Joanne Heim

Independent living

It's hard to believe that it's been four months since I moved into my new home! I moved in on May 15 and felt pretty settled with the first couple of weeks.  Mom and Dad worked really hard to make that happen, arranging furniture and hanging things on the walls. I think part of growing up in the military and moving a lot is learning to get settled very quickly. The key is to set up your bed first so you have a place to sleep. Next comes the kitchen--gotta have the coffee maker ready to go for your first morning in your new house. A place to sit in the living room is important too, along with clothes in the closet and food in the fridge. My kitchen table was too small for my dining room, but worked for a couple of weeks until we managed to get to IKEA for the one I wanted. Mom and Dad spent long days here working super hard and I made lunches for us on the patio and kept the freezer stocked with popsicles. By the time they went back to Denver for the summer in early June, I was fully moved in and feeling very much at home. I did post house pictures on Facebook as I got settled, so if we're not friends there, send me a request and a note so I know that you're a blog reader.

I do have a short list of house things for Dad when they get back to Arizona in about a month, but everything has gone really well this summer. (I often tell people that I don't have a "Honey-Do" list since I don't have a honey. Instead, I keep an ongoing "Daddy-do" list at his request!)

I really love my home and my neighborhood and have enjoyed getting to know my neighbors. My little neighborhood is very social--we have happy hour on Thursday afternoons at our community pool which is just out my back door, as well as monthly dinners out at local restaurants. We have an active social committee that plans parties and events and it's been fun to get to know some of the women on the committee better since I joined the group last month.

I am still volunteer at the library in Surprise twice a week, something  I thoroughly enjoy. I am still loving my church here (and still attend my Denver church online each week too). Women's Bible study started this past week. We are studying Matthew and I am looking forward to a great year of study with friends on Tuesday mornings.

I really like living on my own and rarely feel lonely. All the same, I am very excited to bring my new kitten home next week. Again, there are pictures of him on Facebook and will be many more once he's home with me!

I am anxious for Mom and Dad to get back. A neighbor asked if I need their help everyday to manage living on my own. My answer was that our family  really likes each other and that I just miss them when they're gone! After they get back, our yearly beach camping trip is coming up.

So lots to look forward to--new kitten adoption and a friend coming for a short visit next week, Mom and Dad returning in a month and then a trip to the beach! 

The rest of my forever home story

There's more to the story of finding and moving into my forever home that I want to tell you.

Of course, my real forever home is heaven and that's not here yet, so this forever home in Arizona is really my pre-forever home, my rest-of-my-life here in Arizona home.

I have known for a long time that Arizona is where I wanted to settle and live for the rest of my days. I loved living in the neighborhood in Surprise where I lived with Mom and Dad for a couple of years and dreamed of settling in a condo in that neighborhood, close to them and surrounded by people I already knew. But the age qualification in Sun Village is 55 and I'm not there yet and knew I was ready to get settled on my own before I'd get there. We petitioned the condo board to ask for special permission for me to live independently in the community, but were denied. Several neighbors suggested we go ahead anyway, but that's a hefty investment to risk, so we decided to accept their ruling and look elsewhere and for me to rent this apartment in the meantime.

We discovered another age-qualified community not too far away and began looking at the different kinds of homes in the community. Westbrook Village has an age qualification of "40plus" so I definitely qualify. The neighborhood includes a variety of single-family homes, high-rise condos and attached patio homes.

We immediately crossed single-family homes off the list because of the maintenance and the condos have an apartment feel with underground parking instead of a garage, so those were off the list too. A bunch of the patio homes have low ceilings and only a single-car garage, so we crossed those off too. Dad identified the sub-communities that remained and set up searches on Zillow to notify us when houses went on the market. We went to a couple of open houses and drove around a lot without finding anything that felt just right. Meanwhile, prices increased and inventory dropped and I was very content here in my little apartment. We picked a favorite floorpan, identified specific homes and wrote letters to the owners to inquire if they were interested in selling. We looked at one that seemed like it might work, made an offer and were rejected. The house needed quite a bit of expensive updating--floors, bathrooms, kitchen--so we accepted that it wasn't meant to be and moved on, trusting that God would work it out in his perfect timing.

On Good Friday, I received an email from Zillow while I was at Mom and Dad's on a house that looked promising. The price, location and updating that had been done all looked great. Mom and Dad made an appointment to go see it while I went to my therapy appointments that afternoon. I then met the realtor the next morning to see it for myself after they gave it their thumbs up. On my way out the door, the realtor mentioned that there were 20 more showings scheduled that afternoon. I told Dad about the showings and that I liked it a lot and he immediately called to say we would make an offer. We wrote letters to the seller to include with the offer for her to review when she got back into town on Sunday evening and prayed for God's will to be done (the prayer that never fails according to Mitford's Father Timothy!) On Monday morning, we got a call that the seller accepted our offer! The closing is this Friday, the seller is staying until the end of May, and I move in on June 1. I  don't know for sure, but I suspect that ours wasn't the only offer and I'm looking forward to the parts of the story we haven't heard someday.

We are all super excited and crazy thankful, praising God every chance we get because it's so clearly his doing!

I will live in it, but it is God's house and I am looking forward to seeing how he will use it for good and his glory.

Forever Home

After living on my own in a little apartment since the beginning of the year, I have found a forever home. I love my apartment and the community it's in and have really enjoyed living on my own. I have felt safe and comfortable and highly recommend this community, but renting is just not ideal for the long term future so we have been looking at patio homes from for the past few months, hoping to find the perfect place. And on Easter weekend, we found it so I will be moving again at the beginning of June and I am giddy with excitement!

It's in a neighborhood is in Peoria, just about 15 minutes from here in Surprise (and therefore from my parents) and closer to the highway, which will put me 15-20 minutes closer to my church and the rehab office where I am doing PT and OT twice a week, which will mean less miles on my car and fewer trips to get gas. The house is what we would call a patio home, where the HOA maintains everything except the inside of the house, so there's no maintenance for me except for cleaning house.  It backs to a large green space and the sidewalk to the small community pool. (There are two large community centers in the development with big pools, sports  courts, clubs and golf courses.) They offer all kinds of clubs and craft so it's kind of like camp for grown-ups. My house has two bedrooms and two bathrooms and is a split floorplan, giving me and any guests plenty of privacy. There's a two-car garage and gobs of storage. In the future, if Mom and Dad decide to sell their home here in Arizona to be year-round Coloradans, they can still snowbird and stay with me quite comfortably. Until then, they have delayed their return to Denver until I get settled, which shouldn't take too long since the house is in terrific shape and the few projects I'd like to do can wait to be done for quite a while--new kitchen countertops and redoing the master shower. The existing counters and shower are really fine,   just not exactly to my taste.

In other news, I am still working with Friends of the Surprise Libraries and am excited to begin volunteering at our bookstore in the library again when we open early next week. I'm also doing lots of PT and OT after my new doctor referred me to  a neurologic rehab office. All in all, I am delighted to be an Arizona girl from now until forever. The other day it was 39 in Denver and 93 here, which just goes to prove again why I am so happy here!

I will be sure to post pictures on Facebook, which is where I share more about my everyday life. Look me up there if you want.

 

Big news

Dear Friends:

We got back home to Arizona from summer in Colorado in mid-October, got settled for a week and then went to California for a week to camp on the beach just north of Oceanside on Camp Pendleton for what has become our yearly October trip. It's always fun to sit on the beach and walk in the sand and revisit places I loved while living in north San Diego in 2003-2006. Highlights this year included lunch with a bunch of girlfriends from my Bible study group there as well as moms from my Girl Scout troop. While the weather this year wasn't quite as warm as it was in 2019, we did see a large pod of dolphin who spent most of an afternoon just off the beach where we camped.

After getting settled again here at home, we all got back to our churches (Mom and Dad attend the church here in our neighborhood while I attend Open Door Fellowship in Phoenix) I have not been volunteering at the library since  it has been closed.

My sister and her family came to visit over Thanksgiving and we had a great time together.

Mom and Dad drove back to Denver earlier this week for Christmas and took Maddie with them.She is still hanging on despite her liver cancer  diagnosis last April though she has slowed down and really hates the medicine she takes twice a day. (Her vet put her on a variety of Chinese herbs that have kept her alive this long, according to the vet the other day.)

I fly to Denver next week and we will spend Christmas morning at my sister's house, which has become our tradition since they finished the space above their garage a several years ago. I have an appointment with my neurologist on New Year's Eve to get my Botox injections and then we will drive back here together and get hoe on January 2.

I am anxious to go and then get back here because on January 4, I am moving out and into my own apartment! It's a cute little place very close b this neighborhood less than two miles and across the street from Trader Joe's!)--brand new and all on one level. It's just one bedroom, but even has a small backyard and will be plenty big for me. Maddie will stay here with my parents since giving her medicine is a two-person job and I want her to keep taking it. I have picked out some furniture and will bring some things from Denver that have been storage in our basement there for years. I have started collecting things here too and have piles in the guest room closet (a coffee maker and kitchen utensils and such, ready to go along with all of my things in the casita.. 

I am super excited and have told people that I have that giddy/excited birthday/Christmas feeling from childhood all the time now. This has been a goal and dream our family has talked about for a few years now and I can hardly believe it's really happening. 

While Mom and Dad always mean Colorado when they talk about home, Arizona has come to feel like home to me and I am thrilled to become an official Arizona girl!

If I don't check in again before Christmas, I hope yours is filled with great joy!

 

Packing up to head out

Good Wednesday morning! Mom and Dad brought the camper to the house on their way home from Colorado Springs last night and we are busy packing today (for me, that means my bed is covered in piles of clothes) before we hit the road tomorrow and head east on our mostly annual  end-of-summer trip. We plan to be gone for several weeks and see things we've not seen before, including the headwaters of the Mississippi River in Minnesota somewhere. Dad has planned it all and he did send me the spreadsheet so I can see where we're going each day, but mostly, I'm along for the ride and look out the window as we travel on smaller roads through farmland and small towns. We could travel on interstate highways, but that gets boring for whoever is driving and the camper doesn't go very fast, so it's  a better choice to drive the smaller roads and see all the things you miss on a bigger highway.

It feels like summer is starting to wind down, which makes me sad since I love summer so much. It's finally pushing the high 90s here in Denver and really feeling summery, even though I haven't spent any time at the pool. It wasn't warm enough for a long time and the pool needed repairs before finally opening. And because of Covid, the pool furniture is not out and  you have to make a reservation and take your own chair and wear a mask unless you're in the water and that's just too much hassle, so I get my sun while walking and praying through  the neighborhood (at least three miles a day lately!) or just sitting in the sunshine in the front yard. I do require a lot of sunshine since I am definitely solar powered.

In short, it's just been a strange summer and I am excited to get back to Arizona in October and for life to get back to something more normal.

Time to carry a load out to the camper but I wanted to say a quick hello. I am not taking my computer on our trip, but you can follow along on Facebook, as always.

 

Colorado update

Good morning, friends! Can you believe it's June 1 already?! We have been back in Denver for almost two weeks and summer is finally arriving this week with the warmer temperatures I love.

Our drive from Arizona was pretty uneventful. I drove my car most of the way, following Mom and Dad in the camper. And because the camper tows a car, it doesn't go very fast. On the second day of driving from Moab into Denver, I averaged 50 mpg! Betty (my little VW Beetle convertible) usually gets great gas mileage, but that was exceptionally good! I  had forgotten that I had a couple of the Chronicles of Narnia from Focus on the Family Radio Theater on my phone, so I listened to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and The Magician's Nephew as I drove, which made the time go by quickly. And meant that every time Mom asked if I wanted her to drive my car for a while, my answer was "No,I'm in the middle of a book!" I usually prefer to read books and had forgotten how much I enjoy listening to books on road trips. I think it reminds me of being a kid when Mom and Dad read to us  on a daily basis.  I'll have to find something fun for the drive back to Arizona in October...

My Maddie-girl seems to be doing okay. She has perked up in the cooler Colorado weather and we found some canned food that she likes, so she is eating and even looks like she's filling out some! By emptying the contents of her pill capsules into chicken stock, Mom and Dad are able to use a syringe to get most of her medicine into her twice a day, which gives me hope. Her vet in Arizona is sending more medicine in the mail, so she will continue her regimen of cancer-fighting Chinese herbs over the summer. Dad has her in the shower at the moment and said she ran when he came to get her, so she's not quite sure  about our intentions any more.

It's been good to be with family some since we got back. We spent yesterday afternoon at my sister Kristen's house. Wade grilled hamburgers and hotdogs and we enjoyed sitting outside on their patio with Wade's parents and  their other grandsons while the kids ran around and jumped on the trampoline. I am going to visit a friend from the stroke center this afternoon (The stroke center has been closed, so I will miss going to my art therapy group this summer for sure!) I am looking forward to catching up with other friends in the next few weeks and am excited to get my hair cut in a couple of day--I did get it cut before we left Phoenix, but it's growing fast and it's time for another one.

Our neighborhood pool here needs some repair work and my fingers are crossed that it will open eventually. In the meantime, the front porch and the back deck are nice places to sit when it's sunny and still.

I am attending church online both here and in Phoenix as always and am looking forward to getting to go in person in the months ahead as more things reopen.

The library here will bring requested materials to your car, so we've been watching movies every evening--we recommend Overcomer, Mom's Night Out, The Upside and The Zookeeper's Wife if you're looking for something to watch.

I hope you're doing well. As always, I love hearing from you, so comment away!

Joanne

 

Change of address

As I wrote in my last post about our summer plans, we are going back to Denver for the summer to be together and close to our doctors in the midst of all of this uncertainty. And today is the day--we are packed and leaving in a few hours to drive back. We take the camper back and forth with us. It gives us tons of room to pack, a place to stay overnight on the road and tows the little car I used to drive. (A car towed by a camper is called a toad or a dingy, we call the little Chevy Sonic "Alvin" since he is little and powered by chipmunks!) I am driving my new-to-me car ("Betty," a convertible VW Beetle, and following behind as the tail-end of our traveling parade)

The weather here in Phoenix has been perfect--right in my sweet spot of 90-105 degrees--and I'm not so sure about being back in Denver where it's not quite hot summer weather yet. (Thanks to friends there who have posted forecasts on Facebook for me that show a couple of days that get close to 80! That has greatly helped my attitude.)

If wee aren't friends on Facebook, you may not have seen my post the other day about my Maddie-girl. She hadn't been her usual happy self and was not eating much and was sleeping more than usual so we took her to the vet last week and learned that she has liver cancer. The vet is hopeful about an Eastern medicine treatment and Maddie has a regimen of Chinese herbs that we are giving her each day and will continue over the summer. Maddie is her usual sweet self, just showing all of her 14 years  more than she was. We are letting her set her own pace and loving her as much as possible in whatever time we have with her. I have received so many Facebook comments and messages  that are so encouraging. I am glad to be with her over the summer and know that she will enjoy the cooler summer weather in Colorado since she doesn't like the Arizona heat that I love so much!

I have a list of things I'm looking forward to in Denver for the summer and can say I really I am content with our decision to be there now that I am past my initial disappointment. 

 

I will check in once we arrive at our house in south Denver tomorrow sometime and as always, I post daily updates and pictures on Facebook. Mom just  said we're getting close to hitting the road and I need to put my computer in a box so happy summer, my friends!

 

 

Joanne

 

Quarantine life and Summer plans

Hello friends and Happy May!

I saw a picture on Facebook yesterday that said you realize how anti-social you are when there's a pandemic and your life doesn't change much. I told Mom and Dad about it and we all took a bit of offense. Our life hasn't changed as much as it has for so many others during this pandemic quarantine, but we are definitely not antisocial.  Perhaps it's that we are retired and don't have young children living with us that accounts for the lack of big changes in our life.

But life has changedbecause we are staying home so much and because our neighborhood closed down for the most part more than a month ago, but we are still sitting outside in the sunshine, eating meals together and taking walks. I try to take Maddie for a drive most afternoons. (She likes to drive with the top down and the music turned up nice and loud!) We aren't running errands, having people over or eating out (something we don't do much anyway). We aren't going to church (though  between the three of us, we attend 4-5 churches online every week). I am not walking on the treadmill (the PT office is not allowing people to come and use the gym individually like I have done for about a year). The libraries are closed so I am not volunteering (Many of our volunteers are in an at-risk group so we voted as a board to close our bookstore just a few days before the county closed the libraries). 

We are doing puzzles on the dining room table (even Dad who has never liked puzzles!) And we are reading books. I am sunbathing a lot in 15-30-minute blocks on the back patio. We are missing the pool--especially now that it's getting to be perfect pool weather here (mid-90s to low-100s). The pool is closed along with our community center. The golf course is still open and the busiest time for it is before 8 each morning since we hit the high 80s by 9:30 or 10. 

I know this kind of heat makes many of you cringe, but I love it! Part of the reason we started coming to Arizona in the winter five or so years ago is because I feel so much better in warm weather. The hotter it gets, the less my body hurts.

That's part of the reason I stayed here in Arizona last summer. That, and to take the big step of living independently for months at a time. Prior to last year, the longest I had been alone was a couple of weeks. Last summer went really well and as a result, we started talking about my moving out on my own on more of a permanent basis. It's a goal we are still pursuing, though it's been put on hold until all of this pandemic uncertainty settles down. I am not old enough to live in a condo here in our neighborhood, but a new rental community is opening just a few blocks from our back gate that looks interesting and there are a few other condo developments that could be long-term possibilities.

In the meantime, I had planned to stay here in Arizona again this summer. With me here, there's no need to close the house down or have a caretaker keep an eye on things, so it's been good all around.

Mom and Dad have always been planning to return to Denver this summer, leaving mid-May as they did last year and taking Maddie with them since she doesn't like the heat and requires some care like bathing that I can't manage on my own. She and I do fine together for shorter time intervals, but for months at a time, she needs to be with them.

Because of this uncertainty, it is wise for our family to stay together this summer. And because Denver will always be home to Mom and Dad and because all of our medical providers are there, we are all going to be in Denver for the summer and will leave here on May 19.

I am sad and disappointed not to stay here (my heart has really settled here)--especially since I won't be able to tell friends here goodbye with everything closed.

As I told my Bible study group the other day as we were catching up in a group text, I had been praying a bunch and told God my heart's desire was to be here, but more for his will to be done. I hoped they would want to stay together here. My head understands the wisdom and logic of our decision, but my heart is sad and disappointed. At the same time, I wholeheartedly believe that his plans are for my good and his glory, so I am curious to see what this summer will hold!

I am hoping things in Colorado reopen soon (I really need a haircut!) and that it will be possible to spend time with friends and family somehow

Church online is convenient and familiar  since I attend my church in Denver online every week, but I miss having other people singing with me!As a friend commented on Facebook earlier, the congregational singing for church online leaves something to be desired! :)

How are you, my friends? I have to admit that I'm trying not to think about all of the things I could have been doing with all this time at home and instead to give myself some grace!

 

 

 

 

Checking in

Good morning, friends!

I thought I'd say a quick hello and check in to see how everyone is doing. I see from Facebook that many of you are reading and doing puzzles and  taking walks to get outside--all of the things we're doing here too.

As of today our neighborhood has closed and/or cancelled most activities, both indoors and outside. The community center has been closed for almost a week and the pools, sports courts and even the golf course are closing today. We have books and movies, as well as a couple of 1,000-piece puzzles, so boredom hasn't hit too badly. The weather has been sunny and mild, so I sit  out in the sun as much as possible. I do need to get out and walk more, especially since I have not been going to walk on the treadmill. The physical therapy gym has remained open, but I have decided to stay home.

Like so many, I am grateful for the technology that has allowed me to "go" to virtual church, something that feels pretty normal me, since I attend my church in Denver (Mission Hills Church) online every week. We are super fortunate that there is so much great teaching available online--so many churches have sermons on their websites and through their free apps and podcasts.I have always enjoyed listening to sermons while I walk on the treadmill.

How are you doing and what are you up to today? I'd love to know!

 

 

 

 

Volunteering

 

When we first spent time here in northwest Phoenix in Surprise in 2017, we were glad to discover how great the library here is. Located across the street from the Surprise Stadium (the spring training home for the Texas Rangers and the Kansas City Royals) and down the street from city hall, the Northwest Regional Library is spacious and offers a wide variety of materials and programs for local residents. We were also pleased to find a terrific used bookstore (the biggest and best in this part of Phoenix it turns out!) in the lobby with a huge selection of books and magazines and movies for sale at bargain prices and staffed by friendly volunteers. With magazines priced at  5 for a dollar, Mom quickly started a collection of Food Network magazines  to have on hand in place of bringing heavy cookbooks back and forth from Denver. Even better was finding practically new current issues for only 25 cents and then seeing the same issue still on the newsstand at the grocery store within a few days of visiting the library! While Mom browsed the stacks of magazines, Dad and I searched movies for anything we'd like to own or movies that we knew weren't available to stream for free. For just $3 apiece, we brought home some great DVDs  and Blue Rays to add to our library hereat the house or in the camper for when we travel.

We often stopped to talk to the volunteers on our way in or out of the library and learned a bit more about the bookstore. Run by the Friends of the Surprise Libraries, the bookstore was started as a way to raise money to bring a public library to the town of Surprise. After the library became part of the Maricipa County Library System, the store continued as a way to support the local community.

Everything on the shelves is donated to the group and the money earned is returned to the community in the form of donations, educational grants, scholarships, gifts and free classroom materials for local teachers. We also run a bookmark contest every year where 6, 7, and 8th graders design a bookmark and have the opportunity to win a small cash prize and have their design made into bookmarks that we give away for free. Recently, Friends surpassed $600,000 donated to the community and is well on its way to the $700,000 mark! In addition, the group helps support a smaller library branch that has been able to expand its hours, giving children in that neighborhood more accessibility to the library and its free services.

I joined the Friends organization in the fall of 2018 and began volunteering in the bookstore on Sunday afternoons in January 2019. I enjoyed volunteering so much that I added a volunteer shift on Friday afternoons as well.

As I tell regular customers and library patrons that I've come to know, it's a pretty great deal--I get to meet interesting people and talk about books  and be indoors during the hot afternoons in the Arizona summer. (This afternoon, I met someone from Athens, Georgia and we talked about music and concerts we've been to for a while. Turns out she's known the Indigo Girls "forever.")

Last fall, I joined the board  of the Friends group and am thoroughly enjoying being even more involved with the group.

As I have found from visiting stroke survivors and other patients with my Maddie-dog at the rehab hospital in Denver, volunteering my time and giving back is super rewarding!

I'm curious, friends, do you volunteer anywhere? I'd love to hear about what you do and where if you'd like to leave a comment!

I've purposely included a bunch of links in this blog post in case you want to learn more or see any pictures!

Have a great weekend, everyone!