Happy New Year!

Okay ... so a few months have passed by since our last post! Sorry, folks.  Let's give a quick recap before I hit the bed and cross our fingers I'll keep it posted a little sooner! :)

October:  We went back to St. Louis (with a side trip to Chicago) to visit family and friends for a little over a week.  It was great to see my Grandmother and Russ from Wisconsin as well as meet Declan Isaac Orear (my younger brother and his wife's son).  We also received some fun news while dining with the Orears:  Greg and Kim are expecting their first child mid-May. :)  YEAH!!!  Through the tears of excitement, Fletch told me the first (to wed ... me) shall be last (to have a child).  Praise the Lord it will happen one day! :)

We had an unexpected road trip back to St. Louis one week after we got home.  My maternal grandmother passed away.  It was a great time to be back as family again, reflecting on so many great memories I will always cherish.  I will post a copy of Greg's eulogy at the end of this post for you to get to know the grandmother I grew up with and miss.

We also mourned the loss of a home church in October.  We felt it was time to leave our home church of 3 1/2 years after the Pastors starting making decisions for the church that we didn't believe was good.  The parting was hard, but we are believing God will bless us with a new home church in 2009.

November:  I got through my 1st program of the year at school.  The 4th graders did a superb job performing Teresa Jenning's program called "Freedom" which was about the freedom we possess as Americans.  It was especially close to our hearts as Fletch is now a citizen and gets to enjoy the same rights as I have for the past 30+ years. :)  I received many compliments from parents, administration and even the Board of Education President (who had a daughter in it) about the program.  The board President was even commenting on it after his son's performance in December with the 5th graders!!!

November also marked the exciting time for Fletch to vote for the next US President!!!  He was so excited to have that opportunity and I was proud of him for voicing his care in the future of America (even though we both voted for the loser!). 

Thanksgiving was great with an awesome family we met at our former church. Unfortunately I had strep throat the weekend before.  I didn't get to finish the 2 days of school that week, but we are grateful for my recovery before Thanksgiving!  Thanks to Chuck and Charie and their children for allowing us to celebrate such a great holiday with you!

December: Poor Fletch started having tooth problems in December.  It is now almost the end of January and he is still suffering pain from dental procedures!  Praise the Lord we added him to my dental plan in August!!!  December marked a time I almost broke my hand at school (ask me about it later) and the stomach flu.  While I was at the doctor's office the afternoon of my 3rd and 5th grade programs, I got sick!  Somehow I had enough strength to get through the 2 programs that night, but I missed the last day of school before Christmas break with the stomach flu. :(  Fletch was still going through tooth issues; he also go the flu bug. :(

Luckily the bug left the house before my mom and dad got here for our 1st Christmas at our home!  We had a great time with them and their greyhound, Lance.  My older brother, Greg, and his wife, Kim, got here a few days after Christmas.  The 6 1/2 of us (remember, Kim's pregnant) enjoyed a full day of each other before mom and dad started their journey back to St. Louis.  Unfortunately the flu bug came back and Kim spent the last day sick in bed. :(  Oye!  

New Year's Eve:  we had the awesome opportunity to spend the last hours of 2008 with our former worship pastor and his family and another family we served on the worship team with. :)  It was such a great night to pray blessings into 2009!!!

January:  After a great (but sickly) time off of work, Fletch and I started back at work.  I got a cold; Fletch had a root canal.  Boy, this is sure the year of illness!!!  I had a great time at Colorado Music Educator Association conference at the Broadmoor Resort last week and am wondering how I'm going to fit all the exciting stuff I learned into the rest of the year's curriculum!!! :)  I start back tomorrow and am looking forward to exciting all 720 of my student's lives in the wonderful world of music through Orff techniques! (You have to be a music teacher to understand that one!).  

Fletch and are excited to see what God has in store for 2009.  Maybe Fletch isn't as much as I am, but we are a great team and we know God has great things in store for us!!!!  

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. :)