Home Again!

After 3 short weeks and over 3,600+ miles we are back in Arizona after a visit with family and friends in Iowa.  We saw a granddaughter graduate from high school, caught up with our son and his family, our youngest daughter and her family, both of Dean's brothers, his mother and many friends from our two Iowa pastorates.  We stayed with dear friends who are really more like family - so much so that I think our DNA must match in some wonky ways as we have shared some of the stories of our lives!  We are forever grateful for the Boyer's B & B - where we fix our own breakfast and make our own bed!  Because that's what family does!

The weather was typical for an Iowa spring - cool and wet!  We were thankful we had jeans and long sleeves with us for our trip to NE Iowa and the graduation ceremony as the high temp that weekend was a balmy, rainy 46!!  I got cold on the trip as we crossed into Kansas and didn't get warm until I got back out of the car in our driveway to unload our stuff!  Of course now that we have vacated the state, it's warm back there - in the 90s and sunny!  But then, it's warm and sunny here as well - close to 102 for a high today and up to 107 on Sunday.  We will probably make good use of the exercise room from now on to take our daily walks - no more of our walking the perimeter of the park for awhile!  Call us pansies or whatever else you care to - I don't relish the idea of having the EMTs stop by because one of us has gone down due to dehydration at 8:30 in the morning!

Other than rain on both the drive out and back and cool weather there, we had a great time catching up with everyone.  Our trip had to be cut short as we had been waiting to get a phone call from Dean's cardiologist concerning an upcoming surgical procedure.  He has been selected to participate in a clinical study for an FDA device for heart patients such as himself who have a limited heart function.  He had to undergo several pre-testings to be approved as well as fall under certain other criteria.  It is a device that will be implanted (much like his pacemaker/defibrillator) under the skin on the right side with a lead attached to the carotid artery.  It's rather technical but in the end the main function is to strengthen the heart muscle as it is in a weakened condition.  We returned early in order to be available for any other testing that needed to be done prior to the surgery, such as blood work, more paperwork, etc!  It looks like the tentative date for surgery is Saturday, June 17 so we would covet your prayers for us on that date.

As we were finishing up the last leg of our journey, we were about an hour from home (having filled up with fuel for the last time) and really on familiar ground by this time.  We rounded a curve on the road in the last large town before we would hit the last stretch of road home and in front of us was a silver car with a personalized license plate I recognized!  It was our friends from our park coming home from a day trip just up the road from where we picked them up!  What a small world!  After being gone 3 weeks and traveling over 3,000 miles we pull in behind a car that we know!  I texted Sue but folks, here's a serious reminder - never text and drive and never text without your glasses on!  Both will get you into trouble!  I was the passenger and I couldn't find my specs.  What started out as a simple "Look behind your car" came out something about a "cat"!  So for the next 10 minutes Dean and I were honking, waving and making fools of ourselves along the road while I kept trying to re-text spelling corrections to get Sue's attention!!  FINALLY, I got through to her we were behind their "car" and she rolled down her window and waved!  They met us at our place as we pulled into the driveway, all of us laughing as we got out of our "cars"!!  

One of these days I'll have to get a set of those eyeglass holders that go around my neck so I can keep track of my specs and avoid the texting disaster we went through!  But then this isn't the first time Sue and I have shared a goofy text or two and I did have my glasses on that time!  But that's a story for another time.  I'm just glad to be back in Arizona - maybe my corner of the world is a little warm but it's where I call home.