More about me & our family

Well...here goes some more things about our family :)

1) We like to go to the zoo on a day out. It is pretty cheap for a family membership for the year :) Good to get away when you work where you live, and it is fun for all.

2) My main instruments clarinet/bass clarinet.

3) I taught band in a small town in Iowa for 4 years before getting into the camping ministry.

4) Our vacations go back and forth usually between National Parks & Theme Parks - we love both! Of course visiting family is usually a part of vacations too since we live so far from them all.

5) We love to go on walks- usually daily as a family....around 1-2 miles worth...sometimes more. The longest hike we have done as a family- 8 miles in a day. Tough, and at the end (this was before Jonathan came home) Elizabeth was in our backpack.

6) Jason has a huge fascination with airplanes! He loves to watch them, learn more about them, study pictures of the inside and outside, watch them land & take off......loves planes :)

7) We were married in England at Jason's church he grew up in- Brighton Road Baptist church. Exactly 11 days after Jason's birthday, and 11 days before mine! July 19th, 1997.

8) We spent less than $3,000 total on our wedding and honeymoon.

9) We spent more on our honeymoon than on our wedding- that is the important part my friends!!! Time together :)

10) If you put all the actual time we spent together before our wedding- it would have been about 5 months worth. That is the same time frame my parents spent together before they were married. :)

11) My mother in love- made with a hand crank sewing machine- my wedding dress. At one time I heard a sharp shrill coming from upstairs- It was my mother in love- almost having a heart attack because she tripped and almost spilled coffee on the dress :)

12) We had 6 weeks from the time I landed in England until our wedding happened. We were going to get married the following summer, moved it up the the coming summer, and then moved it up again- because we wanted his pastor to do our wedding and he was going to be out of the country for our the later date.

13) We had a HUGE miracle in that we were able to come back to the States together. A friend of a friend in immigration got us our appointment & paperwork moving for us. Our apt with immigration happened a day before we were to fly home!

14) We had a friend in the church- make our cake, do the food, do the flower arrangements, pay for the flowers, and my brother was the DJ & the best man. NOTHING was fancy!!! But it was truly fun & enjoyable.

15) We purposely had the venue in the church hall & our in the States reception when we came home - so there could be no alcohol. We wanted people to remember our wedding :) We walked to our reception back home- in the school gym of the school I worked at, and we walked there in our dress & tux. It was fun to walk in our tiny town (population 800)- in our wedding clothes.

16) I did the Taking Care Of Business song- clapping, clapping knees, clapping the ground, rolling over etc.- In my wedding dress. My thoughts: It was long- wasn't going to be inappropriate, and hey I am never going to really use it again so I might as well have some fun!

17) I purposely had everyone in my family & my bridesmaid bring over Mountain Dew for me, and I had brought over some myself....to help sustain me through the summer & especially for my wedding & honeymoon (our vacation together). I had a large 20oz Mt Dew on my table at the reception :)

18) We did not plan our honeymoon get away very well....and didn't leave our reception until last.....and it was fun!!! It was a last goodbye to most of Jason's family & friends as well as a wedding.

19) We each shared our testimonies at our wedding. We also had a skit about different kinds of love performed during our wedding. We had an original piece of music written by our pianist for our wedding. We sang "Thank You" by Ray Boltz to our family during the wedding- yep- lots of crying there (and it was a surprise that only a couple of people knew about)! During the signing of the register- which you do at the end of the service- my parents in love played Buddy Holly Songs for us :)

20) We took the wedding party- my parents, bridesmaid, brother, parents in love, and us of course to London the day before our wedding....and ended with surprising them all- long story- with seeing "Buddy Holly Story" Musical in London. We ended the evening decorating the church- late that night together......with pictures, American & British flags, and a few simple bits and pieces. **True story my mother almost was run over by a motorbike- because they drive on the opposite side and she didn't look the right way and stepped out- THANK YOU JESUS- she wasn't hit!!!!

So there......ended up being about our wedding mostly, but stay tuned for more about our crazy crew & lives in the future! :)