Happy Tuesday (from Niki)

Good afternoon all!
I’m glad everyone, especially Paul, is happy and healthy. Life with the Strotmans is going well. Last week was Matt’s 27th birthday (and our two-year engagement anniversary!) so we had plenty of cake and lots of lovely visitors. Gigi and Maria came to visit and drop off a card and cookies, John and Sue came by for cake and beers, and Matt’s entire family came to town as well.

As Gigi so graciously complimented, I do indeed have a black movie-themed office. I attached a picture since nearly everyone says, “wow, this is much nicer than what I pictured” when they finally see it. :o) It was a gift for our one-year anniversary, and I was completely surprised. It’s the perfect place to do work without distractions. Maria is too funny with her “colorful” description, and I guess I’d have to agree when it comes to wall color. Our great room and kitchen are a neutral tanish-green, but we go quite bold on the other rooms. Other walls include redish-purple, terracotta orange, butter yellow, lime green, navy blue, mint green and chocolate, and black. You are all welcome to stop by anytime. I’ve already muscled my way into line for the Bull Family picnic!

I’m heading to New Orleans on Thursday, so hopefully I’ll get some work done among the chaos. They said it will be pretty calm by then, but who knows what “pretty calm” means to a New Orleans-ier this time of year.

Connie had asked what I did, so here’s a brief description: My official title is National Federal Marketing Coordinator. HDR is a full service architecture and engineer (A/E) company, and I work in the federal division. That means anything the federal government wants to spend money on for A/E services, we can do. This includes everything from barracks and rifle training facilities on military bases to environmental studies and bridges for the National Forest Service. Basically an agency will say, “We need a company to do XYZ, give us a proposal and we’ll pick the best one”. I work with the engineers and architects to take the technical information and make it speak to the specific client and creatively tell a story for that proposal. (All that “marketing” stuff.) In the case of New Orleans, we’re pursuing work with nearly every government agency that needs A/E services right now. The Veteran’s Affairs needs hospitals rebuilt, National Parks need cleaned up, and this week, we’re pursuing work with the US Army Corps of Engineers to do future hurricane protection and coastal restoration. It’s pretty high profile, so we’re keeping our fingers crossed.

I loved Nancy's story about seeing the lotto check press-conference. Matt was pretty interested in your backstage dish about the lawyer. I was definitely looking for you in the background when they showed it on all the channels later.

As always, it’s great to keep up with everyone, so keep posting and I’ll see you soon!

Take care,
Niki

Paul came home today!!!!

Good news! Paul came home today, beating the estimated time of release by 24 hrs. He's walking upright, climbing stairs, and going to have tomato soup and mashed potatoes for supper...only instructions we got was return to regular diet, avoiding hard to digest or spicy foods. Considering he only started eating jello yesterday, I didn't want to get too wild and have an explosion!!

Better news!! The tumor was malignant BUT was encapsulated, entirely within the bowel, and none of the 29 lymph nodes they took had any cancer cells. We will see the oncologist, but are hopeful any further treatment will be comparatively "mild" and easily tolerated.

I plan to sleep long and hard tonight...Thank you all for your prayers and good wishes.

Love,
Mary Jo

Better late than never . . . (Gigi)

Gigi and Erika say "Hello".

Our thoughts and prayers are with Paul and those who love him, Mary Jo.

I thank Suki for reminding me of the latest method in keeping up-to-date with everyone. This works wonderfully. Kudos to Sue and Mary Jo for launching this project.

Our family has not been online too long. Given her age, Erika uses it the most between keeping up with her many friends, school reports, and computer games, it does not leave spare time for anyone else to play.

Speaking of Erika, she is indecisive as to which highschool to attend. Her first choice is Skutt Catholic High; which is expensive. Her second choice is either Millard West (which would require moving) or Millard South. Marty has saved for his daughters' college education. However, $30,000 for four years of high school is a little much. The ROTC Air National Guard (ANG) has great opportunities I hear for college minded students and depending on what state you enlist, they pay up to 100% of tuition. Something else to consider. Any thoughts or comments anyone? So many decisions. . .

Maria is enjoying 3rd grade. Her favorite items of interest are: friends, Shaylee, Brownies, parties, reading, and changing purses.

Shaylee likes day care more than any child we know. Dolls are her favorite play time activity. In fact, Cassidy gave her the perfect Christmas gift. A cabbage patch doll whose name is Shaylie. She happens to be the doll of choice.

Maria and I visited Niki and Matt last night in their home. Wow! Check out the black room. It is so cool. I like the brown and mint green room too. However, you don't see too many rooms painted black and this was tastefully done. The hot pink curtains, white shelving and picture frames make it a sophisicated study room for our "colorful" (one of Maria's discriptions of Cousin Niki) Niki. Great job, Matt!!

Marty works too many long days. He has something to look forward to come May. He and Uncle Steve will be going to Canada to fish or something. It will be good for them to get away and do the brotherly bond thing. How nice for them to have each other outside their harem.

Uh-oh, dinner time. I must run.

Chow for now! (No pun intended)

Gigi and Erika

Report from Mary Jo

Dear Family,

Yes, Suki, I did feel you all with me yesterday. I had five friends who pretty much spent the day with me. Their presence and knowing people from all over were concerned really did help. (By the way, when the surgeon came out, he talked to me with my friends. After he left, one of the most organized of the group took a notepad and said, "Let's repeat what he said, and write down what we heard." So, she did that for me. Then, when the surgeon came to Paul's room, I asked him to read what we thought we heard and he concurred, so I feel like what I'm telling Paul and others is correct.) Just a little tip in case any of you find yourself in that situation....)

The tumor was malignant, but not huge, and was contained within the bowel wall, protruding into the inside of the colon (what they saw in the colonoscopy). The surgeon got all of the tumor and assured me all of the surrounding organs looked perfectly normal. They removed 16" of the large intestine and 4" of the small intestine. (They assured me that was a "generous margin".) Lymph nodes are located all along the outer bowel in the lining that covers it. (It has a name, I can't remember it.) Those, of course, will be analyzed, but we won't have the pathology report until Monday. So it will be a long week-end for us. He will be in the hospital at least until Tueday to be sure his digestive system is working...Hard to make that happen since he's had no food since Tuesday, and only gets saline for two days post-surgery. I'm happy he's there, though. It's quite an incision and he was heavily sedated last night. I'm hoping he's going to be feeling better when I go in this morning.

How's Paul Doing? from suki

hi all,
just waiting for good news about paul's surgery today. mj, could you just feel everyone's thoughts and prayers while you were there? when you're back home and relieved it's all over, let us know. this is a great way to get firsthand information.

so, do you think sasha cohen was on the podium saying to herself, "if i'm up here one more frickin' time being a bridesmaid, i'm taking up curling."

suki

Nancy's addition

Good afternoon, dear family,
I've been away from home since Sunday and was thrilled to get back to Geneva and find so many new entries.
Mary Jo, you and Paul will be uppermost on my mind tomorrow. I have lots of confidence that everything will be just fine for him.
Suki, thanks for the photo tip. I got as far as the screen saying the photo was being loaded, but it didn't go any further. After several minutes, I gave up. What am I doing wrong? My computer lacks memory, so maybe that's the glitch.
I got to do something really fun today--go to the Lottery ceremony in Lincoln! We were having a special ed directors' meeting in the room next door at the Cornhusker this morning and just happened to have a break at 10:30 when the winners got their checks. We trooped into the ballroom (and I promptly hid from the cameras so I wouldn't show up on TV during the workday :) and enjoyed watching the winners answer questions. The young man from Viet Nam who bought the ticket (who was wearing the same Nebraska stocking hat he wore that day) answered his questions with Yes/No until CNN told him they had a simultaneous translater ready so he could talk in his native language and tell about his experience. It took quite awhile for him to understand what was happening, but then he started chattering in Vietnamese for several minutes. By the end, he had tears in his eyes--it was very touching.
The winners' attorney was chosen b/c they found his name in the yellow pages and he happened to be in his office at 3:00 on Sunday afternoon. He considered not answering the phone b/c he was walking out the door to go home, but did and this was the conversation: "Can some friends and I come to your office?" "Yes, but what for?" "Can't say." "Who is this?" "Can't say." He was thrilled, of course, and is getting quite a commission for happening to work on that Sunday.
The governor had just finished his speech to us, then went next door to say, with glee, that the Nebraska tax rolls grew by $9 million with this win.
Our pastor's son is out of the hospital in Texas and will stay for awhile for the drs to monitor him. What a relief!!
Time to unpack.....
Love, Nancy

News on Paul's Surgery from Mary Jo

Paul's colon surgery has been scheduled for Thursday (2/23) He goes on a liquid diet and antibiotics tomorrow and has to take the liquid laxative tomorrow. He has to be at the hospital at 9:30 on Thursday morning. Who knows when the actual surgery will take place. They figure it will take 2-2 1/2 hrs. This is all starting to get to me. I'll be so relieved when this is over. Right now he's in getting a sonogram of the area in his leg where the cardiologist inserted the catheter for the heart catheterization he had last Thursday. It has developed a big lump that they need to check out. Probably nothing, but...

Just knowing you are all out there behind us helps. Thanks...

By the way Suki, I'm sorry I was mistaken about your place of employment. I knew you had started one of the places and then moved to the other; but, obviously, I was confused. That's one of the reasons I'm so happy to be "blogging". It helps us all get to know each other a little better! We have an interesting family. Aren't we lucky?

Love,
Mary Jo

Sunday Night Notes from Suki

Hi All,
ok, so the picture wasn't taken in Paris. i took it in Vegas a few weeks ago. i can dream, can't i?

Niki, Matt, Grandma and Grandpa came for supper tonight and it was a great visit. Marian brought over pictures of W.J. that we'll use for his birthday party. Anyway, she was very interested in this family letter so I copied it all to a Word file and will send her a hard copy. That's really better than nothing and there's sooooo much family news in here that it's well worth it. If anyone else knows of a better way to print this out other than cutting and pasting to put it in chronological order, please share.

Mary Jo, I no longer work for THT and I don't know how they get their mailing lists other than if you've placed a previous order. Since November 2004, I work for Oriental Trading Company with a catalog called Fun Impressions (see Funimpressions.com) It's all about promotional products and a ton of fun. So if you see anything in Orientaltrading.com, let me know as I can get you a better price. They have a catalog called terry's village that has good stuff like THT.

Nancy, you may have already figured this out, but to place an image, look at the last icon above of a little blue picture. Before or after you write your note, click on that and put in the file name of where the picture is located, then upload and viola! i love pictures! good luck.

so, grandma tells me she and grandpa watch grey's anatomy (my absolute favorite show) so steve invites them to stay and watch it together. well, if any of you are fans of this show and watched it tonight, you'll know what i mean when i say it was a bit uncomfortable (yet i discuss the show with cassi afterwards).

MJ, thanks for the paul update as it's great to get first hand info, and yes, Nancy, I will add little Ben in my prayers. Very interesting about your bone scan. Another reminder for all of us. Everyone have a good week. I love reading your notes.

Love to all, Suki

Hello Everyone (Sue)

Glad to see so much activity on our letter lately..It becomes habit-forming to take a peek and see if there's anything new out there. Do you all know that you can either add the blog web address to your 'favorites', or when you're viewing the blog, you can drag the address (probably located right above the words Blogger, right to your desktop). Then by clicking on that icon it will take you right to the letter without having to sign in and all that. Of course, to write a letter, you'll still have to do what you've been doing.

To cut the suspense, it wasn't us who won the lottery! Darn....John and Joe and Steve were in Lincoln yesterday for the basketball game...could have just as well been them. I sure hope it's at least a group of people that were all playing together...those make such great stories!

We have been spending most Friday nights and Saturdays since Christmas working at my mother's house, trying to get it ready to rent. We've taken down wallpaper, painted, scrubbed, washed and patched nearly everything in the house, it seems. Yesterday, we put down a new vinyl floor in the kitchen/dining room. We used those 12-inch squares that self adhere...It looks great, but i didn't realized i had so many unused muscles in my body! My hands have really taken a beating as everything is so hand-intensive. My sister Pat just thinks we can do anything. I told her that next time, i'm hiring out my share of the work...we're just about getting too old for this kind of stuff.

Must head to bed...These Olympics are killing me, staying up too late.

Hi, you all (from MJ)

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Sue for getting us going. Grandma Bull would be so proud!

To Nancy: I'm so sorry to hear about the osteoporosis!! My gosh...Hopefully, the medication you're on will work great. (Are you part of an experimental study for this, too?)

To Niki: Welcome aboard. I'm thrilled to see posts from all generations and genders (way to go, John). Niki, when you hang out with the "older generation", you're likely to hear all kinds of scary stuff! When you start having babies, feel free to share those details...that will undoubtedly scare me, having never experienced it firsthand, myself!! Please, the next time you post, give us a brief overview of your job. I'd be interested.

To Suki: Did I get a catalog from "Tenderheart Treasures" because I have connections, or is it because your company bought my name from a similar business? I did enjoy looking through the pages and have a couple of things marked for consideration. However, you must realize I've been trying to repaint my downstairs rooms since last March. After much angst, the predominant color I've chosen is "Totally Tan". I'm afraid I'm pretty cautious as far as home decor!!

To all of you, keep in touch.

Good morning from Nancy

Good morning, dear family,
It's been great to see all the news, pictures, recipes and book reports posted. I look often to see what's new. Thanks, Mary Jo, for telling us a/b Paul's tests and results. I trust you know how worried we all are for him. As we're all praying for Paul, I would ask that you add Ben Lake, our pastor's 2 year old son who had open heart surgery last week. Their family has a website that is keeping us all up to date on his status; if you want to see it, it's www.homepage.mac.com/lake. We've had such turmoil with pastors (10 in 11 years) that we're thrilled to have a young, energetic person who really cares a/b staying and growing our church.
I have a couple of Christmas pictures I want to post, but don't know how. Who among you more technologically adept cousins can help me?
Must get going on the day and finish packing since I'll be away from home for three nights this week (Nebraska City, Yutan and Lincoln) for various meetings and a Creighton bone metabolism appointment. I've been part of several bone studies over the last few years and when I was contacted about a new one, was jolted to learn from the latest bone scan that I didn't qualify b/c rather than osteopenia (sp?) (bone thinning; pre-osteoporosis) I actually have full blown osteoporosis in my spine. I'm in a new study now, taking a daily med and calcium with the intent of at least stopping the deterioration and perhaps regenerating bone mass. If you haven't had a bone scan, I would recommend it; no pain, no closed tube, takes a/b 15 minutes.
Have a good week, everyone!
Love,
Nancy
PS Do you suppose it was anyone we know in Lincoln who won the lottery?

Niki, I'm with ya there :)

Niki, totally with you. Economics is SOOOOOOOOOOO hard!!! My friend Jenny is going to be helping me with it. So far she has done well, but she just alerted me yesterday that the third test is VERY hard. Well, that means I'm going to fail it :). The first test I pulled an 80 and I thought that was hard. This next Wednesday I'm doing the second test. It's hard so I've been told. Now, with the news of the third test, I'm asking myself why in the heck UNK needs Economics??? This course though is Principles of Macroeconomics. UGH, I HATE IT! So if you'd like to do it, I'll be glad to ship it your way :).

I'M SO BEHIND in my other classes though. Yeah, finally catching up. No school Monday, but I'm going anyway. I'll work in the library for a little bit and get some projects done that I've been assigned. After that, no clue what comes next.

I applied at the EPS (Emergency Protective Shelter) but mom isn't too happy. I'm looking for a weekend job only. She just doesn't want me to work overnights. Well I wasn't planning on it anyway! Sheesh! I probably won't even get a job there if I DO get an interview because I doubt that they'll want someone who can just work weekends. I would quit the library, but I'm getting good pay and flexible hours there. Of course, not as many as I'd like. If I did quit and choose the shelter, mom wouldn't be happy either. So either way, no way I'm getting my way! HAHAHA.

Oh!!! I have my own blog also. It's on this server, but I keep it as a private blog because I post about school, classes and where I'm at and stuff. Yeah, my teacher didn't realize that--I forgot to tell her that part :). Hahaha, so she was like ummm...things could come back and bite me! LOL. I love it when they freak out on you :). She didn't freak, but yeah, she wants to keep in touch with me because I'm leaving (FINALLY) at the end of the semester. That's the quickest way.

To wrap up, hope you all bought your Powerball lottery tickets! I bought mine! Funny story behind it. I bought 2 scratcard tickets that same day. I was explaining it to one of my other teachers how they worked because she's never seen them in her life. Well, I had a Quick 7's which I could win up to $7,000 on if I revealed a 7. Well, I said I wouldn't win and my WHOLE ticket had 7's!!!! I only won $2 for each, but hey, $13 profit!!!!! And then I bought a Money Magnets and also won my $1 back!!! So could it be that I MIGHT win Powerball??? HAHAHA, WHO AM I KIDDING??? But yeah, so if you haven't bought yours yet, deadline is 8:00 OUR time :).

Well, off to go find something to cook. I'm bored. See ya later alligators :)

Suz

Happy Friday from Niki

So this is where all the cool kids are hanging out? What a great idea to get this started. (Although after reading about my mother and colonoscopies I had to go lay down for a bit to recover...) I'm glad to hear Paul is doing well though. Doctors and tests scare me, so I guess the more information you have, the less scary it seems.

As my mom mentioned, I've re-joined the ranks of the college students. Grad school is pretty much what I anticipated and going well. Like Suzanne, I am taking an economics class. Much love to the Schmidt family, but I've crossed "economist" off my list of potential careers.

Work and home are going great. I've trimmed down on travel so I don't miss class too often. I am going to New Orleans in May and can't wait. All the hurricane damage has kept us extremely busy. I never knew I'd learn so much about how quickly the federal government can allocate money when pressed. Need some levees rebuilt? Call HDR! Matt's keeping busy as well. Life as a State Farm salesman gets pretty hectic during the slippery winter months. Make sure to drive safe!

Have a great weekend and be sure to stay warm.
-Niki

This is Mary Jo with and Update

It's been good to see so many recent posts. Keep them coming! Paul and I thank you for the words of concern, and now that I know something more, I'll brief you all on What's happened, what is happening, and what will happen! I never wanted to know this much about medical procedures.....

Feb 2 Paul ends up in the hospital to be treated for anemia (hemoglobin was less that 7, normal counts should be 12-14) He didn't even feel that bad, kind of breathless and faint. Got 4 units of blood and when he left hospital on Sat, his cound was 9.9. To find out if he was leaking somewhere, he was given a colonoscopy and an upper GI scope. The only thing they found was a suspicious looking area near the appendix that had been bleeding, but wasn't at the time of the colonoscopy. The Dr. couldn't biopsy it because it was too far up, but got a picture, which Paul described as "not very impressive." Surgeon said he was 90% sure it was malignant, but very early stage and curable, but should be out ASAP. However, his routine work-up at the hospital included an EKG and they thought it perhaps showed "an old heart attack", and it needed to be checked out before they would do surgery.

By the time we got a CT scan of the abdomen and the Stress Test done, it was the next Friday, and no results until Monday. CT scan showed nothing other than the area they had identified with the colonoscopy (GOOD NEWS) Stress test showed NO HEART ATTACK but possible blockage in one area...So, we see cardiologist, who says he needs an echocardiogram and a Heart Cathaterization. Next day, gets HC done. All arteries but one are clear. One has 75% blockage. Would recommend a stent, but can't have a stent before abdominal surgery, because he would have to be on blood thinners after the stent was put in. Cardiologist OK's him for surgery with the partial blockage. Now surgeon is on vacation!!!! Hopefully, will get in next Thursday, for sure Monday(27th). Then, he can decide about the stent after he heals up from the surgery. (They can't do it laproscopically, so it will be abdominal incision.)

By the way, I have not had the colonoscopy, either. Paul had a sigmoidoscopy years ago, that was NO PICNIC, but he said this was no problem. For one thing, he was completely under and doesn't remember a thing (although apparently it is a light anesthetic) The worst is being on clear liquids the day before and having to take the powerful laxative before hand. Now he has to do all that again before the surgery.

We're grateful to have caught this thing while it's apparently curable, even though it was all kind of by accident. Ditto the heart blockage.

Thanks for all of your concerns. Love to all...

Shaylee w/Shaylee from Aunt Suki

Hi,
I finally downloaded my pictures from Christmas and had to share this with you all. This Cabbage Patch doll was one of only six dolls at Wal-Mart. I couldn't believe it's name was Shaylee. You know how they say dogs and their owners tend to look alike? Well, how cute is this?

Country Apple French Toast from Janice

If you all lived closer, I would invite you over for brunch and you would LOVE this new recipe I tried for Christmas morning. I served it again last Sunday to our Bible study group and it received rave reviews both times.

Country Apple French Toast

1 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. butter, melted
1 t. cinnamon
Combine above in a 9 X 13 baking dish.

3 Granny Smith apples, peeled and sliced thin
1/2 c. raisins
Add to sugar mixture and toss to coat well. Spread evenly over bottom of dish.

French bread, cut into 1 inch slices.
Arrange on top of the apple mixture.

6 large eggs
1 1/2 c. milk
1 T. vanilla
2 t. cinnamon
Mix until well blended. Pour mixture over bread, soaking completely. Cover and refrigerate 4 - 24 hours.

Preheat oven at 375 degrees. Bake covered with foil for about 40 minutes. Uncover and bake another 5 minutes. Serve warm.


I am anxious to hear how Paul's surgery goes. I haven't had the "dreaded test" yet, either, but know I should. Our letters are showing our age! The topics used to be babies and school pictures, now we have advanced to growing health concerns! Such is life, as time marches on.

Love you all,

Janice

happy "i heart you" day from suki

Hello to all!
so nice to hear from debbie and nancy! hey, can we put our names in the title so we know who's writing before reading it? suzanne's identity was the one that baffled me until the end. but so glad to hear from everyone no matter how you do it.

first, our prayers to paul for a full recovery and a comfortable treatment. yes, at our age we should get things checked out like we know we should. my doctor has told me in the past two years to get that dreaded colon test and i probably will this year. steve's doctor told him the same thing so i'll let him go first and see how bad it is.

I delivered valentine bags to my nieces tonight. we're lucky to have them so close. shaylee talks a mile a minute, maria still has her purses and candy, and erika has blossomed into such a teenager. Now back to watching the Olympics.

ok, i'll have to defend sue and the tequila. she got this great blender after her mexican gift and she sure can make a mean margarita! of course i fall asleep on her couch after one drink...

keep writing and love to all,
suki

wastin' time and watching the olympics

Hi girls,
happy valentines day,
i'm on the net looking for husker baseball tickets. this thing is foreign to me so i'll just go back to the t.v.
some of sue's mexican buddies at work brought her two bottles of tequila when they went home for christmas so she wants a valentine margarita.(i think shes got a problem).

love and kisses,
john

Happy Valentine's Day from Debbie

Hello all, I finally decided it was time to get in on this new fangled family letter. Thanks Sue for working it all out. I would have had no idea. In response to some of the previous posts - our thoughts and prayers will certainly be with you, MJ and Paul. After being told at 50 to get a colonoscopy and not yet doing it, yours news may finally prod me (and hopefully Jim) into making that call.

Janice, regarding your book club - Lincoln has a program called One Book/One Lincoln where a book is selected and discussions,etc. are held for whoever wants to come. I've read most of the books (but not gone to the programs) and have enjoyed them. The first book was "Plainsong" by Kent Haruff ( who at one time taught at Wesleyan, another one was "Peace Like a River" by (now I can't remember the author.) Anyway, if you want me to continue with suggestions let me know before I list them all.

Jim is home and is ready to take our walk, which we may not do later in the week if the weather turns so bad. I will continue later.

Love to all, Debbie

Happy Valentine's Day, all

Good morning, everyone, and Happy Valentine's Day. I'm just home from my walk and it's such a nice day--full moon, NO WIND, and reasonable temps--that I'm energized.
Mary Jo, please know that we will be praying for both Paul and you as you go through these tough times. It sounds like the doctors are on top of the situation and it's good news that they think he can wait a bit. Keep us up to date, Mary Jo.
Now, must get going on the day.
Love,
Nancy
PS My secretary gave me a copy of the Red Tent for Christmas, but I must admit I haven't started it yet. Will do so now with your endorsement, Mary Jo.

Family, I need you (Mary Jo, again)

I need your prayers, positive thoughts, good wishes, and love. Paul is facing surgery to remove a "suspicious area" from his colon (right at the place the appendix attaches where the large and small intestines join) This was discovered during a colonoscopy conducted while he was hospitalized for anemia. (He had four units of blood transfused.) This week, he has a stress test and a CAT scan scheduled) When those tests get back, the surgery will be scheduled. The good news is that the surgeon who conducted the colonoscopy said it is small and early stage, but it has been the source of the bleeding. Obviously, he's been "leaking" for quite awhile to have lost that much hemoglobin. He was at half the levels he should have been. He figured he was just getting old, but when he almost fainted walking outside last week, he decided he should get it checked out! Later, all kinds of people told us they thought he looked pale. Makes me feel like a negligent wife, since I hadn't really noticed!! He really didn't sleep more, seem extra tired, etc. So now I'm feeding him liver, raisins, spinach, and so forth (which, fortunately he likes!) Obviously, he feels much peppier now that he had the transfusions. The surgeon doesn't seem to be in a super hurry to operate and with the comments he made, we are not in panic mode. However, it is a concern and a bolt out of the blue...

Now on to answer Janice's question: I misspoke. We have a TANKLESS hot water heater not a "point of use". And we really like it. However, now we're trying to figure out how to run vinegar through the system to clean out any lime deposits and gunk. Andrew said we should do that about now since we have hard water and a pressure tank that holds the well water before it's sent through the system. And what with re-doing the water supply pipes, who knows what might have been dislodged! So far, it's working great.

I hope you like the "Red Tent" and I'll look into the movie you recommend.

Love to all.........Mary Jo

Superbowl Sunday from Janice

We recently returned from a most unusual party with friends. Ours started early with a New Testament Bible study before snacks, dinner, and the game. Obviously this was a party with church friends.

Probably only MJ will have any real interest in this posting. I am responding to your last queries. First of all, did you install a tankless water heater for the whole house (we did) or a point-of-use heater for one locations only? Ed was the brains in our crew and Zac the willing helper. He can now 'sweat a joint' with the best of them. I was the person who made about 10 trips to Ace Hardware as Ed digressed from his original plan about that many times. We could never do a project like that on Christmas day when the stores would be closed!

I got The Red Tent on tape from the library, per your recommendation. I am just starting it.

Here's a good DVD recommendation for anyone who likes a 'feel good' movie. We just watched "The Chorus" ("Les Choristes"). If you don't mind subtitles, it won the Oscar for best foreign language film in 2004. I got it at the library, but I would think any Blockbuster would have it, as well. It will warm your heart.

I can hardly wait for the Olympics! I'm a real junkie. This will be my first Olympics since we got cable and DVR, so I hate to think how many hours I will spend in front of the TV. Oh well, it's only every couple years....

Love to you all,

Janice