Saturday, November 29, 2008

Much too fast

This seems like the fastest month ever! Time seems to speed up around now, but I think this sets a new record.

Vacation in Gainesville was wonderful. We got the former closet-now bathroom almost ready, and I got my fill of painting. We had some lovely crown molding to go around the ceiling (because these are 12' high and need some interest) and quickly discovered that 3 master's degrees (between the 2 of us) obviously is not enough to be able to figure out how to cut it correctly. After several cuts (and shrinking molding supply), we turned to the internet and found a nice video. Unfortunately the tools we had weren't quite the right size to manage the very tall molding. So creativity kicked in and Tom came up with the idea of square boxes for the corners, so we could just make straight cuts on the molding instead of trying to miter them. (Pictures will be on teamhenley.net soon)

My dad had his "procedure" in Billings and is recovering nicely (although much slower than he likes; he wanted to be completely back to normal within a week and was a bit frustrated at first). My 2 brothers decided it was important to see him now (and provide some excellent distraction) so came out for Thanksgiving. Jon-Erik also decided this would be a good time for a visit (and I offered this as a Christmas present) so he arranged his flight to meet up with me in Salt Lake City on my return from Texas Thanksgiving Day. We had a fabulous turkey dinner (Mom tried my suggestion of letting a grocery store do the cooking - great idea!), and incredible laughter. It's a wonder no one choked, we were laughing so hard most of the time. Friday we put up their outside lights and Christmas tree, so they are ready for the holidays.

Tom and I also had LifeLine screenings but no urgent medical conditions were discovered at that time - we get results in a few weeks. It's something I'd recommend for anyone - these are tests that don't seem to be done in usual doctor visits.

A few more days to visit with Jon-Erik (he returns to Beaverton Dec. 3) then it's the big holiday madness. But we'll be relatively low-key in our family, so I plan to just enjoy the season.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Happy November!

It's my favorite month, for many reasons. My birthday, for one. A bunch of holidays for another (Veteran's Day, which I never appreciated until I realized I was married to one, Thanksgiving Day, and this year, Election Day). The steely gray sky on a fall afternoon when the sun hits the yellow aspen leaves. Or the bright blue sky with golden wheat fields in the valley and the snowy mountain tops in the distance. It only seems to look like that in November.

Tom has already gone to Texas with more furniture for our house there - apparently the yard was completely overgrown with morning glory vines! But he's making headway. I will be there later this month, to rake the leaves (we have pecan trees!) and paint what used to be a closet and has now been transformed in to a bathroom.

It turns out the medical screening group that discovered my dad's aneurysm will be in a town nearby while I'm there, so we've signed up for our own sessions. That seems like a fortunate coincidence to me; an opportunity not to be ignored. While I'm away, Dad will have surgery in Billings to insert a stent - an overnight procedure. They tell him he'll be able to walk out of the hospital the next day, although it may take a few weeks to be totally recovered. He's very optimistic. And then Mom will probably let him drive again. As she said, she didn't want something to happen while he was driving - if she was going to lose him, she didn't want to lose the car too!

So, we'll be counting our blessings this Thanksgiving.