New transition

Tomorrow marks a transition for me at work.
There are a number of things I struggle with in my work environment.
Most people know that I still miss my former career.
But I don't necessarily long to go back to youth ministy.
I am trying to make this new career path work for me.

Included with my effort to feel as though my place of employment is the best place for me to be, I am continually trying to improve upon the physical place I work as well. I am hoping if things are physically comfortable, then the emotional aspect will follow suit.

So only time will tell if I grow to be more comfortable in my work environment or not.

Regardless of whether or not I adjust and find my place in the work place, I know I am finding a home here in Oregon. I certainly enjoy the milder winters.
It isn't everywhere that you can walk the mall in January and find them selling flowers.

In fact many nurseries are advertising and selling plants for this time of year.
Primroses seem to be popular right now.

Of one thing I am certain. Back home they aren't doing planting of any sort.

Welcome to Oregon!

The Times they are a changin'!

Today our country had a Presidential inauguration.
It is undoubtedly an amazing time in our history.

I am pleased that the local schools aired the Inauguration Ceremonies and our children were able to watch this historic event.

I am excited to be witness to this time in our history.
I have encouraged our kids to pay attention to this.
I know someday their children will be asking them what they remember about this historic event.

I don't think of myself as being old enough to be a 'bearer of history'.
But as part of Alex's homework assignment, he was asked to find someone who remembered the Kennedy assassination.

Well, I remember the Kennedy's assassination.
Or I should say, I remember the Kennedy funeral.
So I guess I am getting old, or at least I am old enough to help with current high school History assignments
Granted, I was 3 years old, but I remember.
It was a significant time in my / our history much like today.

I remember my dad being home from work in the middle of the day.
The TV was left on all day which was unusual for the time.
My older sister was on the couch with my mom.
My dad was laying on his right side on the floor in front of the TV propping his head up on his right hand.
I sat crossed legged in front of him leaning back against his stomach.
We were all focused on the TV and it wasn't to watch cartoons.
(My dad loved to watch cartoons with us.)

All of a sudden my dad tapped me on my left shoulder saying,
"Julie! Pay attention to this!
Someday your kids are going to ask you about this day."

I thought to myself, "I will have kids someday?"

Now I understand what my dad meant.
It has come full circle. His firm tap on my shoulder did the job.
I remembered.

I hope I have 'tapped' sufficiently on the shoulders of my own children today.
Our children should remember this inauguration they are considerably older than I was for the Kennedy assassination.
For that, I am grateful.

Quite honestly, a number of my 8 children didn't need 'tapping'. They get it!
They understand the significance of this inauguration.

Today I feel honored;
honored to be an American,
honored to be a parent,
and so proud of my kids.

79 and climbing

In December of 2007 I blogged about the number of kids concerts I had attended over my years of parenting.
Well the number is climbing and is closer to 85 now.

The Walker Middle School Christmas Concert had to be rescheduled to last week due to the snowstorm that hit in December.
Jeff and I were both able to attend and were actually surprised at what we heard.
A new music teacher broke with tradition and taught the students a new song.
What a treat for us and from the standing ovation, it was evidently a treat for many other parents.

With the invention of camera phones, I have begun to capture spontaneous moments to mark some of the kids activities.
I have found that I have very few pictures of myself with the kids, so last Friday I asked Jeff to take a picture of Jacquie with me. After several humorous attempts in classic Jeff fashion, we were able to get our photo.

(everyone should experience Jeff in this way, just once)

Next month there will be another concert as Laura has her first performance since taking up the flute.
I can hardly wait... to see what kind of photos we capture.

The Joy of Family Photos

Even though I am getting older and sometimes I forget things I should remember, I do remember our first family photo with just Melissa, Brad, Jeff and I.

Thankfully I don't have that photo to add to the blog.
I remember the struggle of getting little ones to sit still,
or to look at the camera at the appropriate time.
Years passed between that first family photo and the second.

We had 5 kids when we took our second family photo. The group photo turned out, well... adequate. What I remember purchasing and hanging on the wall was a photo of the 3 older girls and the 2 boys.


When We first moved to Kearney, St James was making a parish directory and was asking all families to have their photo taken. Had it not been for this I seriously doubt we would have ever sat for a professional photographer again. We had our third formal family photo taken with 6 kids, 8 in our family,
We were still at St James about 5 years later when it was time for another parish directory, so we scheduled an appointment. I know it was difficult for the photographer to fit all 10 of us into the frame (by then we had all 8 kids and Laura was less than a year old) but somehow he managed.
He barely managed to get everyone to hold still.
Most everyone was looking at or in the general direction of the little birdie,
and 80% of us were smiling.
This was acceptable to us.
After all the years of raising our family, thankfully a formal family photo has never been a need of mine.
I have more fun trying to capture the experience of just getting the kids together.

If I were to look back on my blog, I am guessing there are some informal family photos from 07/07/07.
Our family now includes two more members; Mike Welsh and Zack Herrmann.
I still enjoy trying to get the kids together in the hopes of capturing a moment in time.
But part of me is always looking around the room for the ones who aren't here with us. Melissa, Justin, Mike, Cale and Zack are missing from these photos.

In the meantime, until we all are together again, here is a moment in time with the 7 that were here.

More Games

Last night it was more family fun.
We played Cranium until 1:00am.

What I learned about myself;
I can draw fairly well even with my eyes closed,
And I can do an impersonation of Jacques Cousteau,
But I can't hum a recognizable rendition of 'Wild Thing'.

Holiday fun

Christmas break started early for the kids here in Salem as we had 5 snow days in a row before the official school break began.

We were fortunate to have Brad and Aimee arrive in a narrow window and in between snow storms.

All of this has allowed us some great family time.


We spend nearly every night playing a board game and often times we watch a movie too.

It feels like our time is coming to a close as the younger kids start back to school on Monday and Brad leaves on Wednesday.

We had plans to go to the coast, or Camp 18. We've talked about exploring Portland and a couple of new restaurants.

Even though the weather has kept us home more than we anticipated,
the benefit has been the chance to play together.

And Mike comes on Thursday giving us some additional opportunities for family fun.

Happy New Year

It is New Year's Day,
It turned out to be very different from our original family plan for the day.
And by Different I don't mean bad...

A Change of plans is sometimes easy and sometimes it is not.

For the most part everyone took this change in stride....
except for me.
I don't know why.
I can't explain my feelings.

Why does life seem so hard at times?

I don't have any answers.

I am still searching.

Whatever the situation may be....
I have to believe in a
Happy New Year.