Thankful

Oh give thanks to the LORD; call upon his name; make his deeds known among the peoples.

I Chronicles 16:8 (ESV)

Happy Thanksgiving from our home to yours.

Our plan for the day is to gather at my brother's house, play games, and eat lots.  First, I will earn it by working through an hour of Jazzercise :). This will make my third class this week and 151st this year.  I feel the results and see them.  I may not be a size 6 again, but this certainly helps to keep me healthy and to combat things like neck pain.

photo courtesy of Derrick Dixon Photography (Derrick also provided the photography for the pics of Zach, Savannah, and Julia on the side of the home page)

Hiccups

photo by Derrick Dixon Photography

This past Wednesday Julia had her wisdom teeth removed.  She's the first of my kiddos to face that procedure.  We had the moments of hilarity as she awoke from the anesthesia.  I do have some video footage that I won't be posting :)

I had to promise to keep her under the care of a parent for 24 hours post procedure. Her initial recovery appeared to be going well. On Thursday I scheduled an appointment to pick up family photos including the one on this post (more to come later).  When I arrived home from said appointment, Julia indicated that her chest hurt.  When I asked where, it seemed to be too high to be indicative of lung issues, but she mentioned a few times that it hurt to breathe. So we ended up in the ER for four hours.  She checked out just fine and came home still determined to return to school on Friday.

Friday morning (we were warned this would be the hardest day) proved to be rough.  Julia's first words out of bed were that she was in a lot of pain and needed something for it.  So we knew right out of the gate that she would not be able to do a full day of school if she could do any.  I was already on my way out the door when this hiccup came up, so I had to go to work.  You can't just call in 1/2 hour before your day starts on a Friday.  She slept most of that day and then rallied that night.  

Now here we are on Sunday, and she's spent little time out of bed and is fighting pain - on just one side.  I know she will return to school tomorrow, but oof - still trying to figure out if maybe a visit back to the surgeon is in order especially with a holiday on the horizon.

All of that being said, this was done to take advantage of the end of year leftover HSA funds and the fact that we met our deductible.  We consulted with the oral surgeon over the removal of an extra tooth, and he recommended getting this all done at once so that Julia won't likely need oral surgery again in her lifetime.  So it felt like an elective thing which is a real struggle for me.  However, when I asked in front of the surgeon just prior to the procedure if Julia really felt so strongly about removing that extra tooth, the surgeon intervened to say that she needed it out and that it would likely be a problem and harder to remove 10-15 years from now.  He then said the magic words, "I would definitely do the same thing for my own child." Sold! Just what I needed to hear.

I will just end this with a bit of humor.  The nurse brought a band-aid to remove the IV.  By mistake she picked up a superhero band-aid.  She asked Julia if she should go get a plain one.  Julia said, "It's fine......I AM a SUPERHERO."  Julia then proceeded to tell me several times that she is a superhero -LOL.

Case Closed?

Has anyone closed an estate before?  I have submitted the final form, receipts and all the details to the probate court?  What happens next?  Do I go to court to be relieved of my duties as executrix, or will I simply receive the court order in the mail?  How long does it take?  Is there a waiting period for the heirs to contest my work if they choose?  If you know, please tell me.

It has been an emotionally, mentally and physically tiring process.  Relationships have been severed, and that court order closing the probate and ending this process will be welcome.

P.S. So this did not close the probate...I did additional paperwork and took a trip to the probate office, and now I wait for notification that all is finished.  

11/24/2019 update - yesterday marked the third anniversary of my dad's home going.  On Thursday (the 21st) this week, I retrieved the mail after spending four hours in the ER (long story for another day) and held the motion to close the probate in my hands.  It is finished.

It's college visit time again - up first, a trip to Charlotte

We have reached the point where we have two kids starting to consider college choices, so the visits are starting.  Savannah has long had UNC at Charlotte on her radar. They have a strong architecture and urban planning program.  Her passion is urban planning.  We paid them a very quick visit during her fall break.  Savannah could not stop talking about the studio space and equipment.  She talked about how studio space that was truly designed for architecture students instead of re-purposed for them makes all the difference in every way - the lighting, organization of space, desks, chairs - all of it.

The campus itself was one of the prettiest I've seen.  I do have an affinity for college campuses as I loved my own undergrad experience and find many campuses to be very pretty.

A botanical garden exists right on campus.

The building that houses the urban planning studios is actually in downtown Charlotte, so we ventured to downtown to check out the building and a nearby artsy district. We found Charlotte to look very new for the most part - downtown buildings, campus, road infrastructure, etc.  Savannah noted that it seems to have a cultured identity.

We enjoyed lunch at the cutest, tastiest French cafe and bakery.

I am not sure I've driven through the mountains in the fall before.  Even though it has been a dry season, and the colors are not as brilliant as they would normally be, it was still gorgeous.

I don't know what Savannah will do.  North Carolina is out of state, and we are not sure she can get a reciprocal agreement there as we are not yet clear on whether the program is a true combination of architecture and urban planning.  We have schools in our state that have these programs solo but not in combination.

I love him. That's all.

I went on a trip this past weekend - more on that in my next post.  Within the past few weeks, Andy and I tried to ignore a dripping sink in our master bath. Andy gutted it and redid the inner workings, but it did not fix the problem, and he reluctantly agreed that we needed a new faucet.  This is a project that should take about an hour, but in our 50 year old house, plumbing is never an easy fix.  I left town after picking out a new faucet to replace the one that may have been the original, and if not, was a generic builder model.  Andy has some vacation time this week, so I didn't expect him to get right on it, but I came home to a dismantled faucet in the master bathroom.  Andy needed another tool to finish the job.  After much grunting and frustration over a one hour project that turned into a multi-day project, we have a nicer looking faucet that does not drip.

I love Andy's resolve to work through a difficult project that is not in his wheelhouse.  In truth our house needs a full renovation, but we have a couple of good things going here.

It Works!

As a teacher who works in an environment requiring professional dress, I was anxious to retire last year - not because of the kids, politicians or parents but because my feet were making me miserable.  My maternal grandmother had lifelong problems with her feet and cautioned me to buy good shoes. She used to say you could wear cheap clothes but should invest in shoes.  Our feet were the same size, so I was the recipient of her failed shoe choices which I never fully understood until my own feet started screaming at me over everything.  I really thought I was taking her advice.  No matter how cute, or comfortable shoes appeared, I avoided cheap shoes and sought out sturdy, lasting good shoes, but even those failed me last year, and I was miserable.  I then started dabbling in expensive shoes starting with Vionics.  I bought Vionic boots last year that I wore every single day from the end of sandal season to the return of it, and my feet stopped screaming and started whining.  Thinking I had found my ticket, I bought wedge sandals made by Vionic.  The foot bed worked for me, but the strap across my toes (another problem area for me), had me anxious to get home and out of my shoes on the daily.  I found a pair of Abeo sandals that I loved and made them my go-to work shoes, but they didn't match everything.  I found myself dressing for my shoes and determining how I would dress based on how much I would be on my feet.  I finally looked for life hacks to fix my shoes so that I didn't struggle so much.  I learned online that I could fill bags with water and stuff them into the shoes or under the straps then freeze them to stretch the shoe. It took a couple of tries, but this really works.  My feet only dislike me now.  When I bought the Abeos pictured above, they did not have my size in the store, so I tried on a similar style and placed my order.  They came and slid off of the backs of my feet, so I had to go down a size.  The area across my toes turned red the first time I wore them, and they hurt, but the foot bed was great!  It took three tries with water bags in the freezer, but these are wearable now.  I most likely won't find a perfect pair of shoes. I thought I had with some Taos sneakers until I logged 15,000 steps in them the first time I wore them for any length of time.  While the left one was great, my right foot suffered two painful blisters.  I can't wear orthodics because I have a  wide foot with a high instep and high arch.  This combination makes for very bad, no good days for my poor feet, so wearable is a huge plus on those days that my go-to shoes (Chaco sandals) aren't appropriate for the setting I am in.

So if you have some shoes that need a little more stretch...

Hiking

We came for this view.  I was having trouble with one of my lenses, so I didn't get the best shot.  

Can you see the double arch?