Hills and Valleys

The last week or so has been a bit of a roller coaster ride. First, I have been following the health of my former high school volleyball coach via mass emails that her sons have been sending out. She has been battling cancer and sadly passed away this week. There is a memorial service on Saturday in Katy for her. I plan on attending. She was a really sweet woman and an awesome volleyball coach. She was the kind that you played your heart out for because you didn't want to disappoint her. She retired to lake LBJ before I graduated and would come back, track me down in the hall and give me some words of encouragement. The coach that replaced her was TERRIBLE and Coach Beck knew that I struggled for motivation to play for such a coach. She even, on one trip to Katy, stopped at my dad's office and dropped off an inspirational card for me. She was the best!!! She was at Katy High for over 35 years and has a junior high named after her and her husband who was a counselor.

Then for a hill....I cover weekends occasionally for my grandparents real estate company and this weekend, specifically Sunday was extremely busy. I showed two different tracts of property to, ironically, two couples from old Katy. And I have written my first offer. I had to seriously bite my tongue as we walked all over the 69 acres. The man wants to venture into having cattle of his own. If I wasn't the agent I would have run down the list of why this is not a good idea and what to expect when you have cattle. I have said many times that hamburger is just too cheap at the grocery store! (Linda, I know you got a chuckle out of that) We are hashing out legal issues with the minerals, royalties, etc. Hopefully, we make it thru closing!!!

Now for another valley.....A couple of weeks ago my father and grandfather went hunting. They ended up coming home early because my grandfather had a terrible cold. The cold was pretty bad so he went on into the emergency room. The doctor let him know that he had bronchitis. There has been a lot of this going around. I'm not sure if it was at the er or a follow up visit, but at some point they drew blood and discovered that something was not right. He ended up having bone marrow taken and tested. Grandpa was diagnosed with Myelodysplastic syndrome, which is also known as pre leukemia. He is undergoing shots right now that have a 30% chance of completely correcting this and keeping the syndrome from turning into leukemia. He will also be undergoing chemotherapy. The doctors told him that there is an unusually high amount of cases in his area. I am sure there is some sort of chemical exposure to blame. I ask that you keep him in your prayers.

On a happier note, Ross is taking off Friday and we are headed to the zoo. I can't wait to see Shelby's crazy reactions to all the animals!!! I will post pictures!!!