Family Life – Page 2 – The Metastatic Breast Cancer Journey

November 2, 2023November 2, 2023

Reload

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Things you might hear while waiting for MDACC nurses to call your name for chemo… (Old cowboy wearing boots and hat, on his phone with a stereotypical Texas drawl):

“I have a .22 and I was wondering if you have a night vision and scope, and can you put it on there?” 😂😂

Long chemo day. One bag down, one to go. Whenever I go more than three (Trastuzumab) or six (Pertuzumab) weeks without treatment, we have to reload. That means one bag is an hour instead of thirty minutes and the second bag is ninety minutes instead of thirty. It’s been a while since I had to reload, so I kinda forgot how long it was. The infusion time is in addition to accessing the port, flushing, heparin and de-accessing the port, with a prayer that we get good blood return or additional processes have to take place. My appointment was scheduled for 12:30. I’m still here at 3:13, and just started on the ninety minute bag.

Before lunch I also saw my oncologist and his nurse, who were particularly chatty today, about books, family stuff, Netflix series and they were eager to hear about our Airstream trip. And of course we discussed medical updates, time for scans, yada yada. Honestly, I enjoy seeing them. It’s like visiting with old friends every time I go in. Today is the first time I have seen their faces without masks for over three years. (They took them off inside the room.) That was an especially nice change of pace!

Before the doc was the blood draw, which took a while to get in. This first visit to the building came with an interesting surprise as well. Funny how much can change in just a few weeks; we were greeted by large, green construction fences all along the north(?) wall. They are expanding their handicapped parking next to the building. They should have done that all along. Apparently the patients were complaining about having to walk too far from the current handicapped parking. I’m happy. More spaces for me as well.

As if that isn’t enough, we got up early this morning to take our son to the airport and then Tim went to the dermatologist (he needs another biopsy) while I sat in Panera Bread and read my book and ate breakfast. We decided to drive together, which Tim might be regretting now that he has decided to sit here in the room with me. Usually he drops me off and picks me up, a habit we never changed after the pandemic.

This evening, I’m taking two of my grandkids to dinner while Tim will be in a church meeting. We will wrap up the day saying hello to our overnight guests, who are staying at our house while we all go to the Texas General Assembly meetings this weekend.

Whew. 🥴

Funny how you can have a whole week without much to do, and then multiple things seem to all converge on the same day. Has that ever happened to you, or is it just me? That’s the way of life sometimes. Keeps us on our toes, for sure. I’m just grateful to the good Lord for giving me the energy to do it all, tenacity to keep going, and a passion for enjoying life.

Might be time for a nap. I do have my pillow and blanket while getting infused, after all. 🤪🤩😁🥴

He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.
The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him.”
Isaiah 40:29; Psalm 28:7 (NIV)

À la prochaine…hasta la próxima vez…until next time!

October 23, 2023October 28, 2023

Home again!

After nearly two months on the road and 8100 miles later, we are home again. Sometimes it’s hard to remember where home is, as muscle memory sends my hand to the wrong place for the trash can and my mind imagines the restroom is on the other side of the room when I wake up in the middle of the night to use it. In some ways I didn’t sleep as well, and in other ways I slept harder than normal, waking up a bit groggy. It may take a couple of days to get back into our home routine.

We got home yesterday, then spent the evening with our son and his family, celebrating his and his daughter’s birthdays with a special “Texas Roadhouse” dinner prepared by Bree and Bryan. We brought the cake. It was a great day.

Happy Birthday to Hannah (6) and Bryan (32). A West Texas Roadhouse dinner, prepared by Bryan and Bree.

Our washer broke just before our big trip, so this morning was spent at the laundromat. We will be looking for another washer later today.

Tim picked up our numerous packages from the mailbox, mostly large boxes from the Pampered Chef party I hosted for my 60th birthday in September. Our mailbox owner asked if we could come and pick them up, as they were taking up too much space 😂😂. I did really well at the party! I earned a large shopping spree, ending up with several small appliances and some baking tools. I am so appreciative to all who made a purchase so I could get these fabulous birthday gifts!

Look at all those birthday gifts! What a haul. I can’t wait to try them all out.

Every time we travel, it seems our trip gets changed by a few days and locations. Robert Burns got this one right. Change is to be expected when you are on the road for nearly two months (or plan to be). If you follow me on FaceBook, you may have heard about our spaghetti sauce surprise, also known as the paradoxical pasta panacea, the frolicking food fiasco, and disorderly dirty dancing. Day two of our trip met us with a huge mess when we opened the door and discovered the pantry latch had faulted, allowing our spaghetti jar and several of its canned good comrades to jump out of the door, releasing the lid on the jar (the jar did not break, surprisingly enough), followed by several cans rolling back and forth inside the trailer, carrying the sauce with them. Yeah, it was a MESS. We were still finding spaghetti sauce two months later on the ceiling and other places you can’t imagine.

We got it cleaned up the best we could, and it is a lighter color, but red doesn’t mix well with white floors. Airstream agreed it was a warranty issue due to the pantry latch failing. This required us to take another trip back to Jackson Center Ohio, skipping a portion of our trip. I was surprised they agreed to fix it, as it is a very expensive repair requiring them to remove everything from the rig, replace the floor, and then put everything back in. We scheduled that for February of next year, as it will take about three weeks to repair.

Here’s what our before and after trip looked like. At least the first half didn’t change by much! Virginia Beach is saved in our plans for some other time. It’s always a little frustrating when we have to cancel reservations and try to find new ones, but it worked out alright.

“the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry”
From a Scots poem by Robert Burns, To a Mouse.

À la prochaine…hasta la próxima vez…until next time!

September 10, 2023October 16, 2023

Baby Olivia Update and Grandkids!

There was a period in my life, many years ago, when I didn’t think I could ever be a grandmother. I’m not sure why, but I had this very strange feeling that I would either never have grandchildren, or not live long enough to see them born. Given that history, I am very blessed to have seven grandchildren. I’ve lived long enough, and both of our children have children of their own. It’s a wonderful thing to be called “Nana.”

I realized I never updated my blog on Baby Olivia. She was born over two months early, and they projected her discharge date to be her due date, which is also my birthday (September 9th). She was born on June 30. I already blogged about it, if you want to go back and read.

I am so happy to report Olivia not only exceeded all of our expectations, she met and exceeded the milestones they set for her in the NICU. ❤️❤️ She ended up getting discharged early. I got to watch her and her siblings for a couple of days while mommy was recovering from her tubal surgery. It was easier than I thought it would be, but let me just say that watching three children is definitely for the young. And not just the young at heart 😂😂.

It’s hard to believe she’s almost four months old. One might expect her to be behind, but she is actually ahead of schedule. 🤩🤩 She’s already an overachiever. She rolled over from back to front at 3 months 2 days. She is a little miracle, and we are so happy she is doing so well.

We are still traveling on our Airstream trip, but when we get home I can’t wait to hold her and her siblings again. Happy Grandparents Day!

Holding Baby Olivia. Mikayla loves to look at the camera and make loud noises 😂🤪😂🤪. Olivia doesn’t seem to mind.

Jaxson is smack in the middle of two girls. Good thing he has Daddy! They are super close. He’s enjoying his banana before he takes a nap.

Hannah and Alison on the last day I was helping out. They are helping Mommy make tea. Mikayla wants to help. She loves mimicking her big sisters!

Those are Bryan’s five children. Elizabeth has two. I’ll share some pictures of them after our trip is over. What do your grandchildren call you? Leave a comment below. If you are asked to sign in, you only have to do this once. I promise I’ll never share your email address. It’s just to make sure you are a real human.

À la prochaine…hasta la próxima vez…until next time!

August 7, 2023

Baby Olivia

Baby Olivia Jade West was born to our son Bryan and daughter-in-law Bree on June 30, 2023. She was over two months early, born at 29 weeks gestation. She was 11.5 inches long weighing 2 pounds and 14 ounces at birth. She was immediately placed in the NICU, where she has been ever since. This is just a brief history of her first month of life.

She is our seventh grandchild, or as Tim likes to say, our seventh Jedi. Seven is the number of perfection, so we think this is the perfect number of grandkids. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Olivia’s APGAR scores were normal, as for any newborn, so for that we were grateful. Her lungs were strong, and Bree was relieved to hear her cry almost immediately after birth. She got to hold her for about a minute, then Olivia was whisked away to the NICU. Mommy had some hemorrhaging, which they were able to stop, but once the baby was born her body bounced back pretty quickly. It was a few days before mommy and daddy could hold her properly.

They put her in an incubator to help regulate her temperature, and hooked her up to a CPAP. Not because she needed oxygen, but to help force air into her lungs so she didn’t have to work as hard breathing. She needed all the calories to go toward growing. She also had a feeding tube down her throat, and has been fed through the tube ever since.

We got home on July 2nd and went to see her with the whole family the next day. She was SOOOO tiny.

Since then we have seen her grow to over four pounds. They have removed the top from her incubator as she is regulating her own body temperature. They just took off the CPAP and moved to a nose tube for feeding. I was in The Woodlands and stopped by after treatment. I happened to get there right before they put in the tube, so I took some pictures of her cute little face and watched that process. She did great. I held her for the first time while she was eating. I’ve never held a baby that small that I can remember.

First time holding my little granddaughter. One month old.
I had just come from MD Anderson so they covered me in a blanket. It was so cozy.

Tim and I also stopped by to see her a couple of days later.

Within a few days they told me they were going to start feeding her with a bottle. They hadn’t started yet when Tim and I went by to see her. I haven’t been back yet, so I just checked with Bree on her progress. She said they haven’t started feeding with a bottle as they put her on a nasal cannula for breathing. (This was after the CPAP was removed. It’s common for them to go off and then back on oxygen.) They want the strength of her nasal cannula at a 2 and she’s at a 4 right now. She’s doing good.

They’re also giving her a diarrhetic for a couple days to see if excess fluid is making it more difficult for her to breathe. From what they explained to Bree, as soon as she’s breathing easier they will start to try feedings, and once she takes a full feed every feed for 3 days she comes home.

From what I understand, when they start feeding her with a bottle, it will be a slow process. She has been sucking, so this is a good sign. Apparently premies get tired easily and can’t down the whole bottle at first. What she doesn’t finish they will put in the tube. The nose tube stays in until a couple of days before discharge, when she is eating a full meal on her own.

We are hoping she comes home within another week or two, but the projection has always been her due date (September 9, also my birthday). We watched Mikayla on Saturday while Mommy and Daddy spent the day cleaning their apartment and disinfecting to avoid any possible germs. They are ready! We can’t wait to see her come home!

Thank you all for your continued prayers of this little one, and the family as well.

À la prochaine…hasta la próxima vez…until next time!

May 17, 2023May 17, 2023

Puzzle Box and Chemo Day

In my last blog, I promised a demonstration of my puzzle box from Guatemala, so here it is! The video is only 3:33 minutes long, and you’ll get to see the treasures inside.

This week I have been finalizing all my personal appointments along with a few trips to the Airstream to get ready for our big road trip. One more sleep! 🤩🤩🤩

Scans (CT and Bone) were completed on Monday (my body is still stable, PTL ❤️❤️). Filled up my pill box. Got my hair done. Cleaned the house. Got my treatment (well, getting treatment while blogging). My nurse thought I was working, as many people do that during treatment. I told her I did that for many years, and I decided it was just too much. I’m so glad those days are behind me. Now I can do what I enjoy doing without the stress of the job.

Today is chemo day,
and after that we should be ready!
Aside, my doctor decided I don’t need bloodwork before my treatment anymore,
so that was one less thing to do. It’s a beautiful day outside!

I admit I’m a little tired. Time for a nap! 😴 I’ve been so keyed up at night thinking and planning for the trip, I have had some trouble falling asleep. Last night I put all our stops and parks in the calendar so we can ensure we remember where we are going, and which days we are scheduled to work (er, when Tim has to work haha). It’s a very big trip and I look forward to sharing it with you as we go.

Living life to the fullest in spite of MBC!

À la prochaine…hasta la próxima vez…until next time!

April 10, 2023May 3, 2023

Grandkids!

As I was looking back over my blogs, I was surprised to see very little about my grandkids! I post about them on FaceBook frequently, but I have not updated my blog to reflect my love for them. ❤️❤️❤️ Yes, I do love them! 🤩🤩🤩

I remember a time in life when I didn’t think I would ever be a grandmother. It just didn’t seem possible. I was much younger then, but when I was diagnosed with cancer the first time I thought I might not live long enough. I’m so happy to report SIX grandchildren, with another one on the way. Jedi #7 is due on my birthday.

About a week after we got back from Florida, we had to take a trip to Oklahoma for another work-related event (Tim’s, of course). And then on to Wisconsin for a second work trip. During the week at home, we snuck in a visit with our four “Jedi” who live close to us. We celebrated our first Jedi’s eighth birthday. Hard to believe she’s that old!

Did I mention we have #7 on the way (March 5 was the reveal). When they told us, I was so excited. “Yay! You’ve having another baby??!!” Tim, however, had a different response, “Oh no!” LOL. He is excited. He just wasn’t expecting it this soon. Seven is the perfect number, but I wouldn’t put it past our daughter to have some more as well.

Dad, Mom, Alison, Hannah, Mikayla, Jaxson and Olivia. “Olivia? Who’s Olivia??!! You’re pregnant??! Yaaaay!”

Speaking of our daughter…In between Tim’s work gigs, we were able to see our other two grandkids (Elizabeth’s children). Their family moved out of state last year on Labor Day weekend for their dad’s job. We miss them terribly! Their parents are a bit selective about sharing their location, due to “safety” issues 🙄🙄, but we did some super sleuthing in February and located them during another work trip. On our second visit, Elizabeth let the kids spend the night with us at the hotel while mom and dad had a date night. We didn’t take the Airstream as it was another quick trip up and back.

We were SO glad to see them, have an early Easter egg hunt, see where they live, visit Elizabeth’s job, and spend quality time with her at lunch as well. The kids came running when they saw us. Anthony was doing errands so we didn’t see him this time. In case you are wondering, they live “somewhere” east of the Pacific Ocean. Hopefully that’s vague enough for their liking, if they ever read this blog 😂🤪🤪😂.

We also had our traditional Easter egg hunt with Bryan’s family on Easter Sunday. It was Jaxson’s first Easter, and Mikayla (not even two) was climbing the big playground to slide down the giant slide. My heart skipped a few beats, but she is a good climber! We discovered a different way of doing the egg hung so everyone was able to find some eggs and it took longer than usual. It was a great day.

Without further ado, here are some pictures of our wonderful grandchildren over the past few months. We call them Jedi, because Tim is “Yoda” and we hope to mentor them in a positive way of life. There’s nothing like being a Grandma. I am so blessed to be alive!

Elizabeth, with the wreath I made her for Easter.

Jaxson’s First Easter.
We got this walker to play with
(and contain him LOL).

À la prochaine…hasta la próxima vez…until next time!

March 10, 2023April 30, 2023

Sad News

I have to admit, I thought my father would outlive me. I thought most people who were still alive in my family would outlive me. When I was first diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer in December 2016, they didn’t think I had long to live. Yet, I have long surpassed the “average” length of time I should have lived. Every time I go in to see my doctor I am greeted by nurses and techs who smile with surprise and excitement to see me doing so well. My brother (Shawn), and now my dad, have gone before me in that period of time. Mom passed away in 2014, so it’s just me and my sister left.

Dad had just purchased a new scooter, 500cc. It was his second ride. I didn’t even know he was thinking about getting one. He sent me a personalized Christmas ornament with Tim and me on a motorcycle. We had talked motorcycles off and on because of our rides, and we had even texted that morning about something else. I didn’t know he was riding, or even contemplating it.

He thought the scooter he bought might be a bit too big for him, so he decided to try it one more time before taking it back. That’s when he had the accident which took his life. He was 85. They think he had a heart attack which caused the wreck, but no autopsy was done to confirm. They deemed it an accident.

It was a total shock, of course. I thought he would live to be 100, or 95 at least. He died on a Monday and the funeral was that Friday. I had chemo on Tuesday and an echocardiogram on Wednesday, so we jumped in the car and drove to Kentucky for the funeral right after that. It’s a two-day drive from Conroe.

I saw my sister, of course, and her family. Some cousins were there that I haven’t seen in probably 30 years or more. It’s funny how funerals tend to bring people together. An old friend of ours from college also stopped by when he saw my FaceBook post. He lives in the same town where Dad lived, oddly enough, and his wife had even heard about the accident because one of her work colleagues was a first responder to it.

Disney is right. It is a small world after all.

The older I get, the more I realize how small the world really is, and how short life becomes. Every time we turn another month over on the calendar, the days, months, and even years get shorter and shorter. The world is spinning faster and faster with every tick of the clock. Sometimes it feels like I’m on that merry-go-round we rode as children, and it makes me dizzy.

Providentially, I had been going through some old slides that my dad had taken when we were kids growing up. It was a thing. Taking pictures and then get togethers with family gatherings usually included watching a slide show. I’ve had these for a few years, since my brother died, but I had just gotten around to turning them digital.

We had planned on going through Kentucky during our summer trip, and we were going to get together with Dad and Phoebe (his wife). I was going to show him some of the pictures and ask about them. I thought it would be fun to reminisce a bit. I had written “Visit Dad” on my calendar. Little did I know that he would be gone before then.

He was only in a few of the slides, because he was typically behind the camera. Here are a few of my favorites when I was 5-6 years old. It looks like he made use of the timer on his camera. The pictures remind me of the good times, the fun times, and the moments when our family was a family.

This was a family vacation to Florida I think.

I remember that aquarium, and fish netting.

Dad’s Family. My family, aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Dad is working on someone’s farm, or maybe he’s just trying out the seat. I don’t think this was our farm.

It’s surreal. You’ve probably been there if you have lost a parent. This is different from when I lost my mom. Different circumstances for sure. her death was expected, and I was blessed to spend the last three weeks of life with her in Hospice care. I had a chance to say good-bye, and say things as well as ask her questions.

This was different. Sudden death is no easier or harder, just different in my experience. Dad and I were not what I would call “close,” and we were just starting to re-connect over the past few years after many years of distance. The disconnect was primarily due to my parents’ divorce and events leading up to their divorce. (It’s a very long story, which I will spare you.) He was always closer to my sister, and I was always closer to my mom. He came to visit when I was diagnosed with MBC, and we started having conversations via texts after that. I was hoping we would have a few more years to continue developing a deeper connection, but God had other plans.

The cemetery was in another city and country from the funeral, and I was impressed with how respectful people were as we processed to the graveside. They pulled over, put their hands on their hearts, took off their hats, and waited for our long line without incident. We held up traffic for an hour across two counties, yet that didn’t seem to phase them. They just waited. I was impressed with their level of dignity and respect.

RIP Dad. Until we meet again on the other side…

I was surprised they already had the date on his headstone.

I snapped a few selfies of me and some family members. I missed my cousin Glennis but he was there as well.

Dad re-married three times after my parents divorced, so he had other families besides ours. I have a second sister who was also at the funeral. She was really little when we first met. We didn’t grow up together, but we keep in touch on FaceBook. It was good catching up with her at the funeral as well.

Terri, me and Bonnie, my two sisters. Bonnie is on the right. She’s two years older than me. Terri was in my dad’s second family. She’s about 12 years younger than me.

Me and Megan (Bonnie’s daughter) at the graveside. It was cold and windy, but it didn’t rain.

My and my cousin Lisa. I always looked up to her growing up.

À la prochaine…hasta la próxima vez…until next time!

March 9, 2023April 26, 2023

The Scent Keeper – Book Review

Our book for the month of March was The Scent Keeper, by Erica Bauermeister. This is an intriguing novel and a New York Times Bestseller. Once I got into it, I had a hard time putting it down. I may read it again. It’s an easy read, and the story was captivating. There is a bit of mystery, sadness, love, laughter, and of course family. Hmmm, I may have just described the majority of popular novels out there. 😂😂 🤩🤩

This book is unique in that it is based on the concept of capturing smells in a bottle, the same way we capture moments on a photograph. If you wanted to remember a particular moment in time, from a scent perspective, you could open the bottle and it would transport you back to that time. Not literally, but emotionally and in a very clear memory. The main character, a teenager by now, was raised on an island with only her father to keep her company. It reminded me of the movie “Nim’s Island,” except Emmeline had no contact with the outside world as Nim enjoyed in the movie. She questioned her father’s constant dedication to the scent bottles, and as her eyes were opened to some things on the island, this is when her life really changed.

Aside, it’s interesting how a riff with one’s parent can change an entire destiny. I’ve seen it so many times as children become teenagers and then suddenly turn into young adults. Young adults need to grow up and become independent. Oh how I wish we could keep them small! And oh how I wish I could spend one more day with each of my parents.

I went to my book club, and we left immediately after that for our trip to Kentucky. My dad passed away this week, so it is a quick trip. I’ll write about that later. After that we are heading to Florida for one of Tim’s work gigs.

I’ll keep this review a bit shorter due to traveling. After the meeting Carol sent out her summary of our discussion. As usual, she captured the heart of the conversation. I especially enjoyed the question, “what is the smell of childhood for you?” Maybe you’d like to consider that question as well. Is there a particular scent that takes you back to a certain moment in time? Smell is such a strong sense, and we often overlook its power. Anyway, here is our leader’s summary. I should forewarn you that our summaries may spoil the ending for you.

Nine of us gathered this afternoon to discuss The Scent Keeper by Erica Bauermeister.  We started off the discussion with the question of what is smell of childhood for you…….  The answers were the Library, Root Beer, Railroad engine, Seaspray, a picnic in an apple orchard, fresh cut grass and the earth, the outdoors and a basement, Pine Sol, Mom’s biscuits and pineapple upside down cake, white shoulders perfume, Prell shampoo to name a few.  The majority of us thought it was an easy read and well written.  Most of us had no idea of how smell is used in marketing and the different layers to entice buyers.  We thought the topic of the book intriguing and interesting.  We talked about Emmeline/Violet and her isolation on the island with her father, the second part being on the cove and then the city with her Mother.  Lisa pointed out that the author named a lot of the characters based on what happens to them.  Fisher for instance because he doesn’t fish with his abusive Father  and Emmeline’s Father calling her Little Lark, which she does fly away.  Several of us thought the ending was confusing and many of us read the ending a couple of times. Twelve of us rated the book and gave it a 7.5 rating.  Sending condolences to Cindy who lost her Father and driving to his service in Kentucky.  Safe Travels to you!!!!

À la prochaine…hasta la próxima vez…until next time!

December 31, 2022January 4, 2023

We Got a New Rig! Accompanied By a Bit of Drama.

This past week was a bit crazy.

Grab a cuppa…this is going to be a doozy!! Oh, and Happy New Year by the way!

We came home from our Christmas trip and noticed the slow leak in our Airstream tire had turned into a flat.

All along we have been working with Airstream Of Austin on a deal to trade in our 30’ International for a 27’ Globetrotter. There are many reasons we decided to do this, but that story is for another time.

This is a story of many more lessons learned about the Airstream. Like how to change the tire, how not to change the tire (because if you do it wrong, you’ll actually break the rig), how to deal with insurance companies, and the one bright spot in all of this mess: the wonderful people at Airstream of Austin.

Because of the trade, time was of the essence. We were driving to Austin on Friday to do the deal, and we discovered the flat after my infusion appointment on Thursday, the day before.

Our garage looks like we are having a garage sale but in reality we were emptying out our Airstream to trade it in. This happened on Wednesday.

I don’t think our Chrome Home was too happy about our decision to turn her in. She gave us several reasons to reconsider the deal. The flat tire should have been an easy fix. But it turned into a major ordeal.

We called Coachnet, our roadside assistance program through the DFW Airstream dealership, and they sent out a technician to change the tire. It took him nearly three hours to arrive, and by that time it was dark and rainy. Fortunately our trailer was parked in the storage lot, with plenty of space to work around it.

The culprit!

The first thing he did was try to jack up the camper, as expected when changing a tire. He managed to take off the flat. After seeing the screw in our tire, we were grateful we had made the decision to change the tire rather than just air it up. Or we might have suffered further damage. We were surprised it made the trip home from Oklahoma!

Next part gets juicy. This is when the “fun” really started.

The tech was about to put on the spare, but he could not jack up the trailer high enough to put it on. Back down, add blocks to raise the jack. After several attempts, he pressed the floor jack one more time, and that’s when I heard Tim say “oh no oh no OH NO,” in a very loud voice. When the technician added blocks underneath of the jack, he did not properly place it in the correct spot on the rig, where it has to go to raise it up. There’s a very specific square metal piece that has to be used or, well, this happens. When he lifted the jack, the square piece broke off and the jack tore through the bottom of the rig. We now have a nice breezeway on the bottom of the belly.

Fortunately, it did not go all the way through the floor, but the gaping hole said it would require a major fix. In case you’re wondering, since the floor jack didn’t work we used our level under one tire to put the flat tire up in the air. Tim found this on YouTube and it worked! We had to release some air from the spare to fit it on, but he did finally get it on.

At this point we didn’t even know if we could trade it in.

Coach-Net took our claim information. We sent pictures. They were very accommodating.

They called the service provider who blamed Airstream. Bottom line, they probably won’t pay. It would likely become an insurance claim.

The next morning we drove to Austin as planned to start the trade, with the Airstream riding on the spare. After much discussion they were not panicking. In fact, they were super helpful. They agreed to cover the cost of our deductible if our insurance had to pay. That was a blessing! In hindsight, the dealership is probably going to make money off of our insurance claim, so it might have made the deal even sweeter for them.

So, we started a claim with our insurance company. Or at least we tried to! More drama . Their system was down and it took them all day just to give us a claim number. Airstream had to have the claim number before we could sign the paperwork for the trade.

At one point, the insurance agent said she couldn’t find a “cause” for the claim, meaning she didn’t know if they would pay. 🙇‍♀️

Cra—-zy!!

Rachel was our salesperson. She’s a go-getter! I think we gave her a migraine. Actually, she had one before we arrived, but she stuck it out.

While we were waiting for the insurance company, Josh did our walkthrough. The smart plug that came with our new rig had a fault. (Seriously! You can’t make this stuff up.) They didn’t have one in parts, so he “borrowed” one from another new rig. Well, that’s now our electric chord. He showed us all the features in our new model, and he was very thorough. It was a little easier this time around, as we understood what types of questions we needed to ask. We got a new hitch as well, that seems a bit easier to install.

At the end of the day, and it was a very long day, the insurance company agreed to pay, and the staff at Airstream of Austin made it all work. At this writing, we are driving home pulling our new 27 foot Globetrotter. And it tows beautifully. Tim almost forgets it’s back there.

Another Day, and another lesson learned…Be sure to double check your old Airstream for all your outside tools and gadgets before leaving it at the dealer. Everything was so chaotic while we were there, and moving so fast during the trade, we left some things behind. On the last day of the year, we took yet another trip back to Austin (3 hours one way) to clean out all the outside storage compartments. We didn’t even know what we had left behind until we got there, but it would have cost a few pennies to replace. Our tools, tire chock, leveling blocks, spare keys, and more. Things that would not only cost money to replace, but would also take time and become a hassle while doing so.

Fortunately, everything was still there. I double-triple checked every single locker. Inside and out. I no longer had that “I feel like we’re forgetting something” feeling on the drive home. You know the one.

They told Tim they already had a deal working on our old rig when we got there. 😳

After we got all of our goodies and made the trek back home, we hosted our family for New Year’s Eve. Good-bye (and good riddance) 2022! Here’s to another year in the books! I am thankful for every day of life, as we never know how many breaths we have left.

À la prochaine…hasta la próxima vez…until next time!

September 6, 2022September 6, 2022

Research Fellowship Completed!

Legacy leadership: Influences on pastoral approaches to financial leadership
Timothy B. West, D.Min, and Lucinda C. West, Ph.D.

Yesterday we were sitting on the back porch contemplating some finishing touches. By noon, we hit “enter.” We submitted our final paper to Villanova and our research fellowship is finally finished (YAY!). It was a two year project. We had to pare it down to 24 pages to meet their requirements, which only barely covered all the interesting findings. We will have a few articles to submit to journals after this.

If you remember, we originally planned to look at how pastors from the four money scripts approach financial leadership of their congregations. As it turns out, our sample was largely from one money script (money vigilance), so we had to scrap the idea of comparing groups. In fact, one of the scripts was completely missing from our sample (money status).

We only surveyed Church of God pastors, so it would be interesting to do another survey with multiple denominations to see if the dispersion of money scripts is greater across tribes or if this is a pastoral phenomenon. We think someone in the next cohort might have taken that bait.

We did do a few correlational analyses of the larger sample, but mostly focused on the themes that emerged from the interviews with pastors. We found four basic themes. For the purpose of this project, we highlighted one theme “legacy leadership.” Basically this entails the legacies brought into the equation by money scripts, family of origin, mentors, and pastors as mentors passing on legacies to their congregations. It was very interesting to hear how their families, mentors, and scripts influenced their decision-making as it pertains to finances.

We also found three other themes of financial leadership which were discussed briefly and will be brought out in more detail in our other articles. Those included spiritual leadership, visionary leadership, and practical leadership. Again, it was fascinating to hear how pastors lead finances based on these themes. Once it’s posted in the Villanova archives, we’ll let you know where you can read it.

In our second residency, we were asked by Scott Thumma (a well-known researcher in the church world, and one of the mentors at Villanova) to submit a brief article based on our findings as part of a larger project he is conducting. They are exploring the effects of the pandemic on churches. His project is funded by Lilly Endowment Inc. and conducted by the Hartford Institute for Religion Research at Hartford International University.

This was a side finding in our study, but it was interesting to hear what pastors had to say about the pandemic. Our article just got published on their website, and they paid us a small stipend for the submission. Here’s the link if you’d like to read that one.

Something Better

It is wonderful to be married to someone who carries the same interests, passions and vision as I have. We want to see the Kingdom of God expand. We love the church world. We want to see pastors succeed and congregations flourish. We both enjoy doing research and are task oriented enough to see it through (even when we get a little tired of the topic).

After we submitted this research project, we asked, “what now?” We decided it’s time for us to relax a bit. I’m still working on my books, and this freed up some time to create illustrations (more on that in another blog). But it probably won’t be long before we are on to the next big project.

À la prochaine…hasta la próxima vez…until next time!