That and This

A couple months ago, my Dad was having some serious back and leg pain.  After a bunch of tests, they finally did an MRI and found out that he had an abdominal aortic aneurysm.  He had surgery, not to remove it because they only do that in the severe cases, but to put a tube around it and contain it.  I’m sure there is some medical jargon I could use to explain it better but I think I summed it up pretty well.   He’s been on leave from work and I think he goes back in the beginning of December.  I was talking to him on the phone last night, after he had taken a pain pill, and he was trying to price plane tickets to fly us all out there.  Talking to my Dad when he’s drugged up is pretty hilarious (this sounds like he’s on drugs all the time and I promise you he’s not....he only takes them when the pain gets really bad because he doesn’t like that loopy feeling he gets from them).  Tickets were crazy expensive, like $2000 expensive, so I suggested that he come here.   He started looking and pricing and so I’m hoping he finds one and agrees to come.  He hasn’t been out here to visit at all and he hasn’t even met Ethan yet!  It would be great to see him and spend Thanksgiving with him.  I’m crossing my fingers it all works out because I know the kids would love to see him too.

I don’t know if I mentioned but this North Dakota thing is definitely happening.  Well.....I have been hesitating to use the word definite because to me nothing is set in stone until the day JP pulls out of the driveway to leave......but he has a date for leaving and we’re starting to gather winter clothes for him.  He’s going to go first with our friend Allen (Tonya’s husband) and work for a bit and find us a place to live.  Then they will come back for the families and we’ll all caravan up there with our moving trucks.  We’ve already told our realtor that we’re moving when the lease is up and JP’s parents are actually considering moving here when we leave.  We had talked about moving me and the kids in with Tonya while the guys are gone but in the end, it just doesn’t make sense because we still have to pay rent until the lease is up.   Plus, we don’t want to uproot the kids until it’s time for the big move.  I probably won’t talk much more about it until it’s time for us all to go (or if we don’t end up going) because I don’t want to advertise all over the internets that I’m alone or anything.

In regards to the move, I was talking to Emma about it and instead of being upset that her supposed best friend is moving halfway across the country, she started freaking out about her car.  She has an issue with the oil pan and so no one except JP’s shop will change the oil.  She’s been stressing for the past two days and hasn’t really said one word about the fact that I’m going to be gone.  I think I would be more upset about it except for the fact that I’m looking forward to finally being away from all the drama.  Maybe now the relationship will just phase out and I can get on with my life.

Oh and exciting news!  I won my first football poll!  One of the stores that JP’s shop gets their parts from organizes the whole thing, it costs five dollars to play and the winner gets all the money.  I’ve done pretty well in the past weeks but this is my first time winning.  I was up by two picks as of Monday morning so no matter how the game turned out last night I would still win.  I get my money today and it’s going to buy a new Christmas tree.  JP got rid of ours last year because he didn’t want to move it from the old house to here so now I don’t have to take money out of our Christmas budget for the tree!