Happy New Year!

Well, what a year here at The Hammond House! Brent and I moved in to our home at the end of January. We decided to open our home to guests and hoped to get bicycle traffic from the High Trestle Trail we recieved so much more than that!  February brought work on the house, beds, bedding, towels, decorations, appliances and dishes. Our first guests came the week of Valentines. They were in town for a family funeral. We are sorry for their loss but we are glad that we could give them a place to stay!  We added a couple of things to the rooms after having them as we asked their opinions and we value that very much!  The last part of February wasn't as pleasant as having our first guests.  I was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer on February 22. I had surgery on February 27, which removed the nasty tumor and resected my colon.  March came and work on the house began. The electrical was updated, new bathroom added in the basement, then central air added to the main floor and second floor.  Oh, we also brought home our baby Porsha! What a treat she has been! Love her to pieces! Before I go on, i want to say a few thank yous. First to my husband, without his love and support I couldn't have made it through treatment!  Also to my children Maddie, Robbie and Jordan. They are the best that any mom could ask for! They took care of me!  My dad, thank you for calling me everyday checking on me.  Tawny Longnecker, thank you for your support and the meals you made for us!  Cindy Rolow, what can I say...truly a great friend! Thank you for the cards that you sent me every week during treatment! My sister in law Lora Selix for also sending many cards! I appreciated all of them!  Pastor Heidi, thank you for your visits and the all important prayers!  Charlyn Mason, thank you for meals, cupcakes and your friendship! Thank you to Darcey Schulte and Julie McCarty. Both were surprise visitors during my hospital stay and supportive friends!  Emily Johnson, thank you for your gifts and love! Thank you to the Slater community for all the prayers and support!  We had so much support from family and friends it was truly amazing! The end of March brought chemotherapy which quite frankly was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. I have an awsome oncologist at John Stoddard and was treated so well by everyone there and at Methodist hospital.  April was consumed with chemo every other week and not feeling well at all.  May was busy with chemo and getting ready for Maddie and Gered's wedding. Tawny, Maddie's bridesmaids and I had a lovely tea party shower for her at our house.  Brent and I were also honored to have Joseph Houge's granddaughter and great grand daughter stay with us! Joseph was the original owner/builder of our home.  With June came the wedding and the start of many guests. Chemo was put on hold for the wedding and then my counts being very low.  The summer was awesome with all the guests we had. I don't think we really knew how busy we would be! A short hospital stay at the end of June left Rob and Brent to take care of guests we had. I received a nice email from the guests letting me know how much they enjoyed their stay and what a wonderful job Rob and Brent did!  Finally by my birthday in September our chemo journey came to an end. We celebrated with many friends and it was wonderful!  It may sound weird for me to say this but, one thing came from my diagnosis that I'm happy about. Brent and I met Craig and Shirley Phinney from Ankeny and founders of Cops Against Cancer. They both do wonderful work for others!  I'm happy to call them friends and we are looking forward to giving our time next year to help their organization. If you get a chance look it up online and read Craig's story about his journey and what the organization does for others going through cancer!  October was filled with guests from all over! We can say that our farthest from home guest was a visiting professor from Japan. He was very interesting and we enjoyed his company! November was a little slower but as busy as we had been it was ok to have a break. We celebrated our first Thanksgiving with family here at home. A few groups had their gatherings here and I enjoyed them a lot! Christmas was amazing and  we had a lot to be thankful for. As 2013 comes to end we are thankful to God above for giving us another year of family, friends old and new and finally our health! May 2014 bring all of you happiness and good health! Live life to the fullest as we never know what's around the next corner! 

Love to all,

Marcia and Brent

November and December

Since my last post I have been crazy busy! Thanksgiving was wonderful with a house full of family and Brent and I's first one in The Hamoond House!  The bottom picture is from our Thansgiving table. We even had guests.  Which was great!  The next two pictures are of our Christmas tree and a pastry that was available to the ladies that came to the house for brunch this week.   We have had several groups in for tours and love showing off our home. 

Voting

Today is the day we as citizens of the United States have the right to help make change in government. Since the early days of the United States men have had that right and little by little others (American Indians, African Americans and women) were added to that. 

I was told that not many citizens of Slater actually vote in city elections. Let's change that! Now is the time to make our voices heard! We have an opportunity to make great things happen for Slater! 

Today the city of Slater votes for Mayor and council positions. Gary Halverson and Howard Hammond are running for Mayor and Ken May, Charlie Whiting, Shawn Birdsall, Ann Munson and Sue Erickson for city council. No matter how you vote, please get out and vote. Voting is at the log cabin at Nelson Park from 7:00 AM to 9:00 PM. 

Don't forget that the Methodist Church is serving chicken and noodles tonight also. 

Halloween

Happy Halloween everyone! Well, learned a lesson today. I should of known to ask Linda at the school how many students there were parading down Main Street today.  I almost had plenty of candy.  I hate that!  Then I went to HyVee to buy more for this evenings Beggars night and the candy isle was being transformed for Christmas! Ugh! Seriously, why so soon! The bright side is I got to hand out treats to the kiddos from school. They were so adorable as usual! 

Good Morning!

There is so much that's going to be happening here in Slater within the next couple of weeks! Slater Fall Festival on October 27th, the elementary school parading through Main Street ( The Hammond House will have treats for the kiddos!) on October 31st along with Trick or Treat night that night! The Hammond House (Brent and I) are entering the chili cook off for the Fall Festival here in Slater! We are looking forward to this it should be fun!  We think it's important to get involved with things here in town! We promote the businesses here to our guests.  We suggest the Nite Hawk for dinner, Sheldahl Crossing for shopping, Casey's, Town and Country, Cole's and hopefully again soon the Take Down. Believe me some of our bicycle friends who have been on the trail before miss the Take Down! Supporting  our town businesses is so very important for all of us who live here.  What would we do without all of these? We have even sent one of our guests to Kevin Holmes (realtor) as she was looking for a home to buy. He sold her a house as her family was being relocated to this area from Northern Iowa.  I challenge the people of Slater to get involved in the community and make Slater an even better town then what it is!  We love living in Slater and hope that our partnerships continue for many, many years to come!

Well, I did not want to blog anything about colon cancer or my treatment over the past few months but I couldn't resist! Today was an epic day for my family and I. I went in for a cat scan and blood work today and then met with my oncologist. My cat scan was clear although I have a bit of fluid built up he said around where my colon was resected. He said there is nothing to worry about. My blood work was great!  Jordan and I had a bit of goofy fun while waiting. We always laugh so hard I end up crying.  Thank you to all my friends and family for everything! I couldn't have made it through all of it without the prayers, thoughts, cards and everything else!! 

Guests

We have been so lucky to have great guests stay with us here at The Hammond House!

This is Cindy and George from Lisbon, Iowa. They took a mini vacation to stay with us and visit Snus Hill Winery.