Our friend, the Olympic Athlete

This is a picture of our friends Eli and Cami! Eli just won an automatic spot on the 2008 Modern Pentathlon Olympic team!!! Congratulations, Eli!!! You can read all about his latest gold medal at the Pan American Games in Rio on his website: www.elibremer.com

Wall Art

We went to Sam's Club to get some food and walked out yesterday with a couple prints and our metal wall art. It is a lovely bronze colored 3D contemporary piece (actually 5 pieces we put together) that really adds to our contemporary room.

I'm adding some pictures of our trip back to Missouri and Cedar Point (in Ohio) as well. We went back to visit with Melissa's family and friends in St. Louis and took a side trip to Sandusky with the Granthams (friends from Melissa's high school). Melissa was quite excited to meet the new family member as well, Lance the retired greyhound her parents rescued. We had a lovely time, but it was hot and humid! We came back even more appreciative of our new home and awesome climate!!!

All About God, former mentors, and birthday parties

Today we sat in on a presentation of AllAboutGod.com ... all I can say is WOW!!! Our friends Greg and Candy are taking the gospel to the next level ... the kind of level that is right on our level ... through the internet!!! Straight from the website, they say, "We write compelling websites that reach out to skeptics, seekers, believers, and a hurting world with powerful evidence for God and the Good News of Jesus ... Simply, our mission is to share the Good News with the Globe via the World Wide Web!"



Please check it out!!! AllAboutGod.com



On another note, Melissa had the honor to attend a former student's 16th birthday party out east. She was able to catch up with 3 former students and the birthday boy's family and friends. It was fun to hang out with them!



Fletch and I are getting an exciting opportunity to catch up with both of our mentors!!! Melissa's mentor at Ellicott left after her 1st year of teaching to teach in China. She came home to take see her family; Melissa is looking forward to catching up with her before she goes back mid-August. Fletch's mentor from Australia has contacted us as well! Pastor Phil is integral in getting Fletch hooked up with a Bible believing church and helped to build a firm foundation for Fletch's faith. Last we heard, Pastor Phil was preaching at a church in Hawaii. Now the family is praying about a job opportunity at Focus on the Family! We are looking forward to hosting them for a night while he interviews at Focus later this month. In the meantime, he is speaking at a church in Greeley next week and is flying into DIA tomorrow. After 5 years of separation, Fletch will get an opportunity to reunite with a very special man in our lives! We plan on going up to Denver tomorrow to have lunch with the family.

Welcome

Here we finally starting a blog for friends and family all over the WORLD! I've decided to start our journey with our lovely timeline! Don't go too far!!! Buckle up for a fun ride!!!

• June 16, 2001: This is the date Melissa opened the e-mail from Fletch. We both had a profile on ChristianCafe.com for different reasons (Melissa wanted to be silly; Fletch was looking for American musicians to network with prior to a tour in 2002).


• July 4, 2003: We met in person for the 1st time at Brisbane airport! Melissa stayed in Brissie for about a week prior to their trip to Townsville and Darwin to visit her friends (Fletch shouted the tickets!). We made a decision during this trip to take our relationship to the next level, but not officially with the engagement ring.








• October 3, 2003: Fletch flew to St. Louis and proposed to Melissa (with help from her family, Becky and Amy). He spent about 10 days with Melissa during her time off from work (in between jobs). He traveled to Missouri (obviously) and Illinois (to meet both Grandparents and Uncle Bill and Aunt Barb).




• December 2003: Fletch flew back to St. Louis for a visit. We traveled to Wisconsin for a good old fashioned Orear Christmas!








• March 2004: Fletch flew back to America, stopping in California for a few days prior to visiting Melissa in St. Louis.








• July 23, 2004: Fletch immigrated to America! Melissa met his parents for the 1st time as well!


• July 31, 2004: We tied the knot!










• Honeymoon: We flew into Denver, drove to Colorado Springs (where Melissa received a job) up to Estes Park, Boulder, Denver and flew back home to let our family (and Melissa's work) know we were moving to Colorado Springs in 2 weeks time!
  
  
  
  
  August 24, 2004: We moved to Colorado Springs. We stayed with a lovely couple (Jan and Chick) until mid-October! What a blessing they were to us!!!







• October 2004: Fletch was able to start working, thanks to Homeland Security taking a few months to get his social security number! We were blessed to have picked up a guitar studio at Fall River Music just when another guitar teacher was moving (of all places) to MISSOURI! Fletch was able to get 25/30 of his students! Thank you Jesus!

• October 29, 2004: We moved in to one of Melissa's co-worker's basement during our transition to our new condo! Thanks Shane and Crystal for your help!


• November 12, 2004: We moved to our 1st home: 4549 Lamplighter Circle. That night we adopted "Lobo" (we changed his name to "Lars"), a fun caring beagle that christened our carpet downstairs!






• November 13, 2004: We gave Lobo back to his former owners. We realized we didn't have a yard big enough for him (plus he scratched at our neighbor's door and howled all night).


• November 15, 2004: We adopted Lars (yes, we were obsessed with having a pet named Lars) from the humane society ... a beautiful domestic short-haired black cat.










• Christmas 2004: We surprised Melissa's family with a visit during the Christmas season.
  
• February 2005: Fletch received his green card!


• April 2005: We took a proper vacation to Orlando, FL! Fletch came back with e-coli and had a lovely 6 week recovery (after 2 visits to the hospital!).


• July 2005: Melissa received her 1st teaching job teaching 5th-12th grade instrumental music at Ellicott Middle and High Schools! She continued working at Safelite on her Friday and Saturdays off.


• September 11, 2005: We adopted Rafiki, a domestic short-hairred brown tiger cat. He was such a little thing!


• October 2005: We attended Mr. Olympia contest in Las Vegas. Correction: Fletch attended. Melissa scrapbooked in the hotel room. We stayed at the Orleans hotel.


• Thanksgiving 2005: We took the boys to St. Louis for Sean and Tahli's wedding reception. Rafiki got sick within the first 90 minutes of the trip, stayed overnight in the hospital on Thanksgiving night, had surgery to remove 6 inches of dead tissue on Friday, came home on Saturday, quickly whisked back to the hospital Saturday night.



• November 27, 2005: Rafiki Whipp was put to sleep due to another surgery needed to reattach his intestines. WE WILL NEVER FORGET YOU!


• November 28, 2005: We started our trip back to Colorado as a family of 3. Got stuck in Kansas due to a snow storm!


• November 29, 2005: After we arrived home from our terrible trip, we threw our bags into the living room, set off for the humane society, was unlucky finding a replacement for Rafiki, went to Pet Smart, and found our little guy, Simba Rafiki Whipp! He had a brother just like Lars, and Lars thought Rafiki was back. The poor boys were scared of each other and didn't know what was going on! Lars went into a depression the remainder of the winter season due to his loss of his best friend, Rafiki.


• December 2005: Another trip to Las Vegas to catch up with Ross, Kerryn and the kids! It was such a surprise to hear they were in the country! We stayed at the Excalibur. We had such a wonderful time with them and are looking forward to our next get-together!
• Christmas 2005: Our 1st Christmas at home!

• March 2006: Mum and Dad visit for 5 weeks!

• Spring Break 2006: Melissa went to St. Louis for Greg and Kim's wedding the 1st weekend. That Monday, the 2 sets of Whipps flew off to Las Vegas (stayed at Circus Circus), drove to the Grand Canyon, Anaheim, San Francisco, Yosemite, Death Valley and back to Las Vegas to catch a flight back to Denver.



• July 2006: We took a camping roadtrip up to Mount Rushmore. We stopped at Devil's Tower on the way up and Crazy Horse Memorial on the way back.


• December 25, 2006: We flew to London to find out that the town is DEAD on Christmas and Boxing Day! The tube wasn't even working!!!


• December 28, 2006: We took a train down to Brighton to hang out where Fletch grew up.


• December 31, 2006: Back to London for New Year's Eve.


• January 1, 2007: Started the New Year in Paris! We stood under the Eiffel Tower for 2 hours in the cold rain to get up inside ... we only stayed about 10 minutes because we were frozen! The next night we did a tour that included dinner in the Eiffel Tower and a river cruise on the Seine river. It was a splendid way to end our Parisian vacation!


• January 3, 2007: Melissa's dream came true! We arrived in ITALY!!! We spent the next 3 days touring Rome: Colesseum, Vatican City, Trevi Fountain, Roman Forum.


• January 6, 2007: Back to London for one more night in Europe.


• January 7, 2007: Home!


• January 8, 2007: Fletch gives up his ebay business as a full time job to spend more time with the Lord and in ministry involvement with the church.


• January 9, 2007: Owner of Fall River Music tells Fletch the store will be closing it's doors the end of the month. Instead of freaking out, Fletch goes on a fast that lasted for a week. It was confirmed that he should continue teaching, and was able to partner with Jim (another guitar teacher from Fall River Music ... that didn't bail out on the owner when things looked shakey). They have a studio 3 times larger than their last one with their own hours for the same price! Thank you Jesus!


• February 2007: Fletch sells his rental property in Australia! Time to seriously start looking for a house! We knew Eli would help us find our home!


• March 3, 2007: We moved to our dream home in St. Andrews subdivision: 2320 Pinhigh Court. Such a blessing from the Lord! We need to still name our home, but are looking for a Hebrew translation for restoration possibly. This house is a home of restoration because the man who owned it before us, through counseling at his church, reconciled his marriage and moved to her home up north.


• June 2007: We took a humid trip back to St. Louis so Melissa can see a baseball game at the new stadium, go to a winery (rained out), go to a Whitaker Jazz Festival Concert (rained out) , see Greg and Kim's new home in La Plata, and take Fletch to Cedar Point (with the Granthams). It was a nice trip to catch up with family and friends, but very hot and humid!


• July 12-15, 2007: Wayne and Danielle of Gladstone, Australia became our 1st over night guests! Wayne is a friend of Melissa's from YWAM; Danielle hung out with Tahli and Fletch when they all lived in Brisbane. What a small world! 1st Fletch's friend and Melissa's brother get married; then our friends marry each other!
  

Whew! I told you it was a whirlwind! Stay tuned for more adventures with the Whipps including involvement in ministry, future children, future dog (?) and Melissa's new job!