NAKED & RADICALLY HONEST…

Dear Family & Friends,

My sister, Candice Goetz, went to be with God this morning at about 1:30 am. She was only 48 years old, but after much suffering, she is finally out of pain and at peace. She was surrounded by her husband, children, mother, siblings, and several nieces and nephews. It was a hard day and Candice struggled a lot, to breath and having pain. But in the end it was very peaceful and we could see that the pain was finally gone. She even opened her eyes and looked at us one last time.

The hospital chaplain remembered this large family so full of love from when Bob (my step-dad) died in 1994. He said he has never forgotten us, this huge family, that slept in the hospital for 2 days and then gathered around Bob’s bed to be with him when he went to Heaven, all 20+ of us.

Candice has continued to give, even in death, as she donated her body to science. There will be a memorial service planned as soon as Erik and Justin are home from Iraq and Hawaii. There is no funeral or service planned until then. (Will be mid November).

There is a new angel in Heaven today, and she is the prettiest most wonderful angel of all.

Blessings,
Tarra & Matt Hartl & kids
Dell Thompson
Randy & Cathy Lindborg & kids
Garrett & Tyler Goetz & Dina Denton
Tami Farrington, Doug Schmidt, & Kids
Ron Lindborg
Rod Lindborg & kids

I know it’s been a while since I have really updated about my own health and my family. So here goes.

My sister is in the hospital with pneumonia, very sick, and having a bone scan to see if the cancer is in her bones. Her daughter just found out she is expecting a baby in June (it’s very early) and my sister is so happy about that and wants to live to meet her first grandchild so badly. (I am very happy for my niece, she is soon to be 32 and has wanted this - this baby will be my 3rd great niece or nephew and I am only 33!!!!).

What else. My doctor thinks I may have had a stroke at some time in the last few months. I honestly think I know when it may have been. When I was in labor with Charleigh and got a horrible migraine in the hospital. I posted about it. It was so awful they gave me some medicine and it stopped labor and they sent me home and I laid in bed all day long with a pillow on my head. It was so bad that I wonder now if that isn’t what happened, since strokes can happen to women in labor. Half of my face is a tiny bit lazy. You wouldn’t notice unless you really looked but you can see if I smile or laugh - one side of my face isn’t as “happy” as the other if you know what I mean. Actually you can see it in the photo that is my avatar above. After that photo was taken is when I really started to wonder what the heck was going on. It was taken in July.

I have also heard of diabetes melitus causing this. But anyway, I go to the doctor next week to have an MRI to compare to an MRI that I had done 2 years ago.

And finally, I have a lump on my breast. I am going to a surgeon next week as well and possibly having a biopsy.

My mom is in remission and done with treatments from Breast Cancer, so that is really great.

Kids are doing WONDERFUL!!

The good news is the strike is over. The bad news is the vote to go back to work was 51% so there are 49% are not happy and are already calling the 51% names (such as spineless). So they may be too busy harrassing each other to pick on the rest of us. YAY!

This is from a comment section on my local newspaper website. It sums it up pretty well. “Unions are obsolete. In the past the unions assured good working conditions, safety and proper salaries. That power has created a monster that had traded places with the company and the unions became the bully. Now OSHA assures worker safety, the Dept of Labor assures wages and the market creates the jobs. Unions have driven product prices up because companies have to compensate for higher than usual wages and cost of fighting those unions. Workers are on pins and needles because if there isn’t enough toilet paper in the bathrooms the union may strike. I don’t see what benefit in hijacking a workplace with a strike has except forcing the employer’s hand. Bobcat is a very large international company and closing Bismarck and/or Gwinner is no skin off their teeth. But it will be a major loss for both communities. This is all done while the union bosses roll in the $32/mo dues while those paying them are not really benefiting from being in that union. The negotiated contract has you working a 72 hour, six day work week. Sure getting a bloated $20/hr for a union job is great, but if as a union member I am striking all the time, the hourly wage drops really fast. I work a job for $11/hour, and I am very comfortable, have all I need (the key word is ‘need’, not what I want) and I work a 40 hour week, 5 days a week, have 2 weeks vacation a year, great health benefits, vision, dental, pharmacy coverage and I never have to stand in the snow holding a picket sign. I don’t get harassed when I go to work, and my job never ends up on one of these comment boards.”

Those union IR - Bobcat strikers are a joke

“What’s that, you say? They aren’t paying as much as Melroe at those other jobs? You mean those other places don’t pay you a signing bonus every time the union’s collective bargaining agreement comes up for renewal?”

Must check out that blog. I share his thoughts on this matter. Especially since Matt is a salaried employee at Bobcat and is being treated like COMPLETE DIRT by the union strikers (even though he can’t do anything to help them and doesn’t have anything to do with the strike…… what jerks).

Another Blog that is a must read on this topic: Union Thugs Harrassing Workers In Bismarck

“Union members are chanting “settle the contract.”

Some of them went as far as to put nails on the ground before the bus came.”

And another: Bobcat Employees Go On Strike In Bismarck

“Rising health care costs aren’t going to be fixed by shoving all the burden for paying them off onto this nation’s employers. That’s just going to make these employers charge more for their goods and services (to the detriment of us all) and in extreme cases even take their businesses to other countries…”

This is from my friend who lost her son, a full term healthy baby, because of the misuse of a drug called Cytotec. I wanted to share this with you all.
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Dear Friends,

On October 19th on the 11 PM news, Channel 46, the Atlanta CBS affiliate, will air an important investigative report that I hope you will watch and will alert your friends to watch. The content of this program can save lives.

As many of your know, our son, Andrew, passed away on February 9, 2005. What you may not know is that Andrew’s death was due to two factors. First, I was given, without my knowledge or consent, a controversial drug to induce labor. That done, my doctor and nurses failed to act once the horrific side effects of this drug began to manifest. The name of the drug is Cytotec. Had I never been given this drug, Andrew would be alive today. I do not want any other family to needlessly lose an infant and I hope you will watch this segment and will pass this information on so that others can view the segment, also.

Our family is grateful to Wendy Saltzman, the investigative reporter, and to CBS46 for realizing the importance of telling Andrew’s story so that others will be forewarned about the dangers of Cytotec and of off-label drug treatments. If you are unable to watch the segment live, or if you want to pass this story on to others who are not in the Atlanta viewing area, the segment will be available on the Channel 46 web site beginning October 20th. Click here to go to the Investigative Reports web site, then select Andrew’s story from the list of reports.

We hope that the national CBS network will pick this story up so that more people will be alerted to this danger and more babies will be saved. After seeing the segment, if you want to encourage this, please write to Ms. Saltzman. Her contact information will be available on the www.cbs46.com web site.

Warm regards,
Hansi
PS: If you have difficulty clicking on the hyperlink above, then copy and paste this link into your web browser:
http://www.cbs46.com/Global/category.asp?C=72710&nav=menu140_4

James & Hansi Holloway
Kaylin & Walker Miller
www.hollowayfoundation.org
www.thecloudwalker.net/andrew