47 YEARS!!!

Today is our 47th wedding anniversary! My how time flies!!! It's been a good 47! Three precious sons, three lovely daughters-in-love, 10 wonderful grandchildren! Our quiver is full!

We've been blessed to have a large, loving, extended family and many wonderful friends in our lives. Friends from our careers, friends across the country from our travels, friends from churches and neighborhoods in California and Kansas. Truly God has poured bountiful blessings upon our lives. We are beyond grateful!

Another blessing is the privilege to travel a lot the last several years. So here are just a few (of many!!) highlights.

2004 - Thailand

2005 - Zion National Park

2005 - Branson - Celebrating our 40th

2005 - Italy - Pt. Vecchio - Florence

2006 - California Adventure at Disneyland

2006 - Hawaii

2007 - China (Shanghai)

2008 - England (Blenheim Palace)

2008 - Canada

2009 - Palm Springs (with ALL the kids,
between Rich's kidney surgeries!)

2009 - Hawaii

2011 - Lake Tahoe

We look forward to many more great years with fun experiences along the way! Thanks you Lord!

Gardening!

It's so good to be able to get outside to do some gardening!!! We spent about four hours Saturday morning trimming and cleaning out rose bushes. They were already beginning to leaf out due to the warm days we've had. We were pretty aggressive cutting out dead wood, shaping and generally enjoying working on the project together!

You must know that gardening during the month of March in Kansas isn't anything like gardening during the month of March in California! My legs were freezing in my Cali gardening pants! I had FOUR top layers on and was still cold! It's all about the WIND!

Now it's on cutting back the prairie grasses and to pulling weeds. How do those weeds even think about growing when it's cold out???!!

It was a Party!

We had a fun party for Esther's birthday. She brought "Cat in the Hat" hats that she got for her class since Friday was also Dr. Seuss's birthday.

Did we look like dorks???? Definitely! Did we have fun???? Definitely!

The kids - and Esther - were so excited when she opened her gifts! Brett got tickets for all of us to see "The Lorax".

So we had cake and ice cream and off we went to the movie - hats and all. When we walked into the theater, the attendant said, "Well I can tell which movie you're going to see. We just had another group come in with hats like that". We told him they were our kids. Mo was too embarrassed to wear hers. Afraid she'd see a friend, which she did. It's THE AGE.

Such a fun night!!

Happy Birthday Esther!

Today is Esther's birthday. She shares it with Dr. Seuss and so it is always a celebration in her classroom.

She's the perfect wife for Brett, a wonderful mother to her four girls, and an outstanding - make that "distinguished" elementary school teacher. When she's not fulfilling one of these roles, she may also be found teaching Sunday school or VBS (in the summer), and being a friend to many. We are proud to call her "daughter-in-love"!

She embodies these verses!

"She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue. She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her."

Proverbs 31:26-29

Distinguished!!

Wichita School District has announced the 2012 Distinguished Classroom Teacher of the Year awards and our dear Esther received the K-2 teacher award. There were seven categories; new elementary teacher, new secondary teacher, primary teacher Pre-K-2, intermediate teacher 3-5, middle school teacher, high school teacher, and support teacher. To say we are very proud of Esther is an understatement!

Esther was told of her award a week or so ago. Brett took us to dinner to celebrate. We enjoyed a really great time at Famous Dave's (Esther's choice).

We had a fun time reminiscing how Esther began her teaching career. It was 1997. Los Angeles, and for that matter, the entire state of California, were really hurting for teachers. Esther was working in an insurance company and not happy. She had graduated from Westmont College the year before with honors in double majors. Rich was working "downtown" and had lots of contacts throughout LAUSD. He kept encouraging her to go into teaching and he'd work to find her a really "plum" position. Well, she agreed to give it a go but she wanted to find her job on her own. But thanks anyway!

She ended up way down in the southern part of the city, in a school that she felt was a "mission field". She began the school year mid-year. The school was so crowded that she shared a classroom with another teacher. One teacher and students faced one way in the room, the other teacher and students faced the other. Talk about being thrown into the lion's den! She went through the District Intern Program, where she received her CA credential. She taught there while Brett completed seminary and then they moved to Waco, TX, where she taught for four years before moving to Kansas.

So she's credentialed in CA, TX, and KS! She's had four babies during her career, supported Brett through his education, and received her master's of elementary education in 2011. All with a LOT of blood, sweat, and tears. Her "kids" are her passion and it really shows in her work. And for good measure throw in her roles as wife, mother and pastor's wife. She is "one kind of woman"!

Wichita School District has 50,000 students and is the largest district in the state. There are 61 elementary schools, so her award is really significant. The recipients will be recognized at a school board meeting in March, which we are looking forward to attending. At that time, an announcement will be made as to who will represent the district for the prestigious Kansas Teacher of the Award.

We are thrilled for Esther, Brett and their family to receive this honor! Esther's comment was "so Esther". She said, "I'm just happy for Cloud (her school) to get some positive recognition". That's like her, thinking of her school and students instead of herself!

Sporty-licious

In addition to being a hair stylist and salon owner in California, my niece, Julie, opened an on-line business selling sports-related apparel and accessories for moms with kids in sports of all kinds, as well as on dance and cheer squads. She features footwear, rhinestone sport jewelry and tees for any sport you can think of. There's definitely lots of bling!! I would have loved wearing this one to any number of baseball games played by our three sons back in the 80's-90's! Julie says it would have been cute with my Jordache jeans and Cherokee heels! Girlfriend, THOSE were the days!!!

Her website is: http://www.sporty-licious.com/

Check it out!!! Baseball/softball season will be here soon!  Then get ready for all-stars, football, basketball, volleyball, soccer, you name it! You'll be the best dressed mom in the stands or on the sideline.

I love the quote from her website: "Motherhood is a full-contact sport!"

Way to go Julie! Proud of you and love you loads!

Geese!!!

When I opened up the drape over our kitchen slider this morning this is what I saw!! The farmer's wheat field across the road was filling up with geese!! Man-a-live they were coming from every direction.

Since I was going to the gym, I turned the other direction to take these pics. Counted 20-50 in every flock. The sound of their honking and flapping of wings was incredible. The white ones are snow geese. We were told that they don't usually integrate with the Canadians. Well, I guess this wheat buffet was too good to keep them apart! :)

I've never seen so many in one field. Rich suggested that one of them "tweeted" the others. They certainly got the "call". And I came away without being "bombed" on, although my shoes were very muddy from tromping around in the field. Bet the farmer wouldn't appreciate that!!

Any way, the sight of the geese is one of the things that gives some "charm" to this place. They are fascinating to watch.