My Old Backyard

Disturbing to see our former backyard splashed all over this week's news.

Two boys were playing in the tree-line on Wednesday.  One was shot.  The most recent news reports have the uncle saying that the boys were target-shooting, and the victim ran across the line-of-fire.   The WISN story is here, and the WTMJ story is here. 

I did almost nothing on Thursday except for checking the news and trying to understand how this could happen in "my space" and feeling vulnerable.  But that's nothing compared to the grief both families are enduring.

This Is a Good House

We have been flirting with the idea of looking for a house in town so that Maggie will be close to the library, church, the stores, the rec center, and possible employment opportunities.  When we moved here, we knew we wanted to be close enough to town to walk or bike.  But it is an hour walk -- for me or Gary -- more for Maggie.  Could we ever find another house that's comparable?

Difficult aspects of this house:
Big yard to mow.
Big deck, so it's hard to keep up.
Three miles from downtown.
No dining room; breakfast nook is tiny.

Nice aspects of this house:

Brick.  Warm.  Little wood to paint.
Newish roof.
Dry!  No mildew.
No water in our basement even when others have flooding.
Not an apartment/condo where you share walls, basement, and entryways.
Established garden space, with room for more,
and asparagus, cherries, berries, etc, are already solid.
Mortgage is decent; what's comparable in town seems pricier.
Radon mitigation system in place from former owners.
Kitties allowed outside; in town they must be leashed.
Large garage; plenty of parking space in driveway too.
Most of the windows have been replaced.
Light and bright and airy.
Fantastic neighborhood.  Safe.
Well water is healthier and tastier than city water.
No water or septic bills.
Lower property taxes than in town.
And finally, we're already here, settled.  (I hate moving.)

I can see why people downsize to smaller homes when the yardwork and housecare becomes burdensome as they age.  On the other hand, it could possibly be cheaper to pay someone else to do that rather than live in town with the extra costs there.  The big question is whether Maggie can develop enough strength and endurance to transport herself into town when necessary.  Thing is, there are two businesses here in town that work with the Dept of Vocational Rehabilitation; our current home is, at most, half-mile further from many of the homes in the center of town, and right now we're closer than many to these two business.  So while it may be convenient now to be closer to downtown, it might actually move us away from potential jobs for Mags.

Where's that crystal ball when you need it?

Moving

It was a busy week. Katie and Nathan and Alia began moving into their new apartment last Saturday. That took a couple of days. Tuesday morning was the first day we woke up and Alia wasn't here. Oh, sadness! Sunshine has moved over to the other side of town. When they located the apartment a month ago, Andrew summarized how much we'd miss them with "But with Alia here, there's always something FUN to do. It's never boring with her around!" (Maggie, on the other hand, responded to news of Katie's new place with "But then who's going to do all the cleaning??" Boy, I bet Katie feels loved....)

Tuesday it was time to begin resettling ourselves back into the vacated spots, moving contents of cupboards, bookshelves, closets, and Andrew's bedroom. Gary thought it would be good to spruce up the bedroom while it was empty -- something we never did when we moved in. So we suddenly bought paint and went at it. (Painting is NOT something I do on a whim. It's something I fret about plan for ... for maybe a year or two. I do not rush into painting. This was weird.) Andrew did a vast majority of the work.

Yesterday I finally finished all the rearranging and crossed "moving" off the to-do list. It took a while because also we had a funeral this week, some time watching election returns and cheering, and then a college visit, which necessitated a pow-wow over Andrew's final year of homeschool curriculum and how we can best serve his plans.

Footnote 1 -- Katie and Nathan live 10 minutes away from us. They are about a mile from church, one block from the post office, one block from a small playground, and half-mile to the library & doozy playground. I should get some pictures, but right now parking over there is hard (in other words, it's illegal) because of construction on their street. Pretty soon.

Footnote 2 -- Across the front lawn of their apartment, across the road, across the empty lot, there is a train track. I haven't heard yet if Wheel-Girl has been mesmerized by the train, but it should provide some good entertainment for her.

Footnote 3 -- Can you believe that picture of Andrew painting? Edging along the ceiling without a ladder or a stepstool!

Clean Apartments

Yesterday Katie and Nathan signed a lease on an apartment ten minutes from here, a little closer to work, and closer to church too. Katie cleaned last night for a while. She worked on the kitchen this evening; I worked on the bathroom.

Katie cleans. Whenever she leaves an apartment, it is in better shape than when she took possession of it. It is frustrating to leave an immaculate apartment and then be docked on your security deposit because the apartment manager just assumes that he has to have a cleaning crew come in whenever there's a change in tenants. I have no idea what the cleaning crew did at their last apartment, but they obviously didn't even open the cupboards because Katie & Nathan were charged for destroying (or losing or stealing) an item that was left sitting in the cupboard.

Likewise, this new apartment was cleaned before Katie and Nathan took possession. And it wasn't bad. But there's the grunge on the refrigerator gasket. And caked-on soap drips on the underside of the bathtub soap holder. And it makes me shudder to think of the thick greasy goo on the ceiling fan in the kitchen. I don't think of myself as a good housekeeper. Adequate. Above average. But not consumed with perfection over our cleanliness level in the house. I suppose I have spots in the house that other people might be horrified at while I am blind to those problems. I suppose that the apartment's filthy spots might be something that only Katie and I care about. But still....

If I'm living with my own dirt, that's one thing. But moving into a place with somebody else's grunge, that's a different story.

Rachel's Place

We're exiting the highway. Matt & Rachel's apartment is just a couple of blocks away from here.

This is the little lawn for the three buildings surrounding the space. Rachel and Matt's basement windows are alongside this green-space.

That's Maggie peaking out of the window.

Looking down the street.

This was taken near their front door, looking at the stairs into the lawn and the downstairs entryway into the apartment.

The living room on moving day. It's in the basement.

The spiral staircase, much loved by Rachel and the kitties, and gingerly navigated by her mother and mother-in-law.

Rachel's kitchen after having had a couple of months to settle in.

Rachel and Matt's Move

So, I'm none-too-fast about posting pictures.

Plenty of friends, Matt's family, and Rachel's family came to assist.


Easier to send a lot of the smaller items out the window rather than around corners, through a door, down the hallway, through a door, through a short hallway, through a door, through the entryway, through a door, and across the lawn.




I loved seeing the two pictures standing up against the grate to the left of the open window: a Transformers poster and a complete copy of Macbeth. It's a happy couple like unto the owners of the artwork.


The U-Haul people don't think that's a zebra. They think it's some prehistoric mammal. Ha ha ha ha ha!


Mary, Matt's mom, brought the picnic food and LOTS of drinks for after we'd loaded the truck and before we headed out to drive to Chicago and then unload. She is a wonderful woman! I was so thankful.

This Week

Monday: The Wisconsin contingent moved furniture, cleaned house, and tried to make space. The Texas contingent (mostly Nathan, with his mom's help) loaded a moving van on a very hot day.

Tuesday: The Wisconsin contingent ran lots of overdue errands and caught up on laundry. The Texas contingent drove from 7 a.m. till after 11 p.m.

Wednesday: The Wisconsin contingent continued moving furniture, clearing shelves and cupboard space, etc. The Texas contingent drove from southern Illinois to Wisconsin, arriving about 4:30 p.m. Gary came home from work and then turned around to leave for church as he was preaching. The rest of us unloaded the moving van. Nathan and Katie began unpacking.

Thursday: More unpacking. Nathan went to a job fair. Nathan, Katie, and 4 teenage guys from church unloaded a bunch of stuff into storage into the garage of some friends from church. Andrew stayed at their house for some game-playing, while Nathan, Katie, and Maggie returned home.

Friday: Katie drove to Chicago to adopt-out their kitty to Rachel & Matt. Nathan continued to unpack and to fix a computer that did not fare well through the move. Maggie and Susan mowed the lawn, washed laundry, and harvested berries and tomatoes. Gary was interviewed for a promotion at work. Maggie left for a slumber party. Andrew did not come home from his slumber party; the weather was nasty for driving.

Saturday: Both kids will arrive home. Gary is going to Greenfield to substitute preach. While there, he and Nathan will put another load of stuff into storage at another friend's house.

My house is not child-proofed.

I should can more salsa. I will want it in the cold winter months. Right now, I don't want the boiling water in the kitchen. Decisions, decisions. :-)

We have a bug jar and a cage for toads and lots of books about trucks. And Brio! Alia is okay with that!

Change or Stability?

In the last chapter of More All -of-a-Kind Family, the family is preparing to leave their home, their extended family, their synagogue, their neighborhood, to move to a new neighborhood. On their last night at home, three of the girls are lying in bed quietly trying to hide their tears and distress, while another sister is hyped about the excitement of the move.

Charlotte's voice broke the stillness. "It'll seem funny living someplace else."

"Yes," agreed Gertie. "We've lived here our whole lives!"

"Well, it's about time we made a change," Henny said cheerfully. "Mama and Papa kept talking about it, but I honestly never thought we'd do it. I'm sure glad. I'm sort of tired of this old place. Doing the same old things and seeing the same old faces all the time."

Oh, thought Sarah, how could anybody ever grow tired of the things that were part of her? Knowing things and people so well made them dear to you. Taking on new ways and new friends, that was hard -- almost terrifying.


I know people who thrive on change and excitement. I don't understand, but I know and can accept that that's how they are. I expect those kind of folks can't understand the ones who find dearness in the "boring things" they know well and are used to. I wonder sometimes how many errors and ill motives are wrongly assumed to be in others when they differ from us greatly with regard to this personality trait.

Moving Day

This is Katie's birthday this year:


Their home in Fort Wayne:

The moving truck:


Andrew and Paul loading the mattress:


Helpers galore! Thank you so much to the Rhein crew (which also included a Grobien and a Harrison) and to the Casey crew. I can't imagine how much longer it would have taken (and how much achier and sorer we would've been) without your help.
In light of the helpers we had, I was amused by a post recently by Pr Weedon about breaking out into song. I had "Jesus, Thy Boundless Love to Me" stuck in my head. Then I noticed Sarah was singing it too. And then it spread. Funny to be walking in and out of the apartment to the parking lot, and meeting different segments of the song in various spots, but if we'd been gathered all in one location, we were all on the same words at the same time, like a choir. Of course, we didn't just sing Gerhardt. There was a copious amount of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella in there too.

Almost done. Nothing to carry. Just the last few pieces to finagle into their places.


Not much of a chance to celebrate their wedding anniversary, in amongst all the moving boxes. So Nathan bought Katie flowers. Aren't they pretty?!!


Some snacks for Nathan to eat in the truck.

(Notice the empty lawn chairs in the background? They weren't empty for most of the day. The 70ish neighbor fellow watched us as we moved the kids in a couple of years ago. And he sat on his patio and watched us load up the truck again for moving out. He reminded me of Dad.)

We want calories! We want calories! We want calories!

Pretty Well Settled

When we were visiting my folks and Katie in January, whenever I'd wake up in the middle of the night, before I had my bearings I'd be thinking I was in my bedroom back in the parsonage. But when I was visiting Mom this month, in my half-way-awake moments in the middle of the night I expected to find myself in my bedroom in the house where we live now. I think that means I must be settled in here now, and not still thinking of the parsonage as "home."

And it only took a year and a few months....

Running Around

Gary and I were discussing grocery shopping and schedules and run-around errand-days. I was commenting how much I like not having a regular shopping day in the weekly schedule. So much more free time for exciting activities like mopping and laundry! And yet, there's that pesky little problem of running out of groceries and then trying to fit in time (allotted to some other activity) to a grocery run.

He reminded me that my Mondays at the old house, though long and tiring as I did all the errands in Janesville, were also a chance to get away from the house. And then I remembered. I had forgotten. Yes, as tiring as Mondays were, there was that aspect of being away from the house. Away from the mildew. A break from the air that made my nose perpetually stuffy and my head perpetually achy. At the old house, a trip to visit family or friends out of town had the added attraction of being a break from my house, not just the joy of seeing loved ones.

Maybe that's why I'm finding it harder to do all the visiting that I used to do, why I'm more of a homebody in the last year. I still want to see friends. But I feel fine at home now, and that makes me all the more comfortable here, all the more "hunkered down" and less willing to go gallavanting.

Philip's Place

Philip was turned down for a mortgage and so began looking at apartments.

Then the loan officer found another mortgage company that would consider his loan application. On Monday he received word that he was okayed for a mortgage. On Tuesday he was poised to make an offer on the condo he liked. It would be a bit of a stretch financially. It so happened that someone made on offer this two-bedroom condo, which has been on the market for a full year, on Tuesday before Philip did. So instead, Philip made an offer on a [less expensive] one-bedroom condo at the same place. On Wednesday his offer was accepted.

Wow, that was a quick change in plans!

The current condo-owner is renting out the place. He must give 30 days notice, which means the renter will not be out until May 15. Closing date is set for May 29. The extra 8 weeks will provide Philip four more paychecks before coming up with the down-payment and taking on all his own bills.

It's weird to have a kid moving out without a firm date (like a wedding or the first day of college) governing the move.

Settling In

Maggie and I are out of town for my sister's wedding shower. We stayed at my parents' house last night.

You know how you halfway wake up in the middle of the night and assume yourself to be where you normally are? A little unaware? Not really awake and coherent?

Last time I was visiting my folks and halfway woke up in the middle of the night, I assumed myself to be at the old house. But last night when I halfway woke up, before I realized that I was in the old bedroom I had while growing up, I assumed myself to be in my bedroom at our new house. I think that means the new house is definitely getting to be "home."

And now, for a day of seeing LOTS of family and old friends!

One Year

It's our anniversary here.

Engraving

For quite a few years I've been taking care of annually getting a certain winner's name engraved on a certain plaque. The engraver I used was right across the street from the bank, on my way to the grocery store or the library or the butcher. Nice small-business fellow who did good work for a good price.

We moved. I keep giving myself the speech that I need to get settled HERE and not keep solving problems by running back to where we lived before. We found a doctor, found a dentist, found a mechanic, found a hardware store. Now, where am I going to find an engraver? I have looked through the Yellow Pages and online. I have made phone calls. There's something just not right. After multiple phone calls and attempts to "make an appointment" (what? to drop off a little piece of metal with the spelling of the name to be engraved? an appointment with a salesman??) I finally got to one of the prospects today. I had a bad feeling about it, but kept telling myself that I can't expect things to work the way they do in Podunkville. (Read: the right way the work in Podunkville!) As I drove closer to the place where the company was located, I'm thinking, "This is a huge industrial park. This is not what I'm looking for." Sure enough, they couldn't do the job. And what big company would want to mess with one $5 job per year anyway?

Every now and then I get a jolt as to how close I'm walking to the edge of the cliff. So I spent 20 minutes driving there and 20 minutes driving back and 5 minutes waiting to meet with the salesman who said "Nope, can't do that" but refused to tell me that on the phone before I came in. And I'm driving home, crying. Buck up, Susan -- this is nothing to cry about.

But sometimes it truly seems LOADS easier to make the two-hour roundtrip to drop off the plaque and the two-hour roundtrip to pick up the plaque than it is to keep making the stupid phone calls and driving to companies that aren't going to do the job anyway. I've probably already spent four hours on this and am still no closer to getting the tiny little engraving job done. It would've saved time to just get in the car and drive to the place I know, the place that is reliable, the place that is far away.

Surely there must be somebody around here who is capable of doing this little job. But I'm tired of trying to find him.

Stability

The nice post-master smiled at me today as I mailed some textbooks to ebay customers. I'm getting to where I recognize the clerks at the post office here.

When Gary and I were first married, we expected to be moving all over. Even though we had two years of college left, we took an apartment that we would be allowed to rent for only a year. The fantastic rental price and the neighborhood was worth it, even though we'd have to find a second apartment. We knew there would be the move to sem, the move to vicarage, the move back to sem, and the move out to his first call. It was all an expected part of his education, and everybody else in his class was doing it too, so everything stayed in a state of flux, and that was okay.

After about half a year in Wautoma, I realized that we couldn't stay. The situation was transitional from the get-go. We would either move to the village where Gary had the mission-start, or there'd be some other change. We knew the time in the parsonage, and just a block from Wietings and three blocks from the library, was going to be short-lived.

So when we moved to the next place, I yearned for it to be permanent. Even when the pay was low, even when we found out that pastors stayed there only 2-3 years before moving on, even when midweek services were practically empty, I eventually came to accept that God was going to have us live there till we died, and there is definitely some comfort in that kind of rooted-ness.

So now we've moved again. It's getting close to a year now. I recognize some of the faces at the library and the grocery store and the post office. I should be following Tammy's lead (a friend who moved here less than a year before we did, and for the same reason) and doing more exploring to find the streets and the stores and the restaurants that are around here, trying to make myself feel at home. But I don't. I just do what I need to do to get by.

People tell me that this feeling of instability is good. (Well, at least, some people do.) They say we should not be attached to this world, but always feel like pilgrims on our way to our heavenly home. They say we should not be "stuck" or settled or too comfortable in our home, but always be ready to go wherever the Lord calls.

But I want to be settled and stable.

Paul's Move (3)

Teigen Hall, the boys' dorm


Looking out from Paul's room, across campus toward Old Main, and then the other direction



I don't know what they call this at Bethany, but at U of I, it would be called the Quad. It's the big pretty outdoor area in the center of campus.


The study area on the main floor of the library. The library is at the top of the ridge, overlooking the Deep Valley. It's a beautiful campus!


The communications building, where a LOT of Paul's classes will be held... until the new building is finished in summer of 2010. The current communications building is a short block from his dorm, about the same distance away as the cafeteria.

Paul's Move (2)

This is probably boring to most people who aren't closely related to me. But for their sakes....
:-)

Paul's room:





These are pictures of the lounge for their floor:

Paul's Move (1)

Last Friday we loaded up the van. Not too bad a load. It is amazing to me, after moving a whole houseful of stuff twice, to remember what it's like to move a single person who doesn't even need furniture. Look at this picture. That's it. That's all there is to it!


It's a six-hour drive to Mankato. We spent Friday evening with Glenda and her family, eating awesome food (!!!) including mouth-watering pie, chatting with friends and getting to know them better, and even discovering that her kids are Playmobile-fans every bit as much as my kids.

DONE!

As of 4:28 this afternoon, 166 days after moving, I am done unpacking.

Now, that doesn't mean things are totally done. There are plenty of projects that still need to be accomplished that go with moving (the vent over the stove, digging up a garden plot so the grass can rot over winter, finishing the deck repairs, improving the wireless, hooking up the tv antenna, repairing a slightly mildewy spot under one sink, and re-painting with scrubbable paint. But if we get to only a couple of those things in the next months (or year), I will survive and even be able to function just fine. Ah, yes, there are also boxes of books and homeschooling items and wall decorations in the garage that need to be sold or otherwise disposed of ... or possibly stored.

But the unpacking and the decisions of where to put things,
THAT IS DONE.
And it's worth rejoicing over!

Now I can get on with life. (Whew. It's about time.)