Miss me?

I have been “off the air” for a while due to a death in the family. My granddaughter’s husband died, leaving a young widow and two beautiful kids. That prompted a trip to Buffalo Gap, Texas where they live for the funeral. Needless to say it was a sad time, but we did get to spend some good time with Heath and Sue, our three grandkids, and our four great grandkids. (Yes, I said “great.”)

The kids were noisy with screaming the normal volume level for play, and they were high-pitched screams. My hearing aids went on sensory overload. But they were well behaved and well mannered, especially considering their ages.

From left to right – Harrison, Caleb, and Kendall. Harrison had serious health issues until they figured out the cause. Last January (2015) he was in the one percentile for his age and one miserable little dude, then the doctors figured out he had numerous food allergies manifesting themselves internally and how he digested food. With that sorted out and a careful diet, ten months later, he is now in the eighty percentile for his age and doing great!

This little darling is Abigail, and she is a tad camera shy. Couldn’t get her to look at the camera. It was Abby and Caleb who lost their father.

I was much impressed with how their church community came out in support of the family. The amount of food was overwhelming, enough they had to say “stop!” The culture of Buffalo Gap and neighboring Abilene is very different from New Orleans. The area is largely Protestant and mainly Baptist from what I can tell, and their faith plays a much larger role in their lives than we are accustomed to seeing in NOLA.

Heath seems to have taken on more than he should. Not only does he run his own business, Spitfire Aerospace Services, but he is finishing his house, doing a body-off restoration of a Jeep, restoring an old Coke machine, building a greenhouse and a garden, and establishing a pond—just to name a few, and now he will be a father again at 45. Lauren and the kids have moved in with them. He may have to let go of several of his projects for a while.