Jimmy Is Here!

Jimmy made it here Friday and hopefully brought some So. Cal. good luck with him. We had a great Father's Day weekend with the whole family together. Hopefully the new week will bring some new news. Thanks to all, Joe, Julie, Jimmy, and Janelle.

False Alarm

6 am Saturday morning. Sound asleep. Phone rings. Its a 904 area code number. It must be the hospital. "Good morning Mr. Baeskens. How are you feeling this morning?" The voice on the other end offers me a liver. "Can you be here at 8 am? Good, we will see you then." Well, that's basically how it went. Julie and I arrived at the ER at 8 am and I went through about three hours of surgery prep before we were given the unfortunate news about an hour before the noon scheduled surgery. The liver that looked good at the donor site was found to be not suitable for transplant after tissue tests at Mayo. We were fully prepared for that possibility and packed up and went to watch the U.S. play England in their world cup soccer game. At least we know where I am on the list. Here's hoping and praying that we get another call in the next week or so. Thanks for all of your support and prayers. Joe, Julie, Janelle, and Jimmy.

New Meld Score

This morning Joe gave blood for his new monthly MELD score. The new number is 25 which is great for moving up the list, possibly into the top five, and closer to transplant. With a 25 comes weekly blood tests instead of monthly. Hopefully next Wednesday we can hold that number, or better yet, get transplanted by then. As of now, all is good health wise. Joe is busy with work and feeling fine. Our niece Beth is here for almost a week to hang out with Janelle. Janelle is so exited to have her here. Lots of beach time and other outings planned. Thank you all for your continuous well wishes and prayers. We think of everyone so much and we can't wait to get home to see you all. We are counting the days until Friday the 18th when Jimmy arrives and our family will be complete for a couple of weeks. Love, Joe, Julie, and Janelle.

Weekend with the Richardsons

On Saturday Janelle & I ran a 5k on the sand to support the Never Quit Foundation in honor of Joe. (Notice our bibs) The foundation works to support good health & fitness in the Jacksonville area. We spent a great weekend with Joe's sister Gail, hubby Jeff, & Ian from Dallas. We even got to take Ian on his very first trip to the beach. Janelle loved introducing him to the ocean! Thanks guys we had a great time!!

Views from home

Jimmy celebrated his 15th birthday at my sisters house with his extended family. Thank you so much to Jenny & family for making his day so special & full of family & friends. The second pic from home is our dog Molly who is being spoiled at the Ceccarelli's home and knows exactly which team to root for! It's great to see pictures from home!!

Memorial Day Weekend

Well we went to my mom's friend Amy's this weekend to see her and her family. We went to her husband Tri's parents condo in New Smyrna Beach about 1 1/2 hours away. It was fun. We got there on Saturday about 12 and went down to the beach. Tri showed me how to surf on a longboard and that was fun. I got a couple of rides in before we packed up and went to the pool. We swam for awhile until we saw big thunder heads in the sky and went back to the condo to shower and go to dinner. We went to a seafood restaurant and ate some yummy fish. Then we came home and watched a movie. Then we all got to go to bed. When we woke up the next day,we all got ready to go to the beach. There we played in the water a little bit and then played on the sand some more. Then we headed up toward the pool and went swimming. Then we went back up to the condo, showered, and the moms and dads went to dinner. JB and I stayed home and built a fort for the big nerf gun battle. When the parents came home we had a nerf gun war. Kids vs. dads. They beat us by a lot but it was still fun. Then we watched some more of the movie and then went to bed. The next day we got up, got our bathing suits on and went to the inner coastal where we got on their boat and went wakeboarding. I also got up on the knee board. It was very fun. We saw a lot of dolphins and even some manatees. Those were neat. Then we went to lunch, went back to the condo to get our bags, and drove home. Overall, we had a very fun weekend.