The Swicegoods

Gosh! It has been a long time since I have really posted anything. Life just seems to keep picking up speed and time is gone and nothing gets posted. Some times I think I should just take the site down but there are a lot of people checking it all the time so I guess I'll leave it up...at least for now. The site was started to keep family and friends around the country updated with what is going on but most do that now through Facebook. I will try to be more diligent and post more regularly. Here is a Reader's Digest Condensed Version of what has been happening around here:

First, both of our children (who are not children at all) are doing very well. Travis has his second book being released in November and is staying almost too busy with work. He and Meg have a 100+ year old house in Lawrence, KS that keeps them busy when they aren't working but they seem to enjoy it and that is good. Sarah and Keith have just moved into a much larger house than they had and are getting settled nicely into it. Alex starts kindergarten next week. Sarah is going to homeschool him. His math and reading skills are already well into the second grade level so putting him in the public school system would just bore him at this point and he would lose interest in school at all. Sarah has a great plan in place for him and they are looking forward to getting started!

Allen is doing well. He has been diagnosed as diabetic but it is at an early stage that can be corrected with diet and exercise so he is working to get that taken care of. He hasn't gone fishing much this year...too many other projects in the works. However, he is counting down the days until bow season for deer opens again (on September 15th).

I have been busy trying to go through our basement, garage and closets cleaning out things we no longer use and organizing what is left. It has been a major project as Allen is a pack rat but I have at least been able to get things organized. Now I will begin the 'getting rid of portion' but that will have to be done while Allen is at work because regardless of the fact that he hasn't used something in 20 years, when I get ready to trash or donate it, it becomes the most valuable possession he has! :)

I am also staying busy pouring soy candles and making ceramic pieces for our website TheSixScents.com and to take to area shows and markets. This is something Sarah and I do together and both really enjoy.

Sarah and I have started bowling in a ladies morning league and I think it will be a lot of fun even though I am doing terrible right now. It has been so long since I bowled. Alex is bowling in a junior league, too, and is excited about that!

Allen has become active in a Lodge again and we are both active in an Eastern Star Chapter as well. Things are quite a bit different here than they were in El Paso so we are having to make some major adjustments, which is not very easy to do.

The weather has been extremely hot and humid here this summer so that has added to our frustrations in other areas. I really do miss the El Paso weather. There were/are a lot of things that I didn't care for in El Paso but the weather was certainly not one of them! :)

Mom and Dad are doing well. Mom is in the beginning stages of Alzheimer's Disease but doesn't understand that. The doctor is giving her medicines to take to help slow down the progression but we can't tell if it is really working or not. She is easily confused now and has a hard time remembering things. She remembers her childhood well and even when I was a child but she has a very hard time remembering people or places or things that have happened in the last 25 to 30 years. It is really heartbreaking. Otherwise, she is in good health and dad is, too. Allen goes over once a week to mow their backyard. It slopes down and Dad's legs bother him too much to mow it but he still mows the front yard where the ground is flat.

That pretty much catches things up! I know a lot of you come here often to read the site but don't leave any comments. Please post your thoughts or what you have been doing. We'd love to hear from you!

Happy Birthday, Sarah! Hope you have a wonderful day!

Hope everyone has a safe and happy 4th!

Happy Father's Day to my dad, Allen and all of the other dads out there!