night. In the morning the mask will not have to be changed as often only enough to keep the swelling down. My brother must take his wife to the train station in the morning. Her mother lies near death in California. Steve will return to relieve us Friday morning so that Janie and I can see after her parents and their appointments.

We will see how tonight goes and stay through Saturday if we are needed. Janie is napping while I blog and I need to awaken her so we can get some supper and head back over to mother's. God bless you.

Expression Web

I loaded a new software program onto my laptop yesterday. It is used to build and maintain websites. It replaces a software I have been using for the past several years. I like it real well. I will be using it to spruce up my website http://www.baptistville.org/. I use it for http://www.sullivansupply.com/ and as I have time that website will be overhauled. Time is the key word. Blogging and websites take a back seat to pastoring and study.

This weekend we are going to cancel our satellite TV service. We are replacing it with one that is Christian oriented called Sky Angel. Sky Angel comes through our high speed Internet connection and can be carried when traveling and used in Motels that have Internet access in the room. It costs less than half what we were paying and there is no contract. My youngest daughter uses it and is very happy with it. I have to confess that I watch FOX news channel a lot and this new service has it and that was a major plus to me.

The picture is of a chocolate pie that one of the ladies of our ladies Bible study brought over. It was so good. We are headed over to Henderson tonight to be there for my mother's eye surgery in the morning. I will post here how it went. God bless you.

Visitors

We had visitors Saturday night. My daughter and Son-in-law came over and spent Saturday night and Sunday night with us. We enjoyed their visit and that was the reason I did not blog over the weekend. Services were good Sunday and it was wonderful to see Clint walking into our auditorium under his own power. Everyone was so glad to see him. He is doing very well though he still has a lot of therapy to endure.

Today we had the Ladies auxiliary visit our house. Their monthly meeting was held here. We enjoyed their meeting. I visited over the phone with the IRS. I visited with H&R Block today and told them my IRS woes. They were very helpful and gave me some good pointers. I visited by phone with one of the people who works at the office of my U.S. Congressman. She also gave me hope concerning my IRS dilemma. All in all the visits today were very enjoyable and productive.

I did not visit at the nursing home today. I chose rather to work on my tax audit. I composed a letter to my congressman and have that on stand by should I need it. I made the changes that the IRS requested and got that faxed over to them this evening. While the ladies meeting was underway I finished the Bulletin for Sunday.

Tomorrow we will have visitors in the morning, the Ladies Bible Study. Tomorrow evening we will visit the church in Hewitt and enjoy a good time of singing and Bible study. The picture is one I took on our last visit in Henderson. It is a group of what we call stink bugs visiting with each other on a pomegranate. God bless you.

Errands

We had mid-week services at my Father-in-law's house. This picture is of my brother-in-law who provided the music for our service. The second picture is of Janie and her sister reviewing the medications that their parents take. After the services were over we moved to the piano room and recorded six songs for County Line Baptist church to use in their services.

Thursday found Janie and I taking her mother's motorized chair to be repaired, visiting with Bro. and Sis. Davis, shopping for clothes for Janie's mother, picking up groceries and other things for the Taylors, looking at recliners for my father-in-law (which he decided he did not want).

Friday found us going our separate ways. It found me taking the trash off, going over to the school (TBI), grocery shopping for Janie's uncle Trenton, working on the Sermon and Sunday School lesson for Sunday, and blogging. It found Janie taking her mother to Tyler to the beauty shop and a few other stops, working on the financial report for her mother, and working on her orders for sullivansupply.com. We will head home this evening and make a hospital visit tomorrow. Last night my niece (Ralph's daughter) had her baby by emergency c-section. Both mother and baby are doing fine. They called him Tyler James and he weighed 3 pounds 9 oz. Another of my nieces (Peggy's oldest) had surgery yesterday and is doing fine by last report. Mother's surgery is scheduled for the 24th of this month and Janie's oldest sister is to have surgery very soon. Pray for each of these. God bless you.

P.S. I had to end the is blog abruptly when I got a phone call from Janie's uncle Trenton. He had fallen and so I rushed over to get him up. He is not hurt seriously just cuts and bruises.

Consult

Mother's surgery turned out to be just a consult with the surgeon. They have scheduled her actual surgery for September 24th at 7:30 AM. We got to her appointment this morning an hour early. Even the receptionist was shocked we were there that early. The picture is one I took while we waited to see the doctor. My aunt Maxine came in while we were waiting for the Doctor in the exam room and sprang the news on us that this was not the surgery but just a consultation. It was good for us to be there so we could here for ourselves what the surgeon said. They will be putting her under for the surgery. She will have to have someone to stay with her for a few days afterward.

My father-in-law's PSA was up and I am not sure what they plan to do about that. Janie's oldest sister is going to have surgery the same day that her dad is having a bone scan. Health care is in the news so much and as a pastor and a member of the baby boomer generation I spend a lot of time in health care facilities. It makes me thankful that my wife and I are healthy.

I must get to work on the sermon for Sunday. This second picture I took on our way to Henderson yesterday. It is a cotton field in Hill county. God bless you.