Good Morning Tuesday, February 16, 2015

Hello World,

My friend Ray Cecere died yesterday.  I am very sad about this today.  He was the husband of my friend Martha and they both were a big part of our church – FCCN – First Christian Church of Naples.  He had cancer and it moved quickly which was a blessing, but still bad.  He was always our “usher” at church and always helped with counting the people who attended.  He would relay the information to me and I’d send the count to the office by an app I have on my phone.  He always sat on the back bench with me, so I’ve been missing him a lot these last few months.  Now I count the people.

Here is Ray :

The Last Outing for Ray.

Ray and Martha

The first picture was posted on FB today and it is so beautiful!  Ray is with Luis who loves him like a father and they are always together.  The second one is a picture of Ray and Martha and is such a wonderful, happy, joyous picture.  I took a picture of them also and it seems that Ray loves blue!

My picture of Ray and Martha.

This is why I love my church so much.  We are so touched by all who attend and miss them when they are not there for some reason or other.  It’s been sad watching this illness take Ray.  I know our church will surround Martha with love and support.  It’s been a difficult battle.

Speaking of church.  Last Sunday we had our “Annual Meeting”.  We now have 3 new Elders which is wonderful!  Reeder, Philip and Marcia.  I love that they are willing to serve like that!  Additionally we are now in the “due diligence” period of purchasing a worship space.  It is located in the shopping center in front of Imperial Golf Estates.  I guess it was a “piano” gallery.  The space will not need a lot of renovation and our closing should be in May.  I’m a little bummed out that it is even “farther” away from me now.  Pine Ridge is far for me, and now I have to drive up to Immokkalee and out to 41.  On Sunday mornings, it will be a nice drive all the way up Livingston to Immokkalee and then out, but at that time of the morning, it should be a pretty easy ride on Red – just a long one.  The greatest thing about it though is that we won’t need to “set up & tear down” every Sunday like we do now.  It will be our own space and we won’t be paying rent.  We’re paying cash for it so no mortgage.  It will be a space available to us 7 days a week so that will be nice.  There are a couple of restaurants in the center.  I’ll have to take a drive up there one day after work to see how long it takes to get there.  So this is pretty exciting.  No more of this:

Sunday at FCC

This week Lily is on vacation.  It’s nice to have her away and she needs to do that more often.  When she goes, I need to do some of her work.  Yesterday we had 5 marketing calls.  That takes time and it’s difficult because we have limited space available.  I also have to keep track of the census when she is gone.  We are expecting our Quarterly ECC Survey from State this week.  We thought they would come yesterday – maybe today.  That is always stressful.  Plus I’m struggling with the schedule because everyone wants time off and we are “short” people to cover the shifts.  I really have a problem doing our “schedule”.  It is so antiquated and I can’t come up with a better system.  And my color printer is not working well, so that is another “glitch” to contend with.  So work is a little stressful for me this week.

So I think I’ll end with some uplifting pics:

Love this picture!	Wylie loves this little bed!
My 3 Cats on the porch	Meet Rose!

Tonight I’ll be at the 24 Hour Club for our Grapevine Meeting.  Today, I remembered to put my “meeting stuff” in the car so I don’t have to drive all the way home like I did last week for the Corrections Committee Meeting.  I hope you all have a wonderful day.  Thanks for visiting!