Sickness strikes again

My weekend started out marvelously. I took Joshua to my Dad's (Mom is visiting their youngest granddaughter Maddy in Seattle) Friday afternoon and then I went out with girl friends for dinner and I got to hang out till 9:00 without worries of the babysitter bill. For about four years these friends (Shirley, Cathy, Karen, Jill and I) have been gathering four times a year to celebrate our five birthdays. We do miss our good friend Richelle who lives in Spokane.

Saturday I was able to attend a Silent Retreat at my church -- my first. Wow! What an amazing experience. If you ever have a chance to do something like this I highly recommend it. It is not an easy thing to do and I was exhausted afterwards, but in a blessed and holy way. I was only silent from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm, but that was a long time for me. :) I had about an hour at home alone to do chores and check e-mails before my dad brought home my sick little boy. He had a fever (which hasn't broken as of Sunday afternoon), he seems to have a stomach bug as well as a runny nose and of course he feels miserable. He got about 11 hours of sleep last night and after a short phone conversation with Jon this morning, he has spent most of the day in bed. TV doesn't even help because his eyes hurt. I got about 10 hours of sleep last night, so I'm trying to take care of myself.

Please pray for me. We were healthy most of the fall and beginning of winter and now this is the third time Joshua has been sick since Jon left. I got his bug last time, so please pray that I don't get it this time. Also pray for peace as I will have to give up things on Monday that I really want to do, unless he has a miraculous healing this afternoon. Thank you for joining with me in this journey through illness. It is such an encouragement to know that people will pray with me.

News from Jon is that spring ended last week over there. He said it felt like spring for a couple weeks. Last week it got up to 80 and they are expecting it to hit the 90s this week. He continues to work long hours, but seemed fairly encouraged this morning when we spoke. They don't go to day light saving time until April 4, so now he is only 10 hours ahead of us.

Thanks for your prayers.

Sheryl

Long overdue picture

Jon and I attended a Marine Corps Ball back in early November but we only just received our pictures this week. Hmmmm I'd say there is a little problem at the photographer's office. I tried to send the picture to Jon, but it is too big and so I am just going to post it on the blog so he can see it, and of course so can anyone else who wants to. :) Hope you enjoy us in our finest.

Sheryl

BUSY

As I mentioned, things are crazy busy for Jon. Here's what he wrote today,

"I'm incredibly busy now, as our planning sessions are sucking up all my time, and I've still got all these weekly, bi-weekly, whatever odd jobs due to various authorities. Dealing with daily internal stress, retaining mental alacrity in the planning sessions, reading an avalanche of reports every day to retain situational awareness, and kicking out product as required to support the planning process, the cumulative result is actually tougher to deal with than the stress resultant from my job in 2006. As soon as the lead for my sections returns from a short TAD, it should let up a little, as we'll have two folks to cover all the work. Well, I'm not trying to whine, just communicate the business of my life. One of the Chaplain's sermon illustrations from Sunday was a Chinese pictogram for 'busy.' Apparently it incorporates two characters, one meaning 'heart' and one meaning 'kill.' I thought that was pretty good. Semper fi"

Thanks for keeping him in your prayers.

Busy lives

Sorry it's been a while since I posted to the blog. There isn't anything new from Jon. He is very busy working long hours. Thank you for your prayers and a BIG thanks to those of you who have sent letters, Motomails and packages. Anything from home is a big encouragement to him. Jon mentioned that he really appreciates newsy letters because it helps him to feel connected to what's happening back here.

I have been very busy with PTA activities this past week. Many of you know about California's budget crisis and at this point it looks like it will mean a huge cut in funding to the public schools. Our district alone has been required to cut $28 million. And so I am helping to lead a letter-writing campaign at our school, encouraging parents to write to the legislature in Sacramento as well as our Superintendent and Board of Trustees. Some days it is a bit consuming. It is encouraging not to feel alone and to have a sense that we might be able to make a difference. At least we have the amazing privilege to communicate with those "in power" to try to influence their decisions, something that millions of people around the world are not able to do, without fear of retribution.

Joshua had a very fun weekend. Saturday afternoon our good friend Mr. Ken and his son Alex picked up Joshua for a sleep-over. Alex has Wii and I believe the boys spent many hours playing together. I ended up doing some of my FSEA (the job I get paid for) work that evening and then watched a DVD before heading to bed early. Today I was able to attend church at Trinity Pres., where I heard an old friend Tim speak. He teaches at a seminary in Istanbul, Turkey. It was wonderful to learn more about the people of Turkey. And after 15 years as an active member at Trinity Pres., it is always great to worship with so many friends even though we have been gone from Trinity for 5 years. This afternoon we met some friends at a new park in town and I got to catch up with my friend Tiffany while Joshua and her son Jay ran and played for a couple hours. It was a very restful weekend.

This week will probably be very busy. We have a special PTA meeting Monday morning to encourage parents to sign letters. Then we'll set up tables on the sidewalks around the campus after school to get the parents we missed in the morning. Tuesday night is the regular monthly PTA meeting. And then the week goes on with other meetings and activities. Fortunately I truly love what I am doing and know that this is God's calling for me right now.

Thanks to all of you who read and pray.

Sheryl

Stormy weather

Those of you in California know that we have been having a very wet and stormy winter, at least for us. Turns out the weather, after starting to warm up, has gotten stormy for Jon as well. Here's what he recently wrote.

On Sunday, "The last couple days have been beautiful days, analogous to spring days in southern California, but today it has gone nasty again, dropped a few degrees in temperature, is predicted to rain, and there are swirling vortices of wind and dust howling through the camp--not enough to be tornadoes or anything, just blowing, blowing, blowing in all different directions. It's not raining yet, don't know how long that will last."

On Tuesday, "Well, the weather got worse, it started raining, and we had a bunch of localized brown outs due to electrical wires blowing together and shorting out. In my building we were without power for about 3 1/2 hours, but working on computers you don't really need lights (the computers are on an extended uninterrupted power supply (UPS) unit). Monday's are my busy day, but they've gotten a little less busy due to some schedule changes, so that's good. However, I just learned today what the planner's schedule is going to be for the next 40 days, and it's pretty brutal. I'm pretty much not going to have time for much starting on Wednesday. Good thing, I guess, is that time will go by quickly, though I don't think I'm going to have much time for PT (exercise), etc. Oh, well."

Jon is not 100% over his cold yet, but is feeling better, so thanks for your prayers.

Sheryl

A fun outing

After both Joshua and I were sick last weekend and missed out on our planned weekend-away, I treated us to a day at Legoland. We got the discount tickets at Costco and enjoyed a full day with beautiful weather, between the storms (we had rain Friday and are expecting another storm on Sunday). Here are some pictures of our day together.

Sheryl

Cold weather and rose gardens?

The latest from my Marine.

It has gotten suddenly cold the last two days (and nights), this after a huge dust cloud blanketed the whole AO (the weather guy says its the largest dust cloud he's seen in his 13 months in Iraq). It was not the spectacular wall of dust that we had back in 2006, but it nevertheless completely blocked out the sun and reduced visibility to a couple hundred yards--for over two days.

I'm slowly getting over my cold, making it a point to sleep a little more each night--obviously recovery times are a little prolonged when working 12 hour shifts seven days a week... Additionally, I'm a one man show for now, as the other Marine in my section (and my boss) is out of town for the foreseeable future... What is it the Corps says? Oh yeah, "We didn't promise you a rose garden....!" Well, then, what's that smell? Ah, that's the new disinfectant they're using in the port-a-johns... OK, enough frivolity, I've got to get back to work.

Semper Fi, JarHedJon

Fighting colds

As you know, Joshua got sick last week. By Sunday he was feeling better, but that afternoon I could feel it coming on. Sure enough on Monday I was out of commission. Fortunately I have not had a bad case of this bug because I feel almost 100% today and I know some people have had this thing for two weeks (i.e., my mom).

Unfortunately Jon is also fighting a similar bug, which I don't think we passed on to him, unless the phone lines are now able to transmit viruses. Please keep him in your prayers. He is working 14 to 16 hour days with no breaks and is very tired on top of being sick.

Thanks to all of you who keep up with us through this blog and pray.

Sheryl

My valentine flowers

Here are the beautiful star gazers my husband sent for Valentine's Day. The blooms are just opening so I should have many weeks to enjoy their beauty and fragrance.

Sheryl

Everyday life "over there"

Recently my niece interviewed Jon for her newspaper by sending him questions that he took the time to answer. I thought you all might be interested in some of these answers and since I don't have anything new from him, I thought I'd post a couple of them here.

Where are you staying?
I'm staying in a place that we call a "hardstand blockhouse." "Hardstand" because it is a hardened structure (made of reinforced concrete) that can withstand indirect fire (IDF). "Blockhouse" because it pretty much looks like a block--pretty simple lines, purely functional, with a square floor plan. The hardstand blockhouse I live in is in the middle of what we call the "battle square," not a very imaginative name for bunch of uniformed people living in a square housing area in a combat zone... I am on a base called a "firm base," because it is a big, well defended place that provides a fairly well defined level of security. Other places, in decreasing levels of security, are called "forward operating bases" (FOBs), "combat outposts" (COPs), "entry control points" (ECPs), and "observation posts" (OPs).

What is it like to live there?
I can honestly say that I am never bored. I get to work by 0800 (8:00 AM), take a short break for lunch, exercise for an hour, take a break for dinner, work until around 2300 (11:00 PM), and go to bed. That's pretty much it, seven days a week. Sundays I actually sleep in about an extra hour and go to church in the morning, but after church it's back to the routine. I know it sounds like total drudgery, and sometimes it is, but the work is important enough that the accomplishment of it lends at least a little meaning to the long hours.

What do you do for fun?
I don't know that anyone would say they have fun here, but there are certainly enjoyable things that can be done with little bits of leisure time that can sometimes be scraped from the daily grind. There is an organization called Morale, Welfare, & Recreation (MWR), and they have built a pretty nice facility here. It's got ping-pong tables, pool tables, several big-screen TV's with US Television (piped in through the Armed Forces Network--AFN), books to read, telephones to call home, computers you can use for free to send emails home, stuff like that. The military is pretty fitness oriented, and exercise, lifting weights, and running provide a very popular distraction. The food is really good at the chow hall here (called a DFAC, short for Dining Facility), and eating Baskin Robbins mint chocolate chip ice-cream is just about anybody's definition of "fun."

What do you eat?
Well, besides ice cream :), my favorite items at the DFAC are chicken cordon blue, Thai chicken, and navy bean soup. Recently, I've become partial to the chicken vegetable soup as well. Of course, I'm addicted to Mountain Dew, have a morning craving for banana milk (really, it's great, it's banana flavored milk. I've never seen it for sale in the US), and would testify that their pecan pie here is some of the richest I've ever had. Yes, when I was here back in 2006, I gained 17 pounds in my first six months :)

How is the weather there most of the time?
The rainfall here is similar to rainfall levels in southern California. However, it gets a little colder in winter--recently we had a bunch of nights where the lows were in the upper 30's (37 or 38) and the daytime highs were in the mid 50's. The spring and fall seasons are short, and summer temps range from lows at night in the 80's to daytime highs of 115 (it hit 119 when I was here in 2006). The sunrises and sunsets are really beautiful, I've been told that is attributable to the dust in the air. The night skies are simply amazing, as the firmbase is not close to a built up area, and there are little to no lights reflecting off the night sky. Usually, we can see the entire milky way across the sky, and when there's a full moon it's almost light enough to read a book by...

I've got the greatest husband

Look at the e-card my husband sent me. Isn't it great? He also had a bouquet of star gazers (one of my favorite flowers) delivered to me today. What a great guy to remember Valentine's Day even though he is on the other side of the world and working 12 - 16 hour days.

Sheryl

The Osprey and a sick little boy

Happy Valentine's Day. Last night was crazy hair day at church for the kid's club program. Joshua was excited and you can see the results in the picture. Today was also crazy hair day at school, but he won't be going since his runny nose turned into a bad cold in the middle of the night. At midnight he was actually in a hot shower using the steam to get his nose unclogged. It worked and he slept through the rest of the night. But he is still pretty sick. We were planning to drive to Porterville this weekend to visit my aunt and uncle at their farm, but looks like we may be staying home. No need to share the gift of germs.

As I mentioned last week, Jon had to take a trip within the country where he currently lives and below is a description of what he got to travel in. Pretty cool after all these years.

"When I enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1981, my recruiter told me that when I graduated from boot camp and went out to the Fleet, I'd get to ride in the latest thing in aviation, a tilt-rotor aircraft that the Marine Corps was developing and would field in the near future. Now, after more than 25 years, the MV-22 Osprey is actually in service, and I had an opportunity to fly in one recently.

It is a very distinctive aircraft, and my first impressions were "solid" and "capable." Solid because it appears to be very strongly constructed, with the wing structure, engines and "propellers" seemingly dwarfing the underslung fuselage (which is actually fairly spacious, with room for 24 "combat loaded" Marines and their gear, plus the crew). Capable because each of those factors are necessary features of the advanced capability offered by the Osprey.

I experienced three take-offs and landings, one of each involving some (limited) use of the runway, with the other two of each being vertical (onto and from a helicopter pad). The rate of climb the Osprey is capable of was (in the experience of it) impressive, and it's cruising airspeed significantly greater (and more economical) than any rotary wing competition (I suspect the Osprey is also capable of operation at higher elevations than rotary wing aircraft, though I'm guessing the VTOL capability is extremely dimished or non-existant at some threshold).

The pilot of our aircraft had turned on some green marker lights that were apparently at the tip of each "propellor" blade (OK, I know it's called a tilt-rotor aircraft, but my experience was that they functioned for a greater duration of total flight as propellors), so as the aircraft taxied to the apron to pick us up (with the engines pointing almost vertical and the props acting as rotors), the distinctive features of the aircraft were dramatically highlighted. This first take-off we utilized a (very short) section of runway (a tech-rep on the plane with us said that the rotors are tilted about ten degrees off vertical simply as a gas-saving measure), and once airborne, the still-lighted spinning disks very rapidly rotated the rest of the way into a "normal" fixed-wing aircraft position. I was sort of surpised at the speed of the engine rotation, as I had expected it to be more gradual, but then, I know little of the principles of flight. The transition was smooth, and I do not recall being able to identify by feel (apparent or impending stall) that the transition from vertical flight to lift-enabled flight had taken place.

Anyway, my dry remarks here do little to capture the unique experience of flying on this aircraft, nor do they adequately communicate the exciting fulfillment of over 25 years of anticipation...

Semper Fi, JarHedJon"

My brother-in-law posted a comment with this link so you can see what the osprey looks like: http://tinyurl.com/3e3f3l

The Palm Springs Aerial Tramway

For those of you who do not live in Southern California,
let me share one of the wonderful experiences we can have. We can enjoy 70 degree days in February or drive an hour or so to play in the snow on a beautiful 50 degree day with clear blue skies.

Saturday Joshua and I joined my college friend Lauri on the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway (www.pstramway.com). The tram travels over 2,600 feet to the mountain station which is at 8,516 feet. Thanks to the numerous winter storms we have had in the past month, there is plenty of snow at that elevation. Lauri brought her sled and we had lots of fun sledding and hiking around the snow-covered wilderness paths. Of course I am a bit sore this morning having slipped on the ice a few times and banged my knee and hip. Joshua and I hit a tree once (not hard) at the end of a sledding run, but otherwise I'm basically in one piece after our day of adventure. Jon called this morning so Joshua got to tell Jon all about our fun snow day. May all the rest of your winter days be fun.

Sheryl

Joshua's Jog-a-thon

We did have a great time in the snow today, but I'll write about that and post pictures tomorrow. I uploaded my pictures this evening and found these from the jog-a-thon on Friday. Joshua jogged 22 laps and I joined him for about 5 of them. It was a beautiful morning and our students raised almost $15,000 for the PTA, which helps to fund field trips and lots of after-school enrichment programs. We are all very pleased!

Sheryl

Update from home

I know you all like to have updates from Jon, but his life isn't all that exciting, even though he lives and works in a war zone -- go figure. He has a lot of meetings and conferences and works about 12 hours a day. When he is not working he reads a bit, eats a meal or two, runs 3 miles and that's about it.

Joshua and I, on the other hand, have quite an exciting life. Last Saturday Joshua, his friend Dalton and I went to see "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything" moive. If you are under 10 years old or have a child who is that age, it is a fun movie. :) Sunday we had a fabulous time with our friends the Crafts at another friend Amy's house watching the Super Bowl on a TV that used a projector to put the image on a screen that covered one wall of the room -- amazing! And yes, Joshua and I were both cheering for the NY Giants, so we were very happy campers.

This week I have attended one Town Hall meeting at our school to discuss future plans, lead a PTA meeting, spent hours on campus counting money and helping with our school Jog-a-thon and actually jogged around the track with Joshua and his classmates today. Ah, don't you wish you had the life of a PTA President?! :)

This afternoon Joshua and I are headed to our friend Lauri's house. She lives about an hour east of us. We'll spend the night and tomorrow take a tram up the mountains above Palm Springs and play in the snow. Unlike those of you who live in places like Michigan and Minnesota, we have to travel to get the snow, which is just the way I like it.

Hope your lives are just as full of experiences that you enjoy as mine is.

Sheryl

Jon's room

I just got this update from Jon about his room. Thought you all might enjoy his perspective and an idea of the temperature over there.

"My room is much more liveable with the heater, and the guy warned me that, as the unit had been sitting awhile (it was a used unit), the compressor fluid, etc., settles in the bottom, so it will work more effectively after running for some time... The first night I was a little warm, but I was so happy, I didn't think it was TOO warm. The next night, I left it on the same setting, but when I woke up it was way too hot, so I turned the thermostat down. The next night, leaving the thermostat in its new location, seemed great when I fell asleep, but when I woke up, it was way too hot again. I think I'm getting closer to the mark though, we'll find out tonight. And no, this is not because it is getting warmer at night, it's still dropping into the mid to high 30's at night, rising as high as the mid 50's during the day. I went running for the first time since getting here, I ran at about 1400, so it was just warm enough (a little chilly, but the exercise kept me in there). I did my old 3 mile route, and of course, it seemed longer than it did a year ago... I'm doing calisthenics every morning now, and plan to run three times a week, we'll see if I can stay disciplined."

I also learned that he will have to take a short trip somewhere within the country. In the past he hasn't been able to send e-mails or call when he has taken these trips. Please pray for his safety and that I won't worry. Thanks.

Sheryl

News from Jarhedjon

More news from Jarhedjon.

"Last year the geese were an item of interest here, and they still are (to those of us returning to the AO). I have recently discovered that a game warden was actually dispatched to this base back in 2006 to remove the geese, but was prevented in accomplishing his mission by some pretty important people (read "stars on their collars") due to the symbolic nature the geese seem to have had associated with them. There are currently 11 geese, I believe (all of them humungous honkers, and getting more stupendous by the day), which is two less, I recall, than there were when I left here about a year ago. RUMINT says that a couple of desert wolves are responsible.

I discovered that the waist button on one of my Training Allowance Pool (TAP) issued MARPATDDCU (Marine Pattern Digital Desert Combat Uniform) trousers was missing. I am happy to report that though I have not had to do anything of this nature for at least the last fifteen years (that I have been married to Sheryl), I was able to remedy the situation in an expeditious manner. Having prepared myself with a Marine Corps Field Sewing Kit, and through the use of all the aids and tools contained there in, I was able to sew on a new button (which, thanks to the supply of several types of USMC uniform buttons contained in the sewing kit, actually matches the other buttons). The hardest part was threading the needle. I'm far sighted, so with my glasses on I had to hold the needle so far away for it to come into clear focus that I lost perspective on where the thread was in relationship to the now quite distant eye of the needle. If I took my glasses off and tried to do the close focus thing, the needle's eye and thread were too CLOSE for adequate depth perception. Then, assuming I was actually able to line up the thread with the
eye of the needle (a feat I believe I accomplished once or twice), getting the "frayed" end of the thread to proceed through the eye was a different trick entirely. Luckily for me, the Marine Corps Sewing Kit contains a needle-threading apperatus that is basically a fine steel wire pre-formed into a diamond shape, connected to an aluminum tab (I discovered this device after my initial failures to thread the needle forced me to re-inventory the sewing kit to determine if there were any other options, like a needle with a bigger eye, etc.). All one has to do is feed the pointy end of the diamond through the eye, force the entire (now collapsed) diamond through, and then the diamond shape springs back into shape on the other side of the eye--then stick the end of the thread through the diamond, and then pull the wire back through the eye, and VOILA, the needle has been threaded. I must confess that it actually took me a couple times to get the end of the thread through the diamond, but I did get the mission accomplished. I was even listening to music at the time AND thinking about how I wish I could get someone else to
perform this task, which technically qualifies me as a multi-tasker.

Things are going well, I have heat in my room, I'm getting packages from home, I now have uniforms with their complete compliment of buttons installed, I'm just waiting for it to get hotter (which it will) and for my weekly schedule to become routine (which I hope it will). Thanks for your prayers."

Sheryl

Update on the room

Jon is getting settled into his room and I thought you might be interested in reading about his creativity in setting things up in a way that will work for him.

"I am getting my room set up more and more every day. Today I set it up with a sit-up bar, so I have something I can hook my feet under so I can do situps every morning before my stretching exercises. I also picked up some heavy wire mesh material that I can use to support the mattress on my bed instead of the piece of 1/2inch plywood, which is not big enough to do the job. I also have got a large swath of construction felt that I can use to insulate and cover the window in my room to prevent the transfer of heat and light (the heavy wire mesh and the construction felt both came from three discarded sides to a HESCO barrier that someone has abandoned adjacent to a blast shelter). I'm pretty stoked about getting my room more and more liveable every day."

Thank you for your continued prayers for all of us. Joshua is doing very well. I have complimented him on his great behavior and helpfulness around the house. That is a huge blessing to me. I still struggle with the overwhelming feeling of having to do everything on my own. Of course many of you offer your help, but I'm referring to just "doing life" on my own without my husband, partner, best friend... But overall we all are doing quite well as we finish up our second week of deployment.

Sheryl

Getting settled

Just got this update from Jon:

"Now that the convoy with all our gear has arrived, I've got started on the NLT Chronological One Year Bible--I plain didn't have room in my "overnight" (which really had to cover six nights) bag for it.

Progress here continues at an almost astronomical rate, a couple of days ago there were ZERO incidents in the whole province over a 24 hour period. Yes, this is probably an anomaly, but the truth is that the people of the United States can be proud of the job our Service men and women are doing here.

I received my first snail mail exactly seven days after I left the States, a post card mailed by Sheryl and Joshua the day I left California! By mid February I should be assigned permanent billeting [housing], after which it will be a little easier to establish a routine (I will no longer be "living out of a suitcase")--which I find is the most contributing factor to my ability to practice discipline.

The weather here is about ten degrees colder than I remember it being during the same season in 2006, but given the indoors nature of my job and the reality that thin-blooded Californians have no credibility when it comes to their perception of what is cold, I will not complain about it...

Thanks for your prayers and support, I have as yet escaped the CRUD that typically accompanies arrival in country AND the bug that is going the rounds even among those that have been here for several months."

That's all for now.

Sheryl

He made it

I received this e-mail when I woke up this morning.

"Well, I got in last night (to my final destination) at about 2000 after an uneventful trip. I'm billeted in the same building as last time, but in a different room--which is going to need some major improvements if I'm going to be permanently billeted there. The heater does not work, there is no plywood base between the frame and the mattress (making the bed very uncomfortable to sleep in), and the curtains are not sufficient to keep out daylight. That being said, it was good to be finally done with traveling, and our stowed luggage should arrive tomorrow afternoon, though I'll live out of the day bag for now. This is because we've been told billeting is temporary until after the transition is complete, after which we'll take stock and allocate the rooms permanently. I'd really like my old room back (unless God has something better for me :), so please pray to that end.

There is definitely a sense of familiarity for me here, especially since I'm in the same building I lived in before. There is also a sense of huge unknowns as well, as I'm operationally spinning up in a totally different area than what I had experience with before. It seems I will have plenty of work to do, so boredom will not be a problem. However, it also seems like I'll be able to moderate my work to 12 hours or so a day, which will help with the whole burn-out thing."

Thanks for praying for Jon these past 4 1/2 days as he was traveling. Now the work begins for him and you can see from his message some ways to pray. We appreciate knowing that so many of you are praying for our family.

Sheryl

News from the Persian Gulf and San Juan

Last night as I was heading to bed I checked my e-mails for one final time and noticed that Jon had sent a message just a couple minutes previously. I got on my computer and sent a quite note to see if he was still online and saw a message pop up before I had even sent mine. We spent the next twenty minutes sending messages back and forth. It's a rather weird way to be connected, but it's better than nothing. Fortunately we both type fairly fast.

Sometime today (our time) he should be making his final flight to the destination where he'll be for the next 13 months. I'll let you all know when I hear that he has arrived.

I have received a few e-mails asking for an update on the mold situation. When the worker came out to address the problem he wanted to use a special solution to wipe away the mold. He showed me, "Look the mold is gone." Yeah, right! (deep sarcasm) When I didn't agree he asked, "So you want me to cut out the drywall and put in a new piece?" Yes, that was exactly what I wanted. He was eventually convinced when he took off the baseboards and saw the mold on the backs of them and that the wall really was damp. He cut everything out and left space under the walls so air could circulate through both cupboards. We'll wait at least a week and then see if things are dry enough to replace. I have also been instructed to keep an eye out for any signs of more mold. Everything is documented and I have been assured that if something shows up in the future, it will be covered, even if the warranty is over.

On to a lighter note. Two years ago, the night before Jon left the first time (February 16, 2006), Joshua lost his first tooth. Sunday morning (two days after Jon left this time) Joshua lost his 5th tooth. Maybe this demonstrates how we fall apart a bit when Jon leaves. Or maybe this is a reminder that losing baby teeth is a normal part of life so that a new big tooth can grow in, like it is supposed to. I'm not going to say that a family being separated for a year is a normal part of life, but everyone has times of great difficulty to deal with and THAT IS life. The trick is learning to allow a new healthy life to grow up instead of a bitter, angry one. So Joshua and I will both be losing baby teeth and growing new big ones this year. Hope you do too.

Sheryl

Another flight toward final destination

I just got a couple e-mails from Jon and thought I'd post parts of them for you all.

"We got away from [the first Persian Gulf country] with less than 48 hours there, but it was a near thing... We had a 1530 muster with all our gear, and were supposed to head out to the flight line for a 2000 flight, which we did, but the plane had a problem, and we sat there for an hour and a half while they tried to fix it... If you've ever sat in C-130 canvas seating for two hours, you'll know how hard that is on your buns, and two hours was longer than our flight was supposed to be. We finally transferred to another aircraft, and then endured the flight into country, our buns had totally had it by then. Made it into country at about midnight, and I went over and read a little while, then went to bed. I could have gone over to the transient area to watch the game, but didn't really feel like it--instead I read a little and then crashed. We'd missed the first quarter of the Patriot-Charger game anyway, standing on the flight line and dragging our gear to the transient quarters (I think I tweaked my shoulder a little, or maybe I just slept on it wrong--I'm in bad shape, having not PT'ed since early December, so I'm "looking forward" to getting back into a routine which I hope I'll have enough discipline to maintain). I slept pretty much through until 1100, and just finished chow, which was good. I've got one more leg of my trip to make, [hopefully it will be within the next 48 hours]. Well, some things have changed over here, but other things are the same. Generally, though, the changes are definitely for the better, even the little observable things to a Marine in transit."

Thanks for your prayers.

Sheryl

Safely in the Persian Gulf area

I received my first e-mail (of hundreds to come) from Jon. He arrived safely in a Persian Gulf country that is not his final destination. He slept more on the flight from Europe to that country. He may be at this stop for a day or two before starting the final leg of his journey. Thanks for continuing to keep him in your prayers.

I don't think I mentioned that Joshua and I had a great time at the SD Zoo yesterday. Here is Joshua's favorite picture of himself with his favorite animal -- a Meerkat. Right after taking this picture a man with his family noticed Joshua's hat and jokingly asked if he'd been to Camp Fallujah. Joshua said no but that his Dad had been there and was on his way back. It was nice to receive the condolences from a family who truly understood. This Marine was only recently back and not sure when he might return. We are definitely not alone in this experience.

All for now.

Sheryl

Leaving the country

Jon called my cell this afternoon at 4:30 p.m. California time. He was in Bangor, Maine, where the citizens of that town have continued, for years now, to support the military personnel who come through their airport. There are community members at the airport at any time of the day or night to welcome military personnel who are headed out of country or coming home. They also provide free cell phones for Marines and others to use to call home. That's how Jon was able to reach me this afternoon. What a blessing those dear people are up in the northeast corner of our country.

Jon's flight out of March Air Force Base in Riverside, CA, left on time so they only had to wait there for a couple hours. Those of you who know Jon won't be surprised by this, but Jon was able to sleep for 4 hours on the flight from California to Maine. That is great news since he didn't get much sleep last night (an hour and a half).

By now he should be winging his way over the Atlantic to parts in Europe before heading south to the Persian Gulf region. Thanks for your prayers. I've included a few pictures of our Escape camp out and our final good byes.

Sheryl

Big Yawn!

It was a short night and an early morning. We were up and out of the house by 2:00 a.m. Jon had to check in at 2:30. He was done checking in and getting his weapon by a little after 3:00 but the chow hall didn't open till 5:00 and they weren't scheduled for final muster until 5:45. Well, I was prepared. The back of the Escape was full of sleeping pads, sleeping bags, comforters, pillows and lots of blanks. After half an hour of squirming around all three of us actually fell asleep for about an hour. Then it was breakfast in the chow hall and good byes in the freezing (okay, temperature is all relative, but it was in the low 40s and breezy and I forgot our warm coats). After muster the Marines boarded their buses and headed off at 6:30. They'll be at their next stop for a number of hours before flying out with various stops on their journey to the other side of the world. I'll keep you posted as I hear from Jon.

Joshua and I had plans to go to the San Diego Zoo today, but at 6:30 I realized they don't open until 9:00. Fortunately my sister lives in north San Diego county, so we stopped by her place at 7:00. Joshua is enjoying their Wii and I was able to get caught up with Sandy over a cup of tea and make this post to my blog.

All for now.

Sheryl

You won't believe this

For those of you who have faithfully read this blog for the two years that I have written it, you will not believe what I found in our new house yesterday. As I removed the table leaves from the closet in the utility room, I discovered that the wall of the closet was covered with fuzzy mold covering the bottom foot of the closet wall. As you probably remember, we got rid of our old home due to mold that was inside the walls and subfloor but never actually showed its furry face on the inside of the house. UGH! All I can figure is that the wall sucked up a lot of water when we had that leak prior to our move-in and the mold has finally sprouted -- or whatever you call it.

I have been assured by the company that we bought the home from that someone will be out, hopefully today, but I have not gotten any calls so far this morning. I don't know how they will get rid of it, but I they cut the wall out and replace it. I want to make sure there isn't mold beginning to grow in other walls. The other side of the closet had some mold showing.

And so the saga of our house continues. I just wish that I didn't have to deal with it by myself starting in a few days. Oh, well, the one upside is that the frustration of this house problem does help to cover some of those sad feelings.

To top it off, Joshua has been home sick all week. I thought he was having allergies on Sunday, due to the winds, but by Monday afternoon he had a temperature and was vomiting. Poor kid, he has been pretty miserable. I am keeping him home today but his cough seems to be getting better and he hasn't had any more problems with his stomach.

Thanks for keeping us in your prayers.

Sheryl

Update

I am sorry that it has taken so long to get pictures posted of the house. We had our open house last weekend and so we were working hard to get everything ready for that. Since then there has just been a lot of work preparing for Jon's departure which is less than a week away.

But this morning I went out and took a couple pictures outside and a few inside so you can get an idea of what the final result looks like. We love it! There is a picture of the entire house from the north east corner and a picture of our huge 9'x33' front porch. I'll have to get a picture from the west side so you can see the car port and Jon's shed. Inside there is a picture of the living room (2/3 of it fit in the picture), dining room/library and my huge wonderful kitchen. Enjoy the tour.

Celebrate with us

Saturday, January 5th from 2:00 - 5:00 p.m. we will have an Open House to share our new home with any who would like to see it. So many of you have had a hand in this new house that we would love for you to come by and visit.

Since this blog is a public forum, I will not be posting my address, e-mail or phone number. If you attend SCPC, you can get my contact information from the church office or CCB (church database). If you are a friend with my e-mail address, please drop me a note so I can rebuild my lost electronic address book. If you are a friend without my contact information, you can probably find us via the Internet somehow. :)

Hope many of you can join us to celebrate this momentous occasion.

Sheryl for Jon and Joshua

Yipee!

We got to sleep in our own beds in our own house last night!!! Escrow didn't close till today, but the funding was transferred yesterday and that is what counts, so our loan officer gave the thumbs up for our first overnight.

Today Joshua got to go to Knott's Berry Farm (a local amusement park) with my brother's family. Joshua and his cousin Evan are only 6 months apart and really enjoy each other. It was a nice gift for me to have an entire day to run errands and do chores around the house by myself.

Just wanted to let you all know that we are officially in our home and loving it. Thanks for all the help and prayers that so many of you provided during the past 6 weeks and two days. It is very good to be home. Feel free to drop by and visit any time.

Sheryl

Life goes on

I was told once by my brother and sister-in-law that new houses can end up being as much work as old ones. Having never owned a brand new home I must confess that I didn't believe them, even though they were current owners of a new home. Well, now I believe.

This morning when we arrived at the house we found a minor flood in our utility room. Of course the contractor is on vacation today but assured us that they'll be here first thing tomorrow morning. Jon got his shower before he headed to work and then we turned off the water. I was a bit stressed and then Joshua got nervous and was worried that we'd have a flood that would ruin all of our stuff. What a morning.

I spoke with our loan agent this morning and she assured me that escrow will close today. However, I still haven't gotten a call, so now I'm getting nervous again. I know the bank is on the east coast, so it's already 3:30 there. Please pray that escrow closes today and I will relax and trust the Lord while I'm waiting. Thanks.

Oh, I can finally post pictures cause I have a computer. I think I forgot to mention that I discovered yesterday that the computer that was donated to us is a brand new Dell Lap top. Wow! What a great Christmas gift that was. Here's a picture of us in front of the tree my brother's family brought on Sunday. There will be more to come.

Sheryl

Gift, gifts and more gifts

Yesterday, December 23rd was Joshua's 8th birthday. After church we were able to do a little unpacking in the house before my family arrived for his birthday party and our family Christmas celebration. My brother Steve, sister-in-law Sandi and kids Elena, Emma and Evan, arrived with a big surprise -- a huge Christmas tree. It would not have fit in our old house, but it looks great with our new vaulted ceilings. What a fun surprise. All of our ornaments were packed away in bins that had been piled in our living room waiting to be stored somewhere. We all had fun decorating the tree.

Joshua, of course received many gifts for his birthday and then we were off to geocache -- see link to the left to learn more. We were only able to find two sights, but one was in a part of San Juan that we had never visited before. With our recent rains the hills were green and the air was clean and fresh. We are so sorry for those of you snowed in right now. We love our 65 degree Christmases. We went back to our house and enjoyed a ham dinner with all the fixings, thanks to my generous family. There were more gifts, for everyone this time and then games and lots of sweets until about 10:00 p.m.

Before I tell you where we went after everyone left for their homes, I have to go back to the morning when we were at church. This was probably the sweetest gift of the day. We told a few friends about our situation -- escrow not closing and us not feeling comfortable breaking the rules and sleeping in the house. Kellie, who helped us move on Saturday overheard and immediately invited us to stay with them. Her husband agreed and I gratefully accepted. About 30 minutes later I had a message on my cell phone from another good friend. She decided to use part of a recent inheritance to put us up in a suite at the Double Tree Hotel in Dana Point for three nights. She thought (rightly) that I might enjoy just having family time and not living with anyone else for a few days. Wow! What a blessing. Our rooms have an ocean view with a king size bed (Ahhhh!) and a pull-out couch for Joshua.

The amazing thing is that for the two days that I was looking for a place to stay and everything kept falling through, I had this thought that God must have something better for us. That is not my normal response to disappointing circumstances, but God is so good and he has blessed us so much that I figured He must having something special in store. Wow! I never would have guessed this.

Today we are moving the last of our belongings out for Kristin and Rani's house and Lord willing, escrow will close on Wednesday so we can officially move into our new home.

May you see the many ways God is blessing you this Christmas,

Sheryl

A slight change in plans

Life is full of opportunities to learn flexibility. Does that give you an idea of what this post is about?

Friday was a busy day with the house walk-through that I did with the contractor Frank. There are many things that a crew will need to come out and fix. The paint crew seems to have used semi-gloss to spot paint the living room and dining room, which were done in flat paint. Ah, its great to know the paint crew is so knowledgeable. :) But overall the house looked great and Frank noted all of my concerns. It will probably be the new year before they are all fixed, but that's okay. Jon was able to get off work a little early to attend a special scholar assembly at school where Joshua received an award from his teacher for being a math scholar. Yes, his former-math-teacher mother is very proud, as is his literary father. :) Then there was the Christmas, I mean Holiday class party, where the kids decorated the store-bought gingerbread men I bought with frosting and candy -- what fun. I was going to bring cupcakes, but the kids seemed to enjoy this more since they got to decorate AND eat their treat.

So the opportunity to learn flexiblity came when I called the Claudia, the woman who is coordinating our loan and found out that she was not in the office and no one else had our case or could help me. UGH! I called Lydia, our sales rep. and she was shocked to hear that Claudia was not avaialbe. But Lydia had Claudia's cell phone and promised to call me back. Turns out the bank, which is located on the east coast, didn't get the appraisal until Friday morning and they had told Claudia that they needed one day to review it. All of our credit stuff was done, but this final issue was the hold up. What is very difficult for me is that I spoke with Claudia twice Thursday afternoon and she never told me the truth that escrow could not close on Friday. Well our sales rep. and her boss felt terrible and said if we signed a hold-harmless form and promised not to tell anyone, we could move in and live in our house until escrow closes on Wednesday (delay due to a weekend and Christmas). Unfortunately, neither Jon or I feel comfortable doing something that we "are not supposed to tell anyone about." It feels shady, unethical, something. We had been told that right before escrow closes its okay to move stuff into the home, but we cannot sleep there until the papers are signed, sealed and delivered. It was all very anticlimactic.

But our friend Pati Toole had arranged for a moving crew, so we went forward with our plans for Saturday. We had an awesome team: my dad and mom, sister Sandy and brother-in-law Sonny, Jim Craft who organized the loading of the trucks, Ryan Romberg who is just a great funny guy who overloaded his truck to get everything to our house, Kellie Bieber who helped my mom, sister and me to put down shelf-paper (that Pati bought for me) and unload the kitchen boxes, Jack Bieber who played with Joshua all morning, Jim Toole who came to be part of the unloading team and then, with Pati, Jake and Conor took Joshua to the local petting zoo in the afternoon when Jack had to go home. What a team. We got everything moved out of the storage shed and into our house. It will be a while before everything is put away, but it is great to have it all there. Actually, we still have some of our outdoor sheds and tools on Heidi's driveway, but she has been so generous and is not in a rush to have her clean driveway back.

We worked all day and then came "home" to Kristin and Rani's to watch a move and go to bed. We were all asleep by 8:30. We have one final opportunity for flexibility. Kristin and Rani have friends coming. Since everything seemed to be on scheduled for us to be out this weekend, they went ahead and invited some friends to come stay with them -- yes, they are very generous and hospitable folks. So now we are looking for a place to spend our final nights before we can sleep in our own beds in our own home on Wednesday. But we know that God will provide.

Thank you all for your prayers and the many, many of you who participated in helping us move. We are so blessed.

Sheryl

Moving forward

Today I am feeling very encouraged about our home. We were able to sign the loan docs today and do an initial walk-through with the sales rep. to point out things that need to be fixed before we move in. The carpet was in, but still waiting for the linoleum for the dining room and hall way. The outside is amazing and made a huge leap today. The porch is finished and this evening they were painting the wood railing. The awning also went up today so now there is a covering over the front porch and the driveway. The contractor assured us that the porch and steps on the back of the house will be finished tomorrow and Jon's shed will start going up.

I am starting to allow myself to really believe that we will be using that U-Haul truck on Saturday -- this Saturday the 22nd. Tomorrow I'm going to start packing up the stuff we brought with us to Kristin and Rani's. Wow! It's hard to believe that next week at this time we may be living in our own new home and celebrating the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. How cool is that?!

May the rest of this advent season be filled with anticipation not just of Christmas day but the return of Jesus to this earth to rule in peace.

Sheryl

Blessings

The past week has been crazy. Without access to my computer, my life has felt very disorganized, but I have survived. Wednesday we received an e-mail from the pastor of our church letting us know that another member of our church had purchased a Dell computer for us and that it will be delivered early next week. We are so overwhelmed by this blessing. With the water heather going out at our house in Orange, repairs that had to be done on Jon's truck and Christmas shopping, the computer was just another expense we couldn't handle very well right now. God is so good and we are so blessed to be cared for so well by God's people.

The house is moving forward and yesterday I was able to go inside for the first time. There has been lots of craziness surrounding the house as just about every day I have found mistakes being made. Wednesday I informed 6 construction workers that they had framed up our porch in the wrong place -- 3 feet off of our plan. I was so proud of myself for staying relatively calm, calling the contractor and figuring out a way to solve the problem of the corner of the porch being too close to the road, which was why they had moved the porch down. I still do not know why they didn't call to ask us what we thought of this alternative. Today I need to go talk to them about the brick work around the property which isn't quite in the right place yet. Wow! I never thought I would be this directly involved in putting our house together. But everything is coming together and looks great. The sales reps. still assure us that they'll be done next week and we can move next Saturday. A friend from church is recruiting others to help us with the move on the 22nd. What a blessing.

Sheryl

Waiting mode

The house is in place and put together. We have been waiting since Thursday for the inspector to come and deliver the Certificate of Occupancy (CO), so the rest of the work can be done on the house. Next comes the outside portion of the house along with the finishing touches -- flooring, etc., on the inside. Our sales rep. is still saying that we'll be in by Christmas. I have reserved a U-Haul for Saturday, December 22, but we'll see if I need to reschedule or not. We cannot move in until the entire house is completed and an appraisal has been done. Pray for patience.

Our computer is also in waiting mode -- it is not working at all and we are waiting for a miracle or someone who can help "heal" our machine. We are able to check e-mails on Kristin and Rani's computer, but every day we think of something useful that we cannot access because our computer is not working. I am driving to Stanton at least once a week to do my job for FSEA. It's not convenient, but not the end of the world. Again, please pray for patience and wisdom to know what to do now.

Trying to patiently wait,

Sheryl

We have a house!!!

Monday, December 3 between 11:00 and 11:30 a.m. our new home was delivered to space #73. We are so excited and feel so blessed to be supported through this process by so many of you. Kristin, Rani, Emma and Claire have been the biggest blessing as they have shared their home with us for three weeks and anticipate three more weeks to go.

I have about 30 minutes of video tape and lots of pictures of the new house being brought in. Unfortunately our computer is not yet up and running enough for me to post pictures to the blog. Hopefully soon! If you know where our house is, feel free to drive by and take a look. Today they are supposed to be "putting it together." It will take a few days to get the house assembled and up on blocks with earthquake bracing, etc. Then our contractor Herman will begin on the "outside package" while others complete the inside of the house -- flooring, touch-up painting, etc. We are very hopeful that we can be in the house by Christmas. We anticipate renting a U-Haul to move our stuff out of storage at Camp Pendleton and bring it home on Saturday, December 22. If you would be willing to help us with this endeavor, let us know.

We are very encouraged and blessed by so many of you. Thank you.

Sheryl

When it rains, it pours

"When it rains, it pours," someone said and it has been true for us these past couple weeks. Jon had to spend all day Saturday at our house in Orange. The water heater started leaking -- not sure when -- but long enough to ruin the new flooring we had installed in the spring. We will for sure have to replace the floor in the dining area, not sure if the kitchen portion will need replacing as well. We were thinking of a tankless water heather for the house, but the difference between a water heater ($1,300) and a tankless ($3,000) was just too much with anticipated expense of replacing the floor.

Jon spent all afternoon today (Sunday) getting our computer back up and running. We don't have the Microsoft Office software yet, but at least we have a "clean" machine and can access Outlook Express and the Internet. That is a big help. I am so grateful for Jon's tenacious work to get us back up. We hope to get the Microsoft software installed Tuesday night, so hopefully we'll find all of the documents we have created on our system by the middle of the week.

The new house is supposed to be delivered Monday morning at 8:30 a.m. I have not been happy with the work in preparing the lot -- long story -- but I have stayed on top of the contractor and sales person. Jon has gotten permission to go to work late so he will be there with me in the morning to make sure the new house gets put where it is supposed to. Then we have a couple weeks for the "outside package" to be built (porch, stairs, widen driveway, etc.). After that, we can move in -- hopefully the week before Christmas. I still think that is possible.

Thank you for your encouraging words and prayers. By the way, both Jon and I will need to rebuild our e-mail address books, so if you read this, please send each of us an e-mail. Thanks.

Sheryl

If you can believe it -- now the computer is gone

We got a virus. Hopefully none of received bugged e-mails from us. Jon spent Sunday trying to fix the problem and by Monday night it was all over. It has been a strange week without the computer. I actually "went back to work." The FSEA office is located in Stanton (just south of Knott's Berry Farm) about 50 miles from our current home in San Clemente, but the drive had to be made as I've had about 8 hours of work that needed to be done this week. I have the added benefit of being able to check my personal e-mail once my work is done.

Things are progressing with our house, but not in a quick or as orderly a fashion as we saw the first week. I have had to stay on top of a number of people and today I will take the plans to the site along with my measuring tape to make sure things are really set up right for the delivery of the house. It was supposed to be delivered this week, but due to some of those people I have been keeping tabs on, it won't go in until Monday. Oh, well, what would my life be without a construction project to stay on top of? We still hope to be in the house before Christmas, but we'll see.

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. I had a great time with friends where we currently live and then a couple days with my immediate family -- all of us, including our newest member -- Madeline McKenna France (almost 3 months). We all had an extended slumber party at my brother Steve's house in Escondido. If I had my own computer, I could post some pictures of our time together. :) I know, you are releaved not to have baby pictures to look at.

All for now,

Sheryl

And now the bike is gone

Last night Jon sold his BMW motorcycle. He owned it for 3 1/2 years and was able to get hours of enjoyment out of it. He fulfilled a life-time dream of biking around the US with his two brothers in 2005 and has loved driving it to work just about every day since he bought it.

But it was time for the bike to move on to another owner so we could save about $10K in interest on our new home. I'm not sure if Jon will post a eulogy on his blog, but here is a picture of his baby with the load bearing system that he created and built himself.

Farewell, good bike.

Sheryl

It's Gone

We moved out of our house Monday evening, November 12. Tuesday morning I drove by to check it out and men were already working stripping down the awnings, carport, etc. I took the picture to the right that morning. We salvaged a few items we realized we'd forgotten. Wednesday they were still hard at work putting axels and wheels under the house. By Thursday morning the two halves of the house were separated and prepared to be driven away. I took Joshua by after school to see the two halves and the house was gone. Amazing!



Ready to go. Notice that the street sign/stop sign is still in place, but did not survive when the house was pulled out.
























Same corner from reverse angle this past Thursday:

Lots to celebrate

Last week was crazy with Jon and I cleaning out, packing, organizing, packing and moving all of our "stuff" out of our old house. As of this morning, we are out and the old house is being dismantled. I'll try to get pictures up later this week.

On Saturday Jon and I were able to get away for another overnight date. My brother and sister-in-law watched Joshua this time and he had a great time with his cousin Evan. They are 6 months apart and great friends. Joshua even lost another tooth while he was there.

Jon and I arrived at The Inn at Rancho Santa Fe around 4:00, so we were able to relax and enjoy the picturesque inn while getting ready for the ball that evening. This town was about the last community blocking the fires from getting to the ocean. The burned areas we drove through were stark but it was amazing to see surviving houses dotting the burned landscape. Numerous "thank you firefighters" signs mark the driveways along that road.

The ball was great fun because we had 12 friends join us. We were also with a unit that Jon used to be connected to when he was a Reservist. Many of the "old guys" showed up for the ball, so it was fun to see familiar faces. I usually don't know anyone at the big MEF (Marine Expeditionary Force) balls. It was very nice to spend the night at the inn and sleep in a bit Sunday morning. Jon wore his uniform on Sunday in honor of Veteran's Day and we took a little walk into town to find some breakfast -- we were trying to save a few bucks since the breakfast at the inn was a little more that we would usually spend. Well, we were stopped by many people and Jon was thanked for his service. One man stopped his car, got out and came over to shake Jon's had. He invited us to the local church and then handed Jon $40 for breakfast. Everyone insisted that the best breakfast was at the Inn, so we headed back and enjoyed the delicious meal immensely. What an encouragement as we prepare for another deployment in two months.

When we got home Sunday, we spent the rest of the day and all day Monday getting our stuff together. It is amazing how long the final day of packing took. We fell into bed around 11:00 p.m. after going all day. But we got everything we wanted out and we are settled at our friends' home in San Clemente. My proudest moment was getting my computer set up all by myself last night. When I saw my e-mail popping up, I felt like I was home. :)

We are so grateful to have a comfortable, beautiful place to live for the next month or so. God has been very good.

Sheryl

A busy long weekend

November has started off with our usual crazy busy schedule. Thursday Joshua was home from school (elementary schools were having parent/teacher conferences) and I needed to attend a meeting at the district office. Jon got home from work around 1:30 -- early because the MEF (Marine Expeditionary Force) was having their Marine Corps Ball that night. We loaded up our truck to take more of our stuff down to the storage bin at Camp Pendelton. Then we headed south. This was my first sight of the burned area in Camp Pendelton along the 5 freeway. It was awesome to see 8 miles of burned hills. I took this picture while I was driving north on the 5 freeway. For me the fire has already become history but I know there are families who only just got to go home this weekend and of course the families who lost their homes will be rebuilding for a long time. Later in the weekend we drove a short way down the 15 freeway to get a glimpse of the burned area in Rancho Bernardo -- we could see places where the fire jumped a freeway that is at least 10 lanes wide -- those were powerful winds.

Thursday evening we were able to drop Joshua off with my sister Sandy and her husband Sonny. He had a wonderful time and was introduced to Wii. Oh, great, a new expensive toy to add to his wish list -- thanks, Uncle Sonny. This Marine Corps ball was held at the Pechanga Casino -- 1,200 Marines and their guests and it seemed like the majority were about 18 years old. I started feeling old when the music started and I didn't know many of the songs and my head started ringing -- that was loud music. Jon and I had a wonderful date night together and I got to meet many of the Marines that he either worked with the last time he was deployed or who he will work with next year. It was just fun to be out for the night together.

Friday we got back home in time to run over to school to our conference with Joshua's teacher. We learned that Joshua is quite smart -- tested at the 3rd grade level in English and Math. Of course he is being taught in Spanish and his Spanish reading is lower than it "should" be so he will be having some after-school "enrichment" classes for the next few months. We also are supposed to work with him to get him to memorize the addition and subtraction facts. Unfortunately, his math major mother never memorized those facts. I have been known to use my fingers while balancing my check book. So I know for a fact that Joshua will be fine without being able to complete 100 addition or subtraction problems in 5 minutes. Oh, well, we'll try to find a fun way to help him memorize them.

Our craziness was in full swing on Saturday. We had soccer at 8:00 a.m. -- Joshua played and Jon was the ref. Then we headed to our house in Orange to unload the nearly-new oven from our current mobile home, a dishwasher in fairly good shape and mirrored sliding glass doors. We also helped our friend and tenant Lauri pack up her stuff as she was moving out. Then we were off to sign the revised papers for our new home. We rushed home so Jon could show his motorcycle to an interested buyer. We loaded the truck again so Jon could take another trip to our storage unit at Camp Pendelton. I headed off to Jumpin Jammin with Joshua for a friend's birthday party. What a day. The extra hour of sleep last night was greatly needed and appreciated.

Next weekend we'll be moving and I'm not sure how long I'll be without a computer. The friends who are hosting us for the next 6 weeks have said I can get connected to the Internet, so hopefully I'll only be off for a day or two. Thanks for all your prayers.

Sheryl

A Happy Halloween

Jon and Joshua were out trick-or-treating for 2 hours and came back with the most candy Joshua has ever collected. And unknown to me, Jon did dress up. He put on his coat and hat because in past years he had discovered that this favorite outfit of his looks like Freddy Kruger to everyone else. You can decide.

Sheryl

Getting caught up

It has been nearly a month since I last posted to my blog. Many thanks to those of you who read my blog regularly. I am humbled when you tell me in passing that you are keeping up and praying for me. Wow! What a blessing. Thank you.

After the marathon we became very focused on packing and making decisions about our new home. We had a great time picking out the specs for our new home and only had to make a few cuts (nothing critical) to stay within our budget. Then came the meeting with the contractor who will do the "outside" package -- porch, work shed, brick work and any cement that is needed. We had no idea of the cost, so we made our wish list, knowing that it would probably be more than we could afford. Sure enough, our initial requests put us at double what our sales rep. had estimated we would spend. So we quickly cut back on the brick work and came up with a smaller porch, etc. The final result will be just fine. October 20th we met with our sales rep., gave her our down payment (what a huge cashier's check that was) and signed the papers. She reviewed the time-line with us and the plan is for us to move out of our current home the weekend of November 10-11, the old house will then be removed, the site prepared and the new home placed the end of November. It will then take 2 weeks for the house to be put together, carpet and flooring installed, etc. and the "outside" package completed. Hopefully we'll be in our new home the week before Christmas.

Then we hit a "little" glitch. Friday, October 26, about an hour before Jon left to lead a group from our church to Mexico for a weekend work project, we got a message from the manager of Advantage Homes. We knew that he would be reviewing the paperwork and expected that he would order the house that Friday. Well, there had been a $30,000 mistake made by the sales rep. I will not go into the details, but suffice it to say, we were very disappointed. Jon and I spoke briefly about the situation and decided to spend the weekend praying and make a decision on Monday. The manager was able to find some savings and dropped the mistake down to a $20,000 increase over what we expected to have to borrow. What a weekend. I am a budgeter, saver, planner and this was a big hurtle for me. Both Jon and I prayed and when we got together Sunday night he said he would sell his motorcycle and that would help to cut our loan amount by another $10,000. Unfortunately the Marine who had been interested in buying his bike is now considering buying a home, so he doesn't have any extra cash right now. Jon has posted the bike on a couple online sites and we'll see what happens. There are always lots of bogus online offers but today someone did call and said that he lives in San Clemente and would like to come by and see the bike. So who knows how the Lord will provide, but we are confident that we have made the right decision and He will take care of our needs -- He always has.

I hope Jon will post on his blog about his trip to Mexico. He led a team of 8 to work at the church in the community of El Nino where our family worked over spring break back in April. Jon and the team had a wonderful time working and connecting with the church community there.

If you checked Jon's blog last week, you saw that we were not directly effected by the fires. School was closed for two days due to the bad air quality from the ash in the air. It was hard to breath and since I was recovering from a cold my cough was pretty bad, but of course that is nothing compared to the loss of homes and some lives caused by the fires. Joshua and I were able to get quite a bit of packing done while he was home from school.

Tonight Joshua (the werewolf) is out trick-or-treating with Jon (not dressed up) and another friend from the neighborhood (a zombie). What fun -- more candy than we need. :) Tomorrow and Friday there is no school due to parent/teacher conferences, so we'll be able to sleep in after our sugar high.

Thanks again for caring about our lives. Blessings and Happy Halloween!

Sheryl

More update from Jon

Jon called around 2:00 p.m. and it was great to hear his voice. If you've checked the web site you know that the marathon was canceled before most people could finish. Here is the official statement, "Due to the rising heat index and higher than expected temperatures, LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon Executive Race Director Carey Pinkowski and Medical Director Dr. George Chiampas, in cooperation with city officials, have implemented a contingency plan, as a precautionary measure, to effectively close the Marathon course at the halfway point. Runners who have not reached the halfway point by approximately 12:00 p.m. will be diverted back to Grant Park via Halsted and Jackson. Jackson will be closed to automobile traffic and the participants will be provided with additional support along this route. Participants who crossed the halfway point prior to the shut-down will continue to be fully supported along the standard course to the finish line. Participants are asked to take advantage of medical personnel, cooling buses, runner drop out buses, water, Gatorade and other means of support en route back to Grant Park."

Here's a video clip http://cbs2chicago.com/video/?id=36199@wbbm.dayport.com that tells about the closure of the marathon.

Jon was at mile 22 when the announcement was made and everyone was directed to walk the rest of the way in. They were told that their time would not be recorded. But he checked his watch and ended the race in 5 hours and 5 minutes -- a little slower than he had anticipated. Jon thinks that 5 or 6 of the 17 members of the team from our church were able to finish the race. He noted that the race organizers were very unprepared for the heat and were running out of water early. Those runners behind Jon did not get water until mile 6 and no Gatorade until mile 9. Jon said he really needed the water he got at mile 3 and the Gatorade he got at mile 6. Jon was on a bus heading back to the hotel when he called. Their team is going to meet in a couple hours and go out for dinner.

After hearing the really sad news about some of the marathon participants I am so grateful Jon and my other friends are fine. I'm sure Jon will post his perspective on the race on his blog when he gets home Monday night.

Sheryl

He finished

The website that tracks the runners is not working due to too much traffic, but I did get the e-mail confirmation that Jon finished the race a few minutes ago in 5 hours 15 minutes and 59 seconds. Amazing.

If you want to see a map of the course, go to: http://www.chicagomarathon.com/CMS400Min/uploadedFiles/Chicago_Marathon/Runner_Information/07_Course_Map_Vert_RGB.pdf

Thank you for your prayers.

Sheryl

Jon is racing

If you want to keep track of Jon's race, go to http://livechicago.mikatiming.com/ and type in his name or bib number #45192. As of 7:30 a.m. California time, he was at a slightly less than 11 minute/mile pace through the first 10K. Based on the times of others from our church team, it looks like Jon is running with our pastor Tod and at least one other team mate. Right now it is 77 degrees with 70% humidity but by noon when he finishes it is supposed to be 85 but feel like 89. UGH! I'm sure glad I'm not running. Thanks for your prayers.

I'll post his stats when the race is over.

Sheryl

Marathon update

Okay, the marathon has not started yet, but Jon did make it safely to Chicago yesterday. His brother Greg road his motorcycle over from Detroit so they were able to enjoy the evening together. Today Greg heads out and Jon will join his team for all of the pre-marathon activities.

A huge THANK YOU! to many of you who made donations to World Vision for the Nkhoma ADP in Malawi. As of this morning, over $2,005 had been donated via Jon's efforts. We are so grateful for your participation.

Keep the runners in your prayers as they are anticipating a high of 88 tomorrow. The nonprofessional runners won't start the race till 8:00 a.m. and with humidity in the 70s, I imagine it will be pretty miserable by the end of the run.

We did have our own excitement at home yesterday. When I picked Joshua up from school, I found my boy with a missing tooth. We had been waiting for this for a number of weeks now. The tooth has been "mostly dead" but Joshua didn't want to pull it. He ended up being accidentally hit in the face and out came the tooth. The tooth fairy visited last night, so all is well at home.

Some of you may be wondering about our new home. Last Saturday we picked out the specific items for inside and on Monday night we met with the contractor about the outside package. Now we are waiting for a final quote on the whole thing and approval from the mobile home park management and the city. Hopefully we'll have more news next week.

Sheryl

One more call for marathon sponsorship

As you all know, Jon will be running his first marathon this coming weekend -- in 4 days. I can't believe it. He was injured in August, but did the "work" of resting and caring for his ankle and has not had any pain during the past few weeks that he has been running. He has not done any of the really long runs (over 16 miles) but he is in good shape and I think will finish well. I am so proud of him!

The most important thing is that he has been able to raise almost $1,000 for a cause that is very important to us -- the World Vision Area Development Project (ADP) in Nkhoma, Malawi. Thank you, if you are one of the many who have joined Jon's "team." I was able to visit the Nkhoma area two years ago before the ADP was started. We have since begun sponsoring two children in the area and have been blessed to be part of a work that is bringing long-term, life-saving changes to this community. If you would like to join the team, please click on this link and make your donation. I know it will really encourage Jon as he prepares to head to Chicago.

http://www.firstgiving.com/jarhedjon

Thanks.

Sheryl