Christmas Letter 2008

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas 2008!

The comfy chair in the living room is empty and we imagine you there so we can informally catch you up a little on our year.  We welcome post-holiday notes or e mails that let us know how YOU are doing, too.

We have had many more ups than downs this year, and we are all in good health and enjoying the Christmas season. The highlight of 2008 for us was the birth of our new grandson, Tyler Charles Crockett on May 18. 7 pounds even, 20 ½ inches. He is a happy, sweet baby and loves to chew on everything.

We are becoming a little more internet savvy, and we get a lot of help from Becky and Kenny. Linda has a website for her artwork, foxartonline.com. We have a site about Charlie’s transplant experience at charliesheart.org, and Jerry has a new website gospelverseaday.com It’s a free email service that provides a scripture verse every day as email, or just on the website. He spent a couple of years compiling a list of his 1600 favorite scriptures to share and is excited to finally have things up and running. Becky is still busy with her online design business at podcastdesigns.com and has a cute site for her family at kenandbecky.blogspot.com.

Jerry hasn’t taught college courses this calendar year. A couple of last year’s classes were for Spanish-speaking students that mysteriously disappeared when the state started requiring proof of citizenship. Now Jerry is working four ten-hour days per week and has used the extra time for promoting barbershop and vocal music education – and for lunches with Linda and/or the kids.

Jerry’s good friend, Jeff Matson, passed away in February from heart problems. Jerry went to Kansas City for the funeral and finally got a chance to meet Jeff’s wife and children and get to know them better. Jeff was one of his favorite missionary companions. They were in the Montana Billings Mission together around 1980.

Jerry combined a return trip to K. C. MO area in July to study at the Barbershop Harmony Society “Harmony University” (music theory, quartet coaching and composing) for a week and spending some time with Jeff’s family.   Jerry will be president of his local barbershop chorus next year. He’s been doing a lot of marketing for the chorus lately and hopes that being president will be less work.(?) He will also be assistant director. He was in a terrific quartet, Bright Side, but 80 mile commutes for practice and the marriage of the baritone made them give it up. Jerry found lots of opportunity to enjoy the Season with music this year with two Messiah performances and six holiday barbershop chorus shows and one big patriotic show in November.

We lost a few of our animals this year. A goat, a duck, three chickens and three chicks. The neighbors’ dogs are among the “natural causes.” Jerry says they went to that “great petting zoo in the sky.” We still have a duck, chicken, and a dog in the yard and black mollys in the fish tank.

We did fewer trips this year. Linda’s Grandma Clara visited for a few weeks, and then we drove her back to Ogden and had a fun time at the annual family reunion. We got a nice picture with Clara, Grandma Pat, Linda, Becky and her boys-5 generations!

Linda has been busy teaching art classes for the City of Chandler. She won a scholarship at Scottsdale Artist’s School to attend a week-long portrait workshop with David Kassan in March. Then she painted like crazy for a while, building up a body of work so she would have enough paintings to fill the entire gallery in Douglas, AZ for her first one-person show lasting all the month of December. It was a challenge getting all 45 pieces of the artwork down south. We spent Thanksgiving with Linda’s parents and then hung the show in the gallery the next day. They had a very nice opening reception and everyone was very impressed with Linda’s work. douglasartgallery.wordpress.com/

The gallery also had a craft show where Rosie sold some of the hats and scarves that she had knitted, and Grandpa Jim also got some orders to build frames after making some for Linda’s paintings.

Linda was awarded a grant from the state to help her attend the annual Portrait Society conference in Washington D.C. in April 2009. She will learn from some of the best portrait artists in the country.

Charlie (13) started junior high school this year and loves it! He is active in scouts and loves to play basketball with the boys.  He feeds the animals and still loves dinosaurs, safety signs and “zigzags.”  He likes to go swimming, and play basketball and racquetball at the gym with Jerry and Rosie. He had a great time at a couple of Diamondbacks baseball games with the family. NO illnesses or rejection to report.

Rosie will be turning 11 soon. She recently discovered the “Knifty Knitter” and has made dozens of hats and scarves. She made a set for all her present and former teachers – Kindergarten through 5^th grade – for Christmas. They loved them. She plays the flute in school band. She loves the Guardians of Ga’Hoole books about fictitious owls, with lots of owl facts. She still loves birds and wants to be an ornithologist/artist.

Bradley and PJ are still doing online college courses on the computer. They also do respite and habilitation for Charlie. Bradley is nearly finished with his computer certificate, while PJ is just getting started working toward being a programmer. PJ is proving to be an excellent babysitter for Becky.

Becky, Kenny, Sam and Tyler are all doing great. The boys are fun and challenging for them. They are in the same apartments but now downstairs. No more climbing stairs with babies, groceries, and toddlers. Kenny is “indispensible to his department,” and his CEO insists that GoDaddy is recession-proof. Sam is three now. He is SO cute and funny and is a great big brother to Tyler.

We have been doing some family history research during the year. Familysearch.com makes it so easy for us to organize information and link up with what information we can find online. We also received information from family members and others. We hope to continue to find new names and stories this year.

Well, God has been good to us again this year.  We are very blessed.  Hope all is well with you and yours!

Merry Christmas! Happy holidays! Happy 2009 to come!

Love, The Fox family- Jerry, Linda, Bradley, PJ, Charlie, and Rosie.

http://gospelverseaday.com…………………………………….. http://foxartonline.com

Christmas Letter 2006

Proverbs 25:25 “As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.”

Hello friends and dear ones near and far! We read an advice column recently blasting those boring newsletters that arrive each Christmastime. You have our permission to discard this note, but you are likely to get another one next year. On the other hand, we welcome any and all notes or e mails catching us up on the latest of you and yours. We like that kind of stuff.

The best thing about this year is the lack of anything to report. Charlie had a 2nd heart transplant over a year ago and the best thing about this year was just slowing down and enjoying our own company as a family. A couple months ago we finally put away the TV rabbit ears antennae and got satellite TV and high speed computer connection. (Note the new e mail address for the family below.)

We didn’t travel much- just a summer trip to Utah to see friends and relatives and over to Colorado to see Linda’s aunt in Cimarron and then back down through the Four-Corners area. Also a quick “pleasure” trip to CA for a reunion and photo ops with transplant kids in Loma Linda.

Jerry changed barbershop quartets from “Love at Home” to one called “Tapestry.” He’s still having fun in the same barbershop chorus. He taught at the prison for year 9 and at the community college for year 3. We bought Linda’s Mom’s old Cadillac. Smooth ride. Low maintenance and insurance and payments outweigh higher gas costs. This car doesn’t lean to the left when I sit in it like my Metro did.

Linda has been taking classes at Scottsdale Artist’s School and has painted portraits of family and friends. See her web site at foxartonline.com. No more part-time NAU Computer Lab work for us – after 7 years. They wanted us to work more hours so we compromised and chose “none.” Linda also does some occasional Photoshop work for Becky’s business and volunteering in the Art Masterpiece program at the kids’ school.

Becky and her husband, Kenny, and 18 month-old Sammy, (The Crocketts) are flourishing. They are a joy to have in the neighborhood (5 miles away). Becky does computer graphic art especially for podcasts and various websites. See her web site at podcastdesigns.com. Kenny has a podcast called “Apple News Now” and enjoys making a little money from his sponsors.

Bradley finished high school on-line in June and is now taking online community college courses. He is enjoying the freedom to take the classes that he is interested in, mostly computers.

PJ is finishing high school on-line this year and will be starting in-class college courses soon. He also does occasional artwork for Becky and has a comic website, but we forgot the address.

Charlie went from 10 year old cub scouts to 11 year old boy scouts, including the camping trips and pioneer treks that accompany it. His health has been great except for a couple of recent hospital stays for dehydration. No heart problems!

Rosie turned 8 and was baptized in February. She studied hip-hop and Broadway dance over the summer and continues to enjoy singing and sports – and video games. She and Charlie are both in the running club at school.

We will update Charlie’s website for now with some family pictures and narrative, but we are likely to pull the plug on it before too long. You are welcome to visit it now – but don’t be surprised if it is gone soon.

Well, there you are. This is the “least-newsy” letter we’ve written in a while. Sometimes “less is more” and we don’t mind having less to report.

We count our blessings every day. As we celebrate the birth of our Savior, we wish you the merriest of holidays and a blessed, healthy and prosperous New Year!

From the Fox Family – Jerry, Linda and all
PS Do you recognize the mom and baby in the picture?

November / December 2005

Jerry got one last trip to CA the last week of of October. We thought it might well be because we expected Becky and family to visit – and Linda and Charlie to get a chance to come home for a brief visit. We got a wheelchair for Charlie for longer walking trips. It is one thing to walk around RMcD House for some exercise. Other trips take a lot more walking. He was able to go to some church meetings but we usually stay briefly-to avoid any chance of contacting germs.

Jerry got to speak at the annual conference for Arizona organ donor families. That was the hardest 5 minutes speech of his life! How do you thank a group of people like that for what they have done – and honor who they have lost? We don’t know Charlie’s donor family but it had to be someone like them. Because I knew how many people prayed for Charlie, I told them they were the answers to a lot of peoples prayers.

Becky and Kenny and Sammy did get to come visit. Linda enjoyed babysitting Sammy while parents went site-seeing. Kenny went to a technology conference. We aimed for Oct-31/Nov 4 (Charlie and Becky’s birthdays) to get Charlie and Linda permission for a short home visit. She got permission and packed the car that day-maybe to be gone before they changed their minds so it was a few days earlier. They came Friday night arriving Sat 3 am or so and then stayed until Monday mid-day. Charlie came through the door and went straight to his crayons and got them out and went to work like he had been away 3 hours-not 3 months. We celebrated Charlie’s birthday and got to take Charlie to church. We didn’t stay for primary but his teachers were thrilled to see him. We had a lovely Sunday together but it was a really quick trip.

The hospital scheduled an appointment for Nov. 22 but we hoped they could move it up. All Charlie’s tests have looked as good or better than expected so we hoped for the best. Sure enough, he had a final heart catheterization Nov. 14 and the next day the doctor had results to review and report on. They liked what they saw, set up meds and prescriptions and Linda went back to RMcD House and cleaned and packed.

On Wednesday, November 16, 2005, after rush hour, they packed up the van and left for home.
They arrived about 8 p.m!

It was a happy reunion for everyone as we just unloaded the van and piled most everything in the kitchen.

The next few days included little structure, trips or activities. Charlie found his favorite toys- and pets – and enjoyed himself immensely.

We had a wonderful, quiet, “pleasantly uneventful” Thanksgiving with Becky’s family and Linda’s parents.

We look forward to many quiet uneventful days ahead!

As we look back over this web site we see the updates dating back to March and even January of 2005. We have been dealing with this stuff for practically the whole year. Linda and Charlie flew to UCLA July 23 – one week short of 4 months.

Thanksgiving was definitely an appropriate time for the family to be back home together. We have A LOT to be thankful for. We have a huge list of people that we are thankful for. If we tried to list them here we would surely omit some. A lot of small acts of service and kindness. A lot of prayers on Charlie’s behalf!

As Christmas approaches, it is still lots of fun to just enjoy having everybody home – though we should have started earlier preparing Christmas cards and notes of thanks to so many.

If this web site had the mission of celebrating Charlie and updating our friends and family on how Charlie is doing – this may be a final entry for this web site. We are not sure. We will post our Christmas letter and some recent photos soon.

We hope you enjoy the web site – and we hope you keep in touch. Annual Christmas cards are nice but we always look for news of YOU and how you and yours are doing.
Merry Christmas and a happy and blessed New Year!

October 16, 2005

“Fall Break” for Rosie’s school so we planned to all go to CA. Brad was ill and stayed home. Jerry, P.J and Rosie flew out to CA with a kind AZ pilot father and son.

Rosie and Jerry got their first look at Charlie after transplant. Jerry was surprised/shocked at how puffy Charlie’s cheeks were but Linda reminded us about the Prednisone medicine Charlie is taking. It makes him have a big appetite and puffy face and tummy. He eats a lot now! Charlie and Linda both have physical therapy- usually on different days so they have almost daily trips to the hospital. Linda’s is for recovery from the auto accident in August. We do “PT” with Charlie at the Ronald McDonald House. He kicks and throws balls and walks. He likes to walk up the stairs and then ride the elevator down – and vice versa. We can see his stamina grow daily. He wants to run but it is still an awkward shuffle.
We spent a lot of time at the Ronald McDonald House. We felt more a part of the community as we spent more time with children of families from around the world with various ailments. There are communal birthday parties, guitar sing-alongs, playroom time, guest entertainers, etc. So many beautiful children with leukemia, eye ailments, “deformities”, etc. We see the other AZ families more often. Now Charlie is doing very well and we look forward to coming home soon. So much change in our outlook in such a short time! It is hard to believe it has been 5 weeks from Charlie’s transplant!

September 24, 2005

Charlie’s recovery has been steady and strong. One by one, the tubes and wires and lines came out. (See photos) He slowly recovered his appetite. We went to pizza restaurants, Burger King, In/Out Burger, grocery stores, etc. and brought in food to the hospital. Jerry stayed for 8 days-Sept. 10th to 17th.

We took photos home and Becky got them uploaded to the site.

One week later, (two weeks after transplant) they were about ready to let Charlie leave the hospital. He needed some medications – and we needed to have them with us so we could give them to Charlie “at home” at Ronald McDonald House.

We called several Walgreens in AZ and CA and found the meds, paid for them by phone and credit card – and Becky packed her baby, Sammy, and her brother P.J. into her car. She drove to a West Phoenix Walgreens then on to CA and delivered the meds to Linda at the hospital!

Then the hospital released Charlie from the hospital about 4 p.m. Saturday, September 24, 2005!
He has to stay in the LA area for a month or two.

They all went sight-seeing at the beach. Charlie wasn’t up to doing much walking yet so Linda had to carry him some. He has been sitting on the bed for 8 or 9 weeks. He has some muscle-strength recovery to do too! Charlie has been VERY happy out of the hospital. Simple things like going to Jack-in-the-Box for a burger excite him. Mom pulls him in a wagon around Ronald McDonald House. Now she has a wheel chair so she can push him until he is up to walking.

September 14, 2005

Wednesday and Thursday tubes start coming out and Charlie is hungry for “real” food again. We are back to Burger King for food he wants to eat. This may not be the end of his recovery – but it is the first HUGE step that we and so many others have been worried about. Now we anticipate recovery for some weeks in the hospital and some weeks near the hospital before we can bring him home. The timing was wonderful! Linda and Grandma Pat were in AZ with the van last week while Jerry stayed with Charlie. All the busy things the family did last week – and so this was the next best possible day! Of course, ANY day is a good day for a life-saving heart transplant! Thank God!

September 10, 2005 -Charlie Gets a New Heart!

WE GOT “THE CALL”!

CHARLIE GETS A NEW HEART!

Linda called the nurse to see if they were going to re-insert a chest tube that had come out and the nurse said that no, they thought they had a new heart for him and this was going to be a good day for Charlie! The doctor soon said, “Hey, who let the cat out of the bag? We’re supposed to make those good news phone calls!!” Linda called Jerry at the computer lab and then called back an hour later to confirm it was no “false alarm” and Jerry made some calls and got the earliest flight from Phoenix to LAX. (Thanks to our home teacher who donated frequent flyer miles for flight tickets. Jerry just changed the return flight date to today! NOW!) Linda got Jerry at the airport a VERY few minutes before Charlie was taken downstairs to surgery. Grandma Pat did her best to stall the doctors while we fought traffic to get from airport to hospital. Perfect timing! We had maybe 15 minutes then a few minutes down in the basement floor where the surgery would be. 7:15 pm they took Charlie. At 8:15 the nurse who promised updates called and told us they made the first incision while the donated heart was still enroute to the hospital! We got another call or two then finally about 3:30am they were pretty much done and it took them until 4:30 am or so to take him out and up to his recovery room where we could see him! After surgery, all you see is a sleeping boy’s head and wires and tubes but all went well. LOTS of people had their prayers answered today! There aren’t words to express the emotions! Charlie slept from Sunday through Monday and most of Tuesday. Grandma and Mom and Dad finally got a little. We didn’t sleep well in the hospital lobby, of course. Many calls and e-mails went out. So many folks know and love Charlie and us – it was…gratifying and almost overwhelming.

September 5, 2005

Charlie has adjusted well to the room and sitting in the bed practically all the time. He isn’t hypersensitive to the crying babies any more either. Linda was bruised and shaken a bit (and the van even more) by a hit-and-run driver right outside the Ronald McDonald House. The van was totaled. Linda’s mom drove out to help and provide transportation (and stayed until September 17-see below). Jerry and Rosie got an “Angel Flight” to visit for a weekend. “Angel Flights” is a program where pilots volunteer to fly families that have medical situations. Rosie hadn’t seen Mom in 6 or 7 weeks and was VERY ready for a visit.

Linda and Grandma Pat went home the next week Thurs. through Mon. for Labor Day weekend to see her doctor and see Becky and Kenny (and baby Sammy) get sealed in the temple – and drive a new Dodge Caravan back to CA. Jerry got another “Angel Flight” to CA with a rental car and stayed with Charlie Thursday through Labor Day Monday. He enjoyed it a lot! They watched many videos- Jerry enjoyed the “Sing-alongs” best.

Not a whole lot new to report on Charlie. He is comfortable, stable, listed for transplant ? and at the top of the list. The waiting for a transplant isn’t easy, but the doctors are comfortable and confident. We were told that they have had several calls, but the heart was too small or big or something. It was comforting to us to know that they have been getting calls. Jerry flew home. Linda drove the new van back to CA.

August 10-14, 2005

Jerry took Wed-Fri off from work to drive the van to CA-420 miles in 7 hours. He left the van with Linda so she could be mobile. (our home teacher from church donated frequent flyer miles so Jerry could fly home.) Jerry got to meet doctors and nurses and get acquainted with the facilities.

Charlie is in a long, rectangular room with about 8 beds with his head at the window side and feet toward the walkway. There are monitors at the head of each bed. Charlie had IV medications and monitors attached that measure body functions like heart rate, respiration, etc. One medicine, milrinone, helps his heart to function more effectively. The need for it puts him high on the transplant list – but tethers him to the IV, machines, monitors bed and room. He likely won’t enjoy fresh air, sunshine, or walks down the hospital halls until after transplant and recovery.

We got an opening at the Ronald McDonald House so Jerry’s 1st night wasn’t spent on a hospital cot like Linda has used. $10 per night but 12 miles and 35-45 minutes away depending on traffic. We met Nicole Draper from AZ who has baby twins waiting for heart transplants.

Charlie has to listen to a room full of children-patients agitated and crying sometimes. He did not adjust quickly to that. Crying children agitated him- and his vital signs and his sleep. After 2 or 3 weeks he has gotten where he can tune a lot of that out.

Charlie got a chest tube inserted- and later a second tube to drain fluid from his chest cavity. The tubes work well but they hurt for several days after being inserted. Jerry was amazed that Charlie has spent 3 weeks sitting on that bed- resting, watching videos and TV, reading, WAITING. He is our brave, patient boy!

Charlie wasn’t eating much and they were concerned, but he saw Jerry eating chips and salsa – and he wanted some too! It was chunky “medium” salsa that was hot enough to make him request more water to drink. It was cute watching the doctors and nurses on the phone calling others to say -”the Fox kid is eating” We bring in other foods for Charlie to eat that the hospital doesn’t serve – then we eat the hospital food that Charlie refuses to eat. We have met a few church members out here. We haven’t gotten out much, except walks around the neighborhood and UCLA campus, but hope to meet more transplant parents and others.

August 4, 2005

Charlie has been feeling lousy lately. The immunoglobulin on Monday + benedryl made him sleepy and grumpy. Tuesday was still the pits and his leg hurt from the catheter. The catheter that they put in his leg was starting to become infected. It took all day for them to do anything about it. The nurse calls a doctor, after a few hours a doctor shows up, the nurse explains the situation and the doctor says, “I’ll have to ask.” Then, a few hours after that, another doctor shows up and says, “OK, we better get this taken care of.” Then leaves it up to the nurses to take care of it. They put an IV into his right hand and took the catheter out of his leg. They may also move him to the floor tomorrow. He will still have the IV, but will be able to walk around with it when his leg feels better.

Charlie is now listed for heart transplant. Because he is dependent on the milrinone, it puts him at the top of the list for a heart. Could be anytime!