The Eagle Has Landed....Again.....

Yes, I left off in mid-sentence, as it were. I am prone to do that. Life gets ahead of me, and it takes me a while to catch up at this altered pace that comes with the mid-40's.

We retrieved Daniel from KY with the greatest of ease, compared to the trip we had taking him up there. This time we were smarter. We realized that it did not take a 26-foot truck pulling a huge, long car carrier to get the boy home. Instead, we got a pull-behind trailer for the SUV and made Eagle-boy drive his car home! This time, no one got stuck in their cul-de-sac with the "unbackable" truck we had the last time!

At last report, Tony, Craig, and Jeremy (his roommates) were seen standing on the curb, crying and waving at Dan as he drove away. (NOT! I hear Dan is missed, but they are all holding up fairly well.)

I use the term "we" very accomodatively (Is that a word? It is late, and neither nouns nor adverbs come easily these days). I actually had no part in driving 5 hours up there, packing the trailer, and driving 5 hours home the same day with the men-folk of the family. Tim, Sam, and Micah did an awesome job of making the move look like child's play while I spent the day going to the cardiologist with Mom and Dad and Hannah. Of course, after chasing Hannah around the doctor's office for over 3 hours until all lights had been turned out and everyone went home, I wished I had gone to Kentucky. The child has some energy. The parents got detained waiting for the doctor who got detained, and Mom failed to come out and tell me why there was no one in the building but us. I was convinced they had forgotten I was with them and left me in the two minutes it took me to change a diaper in the restroom. But all was well, and their minds are better than mine, and I was not abandoned.

Sarah had a lovely sidetrip with her cousins, aunt and uncle the same day to see the local Egyptian exhibit in town for a while. As fate would have it, they finished at the museum just as we were finishing up at Saint Thomas with the dr. appt. and just as my moving men were crossing back over into the Volunteer State. So we decided, after much cell phone calling between cars, to meet at an approaching Cracker Barrel and make the servers find a table for 16. We had a lovely time and all left in near- diabetic-coma-like states. It was hard to finish the drive another hour and a half south when we had all had such a lonnnnnnggggg day.
When we all got back to the Mom and Dad "Hotel," we spent a day or two there just relaxing, playing in the pool a little, and putting the finishing touches on getting Dan enrolled in college. Since we can walk to the campus from their house, we did just that and finalized his schedule and picked up the last of the paperwork to do.

Right now, it is looking like he will carry 15 hours his first semester, which I think is a pretty good balance for him, especially if he will also be working 20-30 hours a week. He has an interview for his first choice in jobs on Tuesday (more about that when it is more of a sure thing), and so we will see how that goes.

Meanwhile, curriculums are being spied out for the fall semester for the younger kids here. Sam is going to have an interesting year, because he has finished a lot of the things you usually are scraping to do in your senior year, but he has things he should have finished that the wonderful private school did not attend to like they should have when they had him. So he may have to double up in some areas to finish on time. I am not worried about Micah and Sarah, because they are coming along nicely.

I had a wonderful birthday, as you read below. I went into the day with no expectations for myself because we had the Relay for Life thing to do, but the family pulled it all together and managed to bring all of my favorite things into one fun-filled day. I did not get to be with all the usual family members because some of them had managed to contract the dreaded Puke Virus! I was SO AFRAID that we would end up getting it, because we had been in the same town, handling germy dollar bills (in the roadblock for Relay for Life) from strangers who were probably on their way to buy Gatorade. However, my fears were unfounded, and we, for once, came through unscathed.

The kids have been doing their usual summer fun things. Micah and Sam went to a skating party after church Sunday night, and Micah fell and did a number on his ankle. I don't think it is broken, but he won't be able to limp to the canoe trip they have planned tomorrow. Meanwhile, Eaglet #1 has flown off for the weekend again to the great state of Alabama, where he is meeting his newest "somebody special" and attending a Bible study with other young Eagles. I just can't keep that one in the nest for anything.

My 16 weeks of teaching on Sunday morning AND the summer are about to come to an end. I will miss teaching. I won't miss this unbearable heat which has pretty much caused the scrapping a lot of our summer plans.

For those who know my dad and have kept up with his progress, he has had a better couple of weeks. Finally, after 3 separate fluid pills, he lost 24 pounds of water! He is back to being able to sleep in a bed, and he even got in the pool a day or two ago and exercised a while. We are encouraged by this. Thanks to all who pray fervently for those they do not even know.

One note of interest....Tim's brother Billy was in NYC on 9/11, just a small distance away from the towers. Currently, he is on a holiday in England, due to fly back to the States today or tomorrow, I think. It seems he just has an uncanny ability to be where he should not be, but he is a lucky guy, I'd say. He won't be flying from England. He'll find another route home.

So, that's the update. Have a good weekend, stay safe, and be good!