Fall 2012

My how time flies!!  I was thinking about this blog  and came to look at it and was surprised at how much time has gone by.  Life is moving fast!!

Everything is going pretty well in the McPherson household...  about time for an update!

Scott , our oldest man "child" is 20 and is waiting to see if her will be going into the Air Force.
While he is waiting he works as a Certified Nurse Assistant at a local assisted living, nursing rehabilitation facility. He enjoys his work and has been able to get some money saved.  He is also betrothed to his lovely Anna and, if they have their way, will be getting married the end of December.
They are preparing but it all depends on what will happen with the Air Force. We are so proud of the
man he is becoming. He has grown in so may ways and definitely has his ideas and opinions about life.

Michael is a senior at North Kitsap High School..... Wow, already!  He has applied for an Air Force ROTC scholarship and would like to attend college at Central Washington University in Ellensburg Washington, the town of his birth.  He is doing great in school! He was the Cross Country team manager this fall after a stress fracture to his right ankle kept him from running.

James is a freshman at  NKHS..... another Wow!  He just finished his marching band competition season.  They did very well!  We are so proud of his attitude and his dedication to the program. The kids really put in a lot of time during marching band season!! Very impressive! He is also doing great in school! In his spare time he loves playing Mind Craft or another  complicated game..

Now to our Emily!! Our girl!  She just turned 12 and is very much a preteen in every way. She is in the 6 th grade and is also doing great in school. We are so blessed!! Emily is our math wiz. She scored a perfect score on her 5th grade math assessment and in taking 7th grade math in school.  She continues to play the violin and is doing very well.

John and I both love our jobs!! I work full time in our Kitsap Pulmonary and Sleepm, Poulsbo office. It takes me about 2 min to get to work. I have a great co-worker that has been with us for over a year now. All my co-workers are wonderful!  Johns job may "go away" in January unless our government can stop the sequestration that will happen January 1st.  He is applying for jobs just in case but we are hopeful they will come up with some kind of compromise. He loves his current job and does very important things for our country!  We are trying not to stress about it but focus on our many blessings.
God is faithful and has never let us go without!!

I guess that is all for now. I was going to use this day off from work to catch up on some things around the house... Here I go!!

Long Overdue Update

This update is long overdue!! I started typing it a few weeks ago and then it disappeared on me somehow- I gave up! Anyway I will try again!!

Boy ,the summer has sure flown by!! I have been at my job about 3 months now. I 'am still loving it very much!! I have been working pretty much full time. When they hired me they said I would work up to full time but instead I jumped right in and have been going strong. Lately though due to Dr's much needed vacations and patient numbers being down, my hours are being cut some- almost to part time. While I like the money that comes with full time, it is nice being home with the kids more especially while they are getting ready to go back to school. I was able to take Michael to the HS and get his schedule changed and will be off on the first day of school. I like to take the kids to school especially the younger two. So it is nice. I do not know how long it will last. I 'am just so thankful for a job doing something I love! I'll take any hours I can get as long as I can keep my job!

Scott, our graduate, just finished a summer school course at the community college. He took a statistics class. He is hoping that is the last math class he will have to take in his college career. He as a job that he is really enjoying and will start fall classes on 23 Sept. He has been working on his music quite a bit and has written one song that I especially love. He has also been a help driving us places. We have had some major car problems that are not over yet. We need a mechanic in the family that lives close by! :0) We can't buy a new car so we have to keep this one running.

Michael has had a pretty laid back summer. He traveled in July to visit his BF in North Carolina and had a great time! He has also had some lawn jobs and earned a good bit of money. He was the family navigator for relatives visiting this summer while was working. Cross Country practice has started. I think he is going to have some good times this year! He is a great runner! He is also pleased with the new class schedule we got for him the other day. Michael will be a Sophmore this year!

James is our sweet techy! He has had fun playing in the neighborhood but you mostly find him at the computer. He has also enjoyed going to the pool almost daily for most of the summer. He has helped us navigate the new computer Aunt Cara and Uncle Craig passed down to us. It is awesome having a Mac!!! Thank-you CV 2!!!! James will be in 7th grade this year!

Emily has done a lot of playing out side with friends and really enjoyed time at the pool! She has also started cooking some on her own. She made some great cookies last night all by herself!!! Emily will be a 4th grader! I can't believe how all my kids are growing up!! Time seems to be flying faster the older I get!!

My sweet hubby has been a big help around the house with me working so much. He mostly cleans the kitchen each night- a BIG blessing!! He is loving his job and is looking for more challenges. He has started to finally work on his writing. I have been after him to write a book- or something!! We will celebrate our 21st anniversary on September 2nd!! He is such a gift!!

My cousin Christine spent 6 wks of the summer with us to help with the younger two kids. After she left my parents arrived for a 2 week visit. Since they went home Scott and Michael have been helping with their siblings. Having my hours changed at worked has helped too. School starts September 1st.

Well I guess that is our update. We have been enjoying some beautiful weather. I feel fall coming though!
Hope all is well with everyone!!

New Job!!

I have a new job!! Dr. Eagan of Kitsap Pulmonary and Sleep Medicine called me with the good news yesterday! I'am so excited! They are opening a new clinic right here in Poulsbo and have asked me to join their team! :0) Here is the link to the new web site: http://www.kpsmhealth.com/

Wt Loss Finally!

I have not posted on here in forever, but I want to today!!

I go to a group called TOPS (Take off Pounds Sensibly) every week. I went because a new friend invited me and I thought some accountability would help me lose weight. Anyway I have been going there since the beginning of March. I think some of the ladies come just because it is something to do , but some are serious and many of them have been coming for years! There are some sweet ladies that have reached goal and come to encourage others. TOPS does not really give you a specific plan to follow, just suggestions and friends to encourage you on your journey. I needed the accountability of stepping on the scale for someone. It has been nice to go with my friend and meet new people but I have had to figure out a "plan" on my own.

Another friend from Whidbey Island had told me about a web site called Spark People.com over a year ago but I did not really get into it . She has lost 75 pounds using the tools on Spark People! I decided to check it out again and it has been a wonderful tool for me also! I signed up on the site on April 8th and have so far lost 9.7 pounds. I had lost some weight already having joined TOPS on March 10th. I have lost a total of almost 14 lbs. I think it has gone better using Spark People and I really enjoy it! It is keeping me focused and is easy to use. AND it is free ! You sign up with just a user name and password. You tell them your goals and they set up a meal plan for you based on your calorie range. If I do not like on of the choices on my plan for the day I can click on the food and a list of alternate choices pops up that I can replace it with. No food is totally taboo and there are no "special" foods to buy, it is all about the calories . There is also a fitness tab where you can track exercise and how many calories you burned. It has just really worked well for me! I'm excited to see what more I can do!

Just thought I'd share! I'm a bit excited today because when I weighed in this morning there was a 6 pound loss!! Off for a walk now!!

Dr. Jack Leslie McPherson PhD

Johns Dad, Dr. Jack Leslie McPherson, went home to be with the Lord at 5:30 this morning.
He was an amazing, wonderful person and gave his best in every area of his life! We love you Dad!! You will be greatly missed, but we are comforted that we WILL see you again some day in heaven!
Gramma Noras birthday celebration March 2009

Scottie, Dad and Scott at the beach on Whidbey Island May 2008

Please keep our family in your prayers, especially Johns step-mom, she is in the hospital also.

Haircuts

The boys had haircuts recently and Michael decided to be goofy with his hats. The joke around the house when we have "extra" money is to go blow it on hats!
Scott decied he was tired of taking care of his longer hair and asked for a haircut.

Then Emily decided she wanted her hair trimmed. I think I cut off about 5 inches. It sure is easier to brush!

Good thing they waited until after our family/sr. pictures were taken!

Anniversary Getaway

We had a wonderful weekend getaway, in Idaho and Montana, to celebrate our upcoming 20th anniversary! It was beautiful and relaxing!! We sure would love to move back up there someday!! This is me in front of the church where we were married. It is in Hope ID, across the road from Lake Pend Oreille.

John in front of the church.

This is the house we stayed in on the property of a future Bible camp and retreat that is located in Montana.

This is the lake down behinsd the house. This was taken looking back across at the house.

This is the barn on our former ranch in Idaho where John proposed to me!

This was our family home. We built this in 1979.

Our house again. We had 40 acers. I really miss this place!! It was so wonderful getting back up there again and just exploring!! Enjoy!

Buds since birth!

The ferry ride picture I put up in my last post was taken when we were crossing over to Seattle on the way to Ellensburg WA, the weekend before last. Ellensburg is where we lived when we were first married and two of our kids were born there. We went to go to a going away party for our friend Logan. He left for the Army. Logans mom Kim was my babysitter for the boys when I was working. She is like their second mom in some ways. Anyway we have been friends with this awesome family since before John and I were married. We all had abaies around the same time! At the party we were able to see many people we have not seen in a long time! This is Kevin, Scott ,and Logan! Logan is the oldest of the three and they have know each other since birth.

Scott , Logan, and Logans girlfriend.

Scott and Kevin jammin in Logans room!

More jammin!!!!

It was a fun visit! Sunday we went to our old church and saw MORE people we had not seen in many years. Most were amazed by the change in Scott!! Some had not seen him since he was four!

Visitors!

We have had visitors since the first day we moved in here! It has been wonderful seeing family and friends! One of our visitors was Michaels best friend Aaron. He came to visit for about 8 days from North Carolina. He loved our non-humid weather and when the heat started before he left he said it was nothing compared to his summer weather in NC! Here they are on the ferry to Seattle.

Of course we HAD to take him back to the island to see "our" lambs!!! That is Vicky standing by Michael and our old house is in the background. It is very brown there right now!

Here they are in front of our new house. It is green here!!! Our most recent visitors from last weekend were my brother Monty and his wife Jackie and their girls. Katee, my brother Chips daughter, was here also!! Jackie came to help me paint- her birthday present!! Yes, she wanted to paint and see us for her birthday!! Katee was here for some driving lessons from Uncle John. Here are all the kids at dinner one night!

Here is a picture of the on a "finished" part of the deck! Great group of kids!! Katee and Scott will both be seniors this year!! I can't believe it!

Family is awesome!!!

deck

Here are some recent pictures of the deck project! I "love " how these load in reverse order! The two bottom pictures are of the sides that were "finished". How ever when they got to the main part of the deck it was worse than they thought so I think some of this may have to be redone. Especially on the west end of the deck. They had to tear the railing off that side and as you can see there is not much left of the main part. When I open my door it is a long drop down!!
Enjoy!

Catch Up!!

Hi all!! It has been way too long since my last post. Life has been busy! We are now moved, yet again, to our new place!

I wish I knew how to post pictures on here better!

We have had some drama with the move but things are calming down!! The very first day we were here the refridgerator died and the a few days later the washer died also. THEN right after that we started having some flooding in the laundry room and part of Michaels room. It got his new carpet wet. To make a long story short, there is a drain in the floor that is under Michaels carpet. We found out after a search that this drain was backing up when we showered or ran the dishwasher, basically when we were using alot of water at once. The septic was WAY over full and there was no where for the water to go!! SO after all that, we have a new fridge, new washer, pumped out septic, and clean and disinfected carpet!!!

The other project going on is replacement of the deck. It was supposed to be done before we moved in and they have finally started! It will be really nice when it is done!

The pictures show a shot of the front of the house, some young deer that have visited us already, (they were enjoying my apples, roses and wild strawberries) James showing Grandpa how to play the Wii, ( my parents came to help with moving in) and a picture of the dismanteling of the deck. Anyway enjoy! I will try and post more often!!

March Happenings

I ment for this to post before the St. Pattys post, opps!! The first weekend of this month we went to Elizabeths and helped celebrate Destinees 14th birthday. We had a good time! She had us play a few fun games!

Sorry about the order of the photos! I have not mastered this!

Happy St. Patricks Day !

Happy St. Patricks Day!! We had a nice time this past weekend ! We celebrated Johns Grammas birthday. She turned 96!! Since there are several March birthdays and our family has an Irish heritage we celebrated St. Patricks Day also. Here is a family shot of Gramma , Dad , Joyce, Sean, Jackie, Johns other sister Susan, and our family. There were more family present that are not in the picture, but we wanted a picture with Dad since we are not all together very often. Susan lives in Indiana. Johns Dad is still battling cancer.


Here are pictures of twin lambs that were born Saturday while we were gone. They are so cute and tiny!! Spring may really be coming!

Tonight I am making corned beef and cabbage for dinner! I am really loking forward to it and my family even likes it!!

Happenings

I have been enjoying some beautiful sunrises in the mornings when I go out to feed the lambs!

We have had a nice day around here today! John talked Emily into trying to ride her bike again and she had success!! She had crashed on her bike back in Florida, over a year ago, and has not wanted to try again. Daddy was able to talk her into it. At first she would only ride on the grass but after awhile she was riding up and down the driveway and we have a pretty long driveway. She was having so much fun that she did not want to stop. I think she probably rode for about an hour total. John got his bike out and they went out on our road too. It is a very quiet road.
See how long the driveway is?

Here are a couple of shots of the lambs. I was out playing with them for awhile. We are trying to get them to learn to eat grass. They need to get off the bottle soon. Vince was trying to nibble on my vest insted of grass but it looks like Vinny was eating some grass. It is really hard to get a good picture of them!
They are 5 weeks old now and have really grown alot!
The boys were out shooting their BB guns also but I did not get a picture of that. They had fun shooting plastic bottles. It was just really nice having everyone enjoy the outdoors and not vegging with the TV or Wii!

Hi! Just a quick note! My Mom is still in the hospital for thoses of you that knew that from reading Facebook. Her pneumonia has gotten worse because it did not respond to the antibiotic. They changed her meds last night, but she is feeling pretty bad and wants her girl to come. So we are out of here in a few hours and will stay through the weekend. I would appreciate prayers that the new antibiotic does its job!

On a side note. John got his offical job offer for the promotion! There are just a few things that need to be ironed out. So we will be moving again, but it will not be until after school is out. They are going to let him work from his office here a few days a week to cut down on the commuting. He may only go down there 2 days a week until we move.

Well I have to get packing! Love you all!

Sadly the newest lamb did not make it. He was neglected by his mother. Randy said if any more lambs happen to be born to these Marinos we are going to just take care of them right away insted of seeing what the mothers will do. He said there are 2 more sheep that may lamb since the others did. We shall see! Vince and Vinny are doing great and it looks like it is about time for me to go feed them!

Suprise

This morning I went out to feed the lambs and I looked over into the field where the Merino sheep are kept, the lambs mother being one of them, and I'll be darned if there was not another baby lamb!!! This time the mother is taking care of it. I have not gone up close to see it because I don't want to scare the mother. I am going to wait until Randy comes out to feed and see if it is OK to go near them. I went to Ranys house and was able to tell Katie but Randy was not up yet. Katie was again surprised and excited. She looked good!

HOME AGAIN

Hi All!! Katie is home again and is doing well!! She gets tired pretty easy but was excited to meet the lambs when Charlie brought them home today! She came over from the house and met and inspected both of them. She is still having some trouble with saying what she wants to say and with reading but she says it is getting better everyday.

Meet the lambs!! This little guy the kids are calling Vinny. ( I think Randy and Katie are going to let the kids name them) He is the smaller of the two and we were having a hard time getting him to eat. Tonight when I fed them though he ate really well, almost a full bottle. Michael is trying to feed him.
Here is Emily holding Vinny.
Here is James holding the little guy the kids have named Vince.
Vince eats very well ! He sucked down almost two full bottles since he came home. He is a bit bigger and more agressive of the two.

The kids chose V names because Katie names the lambs by the same letter of the alphabet. Last year was U so this year is V. Anyway you will probably see more pictures of these guys later. Randy is going to let us have the job of taking care of them and I think it will be fun! Of course he is around if we have questions.

Katie continues to improve and may be coming home today. She is still having trouble with getting out what she wants to say and still can not read. They are going to run some final tests today and then hopefully she will come home. I'll keep you updated!

Monday

I spoke with Randy and Katie is doing better. She was up walking around. She is having trouble forming sentences and can't read yet but Randy believes that will all come with time. Katie is understandably a bit discouraged, but Randy is expecting a full recovery. Katie is a very active lady and works hard on their farm. She was excited to here about the baby lambs, who are doing very well, and Randy was going to show her a picture of them when he went back to the hospital today.

Cara came over and since it was such a beautiful day we took her to see some local sights. A former fort from WWII and a driftwood beach. We tried to go to a local bakery, but it was closed. Insted we went to a coffee place that had baked good and Aunt Cara spoiled everyone with a treat. FUN!!

When the lambs come home next week Randy is going to set them up in our barn and he is going to let us take care of them. He will provide everything we need. The kids are excited!