2003 Holiday Letter  

Happy Holidays from the Schrempp’s!!!

 The past two years have been about getting Healthy.  The last letter we sent out was about the Three Day Avon Breast Cancer Walk.  We continued walking (not 18 miles at a time) and eating better, so our weight went from the 265's to the 225's.  Then we hit a plateau for 6 months. 

 In March of 2003, Katie was reading an article about health and decided that she needed to return to Weight Watchers.  When Katie was 17, she became a Lifetime Member, but when you are 17 you don’t think that this is something that will need to be worked on for the rest of your life.  Katie went the first week and realized that Bob would need to come since he is the cook of the family.  Bob loved it from day one.  First, he was/is one of the only men and we all know that Bob loves to be around the ladies.  Second, Bob loves the classes that are given each week.  The weight started coming off again.  Bob reach his goal in August and became a Lifetime Member in September 2003.  To date, he has lost over 85 lbs in the two years.  Katie is currently 5 lbs short of her goal, but she has lost over 107 lbs at this point in time, she should reach her goal before the end of March.

Please see our website for pictures, because we look like different people.  Between the two of us, we have lost a whole Bob, over 180 pounds!  http://schrempp.us/ww, the pictures under the "Bob's Journey to Better Health" link. Keep an eye on the web site for before and after pictures once Katie reaches her goal.

In the last two years, Bob has gotten back into model trains. He is building HO scale Free-Mo modules. To see some of the stuff he has been doing check out http://www.schrempp.us/bob/trains. He gets together two to five times a year with other modelers from the LA area to the Bay Area to Arizona and beyond, to setup their modules and run trains for the weekend. Katie thinks this is all a little silly but, it keeps him off the street and makes him happy.

Katie’s Mom (Barbara) took her on a trip to China this October.  Barbara has always wanted to go to China, and this was the year.  They were gone for 21 days and visited 11 cities.  They went with China Focus Travel and loved the company.  The group consisted of 19 members, a national guide and a local guide at each city.  What a trip!!!

By the way, we love getting Holiday pictures of everyone.  We have a special photo album that all the pictures go into each year.  It is fun to see how much all the children are growing.

Have a safe holiday season.

Bob, Katie, and Miss Tara

Pictures from 2002 and 2003

Click on image to see a larger version Here is a picture of us from September 2001. We had just started walking and eating right.	Click on image to see a larger version Here we are today, January 2004. Katie has 5 more pounds to go and she will be at goal.	Click on image to see a larger version Then and Now See the two pictures larger and side by side.
January 2002 We "saw the Flame" when the Olympic Flame Train came through SLO.	February 2002 We had a much needed vacation. We started with two days at the East Brother Light Station, a B&B on an island in SF Bay. The windows on the upper left were our room  We followed this up with 5 days at a B&B in Napa.	July 2002 Katie walked the Avon Three Day Breast Cancer Walk in San Francisco, three days 60 miles!
August 2002 Two very good friends, Catherine and Jim got married. Cath was Katie's maid of honor. We danced like there was no tomorrow. This was the first time we realized how much our weight loss was helping our health.	August 2002 We went to the first annual "Huck Finn River Float" in Kelly's Beach in Reedley California.	August 2002 My sister and brother in-law, Nancy and Greg, came out to California for a visit with my niece and nephew, Emily and Steve. We had a party at my brother Jim's place for Steve's seventh and Emily's fifth birthdays.
September 2002 We went to the Swanton Pacific Ranch open house and road on the 1/3 scale steam train.	November 2002 We replace the Ranger with an F150.	December 2002 We spent Christmas with Katie's mom in Bend OR. It was cold!
December 2002 We "rode the pig" at Pikes Market in Seattle while visiting Bob's brother and sister-in-law, Mike and Gwen.	April 2003 Our good friends Andy and Cindy came up for an Easter visit. We dyed Easter eggs with their two boys Nicholas and Thomas.	May 2003 Bob went to Jack London Square in Oakland to setup his HO train modules with a group of HO Train modeling friends.
May 2003 We met our good friend Tom in San Francisco to walk the Bay To Breakers.	June 2003 We celebrated Katie's grandmom's 85th birthday.	July 2003 The second annual Huck Finn River Float.  We danced the night away!
July 2003 Katie's cousin, Roberto, spent a couple of days with us on his visit to the states from Italy.	August 2003 Katie's second cousin, Tommy, spent a week with us while visiting California from Italy	December 2003 The Schrempp house all decked out for Christmas.
E-Mail Katie	Miss Tara Our daughter	E-Mail Bob