June news

June Gloom, June Bugs and Summer time fun. This June seems to be starting off pretty good. Kevin will be turning 21 on the 29 of June. Thats enough to scare anybody. Linda has flown to Ohio to be with the grandkids and also to see Tina graduate. Congrats to Tina for a job well done. Stepping into a nursing career seems to be the way to go. Nurses are wanted all over the place.

While visiting Florida last month. Linda and I had a chance to visit some of my relatives that have retired there and also a couple of cousins that we havent seen in at least 20 years. It was wonderful talking and laughing and eating with everyone. We really had a wonderful time and got to drive from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic ocean and even managed a coupel of visits to Disneyworld and Epcot Center. OK we live 8 miles from Disneyland but still had to see the Magic Kingdom of Disneyworld. Epcot was a great place to see too.

With Linda in Ohio for a week I got a chance to complete some of the items on my Honey Do list she left when she flew out to the East Coast. I have been working on the kitchen and in the last few days managed to pretty much get all the little things done before she comes home. A few cuts and bruises and one sprained toe later, I think I have it pretty much wrapped up. All thats left is staining the molding around the cabinets and putting the finishing touches on the floor and I think I'll be done.

Gas Prices.......
I did notice one good thing about gas prices. There just dosent seem to be as many people on the roads. Maybe its finally getting more people to use public transportation now. Hmmmm From what I hear, lots of people will be taking "Staycations" this year. Peopel will be staying home for vacations this summer. Just doing local things and enjoying their home towns. Sounds like a good plan to me.

Take care everyone. Hope this finds you all well and happy. Enjoy each day and enjoy the summer months ahead. Find the time to relax and fine time to enjoy each day.

2008 an Exciting Beginning

The new year has been interesting so far.
Linda, Kevin and I spent New Year's Eve dancing and partying at the neighbors house until midnight when we all celebrated the beginning of the new year. We counted down the last few seconds along with lots of friends and neighbors. Once the celebrating ended we walked the few feet back to our house and slept until around 9:30.
Linda was the first to awaken and as she was turning off the christmas lights she looked out the front door and noticed that her car was not in the driveway. She yelled for me and I quickly got up and dressed before walking outside to make sure the car wasn't around the corner or even just parked somewhere close.
Well, we finally realized that it had been stolen and quickly called the police. They arrived a few minutes later and we gave them a discription of the car and explained that the last time we saw it was around 12:30 on New Years Eve. He put out a call to the other officers in town and finished taking our report.
After he left I took my bike out for a cruize and just drove around looking for the car. I came back home after about 45 minutes and tried to explin to Linda that everything will be OK and if they dont recover the car we will have to find a way of purchasing another one. She called the insurance company and explained the situation and they told her that they have to wait two days to see if they find the car before they can do anything.
Linda was feeling kind of depressed so I just told her that we should just go get some lunch and wait to see what happnes. The police told us that they would keep looking for the car. Linda and I rode my bike to Tommy's and had just ordered lunch and sat down to eat. I took maybe two bites and she had just eaten a bit of her lunch when she got a call from the police saying that they found her car. She quickly jumped up and threw her lunch in the trash as I tried to take one more bite out of my Chili burger. She was running out the door as I followed trying to wipe chili from my face.
We arrived at the scene and they had already taken the two guys off to jail and the same officer that took our report was standing there next to her car waiting for us. Kevin had already gotten there and was talking with the police when we arrived. The officer explained that they caught the guys driving around town and they gave up without even a chase. They just pulled over when the cops drove up behind them and gave up.
So to make a long story short. Linda got her car back and there was nothing even wrong with it. The had a key that they used to start the car and even the money that was on the console was still there. Nothing had been taken or destroyed. I guess they just wanted to take a joy ride or something. Stupid yound kids.
The reason I say they were stupid is because of these coupel of questons......

Why would you steal a car and then drive around in the same town where you stole it?
Dont you think someone would notice the big "Benot4gotten" Sticker on the back window?
Why would anyone steal a PT cruizer?

So it did turn out to be a "Happy New Year" after all. My hat is off to the La Habra police dept. for their quick response and recovery of her car and thaks to God for answering Linda's prayers.

Hopefully the rest of the year will be better and less stressful.

We want to wish everyone a happy and prosperous new year. May you all be happy and may all your wishes come true.

Long Time No Hear

Hello to everyone. Sorry for being so distant lately but its been busy times for us. Rocky has been working lots of overtime and Linda has been busy with our church Storehouse and also with scanning lots of photos into our hard drives trying to preserve the photos before they get to old and faded.

Just to catch everyone up on whats going on around our household:



Kitchen remodeling ideas are in the works with lots of different scenarios being talked about and also lots of sketches being put on paper. We have discussed everything from a complete remodel to just a bit of TLC to get the old appliances up to date. We figure that it will take some time to get these plans finalized and into the actual construction phase.



Linda has been busy painting the bathroom in our bedroom and it really does look great. Kevin has also painted his bedroom and it also looks quite good. He has rearranged his furniture and came up with a way to have a bit more floor space.



Linda and I just got back from a two day ride to San Diego with David and Irene, Marcie and Melanie and Louie and his girlfriend Catch. Along the way we enjoyed lunch in the town of Julian and also stopped at the Pachanga Indian Casino on the way back home. It was a wonderful ride even with the couple of butt rests along the way we got to enjoy spending time with our friends and family. The weather was great with cool wind and no traffic for the entire ride. Back roads were great to ride through with every curve showing more beautiful California scenery.



Kevin has been itching to get out of the house and maybe moving into an apartment with his friends so he will now be looking real hard to find a job that pays enough to support himself. He is still trying to find his focus and will be checking out everything until he finds his calling.



Again we are sorry for being so out of touch lately but it has been pretty busy here at our house.



We promise to try and be more diligent about keeping everyone up to date. Thanks for being patient with us and congrats to Melissa also for her wonderful news.



Keep us in your thoughts and we will do the same at our end.

VACATION

Linda and I will be leaving for vacation on June 16 and spending the week on the Island of Maui. Unfortunately Kevin, because of his job, will be staying at home while we are gone. He will have the additional duties of keeping the dog fed and the lawns watered while we are gone.

Maui is a wonderful place to relax and enjoy the sunshine and blue waters that surround the island. Snorkeling is fantastic and so are the many beaches. We look forward to spending time with some friends we have there and also to having some time just enjoying each other.

Although we will miss our traveling companions Irene and David, I'm sure they will be in our thoughts while we are taking in all the sights of the island.

So, Aloha to everyone. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

Mahalo

Additional Pictures of the Mercy Response team

As I promised, here are some additional pictures of Linda and the gang from The Vinyard lending a helping hand in New Orleans. Lots of work but well worth the effort!

Linda and the Vineyard Crew in New Orleans

Linda and the rest of the crew from Vinyard recently traveled to New Orleans to take part in the clean up effort that is going on out there. It was a week of hard work but also a week of building relationships and memories that will last a lifetime. Linda came home with a full heart and appreciation of what we all take for granted. As you can see by these few photos, there was a tremendous amout of work to be done and together they completed the gutting of five homes to get them ready for the owners to begin rebuilding.

After over 20 months since hurricane Katrina, there is still a lot of work to be done out there. But like Linda says,"One home at a time". They are planning on going out there again in the coming months to complete a few more homes. I'm so proud of her and the work that her and the gang did out there. Together they brought some needed assistance to a few families that were lost in the storm.

Thank you Linda and the crew for showing us all that people still care enough to work hard for their fellow man. I plan on posting more photos in the weeks to come, so stay tuned for updates.

KEVIN'S HAPPINESS

As we mentioned in our last posting, Kevin has been trying to break into the automotive Industry. Well we are happy to inform everyone that he has landed a job working as a mechanic for a local shop close to home. He seems to be enjoying it and hasnt missed a day of work since he started. He usually comes home full of oil but also has a big smile on his face. We make him change his clothes in the garage before he comes into the house. Currently he is working 6 days a week until he becomes familiar with everything in the shop, then he will be down to 5 days a week. Its great that he can use the education that he went to school for.

He plans on saving up enough for a down payment on his first motorcycle. So we would like to welcome Kevin into the working world, and we wish him the best.