Well, this was a hectic week and we should have guessed it being how it started.
Sunday: I decided that since we had finally gotten Jamil's car fixed the day before at the dealer, we would take separate cars to church. That way Jamil (who had stayed up all night preparing the Bible study) wouldn't have to get ready in such a short time. Instead he could hang around the house a bit longer and then go get Mrs. Louise. Well, his nicely tuned up car blew a tire... not punctured or anything just plain blown on the side. After much debating and in the middle of me trying to figure out how to get juice and pastries without money or a wallet for the hungry Sunday schoolers to come, Jamil decided he needed me to come over and help him. So I did. And that is how I left for church at 8am and didn't get there until 11:10AM. Makes that story of the little ladies in Florida's 24 hour church trip not sound so unbelievable.
Monday: One of my co-workers was leaving at the end of the week which left me with the daunting task of trying to get a brain dump out of his head. That and a customer installation that couldn't be completed took up most of my day. At the end of the day we went to see the S's for a little bit. Time with the S's is always nice, educational and refreshing. It reminds me ever so much of my time as a kid with my grandma.
Tuesday: Mr. S got taken into hospice as an inpatient, and that is how the day started. Pretty confusing all around. And at work, besides trying to get a brain dump from my coworker, I had to move a customer's system that was being tested and then I had to work on a presentation for a meeting next week. At night we were able to see the S's and spend some time with Mrs. S who was still getting used to the new in-hospice environment. Mr. S slept the whole time we were there, much different from the man we left on Monday. At least he was not in pain.
Wednesday: Jamil's uncle from Canada was in town and so we invited him and Jamil's grandma and his other uncle and aunt (the ones that live in Lawrenceville) for dinner. We cooked neverending pasta. Since the couple's group was coming in the next day we went ahead and made two trays. Well, Jamil's family almost finished the pasta, but of course they didn't because it is never ending after all. Then the thought dawned on us: out of 3 times we had cooked this, 2 it hadn't ended and out of those 2, one was followed by a death (someone who hadn't eaten pasta). It is a good thing we are not superstitious. We were able to see the S's briefly and drop Mrs. S a banana. Mr. S didn't look any better, but again at least he was out of pain.
As icing on the cake, I had a doctor's appointment with a doctor I dislike very much. It was scheduled for 11:30AM and I was not helped until 12:45PM. I just needed a prescription. I said this on the phone when I scheduled my appointment. On my first visit to this doctor, after making me write 15 pages worth of information on my first visit (visit was scheduled for a simple consultation), made me urinate in a cup, took some blood and asked me to lie down without ever talking to me about the reason I went to see him. When I asked if he even knew why I was there he was very startled. This time this is how it went an hour and 15 minutes after my scheduled appointment:
Nurse: Hi Patricia can you please give me a urine sample
Patricia: Can I? Yes I can because after an hour sitting here I have had plenty of time to partially refill my bladder, but do you want to know why I am here?
Nurse: (Thinking no) Why are you here Patricia?
Patricia: For a prescription
Nurse: Ah
Patricia: (Thinking... these people need to learn to read, maybe that way people wouldn't sit in this office so long). I can still urinate in a cup for you if you would like.
Nurse: No that is ok, come sit here
I sat in the lab section, and after asking how much longer it would be, she directed me to a sit far from he in front of the doctor's office. The meeting with a doctor was exactly 4 minutes, and he didn't even really talk to me.
Thursday: Work was once again hectic. I left about 1 hour later than I had planned due to this passing of the baton. We rushed through bad rush traffic to meet the Bible study group. We arrived 10 minutes after the first couple and found out that it takes a lot longer to warm up neverending pasta than it would have taken me to make it fresh. Bible study was good. 1 Samuel 27. We prayed for the S's. There was (as usual) pasta left over. Mrs. Louise joined us ( we would like more people to join our group since we recently converted it from the couple's group to the everyone who wants to come group. We would particularly like more of the older members of our church to join us, they are all such a great influence and model in our lives. I stayed up until 3am knitting my Harry Potter scarf (to be worn at the movie viewing on Friday), but didn't finish so I wore a half done scarf instead of a completed one.
Friday: Since Mr. S had gotten bad last week, we had made sure to have our cell phones in the room every night. Thursday night Jamil's cell phone stayed out. A 6am voicemail message from the eldest S son told us that Mr. S had passed away at 1am the night before. It is the end of an era. We returned the call (we got the message right as we were leaving late for work). We decided to join our group to watch Harry Potter after all. We stopped by before meeting out group to see Mrs. S.
Saturday: Mr. S viewing. No matter how many of these things you go to, they don't get any better. Mr. S had gotten a little mischivieous in his last few weeks (or at least we had gotten to know his joker side just a few weeks ago) so you almost expect him to sit up in his coffin and laugh at everyone. But he didn't, and that is how after 9 years of ups and downs and many of what seemed like near death encounters, Mr. S is know with the Lord. He has left a great legacy in us though. And by us, I mean Jamil and I but I also mean all the people that ever knew him, because it is impossible to have know the S's and not learn anything. Mrs. S is a very gifted and strong woman and we are sure she will make it through this and our group is all very committed to ensuring this happens.
We will see what God has in store for Sunday... Maybe we'll take one car this time and avoid the temptation to cook pasta... Fortunately, God is in control of all things and so we do not have to worry about superstitions.
Saturday, November 19, 2005
Thursday, October 27, 2005
New house, no lease breaking fee, all is well
It is so hard to keep up, specially when there is exciting stuff going on.
We found a house, put an offer, went back and forth with the seller and closed on it all in 4 weeks *breathe*. We also found someone to take over our lease.. go craig's list. So we saved about $700 and just about doubled our monthly expenses.... and this is a good idea why?
Anyway, we love our house.. all minus the tiny garage suitable for small European cars only. It is a good thing I didn't get an SUV after all. We moved three days after we closed on it and the move took 2hr35min from the people arriving to help us move to unloading the last piece off the truck... Now we are unpacking.. except for work is hectic and now we NEED to make money (read.. if we want to still have the bank allow us to stay in their house) so really we have unpacked some but far from all. Our stuff probably doesn't cover 15% of the house.
Jamil fertilized the lawn last week in his attempt to do yard work.... I am guessing this will last exactly until he has to cut the grass twice. Bets are welcome. Home Depot will now be reported in our income tax forms as a dependent. we have already looked into direct deposit (yes sir, how do I sign up for direct deposit?... Direct who?... yeah the way I see it if you are going to get 30% of my income won't you at least take it before taxes?). We met a nice gentleman at our HD called Woody he knows pretty much everything there is to know about locks and more.... this is actually somewhat of a scary thought (remember that movie Cable Guy?).
So that is us, we doubled our expenses -$700 and went from renting a place to borrowing a house from the bank. You have to love this capitalist system where companies will buy the house you want for you and let you stay in it for some cash!! Excellent!!
In other news, there is a constant fire flame in our house in the attic. Which makes no sense being how the inside of the house is as close to cardboard as it gets... Wihch brings me to my next point: someone needs to read the 3 little pigs stories to all these house builders. Then people wonder why hurricanes do so much damage in the U.S.
We found a house, put an offer, went back and forth with the seller and closed on it all in 4 weeks *breathe*. We also found someone to take over our lease.. go craig's list. So we saved about $700 and just about doubled our monthly expenses.... and this is a good idea why?
Anyway, we love our house.. all minus the tiny garage suitable for small European cars only. It is a good thing I didn't get an SUV after all. We moved three days after we closed on it and the move took 2hr35min from the people arriving to help us move to unloading the last piece off the truck... Now we are unpacking.. except for work is hectic and now we NEED to make money (read.. if we want to still have the bank allow us to stay in their house) so really we have unpacked some but far from all. Our stuff probably doesn't cover 15% of the house.
Jamil fertilized the lawn last week in his attempt to do yard work.... I am guessing this will last exactly until he has to cut the grass twice. Bets are welcome. Home Depot will now be reported in our income tax forms as a dependent. we have already looked into direct deposit (yes sir, how do I sign up for direct deposit?... Direct who?... yeah the way I see it if you are going to get 30% of my income won't you at least take it before taxes?). We met a nice gentleman at our HD called Woody he knows pretty much everything there is to know about locks and more.... this is actually somewhat of a scary thought (remember that movie Cable Guy?).
So that is us, we doubled our expenses -$700 and went from renting a place to borrowing a house from the bank. You have to love this capitalist system where companies will buy the house you want for you and let you stay in it for some cash!! Excellent!!
In other news, there is a constant fire flame in our house in the attic. Which makes no sense being how the inside of the house is as close to cardboard as it gets... Wihch brings me to my next point: someone needs to read the 3 little pigs stories to all these house builders. Then people wonder why hurricanes do so much damage in the U.S.
Saturday, September 24, 2005
The cat is gone, the pressure is on and other subjects
Things seem to finally be coming down to a normal level, judging from the fact that we have been able to post a little more often.
The cat is finally out of our hair, actually we never had direct contact with the cat so it really was never in our hair... these English language expressions are quite annoying. What does it mean to have something in your hair? Where do sayings like that begin? How do they transalte to bigger things? Suppose it all started with people being happy to get rid of lice. How does it's finally out of our hair (talking about lice) ever translate in anyone's view to stuff like: that salesman is finally out of my hair, or the kids or anything bigger than say a fly. Wouldn't you notice if something that big was in your hair to begin with, wouldn't your head fall off if you had something that heavy in your head?
Talking about heavy in your head, a house is a lot of work. So many things need to get done in so little time. It better be worth it. I don't really know how I got tricked into this house buying cause as far as I remember I was sure I liked renting a good bit. Oh well. We like the house so hopefully that makes up for all the headaches.
We went to Jamil's uncle's house yesterday to drop off the cat. Looking at the mess of boxes makes our move even more dreadful: not looking forward to doing all that ourselves. We (at least I) moved many a time in college (8 times over the course of 7 years), every move was at least twice as hard as the previous always. I am a pack rat. Everything is attached to a memory, a time, a place, a person. We have many boxes stored in a closet, some of them haven't been opened in a few years. The problem is that every box is a trip down memory lane, and I like memory lane. There is a bit of traffic, but the pace is nice and constant, not many accidents happen on memory lane.
We watched the apprentice this afternoon. I always think of myself as a TV addict, yet anytime and everytime there is something else going on in my life, it is really easy to stop watching TV with the same intensity, so maybe I am not as addicted as I think. In fact, I have lived places without a TV for as much as a month or two at a time and not been bothered by the lack of TV. The truth is, however, that when I want to truly relax, I plug in to the tube and it works really well. Since today is the first time in a while that we've been at home for a good bit of time, I have been plugged in to the tube for a bit. Other things we did: play the guitar (p), sleep (P&J), work on Bible study(J-currently), mail house paperwork (P&J), forget the cat is gone and then smile when we rememember it is gone(P&J). I think I will go in and continue reading "Of Mice and Men" in a bit.
In other news:
One of our friends is really sick and not suspected to make it past tomorrow. Actually, he hasn't been expected to make it many more days for about 9 years, so it is kind of hard to really think this is it, but he is certainly worsening. The nurses don't expect him to hold on much longer. Please keep his family in your prayers. He is ready to go home to the Lord, and those around him understand this and find comfort in this, but it is one thing to know it in their minds and another when reality hits. Pray for God's direction in trying to figure out how to be there for them.
The funniest thing about posting in a blog is that we tell each other, hey I posted on the blog today, and that is the only way the other will ever know to read it. Being that we are probably 90% of our audience, this is pretty sad. Oh well, it is better than chatting on MSN accross the room (we don't do that...anymore).
Take care and don't forget tomorrow is a Church day.
The cat is finally out of our hair, actually we never had direct contact with the cat so it really was never in our hair... these English language expressions are quite annoying. What does it mean to have something in your hair? Where do sayings like that begin? How do they transalte to bigger things? Suppose it all started with people being happy to get rid of lice. How does it's finally out of our hair (talking about lice) ever translate in anyone's view to stuff like: that salesman is finally out of my hair, or the kids or anything bigger than say a fly. Wouldn't you notice if something that big was in your hair to begin with, wouldn't your head fall off if you had something that heavy in your head?
Talking about heavy in your head, a house is a lot of work. So many things need to get done in so little time. It better be worth it. I don't really know how I got tricked into this house buying cause as far as I remember I was sure I liked renting a good bit. Oh well. We like the house so hopefully that makes up for all the headaches.
We went to Jamil's uncle's house yesterday to drop off the cat. Looking at the mess of boxes makes our move even more dreadful: not looking forward to doing all that ourselves. We (at least I) moved many a time in college (8 times over the course of 7 years), every move was at least twice as hard as the previous always. I am a pack rat. Everything is attached to a memory, a time, a place, a person. We have many boxes stored in a closet, some of them haven't been opened in a few years. The problem is that every box is a trip down memory lane, and I like memory lane. There is a bit of traffic, but the pace is nice and constant, not many accidents happen on memory lane.
We watched the apprentice this afternoon. I always think of myself as a TV addict, yet anytime and everytime there is something else going on in my life, it is really easy to stop watching TV with the same intensity, so maybe I am not as addicted as I think. In fact, I have lived places without a TV for as much as a month or two at a time and not been bothered by the lack of TV. The truth is, however, that when I want to truly relax, I plug in to the tube and it works really well. Since today is the first time in a while that we've been at home for a good bit of time, I have been plugged in to the tube for a bit. Other things we did: play the guitar (p), sleep (P&J), work on Bible study(J-currently), mail house paperwork (P&J), forget the cat is gone and then smile when we rememember it is gone(P&J). I think I will go in and continue reading "Of Mice and Men" in a bit.
In other news:
One of our friends is really sick and not suspected to make it past tomorrow. Actually, he hasn't been expected to make it many more days for about 9 years, so it is kind of hard to really think this is it, but he is certainly worsening. The nurses don't expect him to hold on much longer. Please keep his family in your prayers. He is ready to go home to the Lord, and those around him understand this and find comfort in this, but it is one thing to know it in their minds and another when reality hits. Pray for God's direction in trying to figure out how to be there for them.
The funniest thing about posting in a blog is that we tell each other, hey I posted on the blog today, and that is the only way the other will ever know to read it. Being that we are probably 90% of our audience, this is pretty sad. Oh well, it is better than chatting on MSN accross the room (we don't do that...anymore).
Take care and don't forget tomorrow is a Church day.
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