Halo Family Picture

We love to play Halo 3 as a family. Here is our newest family picture!!!!

Spring Trip 2008

2007 Review

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone, and thank God for sending Jesus to take our sins away!!! Nothing is more important then giving thanks for God, so we figured we would start there this year; as we have much to be thankful for!!!!

This year started with a simple call to Victaulic in Easton PA, just to say hi and wish some of my ex co-workers a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!! Then the conversation turned to how things were going with finding a replacement; because what we knew last was they still hadn’t found a suitable person yet!!! We were very shocked to find out that they still had not settled on hiring someone permanent after 2 years from the time we moved to CA. So, we started talking about the possibility of us moving back come summertime, so the kids could finish school, and that was pretty much how things stayed for about a month or two. Then, we decided to call back and see how things were coming along on there end and they wanted to see if we could move the date up to April, so we said we might be able to do that, and it seemed to be really on the move on there end, but not so much on our end. Then end of February came and we got a call from my ex boss at Victaulic, something to the effect of, can I fly out for an interview in 2 weeks…..So, I said yes!! So we kicked things into high gear with packing things and getting things ready, because all things were pointing to the fact of moving back to PA by April!!!!

After setting up the flight out and back from PA a very shocking accident accrued where David Stehly was killed in a car wreck! We still remember & love you Dave!!!
God worked out for me to be able to make his viewing. Thank you, Lord!..........

The interview was the next day, a Friday, which went as best as it could!! We found out that I was the only person they had plans of interviewing, which was another praise to God. Then I stayed the weekend and was back Sunday night in CA. Very happy to see Tina and the kids, and now was the time for waiting.

We had things planned pretty tight, so tight only God could make it work. Mike and April had planned to visit us the week before we were planning on moving, I had to give my letter of resignation to the City of West Sacramento before we found out the new job came through for us, and we had to pack during all this. Crazy time, but God worked it all out, because the day we found out about the job at Victaulic came through for us, was the same day I finally decided to hand in the notice! AMEN…..

I had about a week and a half notice in and then I would be done with work until mid April. Mike and April surprised us with bringing out Mom on there Family vacation to CA. We didn’t cram too much in only 2 road trips taken, on to San Fran, which we got to stop by Sears Point and go in Infineon Raceway; which was Mike’s favorite thing I think!!! Then we spent time at Pier 39 in the Aquarium there for the kids, and walked around the rest of the Pier just checking stuff out!!! Our next trip was to the coast to see a the Point Arena Light House, which was one I had drawn for Tina of her wedding gift! The road trip itself was very exciting, some of the most challenging driving Mike and I have ever done, crossing over the Coastal Mountains!!!! But, a trip well worth it, we even made it to a spot on the beach and got to touch the Pacific Ocean, hopefully something the kids remember for a long time!!!!! Tucker even came for the long ride and romp in the sand!!!!

While they were visiting us the last day they helped us pack everything into the Penske truck to give us a head start on moving. We are very thankful they did because it would have been very hard to do it all on our own!!!!

Photos UP

Sorry All been very, very busy out here with new job, working with Mike, helping Tina with greyhoundgear.com (First State Greyhound Rescues Store - FSGR), working around the house here at Mom's, and sometimes fitting in some fun, and I haven't been able to get on here much at all! It will help out now that we have cable internet @ home, but I still will be somewhat behind on postings and updating our flickr site because of the way Tina and I are trying to follow God's will for us more and more. That means doing all I can so she can stay home from work and take care of the kids. We were able to do this for a while in CA, but found the need (so we thought) to have her go back to work. Well we haven't followed such a "need" here and truly believe we can rely on Gad more and more for meeting that need and he is coming though very, very faithfully! I hope you all enjoy the pictures we have loaded so far, many more will be coming in this week, as we am committed to catching this up!!! We don't stop taking pictures so we will never catch up if we don't just grind it out. I also hope to have a totally new website up and running by the end of the year!!!! We will keep you posted here and through email on the progress, but Jeff (one of my cousins) is being very helpful and generous in this area! He has already helped us with the greyhoundgear.com site, please check it out to see what he does. He totally revamped that site and made it a whole lot more user friendly!!!!

The Peaceful Warrior

The Peaceful Warrior DVD will be released June 26th. The film is an inspiring drama directed by Victor Salva, starring Nick Nolte and Amy Smart.

The Peaceful Warrior DVD is based on Dan Millman's best-selling autobiographical book, The Way of the Peaceful Warrior, and is a moving story about the power of the human spirit.

In the Peaceful Warrior DVD, Dan Millman (Scott Melchowiz) is a talented, yet arrogant college gymnast who seems to have it all. He gets good grades, has disposable relationships and is trying out for the Olympics. But he still wakes up in cold sweats at night. His (Scott Melchowiz) world is turned upside down after he meets a mysterious stranger he refers to as Socrates (Nick Nolte). Socrates (Nick Nolte) seems to hold the power to tap into new worlds of strength and understanding and becomes Dan's (Scott Melchowiz) mentor who guides him through various avenues of his life.

Dan (Scott Melchowiz) suffers from a serious injury, and with the help of Socrates (Nick Nolte) and a mysterious young woman (Amy Smart), he grows to realize that strength of spirit is what leads a man to his true greatness. He (Scott Melchowiz) learns that he has to let go of the person he thought he was and start living in the moment by appreciating the journey and accepting his lack of control over the future.

What an excellent movie!!!!!! I wasn't too impressed with it to start, because it was a slow starting movie and confusing too. But as you watch it the movie starts piecing itself together and draws you in. This was the first time I've heard of the story and books, but I think I am going to get Dan's first book to start with and go from there! If you would like to find out more about him I added his link to this blog, and as always if you click on the picture above it will take you to the movie site. Enjoy the movie as I did and let us all work towards being our own.... Peaceful Warrior

Dan Millman

Mark Schultz Across America

One of out favorite christian artists is on a mission right now.

Mark's inspiration to make this 3,500-mile trek came from a visit he and his wife, Kate, made to orphanages in Mexico. In the spring of 2006, they went on a mission trip with The James Fund, a non-profit organization founded by Family Christian Stores, to meet the needs of orphans and widows in distress. Mark's own adoption drew him to explore this ministry. Seeing firsthand the harsh realities for many orphans and realizing that he could have easily been one of the boys in the orphanage, Mark wanted to make a difference. He made a decision to reach out to orphans through active support of The James Fund.Everybody's peddling something…but Mark says, "My wheels are turning to actually get somewhere." And that destination is Mark's cause, helping orphans and widows. "With your help we can do more than make the wheels of my bike turn; together, we can make every turn a momentum-building revolution - motivating others to join us and push this cause further down the road."You can be a strong link in the chain of Mark's bike, a mile marker along the road, urging him forward. You can be a gear helping him maximize his efforts. For more details visit www.markacrossamerica.org

Got To PA

We arrived in PA!!!!! We had quite the adventurous trip though! I know everyone was hoping that we would get to PA without any troubles, but that didn't happen!

We started out on Sat. night and only made it to Stockton, CA. I know, why did we leave then!!!! We did the samething on our way to CA 2 yrs ago. But, there was a reason for that, because it turned out to be the last time we saw Pappy alive!!!!! We called out Penske service that morning because our gauge lights didn't work!!!!! Here the breakers were in backwards!

Then Sunday we were truckin, we made it all the way to Needles, CA off of I40!!!! No we didn't stop and see the Giant Sequoias, Tina and I had a bad feeling about it on the way and ended up turning around! We will save that for our trip to CA next year!!!! We would have got into AZ, but we stopped at a rest stop before Needles and the wind was kicking so hard that it pulled the passager door our of MaKayla's hand and wouldn't shut then! So we called Penske service again and they sent out someone to help us!!!! But we had to wait for about 1-2 hrs until they got there and fixed it!

Monday we started off and were ready to truck some more, but about 100 miles into AZ we had our third problem. A trucker honked at me and other cars were driving by looking back I the car I was towing. So I stopped as soon as I could, went back and my driverside rear tire was goone!!!!!! Along with everything to hook another tire on to!!! I will post the pics of the trip as soon as I can get them off the camera. So we called Penske out again and they ended up towing us a trailer and then taking the dolly we had back to Kingman Penske. So that was about a 4 hr delay and that trip wasn't looking too good! So, we decided to stop in Flagstaff and try to make it to see the Grand Canyon to make the day alittle bit brighter! We made it and it was great. We got there at Sunset and stayed until dark. It was great!!!!

Tuesday we were feeling the pressure and decided to not make the detour to see family in El Paso, TX. So we stayed on I40 and made it east of Albuquerque, NM to close Santa Rosa, NM.

And had no problems!!!!

Wednesday we really started moving and made it 537 miles to Shawnee, OK with a 3 hr stop in Amarillo, TX and ate a the Big Texan Steak Ranch http://www.bigtexan.com/ and I had one of the best steak I every had a 16oz. sirloin!!!

Thursday we went 570 miles to about 40-50 miles west of Nashville, TN. and we started to see the end of our trip being Friday!!!!

Friday we again went 550+ to Lexington, VA and ended up stopping there about 5-6 hrs from being home around 10-11pm! We might have made it, but we didn't want to push it to hard!

Saturday we made it home by 3:30pm and unloaded the most of the truck into the storage unit as well!!!! What a trip, we just thank God for making it home ok and that my brother was able to fix the car on Monday for $115! God is good!

Moving Back to PA

Just wanted to let everyone know that we are 3 weeks away from moving back to PA!!!! I got a job offer from Victaulic, in Easton, and Tina is looking to got to St. Luke's Allentown (She is still in the Application phase)!!! We are excited to see everyone again, not just at family functions, but we plan to visit family and friends throughout the year as well! This all came about through prayer and God working in our lives as we are trying to follow God's will for our lives! We feel we can be used greatly by him in PA, and it is amazing to see him lead the way!

I contacted Victaulic just about 3 months ago to wish the guys there a happy new year and see what was new, and God starting making this happen from there! I let them know that I felt we would be moving back this year and the opportunity grew from there! They created a position for me, asked me to send out my resume, paid my way for a round trip flight out for an interview, and now just yesterday offered me the position! GOD IS GOOD!!!!

Please pray for us as we are looking to sell our 5th wheel trailer out here and use that money to pay for the trip home! It is so amazing stepping out in faith and waiting on God to so you the way! We are still learning to let go of some things and have the patience for his answers. But, he shows us every day that if we just trust him he will not lead wrong!!!!

Check back as I will be updating the news of our move the next few weeks unfold!!!!

Sac Zoo Field Trip!!!!

On Friday the BBC Academy took a trip to the Sacramento Zoo. Mommy went along to help since she had off from work because of her foot surgery! I was in PA with Victaulic interviewing for a job for when we move back in a few weeks! Hope you like all the pics. Just click on the picture above to get to our Flickr site!

Remembering Dave Stehly

Our hearts are with the Shehly family, Carrie's Family, Issabella, and all the friends of Dave as the news of his death got to us! It came as a shock to us all and we will keep you all in prayer as we morn the loss of Dave with you! I knew Dave in his younger years, but I can tell from the pics on his and Carrie's myspace that he was still the fun loving, living life to it's fullest type a guy! I have nothing but good memories of him when we use to get together and play football at his house in slatington, and picnics at each others houses! Our families we close because of the friendship of our mom (jen) and his mom! Again, we will keep you all in prayer, I am deeply sorry!!!! May God comfort us all...

Psalms 23:4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

http://myspace.com/davestehly

http://www.myspace.com/carrieannze

mcall Guest book:

http://www.legacy.com/MCall/Obituaries.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonID=86782494