Archive for the 'Life As Normal' Category

Go Chiefs!!

So, finally going to upload some pics. I promised to go back over this past year and upload, but alas, have not done that yet, but still working on organizing the pictures. BUT! I went to Spencer’s first Water Polo home game of the season and YES, I actually remembered to take the camera and YES, I have pictures — yeah!

Spence with a great save!!

got-it

I just have to brag a moment on my child. He’s a sophomore this year and after the first week of practice came home and very, very excitedly exclaimed that he’d made the varsity team and was in fact the first string goalie. Woo-hoo!! I’m so proud of him. So, even though they lost today :( Spencer did his part in fielding many a goal.

It was an absolutely beautiful day, clear, mild temps for this time of year, slight breeze, great fellowship with moms, beautiful view of the mountains - just great all around. Looking forward to the rest of the season!!

Signed,
Verrrry proud mama

WOW! A year has gone by…

Hi everyone, I can’t believe it’s been over a year since I’ve posted. I have sooooo many pictures. I am just now answering emails from the past year and able to type reasonably well after 3 hand surgeries, so bit-by-bit I will catch up and post photos from the last year. Should be fun.

Thought I’d better at least get a hello up here in blog-land. Stay tuned for pictures coming soon…the dennises are still alive and well!

Happy Summer!

Hi everyone. I can’t believe I haven’t posted since March!!

Well, here’s a BIG catch up…

We had an unseasonably cool, wet, Spring which has been great for the flowers and veggies. I’m all into gardening right now and have been for the last few months. I had carpal tunnel surgery on my right wrist at the end of April and in the mending process right now. Everything’s coming along fine.

Well, our little boy is growing up fast!! Spencer’s new school, Adonai Academy, had its first ever 8th Grade Graduation ceremony on June 5, 2008. My friends at Camp Edison were kind enough to let us use the Tanager Group 2 outdoor amphitheater and day use site. The boys spent a fun afternoon at Shaver Lake, followed by a family BBQ and then our graduation ceremony at 7pm. The weather was absolutely beautiful with a rather cool edge by evening time. We were small, but mighty and saw it through!

Michael, Gwynneth and I are active on the school board. Our current project is to find some property or a suitable location with a building already on it for the school for next Fall. Please pray with us over this beautiful acreage we’ve had our eyes on for awhile now!

Like I said before, gardening is the healing balm during this time while my right hand heals after surgery. I’ve taken some beautiful garden shots of my veggies and flowers to share. Happy viewing!

Depending on my return to work date, me and Spence are hoping to make a quick trip to Portland, but that remains to be seen. I’ll let everyone know…

Michael has been hired to sing in an equity musical entitled, Onebody; a 21st Century Passion Play. Check out his My Space site; presenting Michael Dennis! Rehearsals start in July and the show will be touring in California during August. See Onebody’s website for show times.

Fay made her first ever ministry visit to a women’s prison, Valley State Prison for Women in Chowchilla. I went as a guest of Chapel of Grace and had the privilege of meeting some of the women from the chapel’s fundraising DVD (see the movie on their website) and was deeply touched by their stories. When I got home, Michael and Spence were all excited to hear about my visit and kept asking me to tell them about it. I just sat there blank. Michael said it was as if I were stunned and that was a very accurate description of how I felt. There are no words to describe how I feel after the fact and can only say it was eye-opening at the very least. I was tremendously moved by the experience. It has been on my heart now for over six years to go into the prisons and minister with a worship team. Now that I’ve been, I will be spending a lot of time putting together a worship team to do just that. I hit it off with the protestant chaplain and will be in contact with her shortly to talk about another visit. I also hope to make inroads with her and other prison chaplains so that I can facilitate the How To Hear God’s Voice course that I’m certified to teach through Communion with God Ministries (this is the foundational and required course for all tracks in the online university Christian Leadership University in which I’m currently enrolled for the masters in Worship track).

So, WOW!…a lot going on…a lot to think about…a lot to plan…

We’ll be busy for the rest of the Summer and really looking forward to it.

Talk to ya’ll soon…

Lots of love,
Fay :)

Pictoral Historical Catchup ;)

Finally had time to upload pictures taken since the Fall…

We finished home renovations in the Fall and have promised since forever to put up pictures for Michael’s sister Cheryl of the renovations and our new living room furnite (our furniture is now, oh, five years old, I think).

Then came Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

 And then a BIG snow storm in February.

And finally our trip to Portland during Spencer’s Ski Week break.

And next we’re on our way to Scottsdale to see more family. We certainly are the traveling kind…

Enjoy! :)

Time to catch up…

Man! It’s been awhile. Can’t believe I haven’t blogged since Christmas…

Nanna, Spencer, Gail and Fay just returned from Portland where we spent a wonderful family week. I’ll upload pictures (although I think Chloe and Heather have pretty much saturated their blogs with that visit, but I might have a few more good ones to add) soon. We basically just hung out together and that was the pupose of the trip. We were so proud to watch Heather in her show at church. And so very glad to finally meet Baby Owen. Sigh…great memories…wish we lived closer. On our way home, hit a big snow storm going through the Siskiyous - 45 miles of raging blizzard type snow - we all felt like kissing the ground when we reached Redding!!

Fay has been home until recently on doctor’s orders resting the carpal tunnel syndrome in both wrists, but back to work this past Monday waiting for a surgery date for the right wrist.

Fay, Gail and Nanna will be heading out to a Graham Cooke conference in Vacaville next Thursday and can’t wait!

The Sunday of the conference weekend, Fay will fly out of San Francisco to Scottsdale where Michael and Spencer will already have arrived the day before by car. We haven’t been to Auntie Cheryl’s in a looooong time and can’t wait to spend Spring break with she, Tex, Jeff and Kurt. Will have lots of pictures upon our return I’m sure.

Anyway, I’ll get pictures from Portland up soon and blog when we return from Scottsdale. We sure do seem to be on the move a lot. Ain’t it great???!!?! :o

Christmas 2007

Nanner, nanner, nanner!!!

Beat that family__the first to upload Christmas pictures. Woo-hoo, woo-hoo-hoo!

I haven’t blogged in so long and I have a few quiet moments before the cooking frenzy, so thought I’d be the first to post pictures from Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. Will upload more later when Pam and Cliff come for Christmas dinner.

Well, got to go now and get organized for dinner… ;)

Skipped Autumn and went straight to Winter…

We went straight from a hot, hot Summer to Winter in about 2 days. The temperatures dropped quickly from 80s, 90s and 100s all the way down to 65 in Fresno!

We had our first snowfall Wednesday night (down to 6,000 feet so it didn’t get us yet at 4,000). I was on my way out to Big Creek and some of the vistas from the windy road were incredible. Mountains looming out of bubbly, wintry-looking clouds…low clouds settled in the valleys and working their way up the sides of the mountains…wind blowing through the trees. It was all very dramatic! I managed one picture before my camera battery went dead, so I put it in our header. I really wanted more of the trees, valleys and mountains in the low clouds, but I’m sure there will be another time soon. It promises to be a long, cold, wet/snowy winter. We need the rain!!

Meet the newest member of our family…

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This is Amber, she’s 3 months old and she’s a holy terror — argh!!

Since we lost Pudgy  earlier in the year, we’ve slowly inherited a major mouse investation and they’re so cute, with big brown eyes and big round ears, that I could not use the neck-braker traps or the goo traps; it seems so cruel! We put down a live trap, but they were too smart for that!

So, since Kitty, Lil’ Bit, the Arching, Hissing, B _ _ _ _ has joined our family, we haven’t seen any mouse signs, not from the first night of her introduction (we haven’t found any little mouse bodies either — hoping they don’t get too brave — I’ve warned them to stay away or it’s curtains!).

So with squirt bottle in hand and folded up newspaper, the training begins__beating her off my sliding glass door screens as she tries to get to my precious golden finches and hummingbirds…off my table where she wants to chew off all the African Violet leaves and flowers…off my furniture where she dashes up to me and scratches the arm of whatever seat I’m sitting on after being disciplined for just having done that…well you get the picture…

She is cute though and in our hearts, so she’s here to stay…help!! :0

So to sooth myself today, after being out at our Big Creek Hydro facility this morning, I took the back road up to Huntington Lake and took the long, scenic route home. It was absolutely beautiful…guess I’m lucky this is my view driving back to my office. Enjoy!!

I want your cameras!!

OK, niece families. What cameras are you all using? I love the pictures. They are so clear and bright and beautiful. I have a Canon PowerShot SD450 (digital) with zoom capability and all my pictures are turning out too big and too grainy when I try to upload them to my precious header images!! What’s up with that???! I want what you guys have (like I said to Barney in an email this morning, said with a pouty voice!!!)!

Or someone give me some training and tell me how to adjust the settings on my Canon. I also have a regular Canon 35mm… What am I doing wrong? I want the great closeups with the clear edges and bright colors. OK. I feel better. Someone share please…

Signed,
Frustrated :(

Happy Birthday to you, you’re another year older today…

Well, Nana made it through another year (that’s how she expressed it)!

We celebrated her 70-something birthday at the Cheesecake Factory Tuesday evening. We gorged ourselves and had a wonderful time. She was in all her Queen Bee glory!!