Happy Day to Chris

Hi Cousin Chris!
Just wanted you to know we're thinking about you on your birthday and hope it's great!

I personally have so many great memories of you at family get-togethers and always looked up to you as my cool older cousin. You, Wendy and I had a special time together before all the other cousins were born and I'm grateful for that!

Sorry your birthday had to come with such crummy weather, but after growing up in Colorado it shouldn't even phase you, right? :)

Way to go Nelson!

Nelson and the Peyton Panthers basketball team are the district champs!! The team is ranked #1 in Class 3A, and they're headed to the Regional playoffs this weekend. They will play at home on Friday at 7 PM, and then again on Saturday at 1. If you're on Facebook, he has some photos on his page. Drop him a line there, or here, to congratulate him on this exciting accomplishment! We love you, Nelson!

Matt's coming home!

Here is a note from Aunt Patty about the party she is having for Matt when he comes home from Afghanistan.

Hi Everyone!!

The votes are in, and the winner is ---Saturday, March 21, 1:00pm until whenever!!!

I'd like families to bring a main dish, any kind of side/salad/dessert, and drinks.(and please pray for nice weather!!!) I will provide paper/plastic products, maindish, drinks and Fluff!!!

Please RSPV (no misprint - that is Respond Soon to Patty VanTasseel) soon!!

Love

Patty

Happy (Late) Birthday to Alissa

Dear cousin Alissa,

I love you with all of my heart. From the time we were really little, you have always been a fun playmate, and as we got older, you became a close confidant. I adore your positive spirit and humor. And if I could describe you in one word, it would be helpful. You're always looking to serve others and make sure they're comfortable. That's awesome! I need to be more like you. I'm praying things are going well for you in school and work because you are the best!

We love you!

Jonathan & Mrs. Bobbie

Around Christmastime, I posted a video on my personal blog that the husband made to advertise Sunset's website to its members. That video is now going viral. It hasn't reached massive numbers, but people are sharing it on blogs and other sites.

See for yourself: Neatorama, The Huffington Post, Unterekless Thoughts, The Findbuzz, Christ Wire, Hackaday, The DW, Michael Reuter, and Attack of the Show.

Mahalo even has a profile for Mrs. Bobbie.

Husband put the video on YouTube over a month ago. On Friday, I posted the video on Neatorama's Upcoming Blog. From there, the video was voted up until it made Neatorama's homepage on Saturday. Before Saturday, it had been seen about 100 times, according to YouTube's counter. By the end of the weekend, it had been seen close to 4,000 times. Then, other blogs started picking up on it and posting it. As of this writing, the video has been seen 25,450 times.

Those numbers aren't anything compared to many other web videos. Still, it's fun to see the video being shared and people getting a laugh. So, in case you haven't seen it, here it is:

Hppy Birthday, Wendy!!

Wendy, my fantastic cousin! I looked up at the calendar yesterday and realized that we missed your birthday on the blog. I'm so sorry! But, at any rate, I hope it was a very happy day for you. I always looked up to you and was sort of in awe of you as a kid. I have one specific memory (it was at Christmas, I think) of you coming into the family gathering, and Katie and Elizabeth being all excited and chattering with you about your new perm! What a family trendsetter. I know I got one after that! So thank you for being our wonderful, wise, cousin, looking out for us and loving us for so many years (not that you've been around THAT many years, or anything). We love you!

Art and Creation

Yesterday I was climbing a tree at Barnum Park, which is on the top of a hill near my house. I could see hundreds of miles of the Rockies on one side, on the other, most of the Denver metropolitan area followed by hundreds of miles of flat land. It was seriously beautiful. All I could think about was how majestic all of God's creation is.

I said, Thanks for creating so much beauty in this world, God. I just want to see all of it!
And He said- Well then go see it. That's what I made it for. You're an artist too, that's why you love seeing others' creation. I put in you this longing to experience the whole world, act on it.

I was completely at peace, and filled with joy. The greatest artist of all time is my friend, and he has a bunch of art that he made just for me and my brothers and sisters. He made all of this just for us!!

So. I'm beginnning the next step of my journey to see the world. I'm trying to avoid doing any of the planning myself, so I don't miss any of the things God has in mind, but the first gallery will be Texas. I'm not sure exactly what sort of beauty is beheld there :) Just kidding,
There is a lot-
Ron, Bev, Joshua, Lori, and Daniel of course, who I would love to see. We'll be headed to Houston, so I'm sure we could stop in Lubbock. Will ya'll be around in about 2-3 weeks?
There's also my friend Andy Baker, who lived with us here at the community for a few months, and lives in Houston now. Also, lot's of money to be made driving pedicabs for the rodeo. Then, it's on to Austin for South by Southwest music festival to see Explosions in the Sky!

We don't have anything planned after that, but we (JakeRyan, Andy and I) will be traveling by bicycle from then on. Possibly up the Pacific Coast to Canada...

Alissa and Stuff

Hey, guys!

I'm pretty sure most of you know all this already but stranger things have happened than people not knowing everything about my life. So here's what's going on with me lately.

I started back to school on January 21 at UCCS. I'm pursuing a Bachelor's in English Literature. Hopefully this will be good for things like editing and publishing and other fun stuff like that. I'm just going part-time, taking 6 credit hours this semester. I have no idea when I will be done with the degree but for now I'm just going to try to enjoy the ride. So far it has been expensive and administratively aggravating, but the classes are looking good.

One reason I don't know when I will finish my degree is that my future is slightly up in the air right now. I am nannying a three-year-old boy (not a big fan of the potty training process!) and also his sister on her days off of school. I love it! But it's highly likely that this job will be over in June so I'll need to find something else, hopefully part-time which will allow me to still take classes without overwhelming myself. I know that God knows the plans He has for me, and sometimes I really wish I knew those plans too, but I hear they're plans to prosper me and not to harm me, so what more can I really ask?

Overall, things are going great and I'm happy. Now, how are all of you doing? Why isn't anyone else updating?

Set hopes for "up"

Wow. Seven weeks! I will definitely be going off to basic training on March 3! I have 15 pounds to gain in half the time I thought I had. Wow. Very exciting, and pretty scary too.

In case you missed it...

I'm shipping out April 28, or something. Don't get your hopes up, but my recruiter called me Thursday afternoon and asked me to come in on Friday, where I waited 40 minutes or so for him to come back to the office and he told me there is a chance I might ship on March 3, instead. Wow. Sooner than that, and I'll leave with regrets.

Oh, and there were no medical jobs available, so after discussing (to death) all the available jobs I qualified for (given my poor depth perception), I signed for Open Electronics. That has a good chance of putting me in the space program, which in turn will likely bring me back here! So I'll see you all around, and hope to see you again very soon afterward!

New Job

Hey everyone! I completely forgot to post this on here, so it's old news to a lot of you, but I finally found a job (!), although it's only temporary. I'm filling in for a high-school Spanish teacher while she's on maternity leave and I'll be there until the end of February. Today was my first day with the students and it went pretty well, although my last couple classes didn't seem to think my jokes were funny, and let me tell you, standing in front of 20 high schoolers who think everything you say is stupid is even less fun than it sounds. Anyway, I'm teaching 5 classes worth of 1st- and 2nd-year Spanish and also have 2 periods of counseling and study hall. I'm not looking forward to having to start up the job search again in March, but I'm so thankful to have something steady for now. Thanks for all your prayers for the job situation!

Happy (Late) Birthday to Elizabeth

Shame on us for forgetting to post about Elizabeth's birthday yesterday. So, yesterday, January 6th, our sweet cousin Elizabeth turned 28. Is that right?

So, Elizabeth, I love you so very much. I miss you now that you're even farther away. You're always so much fun, peppy, happy, and caring. What great qualities! And soon, you're gonna be a momma! I'm so excited for you.

Well, I hope you had a very special birthday yesterday. Love you!

28APR2009

That's... about it...

To our cousin with the Christmastime birthday....

Happy, happy birthday, Lori! I am so thankful to have you as a cousin, and especially have enjoyed how we've bonded over being mothers. You keep me laughing and are also a huge encouragement to me. I hope you have a wonderful day, and a wonderful Christmas with your new little family.
Love,
Katie/DS/BB/Harlot

finally, real progress!

On Monday, I will be arriving at my recruiter's office by noon with 3 forms of ID, and will be leaving for Denver to take my physical the next day! If all goes well, I'll be able to say on Tuesday night when I'll be going to basic training and what I will be subsequently going to tech school for! So, indeed, "what a difference a recruiter makes!"

See you all on Christmas Eve?