Family
Dennis and Joyce's 50th wedding anniversary was held tonite.
It was an awesome party and they are such fun people! Our families have been friends for 40 years (we all went to school together), and it was great to see everyone again after all these years for some of the kids.
Just took some portraits of Bud and James, two friends of the family. Bud lived with my brother in California, moved to Wisconsin, and ended up moving to Colorado 2 mi from where I live. How weird is that! He and his family lived in Torrance about 3 streets away, and we all went to school together at Torrance High.
Janis’ cousin Linda passed away tonite during surgery. After her sister passed away last year after my brother Steve, Eliot said everyone is getting a full medical. Linda came diagnosed with diabetes and started treating that. She came out here for a Dodger game in July and looked great! She was discovered with pancreatic cancer, and during surgery they tried removing it and they cut the artery. She was such a beautiful upbeat person. Here she is at Dodger/Rockies game on July 28th of this year. She's in the blue Dodger jersey.
Patrick, Kelsay, Linda, Drew, Michelle, Raye, Eliot, and Janis at the Dodgers/Rockies game July 28th
Eliot, Raye, Michelle, Robby, and all of Linda’s family, we are so sorry for your loss.
xo Tom and Janis
One of our oldest friends frommy old Torrance neighborhood came out to Colorado to visit with her two sons and gave me a call today to say she was here and would be leaving tomorrow to fly back home to LA. So I drove down to her sons house and picked her up and we went out to lunch and then back to our house so she could see it. She approved of the house and mom living there!
Nice to see her and we'll see her again soon as she comes out all the time to visit her sons/grand children. She's standing on our front porch with mom.
What a great day we had. We went to Janis' cousin Michelles' house who lives about 45 minutes from us in Castle Rock. They had a BBQ and Patrick makes great ribs, we had a really nice time. I took the camera down there and it was a good thing as they just got a new puppy and there isn’t anything cuter than a new puppy. This s Goldie and Michelle and Janis. It's so nice to have people here that we know, and we're not totally alone out here! Between Janis' cousin and my nephew and his wife, its not like we're totally alone here!
Oh and check out the view from their backyard, that's why they call it Castle Rock. Pikes Peak is behind Castle Rock.
Today we went down to Chula Vista to Janis family friend Milt Grossman's 90th birthday party. lt was supposed to be a surprise party but there were way too many people there to keep it a surprise. It was a great time, the weather was great, and everyone was so nice and friendly. I'm glad that I got to be a part of Milt and Ceil's extended family, even if I didn't show up until the last couple of years.
RIP Missy
We had to put Missy down on Tuesday. She wasn't eating and you could just see it in her eyes that it was time. Janis held her in her arms while the doctor gave her the injection. Very quick, only about 3 seconds and it was over.
Sure wish they'd treat humans as well as they do animals when they have incurable/inoperable death sentence diseases.
Everyone we talked to said the same thing - it snows but 3 days later its warm and all the snow melts.
Well here's 3 weeks later..They're still waiting to start dry walling the inside.. They had to re-do a room that was supposed to have 2 french doors in it and they didn't have any doors on the walk thru. (room was wide open). So after going back and forth with them they put in the french doors in the living room/studio, didn't cost us anything as they said previously it came that way, and now we're back on tract.
Dry walling is next. We are having a recirculating water heater system, so basically you can be in the dead of winter and have hot water in the shower instantly, which will save all the 'waiting till the water gets hot'. Since Colorado is on a drought and rations water, we thought that would be good for the environment and pay for itself in the first year we live there. Only problem is our house was the first house in the development/city that had put that in so the city building inspectors took their time to approve it as they weren't sure what it was/did.
Happy new year to you and yours! Its starting off to be a lousy new year here. Just found out our 10 yr old cat has cancer of the jaw. Missy developed a lump in her jaw and we thought it was an impacted tooth or something so we took it to the vet, and they took a sample and said it was cancer. Not what we had hoped for to start what is supposed to be the best year of our life with the move to Colorado in March.We have an appointment with an oncologist on Tuesday to get a second opinion and to confirm the results.
She was a great cat for Janis, and for me these past 5 years. Will miss her dearly.
On Friday, July 28th, my nephew Duane, who was my brother Steve's son, died suddenly in Phoenix at the age of 28. Some photos at Steve’s funeral and easter earlier in the year at my sister’s.
My older brother Steve passed away on June 26th. He was in Cottage hospital in Santa Barbara since May 25th, and I worked about 3 days since then and the rest of time I was up there. My sister Nancy is a nurse so either she or I was there every day having it covered so the doctors on their morning rounds would have someone to talk to and we could relay the information to the family.
We have an amazing family - Duane came out every week from Phoenix, Bonnie would drive out every weekend off from Vegas, My wife Janis would take time off from work which really puts a strain on her attorneys that she works for. I burned up my vacation and sick leave time long ago, I have no clue how much time I owe. Nancy would take time off work and adjust her schedule and would drive 60 mi each way sometimes 2x a day to come see him or talk to the doctors. Denise and Jeremy his wife and son would do the same driving from Lompoc to Santa Barbara.
Duane was 15 when Steve his father had Non-Hodgkins lymphoma and Jeremy was 1, now Jeremy is 15 and is watching his father try valiently to battle leukemia. So Duane and Jeremy got even closer than they were as half brothers.
My younger brother Jack came out the last week from Dallas where he now lives, so that was great, we hadn't seen him since Christmas and before that was my wedding in May, 2005. I spent Christmas sick the entire time in bed with the flu so basically didn't see him at all during that visit. He was here from Thursday until yesterday, so he was there when Steve died. Steve was four years older than me and I am four years older than Jack.
Steve was a great guy, great father, brother, and son, and will be missed. He wanted to be cremated and buried at sea so we'll do that at another time. The funeral is Friday at St. Lawrence church in Redondo Beach. Monsignor Lenihan who was Steves favorite priest has agreed to do the funeral even though he's been retired for a few years. He married me the first time in 1982, and was the priest that did my fathers funeral in 1983, so he has been like a member of the family for a long time. Steve died on my fathers birthday. Steve really missed my dad so it was an appropriate passing. He's up there in heaven with my dad and nana.
Mom with 6 of her 7 grandchildren. Jason, Matt, Duane, Jennifer, Jeremy and Bonnie.
Haven't been on here much as I 've been busy up in Santa Barbara. My older brother Steve is in the hospital with Leukemia. He's battling it but it seems to be bigger and stronger than he is. Get well soon Steve!!
Anyone that comes on here that knows Steve or wants to leave a message of support can post it at his message board which is at www.carepages.com - his site is SteveMullen
He's been in the hospital since May24th and still hasn't started chemo yet - He has a real bad infection in his colon and they are trying to clear that up before they start chemo as his white count is down to 300-400 and risk of infection is very high.
Happy Easter! Went to brunch with my mom today and then over to the beach to see if there were any dolphins (there weren't any)
We took some pictures down at the beach I think they came out nice
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and then some people wanted me to take their picture with their small film camera. Since they didn't have but one picture left,
and I wasnt sure if it would have come out I took 2 with my camera and I gave them my card, So if you are out there and see this, there you are!
Spring is in the air! Two doves were making a nest in the covered patio of the house, and the daddy flew the coup about 2 days later - so momma has been sitting on a nest 24/7 (We haven't seen her eat but I'm sure she is, but she's always on the nest). We put out some food for her and some water right below her on a ledge but she didnt ever eat any of it -
Well the babies were born 3 days ago - they finally peeked out this morning and we got a photo of the proud family -
