What A Week...Full of Joy and Sorrow

So much has happened over the past week...joy, sorrow, tragedy and triumph.

Tyler played his first Senior High School football game last Friday night against an old rival, Wynne. The 10th graders haven't played much in the past years with our coach so we never expected him to get on the field or very little. He was told last week that he would be on the starting punt return team. We were excited about that. At least, he was on the field.

This was the picture on the front page of our local paper on Monday. Tyler is #15, standing by Coach Gray, assistant coach. It looks like everyone was looking at Tyler because...I'm sure he said something funny. He loves Coach Gray and he jokes around with them all the time.

Tyler got in 4 times on punt return and did an awesome job at a position that he has never played before. We were so proud of him.

We beat Wynne 21 -0. Go Patriots!!!

With the excitement of our first game of the season came tragedy. My dear friend, Tamara's brother, EW was headed home from work...going to Wynne and an SUV carrying 6people were headed from Wynne to Marion to the ballgame.

They ran into a severe storm and had a head-on collision. It critically injured EW in his truck and 2 died from the other vehicle. The 1st one to die was a precious lady who had been the high school secretary for 25 years and had just retired in May. He husband was driving and was unhurt. There was an elderly man in the front passenger seat who died later of internal injuries as did Mrs. Forrester. Another man suffered a broken hip, one had internal injuries as well. The 16 year old passenger in the 3rd seat was cut up but otherwise, unhurt. Both people who died were up and walking around after the accident but Mrs. Forrester died in route to the hospital and the man died later at the hospital.

Back to joy...we took Tyler and two of his friends to the movies last Sunday and we went to a different movie than theirs. Then, Roger and I had a wonder date day last Monday together. We went shopping for carpet, Tyler some bedroom furniture and had to get the things to complete our household projects we were currently doing.

Back to tragedy: Our daughter, Sommer called us Monday while we were out and asked us to pray for her friend, Monica. She was in a car wreck Sunday night, in which, the driver was drunk and killed her other friend, Kendal. Kendal's funeral was this morning. How sad and my heart hurts for this family.

Monica is in surgery today for 3-4 hours and with 3 surgeons. She has a collapsed lung and broken pelvis. The pelvic surgery is today and it is very tricky. The doctors have told them that it was only by the grace of God that she has made it this far.

Please remember these families in your prayers. So much heartache and pain.

Finishing up with joy...I have lost 21 lbs. and Roger has lost 33 lbs. Whoohoo!!!

Have a wonderfully blessed day!