Liralen's Adventures Through Life

Wanted to check in and say that Jet is safely and happily in Mines, my Mom and Dad are safely moved into Vi and have settled in enough to be truly happy there, and that John and I have finally landed in our house, with all our boxes and boxes and boxes of Stuff. Except... Yeah. I completely blew out the tendons in my right hand and forearm. Couldn't even close my hand or open it completely without pain. So you're probably not going to hear a lot more from me for a bit. But we've landed, mostly in one piece. The house is beautiful and livable , and everyone's actually in their places for a while. Whew.

It took more than four days to finally complete, but I guess in a way we'd really started the preparations more than eighteen years ago... The Jet is launched into The Colorado School of Mines, and he's having a great time. I'm so glad. And relieved, but also just so proud of how he worked through a rather tough situation. On Monday, the day of the move-in, all the Leaning Communities were moving in at the same time, along with the various sport teams, and anyone that had a solid connection to the other communities that were all going to the Ore Digger camp up in the mountains for three days. The setup was something completely new to me, all the parents and their vans/cars/trucks/U-Haul trailers would pull up to a designated unloading zone and would have 15 minutes to unload everything in their car. Hordes of volunteers would descend on the pile and take everything up to the rooms. Many of the drop zones were for more than one dorm. All of the boxes were supposed to...

So when we realized just how much time we were going to be spending in Karen's basement, we decided to do some traveling. Not as much as we thought we might have to do when we thought we'd be living on the road until our house was done, but more than we would if we'd been able to move straight into the new house. The two trips were one to take Jet north to Canada to see some of the sights that John and I saw up there when Jet was in Europe, and the other is going to be to Seattle to stay with John's mom and explore a bit with her and revisit a lot o the amazing Asian restaurants we loved when we were there over Christmas. Jet insisted that we try new things, go to places that we didn't go on our trip so that we'd have a fresh perspective, too, and it worked out really well with John's ability to plan and research things. I'm going to give you the full photo album right up front, so you can see all the views (many have some information on the sid...

The hardest thing about posting intermittently, compared to when I was doing it every day, is that there are so many things I want to talk about, but jumbling them all together feels like a mashup that has no real point. The things that are on my mind at the moment include: The road trip to the Canadian Rockies that we did, which is more of a picture album kind of thing, where I get to talk a bit about the rewards of each day. Our in-between time for the two houses, and the unexpected gifts that have come with that time. My summer with Jet before he goes off to college, which might fit a little with the first point. Various culinary adventures we've had in Karen's kitchen, which can also be a pictures and linear telling kind of thing. The odd revelation that if I take Christian Teachings from the angle of it being about community, NOT about individual behavior (under the creepy stalker eye of a god that immediately punishes or rewards said behavior) all kinds of things...

Uhm.  Yeah. I fall prey to the impulse to mostly write then things are good, not when things are bad, or when things I decided don’t quite turn out the way I’d wanted them to. But that’s also a part of life and not blogging about the bad stuff means that I’m only bragging about the good.  Bleh. So. The dental thing I thought I’d taken care of?  Not so much.  The dentist didn’t actually figure out the adjustment of the bite until the third subsequent visit, and by then all the nerves were so inflamed he had me do a week-long prednisone series to calm things down.  And that didn’t just calm down the inflammation it also has depressed me significantly as well as delayed my final test on my blood sugar numbers for another three months. But I am maintaining my lower weight pretty well, with the help of my boys.  That’s been a good note. But speaking of delays... the new house has been delayed significantly by a new city inspector who decided that t...

Huh. When I left it at that cliffhanger, I didn’t think that would come back to bite me and give me two other medical things to “deal with” in the interim. So. I’d best write before anything ELSE happens on top of all the house stuff. Best of good news with the house things: we closed on the old house!  The new owners met with us for the signing with their adorable baby boy and it was a blast. The new house is going well, and John’s checking every day, there’s a photo album of the daily progress here. The original medical thing was that my doctor’s office called me after my blood test and told me that I had the very first signs of pre-diabetes, and they just said that I should watch my carbs and get a bit more aerobic exercise and get another test in six months.  I immediately cut out the donuts and milk tea mornings on Mondays and also nearly all the candy, cookies, and treats I snuck when I was bored. Most of all, it meant that I couldn’t finish off the dregs of hon...