Moscow

I love Moscow. The campus is a great place.
Campus from the boys apartment deck.

Neola in the PE building after graduation. I spent alot of time in this building.

Neola and John in front of Memorial Gym... played alot of racquetball in the old courts.

Neola and Mark on campus.
Luke and John playing beer pong at the graduation party.

Neola and Luke

Jay, Luke and Mark playing 4 square in parking lot at graduation party.

Cody,Luke, Kelsi and Jessica

Luke Graduates!

May 2010 a big month in our lives! Much anticipated trip to Moscow Idaho for Luke's graduation on May 15th and Luke and Jessica's wedding on the 22nd. We packed our bags and headed out on May 13th. We spent the first night in Ontario with Becky and Steve and headed out the next day for Moscow. We got into Moscow mid day. Mark was finishing up his last final and Luke was working at the U of Idaho Golf Course. We stopped by the golf course on our way to their apartment.

I love the rolling hills of the Palouse. So I had to take a couple of pictures.

Looking south from the parking lot.

Luke in the clubhouse.

Graduation was the next morning at 9:30 am in the Kibbe Dome.

Luke graduated with a PGM (Professional Golf Management) Degree. It is a Business/Marketing degree.

Luke and his friend Melanie walking in to the Kibbe Dome.

After graduation walking from the dome to the Business building for the reception.

Luke and Jessica in front of the Alberston Business Building
Mark, John, Luke, Neola and Jay.

Jay, John, Neola, Luke, Jessica and Mark on balcony of third floor of the Business Building.

Luke in front of the Business and Economics banner that was carried at the graduation.

Congrats! Luke we are so proud of you.

Bad Blogger!

Yes! It has been a long time since I have written anything! Life happened and I found it really hard to write. Some are really good at putting it all down in writing... I found that I just don't... so here I am trying to catch up.

March was tough..

Jay was .... being a teenager!

Jessica lost her mom Sue to cancer. We went to California for the funeral and to support the family. Thanks for your prayers....

April...May...

Easter was the day after we got back from CA.

"He is risen" Therefore there is hope.

Taxes....

House Blessing! We a special blessing for the new house. Pastor Tom gave the blessing. Several friends came and helped us celebrate :)

April 30th... Adventure.... Becky and I flew to CA for Jessica's bridal shower. We met up in Phoenix... flew into Fresno... celebrated with her... enjoyed getting to know more of her family and friends :) Flew to Salt Lake City and parted ways to go home. Great weekend.

Jay competed in the State FFA Floriculture competition and WON! Top Individual!!! Out of 200 plus competitors. He didn't just win he took the top spot by 30 points and helped put his team into 2nd place missing 1st by 18 points. Unfortunately they only take first place team so they don't get to compete at nationals :(

Jay turned 18 May 4th! Wow where has the time gone? I'm getting older if he is an "adult"

May 13th.... wow... where did the time go.... We are headed to Idaho.... :)))))

Luke graduates.... and Luke and Jess get married.......

The graduation and wedding get their own blog..... this was catch up incase anyone wondered what happened to me.

Spring Break 2010

Spring break 2010 was a mixed bag of activities. For starters we didn't do all that we had planned because we moved the week before and it was way too much to leave right away. Our original plan was to go to S. Oregon then back to Idaho for the rest of the week. But we decided it was too much driving. We got some work done around home on the weekend and left or Idaho on Tuesday. We spent the first night with Martha and Al and Jay and I had a fun day at the Boise mall before heading to Ontario on Wednesday.Al, Jay and Martha

Neola and Mary fit in time for a visit and coffee!

Stephanie and Eli, we got to spend time with them. Eli so cute!

We had a surprise. Luke decided to stop through Ontario on his way to Fresno, he wanted to see as many people as possible so we planned a dinner at Fiesta. Lots of family and friends came to eat and socialize.

Stephanie, Eli and Mike

Luke and Neola. So nice to see him!

Luke, Becky and Steve

Connor, Chase, Kerry, Doug and Carson. We got to spend sometime with them also.

Jay, Carson, Chase and Connor. They are all growing up!

Jay was invited to Payette's Prom by KaDee. They have been friends for all their lives. We planned our spring break around making the prom work for the kids. We had the tux measured in Grand Junction and ordered the tux from Ontario.

Jay and KaDee... looking great! They had fun.

The group for prom being silly! They had steak dinner at Bradshaw's. One of the girls date got grounded so they found her another date at the last minute. He came with flowers, in a red mustang convertible. MaryBeth, KaDee's mom and I went to the prom and got to see all the decorates and the kids at the dance. It was fun to reconnect with people.

Steve and Becky... thanks for letting us stay with you!

Neola and Jamie.

We got to visit with him and family a few times. The fun story was on our way from Boise to Ontario. I tried to call Jamie and see if he was home or still on his way home from Nampa where he works... long story short he was two cars in front of us!

It was great to get out of town and see everyone but it was nice to come home to our new house!

Moving.....all the STUFF!!

Moving... ahh ... I'm sure you all have some stories to tell. It is an adventure whether you are moving 1,000 miles or 10 miles. It John and I have lived in 7 different houses since we have been married. The first move was in to the church parsonage after his dad had retired. Now that is a story in itself. The next move was across the street to a little 600 sq ft house. We rented for a year or two and then bought it. Now several moves later and many years later you would think we had it all figured out! Ha, Ha. John and I have to totally different styles and depending on which kid is helping us they do also. This blog began with Jessica setting me up to blog our adventures of moving from Phoenix, OR to Grand Junction, CO. Now a year later we are having another moving adventure. The trusty dodge pickup and little green golf cart trailer converted into a moving trailer by a friend a few moves ago. Thanks Bruce!

Like I said an adventure... flat tire that we pumped up and drove till it went flat again. Thank God that it held the day of the big move.

The movers! They were amazing. All guys from John's work crew. Dan,Kim John,Jim,Keith,Matt,Bob and Todd. Thank you guys!!
Loading at the rental house. The truck and some of the pickup trucks that they used!

Unloading at the new house.

My dishes in their new home!
John and Jay moving stuff upstairs. Notice they are steep!

Keith, John and Dan enjoying the Deer stew that Dan provided! It was very good!

Neola and our candle. Grace our real estate agent gave us candle to light at our new house for it to be a place of love. We gathered around and lite the candle and had a time of prayer.

This is a picture of the house from the top of the stairs looking down into the kitchen and "great" room. Lots left to unpack and put away!!!
John drilling the first hole in the wall to hang "Gus"

John and Jay hanging Gus in his place.

Some of the stuff is put away and Gus the goat and Sam the sheep are hung. It is starting to feel like home.

Thank you God for your many blessings as we move forward into a new chapter in our life.

Here we go again!

On Feb 22nd we signed the papers and bought the house in Fruita, CO. We are pictured here with our real estate agent Grace and her gift basket for us.The house is new so we had to purchase frig and range. John got his Samsung frig. They are suppose to be quiet. He hates a noisy frig! We picked them up and installed them ourselves rather than have them delivered.

Today we hauled 3 loads of pickup and trailer loaded. My body aches.

Our new furniture was delivered today!! We really like it.

Need to get a good nights rest! John has tomorrow off also. They are predicting snow/rain.

It's Ours....

Today was the day that we closed on our new house. It was an emotional day for me. Buying a house makes this whole moving to Colorado a more permanent thing. Plus the work of moving again, even if we didn't unpack everything it still requires alot of work to move. It has been a year of living here and you just accumulate "stuff"! Neola is known for her "piles" of things that she is going to deal with.... so I will probably throw it in a box and "deal" with it later....

I got most of the utilities changed today; Reminder for those of you that are planning a move... take care of that a few days in advance.. depending on the company it can be over a week out to get services changed even if you already have service with that company.....rrrrr

But the new frig and range came in today so we picked them up (no we won't pay for delivery) after John got off work. Jay met us at the house and helped us unload and put in the house.

Tomorrow my friend Sandy and I will go in and clean. It is a new house so it is mainly construction dust. Then we begin the move.

The day will be easy to remember because today is my brother's 50th Birthday!! Happy Birthday Jamie!!

New House!

On Friday we met with the builder of the house we are buying. We went over the final walk thru and every thing checked out okay. Tomorrow we will sign papers for the new house. Then begins the move. We didn't unpack everything when we moved here so some of the stuff we will be unpacking we haven't seen in a year. It will also be different just moving 11 miles away. We will pick up the frig and range tomorrow from Sears. Then get our washer and dryer out of storage. We plan to move the little things during the week and then move big stuff on the weekend. John's crew have offered to help.

One Year Brings Changes!!

One year ago we pulled into Grand Junction, Colorado with our 5 vehicles and all our belongings. It had been a long emotional several days since we had loaded and left Phoenix, Oregon. John had driven the Budget truck, Jerrad his pickup truck full inside and out, Dave had taken over for Jamie and Norma in New Plymouth and had "herded" the dodge pickup with trailer, Neola was in a full van with Chubby, Jay in the Corolla. I distinctly remember the last part of the drive from Price to Green River was horrible, it had just gotten dark and there were scary energy trucks driving stupid on the two laned highway. Then we got to Green River, Utah and thought we were almost here. Wrong it was another 90 miles in the dark. I can still see Jay's face as we pulled into the driveway and looked at where we were going to be living!

Now a year later, we are getting settled into the community. The rental house has served us well being so close to work for John. For an older home with multiple split levels it has been okay. We had the kids home at vacations and we all fit and for the most part enough beds. Wes and Joan visited in October.

We have searched for about a year for a house. We have looked at so many open houses and met almost all the Realtors in the valley. After we sold our house in Phoenix in October we started looking for real in November. Grace became our Realtor and she is a hard worker. We saw a ton of houses in our price range and some stretching it. We made a low ball offer on an amazing house in the Redlands and didn't get it. We recently made an offer on a new speck house in Fruita (small town to the west) after a small counter they accepted and if all goes as planned we should close on Feb 22nd. Then we "get" to move again!

Since the house is new we will have to purchase a frig, they give us a range allowance so I can have my gas range. We will need to buy all the window coverings and are in the process of getting bids for 18 windows. We need some new furniture and there there is landscaping but no fence. There will be plenty of projects to keep us busy for awhile.

Even with the work ahead it will be nice to finally be in our own home. Praying all the paperwork and stuff happens as it is suppose to.

Neola and the house

The kitchen.

Will post more pictures when it all happens.

On the road again!

It was great having the boys home for Christmas break.
Mark headed back to school on Jan 11th. It was tough to see him go but excited for a new semester. He drove to Boise and picked up Luke from the airport. Luke flew in from CA and visiting Jessica. They spent the night in Ontario and visited family from the area.

Mark with John after a rough evening of games.

Mark giving Chubby love.

John, Mark and Neola
Ready to head out.....

Still lots of snow!