Good News, Bad News

Last Friday I had the awesome privilege of riding my bike from Westerville to Easton with my "buddy" Lori Muschott.  What a gorgeous day the Lord blessed us with...beautiful blue skies, white puffy clouds, sunshine and no humidity...perfect.  Once we arrived at Easton we decided to eat lunch at Brio on the patio that overlooks the fountain.  It was fun to watch the young moms with all their children playing in the fountain...wonderful memories flooded my mind of being a stay-at-home mom and the fun adventures we had.  What a fun meal we had along with great conversation.  I am so blessed with such a friend.  Lori has such a way with listening with her heart and always quick to bring laughter through the tears...thanks, Lori.  We shopped for awhile before heading back to the bike trail.  A total of 14 miles logged...woo-hoo!

Friday afternoon I finished my bed painting project.  I wanted to get that done before Matt left so he could help with setting up the "new" bed and take down the twin bed.  It was a crazy night with getting the house rearranged and packing him up for college!  We were even able to go out for dinner, Tom, Matt and I as we celebrated his last night at home.  We made stops at Costco and Meijer to pick up some of the last minute items he still needed.  It was a fun, busy night.
Saturday morning started with Matt going to the eye doctor for a regular check up.  He needs new contacts and glasses...nothing like waiting all summer and then going the day you leave for college!  He then went to mow grass at the home of his "lawncare job".  While Matt was mowing there, Tom mowed here at our home.  I didn't want Tom to mow here because we had already decided that he would go with us to MVNU (good news).  Tom won that "battle" and did a great job.  When Matt got home we loaded his fan, full!  I know girls usually have a lot of "stuff", but boys I'm now realizing do too.  Matt maybe doesn't have as many shoes, but just the size (13) of them takes more space than the average!  I fixed us some lunch and we headed to Mt. Vernon on another beautiful day.  Matt's basketball coach, Coach Moore, along with a team of people had the van unloaded in record time!  We are so thankful for the hands of help so that Tom wasn't doing more work than he needed to.  We had the opportunity to meet Katelyn's mom and uncle who were there dropping her off too.  Tom settled onto Matt's couch while Matt and I tackled his room.  It didn't take as long as we thought and I think we all were pleased with the outcome.  It is a smaller space than he had last year so it was tricky getting it all organized.  His roommate is another basketball player, Caleb Williams, who is 6'8"!  Two big boys living in tight quarters will make for an interesting year.

Matt's "dorm/apartment"

Matt & Katelyn

Saying "Good Bye"

It was dinnertime when Tom and I got back to Columbus on Saturday night and Tom wanted to go out to eat, I didn't argue with that!  We decided to call my sister and see if she and Terry wanted to join us and they did!  What a fun evening we had together.  After just being down to one anti-seizure pill a day we could all notice a positive difference in Tom...it was like "old times".

Sunday was the day we commissioned our new pastor and his family.  What a special service we had with Tom Julien preaching.  Tom shared about "perspective" and I appreciated his thoughts on seeing life from God's point of view...looking down vs. trying to "look up" through the clouds and wonder what God must be doing.  He shared from Ephesians 4:1-16 and our responsibility as the body of Christ.  After the service "the body" gathered for a potluck picnic outside.  It, once again, was another beautiful day with no humidity and beautiful sunshine.  It was so special for me to "officially" meet Pastor Mike and his wife, Letitia.  What wonderful, genuine and sweet people who love Jesus!  We are so thankful to have them here.

Sunday afternoon Tom took his nap and when he woke up we went on a walk.  We are trying to get out an enjoy this weather and get a little exercise too.  We try to take it slow and not rush past the the beauty God places all around us.  I stopped, with Tom's encouragement, to take a picture of a beautifully formed thistle.  It reminded me of my sailing days years ago.  I sailed on a "thistle" boat that had the thistle logo on the sail.  I loved that boat named "Pogo".  Slowing down to take life in and let memories be recalled.

While on the walk Tom mentioned that he felt that he was having to think too much about how to walk...egh.  Around 6:00 p.m. he started having his "seizure/episode" just like the one he had in Florida where he couldn't talk and became very frustrated.  I was immediately alarmed and sat down with him to get him to quit trying to talk, breath deeply and relax.  After about 30 minutes he started getting better.  He claims he could "feel" it coming on.  (bad news)  It had only been three days since we cut his medication back and we didn't anticipate this.  My sister "popped" in just after this and we brainstormed about the similarities of the time in Florida and then now.  We came up with the fact that Tom had not had naps both times on the day before.  When I talked with the doctor he said that fatigue definately will play a role in seizures and that could be the reason.  He wants to keep Tom on the single dose a day and see how he does.  We will watch him closely and make sure that he gets his daily nap!

Tom went ahead Monday with his early morning bus duty at school which I wasn't happy about but, he said "I love seeing the kids come to school", how do you argue with that?

We rejoice with Tom's mom as she has come through her second cataract eye surgery in 2 weeks!  This morning she had her other eye done and with success...yeah!

Tom's Mom with "her boys"