It's been over 2 months!!!!! WOW!

Here is our latest blog update. :) Happy viewing!

Lexi's visit

We have always wondered what our house would be like if we got a buddy for Zack.  So we are dogsitting for Zack's dogsitter and now have 2 big dogs in our home. :)  Lexi is a Golden Retriever who is very gentle in nature.  Unfortunately Zack is really excited she's here and is constantly trying to lick or bite her ears.  We're trying to fix that.  I will be putting some video up of Lexi so her family can enjoy them while they are away.  Here is the first "introduction" video of the dogs. 

Crazy animal stories

Fletch and I are animal lovers and wanted to share these stories with you.  I don't know how to post articles on here, but I am providing you links.  They are from our local newspaper, The Gazette.  Enjoy!

Bear breaks in to Circuit City

July 15, 2008 - 11:51AM

By LANCE BENZEL

THE GAZETTE

http://www.gazette.com/articles/bear_38237___article.html/animal_whitlock.html

Daylong search yields plenty of spectacle, but no African lion

July 14, 2008 - 11:35PM

By R. SCOTT RAPPOLD

THE GAZETTE

http://www.gazette.com/articles/lion_38232___article.html/african_animal.html

My last story about animals comes from home.  Fletch loves to twirl my hair.  That became apparent, in fact, at a meeting in church a few years ago.  The leaders saw him twirling my hair during a prayer equipping class and shouted, "Now, isn't that cute?" in front of the 7-8 other couples!  One night last week, while we were watching a video, he was twirling my hair.  I started getting sleepy and started falling asleep.  When I realized I wanted to go to sleep instead of finishing the video, I told Fletch to stop twirling my hair because it was keeping me awake.  He turned around, showed both hands, and said he wasn't twirling my hair at that time. I looked behind my head to find Simba playing with my hair. :)

Now this wasn't the only time I blamed Fletch for doing something he didn't do last week.  As some of you know, we've been working out a pretty normal 6 day a week schedule at the gym.  I've been doing a lot of cardio through classes and wake up the next morning pretty sore.  One night, while feeling really sore, I noticed I was starting to feel a little better.  As the night went on, I heard cats playing in the room, but ignored it.  In fact, I caught Simba right beside my bed trying to get into some rice cakes in a bag I left on the floor.  After about 30 minutes, I started to get really hot and realized our electric mattress cover was on! I looked down onto the controls and noticed it was on all the way high! I immediately thought how sweet Fletch was to turn it on (I normally use a heating pad) to soothe my aching muscles, but told him to let me know next time before doing it. I wanted to be aware so I could shut it off before falling asleep! Again, Fletch told me he didn't do it.  Now I have had incidents in 

the past where I sleep walk (have been sleep walking ever since I was a kid) and figured I must have had a cold dream and turned it on.  Then I realize I caught Simba playing with that bag of rice cakes ... which was right on top of my controller.  

Photo taken by Sean Orear (who is also holding the toy) in June 2006 when Sean and Tahli came to visit.

My lesson learned: blame the cat before blaming the husband. :)

Melissa is testing out her web cam ...

Let me know if you can see this mini-movie!!!

Happy Fourth of July, everyone! :)

Declan Update

  First of all, isn't that picture precious???!!!  

Well, the update is Declan cries, poops, eats and sleeps. :)  I'm not a Mom (or a Mum), but I think that all babies come with those characteristics. :)  Sean and Tahli are settling into life as new parents well.  I'm sure there is a lot of love at the house! 

Fletch's parents arrived back to Vanuatu safe and sound after getting a longer stay here.  They were to meet a friend in Fiji and were going to pay for accomodations in Fiji, but when they found out he couldn't meet them we invited them to stay here (for free accomodation).  It was a nice relaxing 5 days for them.  They enjoyed taking their time packing and looking around for 5th wheelers ... for when they come back in a year or two. :)  I'll have to take pictures later, but Tom did an awesome job at finishing our garage and putting in a workbench for Fletch to work at.  He also helped us update our theater room with 5.2 surround speakers and a 10 foot theater screen.  He did all of that work once we got back from our Pacific Northwest trip!!!  Our last dinner together was quite hilarious ... Fletch wanted some Korma (spelling?) Chicken ... an Indian dish.  We bought the spices from an Indian grocery store, but weren't told to use only 1/4 of the package!!! I used the entire package and we all had a great laugh about how red everyone was turning!!!  Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the fun event!!!  Tom was definitely the champion of the evening ... he finished Heather's portion and had 2nds as well!!!  We all miss having each other around, but are also glad to be back in our normal surroundings.  Please be in prayer for Tom and Heather as they wrap up their work in Vanuatu.

One more exciting news to share ... I sent off Fletch's citizenship papers last week.  Stay tuned for updates on that as time goes on.  We're thinking it'll take at least 6 months for us to get to the next step ... whatever that may be.

DECLAN ISSAC OREAR is a stud!

YEAH!!!  I'm an aunt!!!

My sister in law gave birth to my 1st nephew, Declan Isaac Orear, this morning at 1:52 a.m.  He is 20 inches long and ... TAHLI, YOU ROCK!!! ... weighed 9 lbs 12 oz!!! 

Sean, Tahli and Declan are doing fine.  I'm wishing I was there, but I'll have 8 days to love on my new nephew in October ... and 3 months to start buying and making gifts to spoil him. :) Any donations to me will be accepted and appreciated to spoil my 1st nephew. :)

Moons, Banff, Glacier National Park

Now is the time for the release of information on Salmon Arm moons.  Sorry for the delay in blogging.

We had another beautiful day of driving on June 6th.  The views off of Canada Highway 1 is 

breathtaking and worth driving!  We broke the 10 hour drive from Vancouver - Banff by stopping in 

Salmon Arm.  Fletch and I stayed with a friend of m

ine from my DTS in Australia.  Besides GOD, Patti is a HUGE reason why Fletch and I are married. Patti and I were becoming 

tech savy when msn messenger started becoming popular in 2000-2001.  We used to chat online all of the time using msn.  

One day we decided to try out one of those online dating sites, so I googled a good christian site and came across ChristianCafe.com ... to Patti's surprise it was a Canadian site!  We decided to be true to our identities and signed up

 for a 7 day free trial.  I met a few guys, but was hooked on it so much that I paid for another month.  Then you know what happened. :)  If I was to say someone introduced me to my husband, I will always give credit to Patti. :)  Patti and I haven't seen each other since one of our friends' wedding in California June 2001 (right after I met Fletch online).  It was great to see each other and meet her husband and 3 month old baby!!!

  Tom & Heather stayed at the Travelodge. 

 After we all went to dinner, we dropped Tom and Heather back at the hotel which is where I saw a moon I didn't want to see!  Heather was walking up the steps when I thought I saw a guy in his boxers on the balcony she was going to walk on.  I did a double check and noticed this mysterious guy's door was open.  After Heather passed by 

a young man came out and mooned us!!!  I couldn't believe it!  Well, we got them back.  We told the front desk about them (we had the room number) and explained how concerned we were for Fletch's elderly parents. :-)  We don't know what

 happened to them after that, but I'm sure they were regretting it!!!

Banff was incredible!  We haven't had much luck in weather this entire trip, but we didn't let it get the best of us.  Our fireplace loft was very comfort

able and cozy.  We definintely recommend Charlton's Cedar Courts to stay.  It was on the main street and had beautiful trees all around.  Tom & Heather received a nice blessing while at the resort ... they were upgraded to a fireplace loft as well!  We enjoyed a few nights sitting back watching television, but I don't recommend these rooms for more than 3 people ... there weren't enough seats for everyone to sit on to watch t.v.

I have been waiting 6 years to take Fletch to Glacier National Park.  I am so glad we decided to

 go into the east side of the park (thanks, Mom!) because that was the only day of sun we had in Montana. :(  Again I was able to catch up with some friends, Brenda & Eric Hanson.  I met Brenda at Camp Miniwance in 1991 in Michigan!!!  I took a trip to see her in Montana June 2002 with my friend Misty (wish you were here, Misty!) and now this is the 3rd time I've seen her!!!  Brenda and I remained in contact throughout college via letters! Yes, the old fashioned way of long distance communication! :)  In the 6 years since I last saw her, her family doubled in size; and so did mine. :)  I doubled by marrying Fletch; she now has 2 beautiful girls!!!  We had a great time hanging out with them and enjoyed getting to know Emily and Brynn!  At this point of the vacation the rain is starting to get on all of our nerves, but we knew sun is forcasted for the rest of the trip.

Next update:  drive to Spokane, an extra night in Spokane, and a visit from the Hansons!

Happy Birthday to me!!!

Sorry for the lack of updates!!! We've been a bit busy!!!  I'll write about my birthday before the pizza arrives. :)

My birthday was Thursday.  We woke up in Vancouver, British Columbia and ended up in Nanaimo, Vancouver Island.  I was the helmsman for the trip over to the island.  Okay, Dad just told me that was untrue.  I actually drove our vehicle onto the boat;

 Fletch drove it off of the boat. :)  We had a very relaxing afternoon sitting in our rooms until I checked Fletch's phone to see if friends called.  We knew some friends from Church were going to be on the island and sure enough, they left a message for us! :)  We had a lovely time at a restaurant on the resort they were staying at.  Thanks for spending my birthday with us Pastor Mike, Dina, Julian, Jasmine, Dave & Diane!!! :)

Next blog: beautiful Canadian scenery and a visit to see a former YWAMer friend (including a story about the moons in Salmon Arm)!

Oh, Canada!

June 4th: we started the first trek of our roadtrip today driving through the beautiful green tree lined Interstate 5 up into Vancouver.  I was able to take a stab behind the wheel as well hoping it would speed up our time at customs.  It didn't seem to make any differences because we had to sit around for about 20-30 minutes along with all of the other International visitors into Canada. Our hotel for the evening was a Days Inn hotel.  When Tom and I were booking in, the front desk lady told me I had double booked a room for Fletch and I!!!  Thankfully they dropped the charges even though it was after the cancellation time!!! I'll be writing up a good review for the hotel later on.  The gardens in this hotel were spectacular, but I forgot to take a picture. :( Oh well!!!  After checking in and getting ourselves acquainted with the area we took off in search of Capilano Bridge ... a bridge I thought I walked across for free with some friends in June 2002.  Well, after driving through rush hour traffic in downtown Vancouver with blinking green lights (what in the world does that mean?), we found this gorgeous bridge ... but it wasn't the same bridge I crossed 6 years ago!!! There is a $27.95 fee!!! Well, Fletch and I decided to pay the fee and boy are we glad we did!!!  I will put the slideshow pictures up in place of the Washington, DC photos soon so you can tell just how beautiful it was!!!  This park reminded me of why I studied Outdoor Recreation in school.  It was so great to get out of the crazy busyness of traveling and planning straight into such a beautiful God made park!!!  It was a little cold, so I bought my first souvenir on the trip ... a cute pom pom topped knit hat.  I also enjoyed a really nice bowl of minestrone soup while Fletch had frozen yogurt.  Wow ... we are so different.  Well, actually, I have to be honest: I ate some of his frozen yogurt as well.  Along with my soup and hot chocolate. :)  Mum and Dad took the car and spent most of the  2 1/2 hours at a nearby mall.  Dad, Fletch and I dropped Mum back at the hotel and went back into the city to see some sights.  We ended up eating dinner at Cloud 9 which is a revolving restaurant on top of a hotel.  It took our entire dinner for us to revolve 360 degrees!!!  Fletch put a small piece of paper on the window sill and waited to see it again after a full revolution.  It was hilarious!!!  We did check with the waitress to find out how long it takes to make a full revolution ... I can't remember how long it took, but it was definitely over 90 minutes!!!  

We made a change in our itinerary which is really really exciting, personally, for me!  Mum and Dad didn't want to spend another day in Vancouver, but rather broke our 10 hour trip to Banff into 2 days.  I found out that Salmon Arm is in between Vancouver and Banff exactly 5 hours and e-mailed an old friend, Patti.  I met Patti on my DTS in Australia January 2000.  We kept in contact after the DTS and she is the reason Fletch and I met ... in a way.  We were chatting one night and decided to put our profiles on a singles website to see what would happen.  I found a Canadian singles site, ChristianCafe.com, and we signed up for our free trial!!!  If it wasn't for chatting with Patti, who knows how the Lord would've had Fletch and I meet!!!  Patti didn't find her husband then, but was led to him and now has a new born baby! I haven't seen Patti since our friends' wedding (Luke & Angela Haythorpe) June 2001.  The Whipps will be staying in Salmon Arm and I'll get to hang out with a dear friend. :)  YEAH!!!

Next up:  My birthday on Vancouver Island

Wednesday in Seattle

We all had a great night of sleep after the afternoon and evening of traveling we had! Our breakfast was quick and continental and we were ready to head off into separate locations of the city for some fun!!!  Fletch and I walked (in the Seattle rain) about 15 blocks to get to the Experience Music Project (EMP).  Wow ... I highly recommend this museum to EVERYONE who has ever enjoyed a rock-n-roll song in their entire lifetime!  The first exhibit we saw was a huge scuplture towering about 50 feet high of 700 guitars!!! In the next room we were able to sit down and listen to musicians tell their stories of their influences, roots, touring stories plus many more! Across the hall was an entire exhibit of Jimi Hendrix memorabilia and sorts.  For lunch we enjoyed a nice and relaxing meal at the Revolution Bar & Grill in the museum.  Another exciting part of the museum was the sound studio, but since we have our own recording studio we didn't feel the need to stay in that part of the museum too long.  I did get to play a bass guitar while Fletch was playing an electric guitar ... until he kicked me out of his band. :(  I guess I need to take some lessons from him!!!

Admission to the EMP also included entrance into Science Fiction Museum (SFM).  There were a ton of items from every Science Fiction movie ever made ... and an interesting exhibit on robots!!!  The architecture of the museums were phenomenal!!!  As we were walking around the buildings we were caught gazing at it by a teenage girl who was interviewing people for a school project.  Yes, I said a school project! These poor kids (and teachers) still have 3 weeks of school left in their regular public school year!!! YIKES!  Anyway, it was nice to be asked the questions from her and we enjoyed being a part of her study. :)

Tom & Heather spent some time at a shopping mall called Westlake.  They also raved about having lunch on top of the Space Needle ... it was a revolving restaurant!!! The observatory on top was a little cool for them, but they felt they got their money's worth in the restaurant ... nice meal and heated. :) After their lunch they went back to the shopping mall before retiring for the evening in the hotel room.

When we all met back up in the hotel, we started watching television together.  Mum & Dad have missed having television because we choose not to have cable at our house to encourage conversation and relationships.  We all enjoyed watching insane Japanese extreme sports and Mum was getting caught up on the weather via the weather channel.  After about 90 minutes of television watching, the boys and I went out on the town.  We passed by Safeco field at least 10 times and were caught in traffic from the baseball game once as well!!!  After eating dinner at Denny's we called it a night and got some rest.

Next up:  drive to Vancouver; Capilano Bridge; dinner on Cloud 9 (hopefully I have free internet again tomorrow!!!)

Summer break has officially begun!

I love being a teacher for many reasons ... yes, one is I have the next 7 weeks off of school. :)  Tom & Fletch made it back to the U.S. okay with some minor glitches, but the Lord's grace was definitely upon them. :)  The four of us are all on vacation now and are looking forward to seeing some of GOD's beauty in the Pacific Northwest area into Canada, down through Glacier and back over to Seattle.  We arrived in Seattle last night after flying for the first time on Alaska Air.  It was a lovely trip, but we were delayed 40 minutes due to an electrical storm above Denver.  Once we arrive in Seattle, Fletch and I needed to race to the shuttles to be picked up by Enterprise before they closed (Tom & Heather stayed back to collect the baggage).  We were greeted by the Manager 10 minutes after closing time and were so relieved they were able to stay open for us, even though customer service told me earlier that morning that I would be out of luck if the plane was late!!!  Anyway, we were almost finished with our rental until they told us we couldn't drive into Alberta and Montana!!! They claimed they couldn't do anything about it, so we didn't rent there ... they took us back to the airport and lost out on a 12 day rental from us!  Luckily, I had another car reserved (no deposit needed) at Alamo and we were able to get out of the airport by 1:00 a.m.  We are still in awe with Mandy, our GPS, who got us to our hotel without hassle and we were all in our rooms asleep by 2:00 a.m.  

I will try to send out regular posts as often as I can!!!  Stay tuned for today's fun hopefully sometime tomorrow!

Mum and Dad here, Mum and Dad gone, Mum and Dad back, Mum and Dad gone, Mum and Dad back, Fletch and Dad gone

Wow! What a fun title!!! Fletch and I have been sooo blessed to have his parents here for a couple months. The flight from Australia is never an exciting or cheap flight, so we appreciate them sacrificing time and money to visit us! They arrived here on April 29th and have been in and out a lot! Their first trip was a flight to St. Louis to visit friends and my family. They had a wonderful time with everyone and really commented on how nice it was to spend time with my parents outside of wedding plans! The last (and first) time they met my parents was 8 days before the wedding. I'm so glad everyone had a great time!

After they flew back from St. Louis, they had 4 days to spend with us before heading up to a Christian writer's conference in beautiful Estes Park!!! Tom is quite the well rounded driver ... he knows how to drive a manual and an automatic as well as driving on the right side and left sides of the road ... all without confusion! Even though my car is little, he loved driving around in it. Mum received a lot of knowledge at this conference and made some friends while attending lectures. They stayed at a YMCA camp and enjoyed the scenery and food as well as meeting new friends!

Tom and Fletch left within a few hours after Tom & Heather got back into the Springs. Many may or may not realize this, but Tom is an English borned citizen! They left England when Fletch was 7 years old and have never been back to visit family! Fletch and I blessed him with a ticket to get back to England to visit family after spending 27 years apart! They flew into London early Monday morning and drove down to Brighton where Tom's family reside. Heather and I have been able to communicate with them via telephone daily which has been really really nice. This is Fletch and my first trip apart with the exception of a weekend trip I took to go back to St. Louis. We are missing each other dearly, but are also keeping ourselves busy with school and catching up with family! As I write this now, we have 3 more sleeps to go until we are together again!!!

This is my last week of school with students. Their last day is Friday morning, but I'll have to be at school until May 30th. I am really looking forward to my 2 month break to rest, relax and rejuvenate!!!

I can't stand spelling errors!!!

PLEASE tell me if I spell something wrong ... or worse ... use the wrong form of a word!!!

I just fixed the "I think I here the truck" under my "VISITORS!!!" post.

Yuck.

Please be praying for safe travels for Fletch's parents. They'll be leaving anytime now and will arrive in Denver around 8pm. Also, pray for my health. I got sick right before they came the last time and made everyone else sick. I have been feeling a little down today with runny nose and sore throat. :(

Now that April is almost over ...

... it's time for me to do some updating!!!

My former roommate (Mariam) and her boyfriend (Shad) came to visit us during my last weekend before school started back again. We had a great time walking around Garden of the God's (Zack's 1st time there as well), chatting, eating Mexican food, and taking in a Rockies Game in Denver. While we were at the game, poor Fletch was standing in line for a free Joe Satriani clinic at Guitar Center in Denver. He did a great job, though! After the game was over, Mariam and Shad dropped me off at Guitar Center and I only had to stand in line for about 30 minutes before we sat in one of 30 chairs set up ... for a crowd of around 300!!! :) Fletch was living his dream out and was able to walk out with the amplifier head Joe used during the clinic! Of course we were able to get pictures and autographs as well. We need to learn how to keep cats off the amp head now! Thanks, Mariam and Shad for spending the weekend with us!!!

After a fantastic 2 week Spring break (mostly doing our taxes), I went back to work ready to finish off the school year. I started a choir the week before Spring break and had to focus on getting them ready for a district wide Elementary Music Festival that was held on Thursday the 24th. It went really well and my students really enjoyed it ... mainly because I picked a song that sounded like "We're All In This Together" from "High School Musical"! I even was able to put some dance moves from the movie-now-turned-musical into our song (called "Agents of Change"). Thanks to Jasmine, our worship pastor's daughter, for those moves!!! You rock, Jasmine!!! The Music Festival was also the band's first performance outside of caroling around the school. :) Even though my grade level programs are finished, I still have a lot to accomplish before the end of the school year. It will make my summer break even more enjoyable after a busy April/May!!!

While we were in Denver, we picked up a few buildings for a friend of my father's model railroad display. Dad called me a few days before we were in Denver asking if we could pick it up (eBay auction) and ship it out. I thought it was a small building ... it was an oil refinery and some track and a shed ... and who knows what the other pieces were! Unfortunately we weren't able to ship it off via UPS or USPS because of the fear of it breaking during transit. Fortunately we asked the buyer to pay for our gas for us to drive it to him one weekend and he accepted! We haven't driven to St. Louis since Thanksgiving 2005 when we had to bring our 2 cats and had to put one of them to sleep in St. Louis ... then we were stuck in a snowstorm and had to spend the night in Kansas ... we decided then that we would always fly home. Just a few weeks earlier we were talking about those days of long driving through Eastern Colorado, all of Kansas and Missouri to get to St. Louis and how we were up to doing it again. So, we rented a fantastic 2008 Dodge Durango, put Zack in his crate and headed off to St. Louis on Friday the 18th. It was such a great trip!!! Fletch was able to play his guitar and watch some videos on the laptop in the back seat and I was able to get a lot of grading done without getting car sick! It was Zack's first trip longer than up to Denver and back and he was FANTASTIC! We could live without the shedding, but it's that time of year to lose the winter coat! We were stayed at an average, yet cheap ... $40/night ... extended stay hotel in St. Louis where Zack yet again was fantastic. Greg and Kim came down to visit as well and the family had a lovely baby shower for Sean and Tahli. I was so glad to get to see Tahli pregnant before the baby is due in July!!! The trip back wasn't as fun, but we made it without a problem ... up to the minute the car was due!!! Right on the dot ... 12:30 a.m. Monday morning. Yes ... we drove all day on Friday to get there, spent time with family on Saturday, and headed back to Colorado Springs all day on Monday!!! Sorry to those in St. Louis reading this ... we weren't there long enough for our get together at Bandanas! We'll be back later, though!!! Thanks to my family for letting us come through like a whirlwind and spending such late hours with us on Saturday night!!!

Oh yeah ... Zack had a little too much energy at my parent's house ... with "Uncle" Lance the greyhound ... he was back in his crate for most of the time there. :)

Now we are getting the house ready for Fletch's parents to visit us from Vanuatu!!! They will be arriving on Tuesday the 29th and will be with us through the most part of June!!! We have lovely steamed carpets upstairs now and will be doing the last minute cleaning over the weekend in preparation for their arrival on Tuesday. We have a lot of fun travel plans planned during their visit ... some just for them ... one trip to England for dad and Fletch ... and a lovely Pacific Northwest/Canada/Montana trip for the 4 of us!!! Please be praying for their travels here and for the project they are working on to be transfered to another couple to take control during their absence.

One more fun story to end this long blog (thanks for lasting this long!). There was a dance at school last night that I wanted to go to ... to see the kids dancing (which we missed) and to see if I won one of the baskets I bidded on. Well, we were 20 minutes late into the basket giveaway, but as soon as we walked into the room the baskets were being called out from ... they called my name!!! I won the Southwestern themed basket with $84 worth of restaurant gift certificates!!! YEAH!!! Needless to say we ate out at Chili's last night. :)

Stayed tuned to the next update ... after Fletch's parents arrive!!!

These are precious!!!

I decided to take a break from itemizing our receipts for the tax guy tomorrow and took some pictures of the bedroom with my gorgeous blonde 4 legged model. My other hot model is at a meeting right now, so I had to settle for a 4 legged model.  The bed is the set we just purchased for one of our downstairs guest bedrooms.  The fountain has been sitting in our garage during the winter, so we decided to make it an indoor fountain.  

I absolutely adore this picture of Zack!!! It's his face when you ask, "Do you walk to go on a walk?"

VISITORS!!!

Today is Friday and we are getting ready for some fun visitors! Tonight we have a family of 10 ... yes, I said a family (one mom, one dad, 8 children) of 10 ... over for dinner tonight. They are one of the pastors at our church who we have prayed with, prayed for, took classes with, and sometimes worked beside with; we have never fellowshipped with them. This will be a fun and exciting time!

Next weekend my former roommate and wedding coordinator will be in town with a friend. Mariam and I lived with each other for 3 years ... she has the longest record of a girl I've lived with the longest. Sorry, Mariam, but Fletch beat the "roommate" status on August 1, 2007. :) We had such great times living with each other, going through heart breaks (we took a heart break trip once!), fellowshipping and hosting fellowships from church and BSF together, cooking together, stamping and scrapbooking together, just enjoyed life together! It'll be great to show her around Colorado Springs through my eyes. :)

I am waiting for American Furniture Warehouse to show up with our new bedroom set for the guest bedroom downstairs. Mariam or her friend will be the 1st to try it out!!!

I think I hear the truck ... pictures of the new room later!!!

Snow Nose

Who doesn't love Google? I mean ... we can get so much information there for the mere cost of our internet connection!!! Just the other day we downloaded some legal documents for our
business that we found after googling. It cost us $22.99 ... compare to $900+ a lawyer would have charged us? We feel grateful to be alive in an era that Google is available.

We also love to google health information. We have noticed a change in Zack's nose over the past several months. He came to us with a black nose, but it has changed to pink!!! So Fletch googled it. Zack has a new nickname now, "Snow Nose". Apparently some light colored dogs' noses will turn pink in the colder months due to a condition nicknamed snow nose.

Who would have thought?

Thanks, Google, for saving us a trip to the vet. :)

The picture on the left is of Zack when we first brought him home in September.

The picture on the right is in December before we left for NYC.

Floods, Black Eyes, Easter, pictures

Mother nature is creating more chaos in St. Louis this past week. These pictures were taken by my father of Valley Park/Fenton area near St. Louis close to where I grew up at. The Steak N Shake pictured is a popular restaurant I would frequently visit. Also notice the lovely modeling picture my mother provided ... the "I can't believe we're in another flood" look. Thankfully no one in my family has been affected by the waters besides road closures and giving my dad an opportunity to play with his new camera.

I have done it again ... I've caused injury to myself, but luckily it's not a broken bone! I gracefully tripped about 3 times in the living room, causing myself to fall on my knees close enough to the wall to bang my head on. At least I was smart enough to move my head so I didn't break a nose! That would have been even worse!!!

Fletch and I had the opportunity to serve at church on stage together for the first time. Fletch is a regular on the worship team, but this was my first time to sing with the choir. I had such a great time! It was an honor to be singing with such a talented group of teenagers and adults under the leadership of Rachel and Lori!!! We have an outstanding worship pastor, and close friend, who was the mastermind behind the celebration services as well. Thanks to all for making it such a great weekend!!!

I've changed the slideshow images to our recent California trip. :)

SLACKERS NEVER GET COMMENTS!

So I haven't been whining about the lack of comments because of my obvious lack of posts!!! So we've completed trip #3 for the year. The trip in March was a flying one ... to L.A., particularly Hollywood. Hollywood and Sunset Strip is becoming a familiar place to both of us. This was my 3rd time there, Fletch's 4th. We went there on a business trip and was blessed with some great deals. Pictures will follow ... Fletch added another member to the Whipp guitar family. :) Who needs kids when we have pets and guitars? :) This Carvin guitar is a beaut! (Yes, this is Melissa talking about a guitar). I liked this guitar so much that I made Fletch name it ... we'll post pictures of Hogo soon (HOllywood GOblin) ... he's green. :)

We were able to get the business part of the trip finished on our first day there, so we were able to relax and enjoy Saturday and Sunday before flying back Sunday evening. We went to the beach for the 1st time since we've been married. I'm trying to encourage Fletch to become homesick so he'll take me to Australia soon. :) I think it's working!!! Any Aussies out there ... help encourage me! :) We rented a Segway and rode it for 2 hours at Santa Monica beach. We had a great time, but my calves were hurting the next day! We also enjoyed a nice meal at Dukes of Malibu at Malibu beach on Sunday. One wall was a huge picture window; every table had a lovely view of the ocean!

We were very glad to make that trip when we did because we're now back into busy mode with work and rehearsals. Fletch played on the worship team for 4 weekends in a row before we left. Now he's in the middle of Easter rehearsals. Next week will be a rehearsal every night but Friday! I have joined the choir for Easter as well and have a program to do at school this week for Kindergarten and 1st grades. I'll be dedicating a little time for Easter this year as well!

Zack is growing a lot lately. The cats are doing well, also. We'll have more posts coming up soon when Fletch's parents arrive 29th of April. Under 7 weeks to go!!!

I'll try to remember to post pictures soon. :)

2 down, 10 to go

Fletch thought of the title. What a genius husband I have! What are we talking about? No, not cats ... we're talking about trips in 2008. After our trip to NYC and DC this past Christmas, we decided we would like to take a trip every month. We cheated a little and said we were in NYC for January (when we really were flying home on the 1st, but hey ... we were gone one day in January!). Our trip for February was ESTES PARK (near the Rocky Mountain National Park). For you Aussies, picture a Colorado mountain village/ski resort area like Aspen. We enjoyed a nice 2 hour 50 minute drive up I-25 in our rented Chevy Trailblazer. It was quite the difference for us considering I drive a Saturn and Fletch drives a Dodge! We are definately getting an SUV for our next vehicle in the next 2-3 years. When we arrived in the area we drove through one of those beautiful snow storms ... you know, the kind that sparkles on the ground? We stayed at the historical Stanley Hotel where Steven King was inspired to write "The Shining". We saw several deer grazing near our hotel as well. We really enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere of Estes Park on a Saturday night. It was so quiet, some of the shops closed at 6pm! We wanted to eat at The Grubsteak for dinner (where we ate during our honeymoon), but it closed at 8pm! The lady at Starbucks told us we were the only tourists in town. We will be going back in May when Fletch's parents are up there for a convention. It will be a different town then I'm sure!!!

Other news: Fletch had a record breaking month in his ebay business thanks to the blessings God has provided! Melissa is getting back into scrapbooking thanks to Fletch's encouragement (and challenge). Lars is ... well ... just Lars ... still waking Melissa up in the morning with his "I love you mommy" meows. Simba is still voted the cutest cat in the world award (just received one this morning from our friend Todd). Zack is starting to calm down a little more, growing, and has been fixed. He's starting to grow on Fletch as well. :)

MELISSA SURGERY UPDATE

This is Melissa typing. I did not have my surgery this morning! YEAH! We went to LASIK plus and I received all of my pain killers and directions and even got to the point of getting my numbing drops when the doctor checked my prescription to tell me I am 20/20!!! PRAISE THE LORD! I am absolutely loving the fact that I am not in pain right now!!! Now driving to Denver on Monday will not be a hassle at all. I will go back to see my eye doctor in June to make sure I'm still doing okay.

I'm working on changing some details of the blog right now. I hope you enjoy the Green Bay Packers pictures on display! There's a big game on Sunday to determine who is going to the Superbowl! Stay tuned!!! :)

Washington DC, New Years Eve in Times Square and our New Year

I don't want to sound like a broken record, but sorry for the very late update to our blog. ;)


Washington DC was by far our favorite part of the trip. The drive out of Manhattan and back to NYC was not a mere 4 hours that mapquest quotes. It's more like 6-7 hours with all the traffic! I rented a "grab bag" car from dollar rent a car which means we didn't know what we would get, but it would be an intermediate level at least (and it was discounted tremendously). Well, what do you think they had plenty of vehicles in? CONVERTIBLE! We finally rented a convertible ... off course it was a little chilly, so the top was up most of the time, but we were having fun! We did put the top down once in Times Square while we were driving our normal 1.2 MPH with some cops and people running and shooting along the sidewalk ... just kidding, mom. ;) We did put the top down in DC, though. Picture this ... December winter night in DC, cute couple driving about town, the gorgeous husband with his great smile, the awesome wife with a PINK GREEN BAY PACKERS BEANIE on her head. ;) I'm sure it made someone laugh. It definitely made us laugh!


We stayed at a historical Victorian Inn in DC for under $70/night! The Henley Park Hotel was the hotel where 1st ladies would bring guests to for tea! We definitely recommend that hotel and will be going back ourselves! We took in a lot of sights in DC including the White House (for about 10 minutes until the CIA pushed the crowd away from the house because of security ... we were not even on the lawn!), National Christmas tree and the state trees around it (yes, daddy ... there were choo-choos too), Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, the new Vietnam Memorial, the Nation's Capital, we took a bus tour around the city for 3 hours. We went to the National Archives building!!! We saw the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States of America, the Bill of Rights, letters written from Lincoln, plus many other original documents! We also wanted to visit the Smithsonian Institute of American History, but it was closed for renovations. Now it's a good excuse to go back to DC! We did get to go to the Smithsonian Museum of Air and Space, though. Definitely worth our time!!! Our last morning there we took a tour through the International Spy museum.

Please check out the pictures of our trip to Washington, DC on the slideshow. :)

I'm not sure if you realize this or not, but if you ever repeat this vacation, please note that you can return your car to any dollar rent a car in NYC! We didn't get back into NYC until about an hour after the car was due. We drove to our hotel (near LaGuardia) to unload our luggage and thought we had to drive it back to our location in Times Square ... 9 miles/1 hour away!!! I noticed a Dollar Rent A Car near our hotel and called them to see how much it would cost to drop it off there ... they said nothing! :) We were soooo relieved we didn't have to battle with Times Square traffic and the subway/bus to get back to our hotel after such a long day!!!


Were we in Times Square for New Year's Eve? Well ... of course we were! But there's more to tell. Contact us and we'll give you the details. Let's just say it was an experience.


We came back to town on the 1st to some very loving cats (thanks to Eli and Cami for watching them) and a super hyper puppy (thanks to the Kelkenberg family for helping us out in a time of need). Zack was supposed to get neutered on Friday the 5th, but because he ate a little milkbone that morning, my 5am wakeup call to get him to Denver by 7:15 was for nothing. I was so bummed! I also arranged to meet up with some friends from Campus Crusade for Christ for lunch in Denver (they were in town for the annual CCC Christmas Conference I used to go to while in college), but I canceled it because I was sooo tired!!! Zack is now scheduled for this coming Monday the 21st!


Our jobs are going well. Fletch had a nasty fall on Thursday the 10th, though. I received a phone call at work from him saying he slipped and landed on the back of his head. We still had some ice on our driveway and Fletch lost his footing enough to where I had to leave school (thanks Tom for taking my classes!) to take him to the ER. The only time I was scared was when I tried calling Fletch when I was on my way home (about 30 minutes had passed while I was getting permission to leave and setting up sub plans in case they found a sub). He didn't answer. We are so thankful to have such great friends that live in our neighborhood! I called Eli who was on his way home from a meeting ... he was able to get inside and wake Fletch up (he was only sleeping). Once I arrived, Eli had Fletch ready to go with insurance card and wallet. Again, we love Eli and Cami!!! The doctor did all her tests and a CT scan and found ... a brain ;) ... with a concussion. Fletch is still trying to get over it. Just last night he was saying he could feel pressure in his head like he's never felt before. He also is having trouble with short term memory loss, so please pray for a full recovery soon! His muscles are still a bit achy from the shock, but he has been able to get to work for most of his lessons which is such a blessing. :)


It's Friday morning here now and I need to go prep myself for surgery. I want to wash my hair because I know my recovery won't be exciting. I'm getting enhancement done on my left eye this morning because it was never 20/20 after my surgery in June. The procedure is not bad at all, but the healing is awful. I have to do PRK which literary means they have to scrape a layer of cells off of my eye before doing the laser surgery. The cells then heal themselves, but feel like grits of sand during the process. I'll be in bed for the rest of the day. Pray for a quick recovery, though ... I need to take Zack to Denver for his surgery!!! I do have a friend coming with me, though ... who can drive my car if I'm not able to.


Hope you all are having a very blessed 2008!!! This is going to be a great year ... I'M GOING TO BE AN AUNT. :) :) :) :)