Happiness is a new puppy!

The newest member of our family
(Click on pic for slideshow)

Sunday we took a drive down to Shueyville to the Johnson's place and picked up our new puppy. Riley is a 15 week old Maltese/Pomeranian mix who seems to be very happy in his new home. He won't shed and he won't get much bigger than 7-10 pounds. A perfect dog for our family!

Actually, I should have titled this "A Promise Kept." Before we left Wadsworth Ohio and was trying to sell our house, our dog Jack was making life difficult for us. He was an outdoor dog that we tried to keep indoors and it wasn't a good combination. So, I (me, myself, and I) returned Jack to his original owners who were happy to have him back. This did NOT win me any brownie points with my kids however. I promised them that when we got our new house we would look for a dog.

Well, at our graduation party Jody Pence (our realtor who found our new house) told us that she knew of someone who was selling puppies that would be perfect for us. And the rest is history. You gotta love a realtor who finds you a house, a puppy, and all the while becomes a great friend! We love you Jody!

Home Sweet Home

Greg Walker & Dan Van Zoest guide
the piano off the truck
(Click on pic for slideshow)

Welp, on Friday morning at approximately 10:47am we finished signing papers to become home owners once again. yeah! Then, at noon we started loading the rental truck for a move of a whopping 1.3 miles! At 9:45pm we finished getting everything to the new house and thanks to JoDee Martin (and probably others as well) the rental house we had been using was clean!

The real story here is teamwork! Todd Stafford, my accountability partner, came over and with only 4 people (Andrew, Austin, Todd, and me) loaded almost all the boxes and the beds in about 3 hours. By 5pm we had all the boxes and beds moved into the new house.

Then, a wonderful team of ladies helped Judy move the kitchen and get everything settled. They really worked hard! After a couple of hours the kitchen was moved and ready to go. WOW!

Then at 5:30pm our second crew of helpers showed up and we started moving the furniture. Two pieces of furniture were to be the most challenging - our piano and the TV Armoir (who invented those Armoirs?). Even though the rental company did not give us the dolly we had agreed to, we were still able to get the piano out the door and on the truck without too much difficulty. At the new house we backed the truck up to the front door and put the ramp right on the threshold and rolled the piano into the foyer and right into the living room. It was a sight to behold! The armoir wasn't as easy as the piano, but the men did a fantastic job!

Saturday morning another team of workers came over and helped us wrap things up at the rental house. We were able to get the garage cleared out enough to walk through it! Then, Jeremy and Loretta Bushlack helped us set up a couple of rooms: the garage and the family room. Jeremy hooked up our washer and dryer with some new hoses. By the end of the day we had the garage cleared enough to get a car in! Amazing! Thanks!

Thanks to everyone who helped make this move happen by helping us in one way or another. The list is long, but here goes:

Todd Stafford, Austin Spooner, Karen Veldhuizen, Ann & Amanda Paulsen, Gina & Natalie Kaufman, John & Sandy Herder, Kathryn & Jon Hufford, Greg & Lisa Walker, Jody & Brian Wohlers, Tom & Tammy Burns, Jeremy & Loretta Bushlack, Jon Peterson, Steve Jenkins, Chris Evans, Dave & Stenner Kvindlog, Tom Green, Dan Van Zoest, Tom & Jane Kelly, JoDee Martin, Kim & Sharon Pagel, Tim Glass, Alan & Lynn Kritzman (we bought the house from them and they brought us cookies to enjoy!) and Jody Pence (our realtor). WOW! What a team! I sure hope I didn't miss anyone because it was a little hectic at times! That's 35 people!

Thanks to everyone! You are the greatest!

The Panera Princess

Allyson is now working at Panera's and loving it! Since I use Panera as my office away from my office it is exciting for me to see my daughter doing so well at her new job. She is fitting in and everyone seems to like her a lot. In fact, I have people comment to me how much they love her sweet smile and friendly manner.

If you stop in Panera's on the NE side, make sure you look for Allyson. She makes a great IC Mocha!

A Graduation Party

Charley Snodgrass and Andrew
(click on pic for slideshow)

Andrew's graduation party was June 17th (man, I'm behind on my blogging!) and as usual it was a tremendous team effort. Our small group helped us get everything organized and then they came out and helped us get everything set up. We decided on a taco bar and it was a great hit!

Thanks to everyone who helped us!

• Jon and Kathryn Hufford - Kathryn master-minded the event! (Jon painted the rock - see pic!)
• Tom and Jane Kelly - they came early and helped us get all the food set up (Tom helped Jon paint the rock)
• Gina and Natalie Kaufman - they kept the buffet line full and our guests happy
• Spooner - tables and chairs
• Dan and Robin Koskamp - loaning us the canopy (and setting it up)
• Sharon Pagel - set-up and decorations
• Loretta Bushlack - memory board design
• LeAnn Bird - clean up

Also, thanks to everyone who came by and wished Andrew well. It was a great day!

#205

It all started in January 2001 back in Cleveland Ohio. My beautiful wife felt led to go back to college to pursue a degree in nursing, and so she enrolled one class at a time as she worked her way through really tough courses like Anatomy and Physiology along with Microbiology and Organic Chemistry.

Back in 1983 she headed off to Bob Jones University to study her passion - nursing - and somewhere along the way changed her mind about nursing which is unfortunate because that is where her true passion is. She continued on and earned a degree business administration. But that isn't really what she wanted to do. So...

Now after 5 years of class work (an additional year was added due to our move to Iowa) and today she received official notice that she #205 on the waiting list for clinicals (practicals). This represents a 3 semester wait in order to start the clinicals. Clinicals take about one year.

The most amazing thing to me is that she has done this through unbelievable turmoil and upheaval in both our personal lives and ministry lives all the while maintaining a household. We are so proud of her! Congrats Judy! We can't wait to see you graduate with your RN Degree!