Well, I hope everyone had a wonderful Labor Day weekend. We had a great time. J.D., Mary, Daniel, Hannah and I traveled on Friday to Lawrenceburg, Tennessee. We went there to attend the Tennessee Labor Day Meeting which is held every year at the Chapel Grove Church of Christ. J.D. and I stayed with our good friends, Bobby and Elaine Moore of Summertown. Mary and her kids stayed with Finley and Annette Newton and their sons in Ethridge. This meeting is attended by hundreds of members of the church from throughout the United States. We have been attending for many years. So, we know many of them. The services are held under a huge tent. This year it was hot but not as hot as last year. The singing is always beautiful. Many of the teenagers and young adults stay after services and sing, sing, sing.

Wilson, Kathy, and Kenny Messer and Arnold Ray McDowell traveled to Mt. Vernon, Kentucky to the Eastern Labor Day meeting at the Church of Christ at . They said they had a great time.

Kyle Baxter had as guests over the holiday weekend his daughters, Kathy Simpson and Linda Quillen of Stockbridge, Georgia. His granddaughters Jessie and Tori were here also. I sure this made the holiday special at the Baxter home.

Visiting Ray Barnett and family recently were his brother Ronnie Barnett and Ronnie’s son, Mike and his family Karen and Steven Barnett. Kim Harris was also visiting the Barnetts. Ray is still very weak and sick. His immune system is so low that the doctors warn him not to be in crowds. Also, John Edsol and Aurine Green of Newport were visiting Ray this past weekend.

My niece, Nikki Jones, was injured in a automobile accident last week in Greenville, Tennessee. She was stopped at a red light when a little old lady hit two more cars and knocked one of them into her. This cause Nikki to almost hit a guy on a motorcycle that was stopped in front of her. Luckily she was able to steer into the curb to keep from hitting him. She was hit so hard that it knocked the back of her car off. Nikki received a concussion, and her shoulder was badly injured. She has been unable to drive to school. She is a student in the pharmacy school at ETSU. We hope that her shoulder and head will quickly heal and she will not get to far behind in her schooling.

Bobbie and Pearlie Pepper of Athens, Alabama were the weekend guests of Helen Sparks. Bobbie preached at the Saturday night and Sunday morning services at the Grassy Fork Church of Christ.

My sister, Geraldine Green, had gall bladder surgery at Cocke County Baptist Hospital in Newport on Tuesday, September 9. She has been in the critical care unit ever since. Dr. Bollin said that she had so many stones in her gall bladder that there was no way you could have forced another one in. It was also full of infection and adhered to her liver. Therefore they were not able to do laser surgery. He said that she probably had had gallstones for years. She had lost a great amount of weight. She is beginning to eat soft food and they had her sitting up a couple of times on Wednesday. On Thursday she had to have two pints of blood, but this seems to have given her some strength. We pray that she will be on the road to recovery very soon. Thanks to all who have called to ask about her and have prayed for her.

Pauline Presnell, my cousin, had gallbladder surgery on Thursday. She was able to have the one-day surgery. We hope she has a speedy recovery.

There was a family cookout held at the home of David and James Green on Labor Day. Their guests were Bonnie Hall, Julia and Junior Coggins; Paralee, Elvine, and Brent Coggins; Bobbie, Jada, Jace, and Josh Baxter; and Jerry, Edith, Jerry Ray, Cindy and Jamison Hunt. I sure they enjoyed celebrating this holiday together.

Julia Coggins, who has been sick for a long time, continues to have health problems. She has an appointment to go to Knoxville for some bone marrow test on September 12. We hope the results will be good news, and she will be in our prayers. Julia and I are not only first cousins, we have always been good friends. We walked many a mile together as we grew up(to church, school, visiting or hiking on the mountain tops). Then in the mid 1960, we worked together at Alberti’s Italian Restaurant in Gatlinburg and shared an apartment. My younger sister, JoAnn, worked with us also. We have some great memories of those days together.

J.D.’s brother, Kenneth Wilburn, a cancer patient, continues to take his treatments five days a week at the cancer center at Morristown Hamblen Hospital. He is having some problems, but does pretty well after the treatments. He needs our prayers.

Others on the sick list are my brother, Dale Green, and my nieces, Stacey Baxter and Rebecca Arrington, Jim Strange, Faye Southerland, Robin Rollins, Bonnell Hall, Winnie Williams, Leon Woody, and Lynn Frisbee,

Many people will celebrate birthdays in September. My great-nephew, Caleb Green celebrated on September 3^rd. and his grandmother, Alene Green on the 4^th. At school we have Jayce D’Amore with a birthday on the 6^th; Dakota Hatfield on the 7^th; Erick McGaha on the 10^th; Raile Childress on the 12; Arabella Hill and Lars Opsahl both on the 14^th; Christian Evans and Callie Whitlock on the 15^th; Kylie Carmichael on the 21^st; and her brother, Christian McGaha on the 27^th; also, Petchula Ford on the 27^th; Lakyn Waits on the 28^th; and Allen Gates on the 29^th. Others in my family are my niece, Lilah Lunsford on September 13^th; My husband, J.D., will be sixty-five on the 19^th. Happy birthday to J.D.’s brother, Perry Wilburn, on the 20^th and their sister, Frances Morrow on the 24^th. My youngest brother, Johnny Green, has a birthday on September 25. We hope all these have one of the happiest birthdays ever.

Happy thirty-sixth wedding anniversary to my youngest sister, Betty Sue Jones and her husband, Mike on September 25. May they have many more.

Grassy Fork School has been having a fundraiser by selling cookie dough and other items. We appreciate all the student, parents, guardians, grandparents, etc who have worked so hard to make this a success. The proceeds will be the beginning of our fund to build and furnish a new playground for our school. We want to have a really nice playground when we are finished. We will be having other fundraising events throughout the year to make money for this project. For instance, we are now making plans for a bluegrass concert and auction in November. We will have more on this as we finalize the plans. We will also be accepting donations from anyone who hates buying things, but would like to help us to have a nicer place for the children to play.

I believe that fall is in the air. The ragweed, joepye weed, and goldenrod are blooming. Our grapes and muscadines are hanging heavy on the vines; the pears are beginning to fall from the tree. A few leaves have turned early. It is getting dark a lot earlier. Fall is one of my favorite seasons, but so is winter, spring and summer. I am just thankful to be alive to welcome each changing season and to live in a place where each season is full of its own beauty. I hope you take time to stop and enjoy this season and to help someone else along the way.