July 5, 2008

Hi Everyone,

I can't believe we just celebrated another 4th of July!

Ken and I flew to Sioux City, IA on June 11th, rented a car and headed to O'Neill, NE for a family reunion. We had a great time. Sherry and Dave kindly agreed to put us up, which was really nice. The bed was comfy and it was wonderful to be able to get up, in my jammies and have a cup of coffee and conversation with Sherry. We didn't have our luggage the first night, so Sherry loaned me some PJs...well she gave them to me because she didn't like them, so now I have a souvenir of our trip. Steve and Dave joined us on Friday, June 13th and we all left to return home on Sunday. However, the actual reunion on Saturday was awesome. We're sorry that we weren't able to see everyone. We missed you Annie and Jason (and your family). Annie I hope you had a great time at the wedding! We also missed Aunt Ann and everyone on that side of the family. Maybe next time? Aunt Janice (see how I put your name on this) is going to work on arranging another family reunion in about two years. We are okay with coming back to O'Neill or meeting someplace else, just let us know!

As for me and most of you know this by now, but I was asked to come out of retirement and take a job back with Qwest as a Supervisor in Salt Lake City. Ken was up for the adventure, so I said yes. I started on April 4th. Ken came to SLC on April 11th and we put an offer down on a house, after looking at 24 houses in one day, on April 12th. We closed on the house on May 5th and moved all of our stuff from Vancouver on May 21st. It was really a whirlwind, but we got lots done in a short amount of time! We have rented our house in Vancouver, as we plan on returning when I am done with this job. I agreed to take this position for 3-5 years...3 if I hate it and more than 3 if I love it....right now I like it 85% of the time, so we'll see. It is rather overwhelming. I have 11 technicians reporting to me, soon that will be 16. I have ID, UT and I am supposed to get the techs in MT by the end of July.

We are working on our house in SLC to finish the basement. The upstairs, main level (one level) is a little over 1600 sq feet. The basement is another 1500 sq feet and we just had it framed for 2 bedrooms (one is a master suite), 2 bathrooms, a home theater, a game room, a tech/office room and there is a cold storage area and another storage area under the stairs. It looks really neat, but lots left to do. In addition, we had a 10x12 shed built in the backyard to store the lawn mower and all those pesky lawn things. The lot is .29 acres, so our yard is really LARGE compared to our house in Vancouver.

I am going to Portland for work, but will take some extra time and attend Steve and Dave's fabulous summer party, which this year happens to fall on Steve's birthday, July 26th and he is REALLY, REALLY OLD....okay not as old as Gary or me, but hey...it's all relative!

Hope everyone is doing well, and put some info on the BLOG!!!

Love you all,
Debbie