#253 Nomad Diary. 23-29 August 2025. Week 5 of 8 in Madison, Alabama. EPT Reunion in Huntsville. Grandkids Phone Call. Playground Time. Bible Classes. Meals and Celebrations with Friends. Funerals.

 

After the EPT Reunion. Family in Town. Ron and Annette Cargioli (my sister, EPT inventor from Indianapolis) with Their Oldest, Paige. Me and Darrell holding Owen, and Our Oldest, Eric. Paige is visiting from Tampa and left her husband for a couple days with 3 kids under age 5!

During Our After Celebration Meet Up, Quinn Called From Brazil! He and Owen Were Enjoying Seeing Each Other on the Phone!  Owen said, "I want to go there". I said, "Aww, that would be so nice, but Quinn is very far away." Then Quinn said, "Yes, it's a lot of long plane rides!"

Kid's Dugout in Athens is a Fabulous Playground, and Probably Owen and Esther's Favorite.

Darrell Swinging Esther

Owen Getting in the Car to Go Back Home after Playground Time

In My Doctor's Office Exam Room View! Athens, 

Saturday. 23. EPT reunion party and talks. My sister, who I call Dr. Annette came with her husband Ron and she presented stories of her invention EPT and statements from practitioners. We had about 20 people interested in EPT. Kim was there as the greatest hostess for out of towners. The hotel that Laura and I shared a room at was also used by a few out of towners. I enjoyed each talk of people who attended, my decades-long colleagues, Paige, Karen, Laura, Kim, Steve and Annette. We finished up as we had plenty of snacks and water to drink. A couple of carloads headed in the direction of the Huntsville airport from south Huntsville. Laura was driving me and Karen, and Steve was driving the Cargiolis. We met up at a coffee shop near to the airport. I messaged Darrell and Eric to come visit our extended family while they waited for their planes. I got a call from Jeremy in Brazil. 4 year old Quinn was on our weekly call and Owen was with us at the coffee shop. Owen was enjoying seeing Quinn and his fire truck and a french bulldog that they were sitting. This technology of calling between continents is amazing! Well, Owen says, ‘I want to be there with Quinn.’ I said, ‘That would be so nice, but Quinn is very far away from us.’ Quinn says, ‘It takes a lot of airplanes to get here!’ 

Sunday. 24. Afternoon funeral for a friend Jackie Lewis. At the beautiful presentation, they called her ‘Grandma’. Her many little grandchildren sang Jesus Loves Me! It was incredibly sweet. She was very close to being 90 years old. Darrell met her back in the 1970’s when his family moved to Cary, North Carolina. Darrell’s mom is 91 and she was a friend of Jackie’s. Both families attended the same church in Cary for years. Later in 2008 Darrell and I moved to Madison, Alabama. When we chose our church congregation and there is where we met Jackie Lewis again. She had followed her daughters here as the mom and grandma of the family. We enjoyed meeting so many replanted Cary, North Carolina people that we jokingly called our Alabama church West Cary. 

Monday. 25. Lab blood draw before breakfast. My friend Kim’s ribbon cutting in Huntsville, Alabama for her 10 years in business! Evening Funeral visitation for “Ma”, age 93 at church.

Tuesday. 26. Playground time with Owen and Esther. While following Esther around the playground, at one point, she takes a small step down from a platform, reaches her hand to me and says, “I’ll help you.” Awe…too sweet!  1 pm Darrell’s turn to teach the online Bible class with English church in Kent. 

Wednesday. 27.  Morning time with Owen and Esther at the playground again in the beautiful weather. Our third funeral this week. Our friends Larry and Louise: Louise’s only brother Otis. We didn’t know Otis, but we are going to support Larry and Louise. Louise’s son, Russ, is a friend of ours through church. He spoke at the funeral and left some good memories of his uncle.

Thursday. 28. Morning time with Owen and Esther. Afternoon doctor appointment for me. My bloodwork was all very much improved. My next appointment is in a year! I’ve been going 2x a year for a while. I do have a sleep study scheduled for January and likely I will have a colonoscopy next year too. I do need a hearing test as well. So far, these items are still on my to-do list. In the evening I went to dinner at Mary Katherine’s house. She does a dinner with a small group of women from church and I got to go. It was a salad pot-luck. I brought chicken salad. There was a variety of delicious salads and desserts. Mary Katherine baked bread with rosemary and garlic! We played a game together too. I realize how little attention I place on current events, music or movies because this game was fun and challenging for me! 

Friday. 29. Morning time with Owen and Esther. We sat inside and played with toys. Lunch invite to friend Jackie D’s house. She lives on a farm in the county and has some country hobbies, like feeding hummingbirds. Mostly this was something that she was excited to share with us. She also sews a lot of children’s quilts and has a longarm quilter to put them together with decorative stitching. Jackie served up homemade English Muffin Bread toasted sandwiches, Homemade potato soup and Orange jello fluff. We met her husband, Bubba, the pet dogs and a baby squirrel they found in their yard and have taken on to take care of until it's old enough to go back out into the yard. Afternoon phone call for an EPT appointment that I donated as a door prize at last weekend’s EPT reunion party. 

Nomad Notes.

My doctor appointments and bloodwork:

I’m really happy that I’m free for a year before I go back to my personal doctor for my next blood draw and check-up. My bloodwork is all improved, and my explanation is my diet of higher protein, low saturated fat and higher fiber. 

I do have a sleep study scheduled for January and likely I will have a colonoscopy next year too. I do need a hearing test as well. So far, these items are still on my to-do list.

Quilting: I have a big appreciation for quilting. I learned piecing quilts together when we lived in California about 40 years ago! I went to my first class at a fabric store. I had a sewing maching and a small amount of sewing experience. The class I went to was “Log Cabin in a Day”. It was making the rounds as the new popular strip quilting method. You could cut and sew your strips into a log cabin quilt top in one day! It was the beginning of a variety of fast piecing quilt techniques. I spent so much time piecing strips on my sewing machine that I got good at it. I was sewing straight lines and seams with all of my hours and hours at my machine. In 2 years I had made over 50 quilts! I sold some quilts that were usually tied rather than sew quilted. Darrell and I moved to Leavenworth, Kansas with our first two little boys. I taught Log Cabin Quilt in a Day classes at a lovely quilt and fabric store in downtown Leavenworth. I was quilt-crazy in those days. It gave me a great creative outlet and great appreciation for the craft on every level!