Saturday, November 10, 2012

Happy Thanksgiving (Almost)



Happy Thanksgiving (Almost)
 
Well, what can we say - uh, it is November and it is just over 7 weeks until Christmas!! And…..we will be here in Iowa for Christmas! In fact, we are looking at being here until February at least. You know we really just have to laugh about this – can you imagine the dust that has built up in our house? I certainly hope that I didn’t forget something in the refrigerator that has now grown a great case of mold on it! We may have a whole science experiment in the refrigerator!
October started off with a visit with our good friends, John and Denise Hulsebus, from home (they were here in March also) – they took the train from Roseville leaving on a Sunday and arriving in Mount Pleasant, IA (about an hour from here) on Tuesday around noon.  We had a great time with them and we feel like it is such a blessing when we get to see friends!
Mid-October I drove to Des Moines for the day to have lunch with my girl friends – there were about 12 of us there. Some of us have known each other for a very long time – I won’t say how long other than to say it has been since grade school! It was really fun. I got a chance also to visit Whole Foods which just opened there this fall and also the big mall.
October is birthday month for Charlie and I and we got the biggest surprise ever (no, not a liver, but the next best thing) – on the weekend between our two birthdays, Meg and Doug surprised us by flying here. We had been out shopping and upon arriving back at the apartment there they were!! Needless to say, we were stunned, thrilled, shocked  speechless  - the later being rather rare for me! They came on Friday and flew back home on Monday.  We still can’t believe it and it was such a fun weekend.  The morning before they came, we had both commented that we were feeling very weary of all of this and that we so missed the kids and their families! We are so thankful for them and they were so thrilled that they were able to pull it off without out us guessing – of course, they did not tell their children until the night before or we would have known!!
Charlie had his 22nd endoscopy a couple of weeks ago – 4 varices banded and then last week had an ultrasound, lab work, and visit with the liver doctor. The result of all of this is that he is staying relatively stable and his fatigue etc is to be expected as the doctor said, “You have liver disease!”
October was truly a beautiful month here and we so enjoyed the beautiful trees and cool, crisp weather. My favorite time of the year has always been fall and Iowa truly has beautiful ones! But…winter is approaching, we have had several frosts.
As we said at the start, we will be here for Christmas (at least) and both families are coming here to be with us! Once we realized that there was no way we would be back home by then, the family all made plans to come and we are very thankful! Once they get here we hope that we will have snow!!
Several have wondered what our address is so here it is: P O Box 5278 Coralville, IA 52241.
We wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving – we are hoping that Charlie is in the hospital and that we are eating Thanksgiving dinner there!