Bill &Tonya's Excellent Adventures

If Those Walls Could Talk....

2010-08-07T18:04:00.000-07:00

There’s a small home for sale in the Panhandle of Texas. It’s in the small town of Borger, which was a “boom” town back in the 1920’s. This is the house that Tonya grew up in; in fact it was the only home she lived in from her birth until she was about 17 years old. This house was the home to a very loving family; one that loved and was loved by all the members that lived there. Oh, only if these walls could talk, what stories they could tell.

The small home was built in 1945 by the Phillips Petroleum Company, and it resides in a neighborhood that is known as Philview Camp. There were a lot of firsts and lasts, beginnings and endings that occurred within the walls of this home.

The original house was small. In fact it only consisted of 2 small bedrooms, 1 bathroom, a kitchen, a small living room, small breakfast nook, a dad, a mom and 2 young boys, and eventually a baby girl….. it was a happy family. It was home, and it still is.

Tonya’s Dad was employed by Phillips and one of the benefits they offered to their employees was that they could rent one of the company owned houses as long as he worked for the company, for a whopping $16 a month. Now you might think WOW!, only $16 a month for rent? But keep in mind Dad’s hourly pay was only about 58 cents an hour back then!

In 1958 Phillips agreed to sell the houses and her parents bought the house for about $2,000. Tonya was 3 years old when she can remember her dad working on an addition that was being built on to the house. By the time the construction had been completed the small home had nearly doubled in size. It had an extra bedroom, an extra bathroom, a dining room and a nice large living room.

If the walls could talk they would tell you stories about those that lived under the roof. Such as the 2 young boys that grew up to become responsible young men; graduated from high school, married and moved into homes of their own, beginning lives of their own. How the dad worked hard to earn an honest living in order to provide a roof over his family’s heads, sadly he only lived about 6 years after the completion of that new addition to the house, leaving his wife to raise a 9 year old daughter, alone. There would also be stories of the grandkids and great grandkids that came to visit and how each of them was spoiled in their own special ways.

There would be stories of great neighbors. Like something out of a Norman Rockwell painting most summer evenings, for as long as Tonya can remember, they would all sit on their front porches in the evening, visiting with one another and watching as cars and life goes by. Many of them either lived next door or across the street, and had lived in the neighborhood as long as we had. They were extended members of our family.

These stories are just bits and pieces, little things, but all precious memories to those of us that lived there.

This small house was a good home to all of us that lived under its roof. We hope the house will be s happy of a home to the next family as it was for all of us.

Spring Break 2010

2010-03-21T11:34:00.000-07:00

It’s been a long time since we’ve gotten very excited over Spring Break. We know it’s not the time of the year that we want to make a long week-end trip someplace due to the crowds, and it’s been a while since we had kids that were on spring break… so it’s been just like any other week in March. Not this year though…

We have known since January that Whitney planned to come home for spring break. After everything that she has been thru in the past several months, she needed a break. And we needed her to come home for a while.

Heather has a brother that has been living in the Pacific Northwest for about a year now, not too terribly far from us. He was in need of his furnishings and Heather was asked to drive a U-Haul truck from Houston, TX to Olympia, WA. She and the kids started out on Saturday for a 2500 mile 4 day adventure arriving on Tuesday evening.

So for Spring Break 2010 we had a house full of “chiln” and we enjoyed it all. It’s been a while since we’ve had that much activity around our house. We tend to forget how active a 9 year old boy and 11 year old girl can be, and how hungry they are!

Whitney was able to rest and relax the first several days that she was home, which she needed considering that she broke her ankle a few weeks ago and had a “sweet” boot (as she called it) to carry around with her everywhere she went. Her and Bill were able to make it to “The Mountain” on Monday to go shooting. Nothing bonds a daddy and daughter better than a day of sharing gunpowder, guns and target practice!

Once Heather and the kids arrived we got a few day trips in; Vashon Island Ferry ride, Paradise Valley of Mt. Rainier and a Whale Watching Tour! (Unfortunately Whitney had to fly back to Utah before the whale tour).

Vashon Island and the Washington State Ferry
For our visitors that have never been here before (Hunter & Sierra) we always try to get in a ferry trip. Since we were late getting away that day we opted for Vashon Island. We had not been there either, so it was new to us too. It was a great little island, and we got in 2 ferry rides, they were fun, but really short… while on The Island we came upon the Point Robinson Lighthouse.

Since the Point is commonly shrouded in fog, Point Robinson began as a fog signal station in 1885 and the light was added in 1887. The current lighthouse was built in 1915, with a 38-foot tower and fifth-order Fresnel lens, which allows it to be seen for 12 miles. The light was automated in 1978, using the original fifth-order Fresnel lens

Paradise Valley of Mt. Rainier

Thursday we woke up to one of us not feeling up to par, so Bill stayed home with G’ma E and missed out on our adventure to Paradise. Paradise is the name of an area at approximately 5,400 feet on the south slope of Mount Rainier. Virinda Longmire named Paradise in the summer of 1885 while she viewed the wildflowers in the alpine meadows there. The National Park Service says that "Paradise is the snowiest place on Earth” where snowfall is measured regularly. 93.5 ft of snow fell during the winter of 1971/72, setting a world record for that year.

We all had a great time! The kids got to see a real volcano, sled down the slopes at Paradise and see a pretty awesome waterfall! We also had the rare treat to be able to see a naturally occurring phenomenon a snow doughnut!

They only form under a perfect storm of occurrences. It's formed by a mass of snow falling off of a cliff or a tree into the snow pack. And if the snow and temperature are just right, as gravity takes over, it pulls the snow down, and it rolls back on itself. Usually the center collapses but when the hole stays open, it creates a shape that resembles a gigantic powered sugar coated doughnut!

The kids had so much fun sledding down the slopes, even though we had a couple of crashes it will be a time in their life they will never forget.

Gray Whale Watching Tour

Saturday morning we were on a timeline! Whitney had to be at the airport for her flight back to Utah, and we had to be in Everett by 10:30 for Gray Whale Watching tour, again this required 2 vehicles.

Whitney was dropped off at the airport and made it safe and sound back home. Bill met up with the rest of the clan at the Everett Marina for the boat trip.

We had an awesome time. G’ma E loves riding in boats and we had a beautiful day for a boat trip. Before leaving the marina we were treated to a little show by one of the local resident Harbor Seals swimming around the pier popping it’s head up at one place and then another. On the way out of the marina, we saw three California Sea Lions resting on a buoy. While we were on the water we also saw Bald Eagles, Blue Heron and various other birds.

The real show was the Gray Whales. We cruised northward, and eventually found a gray whale near Hat Island. The naturalist on board introduced the Gray to us as Number 531. 531 showed us his tail flukes on numerous occasions. Eventually Capt. Carl had him lined up perfectly with Mount Baker in the background.

After returning to land we were all ready for a bite of lunch so we had a Whale Tail-gate Party. We partook in “dolphin safe” chicken salad sandwiches and various other items. We had fun, the weather was beautiful and the kids were able to run off some excess energy.

Sadly this was the beginning of the end of our Spring Break 2010. Heather and the kids had a hotel room near the airport since they had an early flight. We were more than willing to get up on Sunday morning to get them there in time, but she felt as if she was putting us out (it’s also hard for grandparents to compete with an indoor swimming pool…haha).

Sunday morning was strange,, so quiet, no activity, not much cooking of breakfast. Now life begins to get back to normal for a week. We have a lot of leftovers to eat (everyone that knows Tonya know how she always “over prepares” for house guests), beds to change and laundry to do. We enjoyed everyone so much… hopefully we can do it again sometime.

Anniversary Trip 2010

2010-02-02T21:05:00.000-08:00

This year, as with most we try to get away for at least a long weekend (it’s not every year we can get to spend a week in Hawaii or the Caribbean), and most years it involves ocean waters. Of course living in the Pacific Northwest makes coastal travel quiet easy. This year we chose The Misty Valley Inn Bed & Breakfast in Forks, WA.

We would like to clarify something, if you happen to be one of the bazillions of people that follow the Twilight Series you know all about Forks and this is great, however, we are have not read the books, so we aren’t one of you. We chose Forks because we love the Northern Coast of Washington State.

We both took off work early on Friday to drive over to the Olympic Peninsula (leaving Mom at home alone for 2 nights). It was about a 4 hour drive. We found the Misty Valley Inn without any trouble; their website gave really good directions! Once we arrived at their door we were greeted by Rachel and immediately felt as if we had arrived at the front door of a long lost friend.

Rachel gave us the grand tour of the guest areas of their home before showing us our room. As we followed her we walked by the buffet in the formal dining room which hosted the most tempting chocolate cake with raspberry filling, lemon bars and brownies (all home-made from scratch by Rachel). We knew this had all of the makings of a good anniversary trip. After some friendly persuasion we indulged in cake and coffee before retiring to our room for the evening.

Our bed faced the biggest set of sliding glass doors we’d seen (close to 8ft) which provided us with an unobstructed view of the meadow. As we began to stir the next morning it wasn’t long before we heard a light tap on the door; when we opened the door there was a tray in front of the door, 2 cups of coffee, and nice hand-made note card with today’s information and a tiny vase of fresh flowers. We enjoyed our coffee while we continued to take in the view out of our bedroom.

We joined another couple for breakfast in the dining room. Breakfast… where do we begin? There are really no words that could possibly do it justice. Rachel recited the breakfast options to us on Friday night and took our order; Bill selected the omelet and Tonya the Irish waffles. The meal began with fruit juice, homemade muffins and warm spiced fruit, and this was all before the main entrees. I guess the best way to sum up the experience is that if you left the table hungry, it’s your own fault!

After a brief recovery period (seriously the breakfast was phenomenal, huge and unbelievably delicious) we headed out on the day’s adventure. The January weather in the Pacific Northwest is iffy at best. Drizzle, rain, cloudy, sun breaks (another Northwest term), and fog are pretty much the common theme this time of the year. We had planned a hike around Lake Ozette but considering the fact that we are “fair weather” hikers we thought we would just take a scenic drive so we headed toward Neah Bay and the Makah Indian reservation.

We purchased the required “recreational” pass at the Makah Tribal Center and headed to Cape Flattery. Cape Flattery is the most northwestern point of the lower 48 states. Once we arrived the rain stopped so we donned our walking sticks, cameras and headed out for a nice walk. It was gorgeous! The trail is very well maintained and for the most part a boardwalk trail. Bill commented that the trail was maintained better than anything we’ve walked in the National Parks or Forests in Washington State. In our opinion we viewed some of the most incredible views of the Pacific Coast.

We had originally planned a nice dinner to celebrate our anniversary at one of the lodges in the Olympic NP but we weren’t really that hungry (considering that we were still wearing that mornings breakfast, another one to look forward to on Sunday and that chocolate cake & lemon bars) so we grabbed a light dinner in Forks and went back to the inn for the evening.
Sunday morning pretty much played out as did Saturday. There were a few differences, new breakfast companions, new entrée choices and we had to think about heading back home. We did decide that we would go back for a night in April, this time taking Mom with us.

Rachel and Jim were so kind and could not do enough for us. We had our hands slapped more than once for trying to refill a glass of ice water or take a dirty coffee cup to the kitchen. Rachel would remind us that we were there to be pampered and take it from us; she is a professional in that field.

As we made our way home we had hoped to hike to the Sol-Duc Falls but the rain stopped us; however we did stop at Salmon Cascades falls and will hike to the falls in when we go back in April (weather permitting)!

It was a wonderful, relaxing weekend and a great way to celebrate our 15 years together.

Lessons Learned:
· We are “fair weather” hikers
· A whirlwind romance can result in 15 happy years together
· Bill’s handcrafted walking sticks are keepers!
· The $10 we paid for an annual pass to the Makah reservation was worth the money

I Married My Best Friend

2010-01-28T08:26:00.000-08:00

15 years ago today I married my best friend! Bill would tell you that it pays to advertise (most of you know that story) and I would agree. He’s the one that makes me laugh, the one I share adventures with and the one makes life worth living. He’s makes me whole.

I love you Babe….

I found this poem and thought it summed my thought very well.

This Day I Married My Best Friend
Author Unknown

This day I married my best friend...the one I laugh with as we share life's wonderous zest, as we find new enjoyments and experience all that's best....the one I live for because the world seems brighter as our happy times are better and our burdens feel much lighter....the one I love with every fiber of my soul.We used to feel vaguely incomplete, now together we are whole.

Happy Birthday Mom!

2010-01-27T00:01:00.000-08:00

Mom is 90 years old today!!! She has had an incredible life, one which has included being raised during the Great Depression, had three “adorable, successful, beautiful” children, married the love of her life in 1937 and unfortunately buried two husbands.

Being raised during the depression era Mom was definitely not wasteful, in fact she learned to be, let’s say “thrifty”. One of her many old sayings (and if you know her, you know there are many of saying) goes,“you can’t squeeze blood out of a turnip”. She can stretch a dollar.

Mother was much more careful with a food budget than I ever have been; she freezes everything from potato chips to cash. And as it turned out, her good sense resulted in more money in the bank. Being a child of the depression, she knew how to scrimp with such things as re-using aluminum foil, plastic cutlery, plastic bag and saving “nice” bags she gets from places. Our favorite though has to be always keeping a ziplock bag handy in her purse or pocket so you have it handy if you come across and “all you can eat” event, because everyone knows you can “crisp it back up in the little toaster oven”.

Does your mind grasp being 90 years old? It is so hard to believe that so many things we take for granted were not even in existence when she was born. Can you visualize, even a small percentage, some of the advances that have occurred in the fields of technology and medicine that have occurred in 90 years? Her life has been a history lesson.

Let’s think back,,,, In 1920 Woodrow Wilson was the President of the United States, the population of the US was only about 106 million, the average annual salary was $1234/year and the cost of a first-class stamp was 2 cents and Prohibition began (thank goodness that didn’t last)!!!

There have been 17 different Presidents in 90 years, can you name them?
Automobiles had recently been invented and horses and mules were still the common method of farming.

A lot of things that we now take for granted which have all come into being during her lifetime:

· Penicillin was discovered
· Television was created- originally only in black & white
· Nuclear Bomb not only was created but the power was harnessed to provide energy- most homes did not have electricity or indoor plumbing in 1920
· Microwave Oven- most homes heated and cooked with wood or coal in 1920
· The “Pill” (which was the first drug used by “healthy” people to prevent something rather than by the sick to treat an ailment)
· Commercial Air Travel- distant travel was by trains powered by steam locomotives in 1920.
· Space Travel- the first rocket was launched in 1926 by Robert Goddard
The Barcode, do you remember ever purchasing an item without one?
· Social Networking, think about this next time you read a blog or “Friend” someone on Facebook
· GPS- map and compass was used in the 1920’s
· Laptop Computers- electronic calculators didn’t become commercially available until the 1970’s
· Text Messaging

It’s also hard to believe that all of the following have occured in just 90 short years :
· Astronomers discover Pluto
· The Empire State Building is completed
· The Golden Gate Bridge is completed
· World War II begins
· The first Social Security benefit checks are paid out
· DNA was isolated
· Man Travels to the Moon
· Jonas E. Salk developed the first experimentally safe dead-virus polio vaccine
· Alaska and Hawaii become the 49th and 50th states

Mom, what an amazing life you’ve had. You’ve been dealt a difficult hand in this game of life, but in our opinion,, you played it well!

We love you

A Saturday Spent in The Kitchen...

2010-01-10T11:01:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! It’s 2010? It seems that we just don’t have the time to update the blog like we would like. It also seems that we in the past year there hasn’t been all that much going on that we think that anyone would be interested in reading about and for sure nothing to photograph. But we are going to try a bit harder this year.

Tonya & Mom started their Saturday morning in the kitchen to try something new, by the time they walked out some 8 hours later… they had prepared 11 supper type meals for the freezer!

While Tonya was doing her Christmas shopping she found a book and thought it would be a good gift for a friend of hers and then she thought shoot, I’ll just get myself one while I’m at it. The book was called “Once-A-Month Cooking”. So with Bill was out of town, Tonya & Mom went to work in the kitchen and began what turned into more than a full day of meal preparation.

Over the past few years we have been customer of the local kitchens where you go in and make your meals from their ingredients which are already “prepped”. We found that it was something that we enjoyed doing together and that the quality of their ingredients was top notch. And you knew what is actually in your meal; no hidden surprises. Doesn’t everyone really like to know what they are eating?

Not only do we like knowing what ingredients are in our meals, we like having supper together. That’s right, we still all sit down together (and not in front of the tv) and have supper together (okay the tv is on in the background but we don’t sit down with our plate in front of the tv). We actually have dinner time conversations!

The real time busters of the day were the things these “kitchens” provide as part of their service: find the recipe, do the shopping, do the food prep and do the clean up! Once you get to just putting the meals together and slapping them in a Ziploc bag it’s a cinch.

Some of our future suppers will be Chicken & Dumplings, Texas Style Lasagna, Macaroni & Cheese with Ham, Apricot Chicken, Italian Slow Cooker Chicken Country Style Ribs etc… if you are in the neighborhood stop by, we’ll have leftovers… None the less they had a good time and if the meals are as good as they sounded we will do it again.

Thoughts to Ponder…
*A full day in the kitchen results in quality bonding time between mother & daughter
*There is a reason that Rachael Ray can cook a meal in 30 minutes

Merry Christmas from the Whitfields 2009

2010-01-10T08:35:00.000-08:00

Dear Loved Ones,

We trust this letter finds that each and every one of you has had a good and prosperous year, a year with more ups than downs; a year that has been filled with more joy than sorrow. As we reviewed the 2008 letter it seems all of the events happened longer ago than just a year. 2009 has been an interesting one for us.

We started our year with Bill resuming his job search after our Christmas vacation in Texas. He left no job unapplied for if it even remotely applied to his experience & skills. He had several companies express interest, several interviews, but nothing came through. By the first of March Tonya was starting to become concerned as to how much longer this might continue when he got a call asking him if he was still interested in the job he applied for back in November??? Bill had to think hard as to which job or company the call was from. We know now that Bill has been blessed by landing a job in 4 months, but at the time we didn’t realize this. We also know now that we were blessed when Bill was laid off, you see he had not been happy at his previous employer in several years and he thought he would just hang on until Tonya retired from Boeing then we would move to New Mexico and he’d grab some type of job there for a few years. He is working for General Construction, a company that is a division of Kiewit Construction, he loves the job but hates his commute (135 miles round trip) and typical 10 to 12 hour days (Tonya still isn’t adjusted to his new hours, especially supper at 7:00PM and she misses their time together). Our thanks go out to everyone who added us to their prayer list. We are blessed in many ways and having jobs right now is one of these blessings.

G’ma E (Tonya’s Mom) is now living with us here in Washington. Back in February she became very ill, so ill that it resulted in about 2 weeks in the hospital, and of those 2 weeks over 10 days were spent in CCU. Tonya traveled to Texas to be with her mom as well as to lend support to her brothers, Mom was a very sick woman, but she continued to regain her strength and around the 1st of March Tonya was able to return home and brought G’Ma E with her. It seems that she needs a more help around the house now (this legally blind thing keeps her down more so than her other problems) so we have discussed things with her and we’ve all agreed that she will be living with us. Plus she is a big help for us too, she has her daily routine around the house doing a lot of little things that we would let go until we found more time. Again, we are blessed to have her with us. Mom will be 90 next month.

The three of us made the trip down to Utah in August to move Whitney’s belongings in a U-haul trailer. We ahs planned on stopping at Glacier national Park on the way back to Washington, but we ran out of time. So we decided to make the drive to Montana on Labor Day weekend. We made the trip and had a great “road trip”. Glacier Park is beautiful and definitely should be on everyone’s “must see” list.

Brittany is doing great!!! She’s still working full time, should complete her Master’s this summer and scheduled to take her Professional Engineering exam in April; she has a very full plate. And with all that going on she was able to come up from So Cal to visit us twice this year. We missed out on so much of her life during the time that her and her dad lost touch that we are blessed that she is back in our lives.

Whitney also returned to Utah this fall. She is beginning a new adventure in her life, she’s a freshman at Southern Utah University there in her “other” hometown of Cedar City. She has her focus set on a career in Human Resources. She also landed a job working in the admissions office. She seems to be settling into life back in Cedar and being a full time student and not getting the paycheck she was used to. We miss her oh so much, but we are so, so proud of her!

Billy or as he calls himself, William, is doing well. He is living & working in Jackson Hole, Wy. We don’t hear from him as often as we’d like, but when we do it seems that he is enjoying life there and of course is still skateboarding when he has times.

Christopher & Heather got married in February. Their wedding was so pretty with their closest family and friends. We not only gained a daughter but we now have two grandchildren. Sierra is 11 and Hunter is 9. It’s so nice to have younger ones in the family again; it’s been a long time. The happy couple insisted that Tonya bake the wedding cakes, so she did her best (so has anyone made the time-frame connection here, the wedding and all the prep took place during the time G’Ma was in the hospital…. check-out the old postings on the blog) Christopher continues to look for work like so many others in this country, please pray that he will be lead to a full time position soon; in the mean-time he’s a full time “Mr. Mom” while Heather works hard to support their family right now.

Jeremy & Daesha are doing so good. Daesha has been working part-time and is enjoying the extra time that she has around the house for her scrapbooking and other household projects. She and Jeremy really got into making preserves this past summer and we can’t wait to go down and sample their goods. Jeremy is still working with the local school district there in League City and seems to really like what he is doing there. We really appreciated the way they opened up their home to all of us during Christopher & Heather’s wedding, including hosting a dinner after the wedding for Bill’s siblings Karen & Ronny , Don & Diane , and Whitney, so we had a chance to relax after all of the wedding prep.

We love each and every one of you’ll and we continue to pray that you will each be blessed with happiness in 2010!

All our Love,
Bill & Tonya

Glacier National Park Adventure; Day 2

2009-09-06T21:25:00.001-07:00

Where do we start? Glacier is possibly the most awesome mountain scenery that we have ever seen. We can’t wait to come back, maybe in the late spring while there is still some snow around in places. The weather wasn’t perfect -cloudy, overcast and drippy at times, but that didn’t hamper us from enjoying our day. The photographs do not even begin to describe the beauty that we experienced. It MUST be seen IN PERSON! We would recommend putting it on your “bucket list”.

We entered the park from West Glacier and traveled around Lake McDonald. There are so many lakes in this park, but the 2 largest lakes are truly huge (which is hard for Tonya to admit, you know being from Texas and all). Lake McDonald is the largest lake in Glacier National Park. It is approximately 10 miles long, over a mile wide and 472 feet deep.

After leaving Lake McDonald we continued our adventure up “Going to the Sun Road”, which is very appropriately named. This scenic drive is the gem of the park (in our opinion). Going-to-the-Sun Road is the only road through the park. It was completed in 1932 going over the Continental Divide at Logan Pass. A fleet of 1930s red tour buses "jammers", were rebuilt in 2001 to run on propane, offer tours on the road. We found it surprising that up to 80 feet of snow can accumulate on top of Logan Pass in the winter. It is quite narrow and winding especially west of Logan Pass. Prior to the construction of this road, it would take the earliest visitors 3-4 days to cross the park.

After winding our way over Logan Pass we headed eastbound toward St. Mary Lake. This lake is the second largest lake in Glacier and is located on the east side of the park. The Going-to-the-Sun road parallels the lake along it's north shore. Here, the great plains end and the Rocky Mountains begin in an

abrupt 5,000 ft. altitude change with Little Chief Mountain above the west end of the lake. It has a surface area of 3,923 acres, is 9.9 miles long & almost 300 ft. deep. During the winter, the lake often is frozen completely over with ice up to four feet thick.

It was a great day, one to behold and definitely on our “gotta do again” list.

Glacier National Park Adventure, Day 1

2009-09-05T20:43:00.001-07:00

We began our adventure last night leaving as soon as Bill was able to get home and change. Tonya had the truck pretty much packed and ready to go, but she still needed his help to finish things up. We pulled out of the drive about 5:30. We knew that we wanted to get as far as Spokane on Friday so we had fixed ourselves a sack lunch so we could eat in the truck as we drove. We made it to Spokane just as planned.

Knowing we had several “points of interest” stops planned for today we opted for a “grab and go” selection. After weighing our options we chose the 5 star restaurants that sit under those golden arches.

While driving thru Idaho (which takes about all of an hour) we stopped at some odd, some sad and some interesting places along the way… after all isn’t’ that the best part of a road trip? The areas around Kellogg and Wallace there were several places where we were able to stop and investigate! The Sunshine Mine Memorial is one of those things that just make you pause and think just how precious life is and how quick everything can change. The May 2, 1972 Sunshine Mine disaster was the worst mining disaster in current history. A fire began carbon monoxide, heat smoke & gas swept through the mine. 83 miners were successfully evacuated while 91 died. This memorial to those miners is a 12 ft tall statue of a miner raising his drill. It is surrounded by plaques listing the names of the miners involved in the accident. Standing there and reading their names one could not help but wonder if they had suffered, what the impact was on their families and knowing that everyone in this small town was touched in some way and life for the most part will never be the same for them.

The town of Wallace, Idaho is like an official icon for small town America. Wallace is known for the fact that every downtown building is on the National Register of Historic Places and has long been famous as the "Silver Capital of the World". While we were there we also learned that it has a very low crime rate; due mainly to the fact that very little was illegal. While there we toured the Oasis Bordello Museum (yes that is correct, we took our Mother to a whore house!). The Museum is housed in a former brothel which was still in business as recently as 1988. The final ladies left in a hurry, leaving the upper rooms with their possessions as though they were going to come back.

Rumor has it that the FBI was coming to town so left with the intent of coming back, but for some reason they never did. A local resident bought the building in 1993, opening the doors once again as a reminder of Wallace's gaudy past. This was a fun and educational stop.

Our next stop was called Elmer’s fountain. We had noticed this fountain when we came thru here a few weeks ago. It’s very noticeable from I-90. At that time Bill offered to turn around but Tonya told him we’d catch it next time. This is really one of those “weird” roadside attractions that used to be so popular along Route 66 back in the 1960’s. The fountain is made from old mining machinery parts and fed from a lake that is above in the mountains. It looks like at one time there were several of the fountains however only one remains today. It was interesting, it was quirky. Something to see for those that enjoy (us) these type of roadside attractions!

We made our way into Montana (remember, the drive across the panhandle of Idaho takes only about an hour!) driving thru some beautiful mountain country. We realized that we really enjoy this state… hmmm wonder if there is an eBay listing out there for a small vacation place???

As we drove the mountain roads we went past Flathead Lake. WHOA! This lake is huge and just gorgeous! The lake is the largest natural freshwater lake west of the Mississippi River and is 28 miles long and up to 15 miles wide.

We made it to Kalispell this afternoon. It has been a good day…. We love road trips and haven’t been able to take many lately. We are enjoying ourselves and look forward to tomorrow, Glacier National Park.

Texas Bluebonnets vs Washington Wild Lupine

2009-08-30T09:21:00.000-07:00

Every springtime Tonya allows a little bit of “home-sick” to creep in when she remembers how vivid the vast fields of bluebonnets were that bloom each spring back home. She remembers driving thru central Texas where many of the state's major roads were lined with bluebonnets and other wildflowers during this time of year, making for memorably scenic drives.

This has been the first year we have been able to get in a few hikes in the midst of the wildflower season in our area National Parks. This past Sunday happened to be one of those opportunities and the meadows were filled with a multitude of colors. Not only the lavenders & blues of the lupine but also, yellows, reds, pinks, orange and lots of white among the summer green plants. This was the first time we have noticed the wild heather. The air we took in had a flowery fragrance.
Bluebonnets and Lupine are not the same, but for us, they are sure close.

When we left this morning we really did splurge, stopping at McDonalds for some “take & go” breakfast. The drive out to the mountain was enjoyable, as we were able to spend quality time with one another. However the parking at the Paradise area at Mt. Rainier was left a lot to be desired. The parking sucks so bad that they Park has now instituted a “shuttle bus” to help alleviate the congestion of the parking area (we can’t imagine how horrible it would have been had the buses not been running).

After looking for a parking place in the vicinity of what was our original hiking trail plan we had to settle on Plan B and we were not disappointed. We parked down the hill from the Paradise Lodge and began our hike of the “Fourth Crossing” trail.

How amazing the fields of wildflowers were! The lupines that were blooming so reminded us of the Texas Bluebonnets, but in Texas you don’t have a huge active volcano in the background! It was a wonderful hike. It was a little steep in places but the beauty and fragrances helped take our minds off of our hearts beating in our throats. We stopped along the way (several times) to take in the view, and thank God for creating this site for us to enjoy.

After we survived (okay, it wasn’t that bad of a hike, but keep in mind we are middle-aged, over-weight and out of shape!!!) that portion of our day we took on a small jaunt to complete our trip. We hiked down more of the Paradise River on the Lakes Trail. Not as challenging as the first trail was but just as enjoyable. There were not as many wildflowers but the waterfalls and rushing waters by far made up for that.

It was a wonderful day. We were able to enjoy quality time with each other (well, except the 4 million other people on the mountain) today and enjoy God’s creations. Sharing all of this with your one and only is priceless.

Life if good.

4 Days, 3 Nights & 2414 Miles

2009-08-19T11:01:00.000-07:00

And we are home safe. As Dorothy Gale said, "there's no place like home..." . It was a fast, long trip, but one we are glad we made.

Rewind a few days…..

I’m sure that we mentioned that Whitney had been accepted at Southern Utah University a few months ago. Well, she left us last Monday (8/10) with her little car fully packed. Her car is not big enough to pull a trailer with all her apartment furnishings so the parents are called in to assist to pull a U-Haul trailer with our truck down to her, of course we were happy to help. So we arranged the time off from work, our good friend Jeff helped Bill load the trailer, we packed G’Ma Evelyn in the back seat of the pickup and off we go on Saturday morning, heading south to Utah.

We left home about 6:15 and before we ever got out of the neighborhood Tonya was pretty sure that she had forgotten to pack the IPod so we had to make the block so she could double check (pulling trailer thru neighborhood with large speed bumps,,,, Hey only 1 go-back is pretty good).

We had originally planned to make this a fast trip and leave G’ma at home alone, but Tonya was a bit concerned about leaving her alone for 4 days, so we pitched the idea to her that she go along with us. Making sure that she felt she was up the trip. We knew by taking G’Ma along with us on this adventure it would involve extra time since we would need to make some extra stops along the way in order to make the trip easier on her, but we were up to the challenge! We are so glad that we did. We all had a good time.

Saturday we spent 14 hours in the truck (this included stops for gas, potty breaks, breakfast, walking the kinks out and of course the “lunch crate at the roadside park” break). After driving 788 miles we arrived in Tremonton, UT., where we found the first motel and got a bed for the night! We were tired but all in all felt good. Once we got into our room Bill walked over to Burger King and picked up our supper.

Sunday morning we headed out, knowing that we had hoped to meet Whitney about 2 in the afternoon in Cedar City at her storage facility. We made the usual stops again and were right on time. Whit’s brother came along so he could help Bill unload the trailer, what a great help he was! We dropped the trailer off at her sister’s house so they could return it on Monday (seems that a lot of places are closed in Utah on Sunday,,,, go figure). It was so good to see Whitney’s sister, brother, nieces and nephews. After we said our tearful good-byes to Whit we get back in the truck…. heading back north on I-15 to Salt Lake City.

Monday morning we checked out of our hotel in Orem and begin our journey on I-15 hoping to connect with I-90 in Montana. Along our way we stopped at Temple Square in SLC. Mom had never been there and was very excited to see some of the places she’s always heard of most of her life or seen on television. We walked her around the Mormon Tabernacle as well as the grounds of Temple Square. She was very impressed with the buildings and of course the flowers. We think she enjoyed it a lot and getting a good walk in was good too.

Somewhere in Idaho, on I-15 we begin to calculating our time against when we needed to be back to work and had a change in plans. We had hoped to go to Glacier National Park on Tuesday morning then head back to Tacoma on Tuesday afternoon. We quickly realized that this would not allow us enough time at the park, so we opted to not take in Glacier at this time, we would plan going back over Labor Day. We arrived in Missoula, MT around 6pm, got a room and then treated ourselves to a delicious dinner at The Cracker Barrel. It is a good thing that the closest location to our house if over 400 miles! G’Ma E was so excited she got to have Fried Catfish for supper. Living in Washington she sure misses her Texas Fried Catfish. Tonya found the cutest t-shirt at the restaurant there, it really hit home since she quit “coloring” her hair a few years ago, "You call it gray hair, I call it STRESS Highlights"… this is Tonya’s new motto.

While passing thru Idaho on our way home we stopped at The Mission of the Sacred Heart State Park. The mission is the oldest standing building in all of Idaho and was constructed between 1850 & 1853. We were very impressed with the workmanship used in the construction of this building.

By Tuesday evening after 4 Days, 3 Nights & 2414 miles we are back home, safe and sound. The house is emptier with Whitney moved out, but we are oh so proud of her decision to go after a degree, we know she will do great at Southern Utah University and they are darn lucky to get her! Glad to be home… there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home, there’s not place like home.

Great Week-End With The Girls!!!

2009-07-27T08:19:00.000-07:00

And you probably thought we'd fallen off the edge of the Pacific Northwest Coast, yes it's been a while since we've posted anything, but seriously life here has changed for us. Can't promise we'll do more frequent posting, but we will try.

We had a great week-end! Britt came up from SoCal! She wanted to get up to see Whit before she heads down to SoUt (background: Whit has been accepted at SUU and has been approved for a scholarship thru the tribe. She moves back mid-month).

It was a quick trip, way too short for us, but we still loved having her here. She arrived Friday afternoon and had to take off on Sunday night. We tried to pack as much into those 54 hours that we could.

Friday evening was probably the most quiet, we all went to Mama's for a nice dinner. The food was great as usual. When we got back to the house G'Ma was pooped so she relaxed in the house while we went out to the backyard with the girls to visit, chat, laugh; basically just enjoy life.

Saturday morning we got up, packed the Jeep (another story, Tonya calls it Bill's "Mid-Life Crisis") and headed over to Olympic National Park. We knew this would be a lot of driving and getting in and out of the vehicle so G'Ma stayed home. We stopped for breakfast along the way and enjoyed our day. We hiked around Hurricane Ridge, where we were able to see deer and field after field of wild lupine, it was soooo pretty. It was rather late when we got back home, we had a good time, but crawling in and out of that Jeep one can realize they have aches in places that shouldn't hurt!

Knowing that Brittany would have to fly out on Sunday night we wanted to find something to do that was close by. With Britt being an mechanical engineer she was quiet intrigued with the Narrows Bridge when we crossed it on our return from the Olympics so we decided to "walk the bridge". The Pacific Northwest is amid a heat wave here. We are used to summers in the mid 70s with the occasional 80.. right now 80 would be nice. The walk was great, the views; wonderful! The bottled water that was left in the ice chest in the back of the truck would have been a nice thing to take along with us! Need to make a better mental note next time we do this walk. Even though we were so hot and thirsty, it was still a great time and we are talking about walking it again.

We all enjoyed Brittany while she was here. She is great to have around, wish she could of been here longer, BUT we are just thankful she is back in our lives and we know there will be many more visits to come.

We are not looking forward to Whit's imminent departure.... she will be missed terribly.

As I Reflect On This Mother’s Day

2009-05-25T09:57:00.000-07:00

Mother’s Day 2009 was an enjoyable day. Since I’ve been married to Bill he has always gone above and beyond to make sure it’s a good day for me. Typically it’s only been the 2 of us here on this day, but this year Whitney was back with us and G’Ma E was here as well. Bill has a regular routine for Mother’s day which begins with breakfast out and then shopping at my favorite nursery, Watson’s. It’s been our tradition for several years and one that I love. This year we shared the experience with my mother and she seemed to have a good time (Whitney opted to sleep in which was perfectly fine).

Once we get home we begin planting all of the new plants I have selected. Typically the nighttime weather is not safe to plant annuals here until at least Mother’s Day because of our late frosts we experience here. But once Mother’s Day arrives we feel it’s safe to begin spring. This year as I was out in the backyard digging in the dirt and planting my new “babies” into the composted earth home I began to reflect on my life. I know having my mom with us this year had a big impact on this reflection.

My teenage years were pretty much hell on my poor mother. Through my teenage years I took my mom for granted. She worked as hard as she knew how to be both mother and father to me. I was pretty sure that she existed purely to provide for me and at the same time stay out of my way and my life. We weathered a lot of “parent/teen battles”. We fought a lot.

She said that she knew me better than I knew myself - I was sure she had no clue (I was so mistaken). I was very rebellious during my teenage years; I was not a lot of fun to be around. She worried a lot about me and simply prayed for me and kept telling me that she loved me. Looking back I’m sure that at the time I thought my mom was responsible for everything that had every gone wrong in my life. As a teenager I was so self-centered. Looking back now and as a mother myself I have no idea how she put up with me and regret what I put her through. Seriously I would have beaten the living daylights out of me. I was a selfish-hormonal-teenage-brat.

Reflecting back I know that she had unrealized dreams of her own. She never expected to be a single parent at the age of 44 to a 9 year old daughter. She had hopes and plans that she set aside to simply love me through my tough years. Amazingly something happened to me along the way that changed everything. Something finally changed - I did. I grew up some, became a mother myself. I realized that my mother was a genuine human being with a heart that could be broken and feelings that could be hurt. Could it be that there was actually more to her than - “me”?

Motherhood is the hardest, most challenging job. We are rewarded with intense joy, pure and strong emotion, never-ending depths of love, and some unbelievably hilarious moments! I am truly blessed to have the mom I do and to be a mom!

Mom, I am proud of you and I love you very much.

Thank You Mom
I know how often I took you for granted when I was growing up.
I always assumed you'd be there when I needed you... and you always were.
But I never really thought about what that meant till I got older and began to realize how often your time and energy were devoted to me.
So now, for all the times I didn't say it before,thank you, Mom...
I love you so very much!
Author Unknown

Happy Birthday Tonya

2009-04-03T09:00:00.000-07:00

Guess who turned 54 years old Sunday? You are correct, Tonya's is now 54 which also means that she is officially older than Bill is again. Do you remember the number???? 7 months, 5 days.. yes people, in a short 7 months and 5 day Bill will turn 54 and catch up to Tonya, again.

Bill loves Tonya's birthday, because she's older than he is, and for some odd reason, he finds this much more amusing than she does. Oh well, what all this really means, is that in 1 short year, not only will Tonya be older than Bill (AGAIN), BUT! she will be able to retire. Not saying she will, but the marker is there. Anyone taking bets on how long before Bill get's that phone call at work and Tonya says... "okay, I'm pretty much done, If you don't talk me off the ledge now, I'm going to hit the "submit" button to file my retirement paperwork..... seriously, talk me down now...." And then next year there will be more senior discounts at the restaurants to take advantage of next year. So bottom line, Tonya is probabaly enjoying this birthday for herself as much as Bill is enjoying it for his selfish desires.

Tonya did have a wonderful celebration, it was small, family oriented and low key but she enjoyed it none the less. Bill was so excited over one of his gifts he had for her that she was able to "talk him into" giving it to her early.... on Saturday night. Beautiful earrings, they are white gold hoops and called "inside out diamond hoops". Georgious!!!! Sunday morning she got up and found a huge orchid on the breakfast bar, it was yellow with hints of pink from Whitney. Whit normally gets her WOSM some type of orchid or violet for special occasions and her WOSM loves them. Bill fixed breakfast for everyone, light and simple, hot biscuits and homemade jam after which he presented Tonya with her other gift and nice new set of solar lights for her backyard. Now if the snow would melt, and sun come out and dry out the ground some, maybe she and Bill could actually get out into their backyard for the first time this year. We've all gone out to an early dinner. Tonya had requested BBQ for her birthday meal, but the little restaurant that she wanted to go to is closed on Sunday so we tried another BBQ joint that we had heard about. The ladies that own this place has participated in the Challenge from the Food Network, and this place has been washed away several time due to mudslides. We were really looking forward to some good "que" after driving 47 miles down there and waiting about 30 minute for a seat but sadly we were pretty much disappointed. Not the style of bbq we like. Still it was good to have a meal out with the family.

As we returned to home we decided to stop by the State Capital in Olympia. Tonya, Whitney and G'Ma E had not been there before. It was a nice little walk and can imagine that once the flowering trees all begin to bloom it will be so pretty. But the blooming daffodils were a nice sign that spring really might make and appearance afterall.

We Are Thrilled To Present Mr. & Mrs. Cuttrell

2009-03-26T17:37:00.000-07:00

(Yes, running about a month behind, still playing catch up with the blog.. life has been a little hectic lately around our house..)

Saturday February 28 Heather and Christopher were joined in holy matrimony bringing to our family a new daughter and 2 beautiful grandchildren. It was a wonderful family event. The bride was walked down the aisle by bother her fathers, the brother of the groom was the best man and the sister of the bride her maid of honor, our new grandson and granddaughter performed the duties of ring bearer and flower girl. The closest family members and friends were there to witness this most joyous occasion.

Rewind several days prior….
Tonya and Whitney had planned to fly from Seattle to Houston on Tuesday before the wedding. But as you know from previous postings Tonya was already in Texas with her mom who was ill. So here you might think, good deal Tonya was already in Texas so this should be more convenient, right? NOPE!!!! Keep in mind that Texas is a pretty large state and about 700 miles between point A and point B. We LOVE Southwest Airlines….. yes I FLY SWA!!!!

Whitney proceeded to fly to Houston on Tuesday and Tonya followed on Wednesday; and hit the ground on the run pretty much. Meeting C & H along with the kids (this included Whitney) for dinner, stopped by the florist to see what flowers had been selected, then to the store to purchase all the supplies needed to make wedding cakes. Whitney spent another night with C&H while Tonya went to Numero Uno El Niño and Dae’s house to crawl into a bed that wasn’t in a hospital room or on rollers for the first time in several nights. Slept like a rock.

Thursday started bright and early, as soon as J & D left for work and Tonya really realized that she was in a strange kitchen, but only had to call J once to find out where something was kept. By 8am the Kitchen Aid was running, the oven pre-heated and the start of cake, after cake, after cake going into and out of the oven. C and Whit came over after they dropped H off at work and the kids to school. We had a great day,,, well they played Wii while Tonya baked cakes and they all visited. But by 5:00pm all of the cakes were baked, the frosting was all make and we were pooped. J&D invited C&H and the kids over to supper that night; feta chicken (read Dae’s blog about our pollotarian). Supper was great, enjoyed the boys, their women folk (Texas slang) and the kiddos. Family is great and we are blessed. The one thing that was missing that evening was Bill; and he was on his way (SWA of course) to Houston scheduled to arrive at 11pm. After the “women folk” went to the airport to gather Bill, we got home and went to bed and Tonya began thinking thinking about decorating cakes the following day. If you want a bit more information

The night before the wedding we got together at Heather’s parent’s house with for dinner, drink and good company. All of our out of town guests were included. It gave the bride & groom an opportunity to visit with and in some cases actually meet family that had come a long way to celebrate this blessed occasion with them. We appreciated their hospitality so much, Christopher is really getting himself some great in-laws.

The wedding was gorgeous, the bride and groom were perfect (not that we are biased). We are so happy to have these new additions to our family. We are thrilled that Christopher has found a woman that loves him as much as he loves her, and the kids, well they couldn’t love Christopher anymore if he was the biological father.

Tonya’s heart-felt thank-you to the very host and hostess of the most prestigious JDC Bed and Breakfast! You guys were awesome!!!! Not only did they open their home and kitchen to us, they made sure we had nutritious and very tasty meals and snacks. They also wanted the opportunity to get to know Bill’s brother and sister better so the evening after the wedding, she invited them all over to dinner. Still more information....

We have been blessed with some of the best daughter-in-laws on the face of the earth. Technically they may be daughter-in-laws, but we consider them our daughters.

G'Ma Evelyn

2009-03-14T18:56:00.000-07:00

Can everyone tell we are catching up on the blog? It's been a stressful few weeks and honestly keeping up with the blog just wasn't at the top of our priorities.

This post has been several weeks in the making.... Tonya's mom gave us a big scare.

G'Ma Evelyn, She's a tuff 'Ol Bird for sure! She is an ornery fighter and we are so proud of the progress she has made in the past few weeks. A little background here might be helpful for all of you that did not live these past few weeks with us. The middle of January, Mom flew to Dallas/Ft. Worth to spend time with her sisters and brothers and then the plan was to come up here for a few months around the 1st part of February. Then Christopher & Heather set their wedding date, the 28th of February, so Mom's plans changed a little. She would stay in Ft.Worth until the middle of February, go home for about 10 days, then the Whitfield clan would fly from Houston after the wedding with a change of planes in Albuquerque, Mom would fly out of Amarillo with a plane change in Albuquerque where we would all meet and get on the same flight to continue on into Seattle on March 1st!

A few days before mom was to fly back home from Ft. Worth she begin to feel a little under the weather. She said she was retaining fluid in her feet "because she'd been eating salty food'; she was having trouble sleeping, 'because her back bothered her". The night before she left to fly home was a bad night for her, she was having trouble breathing so she tried to sleep in a chair and she was talking out of her head. By the time she arrived in Amarillo and Tonya's brother Waudell picked her up at the airport she was a very sick lady. Waudell wanted her to spend the night with them but she "just wanted to go home and sleep in her own bed".

The next morning she did not answer the phone, Tonya called, Waudell called, Aunt Fern called and no answer; we were terrified! Tonya called her brother Waudell, he said he was on his to mom's house and would let her know what he found out. The next call we received from him was that she was so weak she couldn't get out of the bed so he had called the paramedics, her blood pressure was extremely low and they were taking her to the hospital in Borger. Once they arrived at the emergency room they diagnosed her with pneumonia and wanted to admit her but they did not have any available beds and were finally able to locate her one in Amarillo. By the time they admitted her into a room in the Cardiac Care Unit of the hospital in Amarillo it was nearly 9:30 pm, over 12 hours since Waudell had first arrived at her house.

The next several days were hard for all of us. Tonya wanted to travel to Texas in order be with her mother and brothers but they thought she should wait a day to see if the antibiotics kicked in, so we waited. By Saturday Ronney & Waudell decided if there was any way that Tonya could come home that she probably should. (SIDE NOTE- At this point we are 1 week from Christopher & Heather’s wedding; that post to follow). We started scrambling to find a flight to Texas as soon as possible, and change airline tickets for existing flights… at 3:15 am on Sunday morning she got a call from her brother, Ronney. He had just received a call from the hospital, Mom had gone into A-fib and a breathing tube had been inserted. Tonya arrived in Amarillo about 4pm on Sunday, February 22.

Tonya spent the next several days in the hospital. The hospital staff brought in a roll away bed so she could sleep in the room with her. Due to the breathing tube, Mom was not able to make a sound at all, not even a whisper. She would try so hard to make us understand what she wanted, but we couldn't understand…. It was heart breaking for her and us.
On Monday afternoon they began to wean her off of her breathing tube, so we all worked with her reminding her to breathe deep so that her oxygen levels would increase. By this time our mom is working hard to do everything she could so the tube could be removed. She hasn’t been out of the bed since Wednesday, and is really weak and just wants out of that hospital bed; she was still in the CCU of hospital. The hospital staff removed her breathing tube Monday night; they will wait until Tuesday to remove her stomach tube. Our mom is rock star!

Tuesday morning she woke up about 4am and felt restless so we had the nurse move her to the chair where she sat for a couple of hours which included eating breakfast. Mom was still really weak and not able to stand or walk without help, but she was working as hard as she could to regain her strength. Physical Therapy came Tuesday afternoon and got her out of the bed, and helped her walk to the chair. She sat in the chair for quiet sometime on 2 different occasions as well as on the side of the bed.

Tonya stayed in the hospital with Mom until Wednesday 2/25, as long as she could and still get to Houston in time to take care of the wedding cakes and other wedding prep.

Mom was released from the hospital on the afternoon Sunday, March 1 after 10 days. She and Tonya stayed at her house and things went well. Her appetite increased and she would walk around the house with her walker; she's was still weak but regaining strength each day.

We have encountered bumps in the road with her new medication routine and apparently an unknown change in her insurance that we were not aware of, but all seems to be working out. Tonya’s brothers and sister-in-laws were wonderful, making sure they had everything needed.

Mom continued to improve so that they were able to fly back home to Seattle on Sunday, March 8. Currently Mom plans to stay for an indefinite period of time with us.

Considering that Mom has congestive heart failure, pulmonary hypertension, legally blind and 89 years old, Mom is doing great! Most of us can only hope to do half this well when we reach that age. Thanks to everyone for their continued prayers and support.

2 Income Family (again!)

2009-03-12T20:01:00.000-07:00

We have good news, no, make that GREAT news! Bill just signed the employment offer for his new position as Quality Control Manager for General Construction. He will be working on a $230 million project at the Bangor Submarine Base near Bremerton. It is an approximately 3 year project, but he was told that this is a permanent position so they will send him on another project when this one finishes. He is looking forward to going back to work!!

As thankful as we are and as wonderful as it is there is a few down sides to the offer. First off this job does not offer a company vehicle. We will need to find a vehicle for him to drive to and from work. Bill has been driving the "Green Machine" (Honda) since he was laid-off last November. While the Green Machine is an okay vehicle, it has a lot of miles under it's hood and won't last much longer, especially with the new commute to and from Bremerton (about a 100 miles each day). So a new/newer vehicle is in our future. Considering the mileage the new vehicle will be racking up and the cost of gasoline in Western Washington, a new pickup truck with a big V-8 Hemi engine in it probably will not be an option for us, so economical appears the route we will be going.

Second, Bremerton is on the Kitsap Peninsula and there is a large body of water between home (point A) and the new job (point B) called Puget Sound. Travel between point A and Point B requires crossing the Tacoma Narrows Bridge which now has a toll of $4 each day unless you spring for the "Good To Go Pass" (then you get to cross cheaper) so we will need to get us a pass. Speaking of Tacoma Narrows have you ever heard the story of Galloping Gertie?
Third, this job appears to be behind schedule, which means Bill will be working long, long hours.

Fourth, Tonya is LOOSING HEAR HOUSE HUSBAND!!!! She's going to have to learn to cook and clean again.

Seriously, we feel blessed right now that we have this job opportunity to find the down-sides. Jobs are few and far between these days so we are thrilled that God has answered our prayers.

Thank you so much for all of your support and prayers.

Bay Area Valentine's Adventure

2009-02-14T15:58:00.000-08:00

Have you wondered why we chose to spend Valentine's Day 2009 in the Bay Area? Several weeks ago we purchased tickets to go to Houston for the wedding, 2 days later Southwest Airlines has an awesome 3-day sale and we could of saved 50% if we had not booked them early. We worked with SWA (they have some of the best costomer service in the airline industry in our thoughts) and were able to get the cheaper rate, however they could not reimburse our money, but we did have an airline credit.

Prior to C2 & Heather's wedding date being set Bill had received information from one of the makers of the planes he uses that they would be having a show in Oakland the 13th of February. We had considered going down for the show (and we love the Bay Area). When we found out the date had been set for the wedding we knew that we couldn't go to the show, which was no a big deal afterall wedding trumps tool show anyday. But once we had obtained the SWA credit we decided to go ahead and go down for the show.

Not knowing if Bill might be working by the time the show rolled around we booked the last flight of the evening, 9:15 pm; well that ws the scheduled departure time.... actual departure was 11:15 pm arriving into Oakland at 12:45am! Oh wait, it does get better... Our car rental counter closes at 10:00, so we end up renting a more expensive car (so much for the savings on the flight), and get to our hotel at 2:00am and totally exhausted but thanking God that we have a room as we climb into bed. Instead of spending the night in the airport again.

After we got up and dressed on Saturday we headed downstairs to partake of the typical hotel Continental breakfast fare and we headed out to find our way to the Lie-Nielsen plane show. The show was very, very small. In fact after an hour, we were done. Hmmm, planned on spending most of the day there as we do with the woodworking shows at home. It was interesting, just not much there.

However, the venue for the show was called the Crucible, http://thecrucible.org/ it was most interesting. They offer all types of classes there from jewelry making, wood working, metal work etc... Something else to go on our “would like to do” list.

Bill had been surfing the web before we our trip to see what other points of interests there might be and found and area that appeal to us and found this area called Preservation Park (http://www.preservationpark.com/history/urban.htmlThis was a really cool place, all refurbished Victorian era housing. It was well worthwhile.

By the time we finished our tour of the park our typical hotel Continental breakfast fare was wearing thin fast when we passed a burger joint that Don had turned us onto when we were in San Fran last October. In-N-Out Burger, good artery hardening fast food cheese burger and fries at a decent price. In-N-Out Burger seems to be yet another good fast food restaurant that we don’t have in Washington. Mmmm don’t it look good? (It was.....)

For our special Valentine’s dinner we had made reservations last month for a restaurant located in the Berkeley Marina. Wonderful views of the Golden Gate and Bay bridges. It was a bit too damp and windy to really enjoy a walk, but our dinner was so good.

LESSON’S LEARNED:

A Prius is really not a bad little car, and even more impressive once you figure out how to start it (yes we have always been dye in the wool American Made)

The Govenator of California REALLY needs to do something about the shape of their roads and highways.

We Child-Proofed Our House But They Still Get In

2009-02-03T12:09:00.000-08:00

It seems like we just start getting used to the “empty nest” when WHAM! one of our kids reappear, boomerang.

Wikipedia defines the “Boomerang Generation” as one of several terms that are applied to the current generation of young adults for the frequency with which they choose to cohabitate with their parents after a brief period of living alone-thus boomeranging back to their place of origin. Whit being our most recent boomerang child (others have included Chris & Billy). While we enjoy being empty nesters we more enjoy being the parents that our children can come to when they need our help.

We admire Whitney, she found herself in some financial trouble and came to us asking for help. This is a hard thing for anyone to do, but she did it. She took a deep breath called and told us she needed to come out talk to us. We went thru her finances, prepared a spreadsheet and after all the calculations were complete it was apparent, she needed our help and we wanted to help her, solution; she should move back home.

Our daughter is planning to move to Utah the end of the summer to go to college, so we had planned on her moving in when the lease on her apartment was up in June anyway. She’s just moving back in a little sooner than originally planned.

Did we mention how much we admire her? Not only did this young lady come to us to ask for help she has managed the entire move by herself. She talked to her apartment manager and worked out a plan for early termination of her lease, she found a moving company that would move her boxes and furniture into a storage building, she found a storage facility and she had everything packed and ready to go…. She did all of this on her own… can her daddy and WOSM say PROUD? Here?

Of course there always bumps in the road which she found out when the movers were supposed to show up on Friday afternoon, again something else she handled on her own. Whitney took Thursday & Friday as vacation days (she was in a use them or lose them situation anyway)so she could finalize packing on Thursday and Friday the movers would arrive a little after noon. Friday came and now word from the moving company, she finally called them only to find out that, ooops their truck broke down and wouldn’t be able to come until Saturday morning (yes, good customer service would have been for them to call her). She wasn’t pleased but agreed with their 7:00 am Saturday arrival.

She spent the night with us on Friday, get’s up at 5:30 on Saturday morning (yes, there are many things wrong with getting up at that time on a Saturday morning) and heads over to meet the movers at 7:00, or so she thought. 8:00 and still no movers, so she calls them again, the man on the phone (same dude she talked to the night before that told her 7am) told her he was sorry, he knew he told her 7:00 but they accidently put her down for Saturday afternoon, then had “balls” to ask her if that was okay ….. needless to say after Whitney had a little chat with them (#$@%#) they arrived in less than an hour. Not only did they arrive in a hurry she encouraged them to cut their rate since they had kept her waiting an extra day to which they agreed. She’s a smart girl. And we are glad she’s ours! LESSON’S LEARNED:

While we enjoy our empty nest times, we enjoy more being the parents that kids can come to when help is needed

Wedding From Afar

2009-01-31T10:53:00.000-08:00

History: Many years ago in a “previous marriage” Tonya used to decorate cakes, not as a living but a hobby. She really enjoyed it. Her and her friend Dawn also started doing a few weddings on the side. Dawn did flowers, Tonya did the cakes and then on certain occasions the two of them would make food (finger-type) for the reception. It was fun, we enjoyed it but it was a lot of work.

Last month we were asked by Christopher & Heather how much time we would need in order to make it to Houston for their wedding. We told them at least 21 days as we are loyal Southwest Airlines customers (other loyal customers know what we mean here). A few weeks ago we got the good news that they had set a wedding date, February 28th.

Next came the groom’s request that his mama would make the wedding cakes! Now this was not anything that Tonya had never heard before, this is something that Christopher had insisted on since he was a quite young, back to some of the first wedding cakes Tonya ever made; he wanted his mom to make his cakes.

Tonya tried to explain to the two of them that with us living in Seattle and the wedding taking place in Houston there would be all sorts of challenges of baking and decorating wedding cakes. Not only did Tonya have to find a kitchen to work in (a kitchen that is not her own), and she lost custody of her cake decorating supplies in her divorce! She wanted to say no, I’ll buy you’ll a cake… and she nearly did until Heather called and said, “it would mean the world to him if you made the cakes, this is something he has always dreamed of…for you to make his wedding cake”. What’s a mother to do? A mother (at least this mother) would try to move heaven and earth where her kids are concerned, so a plan had to be developed.

After Tonya agreed to this project her head started spinning; hmmm need cake pans, hmmm need a design, gotta have a good recipe, a kitchen? I have to have a kitchen! So much to think about so many things that can go wrong, what about???? About that time God patted her on the shoulders, calmed her down and things started falling into place…. First thing on the list, find a kitchen!

Tonya called Daesha. They had a wonderful girl-time conversation, something they realized that the 2 of them do not do near often enough. Typically we just wait for Jeremy to relay information back and forth and we miss out on lots of news. New resolution; “have girl conversations more often”. Daesha was very open (actually seemed excited) to the “opportunity “of having her mother-in-law come in and take over her kitchen for a few days to bake and decorate cakes. She even wants to help! And she has offered to do our shopping ahead of time (all help appreciated). This most concerning obstacle had been overcome! Bill (aka Mr. Coupon) found that Michaels & Jo-Ann’s have 40% off coupons in the newspaper so we could start replacing our cake decorating inventory (Bonus! Every time we go into Michael’s to buy something they give us yet another 40% coupon. SCORE!).

It’s always been Tonya’s opinion that when it comes to the wedding cakes, if they are good nobody really remembers much about it, BUT if it’s bad, that’s all anyone will remembers. So the cake testing has begun. The first try for the bride’s cake turned out good, Italian Cream cake. We will be doing a 3 layer they cake with the top and bottom layers Italian Cream and the middle layer will be plain white (in case there are guests with coconut or pecan allergies). The chocolate groom’s cake has proven to the a bit more challenging, so the testing continues on that recipe. Bill, Whitney and Tonya’s co-workers are the guinea pigs but they don’t seem to be complaining too much. As of today, we are close to a winner.

Next on the Wedding from Afar list: Photographer
C&H know at this time they cannot afford a professional photographer we needed to figure something out. They asked if Whitney would consider doing the honors. Whit was leery at first; concerned she might screw something up, after all these are their wedding pictures, memories for the rest of their life! To which C&H replied, if she didn’t do it, all they would have to remember their special day is disposable cameras sitting around on tables, so to speak a do-it-yourself photographed wedding. So she has agreed. Whitney has a very artistic eye, she is a very good photographer, but she prefers landscapes not people. She’s not crazy about photographing people and she’s worried she’ll mess up their pictures. We told her that she can use both of our SLR Digital cameras (instantly know if you need to re-shoot a shot), flash, tripod, and she had a month to read up on posing people and getting more familiar with the SLR digitals. She appears to now be excited. We do need to find her an assistant, to be her “go-for” person.

LESSON’S LEARNED:
Check back after the wedding, we are sure there will be many.

The Adventure of Interviewing for Your Future Continues....

2009-01-16T19:04:00.000-08:00

The search for Bill's future employer continues.... his typical day now starts these days with coffee while reading the morning paper, then trolling the Internet looking for an online application to be submitted (which is typically 1 or 2 each day).

We've had a promising week. Bill has had 2 interviews this week. He received a call from the operations manager of his "dream employer" on Monday asking if he could possibly make it in for an interview on Tuesday to which Bill replied, "I'll be there!". The interview went well, but perhaps not well enough. That company was pleased with Bill's credentials; he was the most qualified candidate they have had to apply, "but".... they are looking for someone with a architectural background in quality control and of course Bill's experience lies in civil. He was told they would keep him under consideration but they felt if they offered him the position they would be setting him up to fail due to his lack of experience in architecture; and Bill said he this job isn't one that he wouldn't would be interested in.

By the time he got home he had received another call asking if he could interview the following day.... Bill returned the call, another construction company located NORTH of here, another 120 mile (round trip) from our house. It turned out that it is across the freeway from yesterday's interview. Bill interviewed with this company and he was stoked when he left there. Here is what transpired... Bill arrived early and he (the man we hope will be his future supervisor) was not busy and asked him to come on in. They chatted realized they had crossed paths before then talked as old friends.

This company has submitted "2 DOT design-build" proposals that they are currently waiting to hear about... one closes next week and the 2nd on February 14. They insinuated that "if".. after a 2nd interview, and if they were awarded either of the 2 outstanding job that he had a job.

As the interview closed the interviewer told Bill that if he were to offered another job, be sure to give them a call before he accepted.

All in all we've had a positive week. As of this Friday afternoon, Bill is currently unemployed but we are still healthily and happy.

Please keep us in prayers

Tonya's Winter Break

2009-01-05T20:35:00.000-08:00

We got home from Texas and Tonya had to find something productive to do with herself, afterall, Bill was not feeling well, running a temperature and in bed, (so who was supposed to entertain her???), so she decided to paint & redecorate the upstairs guest room. (Yes it's yellow, blue & green) and it was (red, white & blue). She said we needed an updated look to go along with the fine furniture that Bill has been building..... dang, we do good work!

Tuesday (Before)

Wednesday (After)

Tuesday (Before)

Wednesday (After)

Tuesday (Before)

Wednesday (After)

The Adventure of 2008

2009-01-01T10:01:00.001-08:00

Can you believe that it’s 2009? Only 9 years ago last night how many of us were uncertain what Y2K held for us, we were wondering if our ATM cards would work, if computers would work, would the gas pumps still pump gas once the clock strikes and the year 2000 begins? So hard to believe that was 9 years ago. So much has happened in our lives since then but it seems that 2008 has been the year that had more changes than most.

2008 has been a hard year for us as it has been for so many others within our family & country. A year that has been a busier than usual, and it included more life changing events that we’ve been asked to weather. A year full of ups and downs; currently it appears that our downs far outweigh our ups when the final tally is counted.

We celebrated our 13th anniversary also in January by traveling to Hawaii. Historically we have not had the best of luck with anniversary trips that involve traveling over water, but thought we’d try it again, why not, after all it was our 13th anniversary, right, what better time on earth to travel to the Big Island and Oahu. While on the island of Hawaii we stayed in Hilo we visited Volcano National Park where we had hoped to see the lava flowing, but we found out from the park ranger the lava was flowing on “state land” and the only way to see it was from the air. We were disappointed but we didn’t let it ruin our trip. We still enjoyed seeing all of the craters, steam vents and old lava flows. The volcano Kilauea has been erupting for the past 25 years. We spent 4 nights on the Big Island and loved every minute of it. While in Oahu we stayed in Honolulu, we knew it was commercialized but we knew there were many of the traditional sightseeing opportunities that we wanted to see, Pearl Harbor, North Shore, Diamond Head etc. We spent 3 nights saw so much and experienced a lot of the Hawaiian’s local culture. Can’t wait to go back one of these days to experience some of the other islands.

In January Tonya’s best friend, Missy gave birth to an adorable baby girl, Kayla. She was beautiful and had the longest fingers and toes we’ve ever seen, and cheeks that would make any super model jealous. Her mom & dad are gonna have their hands full one of these day. As the year comes to a close she has grown into her fingers and cheeks, and is still just as beautiful.

G’ma Evelyn (Tonya’s Mom) is doing very good for someone that will be 89 this month. She is now legally blind due to macular degeneration and has a few other health issues but she does pretty well. Still requires a bit more help from her sons around her house; however she is still able to live on her own. She came up this past February for her annual winter visit spending about 2 months. While we were there Christmas and talking to her, we are hoping she plans to come back in February of this year too.

Billy moved to Washington from Utah in March to live with us while he finished school. He’s still passionate about skateboarding, and in most of his free time he could be found at one of the local skate parks here. He is a real free spirit who loves skateboarding but he can't come up with a scheme that make skating a full time occupation. So his life is in a holding plan until he can figure out where he wants to go.

This year we lost family & friends that were near and dear to us. Our sister Linda lost her long, hard battle with breast cancer in June at the young age of 54, only 1 month short of her 55th birthday. She fought hard up to the very end, she is missed very much and thought about every day. Tonya’s best friend’s mother lost her battle with cancer as well, The Gentry family adopted us several years ago; we were always invited to join any of their family gatherings.

Whitney turned 21 this year and she is doing very well living out on her own. She is still enjoying her apartment and her job. She comes out to visit us often, and we love having her around. She keeps us young and makes us laugh. Her dad and her both love football and enjoy watching a good game with one another. She has plans to return to Utah next fall to attend college to pursue her BA degree.

We did something in June that people look at us in disbelief when we tell them what we did and how it turned out. We bid (and won!) on 5 acres of land in Southern Colorado on eBay. The property is about 30 miles out of Antonito. We have since been down to view the purchase and much to our surprise, (considering the price and the fact it was an eBay listing) it was a good acquisition. Granted it’s flat, but it does have distant mountain views. It is less than a mile from the mouth of the Rio Grande River and would be a great place to put a vacation cabin or trailer on.

Jeremy was the first family member to suffer the feeling of a job loss in 2008. We were all shocked when he was laid off; little did we know that several others of our family would experience that same loss throughout the year.

Christopher & Heather are both doing well. They came up to the Northwest for a week in September from Galveston. This was the first time Christopher had been home (unless you count the 24 hour trip he made in 2005) since he moved away in 2004. Heather had lived in Tacoma when she was elementary school. Hunter and Sierra did not get to come along this time, but we hope to bring them out next summer without their Mommy & Daddy for some grandma and grandpa time.

Hurricane Ike hit the coast of Texas where Jeremy & Christopher both live. The day that Ike hit was a long day for us, spending most of our evening surfing between all the major news stations. Knowing how big this hurricane was and knowing that the boys were there in the middle of this mess was pretty stressful. Did we mention they both opted to NOT evacuate for this hurricane? Tonya finally went to bed around midnight but didn't really sleep much, and then at 5:15 am Saturday morning our phone rang, it was Daesha, calling to say they had survived the storm. Having what some would consider minor damage to their house, but they were okay. Then about 1:00 pm Christopher called, they made it thru okay as well, not much damage to their house either. Of course they were both without power but they felt sure they had made the necessary preparations.

As many of you know we have been talking and planning to retire (when the time is right) in New Mexico. We like it because of their low cost of living; it is centrally located to the family members in Texas, Utah, Arizona, and California. It has a good airport and hospital system in the immediate Albuquerque area. So this year we got serious looking for a acreage to build on someday. We fell in love with the area around Los Lunas, nice community, mountain views and only about 25 miles from Albuquerque. It didn’t hurt that the latter part of 2008 was also a buyer’s market for real estate, so we made an offer the land our future retirement home will sit upon sometime in the future. The land is flat but it has phenomenal views of the Manzano Mountains.

We went to San Francisco in October for the wedding of Bill’s nephew Adam (Karen’s oldest son Adam). Brittany & Whitney met us down there and we all had a great time together. Besides the 4 of us, Don and Diane stayed at the same hotel as we did; we always have a great time together.

Brittany is doing well; she’s still living in Southern California. She hardly has any free time, she stays busy as she continues her pursuit of her Master’s degree in mechanical engineering. We admire her and are impressed by her dedication to school and work.

November was not one our best months. Bill’s birthday was nice, but 3 days later he was notified that his job was being eliminated after 12 years. Shock and disbelief would be an understatement but we are now adjusting. Bill had not been happy with his job in a while, but thought he would wait until Tonya retired and they moved to NM before looking for something else, now he’s looking for another job. In addition to losing his job, he also lost his gallbladder. He had surgery 2 days before Thanksgiving, and seems to be recovering nicely.

Our daughter-in-law was also notified that her contract would not be renewed, another shocker since J was also unemployed. Yep that’s right the two incomes of that household were now gone. They are planners which in this case is a good thing.

We started the blog in September; we wanted to capture all of our trips, whether they were day trips or vacations as well as other events that take place and the blog seemed to be a good way for us to share it with our family and friends. We thank Daesha for providing us with more information on how blogs work; after all we are from the “Boomer” generation and at first thought it might require too much time or knowledge for us to keep one up. Dae’s blog was so comforting to us as she kept us up to date on all their hurricane preparations as well as the aftermath via her blog, we so we started our own.

Jeremy & Dae, Christopher & Heather met up with us in the Texas Panhandle to spend part of their Christmas breaks with us. We were able to get caught up with most of the Hopper Clan. Sadly the boys were not able to be with us at the same time, but we always take anytime that we can with them. Also looking back now, can’t imagine how “cozy” we would of all been there at Mom’s house. Jeremy has been offered a job with the local school district, so he starts the New Year with a new job. Christopher has a lead on a job that could hold a secure future for him and his family. Dae has found a part-time position where she is providing medical attention to lower-income individuals that are in need. We are still praying that Bill hears something positive after the first of the year about the job leads that he is following.

Sadly Tonya learned of another loss in ’08, her best friend in elementary school through high school passed away at the young age of 52. Living only a few houses down the street from each other Klonda and Tonya spent most of their time together with countless sleepovers or just hanging out at one of their houses. Klonda was in Tonya’s wedding (the 1st one…). This one is still soaking in.

We love you all, and pray that each of you will be blessed with happiness in 2009!

LESSON’S LEARNED (or re-learned):
· Following “The 21 Suggestions for Success “ (by H. Jackson Brown ) may not be the perfect plan for living but it sure has worked for us.
· Love your family as if there is no tomorrow, you never know how long you have them.
· Never take your job for granted, you really don’t know when you could lose it.
· eBay land purchases are not all scams.
· No matter hard blows life deals you, the Good Lord mixes in enough good times to make life palatable.

Back to Reality (via First Class)

2008-12-27T21:59:00.000-08:00

Tonya's tears had nearly dried by the time we were ready to land at Love Field. Just as the wheels were touching down our SWA pilot came on the PA system, welcomed us to Dallas and a prayer, "God Bless The Dallas Cowboys & Tony Romo"; made us smile, only on Southwest and in Texas would you be likely to hear that prayer request. Texas is it's own little country, and Tonya is proud to be a Texan. From that point on it seemed as if everything ran just like clockwork. On our way to baggage claim we smiled as we passed "our bench", the one that we had lived on for several hours the week before. We noticed is was now occupied by a new family that looked pretty tired too. Once we gathered our bags with hailed a cab and make our way to our hotel (yes, decided against spending about night in the airport and slept in the hotel we had reserved).

Everything about the room was very nice and the fact that we had received “winter rates” made it that much better. We have stayed in much worse places for a lot more money, no complaints from us. For our fancy- smancy dinner out on the town in DFW we walked across the parking lot to Denney’s! We were tired, and just wanted to grab a bite and go back to the room for a hot shower, high speed access and a comfy bed (knowing we had to catch our shuttle to the airport at 5:00 AM!) Neither of us slept all that well (seems we never do the 1st night in a hotel) even though the shower was great and the bed was great so there was no problem making the shuttle in time.

Our flight was fine, it was rather turbulent, although that was not unexpected after watching the weather. However the accommodations and customer service were superb in First Class. Leather seats big enough to accommodate our big bottoms, lots of leg room to accommodate Bill’s long legs, a hot breakfast of scrambled eggs, French toast, bacon & fresh fruit that we didn’t have to pay $5 for and non-stop coffee served in a real china cup. All of the above made the 4 hour flight to Seattle seem a lot more tolerable. During the time we were flying over Colorado it clouds cleared and the view out of the aircraft window was awesome. The mountains were so white with their white snow covering and the sky so blue in the distance. This was a vision that we are not often blessed to see from this perspective.

We arrived home to 40 degrees and rain, rain, rain. Since being home today we have unpacked, unloaded groceries and talked to G’Ma E and C2. Tonight we showered in our own shower that we love and sleep in our own bed while listening to the rain through our open bedroom window. Since we had to come home, we’re glad that the travel is behind us now.

LESSONS LEARNED:

Even a sleepless night @ La Quinta is better anytime than a bench at Love Field
You can take the girl out of Texas, but you can't take Texas out of the girl
First Class air travel is the preferred method to make a 4 hour flight and very nice, a great way to use those frequent flier miles of Bill’s
Family – we don’t get to spend enough time with any of them, and we miss them dearly
There are actually parts of the country, like the Texas Panhandle, where people actually still say "Merry Christmas" instead of Happy Holidays, as in the Pacific Northwest.... this was music to our ears.

Christmas II (Dos)

2008-12-26T21:51:00.000-08:00

Christopher, Heather, Hunter & Sierra all arrived safely in the Texas Panhandle after driving all night from Crosby, Texas (Houston Area) making the drive in about 10 hours. It was so good to see them all. Christopher & Heather had been to Washington to visit us in September, but it was good to have them with us for Christmas as well. They arrived with some good news, it appears that Christopher has a really good lead on a job, more details will follow once they are confirmed and of course when more details are available. This is something Christopher is really excited about, please keep him in your prayers.

The 7 of us joined Pat & Waudell along with our extended family (The Sterlings) (14 total) for their traditional Christmas Eve get together and dinner. All of the food was delicious, as usual and we all ate way too much. Hunter & Sierra entertained themselves with the pool table while the “adults” talked and talked. Dinner was followed by 2 tables of Chickenfoot dominoes. Christopher’s family started to fade (yes some of them had been awake for over 36 hours) just about the time our Chickenfoot game was over so we all headed back to G’Ma Evelyn’s so we could get the kids (& the adults) in bed.

On Christmas morning our Hopper tradition continued; the kids must wake the adults up before they run out to see what cash & prizes that Santa has brought to the good little boy & girl. When we told Heather & Sierra about our family tradition while tucking them into bed they looked at us as if we had lost our minds, but they agreed to follow the Santa rule. It was great to be able to have younger kids around to share those magical moments with, it had been a long time.

Pat & Waudell came over for Christmas dinner II, it was a full house with all 9 of us there, but we still had a good time as always. As usual Bill’s turkey was cooked to perfection and the dressing was good. It was Tonya’s opinion that there was “too” much cheese in the broccoli/cheese/rice casserole but she quickly found out that out of the 9 of us, 8 strongly disagreed with her opinion (yes that too is not anything new). Bill says that there is no such thing as "too much cheese" and everyone but Tonya agrees.

(No family get together at G'Ma E's house would be complete without some sort of check on the plumbing...)

Friday was a sad day for all of us; it was our last day with the family as that evening was when our flight was scheduled to fly back to Dallas (7:00 am Saturday flight out of DFW to Seattle). Another tradition within the Hopper family is that we all get back together the day after Christmas (or Thanksgiving) to eat leftovers from the day before. We got to spend a little more time with Pat & Waudell. Christopher & Heather followed us to Amarillo where we said our good-byes and tears were shed by many of us.

We made another family connection right in the airport there in Amarillo! Tonya’s great-nieces, Baylee & Hannah were arriving from Dallas to visit their Grandparents (Ronney & Marilyn) for Christmas. In our conversations with Marilyn and due to the timing of the flights we were convinced they would arrive on the same flight that we were leaving on. The girls we had not seen in several years are now beautiful young ladies.

Christmas I (Uno)

2008-12-23T21:19:00.000-08:00

We are thrilled! Jeremy has been offered a job with a nearby school district in a nearby town where they live. Jeremy has been unemployed for 6 months so of course we are all thrilled by this early Christmas blessing.

Jeremy & Dae drove to Dallas from Houston on Friday to drop their pets with Dae’s parents and then flew to Amarillo from Dallas. They arrived as scheduled and the 3 of us were there to meet them as soon as they got their luggage! For a mama that hasn’t seen this ½ of her offspring since April of ’07 they were a sight for sore eyes. They arrived to high winds and cold temperatures that resulted in bone chilling wind chill factors, it was cold! It was so good to see them.

Sunday afternoon we had an impromptu Hopper sibling reunion. Our gang (G’Ma E, Bill & Tonya) & Waudell & Pat went to Ronney & Marilyn’s for an afternoon. We talked non-stop (yes, nothing unusual) just trying to catch up. Ronney & Marilyn’s recently finished their new home west of Amarillo so we got the grand tour of the house; it is so nice and very easy to see why they are so proud of it. Tonya’s niece Melinda and her family were able to join us as well for a short time. It was a good day.

Monday we celebrated Christmas with Jeremy & Daesha. They are not big fans of turkey, so for our (pre)Christmas dinner we feasted on ham, sweet potatoes and macaroni & cheese. Of course Pat & Waudell joined us for dinner as well and of course G’Ma had plenty of pies and cakes for everyone. Everyone pitched in to make sure that dinner was on the table.

Sadly on Tuesday evening we had to take Jeremy & Daesha back to the airport so they could make their way back to Dallas. We really, really enjoyed them, and we really, really miss them.

The Hotel Love Field Adventure

2008-12-19T19:38:00.000-08:00

What a trip! In all of the trips that we’ve taken, this was our first time to spend the night in an airport. To recap, we woke up to bone chilling cold and snow and our flight is scheduled to depart at 12:50 pm. When we left our house at 10:00 the snow in Graham had stopped and the roads were clear but about 5 miles from the airport the snow started and was heavy, the roads started getting slick, but airplanes were still taking off. We dropped our luggage off at curbside check-in then Bill took the car to the parking garage while Tonya waited for him to make their way for security.

Since Tonya had her knees replaced the trip thru security can be a little time consuming, so traveling without Bill is not often an option (someone needs to be able to grab her stuff off of the conveyor belt while she is being “wanded”) but it is a system that we have perfected.

Our flight was postponed to 1:15, then 2:30, and then they thought we might have a plane in range. When it came time to board it was 3:30 still not departing (de-icing) until nearly 4 o’clock. The plane was packed like sardines and by this time we know we will have missed our connecting flight from Kansas City to Dallas.

Our pilot came on the loud speaker and announced that the weather in KC had deteriorated and it appeared that we would be diverted to St. Louis but he would let us know more as soon as more information becomes available. We did land in KC about 10:00 pm, and we knew we had missed our connection to Dallas but a “pit stop” seemed most important at that time.

Once we had settled down we discovered we had not missed our connection afterall. Flights had been delayed all over the country. We boarded our plane to Dallas about 11:15, then we sat on the tarmac for a bit, waited for the deicer fairy to come sprinkle our aircraft with fairy dust so we could actually depart at midnight.

We landed in Dallas to a balmy 68° at 2:00 am on Friday morning. Our 2 bags made it just fine, but we couldn’t locate our box… this would be the box with all of our Christmas presents in it. It was a special box, and we couldn’t find it. It seems that SWA thought our special Christmas box was cargo and took it to their cargo area. By this time it was 3am, we were exhausted and the hotel we reserved was another 30 minutes away when the 2 of us developed a plan B.

Plan B—Flight #2009 to Amarillo departs at 6:35 am (we were booked on a 10:00 am flight), we shall try to catch some sleep in Love Field, be in line as soon as the ticket counter open and get on the first flight out to AMA as we could. We were successful and we landed in Amarillo about 7:30 am. and made our way to Mom's house where a clean, warm, king size bed was waiting on us.

LESSON'S LEARNED:

The best made plans don't always cooperate with Mother Nature!!!
Benches at the airport can never compete with the Marriott

The Power of Prayer!

2008-12-14T16:29:00.000-08:00

We believe. We believe in the power of prayer. In the past months we have asked our family and friends to pray for us and our family during the employment obstacles that we seem to be facing right now. We have also been added to prayer chains. We believe in prayer and we know this is how the interview for Bill came so quickly. Both of the boys in Texas have been looking for a job for several months. We are asking again for all to pray for us and our families. Jeremy & Dae hope to have permanent job news for each of them at the beginning of this week, please keep them in your prayers that the outcome will be a positive one. Christopher continues to pound the pavement.

Also, our daughter-in-law, Dae has accepted a part-time job in what we understand is in a not so good neighborhood, we pray that God will keep his loving and protective arms around her while she is there and that she will be safe.

We are still praying that Bill will hear something from the company he interviewed with. We have not heard anything yet, but we also know this time of the year the hiring process tends to slow down.

Thank you for all of your continued prayers for us and our family

This is our backyard today.... we are due to have the coldest temps here than there have been in years.... we are schedule to travel to Texas this week, we just pray that the weather calms down a bit by then. Did we mention we typically do not get snow like this? And if we do, it turns to rain and melts it all away.... hmmmm how's that story again about global warming?

And Santa is working hard in his shop to finish last minute Christmas gifts.

We leave soon to travel to Texas for Christmas. Pray that we will all travel to Borger safely.

Leavenworth Village of Lights Adventure

2008-12-13T23:42:00.000-08:00

Today we did something that we have heard so much about since we moved out here and has been “on the list” since we moved to the Pacific Northwest. We went to Leavenworth (that would be Washington, not Kansas) to see all of the Christmas lights and decorations.

We had a great time. Knowing that we were forecasted to have one of the most severe winter storms in the PNW this week-end we were not thrilled with the prospect of driving over 2 mountain passes and fighting traffic but we totally lucked out. Tonya’s employer offered tickets for sale that included touring bus transportation to and from (a trained professional that knew all about driving on ice and snow covered mountain passes) as well as a hospitality suite at the Enzian Inn (lots of Old World charm with authentic Austrian furnishings) was decorated so nicely. They even have a 2 story Christmas tree that goes through the ceiling and continues on the floor above. When we got cold and were tired of walking the streets of Leavenworth we would go back to the suite for a bite to eat and warm up with coffee and cider. The suite also had a great view. We just wished more of our family members had been there with us, what a perfect way to start the Christmas season.

For those of you not familiar, Leavenworth’s central Northwest Washington location and Bavarian town atmosphere it provides the ideal setting for a unique Winter Wonderland getaway. The history behind this village is an interesting one since there was once a sawmill and had a healthy logging industry that eventually fell apart, however, when the Great Northern Railway Company pulled out of Leavenworth. The re-routing of the railroad and the subsequent closure of the sawmill sadly converted the town from a bustling, thriving hub of commerce into a hollow, empty community. For more than thirty years, Leavenworth lived on the brink of extinction.

But in the early 1960’s, everything changed. In a last-chance effort to turn their precarious circumstances around, the leaders of the town decided to change Leavenworth’s appearance, hoping to bring tourism into the area. Using the beautiful backdrop of the surrounding Alpine hills to their advantage, the town agreed to remodel their hamlet in the form of a Bavarian village.
On Lighting Festival weekends, Father Christmas arrives at the Front Street Gazebo late Friday afternoon to much excitement and fanfare. Saturday morning, the aromas of food booths and roasting chestnuts begin to drift through the air. Holiday music fills the village while kids play and sled in the city park. At dusk on Saturday and Sunday, everyone gathers to sing “Silent Night” and witness as the Village is decked out with thousands of twinkling lights as it is transformed into a winter wonderland.
LESSON’S LEARNED:
·We really miss having our family share these events with us this time of the year that it physically hurts! (okay not a new lesson just a refresher course)
·Professional Drivers- They deserve every dollar and then more they make and more people should tip these professional that had you life in their hands for 6 hours.
·The box lunches provided by the bus drivers were a nice touch but not necessary due to the amount of food available in the hospitality suite

Bill’s Surgical Adventure

2008-11-25T21:56:00.000-08:00

After all the waiting and all testing and all the restless nights the adventure of Bill’s gallbladder removal is finally over. As some of you know the surgery was originally scheduled for Halloween, but due to concerns of the anesthesiologist they opted to move the procedure from the surgery center to the hospital. While we were glad extra precautions were being taken, it did move the date out nearly a month.

This was only Bill’s second surgery in his entire life, the first being in 1958 when he (as so many other children back in those days did) had his tonsils removed. And to add insult to injury, not only was the surgery a month out, it wasn’t scheduled until 3:00 pm, pretty much an entire day without eating and nothing to drink since mid-morning. But he’s handling the whole thing like a trooper… after all with the 2 big losses he’s already suffered this year (his sister and his job) the loss of his gallbladder seems like a piece of cake.

He made it thru surgery just fine. He was very groggy and wanted to go home, they finally let us leave about 8:00pm. We got him home and tucked away in bed, that was when the fun really began, getting a prescription filled at that time of night!

I wish someone could please explain to us the complete job description of a pharmacist. To me it seems as if the most time consuming thing of the whole process would be to decipher the highly educated doctors handwriting, but I apparently am wrong on this assumption. I stopped by the Rite-Aid closest to our house on the way home, hoping that I could just run in, drop the scripts off, get Bill home and in bed, go back and pick up the drugs; I was wrong. Granted we had not had a prescription filled at this drug store before so when I dropped them off I had to give them our information; address, insurance card, allergies; I get all of this and the attendant said it would be close to an hour before they would be ready for pickup (did I mention that I was close to being the only person in the entire store?) to which I replied, no problem, I want to get my husband home and in bed, that I would be back.

Once I returned the store our scripts were NOT ready...now I have to deal with the pharmacist (apparently her assistant had left for the day), she asked me for the address, insurance card, allergies to which I explained that I had given all that information to her assistant, she then asked me, where did she put them??? I wanted to say, HELLO??? don't work here you'll do, but I didn't. She finally found the insurance card and I gave her all of the other information again. She then tells me it will take about 20 minutes!

The pills are already made all she had to do was count out 30 pills put them in bottles print a label and slap it on the bottle and let me go home, all of which I'm pretty sure could be accomplished in half that amount of time. Can anyone explain what I am missing in the whole process here? Finally got the pills, finally got home, drug the patient up for the night and fixed myself a stiff drink!

LESSONS LEARNED:

Whether it's Wal-Mart or Rite-Aid, there is no such thing as a quick fill for a new prescription
A new appreciation of our prescriptions by mail plan (too bad it's only for refills or 90 day supplies)
Gallbladders are now removed with a laparoscope

Job Search Adventure

2008-11-23T20:42:00.000-08:00

We received some really exciting news Friday, Bill has an interview on December 4 with a large construction company. This just so happens it is for the very job that he applied for the day he was laid-off. Coincidence? Fate?

Also, he is also now officially "in the system",,, the Unemployment system that is. Although we have not received that first check yet, but we understand it is "in the mail" which is a miracle knowing how he fought with their website (we all know Bill has the paitence of Jobe). We are not concerned yet but just in case our search for a second income continues:

Just in case, keeping all of our options open.

PLEASE pray for us...

The Adventure of Lewis River Falls

2008-11-16T20:27:00.000-08:00

Yesterday afternoon as we were out running our weekend errands the sun was shining and the skies were clear as a bell. Mt Rainier was just beautiful and we had a crystal clear view of the Cascade Mountains when Bill said he would like to get of the house for a while and next weekend it would be nice to go for a day trip photo safari, Tonya agreed. We discussed going to Olympic National Park and up to Hurricane Ridge when we remembered that there was a waterfall in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest that we had planned to go to at some point this past summer and we never made it.

As we relaxed last night and were listening to the weather forecast for next weekend we decided to just get up in the morning and go today (instead of getting out in the yard as we had originally planned, as Bill said, “those leaves will still be there on Monday or better yet maybe they will find their way into the neighbor’s yard), so we begin to drag our stuff and get ready to head out first thing this morning. After perusing the newspaper (Bill) and Internet (Tonya) while having our morning coffee we put some bread, peanut butter and jelly (our homemade strawberry of course) in a tote bag and headed out.

It was a bit further down there than we had originally thought, but it was a nice day to spend together. The day was so clear that we could actually see Mt. St. Helen’s from Interstate 5, likely only the first or second time we have seen the volcano from the freeway.

We have always loved the Gifford Pinchot (or as we call it, “the GP”), it is one of the older national forests in the US. It was included as part of the Mt. Rainier Forest Reserve in 1897. The forest was named after Gifford Pinchot, one of the leading figures in the creation of the national forest system in the United States. It is located in a mountainous region between Mt. St. Helens in the west, Mt. Adams in the east, White Pass in the north, and the Columbia River in the south. The region is noted for its topography and volcanic geology. It is quite a wierd feeling being in the middle of three active volcanoes.

It was so pretty down in that area, not only were the falls big, so are the firs and cedars in the splendid old-growth forest. The Lower Falls drop 35 feet into the Lewis River with a powerful whoosh. There is lots of mist in the air and we even caught a rainbow in some of the photos. We checked out the campground at the falls and decided that we will definately put this one on the "must do" list for next summer. We would love to return to the area to explore more of the river and the waterfalls.

Since it was going to start getting dark soon, we decided to head back toward home. That is the bad part about this time of the year is the short daylight hours. It starts getting dark by 4:30 or so this time of the year. So next weekend we will try to do another "photo safari, if the weather permits.

Lessons Learned:

Spur of the moment trips are fun, but don't forget that the days are shorter in the winter.

The Week of Up & Down Adventures

2008-11-09T11:35:00.000-08:00

This week has been quiet the adventure for our family, similar to the stock market lately up and down. Friday 10/31 thru Friday 11/7 has been full of one thing after another. Bill was scheduled to have surgery on 10/31 which was postponed (the surgeon decided he should do the surgery in the hospital rather than the surgery center), Halloween was fun (see below) Whit was here for the weekend. Monday Bill turned 53 (post of 11/3), Wednesday we learned our daughter-in-law’s employment contract had not been renewed (lay-off #2 for her & J) and then Thursday Bill was laid off from his job (post of 11/7). It’s been a week but we are all healthy, happy and blessed in more ways than we can count.

HALLOWEEN 10/31
Since we moved into the house back in 1998 we have always had more than our fair share of ghosts and goblins and this year was no different, 120+.

Bill was originally scheduled for surgery today (now postponed to the 11/25) so our plan was to forgo handing out treats this year but Whitney wouldn’t hear of it. She volunteered her services, we bought the candy, she made the treat bags (120 of them), she made the jack-o-lantern and she ran up and down the stairs time after time to each time the doorbell rang. It was also seemed like a good chance to have Family Game night, so we played Rummycube in-between Whit’s constant trips to answer the door. By 8:15 we had run out of candy bags as well as handing out part of “our chocolate stash”, so we turned off the lights and played like we were not at home.

All of our "surrogate" grandchildren stopped by for their special treat bags (since these kids have a special place in our hearts, they get a special treat bag full of all types of goodies) as they do each year and this year we had 2 new additions to our family, Kayla and Ben (no pix of Ben he was sound asleep in his Daddy's arms). This is our favorite part of this day, when each one of them (and their parents of course) stop by to show off how cute they look in their costumes!

Cinderella & Batman (J&K)
Skooby-Doo (Blayne)
Little Monkey Girl (Lexy)
The Little Mermaid (KMR)

Recession vs Depression

2008-11-08T21:05:00.000-08:00

We have all heard the old joke; a recession is when your neighbor loses his job, a depression is when you lose your job. As of this past Thursday, we are in a depression.

This past Thursday Bill was laid-off from his job of 12 years due to the economic down turn in the construction field. All sorts of feelings flood you when something like this happens, dumbfounded, disbelief, this must be a dream; when all you know really know for a fact is that your world has just completely changed with the snap of your fingers.

Right now this is all still soaking in and while we are not exactly sure what the future holds, we do know that for right now we are okay. Not that there is ever a good time for this to happen, if it had to happen there couldn’t be a better time for us to weather this storm.
Bill has dusted off his resume and he has already submitted an application on Friday. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers that something comes Bill’s way in the near future.

Happy Birthday Bill!!!

2008-11-03T16:45:00.000-08:00

Happy 53rd birthday to Bill today. Tonya just loves this day of the year! It is the day of the year that we are the same age. Finally those 7 months and 5 days have passed since Tonya turned 53 now it’s Bill’s turn, he caught up with her (at least for another 4 months & 24 days). But who’s counting!!

This year’s celebration was a quiet one at home, enjoying Tonya and Whitney's company with a dinner of Arroz Con Pollo and Carmel Apple Pie to celebrate.

Getting Old Is Not For Sissies!

2008-10-27T16:46:00.000-07:00

Let us start out by saying…. The Baby Boomer’s life that we are living in these days, is not one for sissies! Once again we have allowed our yard to kick our butts.

This time of the year in the Pacific Northwest it's pretty much unheard of that the weather forecast is for “no rain for the next 4 days”. This past Saturday, we heard that very thing on the newscast and we looked at each other, as to say "hmmmm?". Those of you that know us, know that we take pride in our lawn. It is a yard that our neighbors are envious of. You also know the joy we feel when they say “your lawn always look so nice, how do you keep it so green, isn't it a lot of work?” we just smile and tell them how much we enjoy our yard (as we snicker silently to ourselves) . But you also know that we never seem to be 100% pleased with it ourselves. We are always striving to make just a little better.

Dear Lord, we are still trying to figure out what came over us this past Saturday as we were running our normal week-end errands when we stopped at our local landscape supply dealer and ordered 10 yards of compost. By next spring our yard will be so green we are sure it will be seen by the International Space Station after all of the compost works it's magic this fall and winter. We will be the envy of our neighbors. We couldn't wait to get home and wait for their truck to come and dump this huge pile of organic matter in the middle of our front yard. It will be great!

We were so wrong. First off, 10 yards is A LOT of compost, pretty much a dump truck full, but with shovel, rake and wheel barrow in hand we dove in Saturday afternoon and started our compost adventure still thinking to ourselves that this will be fun and it will be great next spring when our yard looks phenominal. Did we mention this was not the smartest thing that we've done this year?

Long story short… by Sunday evening we were extremely tired and oh so sore. We had too much compost, we have pains where we shouldn’t have pains (the cheeks of one’s bottom should not be painful, especially when you haven’t spent a lot of time on your bottom). Who needs to join a gym when you have compost to spread? We over estimated how much compost we needed so we are hauling it to the backyard to the future storage shed site to be used in our flower gardens next spring…

LESSONS LEARNED:

*10 Yards of Compost is A LOT of compost

*Think long and hard about how sore we are now the next time we come up with and idea like this.

New Mexicans

2008-10-22T09:00:00.000-07:00

The "Via con Dios" Ranchero is officially ours! Here is an exert of the email we received from the title agent yesterday morning: We are in receipt of your closing documents and have also received the wire. We will be recording the Warranty Deed today so around 3:00 the property will officially be yours! The property is 20 acres of prime retirement land that we hope to be living on one day in the not so distant future.

LESSONS LEARNED:

Admitting to ourselves we needed professional help (real estate)

The San Francisco Family Wedding Adventure

2008-10-17T18:12:00.000-07:00

There is a lot to catch up, so here goes…. We didn’t get the blog updated each night this trip as we had in Albuquerque.

Thursday, October 9, 2008
We traveled from Seattle to San Jose on Thursday evening. We got in late & were pretty tired by the time we picked up our car and got to our room.

Friday, October 10, 2008
We had to be back at the San Jose airport this morning to pick up the girls. They arrived within an hour of each other, Brittany first and then Whitney, both safe & sound.

Once we had the girls we made our way to San Francisco, where we could not check into the hotel until after 3:00 so we headed into downtown to do some sightseeing, no matter how many times we make it to SF we have several things that are on our "must always do" list. The first thing was to drive over the Golden Gate Bridge and stop at the view point, no matter how many times we see it, we are always ahhhed. Back to downtown to Ghirardelli Square (another must on the list no matter how many times we make it to SF) we did the usual lunch of hot fudge sundaes at Ghiradelli’s!!! In our opinion the best hot fudge sundaes EVER! Ghirardelli’s has been located in the Square there since 1852. We walked around Fisherman’s Wharf, enjoying the city. This is Fleet Week in SF, which is an annual celebration of the Navy, Marines, and Coast Guard (in Seattle we call this Sea-Fair). There is an air shows going on and the Blue Angels perform stunts all over the city, they were practicing their show overhead.

We made our way to towards the airport where our hotel was located. Ironically we got to the hotel around the same time as Don & Diane. Later we all enjoyed dinner together, took a nice walk then called it a night.

Saturday, October 11, 2008
The 6 of us met in the hotel lobby for breakfast and discussed what are options were for the day while still allowing 4 ladies enough time to get dressed for the wedding. We all piled into the rental car (those of us in the back seat were packed in like sardines) and headed to downtown. We walked around the wharf and Pier 39 where we had a really nice lunch, then headed to back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding.

This was the wedding of Bill’s nephew Adam and his fiancée Meredith both of which live in SF (the mother of the bride is Bill’s sister, Karen). The wedding was very nice, and it was very Scottish (Meredith’s family immigrated from Scotland) . The ceremony and reception were held on the 9th & 10th floors at City Club of San Francisco which is located in the Stock Exchange Tower.

At the entrance to the building there was a bagpiper outside playing, very cool. The males of the wedding party were all dressed in kilts which were very handsome. They wore socks which were turned down at the knee with garters and each “sporran” (purse/pouch) hung from the waist with a chain, some of which were made from sealskin. It was very interesting as well as attractive.

The ceremony was very touching and we were very glad we were able to be there to be able share this event with the rest of the family. Dinner was delicious and there was lots of dancing afterwards.

Whitney was the lucky girl that caught the bouquet!!! A good time was had by all.

Sunday, October 12, 2008
Today was a day of recovery for several members of our group, high heels were the downfall for one and “other” reasons for others. But being the true troopers they are, they came along as went back to the city to meet up with Karen, Ronny, Jan (Ronny’s mom) and Olivia (niece of Ronny & 1 of the flower girls). We met up with the Texas clan at Golden Gate Park at the Academy of Sciences along with about 10,000 other people that had the same idea. There were lots to do and see there, a rainforest, aquarium, planetarium and other points of interests, it reminded us of smaller scale of Moody Gardens in Galveston. It was extremely crowded the day we attended which had an impact on our enjoyment of the facility. After a great time together, we said our good-byes and headed back to the hotel.

We had a nice dinner with Don, Diane, Brittany & Whitney. After dinner we said our good-byes to Don & Diane since we were leaving earlier on Monday to take Brittany to the airport.

Monday, October 13, 2008
Bill, Tonya, Brittany & Whitney all met in the hotel lobby for the continental breakfast for the last time for this trip. Brittany needed to be to the San Jose airport by 8:00 and we were not sure what California’s Monday morning traffic would hold for us. Actually we made it to the airport in good time, said our good-byes to Brittany and then decided what were going to do with the rest of our day (Our flight was scheduled to leave about 6:00.)

We decided that since we were in San Jose we would like to see the Winchester Mansion. This is a story the 3 of us had heard for years so we were interested. For those of you not familiar the story goes:

In 1884, a wealthy widow named Sarah L. Winchester began a construction project occupied the lives of carpenters and craftsmen 24 hours a day, 7 days a week until her death thirty-eight years later. It is believed that after the untimely deaths of her baby daughter and husband, son of the Winchester Rifle manufacturer, Mrs. Winchester was convinced by a physic that continuous building would appease the evil spirits of those killed by the famous “Gun that Won the West” and help her attain eternal life.

We read the reviews of the house tour and none of them were very favorable, with the main complaints being it was over priced, rushed and you weren’t able to see much of the house. We found the house without any trouble and walked around the outside perimeter of the house. We looked thru the fence, and talked and we realized we all wanted to take the tour. We were so glad we did. While it was pricey but for people who appreciates fine wood working it was well worth it. The craftsmanship was phenomenal especially when one considers all of this art was created by hand, no power tools. We were so glad we took the tour.

We did some other sight seeing around San Jose. It’s time for us to head to the airport and go home. I know we are all tired ready to go home.

Lesson’s Learned:

Even though you pay extra dollars to rent a full size Cadillac, you still can’t get 4 grown adults comfortably in the backseat
Kilts are quite classy
Think long & hard about how tall the heels really are (even if they are really cute) that you wear to an event
Don’t always believe all the reviews you read, you might miss an opportunity to see some of the most amazing woodworking craftsmanship.

Unit 24, Block 3, Lot 15

2008-10-04T10:36:00.000-07:00

A new adventure begins today; we have made an offer on land. We have been in touch with our real estate agent the past few days and we were correct, the land that we stood on Monday was not the land that was for sale. We have reviewed county maps and survey maps and realized that we had not gone far enough down the road. Our agent went to the subdivision on Thursday and took pictures from all directions and emailed them to us. The lots (yes there are 2 side by side 20 acre lots for sale, and we told the agent we were not interested in both parcels) are closer to the mountains and you can still see the neighbor’s house (even though they are about 3/4 of a mile away). We are hoping the owner will accept our offer even though it’s below their asking price (we keep hearing it’s a buyers market) and if not we’re sure they will come back with a counter offer. And if not, the asking price is not a bad price. We will keep you informed of how things are going. We are including a few of the agents photos that he took (they are much better quality than the ones Tonya had to take with her cell phone on Monday while we were there).

Now we need to explain the "Via con Dios" from the previous entry. Tonya has always heard that expression in old western movies and TV shows and thought that it sounded cool. We were talking about it when we were driving all over New Mexico looking at land, Bill told her that it means “Go with God” in spanish so it was decided that our “ranchero” would be named “Via con Dios”.

Thursday evening we leave for the San Francisco Bay area, Bill’s nephew is getting married there on Saturday and it is always good to get together with family (and Tonya is not going to miss a San Francisco opportunity if at all possible). Brittany will drive up from Los Angeles on Thursday and meet us at the hotel and Whitney flies in on Friday morning to meet up with us.

Back Home for Now…

2008-10-04T10:31:00.000-07:00

We made it home just fine; Tuesday was a really long day. We left Albuquerque about 5:30 am heading north to Denver. Each time we leave we are always sad, we really like the area in and around Albuquerque, and the more time we spend there the more we want to spend there.

This particular leg of our adventure seemed extra long since we were being held to a schedule, knowing we had to be in Denver by a certain time and with the exception of only the occasional coffee, potty, fuel and Harley store stops we made it left with no extra time to play along the way.

The Denver International Airport is out in the middle of nowhere. It seems as if you drive for days once you leave the freeway before ever getting to the actual airport, but we made it with time to spare. The flight was not pleasant, there was not an extra seat to be had on the plane, about 10% of those on the plane were infants & toddlers, most of whom were not very happy to be going to Seattle either. It was a long, very cramped 2 ½ hour flight.

By the time we got our luggage and truck we were pretty much hungry enough to eat the chrome off of a bumper hitch so we stopped for dinner. We called Whitney and she met us there, she’d already eaten but we were able to visit and catch up with here for a while before heading to the house. We are pooped, and now that we are here, glad to be home.

Via Con Dios- We found You!

2008-09-29T17:45:00.000-07:00

This morning we rolled out of bed still bummed over not being able to find the "perfect ranchero". We Googled a few real estate agents last night and found a few to look for. After breakfast we were able to watch a few hot air balloons fly over I-25, something about seeing a hot air balloon float through the sky is relaxing to watch, and we headed south to Los Lunas to begin yet another adventure.

The first agent we talked to was very friendly and helpful. After listening to our land requirements the first thing out of his mouth was "I think that the Tierra Grande subdivision is just what you are looking for". We looked at each other, sorta rolled our eyes and informed him that we had driven out there yesterday and was not impressed, he looked surprised. We explained what we had seen and what we had against the area we had seen and he was sure we had not seen the Tierra Grande, but another area.

He printed us a listing of lots for sale there and detailed directions on how to get there, so we take off driving again.... He was right, we had not seen this area. After driving the 6 miles back toward the mountains from the highway (on dirt roads again, but not nearly as bad as yesterday's) we found the area where the properties are located. There are 3 20 acre lots available in this section and we really did like them. You have views of the Manzano mountains in almost 3 directions and then in the distance another mountain or large hill. Very nice views.

After discussing the pros and cons we are pretty sure that we have found the property we would like to retire to. Since the lots were not marked very well, we are waiting for a clearer plot plan to be sent to us to make sure that we put an offer on the right piece of property. We are hoping to make an offer on this property by the end of the week. Pretty sure that Tonya will sleep better once an offer has been placed and accepted.

We head out earlier tomorrow to go back to Denver and should be home tomorrow evening. We'll talk to you all later.

Lessons Learned: It appears that it really paid off to talk to a professional and good things come to those who wait.

Land Quest - Day 2

2008-09-28T19:43:00.000-07:00

This morning on our way out of Albuquerque, we saw many hot air balloons hovering over the city in the cool morning air. We have found out that the annual balloon festival is next week so we imagine that they were getting ready for the big event.

Today we headed south past Socorro to the subdivision of Antelope Hills. The access to this subdivision was horrid at best. The gravel/ dirt roads were washed out in many places and it was 14 miles of torture for Tonya. The lot we looked at was beautiful with fantastic views but we had to take it off the list since it is soooo far out and power is not available there.

So we headed back to the freeway and up to the town of Magdalena, which is west of Socorro. We headed out north of town to Pinon Springs, which was a 14 mile drive and we found three lots that looked promising. Two were 20 acres and one was 30 acres. All were well within our price range. They all had great views and had power and telephone available. We put these on the "short list" for now.

Next stop was lunch in Socorro and then on to Tierra Grande. What a big disappointment!. Tierra Grande sits out in the middle of nowhere and there is absolutely nothing there. It is no wonder that you can but 20 acres for next to nothing, because there is nothing there!! So we drove on to Mountainaire and proceeded north to Tajique. We wanted to look at Shiraz Ranch which has several 10 acre lots for sale. We found it easy enough, but the roads were so so and none of the lots were marked. We found several areas that were interesting with decent views, but it was had to tell if it was a lot for sale or not.

This was the end of the list of Internet finds, so we headed back to Albuquerque, tired and disappointed. We estimate that we drove over 400 miles, 50+ on dirt roads (really bad at times) and all we have to show is tired achey bodies and slim prospects for our dream retirement land (and a rental car that will never be the same).

We are not ready to give up yet. Tomorrow we seek professional help. We are going to contact a real estate agent in Los Lunas to try to find the dream hacienda.

Lessons Learned: Admitting you need professional help is not a bad thing...

And there are really big grasshoppers in New Mexico!

Our Property in Rio Grande Ranchos (S.Colorado)

2008-09-27T20:14:00.000-07:00

We started out early today, guess we were excited to see if you could actually trust property purchased sight unseen on eBay. We spent last night in Denver and started out on our new adventure this morning after grabbing a bite of breakfast at the hotel. We headed south through Colorado Springs. The weather this morning was beautiful and we had wonderful views of Pike's Peak and the Rocky Mountains. When we headed up over La Vita Pass the aspen trees were beautiful shades of light green and bright yellow.

We crossed over the pass into Costilla County the home of our eBay purchase. We drove into the small village of San Luis which is the county seat of Costilla County. What an interesting and quaint little town. Very old with lots of character and Spanish architecture, of course we fell in love with the little town as we often do. Starving by this time we stopped for lunch in San Luis at the La Rosa Mistica Coffee House for a sandwich and ice tea. Food was fabulous, service terrific, atmosphere was in line with the character of the little village.

After lunch we drove through town, by the way San Luis is the oldest town in Colorado, where we found this interesting old General Store and Church.

Proceeding on to find Rancho Whitfield out in the boonies (and we do mean way, way out in the boonies). We relied mainly on Bill's memory (yes we forgot to bring the map,, hush!! no age comments) but we found it after traveling about 22 miles from San Luis (mostly dirt roads after the first 8 miles). On the way we drove through the wide spot in the road of Masita (here we thought it would be a village like San Luis, we were wrong!) Dilapidated buildings and Mexican Chihauhau guarding the road through town! Long story short we finally got to our property, and we were pleased (eBay did us good). The views are phenomenal, the ground is flat and covered with light grass and shrubs. Can't say enough about the views. We would definitely consider this 5 acres as our retirement location with the exception of being too far out in the boonies! We are seriously talking out in the sticks. We may possibly put a small vacation place there sometime in the future. It would definitely be a nice summer location, probably too cold in the winter since it sits at an elevation of 7000+ feet.

Jeremy & Christopher would not believe how close it is to where we used to camp back when they were younger. Probably only about 22 miles out of the town of Antonito. It sure brought back a lot of memories for Tonya as we drove through that little town, there were sure a lot of summers spent there back in the 1980s....

We got to Albuquerque around 5:00 pm (much further to Albuquerque from Denver than we really thought when we booked the trip). After supper at the Cracker Barrel, we did a Wal-Mart run (you can buy liquor in the grocery stores & Wal-Mart in NM, who knew???) and retired to our room (with a cocktail).

Tomorrow we continue our adventure, looking for that piece of property that we want to spend the rest of our lives together on. We will look south tomorrow in the community of Socorro. We have about 4 or 5 pieces of property in that area that we want to look at.

More tomorrow!

Lessons Learned: 1) eBay land purchases, sight unseen, can be a good thing; 2) Check a mileage chart for the distance between point A & point B (387 miles DEN to ABQ) before booking airfare. It would of been easier driving to have flown into ABQ and drove from there.

Ike, Family & Other Adventures

2008-09-17T20:13:00.000-07:00

This past week-end was truly an emotional rollercoaster for us. Jeremy and Christopher both live on the coast of Texas, Jeremy and Daesha live in League City, Christopher and Heather in Crosby. Friday was a long day for Tonya, spending most of her evening surfing between all the major news stations and then our satellite carrier began carrying KHOU's direct feed. Knowing how big this hurricane was and knowing that the boys were there in the middle of this mess was pretty stressful. Did we mention they both opted to NOT evacuate for this hurricane? Tonya finally went to bed around midnight but didn't really sleep much, then at 5:15 am Saturday morning our phone rang, it was Daesha, they had survived the storm. Had, what some would consider minor, damage to their house, but they were okay. Then about 1:00 pm Christopher called, they made it thru okay as well, not much damage to the house. Of course they were both without power but they felt sure they had made the necessary preparations. Whitney spent all week-end with us. It's always good to have her here, we really enjoy her. http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/09/the_short_but_eventful_life_of.html?s_campaign=8315

Saturday afternoon after our 2nd refrigerator in as many weeks had been delivered we drove to Everett, our brother-in-law Steve wanted us to come up and go thru some more of Linda's belongings. This was hard, really hard. It's hard for us but it really hit Whitney hard. We know she's gone, we were all there holding her hand when she passed away, but it's still hard to see all of Linda's things being rummaged thru. I think what hurts the worst is that our brother-in-law has decided to move to Mexico and live for a while.

Sunday, we headed up to Mt Rainier for a day hike, it was such a gorgeous day for the Pacific Northwest! Nearly 80 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. The mountain was truly beautiful, it was so peaceful. We all needed to be in the great out doors to air out our minds and our emotions, to spend some quality time with each other, and there is no place better place than the wildflower meadow or Reflection Lake at Mt. Rainer to do just that.

Our History..

2008-09-16T19:33:00.000-07:00

When people ask us how we met, and we tell them, they look at us like, "you gotta be kidding me, seriously?" "No,,, really?" "Those don't actually work, do they?" And here it is, nearly 14 years later, and what started out as a dare has turned out to be what we believe is the most rewarding life either of us could have ever hoped to have.

It all started in October, 1994 in Amarillo, Texas. Tonya worked for the Girl Scout Council (not a good place to meet men) and Bill worked for a contractor at the Pantex Plant. Bill was new to Texas after living in Phoenix, AZ for the previous 10 years. Tonya was a single mom and Bill was new to town neither were into dating/going to bars (messy break-ups/divorces will sour one's outlook and we had both been there).

One night after several glasses of wine one of Tonya's friends "dared" her to run a personal ad in the local newspaper so she might meet someone that would be fun to hang out with, "it doesn't have to be a serious relationship, just someone you can go out to dinner or a movie with" (I think she was tired of babysitting me evening after evening). After some thought she decided what the heck, what have I got to lose and proceeded with posting the ad in the local newspaper. (Please keep in mind, this was in 1994 and people weren't hardly as crazy as they are these days) and Amarillo was a smaller town in the Bible Belt of Texas. She received several responses to her ad and began to enjoy meeting these new people.

Not being completely stupid after her personal safety (dinner & a movie is not that important), she never gave anyone her home address and would always insist on meeting them at a very public place, the mall or at Denny's for coffee. During the course she met several very nice guys that were fun visit with and then there were also the rather freaky guys, the ones you are looking for the closest exit so you can get the heck out of there, but all in all it was a good experience.

One day she checked her voice mail box and found a response from Bill, "WOW" she thought, there is something different about him. So she gave him a call and they talked for over an hour and agreed to meet for dinner. Then she broke her #1 personal safety rule and invited him to her place to come pick her up for dinner that week-end (yes sight unseen, never met the man, only spoke to him on the phone and she gives "this man" her home address...).

The first date (10/22/94) was a big success, talked like we'd know each other forever, and we knew it had to be love when we both pushed to tomatoes off to the side of our salad! We talked the next day on the phone for several hours and then we saw each other each day after that... One could say that since our first date we have been inseparable.

Knowing we had found our soul mate we were married on January 28, 1995. We thank the Lord each day that it was his will that put us both in Amarillo at the same time so we make the connection for a life together.

Prior to October 22,1994Bill had been married 2 times and had 3 children from those marriages. Brittany (1980), from his first marriage; Whitney (1987) and Billy (1989) from his second.

Tonya had been previously married for 18 years, a marriage that resulted in being blessed with 2 boys, Jeremy (1976) and Christopher (1979).

Others you will hear us mention from time to time
Our Children:
Jeremy married Daesha in 2000 and proud pet parents to Hannah the dog, Edgar the mean kitty and a new addition kitty that I'm not sure of it's name and they live in League City, Tx.
Christopher and Heather have been together for 2 years and are engaged. Heather had 2 children from a previous marriage, Sierra (age 10) and Hunter (age 7) both of which Christopher loves as if he were their biological father. They live in Crosby, Tx.
Brittany is single and lives in Southern California. She is a mechanical engineer and is going to school in the evenings to work towards a Master's in Mechanical Engineering.
Whitney is single and lives in Auburn, WA, she is a "scale operator" for a sand and gravel pit operation.
Billy is single and lives in Graham, WA and Cedar City, UT.

Our Siblings:
We lost Bill's sister Linda in June to breast cancer. We miss her so much.
Bill's brother Don and his wife Diane live in Phoenix, Az
Bill's sister Karen and her husband Ronny live in Ft. Worth, Tx.
Tonya's brother Waudell and his wife Pat live in Fritch, Tx.
Tonya's brother Ronney and his wife Marilyn live in Amarillo, Tx.

Mom
Tonya's mom, Evelyn will be 89 in January. She still lives on her own in Borger, Tx.