Long couple weeks

OK, here's my story of the last two-and-a-half weeks or so. It's been long, with ups and downs. But I've survived. We've all survived so far. I've been writing this for a couple days, so, as I've mentioned before, it's long.

Friday, August 12 was my last day working at Ontario Systems It was good. I learned a lot about the software development process, and felt that I was able to contribute some. Friday night, Josh & I headed to Lebanon to meet with a florist, borrow his brother's truck, for Saturday was Moving Day. After picking up the truck, we drove back to Muncie. Saturday morning, my parents came to help pack the contents of my summer apartment in the back of the pickup truck and their car and move the stuff to my Upland apartment, where I will be living this school year. It was a hot day, and Josh & I ended up making more trips than we wanted to from Upland to Muncie, then had to drive back to Lebanon o return the truck. We spent the night there then left early- five in the morning- for our weeklong adventure to Georgia.
After a long trip down, we got to my aunt & uncle's house in Lilburn, GA before dinner, and had dinner with them and visited. Ashley called, and we discovered her apartment in Norcross isn't far from where we were in Lilburn, so Josh & I braved the storm going on to go visit Ashley. Once SHE got there (Atlanta traffic...) we visited for about an hour before my cat-allergies could no longer stand it, when we relocated to Denny's for a milkshake and more visiting.
Monday, we had lunch with my aunt & uncle, then headed to downtown Atlanta to get a campus tour of Georgia State University and meet with a professor to find out about their emergency management program for Josh.

Our next stop was Columbus, GA to visit my aunt and grandmother, Nanny, who was in the hospital. We went straight to the hospital once we got to town, and saw Nanny, who was looking better than what was described to us, but still very weak. She visited and talked with us until late-dinnertime. It was so good, so special to see her. We told her of wedding plans and what we've been up to. She told Josh to take care of me and look out for me, because I don't always let on anything's wrong or worry about myself. She was right. I held her hand some. She rested some. After the visit, we went to dinner with my aunt then to her house to spend the night. Josh got to meet all of my aunt's four dogs. I think they liked him. :) Tuesday morning we went to see Nanny again, but things we much more worrisome- she was having a procedure done. It was successful, but she was in a lot of pain afterwards, and that was hard to watch. Very hard to watch. We didn't visit much more.

We left about 2:30 for Portal, GA and got to my grandparents' house there by dinnertime. I love their house- It is a grand old house, huge and in a cute small town. The inherited it from my grandad's stepmom, and have done a lot to fix it up recently. My grandad told us of how he makes his morning rounds in town- walks to the restaurant to meet other men for breakfast, then walks to the bank, post office and general store. He's blind in one eye and isn't supposed to drive, so this small town is perfect for him. My grandmother cooked us a delightful meal. We're always fed well by the grandparents :) Wednesday, Josh and I took a 'day off' and escaped to a day trip to the historic Savannah, GA. I insisted that, once we got there, because we didn't know what to go see and only had a few hours, that we stop by the Visitors Center and get advice. We did, and it turned out to be a great idea. The lady told us where to go to give ourselves the best walking tour, and gave us advice on the best area to look for a restaurant to eat at. We followed the directions, and it was a delightful trip. We found the park that Forrest Gump sat in during the bench scenes, musing about life and chocolates. We saw gorgeous old churches and read of Georgia and Savannah history almost on every street corner. It was neat. We went out to dinner with my grandparents then to visit my aunt, uncle, and cousins in nearby Statesboro, GA. Thursday we hung out with my grandparents, got a brief tour of Statesboro, and had pizza with my family there.

Early Friday we headed home to Indiana. We took a different route than on our way down, going through the mountains in North and South Carolina rather than the traffic in Georgia. I enjoyed the trip back. Friday night we spent visiting with my parents, who promptly left early Saturday morning for Georgia to be with Nanny. Saturday, JOsh & I hung out around Carmel, and it wasn't till Sunday that Josh realized his wallet was missing. We tore the house apart looking for it and pretty much gave up. He called to cancel his debit & credit cards and we headed to Lebanon, IN to go to his home church for a piano concert. Not long after we got to Lebanon, we got a call from my parents saying they had talked to my grandma and she had found the wallet in the room Josh was staying in in Portal. That was a huge relief, however, he still had to start school Monday without his drivers license, student ID, debit or credit card (that means: no driving, no riding the bus, no buying food or books... its complicated) I wentto Muncie Monday to help him get on his feet and get off to a good start to school. Everything ended up turning out alright.

When I returned to Carmel Minday night, I hung out with my sister and my dog. My sister was packing for school- she planned to leave Wednesday. I helped pack the car Wednesday. I had dinner with my friend Katelynn Tuesday, which was delightful as always. I spent basically the rest of the week watching my dog at home. While my parents were gone for the week, they were having home improvements like painting and flooring done. Seeing that the whole first floor of the house was torn up in disarray, I was cooped up in upstairs rooms with my dog, which made neither her nor me very happy. I also had to go out to eat for every meal, because the kitchen was disassembled and there was no food to eat.

I talked to my parents every day, trying to keep up on how Nanny was doing. Some days were better than others, I suppose. She was moved to hospice on Tuesday, a place that she was somewhat afraid to go, but, from the sounds of it, is taking good care of her. My parents were pretty stressed, I could hear it in their voices. I imagine they along with my aunts were making hard choices and having hard conversations and sitting with my grandmother, who is very weaker than they've ever seen her. Friday, after his classes, Josh came to keep me company for the evening. That was good. I was going crazy from being cooped up. They got home Saturday, and I left after church Sunday for Upland. Church was good. The service looked back over the last 14 years of our church, and talked about the plans that are being made for the future. The service ended with a video to the song 'Oh Praise Him', which was awesome.

Since getting to Upland, things have been less hectic. But that's always true, I suppose. I got the excess furniture (3 couches, a table, and overstuffed chair, a desk, and an entertainment center) moved OUT of the apartment, so there was finally room for unpacking. I'm delighted with the apartment. School so far has been good, too. I'm interested in all my classes. It will be good. I'm bracing myself for a hard time ahead for my family with Nanny's illness. I'm anticipating starting a pre-marriage class both at my church in a couple weeks and Christian Marriage here at Taylor.

So much has just gone on, is still going on, and still is to happen.

All I can say: God is good. Blessed be the name of the Lord.