Thankful Thursday

Happy start of May! Today's list, working backward in time a bit...I'm thankful for...

1. Finishing up at UNC for the academic year. So, tomorrow is technically the end of the spring semester for UNC, but Asher's last final exam was on Tuesday. Given that students were required to move out of the dorms within 24 hours of their last final and given that I wanted Nathan and Noah to be available to help, we moved Asher home Tuesday night. Wow, he had a lot of stuff, lol.

The top right photo is a look at the last two loads staged in the common area just outside of Asher's dorm room. The bottom right photo is our front room yesterday...keeping in mind that Asher had already taken a few things up to his bedroom, the mini fridge isn't in this photo, and the large standing desk was still in the back of the car at this point. (For what it's worth, Asher brought home a load of things the weekend before and then we had both our minivan and the SUV Asher drives to bring back everything Tuesday night.)

So, yes, very thankful that we had extra people to pack Asher out (particularly given that Asher's still recovering from his sprained ankle and since his room is on the third floor and a decent walk from the elevators).

I'm happy to report that the mini fridge is the only thing still left in the front room today! (Had to clear the room before we move Micah home next week, lol.) Asher and I spent yesterday clearing stuff out of his bedroom and sorting things before finding a place for everything (in his room, back in his car, in the guest room, etc). Yay!  

Thankful, then, for a successful move home...that Asher finished out the semester strong and is still very happy with UNC...and, oh!, for the incredibly fun shopping spree the four of us had using up most of the remaining money on Asher's dining plan at the convenience store in the student union building after we'd loaded everything up on Tuesday. :)

2. Micah's eye health. Last week, Micah started having issues with migraines. He's never had them before. On Friday, he finally went to Urgent Care to see if they could help. He was thoroughly unimpressed by their "help" (to be fair, they're maybe inundated with college students right now...still, they didn't really do much other than to tell him what he already knew and had been doing). But. In preparing to go to Urgent Care, Micah had been looking up whether his arthritis meds would prevent him from taking migraine meds. This prompted some back and forth communication with his rheumatologist's office and concern over his eye health, as apparently sometimes his arthritis can lead to eye inflammation that would present as persistent headache and could be rather bad news (leading to things like vision loss).

There was enough concern and potential downside that Nathan and I ended up driving the hour down to Boulder on Saturday, picking Micah up, driving back up here to have him seen at our optometrists' office (very thankful that one of them was able/willing to come in for an emergency visit on a Saturday!!) who have been monitoring for that since his arthritis diagnosis already, and then taking him back to Boulder. (Thankful, too, that our sons ended up close to home, as it's made dealing with health issues considerably easier than if they were out of state for college.)

Fortunately, after all that, Micah's eye health is excellent. Whew. Great and appreciated news, but we still haven't figured out what's causing the migraines. Since Micah has finals and final papers this week and next and since he's already tried Urgent Care and has ruled out possible eye health issues, the current plan is for Micah to just power through until he's done with the semester and then talk more with his rheumatologist at a previously scheduled routine appointment at the end of next week. Ugh. As of last night, though, Micah says he's starting to feel a bit better.

3. Not having a commute. With all of the driving lately back and forth to both UNC and CU, Nathan and I are thankful to not have commutes. Truly.

4. A good rain. Last Friday and Saturday brought a good spring rain. While I dislike the grey of it, I'll be thankful for the precipitation and how it's helped in turning things from brown to green around here.

5. Not having seasonal allergies. With everything turning green, I'm very thankful that I don't suffer from seasonal allergies. Nathan and Micah aren't as fond of everything turning green and have been battling allergies the last month or so. For Nathan, at least his allergies here haven't been as bad as when we lived in Eugene or in Durham. (It was pretty horrible for him from April to July...he was wearing masks when outdoors.) This year has been worse than others, though...enough to get Nathan to try other allergy meds. Thank goodness for Allegra, as it seems to be doing a better job than the Claritin he'd taken before. 

Okay, that's a good list for now. So much to be thankful for!