Hats off to the Graduate!

Our second big event for June was the graduation of our cousin Joy from Chino Hills High School!

Joy is one of my favorite cousins and I remember when she was BORN!!! Wow, that's weird to say!

Steven and I were able to make a day-trip to SoCal for her ceremony and some family time on Wednesday. We rode with my parents, brother and grandparents. (Yes - all in the same car!)

We left at 7:30am and didn't get back to our home until about 12:30am that night...but Joy was worth it! I love that girl.

Joy in her Cap and Gown at the house.


Our row of family at the graduation.


All the graduates and confetti.


Joy hugging her hunky friend Connor.


The beautiful Joy Bells!


My brother Daniel and Joy's brother (my cousin) Josiah. I think they're only 6-mo apart and best of friends.


The graduate hugging her Mom (Aunt Kathy) and sister Claire.


The grandparents, my Dad and Uncle Paul waiting at the restaurant.


Joy displaying the Coach-inspired purse we gave her.

Matt and Charlissa's Wedding

Our first of many June committments has come and gone already.

Matt and Charlissa Strong tied the knot on Saturday, June 6th in Paso Robles, CA. It was a beautiful ceremony and reception. Charlissa and I lived together my first (and only) year at Fresno Pacific in 2002-2003. Matt attended FPU as well and time-over-time, they fell out of touch, fell back into touch and then in love!

Tis the Season!

For WEDDINGS, GRADUATIONS, BBQ'S & BIRTHDAYS!!!!

This is definitely the time of year when EVERYBODY's schedules fill up to the brim with fun and exciting milestones and family get-togethers.

Just on our calendar we have:

• Matt & Charlissa's wedding this Saturday, June 6th in Paso Robles,
• a Women's Ministry meeting at church on Sunday morning, June 7th and
• Jill's bridal shower that same afternoon,
• my cousin Joy's high school graduation ceremony on Wednesday, June 10th in Chino Hills (SoCal,)
• our 5 year wedding anniversary on Friday, June 12th,
• my Uncle Nathan's 50th birthday celebration on Saturday, June 13th in Bakersfield,
• Tim and Jill's wedding (and rehearsal too) on Saturday, June 20th and
• my Great Aunt Dorthy and Great Uncle Mark's 50th Wedding Anniversary party in Bass Lake on Saturday, June 27th!!!
  

Wow, that made my head spin a little, how 'bout YOU!?!?

And those are just the things I know about! There most likely will be more coming, I'm sure!

Needless to say, not only do we get to attend some wonderful celebrations, and do lots of traveling, but we get to spend time with dear family and friends that are such a blessing to our lives! What a wonderful time of year~

Many pictures to come!

Mother's Day 2009

This Mother's Day we hosted a full meal get-together for our immediate family at my parents' house in Sanger. Next year we can host at our own house, but our current house is too small for the whole family!

Steven BBQ'd his usual Tri Tip and some yummy salmon and veggies on the grill. (he's SO good at this!) I made stuffed mushrooms, a green salad, rice pilaf, cheesy cornbread muffins. We had angel food cake, and strawberries for dessert (my mother-in-law's fav.)

My brother Daniel helped me SO much! He set the table, helped make and bake the muffins and helped clean up afterwards. Such a trooper! We gave Debby a photo collage of our Estes family members in a frame and embellished with some scrapping materials. My mom got a new pair of summer pj's in blue (her fav color.) And I spent most of this past National Scrapbooking Day making a special book for my Grandma Alvera. Pictures of her and Grandpa, each of their sons and their wives, all of the married grandchildren and their spouses, the rest of the grandchildren and their great-grandson Clayton got his own page too! She really loved it. I never realized before, but Steven and I are the oldest grandchildren on all sides that are in the immediate area, so it has been our pleasure to coordinate/host Mother's Day for each family every year and we were so glad to have both the Estes and Schletewitz families together this year!

Female Family Felowship

Throughout the year many churches host various Women's Ministry events for their ladies and each of my family's churches are the same.

I have had the pleasure of attending two Women's Tea/Luncheon/Brunch events in the last month.

In April I attended a Ladies Luncheon at my Mom's church: Sierra View Community Church in Sanger, CA. The speaker at this event was a long-time friend of my in-law's family and the men of SVCC were dressed up and functioned as our wait-staff for the day. SO lovely to not have to get your own drink! Today I attended a Ladies Brunch and Fashion Show at my Grandmother's church: Salem Evangelical Free Church in Sanger, CA. The theme was "Recycled and Re-used." All the tables were decorated with either antique dishware and such, or items found at thrift stores and/or discount stores (like Dollar Tree.) The Fashion Show was a showcase of complete outfits purchased at thrift stores; ALL for $13.00 and UNDER!!! Really creative and quite impressive! They had raffle prizes for the women AND for the young ladies and little girls, I thought that was quite special to include the little ones too! I was so blessed to be able to spend time at each of these events with my Mom and BOTH of my Grandmothers. I treasure those times as we all get older.

Swallows - a - Pleanty!

So the staff at work got this email message from our Vice Chancellor yesterday:

"As you may know, Cliff Swallows have selected the Willow International Center as a nesting place as over 40 nests have been constructed to date. The federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 and the California Fish and Game Code Section 3800 protect the nests once they have been constructed and eggs laid. As a result of the constructed nests located above the southeast entrance to the Academic Center One building, we are closing this entrance to incoming traffic. The doors will still be used in case of an emergency.

We will do everything we can to try to keep the entrances and nesting areas clean until the migration of the swallows occurs in the next few weeks. Please contact Darren Cousineau, SCCCD Director of Environmental Health and Safety, or Janell Mendoza if you have any questions.

Thank you."

Apparently the birds that aren't extinct are in need of protection too. Here is a picture of some of their many nests on the East side of our campus building...right above my office window. Lots of chirping goin on lately too.

Did you miss me?!

Wow I have been OUT OF TOUCH for a while! Sorry about that. There has been LOTS going on in life and I haven't gotten around to blogging about it. I must commend my sister-in-law, Beth, for her blogging though. Even with 6 kids she keeps up with it! Wow right?!

So, let's see...

I guess the biggest news is that we found a house! The Lord has really been at work in this process and Steven and I feel SO blessed that He has found us a house that will provide for ALL of our needs.

We had been having issues with our Realtor and finally decided to start working with a different one (recommended to us by Paul and Megan.) Colleen (the new Realtor) is wonderful! She came over to meet us and listened to our wants, dislikes and concerns and wrote everything down. Afterwards, she asked if she could pray for us and we were just SO impressed and blessed by that. We knew she was the ONE! After getting to know us a little bit more, she mentioned that she had some long-time friends in Clovis that wanted to sell their house, but didn't want to list it in this market. They had prayed that if God was calling them to sell and move, then He would bring them a buyer. We agreed to look at it (just for the heck of it) and LOVED it! We told Colleen that she could let the family know what our offer would be and they countered a little and we accepted! The other family was so thankful to know that we were Believers and that their home would be a dwelling place for the Lord even after they were gone. We also feel more at peace about this house knowing that they are Believers as well.

So, escrow opened on Thursday, April 30th and we will have our Home Inspection this Thursday, May 7th. I'll be sure to take some good pictures and post them here for you to see! The family is now actively looking for a new home to buy, but we have agreed that they will rent the house back from us for a couple months to give them some more time. This works great for us too since we would like to finish school this semester and then work on our existing house and have time to pack before we move.

The Lord has been SO good and we feel so blessed and excited about this new chapter in our life. Steven told me last night that for our 5-year anniversary (June 12th) that he is going to buy me a house! I like it! :)