New Year 2009

I hope you had a very Merry Christmas and have started the new year with blessings. We had Jaime and Kevin here for Christmas. On the 23rd Jason came over to spend some time with us during his break from West Point. The 4 "kids' played marbles, a family favorite, which gets very competitive!


We missed Scott, but we opened presents with him on the phone which was very nice and made it seem almost like he was here with us.

After Christmas, Jasmine and I made a trip to Nebraska to relax, visit friends and spend New Year's with Scott's family.


Here we are with our dear friends the Fiore's who were our next door neighbors in Hawaii. Jim, Joann and Clare are like family to us. We love you guys!


We drove to South Sioux and spent New Year's with the Rectors. Rolly and LaDonna are here with all the grandkids, except Jaime. Also in the picture is the first great-grandchild who is yet to be seen with the naked eye.


In the back are: Travis, Josh, Jessie, Jordan, Jasmine

The front row has: Lyndsie (who is to be the new mom), LaDonna, Rolly and Isaiah, the youngest. Jaime is the oldest of the grandkids.


We had great weather for driving - it was clear with no weather. I have to say that Nebraska is sooooo cold. On our arrival back to Rolla at 9:00 at night on Friday, it was 41* - that was warmer than the high temp on any day that we had been in Nebraska.

We love it anyway. We have been planning on the possibility that we will move there this summer. Scott's job ending in Djibouti this spring leaves us with choices to make. The Shaw Group, his current employer, wants to promote him at the end of the Djibouti contract. It puts us in a similar situation to the military in that they will give him some options of places he can go. The good part is that we can say no. In fact tomorrow at about 8:30 am central time he will be having a phone conference with two people from the company at that time to discuss options. If you think of it please pray for us at that time. We desire to be near Jasmine and Jaime, but we also want to do what is God's will. We will keep you posted.
In the meantime, Scott sent new pics from a second trip he made with some of the guys from work. This trip takes them a couple of hours. Near this view is Lake Assal , the lowest point in Africa at 155 feet below sea level. The man in back with him is Patrick. I know the names of the other two men who are from Egypt, but would probably butcher their names on here if I tried to spell them. I know Scott enjoys their company.