Well Fall 2008 is upon us and before we know it, it has been a year and a half since
we've updated our website!
(Thanks for the nudge Sara!!!)
Soooooo....where to start?! Lots of changes....
FAMILY HAPPENINGS:
Most notable since our last update is that Walter’s mother Lucile took
a surprising turn for the worst and passed away in June 2007. This is very hard
on it’s own as she was a key part of our lives and like a second mother to Garrett….truly the worlds Best Granny….but
it follows on the heels of the death of Shari’s father. A few short weeks after Lucile’s
passing Shari’s grandmother Jean Montgomery also passed away from Colon
cancer. This many close deaths in a row left our family reeling and honestly
It’s taken a little time to get back on track.
We spent some time in Summer 2007 in Coeur d’Alene with our cousins the
Montgomery’s as well as Spencer and family, who also joined us this time around for a great fun-filled family vacation.
We all got to float the Clearwater River and ride our favorite Route of the Hiawatha bike trail on the Idaho / Montana border
together (We highly recommend it if you’re in the area!) and those were fun experiences to share as a family as well
as the traditional 4th of July fireworks over Lake Coeur d’Alene.
Shari packed up her mom Linda while there from Brother Scott’s house (Which
was up for sale and later sold) and drove all Linda’s belongings to Texas on the way home as We decided to build mom
a guest house on our property so that she could have her own space in which to retire. Shari
took a three day detour in Rocky Mountain National Park along the way...thinking a quick drive through would
suffice - NOT! Construction went fairly quick and by late October mom was moved in and settled….even topped
it all off with her own Toy Yorkshire Terrier which she appropriately named “Goliath”. "Golly" thinks
he’s become ‘Master of the Realm’.
We also had the pond out front re-dug and acquired 2 new geese and 4 ducks (aka
“Honkers” and “Quackers”) … it was nice to have our wildlife back!
Scott sold his house during the same
time we moved mom and made a temporary 12-month move to Texas
to live with Brother Spencer while contemplating his next move. It was good having all the family in one state for a short
time. Scott is about to begin school for a dental hygiene degree in Idaho and Spencer is
still managing his successful medical clinic in Texas.
When we built mom’s house we also put new gravel and two sets of solar-powered
entrance gates on our driveway (We LOVE these!) as well as a HUGE new carport and 2 storage areas with it ~10x10 and 10x20,
concealed behind the carport. All that extra room has been a nice place to put
all the stuff we don’t try but manage in the course of living to accumulate. Walter did a great job of organizing it
all!
We spent Thanksgiving and Christmas at home in 2007 and enjoyed some quiet holidays
for a change but we didn’t stay down too long as we left on a week-long cruise with 17 of us over Valentines Day in
February. Mom, Scott’s Family, Spencer’s Family, Spencer’s
In-laws and Walter’s dad and sister all came along for the journey on Royal Caribbean’s Voyager of the Seas out of Galveston
for the 7 day adventure to Cozumel, Roatan, Honduras
and Progreso/Yucatan, Mexico.
We hung at the beach in Cozumel, went on a Zipline Canopy and Island Tour in Honduras and saw the ruins at Uxmal in Mexico as well as enjoying a few leisurely days on the ocean. A great time was
had by all…..Oh, and the fun part is that we rented and stayed in the penthouse on the ship (The Royal Suite) partly
for everyone to enjoy on the once-in-a-lifetime trip. It wasn’t cheap but
it was worth it! The suite was the size of our house (No Joke) and had a grand
piano, sauna and wet bar in it as well as a 150 square foot balcony complete with a hot-tub which was really fun. We’ve
never been served so many bottles of non-alcoholic champagne and chocolate dipped strawberries in our lives! In fact, we couldn’t come close to eating them all! We
would love to find out what kind of shower head was in our bathroom because our showers were the most amazing experience ever.
J Never ending hot water with amazing water pressure.
Oh the things a little forked over money can buy! We all got to tour the
bridge of the ship (Except the kids) and that was a really fun, unexpected and unique experience as well. We made some life-long
memories on this trip.
July 2008 took us back up to North Idaho but this time we only spent the night
in Coeur d’Alene, instead making a southward journey
to our Montomery Cousin’s in Kamiah for a large Montgomery Family Reunion – Many of those folks we hadn’t
seen in 20 years! We purchase a huge lot of fireworks at the Indian reservation
on the way down for our own celebration and that was great fun! Walter got to
show off his explosives expertise to his family in setting off many of the HUGE fireworks that you usually see only in professional
displays. Cousin Dee is the local Fire Chief so he had two fire trucks and an
ambulance on the property in case there were any mishaps (Not bad backup eh?) ~ It probably wouldn’t look too good if
the fire chief burnt down his house and ½ the town!!! It was funny but one of
the first fireworks (A Roman Candle) mis-fired and bounced off the pavilion tent in Shari’s
direct path before shooting over under about 5 parked cars! Hmmmmm….fire + gasoline = Not Good! Uncle Dee was really wondering what he gave his blessing to on that deal!
Since our return from Idaho we got new appliances for the first time since we’ve
been married and because of it wound up in the middle of a rather involved (And expensive) unforeseen construction project.
We found out our dryer hose was being crushed by our Gas Water heater that we then found out should not have been installed
in the bathroom. Too hard to re-do that so we decided to make our water heater
electric which required 100 new feet of underground electrical wire, outdoor boxes etc. This is where we discovered that the
transformer and electric drop to our house was too small and a few other interesting details. All of this basically caused
½ of our house to be re-wired. Moral of the story: Those new appliances aren’t
as cheap as you think they are at the end of the day! J
One of Shari’s clients fell off her trailer at our house while delivering
hay to us yesterday and broke her leg requiring surgery…. L Also Linda (Mom)
is having both knees replaced in the coming 2 weeks starting on Friday so it doesn’t look like we’ll be bored
around here.
We think that’s enough excitement for the past year or more…don’t
you?
Coming up: Thanksgiving and Christmas in Texas again….Family skiing
in Idaho between Christmas and New Years….Walter and Shari’s 10
year anniversary and a subsequent celebratory cruise in April (Leaving Garrett at home for the first time)
for 8 days to Panama, Costa Rica, Columbia, Aruba and Fort Lauderdale. We hope
to go visit Spencer’s in-laws at their summer home in St. John, Newfoundland
in summer ’09 instead of our ritual trip to Idaho.
We’re also hoping for new cabinets and the addition of Central Heat and Air in the spring. Stay tuned…
GARRETT:
Garrett will be 6 on September 9th and starts Kindergarten TOMORROW! Mom already
has all the school shopping and supply list checked off and is D-R-E-A-D-I-N-G the schedule change...that would be the 'We have to now wake up and be OUT THE DOOR by 7:45 a.m.' instead of 'We MAY have to be at xxx by 10am'
He is excited and "A little
scared" for school to start and Walter took him to his first "Meet the Teacher" night last Thursday to meet his new teacher
Ms. Richey. We live too far out for him to take the bus - though there is one that comes out here (He'd have to stay
on it forever and with all the kids through 5th grade-Not good!) we'll be taking him….it’s about 6 miles away.
It's going to be pretty quiet around home during the day but truthfully, Shari relishes the
down time when she has it.
Garrett loves all things artsy and got to attend his first concert with Shari in
April ... 5th row for Bon Jovi and without much influence from Mom believe it or not he is a HUGE Bon Jovi fan (He's got really
good taste! :OD) He had "Gifts" bestowed on him all night by the band....a drumstick from Tico, A guitar pick from Richie
Sambora, A bass guitar pick from Hugh and a set-list from Jon. Talk about a first concert experience! Spoiled little
guy! How do we follow that?! He's taken to carrying around a small little radio that the Easter Bunny brought him and has
just discovered headphones (At age 6!!!!) He always walks around with some rock and roll playing in his ear. Thankfully
he likes Musicals and Choral / Classical music too so we're not making too big a deal out of it! He will tell you he
has his own band (Which he named Band Dinosaur Team Head) has all the accoutrements of a budding rock star though ....a keyboard,
drum set and microphone and he loves to entertain all of us in between all his other play-acting which he does on a very frequent basis....He's always dressing up in come costume or another and going
off with his "Army" to "Work" or on "Safari's" ....you name it. The kid has 2 acres with which to entertain himself
and 5 dogs to torture and order around ~ he is very good at not letting boredom find him. Plays great alone and
his about the easiest kid ever. Shari's mom has been continually fascinated by a small pile of dirt off the side of her front
porch that has served Garrett in many different capacities. Every day that little pile of dirt where grass won’t grow
is turned into something else in his creative imagination. He's even polite! Yesterday he took his allowance to the
local garage sale and purchased a new leather briefcase, some camouflage netting and a mallard decoy to add to his arsenal.
Fortunately he doesn't get into any trouble. Walter gave him his OWN tool drawer in the garage tool-box and he
is none too sad about that. He's always tearing around our property on his miniature four-wheeler and John Deere Gator.
He loves to help with anything Dad is doing and LOVES his "Boy Time". He
called Shari on the phone the other night and said "Mom....it's a good day. Thank you for
letting me spend some time with my Daddy..." Awwwww.......
He still walks up and “Adopts” complete strangers and when sitting
at traffic lights he’ll roll down his window and attempt a full conversation with the person in the next lane.
He got to go on a zipline Canopy tour while in Honduras and was proud that he could do it “All by himself”. He also got to snorkel in the ocean which we worked on for months prior to our trip in the local pool and
he thought that was really a great experience along with climbing one of the great pyramids at Uxmal.
He participated in Swimming and T-Ball all summer and had good fun with that
but he seems to like playing and T.V. more. A true couch-potato in the making….NOT a good thing! We have decided to take a break from sports for a year or so with everything else going on and decided
that since he’s started piano lessons that with school that should be enough for now.
Garrett sees his birth mother (B-Ma) every few months or so and enjoys a close
relationship with her, as well as the rest of us. She is doing great and we’re
proud to have her as an extended part of our family.
Garrett has new pictures on his page....See them HERE: Garrett's Page .
WALTER:
Walter got a concealed handgun class from Shari
for Christmas and will be shortly taking that course….he also recently got a cheap, new (Used) engine for the Corvair
he has in the garage and he’s real excited about that. It’s an Oldsmobile
engine in great shape that has never been opened up and surprisingly has only 60K originally miles on it. He’s like a kid in a candy store – especially now that he has more space to work since we’ve
moved a lot of the junk in the garage into the newly built storage. He found an engine stand at the garage sale yesterday
so he’s pretty happy about that too.
Walter spent a lot of time this summer helping his sisters clean up and sort
out things over at his parents house…an ongoing project but that is going well.
He is finishing the new water heater closet in the bathroom which has been real
fun since we can no longer find the cedar siding that our walls are made of and he’s having to router the cedar boards
by hand to make them match. He also decided to run the wood vertically instead
of horizontally since an exact match under the current circumstances would be almost impossible.
Walter had fun wandering the ship on the cruise and eating everything in sight
and was also happy to retire early to the cabin with a good book (And some peace and quiet) and Garrett for an early bedtime
leaving Shari to go off and explore the ship’s night life.
He just finished installing new outside plumbing around the property that he’s
wanted for a long time and I guess that will be great for putting out fires around the property if he starts any on one of
his frequent fireworks tangents.
Walter got certified in late 2006 as a Project Management Professional (PMI)
and now enjoys that professional designation while still working as a project manager and driving every day to his job in
Irving about 50 miles away. He’s managing projects with offices all over
the world and lately has been having a lot of dealings with offices in Poland
and India.
SHARI:
Shari was the General Contractor of sorts on the construction of Mom’s house last
year…from designing it on a napkin, through construction, to furnishing and a housewarming party in February….a
chore that while fun, is gladly finished.
In September during that construction, Shari and three of her really close girlfriends
from the L.A. days…appropriately named The Girls Who Refuse To Die (aka GWRTD) took a 5 day hiatus to Walter’s uncle’s cabin in Breckenridge,
Colorado ~ no kids or spouses ~ for a few days of highly recommended “Female Bonding”. There was much sleeping, eating and gossiping. Highlights were zip-lining up over a 2-300 foot deep (?)
Canyon and 1000 feet down through it….wandering the old town of Fairplay, Colorado…Fondue dinner by Gondola and
Mountain…and amusing spectacle of horseback riding on the prairie (Not the mountains – DON’T ASK!!!), changing leaves and
Oktoberfest downtown (Shari was the designated driver!). Shari
also enjoyed taking the girls through her one-time hometown of Evergreen on the way up the mountain.
Shari had a blast on the cruise and fell in love with the Nachos at Paradise Beach in Cozumel and also the island
of Roatan, Honduras
~ spending time in a true tropical jungle
Shari's real estate career has been really going strong this year and she really enjoys
all the unique people and day-to-day challenges. The flexible time schedule works out well in theory but requires
many last minute changes in direction...something Shari is learning to get used to! The Texas real estate market is for all practical purposes alive and well
so real estate closings aren't too far and few between. Shari works under the umbrella of a parent broker but has her
own company and prefers to work alone ~ You can check out Shari's website at www.BuyWise-RealEstate.com if you're bored. She is working
on obtaining her Real Estate Broker’s license (Is now a Salesperson only) but that may take a few years. In addition
to selling real estate, she stays busy managing the family rental properties nearby and is thankful for really good tenants!
She also handles Mom’s financial and estate-planning affairs in her spare time.
Shari has started dying her hair, as at age 41 the grey is finally starting to overcome
her. She enjoys daily kickboxing and yoga workouts The gym is calling as Walter faithfully makes large batches of incredible
chocolate chip cookies every Sunday evening during what is quickly becoming a family ritual and we also run so fast any time
we do get out the door at home that we eat fast food more than once a week. Let's just say it's been a very fulFILLING
summer! Shari's body clock is set to a perpetual 10am - 2am schedule and this will be a rude
awakening for sure! It will be nice to finally get on schedule though as it seems summers are very lax around here -
where we get to bed between 12a-1a after getting Garrett to bed maybe
by 10pm and maybe having dinner by 8:30. Hey ~ Isn’t that what
summer’s all about?!?!
She has been singing of late with a local semi-professional choir as a first
soprano and just finished performing with them on an original oratorio production called Testament with a full orchestra, soloists and the whole
nine yards. See www.eveningsong.com. She always said once Garrett started school she was going to audition for a musical
and that time may be close at hand. She was recently called as the Music Director at church and has been having a lot of fun
with that calling and tries hard to find regular time for online and photo/scrapbook projects (Like this one!).
Speaking
of music, Shari re-lived some of the better moments J of her reckless youth this year, seeing both Loverboy (Her
first concert ever was when Joan Jett warmed up for Loverboy at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City) and Bon Jovi (w/Garrett)
in Concert. Both were fun for different reasons ~ when she has time she misses
her time and involvement in the entertainment industry. She stays connected to some of those friends on MySpace www.myspace.com/3lazyg and is just starting to play with the online site Facebook... let us know if you're online there and we'll connect!
That about does it….do you think that if we wrote more often these epistles
might not be as long?
In closing….We love you all and hope you are FABULOUS!!! Write us !!! Call
us !!! Come See Us !!!
Love,
Shari, Walter and Garrett
