Place to look at our pictures

http://gallery.me.com/cheriterry

I just realized I've been paying for this and not using it, so I'm loading as fast as I can. I realize I have lots of duplication, but it may take me a while to figure out how to get rid of those.

2009 Christmas Letter

Left to Right & Back to Front: Heather Spears Cowley, Libby Spears Schaper, Cheri, Terry, Brianna Spears, Bridget Harr, Pacey Mills, Cameron Cowley, Tyler Schaper, Leah Schaper, Darren Cowley, Cohen Mills, Pat Schaper

This picture was taken on the family cruise. It was formal night, but Bri had already gone to her cabin and changed. The poor photographer had a tough job. It was about 11 p.m. and Cohen was wired, but I think he did a great job, don’t you?

What a Year it has been!

Some of you may recall that last year I stated that it was impossible to get the whole family together at once. That must have inspired the kids to make a liar out of me. Despite the fact that we had a cruise to Alaska planned as well as a tour of Portugal and Spain, we were challenged to take a cruise with all the kids and grandkids to the Bahamas. And we did!

Although it has been a busy year of travel for us,Terry even squeezed in a lot of work for UOP. He is toying with the idea of not renewing his contract in 2010, but I think my honey-do list might be incentive to stay on board with UOP (ha, ha).

Okay, I’ll back up and tell this story a little more in chronological order. We headed to Orlando for Christmas with the Cowley family last year. It was interesting to experience a warm Christmas. A college in Orlando had set up a tent with an ice skating rink, so we got to watch Heather teach Cameron to ice skate. They both did very well.

Shortly after Resurrection Sunday, our Pastor had to have some surgery, so for the Sunday immediately after we had a substitute suggested by one of his daughters. Brent Avery came from Oklahoma City to do an abbreviated version of his Passover Seder. It was amazing to see how so much of the ceremony points to Jesus Christ, right down to the bread that is “buried” in a special bag disappearing by the end of the ceremony when the leader of the seder goes to retrieve it. I looked for his website (http://www.memministries.org/) and found links there to a Messianic Rabbi who had written a book “The Seven Festivals of the Messiah”. The book is online (http://www.hebroots.org/hhmi.html#). This is my new fascination.

In June, we flew to Alaska for a week of land touring. We landed in Fairbanks, visited Denali, made a rest stop at McKinley park, stopped in Anchorage for lunch on the way to the Kenai Peninsula for a few days. From there we rode the bus thru the Anton Anderson Tunnel to Whittier to catch our ship for our first cruise. We cruised the inside passage down to Vancouver. What beautiful scenery we saw! Fiords and glaciers galore! We stopped at various port towns along the way. We wanted to get right back on the ship and do it over.

The Family Cruise

By August, many details had complicated everyone’s plans to arrive in Port Canaveral in time for the cruise. Bri and Bridget were moving from Portland, Maine, to Santa Barbara, California. Bridget had received the delightful news that she was accepted as a grad student there with financial help despite the financial problems in California. They had to plan and coordinate their packing for the move and the cruise as well as plan for their two cats (one of whom is not a happy traveler). They visited friends and family most of the way down the coast and drove in lots of pouring rain.

We also drove in a lot of pouring rain from here to Cape Canaveral and got a hotel room that provided parking while we were on the cruise as well as a shuttle ride to the ship.

Libby and her kids, her fiance, and his family flew from OKC. There was an almost last-minute decision to have their wedding on the cruise, since we had all of both families there. Everyone’s budget was already spent for the cruise and cruise weddings are not cheap, so Heather conducted the ceremony. Since her internet ordination is probably not legal in the Bahamas, they made the marriage legal in Oklahoma on their return to Norman. Both the Spears and Schaper parents are delighted, and we have both inherited two bonus grandchildren. Libby and Pat have a great working relationship with John and his wife, as to what is best for the kids. I don’t know how they all keep up with the schedule of who takes the kids where and when or who’s house they are at this week, but they seem to manage.

Heather and her family only had to travel from Orlando, so Darren’s dad chauffeured them and Bri and Bridget and saved them lots of parking fees.

It was a nice, relaxing cruise, the weather was great, and we did not have to outrun any hurricanes.

Grandkids Back in School and Other Stuff

The cruise was over just in time for the kids to get back to prepare for school. Bri and Bridget had a little longer, and that is a good thing. They saw more family and friends on their way to California. Then they had to move into the apartment and get settled. Bri is serving coffee at Borders while searching for a job that will utilize her GIS training and skills. We are looking forward to a few visits out there over the next few years.

Heather had a strange growth removed from under her kneecap. The doctors are still puzzled, but at least we know it is benign. He doctor is referring her to an oncologist anyway, because he is a specialist in all kinds of tumors. She recovered enough she sang with the Messiah Choral Society in Orlando a few weeks ago and is back to leading her friends in their exercises.

Cohen had had an enlarged lymph node removed shortly before the cruise. It also was benign, and the doctor now believes his tonsils were the source of the problem. If the insurance ever pays on the lymph node surgery, they may have those tonsils removed.

We took off for our tour of Portugal and Spain in September. The terrain reminded me of Texas panhandle and New Mexico except for the coastal areas. I loved that trip. It inspired interest in their history and I love Gaudi! His architecture reminds me of a Dr. Seuss book. I’ll try to get more pictures on here, but right now time is short and putting pictures on here is a slow process.

Tyler is in his first year of middle school. There have been some stresses, but he is a good student and is making the adjustment. He is a talented musician; one of those kids you do not have to remind to practice!

Leah is in 5th grade. She has sort of an auditory dyslexia, but since her maternal grandmother got some testing done the school is doing more to help her. Several of her textbooks are recorded, so she can listen and follow along at the same time. Leah has a very artistic talent. I expect she will shine in that area.

Cameron is already in 4th grade. She is still a super reader, I don’t think her classmates have caught up with her. Changing her medication seems to have taken care of the winky tic she had developed. Heather thinks it may not help her as much to pay close attention to the teacher, but it is not too bad a trade off. Cameron has a great teacher this year, so things should go reasonably well. The movie she was going to be in this year had a problem with insurance or something, so she has some extra free time this fall. The premier for last years movie, Assassin Blues, was postponed, but I hope to get a DVD as soon as one is available.

Pacey is in 3rd grade and still a model student, even if she is a little bossy. Her wonderful Girl Scout leader started teaching school this year, so she does not have time to lead the troop. I guess no one else wants to follow her act, so Pacey was open to try some new things. She is a pretty fast little swimmer, so they enrolled her in the program at the Y. Apparently, they did not want to do any training, so she decided to wait and take more lessons before jumping into competition. She also started piano lessons and seems to love them. Her teacher has made some nice comments about her abilities and progress.

Last, but not least, can you believe Cohen already started preschool? He is learning his alphabet and knows most of the sounds. I think he could already count some. We went to his last soccer game of the season. What a riot!

As usual our December is bitter sweet even after 17 years since Wendy’s murder, but we look forward to the day when we will see her again in heaven.

I’ve just about squeezed all the words I can on these to pages, so I must quickly wish y’all a blessed and MERRY CHRISTMAS and a healthy and prosperous 2010. Let us hear from you. Hearing from friends and relatives is one of my favorite parts of Christmas, or even after Christmas.

Alaska 2009 - Fairbanks

Terry and I have just spent two wonderful weeks touring parts of Alaska and cruising the inside passage on the way home.  It was so cool and so beautiful! I hope to just show you mostly with pictures with some word of explanation.We left the house around 3:30 a.m. on June 7, to meet the rest of the group at the old Walmart parking lot.  The bus was there to take us to the airport.  Every flight was on time and it was a flawless day flying into Fairbanks, Alaska around 3 p.m. their time (about 4 hours behind central time).  It was sunny and almost hot when we arrived.

 Here is Terry outside the lodge we stayed in.  I think our room is right behind Terry's head. 

                                                   

 The grounds of the lodge had a little area to walk in with some historical information and some picures of early settlers. Here is a picture of an example of a homestead cabin and it is about as tiny as it looks.

The next morning we headed out on a bus to tour a spot on the Alyeska Pipeline and then the Eldurango Gold Mine.  After we saw some demontrations of different methods of gold mining we panned a little gold ourselves.  I'm afraid we would have been among the starving if we had been gold miners, but it was fun to try. 

              

In the afternoon we took a sternwheeler cruise on the Chena River.  That was a fun way to see some of the Fairbanks area and get in on some short historical and cultural tours. 

We had some demonstrations of Eskimo and Athabaskan skills and lifestyles. This is an Athabaskan style parka with beadwork forget-me-nots.

Some young ladies are also raising and training sled dogs in the style of Susan Butcher in the area where Susan and her husband raised their daughters and worked with their dogs. There was a little demonstration on their summer training and exercise. I hope you can see how excited these dogs were to pull the four wheeler around the lake. Leaping with joy about describes it.  After that they jumped in the river to cool off.

                                                                                         

A wonderful site!

http://www.memministries.org

Starting a Blog

     Well, now that I've gotten past the preliminaries, I don't know what to say.  Several of my daughters have blogs and are very philosophical in their writing.  That is probably not my strong suit or my style, but what is?  

     My long range plan was to put my Christmas letter here for those who have internet access.  I will attempt to put last years edition in here for practice. And happily I can include more pictures!

Christmas 2008

The Spears family

The Lord has blessed our clan with a very pleasant year and a busy one.  I'm not sure we want it to end, but I suppose it must. 

 Terry is working at home for Universal Oil Products.  They pay him well, and I have to force him to take a break about every other month or so. He still starts work by 6 a.m. so he can go to the YMCA and swim laps around 3 p.m.  He also stays busy with Civitan committees and an older citizens services committee.

April snow on peak of Mt. Pilatus, no views of Lucerne this day!

We survived what I thought was a long, cold winter, and what did Terry and I do but take an April trip to Austria, Germany, and Switzerland.  We saw some BEAUTIFUL country and had some wonderful experiences, but it prolonged our winter.  We hope to take 2 trips next year; Alaska in June and Spain and Portugal in September.

Nonny and great grand daughter Tara at Boot Hill.

It seems it has gotten impossible to get all the girls and their significant others and kids together all at once, so thankfully we are still healthy and able to go here and there, sometimes several times.  We tried to have a birthday celebration for my mom, but changed the date several times trying to get all her "grands" and "great grands" there at once.  It ended up a couple of months late and too close to the birth of her newest great grandson for his branch to come, but we went to the shower for his mom in Amarillo the day before and then had Nonny's party with a wonderful Sunday brunch at Boot Hill in Vega, Texas.

Heather and Cameron with Grandad Otis Spears and Christine;  Libby, Pacey and Cohen with them too.

We are excited that Terry's dad reached the age of 95 this month.  He had a successful knee replacement this spring.  I think if he could find a spine replacement he might look forward to the age of 100.  Terry and I went to see him before Thanksgiving to celebrate early and we made a couple of trips this summer to take Libby and kids and Heather and daughter.  Cameron stayed with us while Heather was  in and out preparing for her 20 year class reunion.  (Can you believe that?)

Bridget and Brianna, outdoor restaurant in Portland Maine.  Pacey and Libby in Maine.

We went to Maine in August to 

visit Brianna and Bridget for Brianna's birthday.  Libby and her crew flew, and we drove.  It was a hectic 3 days, but we did some fun things like visit a lighthouse and cruise on a schooner.  And this year the temperatures were more typical of Maine, cool.  Terry and I extended our trip to Bar Harbor.  Wow, what a beautiful place!  I cannot get a big enough picture to even hint at the awesomeness of that part of God's creation.

We also drove down to South Carolina - Oh My! more beautiful country!

Terry and I think Bri sailing on the schooner.

One shot from Cadillac Mountain at Bar Harbor, or as they say there "Bah Habah"- We had some lobsta chowda at the Chowda House in Bah Habah.  Delish!!!

My workload increased for the League of Women Voters this year.  I became the web mamma for the Bartlesville website: Bartlesville.lwvok.org. Then over the summer I added the state website to my list, www.lwvok.org.  Between that and editing newsletters for both levels and trying to keep up with my other groups, the Bible Church ladies Bible study, Community Sentencing Council, Red Hat Society, and a reading group, I spend a lot of time on the computer.  If I made any money at it, it might be like having a job or two.

Pacey on the playground we helped build.       Libby's kids and Pat's kids - what a team!

Cohen at the Texas roadside park.

We've had an early Christmas party with Libby and her 2 kids and her boyfriend, Pat, and his 2 kids, so now we are preparing for our flight to Orlando to spend Christmas with Heather's crew.  Brianna has started a new job, so she is too short of money and time for the trip here or Florida this year, and besides that Bridget's clan has laid claim on their presence this year.  Maybe they can get enough time off to go to Pennsylvania sometime around Christmas.

Brianna has one more course to finish before she becomes GIS certified.  She has had a neat internship with a nonprofit organization.  She got to map some previously unmapped areas and set up a website for them so they can update information without having to buy some expensive software.  Sounds like a good experience for both parties, just what an internship should be.

Libby is still the lead web designer for Oklahoma University. She got to go to a conference in Basel, Switzerland, this fall.  Pacey is a vivacious second grader who can talk to almost anyone about almost any thing.  She loves gymnastics and girl scouts.  Cohen is a charmer of a 3-year- old.  He can get himself out of almost any trouble with his winsome smile.  He loves cars and dinosaurs!  Surprisingly to all of us, he has become quite a talker, too.

Cigarette burns - makeup for movie.    Cameron    Singing at the Southern Womens Convention.

Heather is a busy stage mom, while Darren works long hours to bring home the bacon.  Cameron participates in a lot of singing events.  Singing is her favorite activity other than Pokemons, and she has a good strong voice.  She is getting some acting experience too.  She still has a night or two of filming left to do on Assassin Blues (that is, if they do not change the name of the movie.)  It looks like a serious movie.  We have seen a picture of her getting cigarette burns in makeup (they use fruit rollups.) And I understand the little girl she plays dies.

As usual this time of year comes with memories of Wendy and events from 16 years ago.  It is hard to believe that much time has passed when the sorrow is still so fresh.  I think we are still all dealing on our own levels with forgiving Kevin, not so much saying what he did was okay, but learning to leave that judgment to God and trusting that His justice will be sufficient and way better than man's.

We are wishing all the best for you and yours for Christmas and 2009 and hoping to hear lots of news from you all.  Merry Christmas! And a Happy and prosperous New Year!

Ice skating in Florida after Christmas! Darren cooking Christmas turkey.

Stating a Blog