Dear Kids,
          Most of you have already heard about Dad’s heart procedure: he had two stents put into his coronary arteries to open up blockages he had. (A stent is a little mesh tunnel that keeps the arteries open.) I wish I had called or texted everybody beforehand, but I didn’t want you all worrying before you needed to. I said plenty of prayers for us all. Dad had the procedure done at the Death Star, on Halloween, but it still went really well. They kept him all night, and he checked out at noon the next day.
            I wasn’t even aware that he had heart trouble, until he said he’d had pains in his chest, when he walked on the treadmill. He made an appointment with a PA, and then she referred him for a stress test, which he had last Monday morning. He flunked it, so they scheduled him for an angiogram (CAT scan with dye, looking at the heart) the next morning. When they saw the two blockages, they put in the stents immediately. They went in through his wrist, feeding them up to his heart. I’m glad they didn’t have to cut him open. His recovery has gone really well, and he hasn’t had any chest pain in the last week. He’s scheduled for cardio-rehab, where they’ll evaluate his heart and see what exercise he can handle. I’m sure he’ll be seeing a cardiologist on a regular basis, too. He’s telling people that without the stents, he would have had a massive heart attack. That’s probably true. So please keep him in your prayers.
          Otherwise, everything’s going fine here. We really enjoyed Abi’s baptism yesterday, and seeing so many of you there! What a fine big wonderful family we have!
          I’m excited about the upcoming events: Thanksgiving, for one. Al is hosting at the cabin for all you orphans: dinner at 1 p.m., and pie later in the afternoon or early evening. The second event (or maybe it will come first) will be the birth of little baby boy Hawkins. We’re really looking forward to that! Donna’s doctor says nothing is happening yet, but we’ve heard that story before!
           The Messiah will be December 9 and 10 at 7 pm at Tom’s church. I’m very excited to be practicing it again! Bentley’s singing with us this time. I hope he’ll come to love it like the rest of us do.
           The family Christmas party is scheduled, tentatively, for Saturday, December 16, at Nora’s house. We’ll have more details as it gets closer.
           What fun! What a family! Love, Mom