Our clan has gathered back “home,” so to speak. This is one of the things that has led us not to post much— as you’ll see, we’ve been busy.
It all started back in the summer. Jon (who now goes by Barry, but that’s a different story) decided that it was about time to take the step he had been thinking about for awhile: move to Knoxville from Asheville to go to school and get out on his own. About the same time, his grandparents (my ex-wife’s dad and his wife) decided to move here for her job needs.
My ex-wife thus decided she also needed to move here with Caty, our 13-year-old, because her “support system” was moving here.
Our oldest daughter, Amanda, who had been thinking of moving here from Columbia, S.C., to go to college and get into a better job market, decided this would be a good time to do so (on a different timeline—Barry wanted to start school fall of 2005, and Amanda aimed for spring of 2006), since everyone else was coming.
Then my mom decided she would also move here, since the whole clan suddenly was in one place.
To sum up, then: Barry moved in with us in late summer (he will stay with us for a few more months while he gets in solid financial shape). We still have him here with us, along with Zach and Hannah. My ex-wife moved here with Caty in, I think, September, after her parents moved. They live across Maryville from us, about a half-hour drive away. Amanda and her boyfriend moved in with us for three weeks in October, and have now moved into their own place in West Knoxville, also about a half-hour drive away. Mom is still waiting for an apartment to become available in her chosen retirement residence, but when she gets here (we hope within a couple of months) she will be about (that’s right) a half-hour drive away.
We’re very glad for all this, but it has kept us very busy. And that’s basically why we haven’t been online much.
More posts later with updates on each of them.