Welcome to our family website! We hope this keeps people in better touch with what's going on in our lives, since sometimes LIFE gets far too busy. So feel free to stop by whenever you want and leave a message if you'd like. Take care and May God Bless You the way he's blessed us!
It's official, I'm a 7th grade science teacher. Wow is it so much work! I absolutely love my kids, they are awesome! I think I'm going to have a great time. I'm going to be very busy, so you all may never see Hawaii through our eyes!
Let me not take myself, and suffer over, the actions and reactions of other people. Other adult human beings are not my responsibility , no matter how closely their lives may be interwined with mine. I will not allow myself to be troubled by anyone else; my one problem is to improve my own way of living and looking at life.
Reasons why the English language is so hard to learn:
The Secret One day, one friend asked another, "How is it that you are always so happy? You have so much energy, and you never seem to get down." With her eyes smiling, she said, "I know the Secret!" "What secret is that?" To which she replied, "I'll tell you all about it, but you have to promise to share the Secret with others." "The Secret is this: I have learned there is little I can do in my life that will make me truly happy. I must depend on God to make me happy and to meet my needs. When a need arises in my life, I have to trust God to supply according to HIS riches. I have learned most of the time I don't need half of what I think I do. He has never let me down. Since I learned that 'Secret', I am happy." The questioner's first thought was, "That's too simple!" But upon reflecting over her own life she recalled how she thought a bigger house would make her happy, but it didn't! She thought a better paying job would make her happy, but it hadn't. When did she realize her greatest happiness? Sitting on the floor with her grandchildren, playing games, eating pizza or reading a story, a simple gift from God. Now you know it too! We can't depend on people to make us happy. Only GOD in His infinite wisdom can do that. Trust HIM! And now I pass the Secret on to you! So once you get it, what will you do? YOU have to tell someone the Secret, too! That GOD in His wisdom will take care of YOU! But it's not really a secret... We just have to believe it and do it... Really trust God!
I'll be happy when... We convince ourselves that life will be better after we get married, have a baby, then another. Then we are frustrated that the kids aren't old enough and we'll be more content when they are. After that, we're frustrated that we have teenagers to deal with. We will certainly be happy when they are out of that stage. We tell ourselves that our life will be complete when our spouse gets his or her act together, when we get a nicer car, when we are able to go on a nice vacation or when we retire. The truth is there's no better time to be happy than right now. If not now, when? Your life will always be filled with challenges. It's best to admit this to yourself and decide to be happy anyway. Happiness is the way. So, treasure every moment that you have and treasure it more because you shared it with someone special, special enough to spend your time with ... and remember that time waits for no one. So, stop waiting ..... Until your car or home is paid off. Until you get a new car or home. Until your kids leave the house. Until you go back to school. Until you finish school. Until you lose 10 lbs. Until you gain 10 lbs. Until you get married. Until you get a divorce. Until you have kids. Until you retire. Until summer.. Until spring. Until winter. Until fall. Until you die. There is no better time than right now to be happy. Happiness is a journey, not a destination. So work like you don't need money, love like you've never been hurt, and, dance like no one's watching.
We had an awesome time, Hawaii is so beautiful! Each island is so different and we are so gald that we were able to experience so many of them. We were so busy everyday, our mornings started at 6:00 a.m and ended at like 1:00 a.m. During our cruise part of our vacation we were hardly ever on the ship, we left at 7:00 a.m. and usually returned after 8:00 p.m. but we felt like we needed to get our full use out of the ship so we always stayed up for dinner and the shows. This was definatley not a "relaxing" tropical vacation, we were always on the go, non-stop. We thought we would see a little more of our ship and hotel rooms but there was just too much to do and see! It was a really fun and adventure filled vacation and and we loved it! It was an amazing vacation! More to come...
Recently I overheard a mother and daughter in their last moments together at the airport. They had announced the departure. Standing near the security gate, they hugged and the mother said, "I love you and I wish you enough".The daughter replied, "Mom, our life together has been more than enough. Your love is all I ever needed. I wish you enough, too, Mom".They kissed and the daughter left. The mother walked over to the window where I was seated. Standing there I could see she wanted and needed to cry. I tried not to intrude on her privacy but she welcomed me in by asking,"Did you ever say good-bye to someone knowing it would be forever?". Yes, I have," I replied. "Forgive me for asking, but why is this a forever good-bye?"."I am old and she lives so far away. I have challenges ahead and the reality is - the next trip back will be for my funeral," she said."When you were saying good-bye, I heard you say, 'I wish you enough'. May I ask what that means?".She began to smile. "That's a wish that has been handed down from other generations. My parents used to say it to everyone".She paused a moment and looked up as if trying to remember it in detail and she smiled even more. "When we said , "I wish you enough", we were wanting the other person to have a life filled with just enough good things to sustain them".Then turning toward me, she shared the following as if she were reciting it from memory.I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright.I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun more.I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive.I wish you enough pain so that the smallest joys in life appear much bigger.I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.I wish you enough hello's to get you through the final good-bye.She then began to cry and walked away.They say it takes a minute to find a special person, an hour to appreciate them, a day to love them, but then an entire life to forget them. TAKE TIME TO LIVE.....To all my friends and loved ones, I WISH YOU ENOUGH!
To My my beautiful wife Marissa Happy 28th Birthday,
Happy Birthday Jay, I feel so blessed to have been able to spend another glorious year with you! You are a wonderful husband and I'm so lucky to share my life everyday with you. I never knew true love until the day I fell in love with you. You are my first and my last love. I love how you accept me completely, as I am, unconditionally. I love you for who you are and who you've helped me become. So many amazing things have happened to me since you came into my life, and I thank you for them all. I owe my faith in Jesus Christ to you and I thank God for sending me red roses through you. Jay you have given me so much and offer so much to others. You are funny, smart, very wise about sports, a great provider, outgoing, a strong athlete, and you can retain useless information like no other( and if you don't know what you are taking about you can give 3 facts about the topic). Hopefully someday you will win us some money on a game show. And even through I never let you play the drums when I'm home because it's so loud, I think it sounds great when you sneak in the drum room to play before I can stop you! You bring so much joy and sunshine to my life, and I appreciate you more than words could ever express. I can't believe I have spent 10 birthdays with you, and now we are celebrating your 30th, the years sure went by very fast. Jay, there is nobody in the world that is like you out there, I feel so honored to be called your wife. Thank you for being you! I hope you have an awesome 30th birthday, I love you with all my heart!
We hope you have a wonderful 28th birthday! This is you're first birthday as a father, so it must be very special. Thank you for being such a big part of our lives, you are a great friend that we truly cherish.
Happy Birthday Anthony, today you are 1 years old. This is a very special day and I can't believe it has come so fast. You are very special to us because you are our 1st newphew and because you made us an Aunt and an Uncle for the first time. We hope you have a wonderful birthday, I'm sure you will cuz I'll make sure you have lots of cake today, and cake makes everyone happy! You've accomplished so much this year, you should be so proud, you can say mama, dada, you can walk, wave bye bye, and you can play patty cake! What a big boy you've become! You've made us very proud! We love you!
We also got to feed and pet the Rhino's, these guys are in some desperate need of some serious lotion! Here's Jay right after he gave this rhino an apple.
We had a blast on our Safari, it felt like we were in East Africa! They took us all over and we saw tons of animals up close like we've never seen them before. Our tour guide gave us the 411 on how they care for the animals. Did you know it costs 40 million dollars a year just to feed the animals at the Wild Animal Park?
Well, you're all grown up! I can't believe you're 24 today. It doesn't seem that long ago that we were playing "house" and now we're living "house". We are both married, you have baby Anthony and those days of playing are long over! But the wonderful memories still remain strong. I hope you have an awesome birthday and that you live this 24th year of your life to the fulliest with no regrets. Happy birthday, I love you Marissa!
Sea World was lots of fun! They finally changed some of the stories to there shows which made it much more exciting.
This is Ruby, she is a beluga whale. We did a Wild Artic behind the scenes excursion at Sea World that allowed for us to touch, feed, interact and do tricks with Ruby. We also encountered a 13 foot polar bear, artic foxes, and beautiful cranes. We were given a tour behind Sea World where we learned what it takes to feed and care for the animals. Oh and we got to feed this HUGE walrus. It was lots of fun!
We are having a blast! This is the first time in our entire relationship that we both are home for the whole summer. It is great to not have to work and to be able to spend so much time together just playing! We are having the best time ever, together, and we still have so much more to come! I can't believe after all the things we've been doing we still have a Hawaii vacation to go on!
On Friday August 5 we are going to the Wild Animal park for a behind the scenes tour! We are going to feed the giraffes and rhino's and visit where the tram doesn't go! I CAN'T WAIT!
