Anxiety

Mike and I traveled to the Valley Tuesday afternoon and spent the day there yesterday taking care of a number of matters we needed to address. TJei stayed with Jodie because she needed to be at swim team practices and she had art and singing classes Tuesday afternoon. Mia went down with us. She was so excited to see Uncle Quentin's new house, especially Jayden's new bedroom. It was even more lovely and larger than we had thought from the pictures. I so hope they are able to manage payments and other expenses. What an opportunity this is for them.

Mia stayed with Quentin to play with Jayden Wednesday while Mike and I went to meet up with Ron and Terry and visit while they were in Arizona from Oklahoma. What a nice visit it was! Much of our discussion centered on retirement matters. The subject has weighed heavily in our thoughts and hearts over recent months. Especially since Mike fought off such a devastating series of medical issues again. It has really given us cause to reflect on the future. It was wonderful to talk with them and spend that time together. Missing them bunches since they've moved to Oklahoma but even more as life has moved on and we don't do so many family things anymore. Sometimes the thought is there, it would be great to go back in time when both our families were young and again spend a day together at the lake or along a river. Mike and I want to go and visit inn Oklahoma later this year.

Mike had to go to the title company in north Scottsdale Wednesday afternoon to sign a stack of papers for the upcoming sales of properties in Lehi. There weren't any delays along the roadways so it didn't take much time to get that completed. We left there and headed to Mesa to meet Carol at a Chase Bank, Gilbert and McKellips, to open an account for the Children's Trust. Ugh. What a challenge that ended up being. Banks apparently will no longer open an account for a trust which requires two signatures. What? Yeah right....they will open an account for individuals which require two signatures and even a business account requiring two but not for a trust account. Unreal. Mike had to open the account to have routing numbers etc for the land sales proceeds so they went ahead and opened it. Big worry here. Carole has demonstrated over and over again that she is not trustworthy about anything to do with Scotty and Billie's estate. She acknowledged during conversations at the bank that she has been collecting fees from people using those lots as storage yards, etc. She previously had acknowledged she collected fees from the guy boarding horses next door to her. That particular lot sold last year, she would have been collecting those fees until then.

When Mike asked where those monies were at she stated they were in an account at this very Chase Bank branch. She said there was about $7000 there...oddly enough, that was the same figure she quoted was in the account she had - which Mike didn't know anything about - several years ago when she first acknowledged collecting fees for use of those properties. An earlier question by the bank employee had asked whether she had an account at that bank, she had stated then that she had a home equity line of credit loan. She hadn't mentioned this account at all.

It is so frustrating to have our hands tied for the sake of "getting along" while knowing with certainty she is not being honest and is actually failing to disclose and account for money that should be under hers and Mike's control, not hers alone and with no accounting for it at all.

After a quick stop at Panda Express - ran into nurse Kelly from Summit Healthcare (she was one of Mike's nurses :) ) and then we headed back out to San Tan Valley and visited with John, Kelly and girls before heading out to return home. It was so late when we left out! Mike pulled off at the camp area near Seneca and we slept in the car (Quentin's, we left our truck) for a couple hours. We didn't get home until a bit after 2am. whew

Another Special Birthday

Today would have been Jason's 25th birthday. Mike and I went to the cemetary before returning to SJ this past weekend. The tears still come so easily, my arms still ache to hold him close.

TJei was with us when we visited the cemetary. She normally does really well with the relationship thing - in fact, I've been impressed on many occassions that she seems to make the associations so readily. She knows, for example, her mom is my daughter. Her Tio Quentin is my son and her mom's brother. She knows Baylee is her cousin and Mia is her sister. For Jason, she isn't yet able to associate the name with a person. She sees the little etched outline of a young child on his headstone. She thinks that outline of a child is my son.

When we went across to Scotty and Billie's gravesite, TJei wandered off and ended up quite a distance away. As we tried to call her back and did the typical "okay, we're going without you" routine, she got quite upset. As I coaxed her back and tried to figure out why she was still crying hard as she got nearer and nearer to us it finally dawned on me what she was saying and what her thoughts were. We had told TJei we were going to great-grandpa's grave. The last she had known, great-grandpa was in his "box" (coffin) there at the cemetary. She was happily running around looking for great-grandpa's box!

After showing TJei the outline of the soil, still showing signs of fresh digging, and explaining that great-grandpa's box was buried in the ground and reminding her that he was in heaven, with Jesus, and it was just his body in the box, she was okay with that. I was really impressed with how eager she had been to find her great-grandpa's box as she ran down the row, further and further away from Mike and I with no hesitation at all. She had held that vision of his funeral and knew what his box would look like.

Deadbeat

Okay, I'll admit it - I am a deadbeat.

Deadbeat #1
I haven't posted to my blog in ages.

Reason Excuse
There's a ton of things I want to blog about, I just haven't gotten it done. Okay, so I wasn't really over whatever that New Year's bug was as soon as I thought it was gone. I was still feeling poorly days and even weeks later. yuck

Deadbeat #2
I didn't go to church Sunday.

Reason Excuse
Even after calling to confirm start time now (new year, I've been gone other Sundays), I didn't go to church. See Deadbeat #1 Excuse for details. The energy just wasn't there ... even at 9:00am. Somehow I get the feeling all of RS will appreciate my unwilliness to be charitable and share whatever that bug was.

Deadbeat #3
I missed Mike's birthday. :(

Reason Excuse
Well, I missed the actual date (blogging a b-day wish for him). See Deadbeat #1 Excuse for details. I did remember his birthday and extended wishes (sans card or gift) and I had planned ahead for when we'd be in the valley and arranged for our kids and close family to get together for a birthday dinner - Mexican food because its his favorite. Even if he didn't have a new favorite, carne asada, it was fun getting together with everyone. :)

I'm back in fine form now and have a stockpile of things I wanted to blog about while laid up in the living room - that's right for all you non-believers, much of that time I wasn't feeling well, see Deadbeat #1 Excuse for details, I wasn't even in here at my computer! Before long eyes will be weary trying to get up to date on here ... well, maybe I'll wait until after visiting the valley this weekend and going to Princess on Ice with our little princess, TJei. Nah, I'll have something out there before then. :)

Calls Home

I know traffic in the valley is a total nightmare these days. I am so fortunate that Mike enjoys driving and typically we are together when in the valley so he does the driving. :-)

There is a hidden blessing in the long commutes some of our kids have down there though ... calls home to Mom. When John is making the long journey from Queen Creek to the West Valley for his job, he oftentimes calls and chats. When Jacob makes the journey out to Williams Gateway for classes, he oftentimes calls. I am really blessed to be able to talk to Jacob frequently - he calls during the day when traveling between school and work and home to work or school, even if the trek isn't so long.

I know it's selfish ... I'm already dreading Winter Break from school, when he won't be commuting quite so often, and won't be calling so often either. :(