Angie Checking Inby Angie

Sat
19 Sep 2009
11:09 am
3

IMG_0062Hi, everyone – this is Ang.  I just wanted to check in and let you know that I’m doing fine.  This recovery is a little more painful than when I did this back in April, but since I’m not feeling sick as I recover, I’m feeling better about things this time around.

My sweet husband is taking wonderful care of me, putting himself at my beck and call every moment he is at home.  My Mom is visiting, too, and it’s been fun to talk and watch movies with her.  She brought her recipe books, too, so we’ve been spending some time adding to “Sugar & Spice.”  Jaquie, of course, is delighted to have Jim home and people sitting on the couch all day, and her purring is always a special  comfort to me.

Everyone has been very kind and helpful:  Joleen came by Thursday evening with flowers for me, and Heidi brought dinner for us last night.  I appreciate all the notes and phone calls of encouragement, and am especially grateful for your prayers on my behalf.  I’m quite a lucky girl to have such wonderful family and friends supporting me at times like this.

NIF Dedication & Toursby Angie

Sat
30 May 2009
8:05 am
0

NIF-Group2With all of the major, necessary hardware finally installed, the National Ignition Facility has been in fine trim for two days.  Yesterday, Jim attended a special outdoor dedication ceremony to honor this milestone in their work.  There were enough dignitaries there to warrant half a dozen snipers watching over the event.

Today, the entire campus was open for friends and family tours.  Jim was up and out the door by 9am to take some friends from our ward and stake around the NIF facility, along with Becka, who is here visiting for the weekend especially for this.  When they were done, he came home to meet up with me, Jon, and Brittany and grab some lunch before heading back again.  Becka was there too, to see everything a second time (this was not only for her entertainment and curiosity, but also research for a future book!).  At the gates, we met the other members of our group – Kelly, Brennan, and Amber Mills.

The line was an hour long, just to enter the building!  I’ve been there before, but this time we saw much more – not only the laser bays and the control room, but also lots of other stuff like the capacitor bays, with one opened up.  Best of all, we got to look down into the target chamber!  It was a lot of standing and walking, but it was fascinating, and I loved it.

Seeing “UP”by Angie

Wed
20 May 2009
7:05 pm
0

upLast week, while my in-laws were in town, we all took a trip out to Emmeryville for the “Friends & Family Screening” of Pixar’s newest film, “UP.”  We met up with Jon first at a fantastic pizza place called “Nathaniel’s” in Berkley.  After dinner, we drove over to the campus, received our special guest badges, and headed into the main building.  There wasn’t much of a line forming yet, so we went upstairs to the gallery to spend some time looking at the concept art for the film.  When it was finally time to go in, we sat together in the center near the front and center of the theatre.  After “Ooohing” and “Ahhing” at the shooting stars and watching a silly little short, we finally got to watch “UP.”

It was so fantastic!  I simply can’t express how hilarious and darling it was, and how much I enjoyed it.  I couldn’t do it justice if I tried to summarize it, so I will just emphatically encourage everyone I know to go and see it as soon as you can!

p.s.  All you Californian Fenton fans – keep your eyes and ears open!  🙂

Lots of Help Recoveringby Angie

Fri
8 May 2009
5:05 pm
1

Hi, everyone – I’m alive!  Recovery is kind of lame, but going well.  Kathy has spent the week with us, and has done her best to wait on me hand and foot.  Jim has been wonderfully attentive, too.  I feel like a very lazy princess.  My most enthusiastic exercise comes from a couple of trips up and down the stairs each day.

Jaquie is enjoying the relaxed atmosphere, and has been very affectionate, as usual.  We were a little worried, before the surgery, about what to do with her at night – she usually lies on Jim as we are falling asleep, then migrates to some part of me during the night, but it is pretty uncomfortable to have a cat sprawled on your stomach or legs when you have an incision to worry about.  Surprisingly enough, she must have been listening to our conversation about it, or else noticed a difference in my sleeping habits:  she now lies on Jim for a while but, of her own accord, she now often spends the rest of the night on the end of the bed or the floor.  We have such a smart, sweet cat!

I have a post-op appointment next Monday, where they will check me out and make sure everything looks good.  No steri-strips for them to examine – just stitches on the inside and super glue on the outside, this time!  Things look good to me, so far, so I’m sure we’ll have good news next week.  We’ll keep you posted.

Thanksgiving at Our Homeby Angie

Sun
30 Nov 2008
10:11 am
0

This was our first year to host Thanksgiving in our own home, with family coming into town to join us! Roger & Kathy flew in with Dallyn (whose Phantom touring company has brought him to San Fran this month) on Tuesday. Jon drove over from Emeryville and spent Thursday, Friday, and Saturday with us. It was so much fun! With only six of us (all adults), we tried to keep things simple. I think we had it pretty easy, cooking-wise.

What did we serve? Why, turkey, of course! We actually “salted” our turkey instead of brining it, and it was fantastic! We also had stuffing (but not stuffed into the turkey), and fantastic gravy.   Then there were mashed sweet potatoes, deviled eggs, rolls & jam, salad, and – for dessert – pecan pie and cranberry pudding. Yum – I’m getting hungry again just writing about it all! Our table was beautiful because my friend Joleen Mills let us borrow her Fall decorations and china table settings, and Kathy and I bought fresh cut flowers for the centerpiece.

With Dallyn and “Grandma Hoffman” in the same house, we had lots of family-wide video conferences with the Bayles family.  Kathy and I spent most of Wednesday and Thursday cooking.  Also, while Jim was really sick last week, we discovered a new X-box game that hooked us both: “A Kingdom for Keflings.” This was a big hit with our visiting relatives, so someone was playing it at almost any given time throughout the weekend.  On Thanksgiving – our last evening all together – we had family prayer together, and talked about the many blessings our family has to be grateful for.  We all expressed gratitude for our families and the Gospel during these troubled times, as well as for the secure jobs we each have right now.  It’s been a wonderful season of Thanksgiving!

Hoffman Family Reunionby Angie

Sun
13 Jul 2008
12:07 pm
0

We had a wonderful time at the reunion this weekend!  It was for all descendants of Verne Hoffman, Sr. –  grandfather of my father-in-law, Roger.  It was held on Saturday at the Heritage Oak Winery, a vineyard owned and operated by Roger’s cousin, Tom Hoffman, and Tom’s wife, Carmela (we all call her Camucha).  I was given the job of running the sign-in desk, where we collected contact information for everyone and let each person make their name tag.  We had a great time figuring out each person’s “code number,” which we also put on the name tags, indicating their relationship all the way back to Verne Sr.  My code was 1.3.5+, which means I’m Verne’s first child (Verne Jr.)’s third child (Roger)’s fifth child (Jim)’s spouse.  Jim’s, of course, was 1.3.5 – all rather complicated, but very entertaining.

We ate lunch and various family members gave announcements, performed musical numbers, and told stories.  After mingling and chatting some more, several of us changed into swim suits and headed down to the Mokelumne River, which runs along the boarder of Tom & Camucha’s land.  We had innertubes and kayaks and took turns floating down the river beginning at the launching point and arriving at the beach area 30-40 minutes later.  Huge blackberry bushes grow along the river in a couple of places, so we paddled over to eat ripe, delicious berries right off the bush several times.  It was incredibly relaxing and fun.  I absolutely loved it.  At the beach area, there was a picnic table, where we set up snacks and leftovers for dinner, and then across the dirt road was a meadow where a wiffle ball game was held.  We stayed until twilight finally forced us to pack up and head home.

Hoffman Family Mini-Reunionby Angie

Sat
12 Jul 2008
1:07 pm
0

Since we were all getting together this weekend for the big family reunion, the Roger & Kathy family decided to meet up and have a BBQ on Friday evening.  Tom & Pam Dozier were kind enough to open up their home and pool for our family’s use.  They are good friends of the Hoffmans, from back when they all lived in Texas:  Now that the Doziers are in Livermore, we get to see them all the time!  Tom grilled up some delicious steaks and hot dogs, and we all swam and ate and played for hours.

Since Jason’s birthday is Sunday, we wanted to be sure to celebrate that, too, so we all had prepared movie scenes for a game that consisted of Jason guessing what movie we were portraying, despite the fact that we changed situational elements to make the lines harder to place.  He won lots of candy that ended up being shared all around.  Jon’s girlfriend, Michelle Piazza, came for part of the evening and met everyone; and even Kathy’s mom, Vera, flew out for a special visit, since she didn’t want to miss a gathering of so many grandchildren and great-grandchildren!