We Are Blessed

The best way to tell about the last two months is to say, “Whew, I’m tired.” In fact I can’t remember the last time I was this tired. But we are blessed. We have had a verrrry busy two months. Okay, now that I’ve said that, let me show it to you in pictures.

See, I said I was tired! Just don’t mess with my baby. Actually I think I was just waking up from a much-needed nap. Jeyanthi came to visit the 9th of July and went home the 24th of  August. She brought her mom and dad and brother and sister with her, of course. It sure was fun watching her change while she was here. She learned to roll from her back to her stomach and then almost to her knees to crawl. Her dad thinks she learned to say, “da da” but I think it was more like “gra pa.”

She and auntie Ginger get along well. Ginger even went with them for their own week-long family vacation in Kentucky. They did that the week before they left for home. Here Jey and Ginger are studying the plans for Ginger’s addition to our house.

More about the move later but here Jey and Lilly are enjoying the fun of empty boxes. And below they seem to  have shrunk as they sit in a huge chair on a trek to a children’s museum.

The Willamette Valley Fruit Company makes pies at a place just outside Salem. A friend helped us discover that every weekday from 9:00 to 11:00 is Happy Hour – a slice of pie is $1.00! We just HAD to show the kids this wonderful place.

On Monday, July 25th we signed the loan papers for our house. But no key. They (Federal Government) wouldn’t let it close until August 1. But that week we were at Fir Point camp so we let Ginger pick up the key. She said it was quite anticlimactic. Instead of some big "Here’s-the-key-to-your-new-home” ceremony by the realtor, she left the key in an envelope at the Remax Office. But Ginger couldn’t get it on the 1st – something about not getting the fax that the loan went through. So Ginger picked it up on the 2nd, went to the house, and couldn’t get the key to work. After trying various doors, going back to the Remax office, getting the listing agent to help, they discovered the key really worked but the front door was stuck – they had to push really hard on it. So finally, what began about a year and half ago as an idea to move to Salem culminated on the 2nd day of August.

As I said, we were at Fir Point Kids Camp having fun and getting more tired. But really the purpose in being there was to teach the Bible story in a way the kids will not forget. The theme was from Group Publishing – PandaMania. Many churches used it this summer.

Some of you will recognize that Jana is a fireman warning us to be careful about fire as we act out the story of Elijah praying for fire from heaven to consume the sacrifice. The sacrifice was a nice big, mouth-watering Hershey’s chocolate bar. The point was made that a sacrifice is something that is important to us.

Here we have a wonderful picture portrait of Hannah and Samuel. Remember, in obedience to a promise, Samuel was given to the priest to serve in the temple.

Fir Point camp extended from Monday to Friday. When we got home Friday it was a quick turn around to leave for our church camp out Saturday morning. It started Thursday and ended Monday so obviously we were a little late. It was at a campground west of Portland with lots of hiking trails. The picture below is one of my favorites. Jey is enjoying her ride as we hiked one of the trails.

Sunday morning we had our worship time in the amphitheater. About 80 people were at the campout but not all of them were there at the same time and some were relatives of our church people. Nevertheless there weren’t very many people in the church building back in Salem!

Smores are always good and even better over a campfire rather than a barbecue (see an earlier post). When we got home from the campout it was time to go to work on the house. It needed paint…

Thanks Carol. Also thanks to Wayne, Cathy, Michele, Jerry, Billie, Korak…

…Josiah, Lilly, and Jana! I  guess a little fun makes the work a lot easier. There was a lot of cleaning, painting, and  fixing. We removed the carpet in the family room replacing it with laminate. The rest of the carpet was carefully cleaned.

Joyce’s brother, Jack, came to give advice.

My nephew, Roy (and wife Twyla) came to help with the laminate.

Then it was moving time. I chose Tuesday, August 23 which gave us Wednesday to finish up the odds and ends of moving. The city of Salem chose the same two days to pave the street in front of the old house! They gave us 17 hours notice or I would have picked different days. At first they were going to start at the other end of the street, then decided to start at our end. My pickup is pulling the trailer in the picture above. The pickup belongs to Kalab, our assistant youth pastor. We also had another pickup and another small trailer. We all made one trip but the paving crew had too much tar on the road for the other two rigs so Kalab and I braved the elements to get to the house (actually the tar didn’t stick to the tires very much). The whole paving thing was simply a big inconvenience. The guy with the small trailer actually hand-trucked the washer and dryer down the street to his vehicle – plus some boxes. Between us and the paving, we gave the neighborhood something to talk about at dinner.

Here’s our moving crew, L-R: Phil, Jeff, Wes, and Kalab. The Greencrest house is now clean and turned back to the owners.

There are a lot more pictures but I better post this. We are in the house, slowly unpacking boxes and putting things away. There are still things to do (window coverings are still  incomplete) but we are picking away at them. I’m tired but we are blessed.

And the weather is… the same

S’mores

For the benefit of you who live in parts of the world far removed from the Pacific Northwest, here is the latest weather report for our area: more of the same. “The same” meaning rain or showers or, at best, clouds with temps below normal. In other words we don’t know if this is a bummer summer or if summer hasn’t started yet. Still we note with glee that our heat index is not 129* nor are we in danger of floods or tornados or hurricanes or drought. We are, however, in danger of rusting.

That being said, we decided to have s’mores tonight. I fired up the barbecue (sitting on a board on a garbage can – remember we are temporary here) in the garage door opening (door is up!). Jana got HUGE marshmallows which squished out on all sides, got all over our fingers, lips, etc. None  of us looked very dainty but Lilly won the prize for “most messy.”

I got the prize for biggest mouth!

The Rally

Those of you who carefully follow the GeneandJoyce blog (now who wouldn’t? I can’t imagine!) you remember me telling about the RV Rally in Albuquerque two years ago. I think it was in April that year and it rained, snowed, sleeted, hailed, and all other things nasty. The Rally last year was in Louisville and we didn’t go. This year it was in Redmond, Oregon. We went. Part time. Last weekend. Because the kids were here and because we had a senior adult trip on Friday, Joyce and I got up real early Saturday morning, drove to Redmond, met Mike and Joanne, had fun Saturday and Sunday at the rally and drove home Sunday evening. Yes, we went to an RV Rally and stayed in a motel! It wasn’t cost effective to pull the fifth wheel over there. The rally was fun; the weather was okay.

This was our church Sunday morning.

Let me tell you about a fun aspect of our visit. Background first… Next Sunday Joyce, Jana, Ginger and I are teaching  Children’s Church. The theme for the summer is how our leisure time can be used for Jesus. We are going to teach about RVing and using some of our experiences as examples.  Okay, they always give away lots little freebies at these rallies so we got the idea to collect enough to give each of the kids something. Joyce wanted some of the Good Sam stickers to decorate the kid’s bags so she asked the lady if she could have a dozen or so and told her why. The lady gave her a bunch… plus some little repair kits, plus a tool kit. Joyce had her arms full; she found me and dumped the stuff in my bag. I went over the the display, talked to the lady and renewed my membership for three years (they were pushing a life time membership but I didn’t want to part with that much money right now). As a result she gave us a neat travel bag and then filled it with hats, visors, lanyards, and I don’t know what all. With the other pens, lanyards, fans, and what-not we collected, each child is going to get 5 or 6 things!

Seniors to Camp 18

Twenty-six senior adults left the church Friday morning for Camp 18 Restaurant and Logging Museum. It is an rustic-looking building made of logs with a lot old logging equipment on the grounds around the place. We had to car pool because the bus isn’t back yet from it’s overhaul but we still had fun.

I caught Jackie, Joyce and Margaret vying for the attention of this old man.

Our people are at the big table and the small one at the left rear.

Joyce and Don located Sasquatch and Don thinks there is a bullet hole in him.

Clark and Jack look over some of the old equipment.

Look at the size of  Eunice’s taco salad!

It was a good week. The end.

The Kids Are Here. Yea!

My goodness, how she has grown! From that little baby 6 months ago to chunky little gal, she certainly has her own personality. I took this picture last night so I could post a recent picture – otherwise you would be mad at me (huh, Suzie?)

They got here about 8:00 Saturday evening. Basically it was a good trip except that Jeyanthi developed a little diarrhea which made the last 3 hours about 4 very trying hours. She is doing better now. Next time I’ll post some pictures of the other kids doing something fun. So far we haven’t  done very much that is exciting.

Today Korak and I cleaned up all the suspicious (i.e. might leak) looking places on the RV roof and sealed all the seams with roof patch. (Remember last fall I posted that the roof leaked? I just covered it with a tarp and it has simply sat in the driveway looking rather neglected ever since). Anyway, I hope we got the leaky spot. Then we washed the Taylor car, the Mumau pickup, and the Mumau car. We’ll wash the RV tomorrow and rub on a coat of Gel-Gloss. Then it will be off to Ginger’s house to make some repairs to get it ready for sale.

You are just trembling to know about the house, aren’t you? Well…. we found out we will not close until August 1 OR LATER. Very disappointing but typical government. Since it is a foreclosure and since Bank of America cheated on a whole batch of foreclosures, every single one of them have to be reviewed and re-reviewed and re-re-reviewed. So Joyce and I are learning patience. It will happen. Eventually.

I worked today. I even barbecued hamburgers for dinner. I’m tired. I’m signing  off. Good  night.

The Inspection Is Good

We met the inspector at the house today. He spent 3 1/2 hours going from the chimney to the dirt under the house. There are a fair number of little things that need addressing. Remember, this is a foreclosure so no work was done to get it ready for a sale. (A side bar here: I feel cheated because we did a ton of work – and money— on our Grants Pass house to get it ready to sell; zilch was done on this house. But I understand the difference). He found little things like a cracked toilet seat (ouch!), two electrical outlets that don’t work but no apparent switch to control them, door knobs that are loose or don’t work, and so on. Perhaps the biggest thing is that the electrical panel needs to be replaced. It is not a serious, right NOW issue and we will replace it when we build the addition.

One other issue. He couldn’t crawl under the house because pipes are in the way. However he could get his head in and look around. It all looks good and doesn’t smell like dry rot or sewage or anything bad. We are going to go on a little faith at this point. We will cut an access hole in the floor of the walk-in closet in the master bedroom. Most new houses have the access to the crawl space in a closet so this will not be something unusual. We need to add insulation under the house and in the attic. We need to paint the interior. Stuff like that. Some money involved but lots of work.

This is the bedroom that is painted and speckled – weird colors. It will get lots of Kilz and then some paint!

The main bathroom looking into the mirror.

The kitchen looking from the family room. We found out the dishwasher and garbage disposal don’t work. The cabinets are “okay” but will need replacing. Joyce wants to take out the cabinets in the foreground to open up the two rooms. The door leads to the garage.

Gas fireplace. I should have taken this picture when we had the fire going. The blower works; lots of heat. The bricks have been painted bright red. We’ll probably repaint them white. We’ll also replace the funky light fixtures.

Okay. That’s the house. Now for VBS. Joyce, Ginger and I have been teaching the Bible story at our church’s Vacation Bible School. The title is Son Harvest and it has a country fair theme (i.e. farmer). We don’t have as many kids as they expected so we teach three 30 minutes segments and have one segment free. These minutes include the story and working on the Bible verse – which means playing some games to reinforce it.

Here are a couple of our kids – not the one with the blue head. These were dressed up as scarecrows for a game we played.

Ginger is enjoying a moment of quiet repose before the next onslaught of kids. Our friendly neighborhood scarecrow keeps watch.

This is the Fruit of the Spirit tree Joyce and some of the high school helpers built. And you thought only God could make a tree!

We have two more days. We’ll make it but I admit we come home each afternoon and take a nap. I’ve been walking about a mile each evening. I skipped it tonight! Well, until next time. Take care.

We Nabbed One–Maybe

There is a house on the north side of Salem we looked at a couple weeks ago. It is a HUD house which means a foreclosure and now the government owns it. Finally we decided to look again and take a friend with us who is the one who will draw whatever is necessary for Ginger to live there. The house is big – 1785 square feet; the lot is huge – .27 acres. It is 3 bedrooms, 2 baths with a living room, dining room, family room, fireplace with a gas insert, laundry room in the house, and of course a kitchen. The double car garage is huge also. The interior needs painting to hide the purple with lavender polka dot wall in the bedroom and the other weird colors. We’ll probably remove part of the carpet and put down laminate flooring. The kitchen cabinets will eventually need replacing but are okay for now.

We will need to add on so Ginger has her space but there is lots of room on the lot and room in the budget to do it (or so I figure!). We still  need to get an inspection and if it shows too many hidden things we will back out. That’s why I put the “maybe” at the top. We already know a few things that will need to be taken care of – like insulation in the attic.

HUD is kind of different in the way they do things (remember they are a government entity!!!). When they listed the house they gave 10 days to receive offers. They collected all those and after the 10 day period considered them based solely on the amount offered. At our agent’s suggestion we offered more than the asking  price. Offers are submitted via computer and website. The 10 day period ended at 10:00 last night (we submitted ours with 1 day and 9 hours remaining). Monday morning we got  a phone call from our realtor that we “won.” Were there any other offers? We’ll never know. Did we offer way too much? Well, as far as other offers, we don’t know. As far as value, no. This morning (Tuesday) we submitted the paper work just like we would in a normal transaction – earnest money, preapproval letter, etc.  etc.

Here are some external pictures – the interior ones will have to wait until we have easy access. Obviously this is the front, the next one is back, and final one is our back yard. Lots of land to take care of. What am I thinking?? Yes, that is an apple tree in the center. There are also a couple others – all of them need pruning.

How am I feeling? Thanks for asking. And thanks for your caring and concern. I am either back to normal (whatever that is) or very, very close. I have been walking every evening (sometimes with Joyce). Not as far as I need to but I’m working myself up to my 1.0 to 1.4 miles. I saw the doc the other day. This is the new one we had never met but had to have to escape the hospital. I think he will be a good family doctor. He basically said I can do whatever I feel like doing. He answered a bunch of questions: Where did the clot in my leg come from? They just happen sometimes. How will I know when it is gone? They assume it is gone after a few months and the ones in my lung are gone when I feel better (probably gone now). I am humbled by everyone’s concern.

Last Friday we had a Senior Adult Picnic Potluck (indoors at the church). Attendance was down but the fun was up. Everyone had a good time and the food was delicious.

One question I asked in the Picnic Trivia contest was what was the biggest hamburger ever made? Answer: the record for the largest hamburger is held by Rutland, North Dakota. In 1982, the town made the World's Largest Hamburger, 3,591 pounds, which was consumed by some 8,000 people!

I don’t think they barbecued it. But happy barbecuing to you.

Breathing Disguised As Blessings

“He huffed and he puffed and”… and there wasn’t any wind. Kind of like the big bad wolf with asthma. So now I know how it feels. Scary. But first, a warning. If you don’t like to read about other people’s ailments and hospitalizations, this would be a good place to log out. No hard feelings.

Before I tell about the memorable Memorial Day I need to go back a week. I haven’t blogged for quite awhile so it’s okay. This would be the Monday before Memorial Day we’re talking about. I mowed the lawn and was really panting for air when I finished. I just thought I was out of shape and needed to do more walking. I’d already scouted out an “around the block” that is one mile and an “around the BIG block” that is 1.4 miles. Tuesday morning I pinched a nerve in my back taking a shower. All I did was bend over to wash my feet. This has happened a few times in the past but fortunately not very often. For the next few day, I wore a back brace, walked bent over, and gritted by teeth.

About the this time the bursitis in my left shoulder decided to flare up so that hurt more than usual. Then toward the end of the week I developed flu-like systems – achy, temperature, but not sick to my stomach. This all slowed me down even more and I did almost nothing for about three day. I didn’t even go to church Sunday!!! Now, I’m telling all this to say that it wasn’t a real good week. I don’t know if any of it had anything to do with subsequent events but it sure slowed me down. Joyce and I had talked about various things to do on Memorial Day weekend but hadn’t decided on anything. If we had, we wouldn’t have done them anyway. When I got up and walked around the house it caused me to breath really hard.

Memorial Day Monday I knew I needed some exercise so we went over to Wal-Mart in the afternoon. I walked around holding on to a shopping cart. It was good. I wasn’t too tired. We even considered going to Lowes but decided against it.

That evening I walked out to the garage with some recycle stuff – 70, 80 feet round trip. When I got back to my recliner I was really sucking for air. And it didn’t get better. I remember a pastor who held people he was baptizing under water until they begin to squirm. When he was asked why, he replied, “I want them to want Jesus as bad as they want air.” I was there. Joyce called Ginger to come over to spend the night. Just in case, you know. By the time she got here at 9:50 I was ready to go the ER. I guess I looked pretty bad because all the lady at window wanted was my ID and a man was standing right behind me with a wheelchair!

The first thing they did in the ER room was give me oxygen with one of those little things in my nose. Aaaah, that was sooooo good. Finally some air. The little oxygen meter they put on my finger indicated I was at 71 (normal is 95 to 100). Somewhere along the line they put in an IV and got a chest x-ray. The doctor finally came in and declared that I had pneumonia. We joked about that because I had gotten my pneumonia shot. I said I was going to ask for my money back (actually Medicare paid for it). However she wasn’t letting go of it. Certain things just didn’t add up for her so she ordered a CAT scan. The results showed I had a pulmonary embolism. A what??

What I understand about these things is that there is a clot in my right leg – an ultra sound proved this. Part of it broke off, went to my lung (the place these things go), divided into parts and lodged in various parts of my lung. So that’s the story.

I got to a room – I later found out it was in the sub-critical care part of the hospital – about 3:00 a.m. They had me on a heparin drip and Coumadin pills the rest of my hospital stay. I was transferred to a regular room after a couple days and finally went home Friday afternoon. One complication in all this was that they would not let me go home without a primary care physician. Joyce and I had talked about getting one but really didn’t know which one to pick and couldn’t get any good recommendations. Of course, this brought things to the “do it now” point. Between Joyce, Ginger, and my niece Kandy they found a doctor who would accept us (Joyce also). I’ll see him next week. Right now I’m being monitored every three days for the anticoagulation level in my blood – it’s called the INR. They adjust the Coumadin to keep it in the proper range.

Want to know about blood clots? Just ask me. I’m an “expert” now – at least a lot smarter. I’m told the body will eventually absorb the clots. What they want to do is keep any more from developing.

We really feel blessed with all the good care I received. I’m guessing that I encountered 40 different individuals in the hospital (Joyce counted 28 in the first 8 hours or so). They were all fantastic. We are especially grateful to the ER doctor who wouldn’t give up with a simple answer. I appreciate all the people who were praying for me – people I don’t even know. We have a great church; they were praying, some came to visit, others sent cards. Joyce and Ginger were great. Joyce spent every night with me in the hospital. This was a great help because I didn’t have to wait for a nurse. She even learned how to give me shots. For the first 3 days after my discharge I had to have shots of electrolux… no, equinox… no, that’s not right either. Joyce says they were Lovanox – more blood thinner. A little poke in the fat part of the belly. No problem finding a spot there!

So now it is recovery. I’m doing better each day. Still a little short of breath and weak in the legs but it’s coming. I think when this is all past us, I will feel better than I have in quite a while. If you were one who was praying, thank you.

Blessings.

Here’s An Update

I thought it was time to post an update. Okay, maybe it is past time but there really isn’t much new to tell. Our lives are good but rather routine. I put in 10 or more hours a week doing Senior Adult ministry. This involves visiting people -- usually with Joyce, doing a monthly newsletter, going to staff meetings, and other “senior adult” stuff. Each month we help  organize a luncheon and, until a couple weeks ago, I taught a Sunday school class. I’ve been “catching up” on the hours I got behind when we went to L.A., when we spent time in Grants Pass, when I went to Anchorage, and other such things. Last week I caught up! Now I am putting hours “in the bank” so we can be gone again when the kids are here – or when we go there. Last Sunday I preached and I counted the preparation hours. Check out the church website at www.salemfirst.com. At the bottom click on “Ministries” and then on “Senior Adults.”

Okay, that’s the church. Then there is the house search. This is getting long and tedious. Each day a real estate agent sends me a batch of emails with new listings and listings on which the price has been reduced. This could be 3 to 10 houses to check out. First, on line. Is it big enough? Is there room for the RV? Can we make it duel living? Is it in a good neighborhood? Is it on one level? Is it in our price range? etc. etc. etc. Some of these seem like ones we should drive by. So we gather a list, then go sight seeing (thank you, Lord, for our GPS). A few of those we decide we want to see inside so we call the agent and set up time for a tour. So far, some are close but not the one. All this takes time. I feel like a professional house hunter. We are still looking for duel living so Ginger can have her own place close to us. If this doesn’t happen, at some point the Lord will release us to look for a single family residence. But not yet.

Did I mention the time given to Oregon Conference Board stuff? Thursday morning I met with a guy for an hour or so and Friday I met with the Superintendent. And there was an hour or so on the computer working on a report and doing email. This is all “free” – not time I get paid for. This is the time of year that takes lots of extra hours so it … well, it takes lots of hours.

As I said, life if good. I’m not complaining, just explaining what is happening in our lives. I will be glad when we find a house, get moved in, and life settles down. Oh, be realistic, Gene! Life will never settle down. So Joyce and enjoy each minute – well, most of the minutes. My advise: enjoy yours.

Blessings.

Done Deal

It is done,  finished, over. Our GP house closed yesterday. We drove down to sign the papers, visit Donna, Violet, and Reggie, run a couple errands, meet the new owners and drive back.  It was a long day. That part of our lives is now in the past. Kind of sad. Or maybe bitter-sweet is a better word. We loved it in Grants Pass and we loved our house but the time had come to “pull up stakes” and move on.

Now we are looking for a house in Salem. (Sure is rainy up here in the valley!!!)

Today we met with about 45 senior adults for a soup luncheon, a hymn sing, followed by a  bunch of us stuffing plastic Easter eggs with candy for the kid’s Easter Egg Hunt next week. Long day. Good day.

Blessings, everyone.