I'm back, God is so good to us my family and friends

Dear Family, Friends,

Its Thursday evening the 2nd of  February and after wading through pages of Google help I finally managed to find the right page, discover that the email address for this blog is one I have forgotten, mustards@jps.net.  Then they helped me reset the password and here I am finally, I've tried over and over without success, thought I might never be able to blog again but I asked God help me tonight, I really enjoy this connection with some very precious people, friends and family for many years.

On Sunday I'll fly to Houston and spend 4 magic days with the woman I love.  Moon has been very busy with her precious 20 year old daughter Crystal who is in Singapore and this week was featured on TV, she sings, is a 6 foot tall beautiful woman and is a really good girl, Moon spends hours with her on face time audio, a very inexpensive way to spend hours with someone in Singapore.  Moon really cares for her family there and talks to her mom every night for at least an hour, a dear lady who has spent the entire day at the hospital with Moon's dad, he's been there for over a year now with multiple health issues, mom is so faithful to him and Moon is her sounding board, a safe person that she can share her fears and joys.

Moon and I will celebrate Chinese New Years and I'll be there on Valentines day too, will be fun to see her instead of just talk, we talk and text every day and share our day, try to take care of each other from a distance as well as we can.

I'm recovering from a heart Ablation procedure on the 18th of January.  I am very fortunate to have found Dr. Han who is with Kaiser and operates in the Santa Clara facility.  Ray, neighbor, took me there that morning, a Wednesday in driving rain and I waited for over 2 hours for the process to start, its like that with hearts, if someone has a severe problem, they deal with it and then do the routine work.  I was taken in, prepped and told what could happen and what they hoped would happen.  Incredible team!  Jason was with me for the day, once I was taken away hours passed quickly, they inserted 5 lines into my arteries successfully and then moved to my heart, Dr. Han was able to make my heart go into A-fib and then moved quickly to burn various spots where the heart was misbehaving, shorting out, then she was able to make my heart do flutter, another issue and she then proceeded to burn many spots in my heart and arteries until the flutter was dealt with.  she took as extra hour and a half but feels very confident that she was able to solve both A-fib and Flutter, so far I've had neither and its been two weeks.

The downside: I was ordered to lie perfectly still, not lift my head, not move after I woke up, the pain was intense and after going through open heart surgery in August I know a little bit about pain.  I had to lie still for 6 hours until continual blood testing achieved a 170, not sure if that is blood thickness or blood sugar or something else.  Finally the number was 162 and they moved to the next step.

They call it removing the sheets, they told me it would hurt like hell, they were not kidding.  They removed the lines that were inserted in my arteries in my groin area, they would put enormous pressure on me, they said they were putting their entire body weight on what felt like a flat square which they were pulling out of me, pain like I've never known was the result, then they said the last two would be the worst and the girls said, this is like childbirth, wow, I can see why Nan did not want more kids!  Intense pressure and pain engulfed me but eventually it was over and I was alone. 

At 2 am a guy came with food and fed me, great food and very kind attention, it was a welcome moment.

The front of my legs and body is so bruised, I have solid black and blue to my knees and now two weeks later every time I stand up the front of the legs hurt and burn and one shin feels like a horse kicked it but I am better.  I did see two house the next day, Friday but I moved very slowly due to intense pain.

Work has nearly stopped due to the raise in interest rates.  So far this year I've logged in 36 orders and last fall I was seeing them at a rate of about 5 to 10 orders per day.  But I'm so tired after this latest heart episode that I need lots of sleep every night and naps during the day.  Still I'm so thankful for God's leading and blessing, I enjoy my time with Moon even if it is long distance, I love meeting homeowners and seeing their homes, every check that comes in the mail is a little thrill and I'm thankful for a warm home, food, an incredible family and great friends, a brother who calls me every night and a life that is busy and interesting.

I've missed being able to blog, thank you for asking where I went and now I can say, I'm back.
Love to all

Tim

catching up

Dear Friends and Family
I had a joyful time with Moon over Thanksgiving in Houston where the weather is much more decent this time of year.
Once I arrived back home at 3 am on Monday I was buried with work and its been that way ever since.  Between conditions on prior reports and writing new ones its been a very busy time so I've not blogged, barely got to sleep but now its settling down a bit.

Church was an enjoyment yesterday and then lunch with Bob at Olive Garden was good too.  I had trouble getting back home as they are working on a bridge and the road was closed.  Last night both Kallie and Keanna were riding on floats in the Discovery Bay Christmas parade, a big deal and is was cold, very cold.  Today like yesterday I walked the three miles around the lake so I feel a little sore but heart is behaving very well.

Take care and enjoy the season, we have a very amazing Lord who cares for us so much.

Love

Tim

A week

Friday night, long day, longer week.
After a relatively free period of A-fib after surgery over a week ago I woke with heart rate of 140 and I've had A-fib every since, day and night, at this point not sure what happens next, I'm told I may have to just learn to live with it, heart beating crazy, total fatigue, night sweats, its a mess and it continues unabated tonight.

I did encounter a really nice real estate agent this morning who had heart value replacement 12 years ago and has had A-fib every since.  he says he is on heart medicine to hold his heart rate down, same as me and play basketball, runs, does everything and does not even give the heart a thought anymore.  It was good to hear his testimony.

Moon was mugged, hit over the hear with a sharp object this week and her phone was jerked out of her hand, then the guy hung around until morning to harass her, she now has a new phone and is starting to be able to sleep and the pain is gone from her back and head where he hit her.  But her life was complicated enough and now is even more with fear of the unknown and this guy.  The police have been great and very supportive.  She could have been hurt worse and she could have had her purse but only had trash and Gucci for a little walk, no purse.

Tomorrow I care for Kallie while Nikki, Keanna and Steve attend a memorial service for a young neighbor who died of an unknown illness a couple weeks ago.  Very very sad.

Sending love to all,

Tim

I'm back

As I work here at my desk, a place I've been all day other than some quick grocery shopping at the local Safeway I hear the rain fall outside, just hoping that mid day tomorrow perhaps the rain could abate and I'll be able to measure homes without being soaked, oh well, happens so seldom.

thanks to Jessy and her mom Susan I'm gradually getting a bit caught up in past orders.

New work is coming in fast and furious even though everyone is upset at how long I'm taking to finish their jobs.

I'm so thankful for many things, house, car, great family with interesting little people and great adults too, super friends and a wonderful woman in Houston.  How I wish she could be here but right now we seem to be making some progress with immigration, not that it will mean she can stay here, there will be a day when she probably has to go back to her family and home in Singapore and then we start over again asking for permission for her to come live here with me, how it all works out I don't know, no one does right now, not even immigration.  I wish I could just step forward as her sponsor and assume the process of getting her green card assigned but I'm told that that is not a good idea probably to switch sponsors and I don't think she will ever get approved for a full green card with her other sponsor since so many things have come out about his actions years ago.

I am going over thanksgiving to Houston and will enjoy time with her again.

Right now she has just texted me that she is off to bed to get much needed rest.

I'm going to bed now too, tired and worn out from sitting and typing, I've discovered that I could be much faster at writing up reports if I knew the 10 key on the computer so I'm starting to learn it now, why not.

Sending love to all of you now,

God is pretty good to us but oh how wonderful it will be to be with Him and to feel His love first hand.

Good night

tim

And so it moves forward

Sunday evening, today Jessy was kind enough to use her day off to come and work on appraisals, she did a bunch and helped a lot, yes she made some money, she earned it for sure.  What a great push forward her coming was.
I've been walking my 3 miles in the mornings in 45 minutes, getting stronger but so depressed by the huge back log of work I have to catch up on, my eye sight is really terrible since the surgery, got some eye drops today and they helped a lot.
Yesterday Keanna invited me to the Brain Games, a contest held at a high school where each school sends a team to compete, this is the second year running that her team has won the whole event, great fun to watch her in action.  Also got to see Kallie too and Nikki for lunch at Diggers, good food.
Am enjoying time spent with Moon, today she attended church so she could have special prayer time for the many things she faces, brave lady and she is packing now knowing that sooner or later she will have to return to Singapore to her family and then we will start her quest to be here in the US again only this time with me as her sponsor.
I'm going there for Thanksgiving which will be really wonderful, I've not seen her for several months due to the surgery other than face time and many texts and phone calls every day.
Now its off to bed, still buried with work and so thankful for family, friends, God's incredible love and life itself.

Love to all

Tim

Sabbath Morning Victory

Dear Family and Friends,
I'm just back from my first 3 mile walk since the surgery which was 2 months ago today.  At first it felt a little rough but then my body settled down and I did the route in 47 minutes and I'm still standing.
Have Oatmeal with egg cooking in the microwave now.  Yes my heart is sending some minor complaints but overall my heart rate is good, my breathing is resting now and I'm happy with this progress.
Today at 10:30 I pick up Keanna and we drive to San Jose to enjoy a day celebrating Mia's 6th birthday.  It will be great, she is a very interesting little girl and is smart, creative and loves Lego's for girls.
Now its shower time and a chance to relax a bit as we celebrate God's love and such goodness we feel at his hand.
Love to all, treasure what you have, a heart that beats, a roof that sheds sun and rain, people that make life rich and pleasant.

Take care today my family and friends,

Tim

Buried with success

Good evening
for the past 30 years thanks to the great help of the Vogels who taught us the business I've been very busy creating appraisals.  I've had big years and small years but what is taking place right now is different.
When you combine my attempting to recover from the open heart surgery, a process they told me would take 3 months to recover from and you add in the most work I've ever had at a time when I was working alone, when Jessy has just been given the job of her life time with the police department and is just loving it, when she gives me all the time she can afford but its not nearly enough to keep up with the work load and training someone else is almost out of the question, so I just work and sleep and it does not see like I do anything very well.  I'm trying to keep a relationship with Moon building but I've not seen her in months due to the surgery and now the work load.

I'm depressed, am dizzy most of the time from the heart medicine, can't lift much and when I do my chest lets me know for the next two days, some days I wake with a headache that lasts all day.

Yes I pray and ask God for His help but sometimes I feel like God is way to busy with good people to notice my struggles.  Yes you are right, I'm down tonight.  I've just completed an appraisal that Jerry drove me to in Walnut Grove on the 15th, I've struggled with comps and everything, everyone is angry, I tried to turn it down but they said they had no one else who could do it and what a mess it has been.  Now its done but filled with dated sales that are located near and far from the subject property.  At least its done until tomorrow morning when they come back with a new set of conditions for me to deal with.

One thing I very much enjoy is coming to the Tracy church, I love the pastor's sermons and his leadership, I feel good about my family and I relax when I'm there with my friends.

right now I must go to bed, have to be up early and working tomorrow, try to take a quick walk to the park first, its depressing when everyone leaves and the sounds of the house are creepy and lonely.  They were a great team but it had to end.  I was well and strong.

Please include me in your prayers,

Love to all

Tim