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| At Sister, Annette's House. Friend, Laura and Me. |
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| My Indiana Road Trip Packing |
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| Sunday Morning at Alabama-Tennessee Border. |
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| My Sister, Linda and Very Good Friend, Laura. Visiting in Noblesville, Indiana. |
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| Visiting in Westfield, Indiana at Dinner. Annette, Laura, Linda and Me. |
Saturday. 31. Time together. Packing for my road trip with Laura tomorrow.
Sunday-Tuesday. 1-3. At 7:30 am, Darrell and I drove up to Manchester, Tennessee to attend worship at church there with my girlfriend, Laura. Laura and I had planned a road trip to north Indianapolis. This was the day for us to drive up there. Right after our time in church, about noon, I told Darrell goodbye. I loaded my backpack into Laura’s car and we took off with her driving. On our way, we stopped at Hardees and picked up our quick lunches to take with us. We discussed our drive, our schedule and that I could and would take my turn driving during this 6 hour trip going north. We enjoyed chatting and getting all of our information and family updates complete. I texted each of my sisters and figured out our meet-ups and what we could all expect. Laura and I had dinner about 7pm at my sister, Annette’s house near Westfield, Indiana. We visited for an hour and went to our hotel that we had booked for two nights. The next morning we were up early and ate the disappointing hotel breakfast, and decided against doing that again. We went to Annette’s office in Fishers and had our 4 hours of appointment times together. After we finished there, we went to my sister, Linda’s house and got her and went out for lunch. We visited for a couple hours with a good meal at Bru Burger near her house in Noblesville. The four of us made plans to meet again for dinner in Westfield. Laura and I would get Linda for our dinner after our afternoon rest. We enjoyed a nice restaurant and a big visit between us. We have all known each other for decades, and have worked together through many of these years too. It was a very sweet time for all of us. Laura and I got up early Tuesday morning to leave the hotel. We drove about an hour south and ate an excellent breakfast at First Watch in Greenwood, Indiana. We had tracked the weather and as forecasted, the weather and roads were clear for our drive. The weather was getting much warmer as we got closer to Tennessee even though there was rain starting around 1pm. Darrell arrived at Laura's house earlier than we did. Once Laura and I got to her house, I loaded my bags into our truck and we said our goodbyes. Darrell drove through the rain for almost 2 hours back toward our house. We decided to go out for dinner on our way home, and that only added a little time to get to Texas Roadhouse on Jeff Rd.
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| Grandchildren, Owen (4 1/2) and Esther (2 1/2) at Their House. |
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| Eric Calling from Hawaii. Talking to Son, Owen. |
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| Grandpa Darrell Helping Esther at the Playground in Athens, Alabama. |
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| Owen Climbing at the Athens, Alabama Playground. |
Wednesday-Friday. 4-6. Go over to Eric and Erin’s house at 9:30am to begin babysitting full-time with Owen and Esther. On Monday, Eric and Erin both flew out to Hawaii for the week. Erin is going on a work trip with her job as an office designer for the Army. Eric was able to go along and enjoy Hawaii too. Since Monday morning, Erin’s parents, their Nana and Papa, have been at their house sitting with Owen and Esther. They look tired as we move into the house and ask some questions. We bring in our suitcase, backpack and some food in our picnic cooler and a trunk. There were a lot of learning curves that happened for the next 3 nights and 3 mornings. We made it through some fabulous happy and playful times together and also through some extreme meltdowns into missing Mommy and Daddy. Darrell and I enjoyed our time with these little ones so much! They are more adorable to us with our close time together. The best parts were how amazing they both communicate for a 4 and 2 year old. It’s difficult to understand Esther at times and that caused her some concern, but she also won’t give up, if you won’t give up. Owen was super cute at bedtimes with his cute smiles, simple honesty, and love of stories, songs and prayers.
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| Video Call with Grandson, Quinn (5 yrs), and Son, Jeremy in Brasilia, Brazil. |
Saturday. 7. Our last ½ day with Owen and Esther. Erin got home around 1pm, just before Esther’s nap. Eric was coming in closer to 2pm. Darrell and I left to take our luggage and foodstuff home before getting Eric at the airport. Eric had arrived early and had to wait on us. But we got him home pretty quickly. We enjoyed hearing about his time in Hawaii, the time change, the red-eye flight and the delay challenges. After we got back to our little house, we were tired and ready to recover. We loved our time with our grandkids, but we are very much out of practice! I think we managed pretty well through the meltdowns and our own learning curves. The kids managed well with accepting that we were there with them as they were missing their Mom and Dad in a whole new way.
Sunday. 8. The weather has warmed up today and for the days ahead. A topic of conversation after worship was the weather, one man speculated to me that this was springtime and there would be no more winter. I disagreed because it’s not even mid-February. He said that he’s going to Maui at the end of February, and I had to agree that he is close to the end of his winter. Darrell and I had lunch at home and took off for a two hour walk in Elkmont, one of our favorite local trails. I had anxiety come to me just before lunch. I knew this long walk would help me get through my tension. I appreciate Darrell also being with me along the way, and he can work through some of his tension too!
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| Owen and Esther with Their Nan at the Playground in Madison, Alabama. |
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| Eric with His Father-in-Law, Mark/Papa, at Madison, Alabama Playground. |
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| Esther Spinning Her Nan at the Playground. |
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| Darrell at Bridge Street Shopping Area, Huntsville, Alabama |
Monday. 9. Today did not go as expected or scheduled. There are days like this. It was a good day, even though it wasn’t what I expected. This day was the warmest since we’ve been here. It was a perfect 65-70 degrees with sun shining and blue skies. Darrell was going to a 10 am dental appointment. We got through our normal morning routine and I was on the phone with my friend Laura. We had scheduled this 8am chat time. We talked for a little less than an hour and asked each other about our plans for the day. I told Laura that I would be home and work on my computer today enjoying my time at home. Before Darrell left, Eric texted that he was heading with Owen and Esther to a playground in Madison. I was so willing to go outside and enjoy the playground with our two little grandchildren. And the park was on the way to Darrell’s dentist. We figured out the time and Darrell dropped me off with the plan to come back and get me on our way back home for lunch. I had a lovely time at the playground, running around with Esther, swinging her in a big unusual kid seat on a sliding ride, and then following Owen around and trying to get him to play tag with me. He wasn’t interested in tagging with me today, because he wanted to play with some of the many kids at the playground. He did take me on the wall walk around part of the playground, so I was good! Lol. Darrell came back after almost 2 hours at the dentist for his cleaning and check up. He had a lot of information about his check up, including that he had booked a 2pm appointment today. I had a choice to go home and he would go back at 2pm, causing an extra hour of driving time. Or we could go out for lunch, take a walk, read and then go to his appointment and wait for him there. I chose to go to lunch. I wasn’t really sure if he may need me to drive him after his appointment. We had a fabulous lunch at Conner’s at Bridge Street. It was very relaxed and fancy like we were on a date. Well, we were on a date that we hadn’t planned until now. We walked around Bridge Street then drove over to the dentist which was only 10 minutes from there. The weather was so nice and our truck so comfortable, I put the windows down and sat in the truck with the fresh breeze. I had brought my sketch book and a pencil with a story in my mind to write. I spent most of Darrell’s 2+ hour appointment working on my story draft. My story draft caused me some deep thinking and some tears. As we drove home, Darrell told me that today’s two temporary crowns were to be replaced with permanent crowns next week. He was also restricted from eating nuts or anything like that to keep the current crown from breaking. After having our big Conner’s lunch, we agreed on chicken soup for dinner. We got home and I put together chicken vegetable soup in the instapot. We finished eating around 6:30pm.
Tuesday. 10. Our 1pm online class was canceled for today. We went to the 10am class at our local church building in Harvest. We were there for an hour with Doug teaching on the coordination of the Old Testament and the New Testament along with some well-placed history. After class, we decided to go for taco Tuesday at Mi Casa in Harvest. We drove over there and got seated. As we were deciding on our lunch order, Darrell bit into one of the chips brought to the table. His temporary crown broke in half and he pulled it out of his mouth. I said, we should go as he was already looking on his phone for the dentist office number to call them. We got up and told the staff why we couldn’t stay. Out in our truck Darrell called the dental office and got a 2:30 appointment. We headed home for lunch and a rest. Darrell said he doesn’t need me to drive him home and I could stay here.
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| Owen and Esther at a Madison, Alabama Playground. |
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| Darrell and I are Waiting for Our First Candlelight Concert to Begin in Huntsville, Alabama. A String Quartet Played Vivaldi's Four Seasons at Stovehouse Venue on Governors Drive. |
Wednesday. 11. I spent about 3 hours on a video call with my friend Laura. We traded EPT sessions. At night we went to Bible class at the Harvest church building. We stayed around and visited for a while. Coming home, we stayed up about an hour later than normal. Being around people tends to get me awake.
Thursday. 12. It’s another beautiful, sunny day, but a little cooler. Eric texted us about 10 am as to which playground he would be at. We drove over and enjoyed this very toddler appropriate playground. It is carpeted with grass-looking carpet or manmade turf. It’s very comfy to walk on, even barefoot. The kids were playing and running around. Their Nana and Papa were there too! At one point, Owen said, “Let’s have a competition.” His Nana said, “What kind? What are you gonna do?” He said, “a race.” I said, “I’ll do it!” Then he proceeded to get all 5 adults to get up and run or walk around the whole playground 2-3 times, and Esther too. It was pretty hilarious with other toddlers and Mom’s sitting and standing around watching us. We kept it up until, one by one, there were drop outs and then it was just their dad, Eric. Then the two littles ran off to play something else. Adorable!
Friday. 13. We enjoyed our morning at home. At 1pm, my friend, Melanie came over for a long EPT session. We enjoyed our work together and set up more future times to continue on as we have for decades. In the evening we went to downtown Huntsville for a Candlelight Concert. We enjoyed the string quartet playing Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. We met a couple sitting behind us who took our picture, and had driven from near Chattanooga for this event.
Nomad Notes. While Darrell went to his dental appointment on Tuesday to redo his broken temporary cap, I took a walk around our small neighborhood. I used my time for thinking.
My big ‘aha’ just now is that I’m embracing my awkwardness. Likely I’ve done this before in my life.lol. My awkwardness embrace for today is going in my mind through recent odd conversations to take care of others without caring for my needs. I think of the Bible verse: “love your neighbor as yourself” Matt 22:39. I have awkwardly thought of others and looked away from myself. This is not how this verse goes. I love others because I am loved by God and I return that love to God first with obedience, praise and thanksgiving. I do not neglect myself as a regular practice. I love and care for myself as I would want others to love and care for themselves. I demonstrate self-love, honesty, truth, and more all because God loved me and them. I understand that serving others is important and there are opportunities to serve. How to serve others and show God’s love without looking for a return to myself seems awkward and constantly in question, prayer and learning within me. There are times to give more or to give all that I have, but there are times to say ‘no’ and to withhold and that can be showing love. I remember the parable of the wise and foolish virgins in Matt 25: 1-13. The foolish came unprepared and the wise answered their request with a ‘no’ “because there may not be enough for both us and you,” and further telling them to go buy more for themselves.
Wednesday EPT: Our sessions were quite intense and a bit longer than our normal hour each. The intensity is accepted and understood by Laura and I after years of experience learning and doing this work together and in practice with others. Once the emotional conflict is found, it is acknowledged and in a sense, loved into resolution with forgiveness of old beliefs. Also bringing into an acceptance of how things were then and how things are now. It is amazing to us. We both felt calmer and grateful through our mental emotional working.
Thursday locked out of our airbnb. This was unexpected when we came back to our house about 1pm. We were ready to have lunch, but our house keypad wouldn’t work. I tried it 3 times then I remembered that this was the first day of our extended stay. Our host’s helper had not extended our keycode access. This has happened to us one other time, and that’s the only reason I figured out what had happened. We would have access after 4pm with this being the first day of our ‘stay’. I texted our contact, but she didn’t answer. I texted the evolve management contact and they began helping. I called our contact and it went to voicemail where I explained our problem. I was so hungry and told Darrell we need to go get lunch now, and let this get worked out. We went back to the same lunch place in Athens and had a nice late lunch. Now we are deemed regulars there! Lol.
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