-------- Original Message -------- Date: Sun, 21 May 2006 19:15:20 -0500 From: Marion Petersen To: Anne Dennick , Bob Peck , Carol Stluka , Dave Dennick , Dave Poland , Eddie Harmon , First Presbyterian , Frank Stluka , Fred@Bristle. Com. (Fred_Big@Bristle.com) , The Hargrove's , Heather Salimao , Jim Shuman , Kathy Thomas , Linda Poland , Lisa Jest , Michael Petersen , , Perry Holmgren , Poppop and Grandma Dennick , Robert Davis , Ruth Cazeneuve , Tena Dennick , Tim Ragan , Wendy Melita Dear Friends and Family~ Great news…Paw-paw underwent surgery this past week, a triple by-pass, and is doing fantastic!! He spent a few days in ICU following surgery and then on to a regular room. He is expected to discharge to home tomorrow. This e-mail is for you Paw-paw so that you have something to read when you get home J I also told Michael that he will need to start doing the same so that you can also get his perspective on the world. Any way, welcome home!! Please remember, if you or Maw-maw need anything you promised to call…we all wish you a speedy recovery. Dave called a little while ago and he and Dad were about an hour outside Texarkana which is about 3 hours from our house. They have made incredible time driving from NJ to TX. They left early on Saturday morning and drove to Nashville the first day. We expect them both to arrive here shortly, a bit tired but happy to be out of the car. Dave had quite the travel day trying to fly up to NJ on Friday. Apparently his pilot never showed up at the airport in Houston so everyone had to get on another plane to North Carolina and then the weather between NC and Newark was thunderstorms and hail which meant one delay after another. Poor Joe was sitting in his car on the shoulder of the road waiting for the call that the plane had landed and ended up waiting 6 hours past the scheduled arrival. Both of them had an exhausting day…Dad and Dave both stayed with Joe and Anne Friday night and began the cross country drive Saturday morning. Dad’s house has not sold yet but we will keep in touch with the realtor via telephone and Michael will fly up to deal with the sale when it happens. Once that is final, we will begin construction on the addition and in the meanwhile, Dad will be in the guest room. Dave will fly home on Tuesday and will begin to prepare for the National Racquetball Tournament. The competition begins on Thursday and continues on through the Memorial Day weekend depending on how far each player goes with the win. Good luck Dave…we are all routing for you J Michael’s brother, Chris, is here with us as well. He is staying over for a few days of rest and relaxation and then on to Kansas City for a week of vacation. He and Jacob are busy in the family room with a Star Wars PS2 game of one variety or another. Chris will be heading out on Wednesday morning for the rest of his vacation. I also have off tomorrow from work and am planning on enjoying myself thoroughly by sleeping in and then going for a pedicure and manicure!! Work is the same…still waiting for our annual inspection. My boss, Jerry, came over this past week and spent and hour telling me how happy the owners were with how well the building has done over the past year and that I should be very proud of what we had accomplished. It made me feel very good that all of our hard work has been noticed and I am pleased that my boss is happy. The little things that go wrong on a daily basis still irritate me but overall I am proud of our team and the care we provide. Now if I could just get a brand new building with all the bells and whistles with the team I have….just imagine!! One of our newest residents really brought it all home this week when he told me that he had been in many nursing homes since his accident (oil refinery explosion) and that Collinwood was the most caring and homelike he had been in; he said that the staff consistently go above and beyond to make the residents feel like they are in their own home and that someone cares about not only their health but their happiness. Wow…that was a great compliment. We also had Family Night this past week and Elvis brought down the house. The residents loved it…we had a Mexican buffet and a night full of Elvis tunes! The performer was in full Elvis costume and made every one in the room feel like he was singing just to them. It was a great time….next month we are going to do a beef and beer in honor of Father’s Day. Jacob is in his last week of school and is very excited about summer. He attended a sports dinner this week wherein he and the other team members received their varsity letter jackets. How totally cool is that!! I have enclosed a picture of Jacob and the jacket for your viewing pleasure. He also attended a scholastic honors dinner and was presented with principal’s honors for his placement in the class ( the top 5 students received this honor) and also the technology of the year award. Hmmm…who would have guessed? His friend Zach, the quarterback, was over one night this week to help us with some attic wiring and while we were all out at dinner Zach told us that he hoped that he and Jacob would be recruited by the same college because he always wanted Jacob to “have his back”. Then Michael told me about the football footage he had seen of the plays during this school year and how every time Zach was running the ball, he was behind Jacob…Michael said Jacob just clears the path! I just sat there and chuckled to myself thinking about the shy little boy who used to hide behind my skirt. Yesterday, Frank came up and he and Jacob planted an ornamental pear tree in our back yard. The tree was a Christmas present which I thought was pretty cool. We had them plant it next to the dog pen so that when it grows it can provide shade for the dogs. Hopefully it is one of many that will be planted in the years to come…the dogs have learned that the fence line is not the place to be and have not even attempted to leave the yard even when the gate has been opened. Yeah for the invisible fence. This is not to say that they have become well behaved dogs in the past week because they are still getting into anything and everything. At least we know that they are safe in the yard once again!! They actually had a chance to romp around the yard with Frank’s dogs, Rocky and Nubia, yesterday. We also included a picture of the new tree and the dogs. That is about all the news from Melissa. We hope this email finds you all well and we look forward to hearing from you when you have the chance. Until next time,,,take good care. We love and miss all of you…Michael, Marion and Jacob PS When any one from Melissa HS wants Jacob they just yell out Petersen…hence the silly pic of the jacket back!