August 31, 2005

• Updates

  Update time!

  Garage Sale Update:  I can report that the sale was a sucess!  It ran for two days and I sold just under $400.00 of unwanted “treasures” (at least I hope the people that bought my old things consider them to be treasures ).  Unfortunately, I am still left with a considerable pile of stuff that did not sell, but for now it is boxed up and sitting on a trailer in the garage.  A local teen hangout (a safe, fun place for kids to hang out after school and on weekends — run by caring volunteers who just want to see local kids grow up healthy and have some positive adult role models) is asking for donations for a rummage sale they are having next month, so I think a lot of what’s left will go there.  It’s all good, useful stuff for somebody, just not for me — anymore. 

  Lasik Update:  Hubby’s vision continues to improve daily.  He is happy with the results of his surgery.  I am jealous .  Unfortunately, my eye doc tells me I am not a great candidate for lasik, due to some retinal irregularities.  I’d have to undergo another laser procedure before I could have the lasik procedure…and neither would be considered medically necessary, so insurance would not pay.  I guess I’ll continue to get by with my glasses and contact lenses.  I’ve lived this long with my faulty vision, I guess I can manage to get by…maybe the price will continue to come down and someday we can think about it for me.

  Back-to-School Update:  The transition back-to-school has gone amazingly smoothly.  We are in the middle of week 2, and I haven’t had to struggle to get Isaac going in the mornings at all!  He is enjoying 1st grade, with TWO recesses per day (that’s a huge plus).  He is bringing home sentances to practice reading to me.  I’m not sure how much he is reading and how much he has memorized, but at this point it’s all about becoming familiar with words on sight, so I think it is going well.  This morning he had some trouble “sounding out” words such as one, two, you, and like…but they really aren’t words that sound the way you think they should anyway (I had to explain the silent “e” rule to him for the word “like”…I’m not sure my explanation sunk in).  English is such a goofy language!  He still only talks about two boys that were in his kindergarten class last year who made the move to the same 1st grade classroom that he is in…Noah and Seth R. (Last year there were two Seth’s in his kindergarten class, so they were identified by adding the initial of the last name.)  Even though only one of the Seth’s is in his classroom this year, he continues to add that final initial when he talks about him.  That’s okay, we are friends with the other Seth’s family — Seth K. — so we still see him as well, even though they aren’t in the same class anymore.  Hubby has three freinds with the first name Dan, and he talks about them all the time.  I wish he would learn to use a final initial to identify which Dan he is referring to…it would save me the trouble of interrupting him to ask “Which Dan?”  Getting back to Isaac — I’m sure as the year goes by, he will branch out and make new friends with some of the other kids in the class.  For now he is happy with his two buddies being there. 

  The rest of the kids are adjusting to the school routines well also.  Grant seems to enjoy the high school, Nathan is doing well balancing his high school and college courses, plus his work schedule.  Mark has always handled school the best of all the kids, so I didn’t expect any issues with him and so far there are none.  This afternoon I head to the cities with Kyle to help him make the final trip completing the move into his college apartment.  He and his room-mate moved the larger pieces of furniture down last weekend, but they plan to move in “officially” today.  He is clearing out his room at home so Mark can move into it.  Mark has been sharing a room with Isaac for the past three years (before that Mark and Grant shared a room) so it will be the first time he has had a room of his own!  I don’t know who is more excited about the change in living arrangements, Kyle or Mark!

  Life in General Update:  Life is good.  I am so blessed, there is nothing to complain about.  I feel so fortunate to live where I live, to have a happy and healthy family, a dependable source of income, a network of friends, a strong cup of coffee every morning and my computer to inform and entertain me.  (That is by no means a complete list of all of my blessings!)  I am made even more mindful of my good fortune by a couple of recent events.  As we all know, the residents of New Orleans and surrounding areas have been devastated by hurricane Katrina.  It’s as bad or worse than the tsunami that hit Indonesia last Christmas, from all reports! It will be interesting to see how the world responds to Americans in need…considering all of the relief efforts that we poured into the tsunami victims, let alone the ongoing relief we provide around the world.  I know we have the resources needed to “take care of our own”, so to speak, but I still feel some assistance from other coutries is warranted, given the massive scale of what happened along our gulf coast.  We’ll see.  The other thing that has happend to put thing in persepctive for me is that I had yet another friend diagnosed with cancer.  This time is is my friend, Faith, who got the news that she has an inoperable brain tumor — a primary grade 2 astrocytoma, which in the words of her husband, John, is “neither the worst nor the best of brain cancer worlds but more toward the not-so-bad side”…meaning that although it is located such that it cannot be successfully removed surgically, at least it is slow growing and there is time to treat it with radiation to see if it can be reduced in size and “managed”.  No one is telling them it can be cured, but hopefully, with treatment, Faith can continue to live comfortably and productively for quite some time.  Neither the “worst or the best” of prognosises. 

  So I continue to give thanks.  For all that I have, and maybe especially for what I DON’T have…I don’t have rebellious children, I don’t have a home devastated by a natural disaster, I don’t have to deal with an ineffective school system, I don’t have an unemployed husband, and I don’t have cancer.  Makes all my other “don’t have’s” (don’t have perfect eyesight, don’t have a new chair for the family room, don’t have the figure I had 20 years ago, don’t have all the money in the bank to pay for college tuition, etc.) seem pretty insignificant.  I am blessed by my have’s and my have not’s.  For that I am grateful.

  ~~Leah~~

  “You can’t have everything…..where would you put it?”                            -anonymous-  (I have this quote posted on my refrigerator)

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