Utah and still catching up

Here we are in some little bitty town called Trementon in Utah... We rolled in about 7pm. Joe has been having chest pain this afternoon for no obvious reason so Brenna and I left him in the hotel and went and got dinner for him. Hopefully a good nights sleep will leave him feeling better. Last night in La Grande Or the air-conditioner was buried behind the bed so I froze while he and Brenna roasted. Tonights hotel, "The Sandman" is much nicer.

So, anyway, back to catching up:
Friday was an eating day.
We met two dear friends at Dennys in Puyallup. They never met before but we knew they would hit it off. We teased them that they look like twins :-)
George Mitchelle, on the left, was our teacher at Bates where Joe and I met when we took Watch and Clock Repair. George is a very Godly man and was a great influence on both Joe and I. Joe was very rough then and use to have quite the colorful mouth. He would be holding forth and George would quietly say, "Joe, put a nickle in the jar."" I'm not putting no %*&(&^ nickle in any jar George!" "Now Joe!"
Last time we saw George he had just gotten out of the hospital and had almost died. He had lost almost all of his money in the crash after 911 and was on the edge of loosing his house. Now he is doing great and has just completed a successful land speculation where he made millions. God is not done with you until He is done.

The gentleman on the right is Davy. We thought Davy would be dead before we saw him again when we left for Texas. He was having serious breathing problems and was very disoriented and unhealthy. Found he had had a bone infection in his hand that was poisoning his body. Got that cleared up and he looks and acts 20 years younger. He and George had a very intelligent discussion. Davy is now running food banks for the Salvation Army. :-)
We left George and Davy at 11 am and took off like bats for Olympia where we met our friend Hilda for lunch (:-P) Hilda and her husband Lance go back 20 years with us. We used to ride motorcycles with them and hang out working on bikes. They are also doing really good after years of a struggling marriage. Hilda also used to be over 300 lbs. Look at her now!!! She inspires me!





Look, she is smaller than Brenna!











After a 2 1/2 hour "lunch" with Hilda we boogied up to my sister Alea's to meet my niece Katrina and Kristina, my sort of daughter.

I had custody of Katrina when she was 12-13 for a whole year so I am her second mom and we are very close. Katrina is 23 now and lives in Wanatchee but is moving to Spokane. I told her she can just keep on a heading west and end up in Longview :-)











We actually got custody of Katrina a few months before we got custody of Brenna so they are like sisters to each other. Like sisters they fought and loved but mostly loved. That is my adorable sister Alea on the couch with the two crazy girls. She had just gotten off of work and was very tired. Alea is my best friend in the whole world and I miss her bitterly.

I had guardianship of Kristina when she was 16-18. It was a difficult but good time. She is now 21 and is growing up strong. I miss her so much also. It was wonderful to spend a little time with her. My sister Alea had guardianship of Kristina when she was 14-15 so we are both second moms to her and she will always be a part of our family.





While I had guardianship of Kristina she had guardianship of her small daughter Natalie. Natalie didn't really remember me so she wouldn't give me a hug but she loosened up when Uncle Cleave (Alea's husband) put her in an old shirt of his and set up a sprinkler for her to run in and out of them.









I just got to meet Kristina's son Ian when he was just a few months old right before we left. He is did warm up to me and let me play with him. He is just as adorable as Kristina says he is.









We ran back out the door at 6pm and out to Eatonville to visit with my friend Dorothy. We have been friends since I was 26 and that was a very long time ago. She had a bunch of other people there to see us too. It was really really nice.







Well, I was going to cover 2 days today but.... it is almost 11 pm and I need to fall over for a while

Love you all and thank you for your continuing prayers.

Teri

La Grande and still Catching Up

Well, it is August 1st and we just arrived in LaGrande but I am still playing catch up on my blogging so here we go.
Thursday we did a presentation at a restaurant. It is the senior group at my parents church in Port Orchard. There was about 40 people there. This picture shows just a few of them. It actually was our best response out of our three large group presentations.

Judy is a delightful person and a powerful prayer supporter. She also sends us a lot of good medical advice, being a registered nurse.










Susan became a prayer and financial supporter without even having met us. This was the first time we ever met her. She sends us the sweetest notes of encouragement every month with her support.










Bill and Sue are my parents backdoor neighbors. They said they would keep Brenna if we wanted to leave her. They put on the neatest gospel sings at their house once every 2 months. It is like a little taste of heaven. We just missed the most recent one. I think it was the Friday we left Texas. Waaaa.








Later that day we saw my friend Valerie Barns. I got to see her new house. The first one she has ever owned I think. This is her with her two grandchildren she is raising.









We ended Thursday with our last visit to the Biker Tabernacle. I forgot my camera but got pictures of Joe with Pastor Ed. I will post those later. Friday was a very very busy day so I am going to save that for another posting and head off to bed.

Tomorrow we head for home. Joe has had a better day today. I am sure it is due to all of your prayers. Thank you so much

Love

Teri

Catching up

I am still way be hind on these blogs. I am going to do them in order though so bear with me.

I covered through Monday the 24th.

 Tuesday we went to Seattle with my parents on the ferry. We scooped up my oldest sister Jody and went to lunch with her at Fisherman's Wharf in Seattle. What a wonderful time.

It was Brenna's birthday the next day so Jody surprised Brenna with a hot fudge Sunday for her birthday. Lets just say Brenna was a tiny bit delighted :-)









That afternoon our old assistant Pastor Gary and his wife Linda met us at my parents house in Port Orchard. Gary just took a surprise pastor ship in Sequim, way out on the Olympic Peninsula. It is a hurting church that just suffered a split. Gary and Linda had retired but they put their house up for rent in Tacoma and are living in the teeny tiny Parsonage so they can help this church for a few years. Serving God is truely the Grand Adventure. You never know what He has planned for you. So exciting.

Tuesday we had a small family get together for Brenna's birthday. Alea and I gave her a bunch of garage sale finds and told her that was all we could afford. She was happy anyway. Then we surprised her with a new IPod Nano that Alea and Cleave and we had go in on.

Alea and her son Kevan and his son Jonah, sitting in the glider my dad built

My darling Aunt Barbara and Uncle Robert were able to come. We had a nice time with them. 

Brenna and Kevans wife April sitting on the other side of the glider.

Aunt Barbara and Uncle Robert were enjoying my parents beautiful yard. I went to take a picture of them and my nephew Elijah yelled "Cheese burger, Cheese Burger, Cheese Burger" I was laughing too hard to snap that picture










Here is my much missed and dearly beloved and best friend, my mom, and my nephew Jonah.












And my parents neighbors, Bill and Sue. They are the best neighbors in the whole world. My parents are truly blessed to have them as neighbors and friends. They are such good friends my dad built a stone pathway from their back yard to Bill and Sue's back door. That is my wonderful dad in the foreground.





All together it was a great birthday for Brenna. We went to church that evening for the final time this go around at New Hope, our sending church. So good to reconnect with people and so hard to leave.

Joe is doing okay, not great. Still struggling with his blood sugar and having some chest pain everyday. We are all sure having a lovely time though. We are in Mnt Vernon visiting our friends from Canada right now. I hear them comming in with Starbucks so I have to go. More later

Love ya all

Teri

Doodling around Tacoma

Sorry I am so far behind on updates. Have been just too busy visiting with tons of people. This update is from two and three days ago, I have not uploaded the pictures for the past two days yet. Here are some of the people we have seen.

It was so cool for us to see Andrew Wilson. Joe is like his second dad so we are pretty close. We didn't get much time to visit with him but it was so nice to touch base for a bit!









Monday we had different people we got to visit with. We went and saw supporter Teresa Faulkner for a few hours (not pictured) and then were able to spend time with Joe's oldest daughter Tina. We had a very nice visit with her.

We didn't think at first that we would be able to see Brenna's sister Ardenna. Brenna was pretty upset, she was so looking forward to seeing Ardenna. Last summer we were able to bring Ardenna to Texas for a month... but then Ardenna showed up and they got some really good time together.









Ardenna was quite a bit shorter than Brenna last year but now she is almost Brenna's height. Freaked Brenna out.










We ended up with a little spare time and surprised our long time friends Bobbie and Gary Grant. Bobbie was so delighted she cried. We has a wonderful visit with them, if short.








We have done much more... I will post later.

It is all starting to wear on Joe. he has been having a lot of chest pains so we have decided to cut our itinerary short. We will finish up this weekend and start back through The Dalles to see some supporters and then to La Grand and on home. We are sad we will miss the rest of the people we were going to see but we don't feel we should keep pushing. We hope we will be home by next weekend. It will be nice to be home again but we sure arn't looking forward to the heat. It has been so nice in Washington with the 70 degree weather. :-)

Thank you all for your continued prayers.

Love

Teri

Time in Tacoma

Whew, we have been seeing a lot of people. Today we did two presentations in two different churches, one being New Hope Community Church, where our presentation was the sermon, the other the Christian Biker Tabernacle Church. We have been seeing a lot of individual supporters over the past few days as well as some family.
This is Git Fong, who is one of my spiritual mentors. She is originally from Hong Kong and doesn't speak reallly  good English but what she has to say is very wise. She has a pure, simple faith and often brings me right back down to earth to the basics. My sister Alea and I got so spend a little time with here.

Brenna and I also had a very good time giggling with supporter Cheryl Anderson while Joe visited with John Anderson. John wasn't feeling well and didn't want his picture taken.

Cheryl has a very cool ministry making quilts for war veterans through Quilts of Valor. Many people do them for recently wounded vets but Sheryl targets the older "forgotten" vets in the managed care facilities. If you ever visit our home you will see a quilt she presented to Joe right before we left for TECH.

Cindy Peak and I had a lovely lovely lunch date. Cindy and her husband are also supporters of ours. She lives up here in the Tacoma area but she has been doing consulting work and was in Alabama and then recently in Florida so I did not expect to get to see her. What a surprise when we walked into church last Wed and there she was! Cindy has recently published her first Children's book "The Little Star That Shines for Jesus" and has formed her own company to sell other books she will write and products she will develop. She asked me a while ago to illustrate her Little Lamb series but I have been so discombobulation that I have not been able to pull myself together for it. I hope to though. 

We have also had some lovely family time. Brenna got to go inner tubing, as being pulled behind a boat on the Hood Canal with her Uncle Cleave. He also has been working with her on her guitar. Did I say he is a music minister?! 

This is all of our grandchildren except for two. It was so fun for them to be all together and for us to spend time with them. You see here our oldest grandson Joshua and his little brother Issaac. Justin and our Indian Princess Elizabeth.

Joes daughters Heather and Angela threw us a wonderful bar-b-que up at Heathers freinds home Saturday evening, located just two blocks from Lake Tapps. This is our oldest grandson Joshua in the back on the Left. We were there at his birth and had him a lot when he was a small child we haven't seen him very much at all for the past few years so it was wonderful to spend time with him. He has the sweetest heart. Justin, our tough little cookie grandson who lives in Alaska so we don't see him much either. Joe's daughters Heather and Angela are on the right.
 

Today we had lunch between the two church services with my sister Alea's kids and their familys and my parents. The family kind of expanded. This is actually just her two boys and their families. It was really cool because they all just happened to be in the area when we could carve out sometime to see them. There are tons of our family that we will not be able to see this trip so this was a real blessing. 

We are all doing well and seeing lots of people. It is tiring but good. Joe has been struggling with his blood sugar and is blood pressure the past two days. It has been a bit weird. Please keep him in your prayers. 

Love

Teri

TACOMA. YAY!

Have we told you all that we had to name our car? All across the US the cruise control worked just fine for Joe, but for Teri, maybe three times, other than that it didn't work. Teri would get out and let Joe drive and wallah, it worked again! We decided it just likes Joe better. We named it Hobbs.

We got off early from Superior MT and went over a couple a three more passes, maybe more, I lost count. Down into Cour d Alene..

Went flying across Idaho and through Spokane and then to my aunts in Waterville WA. The scenery across here is truly the waving grains of the golden plains.









We had a wonderful visit with my aunt Julie and Cousin Sean and his wife Anita. I haven't seen any of them in 4 1/2 years, Before that I hadn't seen Sean in about 25 years. That is sad as we grew up together. It is so good to reconnect with family.







Across more passes, most very beautiful Some areas however were just .... well, ugly in our eyes. Brenna said under her breath "Wow, really ugly... BUT, it is part of Gods creation. (sweetly sarcastically) Thank you God for your creation"









This however was really cool looking. We expected to see some aliens from some other planet pop out of the holes in the rocks or something.











This is that lake that used to be part of the Columbia River before it rerouted itself. Very very pretty.













And here are the dry falls right below it. Can you imagine the water spilling over these? It must have been very very beautiful!



We rolled into Lakewood New Hope Community Church, our sending church, right before Wed night service started. Great timing! It is so nice to be home. Feels like we never left. And so wonderful to see all our church family and friends again! Our hearts are so warmed.
Brenna is out playing with a bunch of her old friends today, at a beach. I think they are swimming between the rains. It is a typical Washington day! Joe and I have been taking care of business. The car has to go into the shop, blew a temperature manifold, which I guess is plastic and welded onto the engine so it is going to be expensive to fix. Thankfully there is one available. Whew. That is okay, we needed a down day.
Thank you for your continued prayers.
Love

Teri

South Dakota to Montana

WHEW, I cannot believe that we traveled 13 hours today... and are still perking along. I think we are kind of like the energizer bunny, we are on a roll :-)

We had a - well, okay night at a small cheap hotel in Deadwood SD. We got a late start Monday morning and doodled our way out of the Black Hills. We took a shorter route down 85 but it was still beautiful!

This is Eagle rock, I believe it is natural. Pretty cool HUH!

As we came out of the hills we looked back on them and down on the salt mines. I don't know where they are but the sign at the lookout said they are down there. 

We spent a few hours going across rolling plateau grass lands of Western SD and eastern WY. Through much of it you see these snow fences a ways off of the highway to keep the snow drifts off of the highways

We spent a lovely evening Tuesday night in Casper WY with my dear freind Crissy, her daughter Hannah and  Husband Paul (not pictured, Chrissy forgot to take the group pic with Paul in it with my camera.

Hannah is taking violin so she showed Brenna a bit how to play it and then had Brenna start teaching her on Brenna's guitar. Talented kid!

After a lovely breakfast we left Casper WY this morning at 8am and drove like crazy bats to Superior WY, ariving her 13 hours later. WHEW! Most of our pictures just do not do the beautiful scenery justice but these were rather nice of the Continental Divide in the Rocky's.

Thank you for all your continued prayers for us. Joe has been doing amazingly well. Until today he has had no problems, even in the heat of the Badlands, and that is just weird. He had issues with his blood sugar today though and had three times when he had to take nitro. He still was able to drive almost half of the day though, which is good or I would have never made it. 

Love

Teri