New Life Transitions!

Wow! So much has happened over the past seven weeks since I last updated our blog. Here are the highlights:

SCOTT: Scott retired from the military after 21 years of service on June 19th. My parents and brother, Scott's Dad, and Scott's sister and brother-in-law all flew up for the event. His prior commander, Lt. Col. Petito, flew in from Hawaii to perform the ceremony, and it was all so wonderful! We had a blast. Scott took a few weeks of vacation time and then started his new job as the Home Depot human resource manager last week. He likes it. He says it is a lot like his job as first sergeant but without all the stress :). He flies down to Anchorage tomorrow for a week of training. Scott was able to get two black bears this spring. He received a meat grinder from some of his buddies as a retirment gift, and he ground up the bear to make burger and sausages a couple of weeks ago. It is delicious!

Scott and Kaylee went salmon fishing down south at Klatina River for a few days, and they caught their limit of 12 salmon (six each). Scott actually landed a small King Salmon, but he had to throw it back because the king season hadn't opened yet.

JULIE: I was hired as the 7th and 8th grade teacher at North Pole Christian School. Classes start on August 17th, and I'm very excited! I will teach all the subjects; it is very similar to my homeschool experience. I have a small class of nine students, and I think we are going to have a blast! Jonathan will start pre-school (the grades go from pre-school to 12th grade). I am confident he will love it, and I will be right there in the next building if he needs me. Our little busy boy is more than ready to get into the classroom setting. Not only is his body on the move every waking hour - so is his precious mind!

I was the coordinator for the 4th of July North Pole Parade this year. It was really fun and turned out wonderfully (praise God!). We had about 100 entries in the parade - motorcycles, antique autos, floats, animals, boy scouts, girl scouts, churches, clowns, etc. The weather was fantastic (about 80 degrees), and everyone had a good time. After the parade was a community festival with all kinds of booths and then a bed race. Our church's youth group was one of the entrants in the bed race, and we raced against another church. If you've never seen a bed race, it is hysterical. You need a bed with big wheels on it. There is a five-member team (four push and one rides on the bed in PJs). The teams must push the beds to a half-way point and every person on the team needs to run over and around the bed and get back to their original positions (like a Chinese Fire Drill). At the end of the road, the person on the bed needs to take off the PJs and pass it to another team member who needs to put them on and get on the bed, then the team turns the bed around and pushes the bed back to the mid point where they do the Chinese Fire Drill again and then back to the starting point. Well, since there was only two teams who entered, they did three races. The best 2 out of 3 won the 1st and 3rd prize. We smoked the other team in all the races and end up winning $400! I've attached some pics.

KAYLEE: Kaylee just successfully completed her first college course. She needed to take a math class so she could enroll Biology in the fall. Kaylee has always hated math, but she worked very hard and ended up with a 'B'. Yeah!! She will move into the dorms on August 29th. She has been assigned her roommate for next year - a freshman from New Mexico. Kaylee has been in Anchorage the past week with her friend Janet doing some mission work with the lady who headed up her China mission trip in December. She was also able to spend some fun time with her friend, Steven, who will be leaving for college in Alabama in a few weeks.

JACKIE: Jackie got her learners permit!!!! Oh my, I barely made it through teaching Kaylee how to drive! Kaylee and Jackie are like night and day. I had a hard time getting Kaylee to slow down, and Jackie is afraid to go the speed limit. I'm not sure which is more terrifying on the highway - going 90 with a teenager behind the wheel or going 35 with irrated drivers racing past you. Lord, have mercy!! Jackie is still working at Safeway and turns 17 years old on Sunday! Where has the time gone??? She is looking forward to starting her Junior year at North Pole High School.

JONATHAN: Dad took Jonathan fishing for the first time yesterday at a nearby lake, and Jonathan caught his very first trout! He called me on the phone and said, "Mommy! I caught fish!!" Scott is trying to instill the 'fishing bug' in him early. I weighed and measured Johnnie the other day, and he has grown to 40 inches and 40 pounds! He is thoroughly enjoying the summer and loves being outdoors. He is quite the character and has me cracking up several times a day. I just love that little guy! What a blessing he has been to our family. He went to his first birthday party a few weeks ago - it was a GI Joe party, and the kids dressed up accordingly. They all brought their nerf guns and had a blast. I've attached a picture.

Oh, I forgot. I am beginning a six-month Nutrisystem journey to take off the adoption weight I put on over the past year and a half. My goal is to get back to my pre-adoption weight, so I would appreciate your prayers. I've noticed the older I get, the easier it is to put on weight, and the harder it is to take it off! I think that's it for now. May God bless you!!!