Happy Birthday to Jesse!

How did my youngest get to be 17 already?!

Jason and Mittu planned to come up this weekend, so we were going to wait to celebrate until then — but then they decided to go ahead and come up today. So we could celebrate today — except we’re not ready because we had planned to celebrate on Saturday. I still have shopping to do! So I think we’ll have his special birthday dinner tonight and then cake, ice cream, and presents on Saturday.

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Tuesday afternoon we got a call from my mother-in-law’s assisted living place that her oxygen level had been a little low the day before and they thought she needed to be seen by a doctor. The nurse there seems to be a little over-cautious (a couple of weeks ago she insisted Mom had a urinary tract infection even after the doctor tested and said she didn’t), but over-cautious is probably better that not cautious enough. She seemed fine, but I took her in to the doctor. When her oxygen level reading was back up to 92 (had been 85 and then 89 the day before) and she had no other symptoms of anything, I assumed he would say all was well, must’ve been just a fluke, and send us home. But instead he wanted her to have some blood work drawn to check for a couple of heart problems which could cause a dip in oxygen and a chest x-ray, which they couldn’t do at the office, which meant I needed to take her to the hospital lab. She was pretty agitated at having to do that, which tends to cause confusion problems, but once we got into the waiting area she was fine and we shared a package of peanut butter crackers. This was our first experience with the hospital here, and everything went very smoothly, everyone was not only efficient but cheerful, and they even had free valet parking, which was a humongous help, because I had brought her walker instead of her wheelchair.

So Thursday I was on to other things, thinking all of that was over and done with, when the doctor’s office called and said one of the tests showed the possibility of a pulmonary embolism and we needed to take her in for a CT scan. Jim took off work and took her back to the hospital for a very long afternoon while they took more blood and then did the scan, which I imagine was pretty scary for her. The doctor there said if it had been a pulmonary embolism, she probably would not still be here, so he didn’t think that was a problem, but of course he had to check it out anyway. The scan showed no embolism, but he said her platelet count was high, which could have thrown off the one blood test, and she had the remnants of an infection, so he gave her some antibiotics. He did find a couple of other things to keep an eye on — having been married to a smoker for 54 years has affected her lungs — but overall there was nothing serious to worry about at this time.

So that was a relief for us all. We thought everything was probably ok, but once they suspect something you have to check it out. Though she’s getting more feeble, she’s been in excellent health — no sign of diabetes or blood pressure or cholesterol issues. But she is 82, so at some point her body is going to start having problems. I’m just glad everything turned out all right this time.

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Jesse was required to read a classic book for a book report at school. As we looked through my collection, we found The Scarlet Pimpernel, which I thought he might like, with its sword fighting, intrigue, and rescuing of people. The copy I had read years ago was borrowed either from a friend or the library, and the copy I had on hand was a W-Mart 2 for $1 special that I bought years ago, but I had not read that particular copy. When Jesse got to the end of it, he discovered it was more than two chapters short! There were no obvious pages missing — it just stopped abruptly. And the report is due Friday! So while I was pondering whether the library might grant me a card even though I don’t have my TN driver’s license yet, it occurred to me (thank you, Lord!) that the text might be online — and it was. It never occurred to me to check bargain books to make sure they were all there, but that might be a wise thing to do next time!

One of our first times watching TV here in Tennessee, something came on about a “Volunteer Newscast.” Jeremy and I couldn’t believe that they would let people volunteer to do newscasts, but thought it would be fun. Then we learned that the University of Tennessee is big here, and their team is The Volunteers. Tennessee is, in fact, “The Volunteer State,” so there are multiple signs and businesses with Volunteer This and Volunteer That. So — I felt a little foolish. But I still think an actual volunteer newscast would be fun. 😀

Last weekend we went back to SC to celebrate my birthday with the kids and then Jim and Jeremy loaded up all Jeremy’s worldly goods onto a U-Haul, and they spent Sunday afternoon through Monday morning driving to RI. They thought they were going around NYC, but found out they were going right into Manhattan when it was too late to do anything about it but keep going. Driving a U-Haul truck which is pulling a trailer with a car on it through Manhattan is harrowing. Actually, I think the word they used was “nightmare.” I was glad that when I was praying for safety that I was praying in ignorance…

One of Jeremy’s neighbors helped them unload everything into a second floor apartment. I imagine that was fun. 🙂 They had to partially take the box springs apart to get it in and then put it back together.

There were several little blessings along the way. Safety was the main one. The fact that the couch he bought from a friend just before leaving SC matched his living room carpet perfectly. The fact that the next door neighbor seems to be a Christian and had just returned from a camp we were familiar with. The fact that the neighbor was there when they were wrestling with the box springs and told them he had had the same problem and how he took his apart to get it in.

I was glad Jim was able to go with him and help him get settled in, rather than just sending him off on his own. He said they had some good talks along the way.

Though Jeremy is excited about his new job and first apartment and starting to live on his own, the reality is setting in about being away from family. I was feeling almost panicky when Jim left him Wednesday morning to come home, feeling like I was leaving my son all alone in a strange city. But he’s not totally alone. He has met his neighbor, he knows the guy he will be working with, and most importantly, the Lord is with him.

One special blessing for me was that as I was driving around Wednesday, I heard part of a message on the radio from a speaker I was familiar with talking about experiences when her first son went away to college and how the Lord brought different people across his path who ministered to him. Isn’t the Lord good to have that message on right when I was in the car on the day my son was being left on his own in a new city? It just reinforced something that has been on my mind concerning my children: “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6).

But we’re all missing each other sorely — Jason and Mittu, too, left behind in SC.

And now that every single member of my immediate family has moved in the last three weeks — hopefully we can all settle into new routines. And we’re planning to get together at Thanksgiving. I am already looking forward to it!

Jesse’s been doing well in school — still a little nervous, but doing okay.

A couple of people asked whether I’d have a craft/sewing room in this house. Yes, the third bedroom will be “my”room. My dear husband is kind enough to let me have that while his office things are in the garage in what will one day be an additional room (the garage has some extra space in front of where the cars will be parked which we want to turn into a room some time in the next year or so). I’m working on it last and getting the living areas taken care of first, so it is just stacked with boxes right now. We want to get a futon to put in it for when we have overnight guests. I probably need to go ahead and get my sewing machine set up, though, as I have a couple of little mending jobs that need attention.

I’ve been rotating between setting up housekeeping, unpacking boxes (after you get the major stuff out, then you can only do so much at one time before your brain feels fried. All those little things that I didn’t know what to do with and tucked into drawers or shelves over the years are now showing up in the boxes requiring decisions about where to put them!), running errands, seeing Grandma, and writing people about our change of address.

Better get back to business now!

I was going to discuss one of the books I’ve finished recently, but decided I’d rather just chat instead. 🙂

We closed on our new house in TN Monday. That was exciting. A bit scary — I am glad my husband had a head for what all those papers we signed were for. But still exciting. We went to the new house for the walk-through beforehand and then went back afterward. It was only my second time to be actually in it, though my husband has been in it more, so I enjoyed seeing it, getting a better feel for how things were laid out, planning where to put things, etc.

But even though I’ve known we were going to move for months now, reality really started to sink in as we drove around the new area. We really are going to do this!

It’s such an odd mixture of emotions. Excitement about the house, the new church, and the readiness for a change in many ways. Sadness over losing the proximity to Jeremy, Jason, Mittu and friends here. And something I can’t find quite the word for — not disorientation, exactly, but that uncomfortable feeling you have when moving from what’s familiar to having to find new stores, places to eat, doctors, etc., and even finding things in the new house when you knew where they were for twelve years on the old house. I know that last feeling will dissipate over time as we get adjusted to a new area.

People keep asking us how packing is going, but we really haven’t done much packing. Jim’s company will pay for movers who are supposed to come this Friday for just a walk-through to see what they need to move, etc. We’ve had movers before, and it is nice to have someone else pack everything up — each time before they’ve been pretty good about labeling, at least the room the boxes came from if nothing else. So what we’ve mostly been doing is sorting through things to throw away or donate what we don’t want to keep plus just wrapping up the details of life here (which is a lot more involved than it sounds!), getting the various ministry loose ends wrapped up and ready to pass on to someone else, attending to details for life there, like Jesse’s school registration and paperwork, ordering school uniforms, etc. Something I hadn’t anticipated needing to do is make various doctor visits. For Jim’s mom to be able to go right in to the assisted living place when we move her there, she needed to see a doctor and have one of the forms from the new place filled out by him, so we did that last week, then had to go back in two days for the required TB test to be checked. Plus we need to take her to the audiologist to have her hearing aid checked and tuned up before leaving. I was going to try to just get my prescriptions refilled long enough to last until we found a doctor there but decided I probably should go ahead and see my doctor one last time before leaving. She does need to check blood pressure and heart rhythm in relation to one of the medications every now and then, and it’s been a while since she’s done that. Then Jesse’s school requires new students to have a physical, but they’ll accept a sports physical for that, so we decided to do that with the doctor he sees here — but then just realized last week that his regular doctor is out of the country and will be through next week. So I need to try to get him in to see another doctor friend we know.

We may have a snafu with the movers, though: Jim wanted to wait til we actually closed on the house before we talked with movers, so he made some calls yesterday. The original plan was to pack up our stuff Wednesday and Thursday next week with the movers, then Friday get a U-Haul to move Jason and Mittu’s stuff here and then Grandma’s stuff from her room, and then set off for TN. But many of the ones we called said they come to actually start moving a week from the walk-through — which would be next Friday — so we’ll have to see how that will all work out.

Jim is dealing with working out all of that plus getting utilities and such turned on in our name there plus all the details for his mom — on top of a more than full-time job. I don’t know how his head keeps from exploding.

We did see his mom’s room while we were there Monday. I had been hoping we could arrange it much like her room is here — I mean, after all, most of those rooms should be pretty much the same, right? But the room there is laid out completely differently. I know she’ll get adjusted to it in time just as she did here, but I feel for her in getting used to a new place and people. The staff there did say they stick really close to new residents to help them get adjusted, remember where their room and the dining area is, etc.

Jim went with Jeremy to RI to look at apartments last week. The Internet is SUCH a big help in that kind of thing — Jeremy was able to do a lot of preliminary research ahead of time. He found one he likes, and he seems to really like the area.

I think reality is setting in for Jesse, too. Though he’d rather stay here, he’s maintained a pretty good attitude about moving, but now that it is getting closer, he’s already missing his friends and school. We’re having a party for him this Sat. with kids from his class for a last hurrah and good-bye, which will be fun but bittersweet, I’m sure.

So…I guess I’d better stop rambling and get back to some of those details. I so appreciate your interest, care, and prayers!

Sunday is Jason’s 23rd birthday!

And the last family birthday before we move. 😦 But we won’t think about that right now…

Hope you have a great birthday, Jason, and know we love you dearly.