Good afternoon, dear ones!
I'm sorry I am so remiss in keeping this journal up-to-date! Things are going well here. Charlie had a bit of a scare last weekend (about three hours in the emergency room Saturday night) with his blood pressure, but we later determined that part of the problem is that our home blood pressure cuff needs to be repaired or at least recalibrated. A call to Dr. Karen, his Galveston transplant coordinator, to make some adjustments in medication dosages seems to have greatly improved the situation. We're still keeping a careful eye on that BP, though!
As Carolyn's entry indicated, Charlie drove to Inlow with a friend from our church. There he put on a general disaster relief training and a chain saw disaster relief training for 19 people. He brought home a load of firewood, unloaded it, and cut it up with his own chain saw, even splitting some of this with an axe. There's no stopping that man!!!! (Haven't tried--not that foolish!) On the flip side of that, however, Dr. Kollar, did tell me (at our Houston visit) in his thick but charming Hungarian accent, "You have to let him be a man." That was in response to the concern I expressed about his carrying groceries, heavy suitcases, and so on. Do pray with me that I will encourage him to do what he can and should but discourage him from "overdoing" things!
Yesterday we had our traditional home Thanksgiving meal for the international students. We had 34 students and Charlie, me, Roger and Victoria (Chandra's parents), and Carolyn (Charlie's sister), for a total of 39 people. We had a fantastic meal and a wonderful time! Charlie did the lion's share of the meal preparation, as always, in addition to helping me with much of the cleaning and re-arranging necessary to fit that many people into our home. Needless to say, we are both exhausted today, but we plan on taking it pretty easy. Roger, Victoria, and Carolyn all came back over to help us with the clean-up last night, and that really made things a lot easier for us. We do appreciate all of their help--we couldn't have done it without them!
We are looking forward with great anticipation to first Chandra and Kennan's and then Gordon and Christy's visit at Christmas time. Chandra and Kennan will be in on the 16th, and Christy and Gordon will get here in time to overlap them slightly before they have to leave on the 24th. Chandra and Kennan have a conference that they need to attend in the Chicago area just after Christmas, so they are making their New Mexico Christmas visit a little bit early this year.
Sassy, Stormy, and Jack are all as cute and sweet of pets as ever. School is school, but I am thankful to have a job in a place that is, even with all its problems, a truly great place to work! It is with a truly thankful heart for all of you who so richly bless us, and for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who has done so much for us, that I sign off our Thanksgiving update with much love,
Charlie and Martha
