34 Years Ago Today, I Married "My Best Friend"

It's hard to believe that it's been 34 years ago today that Loren and I , age 20 & 18 walked down the isle and started our journey as "Husband and Wife". We had no idea the twist and turns that our lives would be taking......no idea, we would be blessed with 7 beautiful children and blessed even more with 8 adorable grandchildren, not forgetting to mention our wonderful son's in-law's and daughter's in-law's.....no idea, that "valley's" could be so low and the "mountain tops" so high.......no idea, that we could possibly love each other more today than on that night, 34 years ago........no idea, how quickly our child bearing days would pass......no idea, what it would feel like to soon be looking at days and nights with all of our children living on their own......no idea, that as we entered our 50's, we would still feel like we were 20 & 18 (in our minds, not our body's!).....no idea, how much closer our "walk and faith" in our God would be.......no idea, what a truly "wonderful life" we would be blessed with!

Matt & Ashlie's Soon To Be New "Rental" Home

As we sadly see Joe, Sarah & Zeke leave.......we are excited for Matt & Ashlie as they prepare Joe & Sarah's house to be their first home after they get married. Matt will be living in it from now until their wedding in June. It was fun to watch the excitement on Ashlie's face when Sarah would have to leave furniture pieces behind because they didn't have enough room or were going to replace it in Ohio.......Ashlie & Matt gladly took the items to start their new home.

Zeke We Love You!

Zeke we love you and can't wait to see you in June. Uncle Cody took this picture of you!

A TIME FOR PRAYER

We took a few moments after all of the packing to join hands and ask our Heavenly Father to watch over and protect Joe, Sarah & Zeke as they begin this new chapter in their lives. They are going to be greatly missed, but we are trusting our Lord to comfort our hearts and encourage them on their journey. We know that God's plan will be so much better than we could imagine!

Goodbye's !

We helped Joe, Sarah & Zeke pack-up and leave for Ohio on Sunday Feb. 17th., almost 6 months to the day from the time we did the exact same for Matt, Jaime & Mya, ironically we will be sending Katelynne off to college in New York, almost exactly 6 months from now! Saturday night we had our family farewell dinner......always a tough time for all of us. We have learned to never take for granted our time together, it is very precious! We look forward to all of us being together again for Ashlie's wedding in June.

Auntie Ashlie and Claire

We were able to babysit Claire for Casey so she could replinish her house with groceries.......there was no shortage of arms to hold her!

Engagement Pictures

The wedding plans are moving along. Sarah introduced us to a photographer that takes great pictures. Here are some of their engagement pictures.

Zeke's Adoption is Final!

On February 4th we drove to the Oroville courthouse to celebrate Zeke's adoption! What an exciting time it was. He was loved by all who came into contact with him. We celebrated with him at breakfast, while he slept! A time we'll never forget or take for granted!! We love you Zeke, you were always meant to be in our family!

Homecoming, Cheerleading & Pep Band

Homecoming is always a highlight at our school. This year Katelynne was honored to be on homecoming court. The basketball season is winding down. It's alot of fun attending all of the home and away games and watching Katelynne cheer, while Cody played in the home pep band. The season is very long (Nov. to Feb.) so we have mixed emotions as we see the season winding down. Katelynne will soon be cheering for her last game. She's grown from a shy timid (and not too coordinated) young girl to a beautiful young women that is confident and LOVES to be thrown up into the air as high as she can go!!!!!!! Loren & I hold our breath every time!

I've been accepted to attend Southwest Training School!!

I can't believe this is really happening.......I received an interview date for Southwest Airlines for Jan. 16th. I was part of a group interview, then preceded to the "one on one" interview with several of their flight attendants and human resource personnel. I received notice that I have passed all the interviews and am now on a waiting list for flight attendant school. Wow, now the real work begins........a typical class consists of 150 students, only 90 will graduate. I will be training in Houston Texas for 4 weeks. It will consits of alot of memorization. I have been given some of the information that I will be needing to memorize and am working on it now. I'm praying that God will bless my efforts and allow my memory to be that of a young child!!! Children don't seem to forget anything!! Please pray for God's perfect timing for this school, we have a June wedding and two graduation's in May! I want to "thank", our dear family friend, Sandy for all of her support and tons of encouragement, and to my wonderful family for believing in me!!! This picture shows Sandy, Loren, Sarah & Zeke @"Walmart" in Oakland killing 3 1/2 hours while they waited for me during my interview,. I will never forget the comfort of knowing that you were praying for me, I love you all tons, and am humbled by this whole experience!

Has it really been a whole month?

Wow, it's been a month since my last blog! So many things happening, sometimes I just feel numb! Right after my last blog entry we had the "massive storm" that many of you heard about on the news. The winds were horrific, many lost power for several days. We were one of the lucky ones and only went for about 15 hours without it. Joe, Sarah & Zeke came and stayed with us. It was a bitter sweet time, it would be a short time later that we realized that they would be moving to Ohio. Looking back the time was priceless........cooking, eating, playing games, watching "Office" and just sitting around telling stories and laughing til it hurt!