Saturday, December 05, 2009

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!
Jim and I moved to Poulsbo, Washington to be close to Julie, Drew, Mackenzie and baby Teslin. We are delighted and blessed to be here close to the grandbabies and hope that more family will move to be closer to all of us. :)

James, CJ, James III and Skylar (the newest member of the family) are doing well in Fort Lauderdale, FL. Jonathan and Jami are still in New York City living a much too stressful life for me, but they are way younger than me. :) Jordan is hopefully going to finish school in Alaska this coming May!!

This has been an eventful year for us. Jim and I rented a huge log fishing lodge this past winter in Soldotna where we lived 4 days a week. The other 3 days were spent in Anchorage at a condo we rented and Jordan stayed with us while he attended University of Alaska. Our 3 hour one way drives each weekend were mostly very eventful. I was praying most of the time with my eyes wide open helping the Lord guide Jim as he drove in whiteout conditions or icy roads! :) Jim worked at the Tesoro refinery the four days a week and I did substitute teacher aide/tutor jobs for kindergarten through high school. I also enjoyed sewing and visiting with friends at a sewing group in Soldotna while there. My cousin, Barbara and her husband live in Soldotna so she and I got together quite often to visit and sew. We certainly have a lot to be thankful for, especially for the safety of traveling the dangerous highway twice each week.

We took a few trips to Phoenix to be with Jim's mother. She was very close to death a few times but amazingly pulled through each time!! We feel real blessed that Melanie and her family took such wonderful loving care of Mel. Mel peacefully passed away on October 31st just 3 days shy of turning 93 years old. Obviously, no one can take her place but God sent us two beautiful grandaughters in October to bless us. God is so good.

Jim retired from Tesoro the end of August so that we could move down to the Seattle area. It has been an adjustment for both of us and I think it will take some time for us to get used to our new life down here.


You can scroll through the months of posts to see photos of our growing family.

We have had a lot of company of family and friends since we moved here, please feel free to come and spend time with us or just stay with us and take in all that the Seattle area has to offer.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, Jim and Joanne