Perfection

Congratulations to Julie - who at 1o:00 pm this evening completed a perfect 31 for 31 May attendance record at Frozos. Here she is making the epic journey on day 31. That's Tim L. holding the door.



















Here's Julie kicking off her final journey.















Her secret recipe? Start with Country Vanilla. Then add some hot fudge, peanuts, bananas and 1 raspberry!



















This is her enjoying #31.



















When asked for a quote... Julie said "thank God for stretch jeans!".

Well done Jules!

Hump Day Tweets

Do you know what a tweet is? If not.. check out this earlier post for more information! What is a Tweet?

Please feel free to tweet away.

Tod: cross your fingers.. i think i might actually not work my off friday this week. shhhhh..

Tod: Happy Birthday, again, to Carissa whose birthday was yesterday!

Tod: learned in a recent Bolderdash game that the little pegs used in playing cribbage are called "spilikin"

3 Year Anniversary

Three years ago today I received my very first Omron pedometer from Amazon.com; a classis HJ-112. At that time we became great friends and I am pleased to report that I have maintained a continuous relationship with Omron pedometers ever since. Eventually, that first model wore out - after thousands of miles and recording every step of my first marathon. I immediately replaced it with this Omron HJ-303 (a fantastic model!).

Over the three years Omron and I have logged 21,806,045 steps - traveling over 10,708 miles.

Omron pedometers are hands down the best on the planet!

24 Season Finale Tweets

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If not.. check out this earlier post for more information! What is a Tweet?

Please feel free to tweet away.

Tod: just realized this morning that the 2-hr 24 season finale is tonight! I am getting very excited! Tony is gonna eat fist! And Renee finally gets to get rid of that patch on her neck ;)

Tod: Julie remains perfect at Frozos.. although each day she is losing steam! Will she make it???

Discharged!

A week ago we couldn't have imagined Hannah would be doing as well as she is. We are pleased to notify you that we discharged the twinvalids today. Yes, Hannah and Maggie - along with Mike have returned to Berkeley to complete finals week. Hannah has one oral exam and final over the next couple of days and left feeling very optimistic about completing them; a huge improvement in status from last week.

We greatly appreciate your prayers - and are convinced that they were instrumental in Hannah's recovery. She is feeling so much better and is now off almost all of her meds at this point.

Of course, you wouldn't be able to tell they were feeling better from this shot. But this is just because it's about 100 degrees today!















But, the last couple of days she has been getting back to her energetic self. For example - yesterday she remembered that she has a flute and decided to 'perform' for Maggie and Mike. I encouraged them to clap as hard as they could when she completed a song in hopes that she would call it a night.















Then, this afternoon Jon and Rachel came by.. and she felt the need to reprise her performance. Rachel enjoyed the show.. but Jon decided to modify the end of the flute (note the cherry tomato he inserted) in hopes of ending it early!















Thanks again for all your prayer support! Have a great week!

Pooter

Yesterday Hannah's boyfriend Mike joined us at Hospital Henderson. By evening the inmates.. oops.. I mean the twinvalids (Hannah and Maggie) .. were looking for something fun to do so we decided to play a game of Balderdash.

Just in case you've never heard of it the game - one player (leader for a round) picks one of the game cards which has a Word, Person, Initials, Movie Title or Date on it. He/she gets to choose one of those categories for the round. When the Word category is selected the contestants make up definitions for the word. Once everyone has written their definiton they turn it in to the leader. He/she then reads the definitions and the remaining players vote as to which they think is the correct one. You score points if you either have someone vote for your definition or you guess the correct definition.

This game can be a lot of fun.. and lots of times you remember the made up definitions far longer than you do the real one (bufagin!).

We've played this game for years and while we were playing last night we were telling stories about how Sharon (Julie's mom) was so great at this game! She was especially good at words - making up plausible sounding definitions. Games are a fun way of passing on family history!

You've probably deduced at this point that the word Pooter came up last night. I just wanted to share with you what the great minds at Berkeley (and Julie!) came up with. Also - it's your chance to play along. Once you read these fabulous responses please vote (comment) on which you think is the correct definition! No cheating now (drop that google!) and don't think about it too long. Give it a try ;)

Pooter: Domesticated cattle droppings used to grow high nutrient grasses.

Pooter: A bottle with a suction cup device that is used for catching insects.

Pooter: The arrow-shaped pointed top on a weather vane.

Pooter: A Greek form of measurement, equivalent to the length of a horse shoe, named after Aquinas Poot

Pooter: Sawdust used to diminish the smell of fecal remnants within latrines.


BTW: Maggie rocked on this one!

Thursday-ish Tweets

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Please feel free to tweet away.

Tod: is working another off friday. Can someone remind me why we call them off fridays?

Tod: long week. U?

Hannah Update - Tuesday AM

Bienvenidas!

Many thanks go out to all of you who have expressed concern over how Hannah is doing. We really appreciate it.

Yesterday we returned to Berkeley in style. Yes, Hannah got to wheel around campus in a stylish wheelchair. I believe at one point she indicated that, other than having her neck jostled around which caused her some pain, she thought that being pushed around campus was a perfectly marvelous way to travel.

Anyways.. we were able to meet with all the people necessary to work through the issues of her having missed two weeks of classes and struggling through finals week (this week and next). I am thankful to God and pleased to tell you that we figured out this whole 'hot mess' as Emily (another good friend at Berkeley) would call it.. and have a plan for finishing up this semester and Summer. The best news is that if everything goes as we expect it to Hannah will remain enrolled in the Haas business school next Fall! (Congratulations!**)

One spontaneous part of the plan came together when we got to Hannah's room. Maggie, one of Hannah's good friends is essentially living with Hannah because she broke her foot and walking back and forth to her room is near impossible since she lives up in the Berkeley hills. Well, when we let her know that we were taking Hannah home and would just be commuting to finish out the year she was game to come home too! (after confirming she only has papers to write and doesn't need to be on campus) So, since she is fluent in Spanish - we have enlisted her as Hannah's private Spanish tutor to get Hannah ready for her final and oral exam early next week. Her pay? Maggie negotiated hard.. but so did we. We finally worked out that we have to take her to Frozos every time Julie goes (like we wouldn't have!!!). Sweet!

So - if you plan to stop by the house.. we're Spanish only this week - so brush up.

Oh.. and just so you know. It's been tough scheduling.. but Julie remains a perfect 11 for 11 at Frozos in May!

Thanks for all your prayers and concerns. I think everything worked out for the best.



**too funny. Hannah had told me that one of the fun things about dealing with the folks at Haas is that whenever she identifies herself as enrolled for Fall.. they immediately say 'Congratulations!'. So, when we went over to talk with them and explain Hannah's situation.. she starts with 'Hi my name is Hannah Henderson and I am enrolled in Haas Undergraduate in Fall'... and the wonderful woman immediately interrupts 'Congratulations! ... now... how can I help you'. Hannah just looked at me and smiled as I smiled back at her. And help her they did. Whew.. those people are efficient. The folks at Haas should run the federal government.

Julie Update

This is definitely not the Julie Week I envisioned last Sunday ;) Let's just say a lot of plans have been canceled or changed. But - I am happy to tell you that she is now 9 for 9 at Frozos. Yes, we sent her out late last night from the hospital and she made it over tonight. It's become a fun thing at this point and we are all very committed to the objective.

Special thanks go out to TH2 (Team Henderson 2) in Oregon who somehow arranged for a Frozos gift card to arrive in support of this impressive goal!

Hannah Update - Saturday PM

First off - Hannah took a shower today. That is actually a very big accomplishment - so congrats to her. She is at home now and doing relatively well. The doctors have put her on a lot of pain meds which are helping her to be able to get some sleep and let her body do a bit of healing. That has been a blessing. However, she remains very tired and has a lot of pain so we are working through that.

We did have some time to think through the Berkeley plan. So far, so good. We wait for Hannah to have an hour or so where she is not too foggy from the pain meds and can get some classwork in. We have been helping her during those short windows as much as possible to get projects completed.

One big answer to prayer came today after Hannah emailed the professor of the class that has a Monday final. He is going to allow her to miss the final and base her grades on work that has already been completed. Praise God for that. That saved Hannah 4 chapters of reading and a day of studying - so we are so thankful.

And, Hannah just finished dictating a bunch of papers to me so we will be able to get those out tomorrow.

We will address the two other classes on Monday and see where we are at. Please continue to pray. It is working.

Progress is slow and now Hannah is exhausted. But, we are making progress. We started the day being told by the doctors that Hannah would need to withdraw from this Semester and now have two of the four classes addressed. We just pray for the energy to deal with the remaining two.

More when we know more.

Hannah Update

Thanks to all of you that have called and texted regarding Hannah who was admitted to the hospital today to deal with her mono. We really appreciate the calls and visits.

For those that might not have heard here's the story:

hannah has developed a very bad case of Mono and has been struggling to deal with it. she's been to the doctors numerous times and has been through a wide range of modern pharmaceuticals to attempt to deal with this. still, her body is not responding. the lymph nodes first in her neck and now in other places are horribly swollen. this causes a lot of pain, an inability to eat and an inability to sleep.

despite all the efforts we've all made over the last week or so to get this under control so hannah can complete her school year (finals start monday)... she has deteriorated. so, this morning they admitted hannah to the hospital. she is in O'Connor hospital room 5331.

An update as of this evening. Hannah feels pretty good. They have been giving her vicodin for pain and they have had her continuously on fluids. she ate well tonight and for the most part is doing well. that is not unusual - she has rallied several times this week for a few hours after getting steroids (which they gave her this afternoon). so - we are cautiously waiting to see how she responds when the steroids wear off. when i left to come home (julie is spending the night).. she has closed her eyes and appeared to be resting well.

thank you again for all your expressions of concern and caring! it is awesome to have such loving friends and family. we are hopeful that hannah will feel better tomorrow. please continue to pray for her.

i'll write more when we know more.

good night!

Happy Birthday!

I couldn't wait to make this post wishing Julie a Happy Birthday! Happy Birthday beautiful!

Jules is up in Berkeley right now. She is visiting with Hannah and doing a little mothering.. and a little nursing. I know she is enjoying getting to spend a little time with her.

I'm just hoping she didn't visit her favorite Tatoo parlor again ;)

I can't wait to celebrate your birthday with you in person!

Love you!

PS.. just before Julie was going to run up to Berkeley I texted her to remind her to keep her unbroken record of Frozos runs intact. She did - grabbing a quick one before she left. 6 for 6. Only 25 more to go!

Prayer Request

Hey folks, I know you all lead busy lives - but if you are reading this I hope you can take a few moments of your time and throw up some intercessory prayers for Hannah.

Hannah has been suffering with a very severe case of Mono for the last 10 days or so. Recently, the medications (many) which she has been taking to try to get her through this have diminished in effectiveness and she is a) in a lot of pain, b) not able to swallow so eating has become very tough and c) not sleeping.

She is miserable. Julie was able to get with the doctors this morning and get them to get more aggresive on the meds.. which we are hoping brings some relief. But, as you can imagine there are both physical and emotional pains she is dealing with as she is trying to get ready for finals and finish class projects. Again.. she is miserable.

So - if you could add Hannah to your prayer list today.. and for the next couple of weeks - we would be so grateful. I'm not exactly sure how intercessory prayer works - but I know it does and your prayers are coveted!

Thanks so much!

Julie Month Kickoff

It's May and that means it's Julie Month! We're off to a fun start.

Friday we went on a date to 'the Gig'. The Gig is a musical talent competition promoted and sponsored by our church, The Highway Community, in support of local high school independent music. This year's Gig (the 5th annual) featured 5 high school bands from around the Bay Area competing for the grand prize: a 3 song demo recording at a professional recording studio.

Kids are fun and these kids were no different. There were 5 quite different bands!

Giacomo: this band was a brother/sister combo. The brother played guitar and sang. The sister was sweet and accompanied her brother on the keyboard. They did pretty good... especially under the pressure of having to go first.

New Year, New Love: this band featured one of Highway's own - Kyle S. He's an awesome musician who regularly plays keyboard during our Sunday morning services. New Year, New Love is a three man band featuring Kyle on the drums. They sang three songs and were quite good. I'm partial - but Kyle was the star of this band in my eyes (and ears).

Reptile Explosion: these folks were a heavy metal band from Lynbrook High School (San Jose). Let's see.. just how do I explain Reptile Explosion? Well, first off they were loud. Very loud. Which, actually we liked. It's exciting to see these young kids having a chance to play in front of a relatively big crowd. You can tell they love what they do. So, what do they do? Hmm... the plan seemed to be a) play some really loud music, b) bend your knees and lean over, c) swing your head in circles making the crowd think your head is going to pop off.. and d) have the lead singer bend over and scream un-intelligently into the mike. This went on for 3 songs. The funniest thing would be that these folks would just crank out this mind numbing loud noise... then the song would end and the lead singer would say, in a slightly high voice .. 'thank you'. It was just surreal and a lot of fun.

Alex and Kimiya: so, we've now heard two fairly loud rock bands and up come these two kids. Alex played accoustic guitar and Kimiya just sang. And sang they did. You could understand every word of every song.. and they played some beautiful original music as well as some well done covers. They were by far and away the best vocalists that night. A real pleasure.

Varada Niktu: The final band was a wonderful instrumental band. The lead guitarist did an amazing job - clearly the best musician of the evening. Very different from all the others. That's what made this such a fun evening.

And the winner was .... drum roll..... Alex and Kimiya... followed closely by Reptile Explosion!

We celebrated for Alex and Kimiya by having a Frozos! And we brought one home for our little invalid Hannah.


Saturday we both had to work.. but spent a few hours together in the afternoon taking a nice walk with Tim. We went over to Santa Clara University and walked through Mission Santa Clara. Oh.. and there was a side trip to Frozos thrown in! Saturday evening I got a nice chance to work with Hannah on some of her homework. She was feeling a lot better and it was great to have a chance to hang out with her.


Today: Julie stayed home from church to assist our little invalid in getting back to Berkeley. She's doing a lot better. Steroids really DO work. She was up and had energy and an appetite! She is doing so much better. I hope she hangs in there through finals. Please be in prayer for her. Later this afternoon (after naps).. we took the dogs and Tim out for a nice walk.. and then.. you guessed it.. headed to Frozos. I'm thinking Julie is thinking about going 31 for 31 at Frozos this month!


We hope you all had a great weekend. Enjoy your week!

Thursday+1 Tweets

Oops... a day late!

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Tod: is excited! It's the start of Julie Month!

Tod: is at work on an 'off friday'... but thankful to have a job to go to!

Tod: is bummed because Hannah has mono and she feels so bad! Yuck!

Tod: is bummed noone commented on my 'una-guest' line in the previous post. Thought I would get some sort of response on that one. Am I losing it? Alzheimers?