Weekly Email

Whew - gotta make it short and sweet tonight. I'm tired.

Same old busy week as always. BSF on Monday night, Theresa girl's night out on Tuesday, Theresa W2W Wednesday morning, Chloe youth group on Wednesday night, home on Thursday night, Theresa down to Grandma Shields on Friday morning and finally both girls had a sleepovers on Friday night.

BSF is going great - John 13 this week. It's gettin' serious now - Judas kiss!

The girls and I went to Noodles & Company on Tuesday when Theresa was with the girls. I love the trio there - whole grain Tuscan fettuccine, Parmesan crusted chicken and a side salad. I think Theresa went to Red Robin.

Chloe had a good time at the Calvary winter retreat last weekend. I think she was a little wiped out. I think she's still catching up on her sleep. She stays up too late and then comes home from school and crashes for a couple of hours. She had a sleep over at Natalie's Friday night and I'm sure they didn't get any sleep. They went to see "When in Rome". Chloe also had a babysitting gig this afternoon from 4-6pm. Busy busy girl.

Megan is still going strong with Beauty and the Beast practice. They are working really hard on the choreography and singning every day til 5:30pm. The show is still a ways out - February 24 & 25. She also had a sleep over at Clara's on Friday night.

I had another visit to the nutritionist on Thursday morning. We are just working on balancing out protein, fat and carbohydrates. I need to get a little more protein and soluble fiber in my diet. Also focusing on reducing cholesterol. I spoke to my doctor last week and we are going to try doing without the prescriptions for 3 months. So the pressure is on the diet to show results. I'll do blood work again on 3/15/10 and see how it turns out.

You'd think Theresa and I would have had a hot date on Friday with both girls out of the house. We did manage to make it to dinner at Applebees. But then straight home to bed after that.

I did watch President Obama's State of the Union speech. I was more concerned that the Republican response was preempting American Idol. I also watched Missouri beat up on Oklahoma State and Kansas play a close one against K-State yesterday.

Last night we got a couple of movies from the Red Box. The girls watched "The House Bunny" for the umteenth time and Theresa and I watched "Sugar" - about a baseball player from the Dominican Republic.

Church was great today. We finished a 4-week series on marriage today called Remodel. Megan went back tonight for her youth group they are having a fun time with a Survivor theme.

Okay - that's all for now. So long and good night :-)

Luv u,

Jeff

Weekly Email

Hi Mom,

The week started out great with a quick trip to Vail and spending time with the Steve Sherard family (and friends - the Klemps). We drove up Sunday afternoon and checked into the Westin in Avon (9 miles from Vail). It was beautiful. We used points from our time share so it didn't cost anything. Then we drove over and met Steve at the Mariott in Vail. The girls played in the pool for a while and we hung out in the hotel bar. Then we headed out to dinner to Mezzaluna. (there is a sister restaraunt in Aspen that Lance Armstrong frequents). That should tell you something about the price point :-) Everything in Vail is a little pricey. We headed back to our hotel right after dinner (8pm) and the girls were in the pool again. Monday morning we checked out and had breakfast at Denny's - the best service and best value of the trip! Then headed over to the Lionshead parking garage and got a front row spot. It was an easy walk down to the ticket window ($97 lift tickets for adults and $61 for a child) and the Eagle Bahn gondola. The mountain is huge - 5,000 acres - with only 2 skiers per acre. It was a really special treat to ski Vail and spend time with Steve on his birthday weekend. We skied 'til the last run of the day and then headed home immediately afterward just after 4pm. It was a pretty crazy drive home - stop-n-go traffic the whole way. It took about 3hrs compared to the normal 2hrs.

I missed out on BSF on Monday night. Theresa had girls night out on Tuesday. Chloe went to youth group on Wednesday. Megan has Beauty and the Beast musical practice everyday after school. And Thursday night we were home. Normal routine. At least it was a short week with the MLK holiday on Monday.

Friday we dropped Chloe off at 5pm for the Winter Retreat. They are headed up to the mountains. It's in Fraser I think. Or maybe Frisco? I should know where I've shipped my daughter off to shouldn't I? She gets back today around 3pm.

Then Theresa, Megan and I went to California Pizza Kitchen for dinner and the Boulder High vs. Fairview basketball game. We met the Leitz's there. It was at the Coors event center on the CU campus. Big venue for the cross-town rivalry. Fairview was heavily favored but Boulder game them a run for their money - losing in the end 46-43. Great game though and a lot of fun.

Yesterday - the girls had a soap making adventure with Jack and Desra McDonald (making soap from scratch). They were gone from about 10-1pm. And then Megan went immediately to Clara's for a play date afterward. She came home about 5. I went for a run (w/o my running partner - dot's strict diet and 2wks of bed-rest plods on). I spent most of the rest of the day going through bills, cleaning up receipts, filing, getting ready for 2009 taxes, finished up my BSF and watched an Everest episode on the Discovery Channel.

We had Tacos for dinner and watched the new "FAME" movie last night.

And that's about it for the week. Church today. Maybe a Costco errand. Pick Chloe up. And get ready for the work and school week ahead - to do it all over again.

I did get my results back from my 3D heart scan. My score was "0" - no plaque buildup at all. The lowest possible score - "a greater than 95% chance for absence of coronary artery disease". I was pleasantly surprised and relieved. I haven't had a chance to review the results with my doctor yet to see what he has to say about it. I did call the teldrug pharmacy and put a hold on the newest cholesterol prescription (Zetia 10mg). With a focus on my diet, clean bill of health from the 3D heart scan - I'm going to ask the Dr. if we can stop all the statin meds for now. The Zetia was going to cost $300 for a 90 supply. The simvastatin 40mg is only about $40 for a 90 supply. Aside from the cost - who knows what the long term effects of those drugs really are. I know they attack the liver functions so I have to regularly get blood work done to keep monitoring that. I've also read some on the web that statins are actually linked to cancer as well (google must be the dr's worst nightmare). So - I'd really like to get off the stuff.

That's all folks (Steve loves these long emails :-) ).

luv u,

Jeff

Vail

Chloe

Vail

Westin Vail

Winter Ball

CPK

Winter Ball

Weekly Email

Dear Mom,

Sending out the weekly email update a little early this weekend because we have so much going on.

Vet visit with Dotsero first thing this morning. Theresa is meeting with Franci and a potential retreat speaker right now. Squeeze in chores, homework, errands and perhaps a playdate for Megan & Clara this afternoon. Then Chloe has a Winter Dance tonight at school with the pre-party and post-party and possible sleepover. I'm playing on the worship team tomorrow morning. Then we are driving up to meet with Steve and family - for dinner on Sunday night and skiing on Monday. Whew - I'm worn out already.

Last week was my week of health. I visited with the nutritionist and had an introductory meeting. They did some testing to establish my resting metabolic rate. Then we reviewed goals and objectives (primarily cholesterol reduction). Looked at 3-weeks of food logs. From that she made some minor suggestions for now and set up another visit in 2-weeks after she has had a chance to log at the food diary in detail. I have a calorie budget (2260 per day) and some immediate 'homework' to add more protein (cuts down craving for sweets) and soluble fiber (actually flushes out bad cholesterol). Actually - it's all common sense stuff that I already know - I just don't do it :-(

Then there was the heart scan. About 5 minutes waiting out front, then 5 minutes getting scanned - and write a check for $395! Good business to be in. I will get the results from that in about 7-10 days. They will go both to me and my doctor. I think there will be pictures, scores (what % blockage or plaque build up - if any), comparison percentiles (to other men my age) - all to give me a baseline. She did say if there was any significant immediate findings they would let my doctor know who would then contact me to get me in for a 'procedure' ASAP. I didn't get any calls so I presume I'm not going to drop dead immediately (God willing :-).

Dotsero's vet visit this morning was probably worst health news of the week. He looks like he has a knee problem - perhaps a torn ACL. The vet recommended a surgical consult. The surgeon would be able to take x-rays and truly diagnose exactly what it is and whether they would recommend surgery which would probably cost around $3000. In the meantime the vet has recommended and immediate 2-weeks of no activity - total couch potato. No walks, ball chasing, tug of war, stairs, jumping, etc. She did say he'll probably never run again. Two weeks to start some healing, then slow, short, easy walks on soft surfaces. Also - a serious weight loss regime. She wants him to lose about 10lbs - carrying less weight will definitely help the knee. Finally some heavy doses of glucosamine and several aspirin a day for joint lubrication, inflammation and pain mgmt.

Tomorrow after church we will drive up to Avon (10 minutes from Vail - about a 2hr drive from Boulder) and check in at the Westin there. Then hopefully join Steve and family and friends for dinner. Spend the night at the Westin in Avon. Then we'll ski a full-day with them and drive back to Boulder on Monday night. The girls are off of school on Monday for MLK day. I'm taking a day off. I don't think I've skied at Vail in 20 years. I think I remember skiing there once when I worked for Tracer. But I could be confusing it with Aspen. And maybe I have never skied there. We have to sort out some long underwear and skis for Chloe today as one of our errands in the midst of all our other activities.

I did talk with Steve yesterday to wish him a happy birthday. I can't believe how old he is :-)

That's all I know for know.
luv u,

Jeff

Weekly Email

Hi Mom,

Weekly update #2 for 2010. Full week back at work. That was a reality check after having a couple of lighter weeks (1 week off/1 short week). The girls dove back into school on Wednesday.

I can hardly ever remember what happened in the week when I sit down to write.

Monday night BSF - back into John 9. Good stuff. Tomorrow night I'm going out to dinner with the guys before hand. We are meeting at Tokyo Joe's at 5:30.

Tuesday was a night at home. Theresa didn't go to girls night out.

Wednesday Theresa did her monologue at W2W. Sounds like it went great. There were several positive comments on Facebook :-) I was down in Denver on Wednesday for the last session with Denver University - Daniels School of Business. It's always a great time. A whole day away from the office in an academic setting. The hard part is bringing it all back to work and applying it. It was really snowing good on the drive home. That was no fun - up through downtown Denver on I25/US36. Ugh - about 2 hrs to get home. If I had to commute on a regular basis I would be grumpy.

Thursday was also a night at home. I watch the BCS game between Texas and Alabama. I was sorry to see Colt McCoy get knocked out. I wanted to see the best match up against the best and it just wasn't the same with that freshman QB in there for Texas. I didn't really care who won.

I had a physcial Friday morning just as a regular checkup. Everything except my cholesterol was fine. The Dr. wants to add another drug (zetia). And I'm going to see a nutritionist to see what we can do about diet. I'm also going to get one of those 3D heart scans. It's not covered by insurance and will run about $400 but I think it's probably worth it. (the nutritionist isn't covered by insurance either).

Megan had been to see the Dr. earlier in the week for a cough that she can't shake. It still wasn't gone by Friday so she went back and had a chest x-ray to just be sure it wasn't pneumonia or anything. Everything came out clear. But the Dr. did prescribe some albuterol inhaler meds to try to keep the cough down.

Friday night Chloe had a sleep over with Natalie (they had dinner at Red Robin and went to see Avatar again). Theresa, Chloe & Megan and I went out and rented some movies at the RedBox - The Taking of Pelham 1,2,3 and Kit Kittridge; American Girl. We were all so tired that we couldn't even make it through any of them.

Saturday morning run/dog walk. Breakfast - egg sandwiches on biscuits. Errands down at the mall - return jeans, costco shopping and hotdogs, new watch battery, Old Navy.

Saturday night Clara came over for a sleepover. We finally watched Pelham 1,2,3 and they watched Kit Kitteredge. I thought our movie was pretty good. Denzel Washington and John Travolta (plus others). Lots of f-bombs.

Sunday morning church, return the movies, safeway, stop at the music store to pick up Megan's next trumpet book. Watched Kansas lose to Tennesee. Then tonight we had nachos and watched 17 Again with Zac Efron. I liked it. The girls had seen it before.

That's all I know.

Luv u,

Jeff

Weekly Email

Dear Mom,

Happy New Year!

I don't have much to report since my last 'thank you' email. But I'm trying to stay in the habit. It was one of my resolutions last year to write once a week. I went back and looked at my emails and I think I counted 34 'weekly' updates out of 52 weeks in a year. Not a perfect record but not too bad :-)

So far the theme of our New Year has been movies movies movies.

We dropped off the girls in Erie for baby sitting at 5pm on New Years eve and then raced back to Boulder to see whatever was showing next at the theater. Turns out it was Nine. It was good. I think I liked it more than Theresa did. Sure was a star studded cast. And they all did a great job with the singing and dancing. A little risque but not over the top. It felt a lot like Chicago or maybe even a little like Moulin Rouge. The movie filled the time perfectly and we raced back to Erie to pick the girls up at 8pm.

We picked up some party horns and confetti at the Rite Aide on the way home. We just watched TV (saw the ball drop in times square) and dozed until midnight. The girls were ready to roll and went crazy outside for a few minutes. And that was it. Off to bed!

Yesterday we did go see AVATAR 3-D at the early matinee. It was something else. I really liked it. Chloe enjoyed too. Theresa said it was better than she thought it would be. And Megan thought it was BORING! It was truly amazing visually with the animation and live actors intermixed and then 3D on top of that. Also the remote plantary world they created for the movie was spectacular with lush green forests, floating mountains, iridescent plants, strange creatures, etc. It was almost 3hrs long. The credits at the end were something else - the number of names involved in the making of the movie was endless.

Today was just chores and errands. I got the old computer all cleaned up and shipped it out to Ken and Mona today. It should arrive by next Wednesday. We just need to get them set up with high speed internet and they'll be ready to go.

Tonight we went off to Safeway to get a take-n-bake pizza and MORE movies. Chloe and I watched Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen with Shia Lebouf and Megan Fox. That was something else. We lost Theresa and Megan on that one. They disappeared to do other things. And right now the girls are watching Monsters vs. Aliens.

That's about all the movies I think I watch for a little while.

Tomorrow is church at 9am. And then just wind down a long weekend and get ready for a full week of work starting on Monday and BSF starts back up on Monday night. The girls don't have to go back to school until Wednesday [Megan is already getting worried and anxious about that]. Theresa is working hard on memorizing lines for her W2W monologue on Wednesday. I guess it's back to the real world :-(

Well that's all I know for now.

luv u,

Jeff

AVATAR