Back to School
Yesterday we moved Jonathan back to Whitworth. It was a bittersweet day for us. Of course, we'll miss having him home, but we're happy for him. He was really excited to get back there and see all his friends again. It was really sad for me not to have the Harrisons there. It just didn't feel right moving him into a room with a different roommate, who wasn't even there at first (the third roommate, Steve, wasn't even there by 4 PM!). When the roommate, Justin, did get there with his dad, well... it wasn't Tom & JoAnn. We shook hands and stuff, but no "click"... not a lot of interaction... nothing like move-in and move-out last year. I felt like crying. Justin is a nice boy, probably a great roommate for Jonathan, but he's not Nathan. I like Nathan! I miss Nathan! I really miss Tom & JoAnn!!!! I thought about them all day. Parents' Weekend will not be the same without them (Nathan is in the British Isles doing a semester abroad and won't be back at Whitworth until January so his folks won't come to Parents' Weekend in October, naturally).
Okay, on to the move-in. We got a really nice sofa (for free) for his room from one of the gals at work who is moving to Hawaii next month. Since we couldn't fit the sofa and all of Jonathan's stuff in our Suburban, Shana & Ryan helped with the move, bringing the sofa in their pickup along with a few other items we needed to move. We got to campus at about 9:45 AM. Move-in starts at 10:00 AM. Jonathan was the first person to check-in to Mac (his dorm - McMillan Hall). His room this year is in the basement. It's a really cool room. It's shaped like a "T" with a really fat up and down part and it's pretty good sized. At the end of last year, we bought the carpet that was in the room from the roommates for $50. They were to mark the carpet with either their name or Jonathan's name and put it in the attic in Mac for us to install this year. Well, we couldn't find it anywhere. That's not to say it's not up there, but there are probably 50 rolls of carpeting up there from who knows how many years ago! Obviously, we needed to get the carpet in place - and vacuumed - before we moved computers and sofas and whatnot into the room. After looking through dozens of rolls of carpet and asking around, wasting precious time, we finally decided to move his stuff in, put it on the beds and desks, and let him and his roommates, Justin and Steve, locate Seth (the kid we bought it from) and the carpet and install it later. We were on our way to "Pig Out in the Park" in downtown Spokane by 11:30. It felt weird just dumping him off like that, but there wasn't a lot we could do, and Shana & Ryan and their kids were getting restless. Had they not been with us, we probably would have stayed, found the carpet, and helped them organize their room. I talked with Jonathan on the phone about 4 PM and they had yet to locate the carpet, or Seth, and Steve had yet to arrive. Jonathan was on his way over to Warren where Seth is living this year. I told him that if he doesn't find the carpet, Seth needs to pay him back the $50. He can use that to go buy some new carpet remnants for the room. In the meantime, their room is still in an uproar as they don't want to move everything into place and then try to put the carpet in after the fact. I guess they'll figure it out. He did sound happy when I talked to him though. I could tell he was glad to be with his friends and out from under Mom and Dad's scrutiny and his 5 AM wake-up for work.
We spent a couple of hours at Riverfront Park eating Italian sausage sandwiches (the best ever!) and drinking strawberry slushy things and watching people on a gorgeous Labor Day, then headed to Tommy's house where we were to celebrate Alyssa's 3rd birthday (actually on the 7th). Shannon's mom, stepdad, brother and his wife, and two sisters were also there. We didn't realize they were barbecuing burgers or we wouldn't have eaten so much at "Pig Out"... oh well. When we got to Tommy's he came out to greet us, a big grin filling his face. He had worked his rear end off to install his "water feature" before our arrival and had just finished it that morning. He wanted to have done at least some part of the front yard renovation himself - and he did a great job! They bought one of those fountains that is a big, tall stone with water coming out of the middle of it and cascading down the rock into a catch basin that is filled with the same rock in his landscape beds. It looks great! We were so impressed and proud of him. Then, to our utter surprise and delight, he directed us toward the garage wherein stood a gift they had bought to thank us for our hard work - a beautiful concrete heron we had admired at the place he got his fountain. Tom has wanted a heron or two for our yard for a long time, but we've never felt like spending the money for one. This one is amazing! It cost about $200, a price we would never have paid ourselves! Tom didn't want to accept it because he knew how much it was. I had no idea. Tommy just smiled and said it was the least they could do as we had saved them so much money, not only by installing their patio for them, but by helping them select plants and stuff that cost far less than they had budgeted for those things. They saved almost $1000, not counting our labor. So, now his yard is finished and looks awesome (photos will be forthcoming as soon as I get to work) and we have a heron!
Well, time to get ready for work. Photos to come. And some Victoria photos and vacation info too... Note to Harrisons - you guys are the best ever and I'm so glad our boys were roommates last year so we could meet. We missed you so much yesterday, you have no idea!!!!
