Tam's Think Tank

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Karen and I have been looking at houses in Champaign/Urbana online.  For those of you who’ve been asking, and maybe for some of you who don’t know as of yet that this is going on… we are moving to Illinois.  Why?  Well, it’s pretty simple.  Mary and Martin, and our grandson Sebastian, are moving to Illinois, and we want to be closer to them.  Martin, our son in law, has accepted a teaching position with the University of Illinois.   It’s a great opportunity for him and for their family.

We are excited about living near them.  Karen and Mary realized recently they haven’t even lived in the same state, let alone same country, for ten years.  First Mary went off to University in St. Louis, then she stayed there after graduating to work as a research assistant for a couple of years, and finally she met Martin and moved to England with him.  Ten years is a long long time for two people who are so close to each other.  It will be great for them to be able to see each other.  And all of that doesn’t even cover how much we want to live close to our grandson, be a part of his life, watch him change and grow.  We want to hang out with him, be a family with him, get to love him up close, and have him know us.  It’s very important to us.

So we’ve decided to move… decided to make the huge decision to change our lives, leave the state I’ve always lived in, leave our friends, and my family.  It’s big, and we aren’t doing it lightly.  We’ve thought about this, a lot.  We think it’s the right thing for us right now.  There’s nothing more important than the people in our lives.  We will miss everyone here, tremendously, but we are embracing this new adventure and moving forward full steam ahead to be with another part of our family.

Illinois… cold winters, humid summers, the midwest.  It’s different.  Not somewhere we thought we’d go, but we are excited about it. Being somewhere new to us (well, Karen lived in Illinois when she was a kid for a couple of years so it’s not totally new to her, but she was pretty young, so this will seem new), experiencing what that part of the country has to offer, using that also as a jumping off point to so many other places on that side of the U.S.  We’ve already checked out the driving distance between Champaign/Urbana and many points over there.  It’s cool to think how many great spots are within an 8 hour drive.  Plus, we will be only a couple of hours from Chicago, which we fell in love with when we were there for the kid’s wedding.  There are trains every day to and from Chicago.  It’s going to be good.

We plan on coming back to Oregon every summer for a month or so, probably during the most humid month or even months in Illinois.  We have an advantage in that Karen can work from anywhere, which makes this possible in the first place.  That means we can come back for a month or two in the summer, staying with different people here, and she can work, not have to take vacation.  Plus, I know people will come see us.  Even if they don’t want to visit Champaign/Urbana, they will come to see Chicago, and we can meet them there.

It’s stressful… loads to coordinate, but so very good.  And for those wondering about my treatment, etc… we have talked to my oncologist.  He says people move all the time.  The only thing we have to make sure of is to give them enough time to get all my records together to send to the new doc and clinic.  Karen has talked to her HR about the change in insurance and we have a list of hematologists who work at a cancer center in Champaign/Urbana.  We are going to try and get a consultation appointment with one or more of them when we go to visit in June.  We will get all of it worked out.  My maintenance protocol is very common.

Visiting in June…. Karen, Mom, and I are flying there in June to check out the area, look at homes (hopefully buy one…), and meet one or two doctors.  We have a few days.  We’re flying into Chicago and then driving.  We’re excited about that as well.  Never been there, new place.  We love new places.  We love exploring.

So there you have it… the big news.  The big change.  The big… big.