Where has the month gone?

It doesn't seem possible that July is almost gone - 1 day left. It seems like just last week was July 4th and our anniversary.

July 3rd Bible study started. There has never been a summer Bible study at Bethel before, so I didn't know what to expect. When the spring study ended in March, the ladies all said they didn't want to wait until September to have another study. However, I knew I needed to take some time after surgery (March 24th) for rehab and healing. We prayed for the Lord's leading in this matter and His leading was to do a summer study. We also prayed asking for leading in what study to do. The Lord definitively led us to Beth Moore's "When Godly People Do Ungodly Things." I then prayed that the Lord would put the ladies He wanted in the study. I had very low expectations as far as numbers went since it is summer. However, the Lord had other things planned. There are 14 ladies in the morning session and 12 in the evening session. I figured considering normal attrition of 50%, after the first couple weeks, there might be 6 ladies in the morning and maybe 6 in the evening. Again the Lord had other things in mind. There have been absolutely no drop outs! I am humbled and thankful. I enjoy leading the studies and the ladies keep me challenged with their questions. I love research and generally I wind up with at least one or two questions that need more biblical research after each session. It's hard to believe that there are only 3 weeks left.

Something else that has been keeping us busy is running to the doctor with my 97 year old aunt. She is developing aches and pains that are normal for her age, but since she's never had aches and pains she wants to go to the doctor each time something new comes up. We have been to the doctor's at least once each week since the beginning of June (he has found nothing wrong). Besides the visits to the medical doctor have come visits to the ophthalmologist for cataract surgery. She had her right eye done 4 years ago and has procrastinated getting her left eye done. She finally made the decision in June to have it done. So since July 14th, we have been at the eye doctor's each week. She had the surgery July 22nd. She stayed with us for 2 days following surgery to be sure everything was healing the way it was supposed to (which it did). She had an appointment today for her 1 week post op visit and the doctor was very pleased. She has one more appointment to get new glasses the middle of August. Hopefully we won't be running to the doctor's quite as frequently now.

We are also trying to get out and ride our bikes every day or every other day. We have biked over 200 miles since we got our new bikes June 2nd. Our longest ride so far is 14.5 miles. We are routinely biking 10-11 miles. Our average speed has increased from 9 MPH to 12 MPH. We have many bike routes that we enjoy. My favorite is biking out to the beach which is about 6 miles each way. The route takes us along the edge of Palma Sola Bay and it's interesting to see the different birds that inhabit the shore. We routinely see great blue herons, brown pelicans, egrets, ospreys, roseate spoonbills.

Well, I'll close as this post is long enough.

Wa-Hoo!!

Today we biked 12.5 miles! We have been trying to get past the 10-11 mile threshhold for several weeks. Today we did it! We biked down along the eastern edge of Palma Sola Bay which was just beautiful. There are many beautiful homes along the shore and looking out over the bay with the accompanying wildlife was just fantastic. The road along the bay is lightly traveled and the pavement is smooth for biking. Our next milestone will be 15 miles.

Tomorrow night we're supposed to do the same ride with friends. That will also be a milestone - biking 12+ miles 2 days in a row! However, the weather is supposed to be dicey at best, so we'll see if we can get the ride in.

Our Anniversary

Today was our 42nd wedding anniversary. It doesn't seem possible - where have the last 42 years gone? I can remember when we were newly married, friends of ours were celebrating their 10th wedding anniversary. We thought that was FOREVER!! And here we are celebrating 42 years. We went out for a bike ride ride this morning. We were hoping to do 12 miles (we've been averaging 10-11 miles a day), but after 9 miles we were totally trashed. We biked out towards the beach realizing that we had a tail wind going out which meant we would have a strong headwind on the way back home. Boy, did we!!! Normally our average speed is about 12 MPH. On the way home we barely hit 8 MPH. There is a bridge over Palma Sola Bay and on the way down off the bridge, we normally hit 20+ MPH. On the way home, our high speed was 14 MPH. Like I said a wicked headwind!! When we got home, we headed for the pool and soaked for about 2 hours.

This evening, we went on a dinner cruise on Sarasota Bay. It's something we've wanted to do since we moved down here and just haven't done it. Being our anniversary gave us the perfect excuse to do it. It was lovely. The food was yummy (prime rib and salmon) and the scenery fantastic. There was a complete double rainbow the entire cruise!






All in all, it was a wonderful day!