Trying to Finish Well!

I figure I've been busily avoiding updating the blog so it is time to do some updates. Since Fred's passing, my Mom flew up to spend 5 days with me and the kids. The day before Fred's memorial service Kelli, Daniel, and I caught a plane up to Alaska to be a support for Shane. Thursday was a beautiful day with tears as many men paid tribute to Fred for the years he served in the Military. It was touching and I'm proud to have known him for the time I was allowed. The day after the kids and I flew home. Then the following day my Mom flew back to Idaho. She was a blessing and truly appreciated. This week Shane returned home and stepped back into the routine of life. Unfortunately school did not stop while he was in Alaska spending time with family before and after his dad passed away. For me school is going well, I'm finishing up Theology Proper and going on to the next class after this coming Monday. Kelli & Daniel did an excellent time flying both up to Al...

Papa Fred passed away to be with the Lord this morning. He was a great man whom I had the blessing of knowing 10 years. Here is a letter I wrote to him and want to share with others explaining what a wonderful and special person he was to me. Papa Fred, I want to tell you how special you are to me and how I treasure all the time God has allowed for you to be in my life. Even though I’m not your natural daughter I’ve always felt loved by Marie and you. I will always cherish the memories that I’ve made these past 11 years since first meeting your loving family in Hawaii. You will be remembered by me for your love of flowers and how in our first meeting you bought Marie & I lei’s in the Hawaiian Airport. I felt relaxed around you and very welcomed, loved the fact that we both loved John Wayne movies and shrimp. I also became an expert at skillfully dodging your video camera  I will always chuckle when remembering Shane telling me I had to call you and Marie to ask permissio...

We have had a couple good weeks since the last time I posted on the blog. The weather has been mild with some rain on the weekends mainly. Shane has started mid-terms with test in his remaining 3 classes over the next two weeks. I just finished Old Testament Historical Books and am entering Bibliology & Theology proper. I am also flying down to my folks for a couple days later this week. It is cashing in the brownie poin ts I earned when Shane flew to Alaska to visit his folks for a week this past September. Kids are all doing excellent in school, enjoying it and no new problems as of yet. We've gotten Daniels problem resolved hopefully at least no phone calls. Kids are getting bigger I will try to get them all into on a photo to update Blog picture. I'm still watching the Everett kids 4 days a week until football season is over, down to two for the remaining semester. They are good kids so I don't mind. Went to the beach of course it was gale force winds but we...

The kids had their yearly well child check-up this week, Seth and Dakota are 7 lbs in difference. Kelli & Daniel there is also 7 lbs difference, they all are lean and tall kids. Doctor says they all look good and so far only Seth received shots but the two oldest are due. They are all so much bigger and advancing in school everyday. Dakota is very outgoing at school, Shane called her an extravert in an introverts clothing. Dakota and Seth still haven't figured out the whole playing nicely together all the time, but what siblings do? They have figured out to play by themselves while the older two are at school. Still lots of screaming and crying for my taste. Seth is talking more everyday and finding new ways into mischief, and looking cute while completly making a mess. Daniel's teacher is a blessing that only God could have provided. She completely understands working with Daniel getting him to have no accidents at school. It's a relief off our shoulders, plus...

During this time of September Shane & I are trying to attempt to Normalize a Schedule for the family. We do realize that each week something different is thrown in just for that week so we make adjustments. However we haven't gotten the normalized schedule down yet since Shane & kids started school. But I have great faith that eventually by October we will have this straightened out until next semester of school for Shane. I have no hope of it being done this Month :-) Kids are doing great, Seth has a runny nose that he picked up somewhere or he's cutting more teeth. I think he's almost done until his two year old molars. When watching the Everett kids with Haydee who is 5 weeks younger than Seth I've notice he's kind of a brute. He wants to herd her around outside making sure she isn't touching any of his toys outside. Of course this can entail everything outside. The phrase "what's mine is mine and what's yours is mine" comes...

Well this was the first week of School for Kelli, Daniel, and Dakota. It's been crazy trying to keep track of at least five different schedules to know when to drop kids off, when to have lunch ready, when to pick kids up, and when to have dinner ready, Oh and how many may show up for lunches. I will be glad when I finally remember to print off the wonderful color coordinated schedule chart I fixed for this sememster. Kelli started 2nd Grade with Ms. Taber this last tuesday. She is loving it and has kids in her class from her 1st grade class and some neighbor kids that live on Campus. She is getting so big which I'm sure all parents say of their kids. Daniel started Kindergarden with Ms. Rowland who is new to the school. She seems very nice which is great. He started Wednesday, and is adjusting to getting up at 7:15 every morning and going all day. Dakota started school on Thursday she only goes for two hours Tuesday & Thursday morning to Gateway Christian School which...

Hi Everybody, since the last time I blogged humm...found my computer camera cord. Enjoyed some amazing weather, canned 49 quart jar of green beans from the 50 lbs we picked canned 9 quarts of applesauce, 14 pints of peaches, 5 quarts of mixed veggies, 7 quarts of pinto beans, froze 1 gal of blackberries, 4 gal of strawberries, & 4 bags of broccoli. Whew needless to say we've been busy canning and what to do some more applesauce or pie mix. We also hosted a get together of friends that are either retired, on staff, or attend the Seminary at Multnomah. We had a good turnout of about 30 people with lots of kids. It was a lot of fun and I look forward to having another one sometime. Multnomah started last Monday with new Student activities so Shane & I crashed a few to meet the new students that started this Fall. One activity we joined in was the Hike up Multnomah Falls. We made it to the top it is a mile hike up hill for 3/4 of the way with switchbacks and the last ...

Had a great short hours visiting with my Sister Dawna & family last Saturday. They made the trek down from Seattle for a short trip to visit us and some friends of theirs who live West of us. The kids had fun playing together and it was a great opportunity to show them our World here at Multnomah Biblical Seminary and College. It was great to see Ansely & Seth..It has to be the age they our in and that every discovery is as Dawna says "THE BEST THING EVER" this could be the crack in the sidewalk or the rock, or even a branch. It's wonderful to see their curiosity even though I want to keep the forward motion going and get to point B as soon as possible. This past week Gateway Baptist Church (the one we've been going to since around Easter and will probably keep going to till we leave Portland) hosted their version of VBS. They had Soccor Camp for Kelli's age kids and older, then Kid's Zone for Daniels age group. Every morning from 9-11:30. So D...

We have mixed feelings about seeing the Month of July come to an end. It seems like this month has two different speeds. During the day it seems slow and relaxing but at the end of the week it went so fast. A lot has happened once we got home from our whirlwind vacation. Shane got a Job, doing Roof Maintance for Northwest Roof Maintance. Yeah... He's not as young as he once was and is feeling the hard days on his body. He starts Greek Intensive this coming Monday for two weeks then back to work for a week, then school starts full time. His plan is to work two days each week to finish the season. Kelli turned 7. OMGoodness where did the years go. It seems like I just started having kids not having a 7 year old. We had a fun week of her birthday, the two oldest went to Rainforest Kids Camp sponsered by a church close to campus every night. So we had the neighbor kids over for homemade Chocolate Cake which was yummy. The following weekend we decide to head to the Beach this...

After Jackson, Wy Shane asked if we could stop by some of his old rafting grounds. Wanting to break up the 400 + miles of the day I said "sure"! We stopped by the "Kahuna" and "Lunch Counter" rafting spots to see the water and hopefully a raft or two go through the spots. They did not disappoint us, the river was active since it was beautiful weather out. There were some nice older ladies who saw Shane & Seth sitting on the rocks and offered to take our family picture which is now on the top of the blog. I was able to get some action shots of boats going through. Everyone stayed vertical but sounded like they had fun. Someday when the kids are older I would like to try that out. We also stopped for dinner in Idaho Falls before heading to my folks for the next couple days. Thursday we had some of the cousins come over for a playdate/birthday for Kelli turning the big 7. OMGoodness The kids got to play in the pool, sprinklers, build boats and sail...

We left Spearfish after getting our tire fixed and having lunch heading down the road for Riverton Wy. We spent the night visiting once again with Shane's cousins Randy and Misti Ingalls and their two kids. We stopped for lunch at Moran Junction at the schools there so the kids could run around. We love Wyoming for the beautiful scenary, just like South Dakota for the vast openness and friendly people. We also decided to break the 400 + mile drive up more than we did on the way there. So we decided to stop at the Jackson Wildlife Museum outside the town. They had Iron Sculptures outside the building of various wildlife. Inside the Museum the had artwork from some well known western artist and some unknown but beautiful oil works, water color, pencil stetches. It was neat, we would have liked to looked longer but the kids being the ages they are didn't stay still for long. So we loaded them up for another chunk of driving.

We headed out on the not so open road June 29th with the final destination of Mudd Butte, South Dakota. We split the distance into two nightly stops the first one at my folks house in Buhl. The next morning after visiting with Grandparents we finally pulled out of Buhl headed to Riverton,Wy. Shane toured us around his old stomping grounds in Idaho Fall even taking a peek at where his old fort was. We made the nessasary stop for Ice Cream at Alpine Junction before chugging through traffic at Jackson. We are always amazed at the beauty of the Grand Tetons and the Wind River Indian Reservation. We stayed the night in Riverton visiting with Shane's cousin Randy and his family. They are a great family with open hospitality and relaxing stop over. We headed out of Riverton destination Grandpa & Grandma Ingalls house in South Dakota. We decided to avoid most major Highways on our way to the Ranch, winding through Wyoming Oil Country. Stopping off for lunch at Tumble Weed Cafe...

We are offically at the end of the school year for both Kelli & Daniel. Daniel's school ended on the 4th of June with a presentation from his class and handing out of certificates. It was very cute he made some progress in sitting still for periods of time, listening, and getting to know other kids his age from this year. Kelli's last day was the 15th of June, I know she learned something since I can see the progress daily. It isn't very summer like in the area with rain clouds and cool temps. For Shane & I summer vacation won't happen until June 29th when we load the car and drive to South Dakota. Shane is taking an intensive German class for the next two weeks, which started this last Monday. He finished his last class to gain his Bachelors in Leadership & Ministry that he started the year Dakota was born. Yeah!! For myself I'm reading about the Gospels and finding new ways for the kids not to fight with eachother. We've seperated Kelli & ...

There were somethings that occured during May that I didn't get blogged about that a request has been sent to tell about. We had a busy but good month. It came rolling in with preparation of Finals week for Shane and my final paper for Pentateuch class and beginning of Inductive Bible Study Methods. The story I have to tell is on Shane... I got a phone call from the Dean of Students Secretary Mary telling me that Shane had been chosen by the Facility as male recipent of the "Facility Grad. Student of the Year" award. Two students are picked every year and at the Baccularate Chapel for Seminary Students it is handed out. Well since Shane isn't graduating this year we had to come up with a reason for him to be attending. She asked me to relay to Shane if he could help usher before the ceremony. I told her no problem and wrote it on the calendar and planned on attending for that reason but also to attend a Chapel. Then placed it in the back of my mind. The day cam...