Visitation & Funeral

Another quote from the boards:

Visitation for Mel is this Wednesday at Hillier Funeral Home in Bryan / College Station from 6-8pm.
The funeral is at Central Baptist Church in Bryan on Thursday at 2pm.

Eric

Mel Wood 6-28-08

Below is the post I have put on the web forums Mel was a part of:

Thank you to everyone that prayed for and loved Mel. Earlier today Mel had to go back into surgery because of another complication. He has since passed on. A few minutes ago Debby called to tell me the news. Please continue praying for the family during this difficult time. When arrangements are made I will let you know.
Eric Manthei

If I haven't said it yet, Debby is one of his daughters.

Update on "Update"

Well, it has been an eventful while since I last posted on Mel's condition. Part of that is because it has changed so dramatically and part of that is because I have been a combination of lazy and out of town.
Nearly 2 weeks ago I went with a couple of friends of mine to bowl in a tournament in Killeen. We decided to stop by Temple on the way, added only about 20 miles to the round trip, and see Mel. Mel was doing ok I suppose. He was beginning to get some normal color back in his skin instead of the yellow he had turned. Also, he was seemingly making good progress and was on track for perhaps getting to go home after another week or so. Well, as it turns out, the next day Mel was found collapsed in the bathroom; I speculate he attempted to head there on his own. He was unconscious and immediately placed in ICU. He was put on life support for a couple of days until he could breathe and all on his own again. I'm saying these things very quickly and matter of factly and in doing so not doing justice to the scare and wonderment had throughout. Please don't misconstrue that as me saying it was an easy time for Mel or any of his family / friends. Everyone was very scared, worried, upset, fatigued, etc. As Providence would have it, this past Sunday, Mel was actually told he was ready to be put back in his own room for the normal recovery he was there for before the ICU stuff happened. Somewhere in the middle of the surprise ICU week he had to have another surgery to fix whatever caused him to collapse...fortunately that went well. A neat note is that this past Sunday the bowling alley held a benefit tournament for Mel. After all was said and done they were able to raise more than $20,000.00 for him and his family to offset the financial burden of being in a hospital, without work, etc, for so long. The Eagle had a brief article about the benefit on June 18th. As of now, Mel is back in a normal recovery room and en route to coming home for more rest and such in a week or so. Then chemotherapy...
(the article in The Eagles says prostate cancer, that is wrong, it is pancreatic cancer)

Again, I wrote this very matter-of-factly merely to catch you guys up on his condition. Your prayers can still be guided using what I said before about his family members and friends. Although, with all of the drama, I can't help but wonder if Mel has been shaken a little bit as well and just trying not to show it. Please pray the Spirit will be with them and that they will know Christ the Saviour.

Dog Training

Well the girls had their dog training graduation today. This was their eighth class. Here were the highlights:

• Aspen barked at every dog, like usual


• Lacey ignored the Great Pyrenees because they must be too big to be dogs


• The crazy campus bird-chasers decided to shoot their "guns" in the middle of long sits and downs. It was a little distracting.


• Lacey got 2nd place!


• Aspen got 3rd place!

Even though they placed, we are still going to do another 8 weeks. They still need a lot of work. Here are some pictures from today.

Aspen Heeling

Lacey Heeling

The girls taking a break

Need Motivation?

Wanna get healthy? Here are two ways to feel a part of something and get some accountability:
http://www.presidentschallenge.org/
http://www.50millionpounds.com/

Theresa and I will be starting one of these soon. If any of you want to join us as accountability partners or for motivation, let us know.

Lucky Bandana

Last week we had a 9:15pm softball game. It was virtually only players and a few wives. None of the normal kids were there. Before the game I decided I would wear a bandana over my head to the game. I have always kind of enjoyed wearing bandanas, but I never really do it consistently because I'm afraid of wearing the wrong colors and having someone mistake me for a gang member or something. Well, Theresa and I have been to Walmart, Target, and Hobby Lobby looking for bandanas I could wear without fear of anyone thinking I'm in a gang. The one I decided to wear to the game last week was particularly froofroo (spelling hammer?). I should have picked up on that since I got it from the little girls' section of Walmart. Regardless, I proudly wore it to the game, thanks to Theresa being able to fasten it safely to my head. Luckily for me, two things are true:
1) My wife is a good wife in that she doesn't mind if I look silly as long as I'm happy.
2) I'd rather someone think my bandana is froofroo and think I'm gay than think I am a gang member wearing the incorrect colors. I am a bit on the, "I don't particularly care what people think of my appearance" side of things, so since one choice was based on looks and one on safety, the type of bandanas I wear is an obvious choice.

Now to the point.

We won the game last week, 12-2. It was the first time I remember ever being on the winning side of a game with only 2 runs scored. Some of the female counterparts attributed the big W to the bandana.
This week, we won again, with me sporting the same bandana, freshly washed of course. The score this time was 6-4. Amazing that we could actually win a slow-pitch softball game with only 4 runs.
Needless to say, our success is clearly because of the bandana; at least according to a few of the females and my 'friendly' teammates who have given me 'nicknames'.

A funny part:
Tonight while Theresa was fastening it to my noggin, Miss Alexis asked her mother, "Why is Mrs. Theresa doing that? Mr. Eric looks silly!" Then after the game, Miss Alexis came to me and directly proclaimed, "You look funny Mr. Eric!" Ahh, children and their ability to say the truth! My response to Miss Alexis is that I may look funny, but at least I can tie my own shoes!!!

Mel's own words

"I want to thank each and every one of you for your prayers and well wishes. Jim, when i read that you hung my banner this weekend, it meant more to me than you could imagine. Being honored by SASBA was truly a great honor, and congratulations to Randy for such awesome bowling!! I am scheduled to undergo some massive surgery tomorrow to bypass a bowel that is potentially blocked and causing my juandice. They also plan to hook up a permanent outlet to use when I am strong enough to start chemo. Debby will keep everyone updated on how things are going.Once again, thank you all for being an important part of my life. I never met a person in SASBA that I didnt like, even BIG AL HAHA.
May God bless each of you and your families and may you find peace in his everlasting love,
Mel Wood"

SASBA is the Senior All Star Bowlers Association. It is essentially a regional pro tour for seniors. There is no senior regional tour for PBA members, so this is the venue for those that are not on the national senior PBA tour. The banner "Jim" hung for Mel was the one he got when he won his first SASBA. SASBA has a tradition of hanging the banners of all previous winners at each event. It is kind of a neat sight.
Debby is one of Mel and Sue's daughters. Sue is his wife.
Randy is the guy that won the most recent SASBA.

If you are wondering my relationship to Mel, he was my coach growing up and pro-shop guy. He taught me how to work on people's bowling equipment and do repairs as well as lots of other information about the sport, how to attack different lane conditions, how to select the right balls, layouts, surfaces, etc. I still use him as a source for all of my bowling inquiries. In high school, while my parents were in league, I would help sell things and work in there for fun. It was funny when I would sell a ball, bag or some shoes to an adult, when I was just a punk kid. Now I'm a punk adult. Some things never change.

So this is the guy you have been praying for. Since you see his own words and perhaps understand the situation better, you hopefully have a good idea of what to pray for.

Eric

P.S. While Mel seems to be handling things well, some of his family members are not. Please especially pray for them.

Update on "Concern"

This is a continuation/edit of the "Concern" post. Well, it turns out the diagnosis is pancreatic cancer (spelling). So now we wait until sometime very soon (hopefully this week) Mel goes in for a biopsy in Temple to see how far it has spread and what the situation is. Please continue to pray for him and all those affected by this situation.

Happy Birthday Theresa

Here is a picture of Theresa on an adventure with me and my cousin Becca in 2005 in Bastrop.

She is pretty daring!!!
Happy Birthday Theresa!

10,000 Steps

There is a physical activity program that encourages people to get 10,000 steps in one day. I (Theresa) signed up to participate through my work. I will give occassional updates on how I am doing (your welcome Kyle;))

Day 1: 7,434 (this is even with dog training! I am going to have to walk the long way to the bathroom at work)


Everyone should join me!!! Buy a cheap pedometer and keep track of how you are doing.

Sneaky Theresa

Most of you know I worked at a pizza place in some capacity over the course of 3-4 years where we made everything ourselves except for our dough mix which came in bags and we just had to combine water and put it in the mixer then portion it out, etc. Well, you might assume that I would be the one to make the best pizza dough / sauce in the house because of that on-the-job learnin'. However, Theresa made some homemade pizzas tonight while I watched the A&M softball team win their game vs. Florida. My only help was in making sure the dough had risen appropriately and would be manageable when she was getting tense about it. Other than that, our dinner preparations were typical american preparations where the husband is watching the tube in the living room while the wife is on the phone with her sister and making dinner at the same time.
Anyhow, the point is, her dough and sauce were amazingly better than any of the ones I have made in the past. She refused to admit it though, which I thought was very polite...she must have been paying attention to the sermon today when Wade brought up humility. In any event, I kind of laughed at myself for getting smacked down with better sauce / crust by a novice. It seems silly she would need my assurance that the dough is workable and that the other ingredients will be good when she makes it taste better.
As an aside it is possible my vision is clouded by the thought that every meal she makes is my favorite meal. This would be because to me they are considered gifts from God. Afterall, Theresa is a gift of God so anything she does for me with love must be a gift from God; kapeesh?(spelling ninepoundhammer?)