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An update from Mom:

Hi there Loddy....its been some time since I last emailed you, so here goes....

Things here have been slowly returning to normal....medical tests finished, meds adjusted, both Dom and I are again feeling better, and hopefully will not be so sick again for some time to come.....getting old and older, I suspect we dont recover from things as quickly as we did when we were young whippersnappers in our 20s....Dom is 60 now, and I will be turning 58 on this Saturday....then on Sunday comes our wedding anniversary, our 34th.....how time flies when you are having fun, and are with the one you love.....seems like only yesterday, Dom and I were a young married couple with two small boys to enrich, enliven and delight our lives....today, our Michael is with God, Andy is a grown man on his own, and Dom and I are looking forward to retirement and hitting the road.....a good long wonderful life indeed...we have each other, Andy is the joy of our lives, and our memories of our dear Michael keep him ever present in our hearts.....in spite of all the hard times, Dom and I feel like two of the luckiest people on earth.....

We went up to Seattle this past weekend to see Andy and his new house...he signed the final papers on the house last week, so he was all in a hurry to show off his new house to us....so of course we obliged and went scurrying up there for a three day weekend...naturally we were all loaded down with housewarming gifts, tho they were of an odd nature....we dont know how Andy actually wants to furnish and decorate his new home, so we are waiting on his actual housewarming gift until he decides...but in the meantime we wanted to get him some things....so I figured, that he will be quite busy what with work, and decorating and furnishing his new place...so I thought, what with the holidays coming, he just may not have time to shop for Christmas decorations....so we got him a couple of small artifical prelit Christmas trees, with plent of ornaments to go with the trees...that way, if he does not have time to shop for Christmas decorations, he will at least have a good start from us, and can decorate his new home....

His home is just wonderful....its in an older part of Seattle.....the house was built in 1914, and is one of the original homes in that area....apparently during those early days of the 20th century, this area was actually considered to be the suburbs of Seattle....rich people lived in town during the week, and then had small cabins or smaller homes in this area, and that became their weekend retreat.....during the course of the century, many people came in, bought two and three lots and homes, right next door to each other, tore down the homes, and built huge mansions covering the two and three lots....so the whole area is a mix of huge mansions, and many smaller original homes....the whole area has tree lined little streets, interspersed with huge mansions, and then littler homes like Andys....Andys house is surrounded by trees, and its just lovely inside and out....right outside of his front room window is huge holly bush, which now has all the red berried on it....his house is situated way up on a hill, surrounded by trees, and looks like almost a treehouser....inside its all the original woodwork, and such, and its really just so beautiful.....hes so pleased with his new house, and we are thrilled for him....his home is also almost just across the road from the Washington Arboreteum, and two blocks away, is the Russian Consulate.....and he is about a mile from Lake Washington, and just a few minutes drive from his job, so all in all, he could not have gotten a better house or location......he feels he was just lucky and his real estate agent was on the ball...houses like his, in that area, go in two and three days...Andy went to this house the first day it was up for sale, bid on it that nite, and had his bid accepted the next day...timing is everything, and he was just lucky to be in the right place at the right time....

Dom is going to be on vacation starting next week...we plan to go up the peninsula for a few days, go up to Mt Rainier, and just try out a lot of new restaurants, and see and do whatever we want, whenever we want....a foretaste of the retirement days to come....

Hopefully, after we return, I will have the time to return to Free Republic, and all its wonderful folks...I sure do miss everyone at Freeoples-DD and , hope they are all well, and give them all a big hello for me....they are all such fine folk, and a true blessing to one another....its so nice, to have internet friends, with whom we can share our ups and downs....support, and love for one another is always there....I suspect there are no greater people than those on Freeoples-DD...I sure do miss them all, and sure hope to be back soon....