Jonathan carved the turkey

 
 

Teresa shows off her quilt on Thanksgiving

 
 

Hurray for days off of work.

Monday was spent catching up at home and trying to clean up the multiple piles everywhere. The biggest goal was to clean out the office a.k.a. Jonathan’s old room so that Laura has a place to sleep when she comes home. We actually found the floor and uncovered the futon so Laura we are ready for you now. We also sorted through stacked up mail and renewed our yearly health and life insurance benefits through Kaiser. After multiple loads of both dishes and laundry we are getting more presentable.
About 8:00 pm we decided to head out to Winco to pick up a few things. Teresa has decided this is a cool store. She was disappointed I didn’t let her make her own peanut butter but I told her someday I would and she would just have to look forward to it. She says that is now one of her many goals. Lol We were only buying a “few things” so I didn’t think I would spend enough to get the turkey for $.18 a pound but at the check out counter I realized I qualified so went running back to get yet another turkey for my freezer. (I now have three so far.) We then headed over to Ross to check out a few items I had previously scoped out. That is another of my favorite stores in town. Of course you all know how I love a bargain. Lest you think I have totally switched loyalties I did also support Safeway earlier this week and also got some good deals.
Longview Surgical Group had a staff meeting at 5:30. We had pizza and had a pretty good meeting. Two doctors came this time for the first part. Usually it has just been the staff so it was good to have them there. Longview Surgical is in the midst of starting a satellite station in Vancouver. It has been going on for about 6-8 months. It is a complicated process but seems to be going well. We hope to recruit two new surgeons just to work in Vancouver at the new Legacy hospital by summer of next year. So there is lots of room for growth. So far our doctors are going down there on a rotating basis. We will also be getting a new Physician’s Assistant in January. They do a lot of assisting in the OR and are a big help to the group as a whole. We currently have one PA.
Today our home group is serving a meal for about 35 people that are taking a parenting class through the city of Longview. We are providing cakes that Teresa made and some pop. The group is serving a baked potato bar and salad and fruit and cake. There will also be about 10-15 of us that will eat. There is no kitchen so it was more of a challenge to decide what could be transported easily. We have two new couples that have joined our group in the past two weeks so that is exciting. One couple is older but plays in a Christian band out of Gresham in a similar style that Chris’s old band did. He is going to spend some time with them this Thursday. They also collect antique cars so he shares a few interests with them.

Happy Birthday Chris

We are coming to and end of the festival of Chris’s birthday. We have had lots of celebrating. It started last week in Renton with JonTon and Laura. We continued yesterday with a party at the Cathlamet Fergusons. Linda and Ruth and Larry also joined the fun. We of course enjoyed a fabulous dinner with everyone contributing something. The traditional gift giving included a neat little chest for Chris to put his stuff in by his chair in the living room. Chris also received some spending money which he spent this morning on a surround sound system from Wal-Mart for the living room. At this very moment Chris and Teresa are trying to hook it up. It is a much more complicated procedure since Chris can only use one arm and the entertainment unit is against the wall. Teresa is doing her best to follow directions and Chris is not so successfully trying not to use his right hand. I am hearing such things as “You said to do this…” and “I don’t care what I said put it in this one….” And “this is not gray it is white” “ no it is definitely not gray.” There are a lot of other colors being shouted too such as red, blue, and black. I am trying to say far away.

Today we went garage saling in the morning and then drove to Long Beach to see a quilt show and some interactive Lewis and Clark bicentennial exhibits. We saw people from the Corp that have traveled together reenacting the expedition since 2003. They have been sleeping in tents and riding in boats etc. We listened to a talk through a hand held radio while going through a large tent that had murals on the walls of the tents. And we saw lots of displays. Many were in tents, others were in an Elks building which was much warmer. They reenacted the men lining up for their daily ration of whiskey. They received apx. 4 ounces in order of their rank and number and had to show that they had drunk it all and prove they hadn’t saved any for later (to add to other rations thus getting more of a buzz from it.) It was very interesting. We ended the trip with a dinner at Doogers in Long Beach. It was delicious. Now we are home safe and sound.

A scary drive home

We spent the night and all day Saturday with Jonathan and Tonia and Laura this weekend. We celebrated Chris's birthday and mostly hung out. We did go shopping a little also and got some christmas shopping done. We were a little bit later leaving the mall than we had hoped and started the drive in the pouring rain. It was hard to drive in the rain but it was okay. After stopping at the rest stop it actually stopped raining and I was glad. Suddenly we came to a halt on the freeway. We were 4 miles north of Centralia. We eventually saw a tow truck and two police cars go by as we for about an hour. Finally as we were slowly moving we saw a very large tow truck. We realized several trees had fallen along the side of the road and partially across the road. For the next 30 miles there was a lot of debris on the road and mostly on the sides of the road. It even smelled like fresh cut trees. Evidently there had been quite a storm. We were thankful we didn't have to drive through the storm and that God had kept us safe.

It was great to see everyone yesterday at the birthday party. Hope you enjoy the pictures. Rich and Bev and family were able to take home their desk and they took the old plymoth to fix up for a friend. We are glad someone can use it and that it is now out of our lives. Today I am in the midst of dying Teresa's hair. So I must run and rince it out now. bye.

We went to the lake so Deborah could take some pictures for her photography class and noticed this new statue. 

Chris 

Grandma Ruth 

Bev 

Rich 

Deborah and Gloria 

Teresa 

Grandpa Larry 

Happy Birthday Gloria and Rich 

Chris is getting along pretty well. He has learned to do most things by himself although is it still hard to open the bottle of pain meds. We did get new slip on shoes so he can go for a walk easier. Teh days are sometimes long for him but he hopes to do more walking next week.

We are enjoying having Laura home for the weekend. She has a consult for her wisdom teeth on Monday and she also hopes to get a flu shot and a chiro adjustment. She is currentlly out with her friends.

We enjoyed visiting Grandad and Grandma Theo in Cathlamet on Saturday and Grandpa Larry and Grandma Ruth today. Laura, Teresa and I also made some homemade cards on Saturday. And of course we watched way too many movies since Laura was home. LOL. We liked the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. It is a real tearjerker.

The next week looks to be busy with trips to Portland, home group, worship practice for Jan, class on Wednesday for Jan and Chris, Jan working Wednesday-Friday and a birthday celebration on Saturday for Rich and Gloria. It will be good to see them.

Have a good week. Jan

Surgery day

We left home around 6:00 and made good time. We stopped for gas and still made it to the hospital by 7:20. We sucessfully found parking and the same day surgery waiting room and proceeded to wait.... Finally we were taken back to the inner room and given lovely new clothes to wear and hooked up to an IV. They were sucessful on the first try which is always nice. We shared a room with three or four others that seemed in worse shape than Chris. Chris watched a show on building a fifty five story dam in Europe but he didn't get to finish the building project as we were taken to another room. Here They called over the walkie talkie asking for a volunteer to come shave a male patient's upper extremity. After the shaving Chris noticed his arm was much colder. He was also hooked up to compression leggings to squeeze his legs every few seconds. And the Doctor came in and became pretty ticked off because his paperwork hadn't arrived from his office. Not a good sign. But the paperwork was redone and the H and P found and the surgery was still on. They kept assuring us this would not compromise his care in any way.... After meeting the anesthesist and nurse Chris was wheeled off and I headed to the waiting room... for more waiting... three hours later I followed Chris to yet another room. Now he was in a cast and sling. He was hot instead of cold and very thirsty. After about two hours we were headed home. The first stop was a Starbucks for a carmel frapachino and the second stop was to Kaiser in Longview for his pain meds. Then blessed home.

Thanks for all your prayers.

We are glad that Mom is home from the hospital and are still praying for healing of symptoms but she is much stronger.

Chris had his pre-op appointment today and everything is set for next Tuesday the 18th. The surgery is at SW Washington Medical Center in Vancouver.

Teresa has a retreat in Portland tomorrow night and Saturday. They will drive back to Longview and spend the night at Northlake Baptist church.

I have several sewing jobs this weekend to do for three different people. I don’t think I will have much or any e-team sewing this year so it is nice to have some jobs for other people.

We will be praying for Tonia Friday as she has her wisdom teeth out, Hope is goes as smoothly as possible and she will have a speedy recovery.

I’m glad tomorrow is Friday, I am tired of this week!

The week in review

Tuesday we had life group at Kia and Khang’s house. We had a visiting couple join us which was nice. We enjoy having home group at our house but it is nice when it is at other people’s homes also.

Wednesday I had a tooth pulled. I had not expected it to be as difficult a procedure as it seemed to be but I survived. It has definitely reaffirmed to me that wisdom teeth need to be removed under anesthesia! I had the option of laughing gas with mine but have had negative experiences with that in the past so opted for just the Novocain. They had to give me several more shots as we went along so I felt like a wimp. But it is over.

Because of my tooth I missed the class I am taking on Wednesday night that Chris is helping to facilitate. The class is on DVD and is basically on home groups. I need to make up the DVD today I guess.

Friday we had Jim and Janis Harvey and Jeanne and Steve Nortness over for dessert and talking. It was nice and mostly relaxing. We didn’t actually get any games played but that is okay. I had a cake in the freezer that I unthawed but also tried a recipe from the paper for Green tomato pie which is supposed to taste like apple pie. It sounds terrible but actually tasted pretty good if you could get past knowing what is in it. I am not sure what possessed me to make it really except I hate to see anything wasted and every once in a while I like to try something new. We are trying to invite new people over every once in a while on Fridays especially. This week we are thinking of our neighbors. The worst part is actually doing the inviting. Ugh. We’ll see if we get brave enough. Lol

Saturday we went garage saling. We are sad to see the end of the season coming quickly. Teresa and I went to Wal-Mart and I visited with Mom and Dad. Mom has had a hard week but we hope she will continue to get better this week.

Sunday we went to church. Teresa is now helping with the 1st and 2nd graders. I got a little orientation regarding doing the overhead projecting which I am now doing every so often. I am scheduled twice this month. They use the same program as New Horizons but run it differently. I should be able to pick it up. Tonight is worship practice so Chris and I will both be going since it is my week for the overhead.

Have a good week. Jan

We have enjoyed a great visit with Jonathan and Tonia this weekend. All the family in this neck of the woods come for lunch on Saturday and we had fun looking at old photo albums and catching up with each other. Later that night we went to see the movie Serenity which continues the same story line as the series Firefly. We enjoyed the movie and it filled in a lot of the blanks in the story. If you haven’t seen Firefly it would be harder to know the characters.

Today Chris helped on the worship team for the first time. It sounded good and was good to see him doing that again as he always looks like he is having so much fun. Teresa started helping with the 1st and 2nd grade class. I start helping with the overhead on the 16th and the 30th and the nursery on 11/6/05 so we are gradually getting plugged in. Our home group has changed its night to Tuesday so Chris can do worship practice. Teresa’s home group changed back to Mondays so Jim could take a class on Tuesdays which is probably more than you really wanted to know.

After church we watched a couple of netflicks and took naps and I did a tape for HealthWorks and Teresa did some homework. Chris is cleaning his old office and setting up the computer again. We had moved it to Laura’s room when our other one was getting serviced so Teresa could print out her homework. Everything is getting back to its rightful place now that Laura is back at school.

Have a good week everyone.