Merry Christmas 2013

View from the back of our new house.

The front of our new house.

Breezy, Hetty, Spears cousins Lloyd and David, Libs!

Libby's family, do you think this is posed?

Darren when his Seminoles are winning.

Beautiful Cameron and her 13-year old 'tude!

Briddy cheering for her Red Sox.

Our biggest news is we are changing addresses between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  We will be back and forth some, so if you have already sent us mail by the time you get this we will still probably get it. Our new address is 4401 Shoreline Dr., Norman OK 73026. Who would have thought an address in Oklahoma could be called Shoreline, but there IS a little lake behind our house.

I snitched these pics from the kids’ Facebook pages. It is hard to get real printed pictures any more, but we get the digital ones more often.                                                                                                                                                    We have had another eventful year.  We started the year with the flu, so our visit to see Terry’s dad got postponed even longer.  We finally got out to Roswell in March and April, but Otis’ health was not improving, he still had a lot of back pain and was falling often, so we began to wonder if he would make it to his 100th birthday on December 8, 2013. He made it a little past  99 1/2.  Heather and Cameron had flown in to visit us and we were about to head out for their last visit with Grandad/Great Grandad when we got the call that he had passed away. The sadness of losing him was tempered by the fact that he had lived a long full life and was prepared to go.  His wife Christine took such good care of him, we are sure it is part of why he lived so long.  She has now moved from Roswell, NM to a suburb of Portland, OR, to be closer to some of her children and grandchildren, and she loves it!  And what a change in climate for her that has been!

     Terry officially retired from UOP on July 1.  So far, he has stayed retired and I think is enjoying the freedom. So for now we are both busy deciding what to move and what to give away and what to throw away.  There may be another round of that as we see what will fit into the new house.

     Heather and her family are still in Orlando.  They are looking for a new place to live, but not too far from the friends they have made in their neighborhood.  They want something a little more rural, but they do live in alligator country, so do they want land with a pond?  Cameron is finishing up middle school this year.  It is not her favorite place to be, so I think she is looking forward to the end of this school year.  Darren is still employed by a company that does lots of work for the government. We think he must be a fantastic computer person to have gotten a promotion instead of a layoff since lots of government jobs are being cut. Heather is still involved in the Messiah Choral Society; she does lots of fundraising for them throughout the year and participates in the performance that is free to the public the Sunday after Thanksgiving.  She is also into diet and exercise regimes, so she sometimes leads her friends in a good workout.

     Libby and her family are always on the go, sometimes in multiple directions. Pat is still in management at Hertz and is also a fantastic computer person.  Libby changed employers this year, she is sad that she does not work with some of her good friends at OU, but she also likes the people she works with at 3 Share.  She works from home except when she needs to be on site. She is also a fantastic computer person. She participated in the Tough Mudder in Dallas with some of her former OU work friends.  They raised a lot of money for the Wounded Warrior Project. Tyler is a sophomore at Norman North High School.  He is taking a class that exposes him to engineering of all kinds, and he really likes it, so we guess there will be another engineer in a few years.  I’m not sure he has chosen which area yet, but there is time. He is also 16, but not really interested in driving, even though he has had his driving classes.  Leah is a freshman at Norman North and can’t wait until she is old enough to get that driver’s license.  She is a good student, as well as a very social gal and she plays ice hockey on a traveling team.  Pacey is in 7th grade at Whittier Middle School. She is a super student and continues to enjoy cross country running. We managed to get to a few of her runs this year.  Cohen is in 3rd grade this year. He is getting better at reading. Since Oklahoma has a law that you have to read at a certain level or stay in 3rd grade, he is getting a lot of extra help at school in hopes of reaching that level in the spring.

     Brianna and Bridget are still in California, so we hope to make one more trip out there to enjoy that mild California climate before Bridget gets her doctorate. We might need to plan on a trip when that happens too!  They have been enjoying seeing as much of California as they can between work and school. They have camped out in Yosemite a few times.  Brianna is into rock climbing, and California has some big rocks to climb. They have some friends that are teaching her the safe way to do it, thankfully.  Brianna got promoted from map print production associate to GIS Cartographer Production Specialist for maps.com. She works at the office and at home. She came to Roswell for her grandad’s funeral, and they are both coming for Christmas to see our new house, so we get to see her twice this year.

     The ladies bible study group discovered a neat book, All the Parables of the Bible by Herbert Lockyer . There are way more than we could ever be able to study as a group, but he has analyzed them very well and we can look at other sources to see if others agree with him or disagree or just have different explanations.  It has opened our eyes to even more exciting things in the Bible. I’ve also discovered a great website: http://119ministries.com. They really concentrate on the fact that the Old Testament is important to understand the New Testament.  I’ve enjoyed their teaching very much.

     Before we run out of room, we want to wish all of you a great Christmas season and a happy healthy new year!  Whether you believe Jesus was born on December 25, was conceived on December 25, or do not believe in Him at all, it seems to be a very special time of year for us all, and we pray that you discover you do believe he is the Son of God and learn to trust him and enjoy the security of knowing him as your Savior.  Times may still be tough, but knowing he is going through those tough times beside you can be the biggest comfort you will ever know. He certainly carried us through the loss of Wendy 21 years ago.  Although we miss her terribly in our lives today, we look forward to the reunion with her when it is our turn to pass into eternity.

Merry Christmas from Terry and Cheri

Merry Christmas 2012

December is here again!

Once again December has rolled around before we knew it.  And once again it has been a wild and crazy year for our clan.  Of course our Decembers have been bitter sweet since Wendy’s death 20 years ago, but God gives us strength and joy in the midst of our grief.

I mentioned last year that Mom’s doctors did not think she had much more time on earth.  She did make it through Christmas.  Bri and Bridget drove up to my sisters house on Christmas Eve.  They had made a few turn arounds to drive around closed roads because of snowstorms, so the trip from Santa Barbara was longer than they expected. They visited some that night and some on Christmas day then drove on to Norman to visit with Libby.  They were still at Libby’s on the 29th, when we all got the news that their Nonny had passed away. We had a wonderful service for her in her Methodist Church in Channing on January 3, with the Baptist preacher presiding. Our cousin Jim (Booger) Skelton did a wonderful job of telling the story of her family and her life. Her kids and grandkids are still missing her and now Facebook is filling up with pictures from her many photo albums. This picture is one none of us had ever seen, but she told Sandy about it, so when Sandy was looking for a picture for the funeral brochure, she ran across it with the title “Me with my big ole feet sticking out.” It just had to be the one to use.                                                                                                                                                                       Terry and I did make it to Otis Spears’ 98th birthday last year.  We had hopes of making it for his 99th this Saturday, the 8th, but Terry burned his hand pretty bad the other morning so now he has to have therapy called debridement thru next Wednesday. So I guess we will have to go later. Here is a picture of Otis last year. Not bad, huh?  

The grandkids pictured above are growing and going in all directions. 

Libby’s Family  All but Cohen are certified in Scuba.  He will be too when he gets to be old enough.   Pacey entered middle school this year, so Cohen is the only one in elementary school now. He is a second grader already.  He had a bad morning last February. The family dog at his Dad’s house decided to take a chunk out of his leg. He ended up missing about 6 weeks of school to allow his skin graft to heal. His teacher came to Libby’s house a couple of days a week to keep him caught up on his school work. All four sets of grandparents got to trade off in keeping Cohen occupied (and try to keep Mr. ADD off his feet) while parents went to work. He does have ADD, but the side effects of the meds were worse than the ADD.  Other methods of dealing with it will have to be employed. He got to go back to school about April 2nd, but did not get to go back to playing soccer until this fall. He has a pretty ugly scar, but it could have been so much worse, and it seems that scars are cool amongst boys.                                                                                                Pacey is a girl after Grammy’s heart because she chose the flute as her instrument for the school band. She has started running in cross country as her sport, and really loves it.  She loves those 5 K runs. She is still the one of the most organized and focused kids I know.                       Tyler is in high school and seems to be adapting well.  Seems it was just yesterday he was a little boy and now here he is planning where to go to college and deciding what kind of engineering he wants to study.                           

Leah is an eighth grader, so I guess there will be two in high school next year. She is doing really well including some AP classes in math. She plays ice hockey, for real!

Heather’s daughter Cameron stuck with it at the International Baccalaureate school in Orlando. She plays the clarinet like her Grandpa and Aunt Libby. She does excellent work for the most part, but with her ADHD she needs help remembering what her assignments are and needs a lot of encouragement (nagging?) to get them done. She even had several projects to do over the summer.  She has a lot of musical talent and loves all things musical, so her mom and dad have her enrolled in a music school where she plays piano, and guitar as well as sings.

Bri and Bridget

Remember how Bri took a cut in pay last year to take a full time job at maps.com and dropped her other job that paid well? It looks like that move is paying off. Her new title at the beginning of the new year: GIS Cartographer, Production Specialist. She came home for her 10-year class reunion this summer.  I cannot believe it has been that long! Bridget just received her Masters degree and is well on her way to the Doctorate. Bri and Bridget are still enjoying Santa Barbara and will use this Christmas holiday to go to Maui while they are still on the west coast and the tickets are cheaper than flying home. I’m hoping they will stay in California long enough for us to get at least one more visit out there.

Our Travels

This year we made several trips. Our trip to Orlando for Christmas last year went really well.  We were ahead of the storms all the way there and back. It was pretty foggy the morning we left Mobile, but I think that happens there a lot.   We went to England, Scotland and Wales in April. We had very nice weather.  Of course it rained some, but we had sunshine too. I wanted to spend more time in Wales since some of my ancestors were chased out of there for being in Cromwell’s army.  Anyway all of the British Isles are beautiful!

This fall we went with a group on a coach (I always want to say bus.) We rode across Tennessee at just the right time to see all those beautiful fall colors. We stopped in Memphis coming and going to see Beale Street, Graceland, Mud Island, and as the picture shows, the grounds of St. Jude’s children’s hospital. 

We stayed in Gatlinburg, were entertained several times in Pigeon Forge and visited the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina for a whole day, and still did not see it all.Terry did sign up for another year of working for UOP full time.  He says he will really retire this year, but who knows? I think he hates to lose that connection with people that speak engineering.  Terry and I stay busy with our various organizations.  I also became a regular member of a bunco group I had been subbing for.  It is a fun evening once a month with a fun group of ladies. I’m trying to find ways to lighten my load for League of Women Voters. This election year really was busy for me. My joining Terry at the YMCA for exercise has turned out to be a good move. I haven’t lost any weight, but I think my stamina has improved.  I don’t have to rest quite as long between laps in swimming and am able to do 1.6 miles in 23 minutes on the elliptical without stirring up sciatica pains.Usually I try to write a little bit about what I have learned in my Bible studies for the year and usually try to pick a theme of some Christmas words such as peace, joy, hope, rejoice, etc.  Last year I mixed in the word “trust” even though it may not be too Christmasy.  I found that this year has had me returning more and more to that word and idea of “trust.”  Our women’s Bible study group has been studying the life of Moses and have found that he grew to trust God more and more. His trust of God’s leading is really the picture of his life.  Also, I was given a devotional book for Christmas last year called, “Jesus Calling.”   It also dwells on seeking His presence, being thankful for His blessings, and among other things, TRUSTING Him in every part of our lives. I’ve begun to post the reading for each day on Facebook to share with those who care to read it. It is too good to keep all to myself. So sticking with the TRUST theme this year, my prayer for you, as well as for me, will be, “May you grow to trust the Lord more and more every day.”

Wishing y’all a Merry Christmas and a new year that is prosperous in every way!

Christmas 2011

Sorry, I did not get this posted here last year, but feel like I'd better before I put up this year's Christmas letter.  Some of the text is doing weird stuff, but I think it is all readable now.

It's Christmas 2011, Rejoice!

Aren’t we a wild looking bunch? We managed to get the whole gang together inNew Braunfels and Gruene TX this summerand found a stranger brave enough to takea picture for us.Back row: Cheri Spears, Darren Cowley, PatSchaper. Second Row: Libby Schaper,Heather Cowley, Bridget Harr, TerrySpears. Front row: Cameron Cowley, TylerSchaper, Leah Schaper, Pacey Mills, CohenMills and Brianna Spears.

Again! I am surprised to findThanksgiving is over and the rush to getready for Christmas is in full swing. Weare not planning to celebrate here, but wewill drive down to Orlando, so I think Iwill not be doing too much decorating orcooking here. I’m on to shopping andshipping and packing.We want to celebrate with Terry’s dad on

his 98th birthday on December 8, so we are    making plans to drive over to Roswell NM andvisit him for a couple of days.

My mother had her second heart attack in October
and is now living under the care of my sister and
her family in Boise City OK. Doctors think there
is a serious problem with one lung, so they do
not give her much of a future here on earth. She
has done fairly well as long as she gets her
oxygen and breathing treatments. She does not
have much of an appetite, but we all keep sending
things to tempt her. We will try to stop by there
on our way home from Roswell.
Terry has been working for UOP at a steady pace
this year. He is thinking he may not sign up for
another year come June, but I think he will miss
it. Maybe he can stay on and cut back to a 20-
hour week or even less. I guess we will see how
he feels in June. Who knows? Maybe he will have
all those operation manuals redone by then.
We went on a 10 day tour of Ireland in September.
It was WONDERFUL! So green! And so cool after
our 117-degree days this summer. Every day we had

a little rain and a little sun. We took so many  pictures, I am having a hard time selecting what to put in the picture book. But I will get back to that soon. I did post them on the gallery site http://gallery.me.com/cheriterry#gallery. We rode a coach around the outer edges of the Irish Republic. We started in Dublin, then on to Waterford, Killarney, Limerick and finished up the trip in a castle at Kingscourt. We saw a few places in between like the Ring of Kerry, Blarney Castle where the Blarney stone is, Galway, and the Cliffs of Moher. We hope to see some of the British Isles next spring (England, Scotland and Wales). We hope we can have the same guide, because she loves and knows the history and has some fun ways to help us remember it, at least as well as I remember anything these days.

Our kids and grandkids are SO BUSY! Most of you
have kids and grandkids, so you know what I mean.
Brianna and Bridget are still enjoying that
wonderful climate in California. Bri finally got
her a choice job - printing maps at maps.com.
Maps.com got featured on Good Morning America!
This is not the best-paying job, but she gets to touch maps everyday. Bridget keeps her nose in                       the books all the time as she is nearing the end of her course work toward the PhD in sociology as well as working as a research and teaching assistant at the University of California Santa Barbara.

On the east coast, The Cowley family of Orlando
is deep into Cameron’s first year in middle
school (6th grade). They all spend a lot of time
keeping Cameron focused on getting all the
homework done. Are any of you familiar with
International Baccalaureate schools or programs?
I’m not sure they are pleased enough to do this
again next year. They were encouraged to send
Cameron to a particular middle school for this
program. It has meant a lot of changes; no
books, power point programs from which she is
supposed to take notes. This has not worked well
with her ADHD so she was way behind very soon.
By the end of the 9 weeks Heather and Darren had
caught on to some of the problems and prodded and
pushed Cameron and her teachers until she had
caught up on her work. Her report card grades
were good. The projects seem aimed at
encouraging creativity, but it also involve a lot
of time-consuming work. One highlight is that
her all-girl Lego robotics team won 1st place for
Core Values and finished in the top 3 overall out
of 12 teams which earned them a qualification for
the regional tournament! Their team is called The
Tough Cookies. Cameron designed the t-shirt for
her team.

Libby’s crew amazes me with how they get so many
people to so many activities. Libby and Pat
decided to try scuba diving and they LOVE it!
Now the boys are interested in it too. With 4
kids in 2 schools and all kinds of
extracurricular activities (soccer, piano,
violin, Scouts, gymnastics, choir, and ice
hockey) there is never a dull moment. Cohen, the
little boy Libby was so afraid would never talk,
got in trouble at school three times in one week
for talking. I guess that was not all; now
screening for ADHD is scheduled. Looks like
there are some challenges ahead to keep everyone
doing their best in school.
I’m still busy with my League of Women Voters job
as communication chair. That involves a lot of
computer time. Then I have my Red Hat Society
group. Usually that is just a monthly lunch out
with the other 19 “gals” in our group. But once
in a while we go to a special tea in Tulsa or a
get-together with other Red Hat chapters in
Oklahoma, Missouri,and Arkansas for shows or
craft days and always more eating.
I have kept working at my resolution to get into
an exercise routine. This summer I was walking
about 2 miles a day early in the morning before
it got too hot. When it started cooling off I
would wait until later. It was getting to be
harder to find a good time, so I started going to
the YMCA with Terry. Since he is such a
consistent exerciser, this should help me be more
consistent.
My other activity, besides going to church
regularly on Sunday, is the ladies Bible study.
One of our members had done her own private study
on Malachi, so she led us in that study this
fall. She found some real nuggets of gold to
share with us. It reminded me how much God wants
us to trust Him and to be thankful for the ways
he blesses us. Trust seems to be a recurring
theme in my spiritual journey. Mostly I just
recognize it as small flashes of insight.
I cannot remember where I first heard someone say
“It is not good you believe IN God, but that you
BELIEVE GOD. Believe - another word for trust.
A way I heard we can test ourselves about whether
we are trusting Jesus as our savior was this
example: “If I am a tightrope walker, walking
across Niagara Falls, I might ask you if you
believe I can do this, you might say ‘Yes, I
believe you can do it.’ Then I might ask you,
‘Do you believe I can do it blindfolded?’ You
might respond, ‘Yes, I believe you can do it!’
Then if I said, ‘I want to walk across with you
on my shoulders, do you believe I can do it?’
That might take a little more trust for you to
say, ‘Yes, I believe you can do it.’ and to climb
on my shoulders.” Hmm, there’s that word trust                                                                               again, and a picture for me of what really
trusting Jesus as my savior is like. I know of no
other god or system of belief that has even made
the promise of providing the sacrifice for me,
much less fulfilling it.
We all struggle with having the patience to wait
for God to answer our prayers. He gives us many
opportunities to learn to trust him to answer
with what is best for us - yes, no, later.
Eventually, after going through many trials, we
can start to trust Him for the best answer.
Forgiveness is another area where we have an
opportunity to trust God. Forgiving someone is
turning them over to God, who can be counted on,
or trusted, to deal with them His way.
Deuteronomy 32:35ff. says a lot about His dealing
with those we turn over to Him. We may have given
Kevin over to God, but we still miss our Wendy
every day. Since he killed her so close to
Christmas 19 years ago I guess that memory will
be a part of our Christmases as long as we are
here on earth. God is the only one we can trust to                                                                                             deal with him the right way. Our comfort is
in looking forward to the day we will see Wendy
in heaven.
We can REJOICE in this holy season because the
God we trust in fulfilled that promise he made
back in Genesis 3:15. He sent Jesus!
Merry Christmas!! Cheri & Terry

Christmas 2010

Grand daughter Cameron Cowley singing the national anthem at the July Bartlesville Winget tournament.

The early birds for dinner at Terry's 50th class reunion.

Leah, Cohen, Pacey, and Tyler (from Libby's household) on a hot day at the OK State Fair.

Bridget and Bri at the Fountain at Mission Santa Barbara built in 1786.

Good grief, another year seems to have zipped right on by. Time seems to move even faster as we start to move slower.

Terry is still busy with his contract job with UOP, with his volunteer work for Civitan, and Older Citizen Services (like meals on wheels and inexpensive senior housing), and with swimming laps at the YMCA.

I still stay busy with League of Women Voters (locally and statewide), Red Hat Society, Community Sentencing Council, our church’s ladies’ Bible study, and a reading group that meets every other month.

Our big trip for the year was to France. We spent a part of April in Paris, where we visited the Eiffel Tower, Ste. Chapelle, Notre Dame, La Louvre, and Versailles. Then we went on to visit Normandy. The cemeteries and memorials from World War II were very sobering, but they also reveal the thankfulness the French people have felt for our help there.

We did not get to St. Sauvant where some of my Huguenot ancestors were hung, but we were fairly close in Vouvray, so I thought I at least knew what the landscape was like.

We went back to Paris long enough to get on one of those speedy TGV trains. We enjoyed a smooth ride at 180 mph to Avignon, where we toured around the old Pope’s Palace there, then we rode the bus to Aix en Provence.

We toured St. Saviors Cathedral and the rest of the old town of Aix. We stopped in Grasse to visit a perfumery, where our guide was just sure Terry was a cute little Canadian Frenchman. Little did she know all the scents she was sharing with him had little effect, since he has no sense of smell. Then we visited an old walled city of St. Paul De Vence. The art work and the views there were incredible. The last city we visited in France was Nice, where the main attraction besides the beach was the flower market. There was way more than flowers for sale there. We also took a day to visit Monaco and Monte Carlo. Wow, that is a spectacular place!

Heather and Cameron came from Orlando for a nice long visit. Bartlesville has a baseball tournament along with a July 4 celebration. We were able to arrange for Cameron to sing the national anthem two nights. The local paper had her picture in a couple of times, and she got rave reviews from those who heard her.

We took them out to visit my mom in Texas and Terry’s dad in New Mexico. Those visits were fairly short, but we did visit Bottomless Lakes State Park near Roswell. We had to hurry back to Oklahoma because I had volunteered to drive Pacey to her photography class at the OKC art museum. Thankfully Heather took on that duty. She trusts her city driving a lot more than she trusts mine. There was heavy traffic both a. m. and p. m., so I trusted her driving more than mine, too. Pacey really enjoyed her visits with Aunt Heather on the drive as well as she enjoyed the classes. They had some very creative projects. I hope we get some time to try some of them together.

Heather stays busy keeping Cameron occupied in constructive ways, working at the Scholastic book warehouse, acting with local theaters, entering contests (and she wins a lot) and running races of different kinds to keep her and her friends interested in staying fit. She has had some curious health issues, which we hope turn out to be her body just reacting to that big _0 birthday she had this year.

It was September before Terry and I made our trip out to see Brianna in her new environment of Santa Barbara, California. While Bridget is going to grad school, Bri enjoys her job at Mentor, and she also does some free-lance mapping work to keep her GIS skills sharp as she keeps an eye out for a permanent job in the GIS field.

We took the long route getting there so we could see a few sights, going through Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, and in California we toured around part of Lake Tahoe and Yosemite Park. We even managed a short visit with one of my cousins, who directed us the best way from her house to Santa Barbara. We got there just before Brianna got off work on Thursday, so she took Friday off and she had a 3-day weekend to show us the area. Not many cities have city hall available for tours, but that was one impressive part of our tour. It is a beautiful building in Spanish style.

Of course food is another part of any good tour if you are foodies like us, and Santa Barbara has a variety of food. We also saw the Santa Barbara Mission and Stearn’s Wharf. I have a vague memory of the wharf from a visit 51 years ago. Ha, ha. We also visited the botanical gardens and drove up on one of the mountains for some great views. It was lovely weather even though it was cold enough we used extra blankets and turned on the heater a few mornings.

Bri and Bridget miss having the four seasons, but I think Bri does not miss digging her car out of the snow every winter morning before going to work.

Since Brianna went back to work at 6 a. m. on Monday, that gave us a good start on our drive to Arizona. We were on the east side of LA by 9:00 am. And what a relief!

We stopped briefly at Walnut Canyon National Park and visited the meteor crater near Winslow. That meteor is bound to have changed the climate when it crashed into Arizona.

We were so glad we got to visit with our friends Carl and Karen in Arizona. They were kind enough meet us in Holbrook, so we could save a few miles.

We also paid a long-overdue visit to Tom and Jona, Terry’s brother and his wife, in Grants. It was a great evening of catching up and seeing the remodeling they have done to their house, and we got to meet the three grand-nephews, Mason, Conner and Cole, who live in Grants, too. What a crew they are!

We were fortunate enough to stop in Roswell again to visit Terry’s dad. Then we were on our way to Tahoka, Texas, to attend Terry’s 50th class reunion. Terry’s classmates are a neat bunch of people, and they put on a fun reunion.

We then took one more day to visit my mother in Channing. My sister Sandy was good enough to come down from Boise City, OK to visit with us there, too.

All the grandkids headed back to school in August, and it seems like they all have a good match in their teachers. Cameron is in 5th grade, Pacey is in 4th, and Cohen is in Kindergarten. Leah and Tyler have both moved on to middle school and are in 6th and 7th grades. Cameron has been singing with a choir at school, but it requires rising an hour earlier on choir day. UGH! All four of the kids at Libby and Pat’s house are taking piano lessons and have at least one other activity. I have no idea how anyone keeps up with their schedules, but there seem to be very few slip-ups.

Because it has been 18 years since Wendy’s death, we had expected the grief to be waning somewhat, but for some reason this year has been more difficult than recent years. It just seems we get caught off guard by the most surprising things: a song, a picture, a story, a simple comment or thought, and here come the tears. Maybe we are being affected by the news of so many very young people dying so unexpectedly. Or perhaps it is a stage we have forgotten we were warned about. One thing we have learned to be thankful for in all things is that the Lord is right there with us in those tough situations. Libby has had an opportunity to promote a film about domestic violence and I’m sure Wendy was on her mind as she did this bit in the trailer for the movie. For those who have not seen her in a while, she is the first lady to speak. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/726731863/feature-film-brings-awareness-to-domestic-violence

The most enjoyable part of our travels this year has been visiting with friends and family. Even getting to see Libby’s family once every month or two does not always seem like enough, so seeing the others only once or twice a year, REALLY isn’t enough. We are looking forward to Bri and Bridget coming to Oklahoma for Christmas this year (seeing them twice in one year!! And some of our friends we have not seen in years, so what a treat it was to see those of you we got to see! Maybe next year for the rest of you.

These are a few of the highlights of our year, and I guess some of the low ones too. We hope yours has been at least as fun and varied. We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and may God bless you with a wonderful new year in 2011. If you’d like to see more pictures go to: http://gallery.me.com/cheriterry#gallery .

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.