December 1997

It seems as though this year has just flown by and we were continually be blessed with the security of home, heath and friends. The past year has been a year of hellos and good-byes, old and new, a year of changes, yet nothing has changed.

In July we said hello to our newest niece, Samantha Aiko de Cordova, born to Rose and Alex. She is truly a delight to our family. Rose was in New York with our parents for Aiko's birth and as they did not return home to Mexico until September, the family was able to enjoy several months with them.

Among our good byes was a farewell to Gretchen, our cat of some 18 years. The time had come and her heath was failing, so in February we made the decision to have her put to sleep. We remain with out house pets at this time but still have Lady.

Lady moved to a new stable this year. The facility we boarded at closed in June. The owner, after spending last winter in Florida, decided she would like to live there. Sooo... she sold the farm here and moved south. The new barn is very nice. The owners, Scott and Julie, are in their late 20's and certainly don't allow me many excuses for not riding. For Lady and I, last summer was a new exciting change for us. Lady injured her knee mid-May and upon advice from the vet we did not show last summer (schooling her in the ring could possibly prevent proper healing of the knee). Soo... we did a lot of trail riding with Julie and her gang. Julie does training of young horses plus she has 3 of her own. It was a very relaxing and enjoyable summer. We explored new territories and blazed new trails. In the fall, we participated in a couple organized trail rides with Julie and her mounts. We, Lady and I, had never done that before. It was fun, for the first 2 or 3 hours, but by hour 4 I was ready to quit! These rides usually involved a good number of participants (both rides we attended had approximately 50 horses and riders in attendance) who just want to get together for a ride. The two rides we went on left mid-morning, we rode about 1½ hours, stopped for a ½ hour lunch break, then another 1½ hour ride back to the camp area by another route. I must admit it was fun in spite of Lady acting up. She is a fast mover and wanted to ride the front of the ride the whole time. At the first ride, they let us do so, but the second they would not. Julie, Scott (on one occasion) and I also took the ponies out to several of the local game land areas as well. We did put a lot of miles on Lady's shoes! She is now 13 years old but is spunkier than she was 10 years ago. I don't believe she will ever settle into being a lady! Man, did I ever name her wrong!

I continued to work at the church, and returned to the City of Wausau to assist with their real estate collections for six weeks or so. We have now been in our new facilities at church - worship center, class rooms and office complex - for a year and we really enjoy having all the additional room. Our pastor announced his resignation last month and he will be going to a church in the Wheaton, IL area after the first of the year. I will truly miss him and his family, both as pastor and co-worker, but fully understand that there comes a time when one has to move on. It still does not make the parting any easier. Our congregation will be taking on a part-time Youth Minister in January but it will most likely be next fall or winter before we have a Senior Pastor in place. Please remember us, and me, in your prayers.

Paul continues to work at PTI and seems very much to enjoy what he is doing. He has just completed work on a web page for the company. It will be at http://www.powdertechnology.com. He spends much time with/on the computer and is rather knowledgeable about its workings and programs. Quite often he is asked for advice from his co-workers regarding their computing needs. He got a new car this year. Another Hyundai - green. He had been driving the Chevy we bought the first fall we were in Birmingham. We finally gave up on that old car - the heater had broken several years ago, but the final straw was when the driver side door closed one day last winter, and would not open again. For many months he would climb in on the passenger side, and with the back on the passenger bucket seat reclined all the way back swing his legs over the middle console to get into the driver's seat. I think he just about had to do the reverse to get out! But it was time. That car had well over 150,000 miles on it and more that served our needs. One of his co-workers bought it and is still driving it.

Several trips were made East this year. I traveled to New York in March for my "Annual Daughterly Duty" trip. I enjoyed my week visiting with family. Mom, Dad and I went to visit Uncle Ron in Whitesville and we attended Sara's birthday. I also got the opportunity to visit Tom and Joan Firkel and Bill and Margaret Freeman as well as visit with friends I had not seen since the previous year. Paul and I also traveled out over Labor Day weekend to greet our new niece and see Rose. Herb & Sheila; Scott, Amy and the boys and Sara were there that weekend. Aiko's dedication was that weekend and as Alex couldn't be with his family, we stood up for her dedication. Then we went back again the second week of November for an early family Thanksgiving. (We have to travel through the Chicago and Cleveland areas for the trip and doing it in potentially snowy weather is rather hard so we don't plan the trip during the winter months.) Both trips were very pleasant and we had very enjoyable visits with Paul's mother and my family.

In July we were honored by a visit from Terry & Theresa Chisholm and their children, Shauna, Andrew and Erin. They had traveled up into Canada, over to Chisholm, MN (I think) and back through Minneapolis and Wausau on their way home. We had such a wonderful time. They were with us for 3 or 4 days and we took the kids to ride Lady a couple of times, toured the local brewery, went shopping, and even went hiking. Thank you for sharing your vacation with us.