MERRY CHRISTMAS 2006 TO YOU!!!
Hi everyone! Can you believe this wonderful time of year is here again where we celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ? He has been so good to us and we have lots to share! You may have already looked at our family photo and perhaps you were even thinking it was a little dark…Well…we can explain! That picture was taken on an incredible night a few months ago! Let us start by telling you what AMAZING kids we have! In August, Rick and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary! Mike, Jake and Amy had a little scheme up their sleeves to surprise us! They kidnapped us and drove us all over town and ended up at the very lovely courtyard of our church here in Chino Hills! When we opened our eyes, there were over 100 people gathered to surprise us!!! If that wasn‟t enough, we noticed there were chairs for everyone, an aisle to walk down and a wedding for us! Whoa! We ended up repeating our vows that night! The “reception” was fabulous…Mike put together a DVD slideshow from over the years, for all to see. Jake wrote and sang a song especially for us…and Miss Amy pretty much ran the whole show! Rick and I even smashed cake in each other‟s faces! We were blown away by all the love and warm wishes we received! This will always be an evening of fond memories in our hearts! So…back to the photo…it was taken that night and it truly means a lot to us, personally, even if the quality isn‟t that great! Our family‟s “quality” proved to be excellent, however! On to the kids and what they are doing now…All three are servers in restaurants and all three are in college! Mike (21) is a junior at Vanguard University and is doing quite well. He moved into a house with 6 other guys in Huntington Beach, which is a stones throw away from the water!! He‟ll be coming home this week after finals and then will be leaving for Italy, with his girlfriend, Macy, in January. They will be studying for a semester in the heart of Rome, at John Cabot University! Jake (19) is in his second year at Fullerton College and plans on transferring to a university in the fall. He is one busy guy and we rarely see him, so it‟s as if he doesn‟t live at home either, for the most part. He still plays drums, surfs, snowboards, and skateboards whenever possible. Jake just bought a brand new Nissan Sentra and is a happy camper! Amy (18) is actually a senior in high school this year, but attends a local junior college. Because of homeschooling, she has been able to take many required classes over the years, which has enabled her to begin her studies in General Ed., etc. She will be graduating high school this year with 17 college credits under her belt and we are very proud of that! Amy still works in children‟s ministries and hangs out with all her friends the rest of the time! When we see our kids grow and mature, we are blessed to know that, only with the Lord’s help, we‟re becoming ready to “launch them” out on their own more and more each day! We are thankful for the fruit we see in their lives! They all love the Lord and that has always been our “numero uno” desire! YEA! Rick is still galloping through life at Northrop with deadlines to make on a daily basis! They finally saw the fruits of their labor this year when they were able to launch the first SBIRS HEO satellite! (Rick works on the Geo Flight Software.) He still plays Ultimate Frisbee whenever he can! AND… We NEVER grow tired of saying how thankful we are to the Lord for “a clean bill of health” that Rick keeps getting! Yet another one last month! Thank you, Lord! I, Sandy, am still leading worship. I must say worshiping the Lord is my all time favorite thing to do! (And, of course, showing love to my hubby and my kiddos!) In spite of my “ten million” other commitments, I also signed up for a piano class this semester at a local college and have had a blast! Time consuming, but a dream come true! Our other huge highlight was taking a second honeymoon in Oct./Nov. We were gone 2 ½ weeks! Rick and I chose to take a “road trip” and visit many of the places we went to on our first honeymoon! What a great time we had! To summarize, here‟s what we did: We started the trip off by attending our 30 year (yes, we are old!) high school reunion at the Anaheim Marriott. It was a fun night! (Hi to all our friends we saw!!!) The Marriott was an ideal place to stay the first evening, as we spent our wedding night there before the honeymoon road trip of 1981! We left the next day for Sausalito! (San Francisco area!) Napa Valley! (Wine Country…oooh, the fall colors…and the Jelly Belly Factory!) Medford, Oregon! (We visited a good friend, AND we went to Applegate Christian Fellowship in beautiful, OLD, and very quaint Jacksonville!) We also met up for a few days with our other good friends (from Washington) in Florence, Oregon! (Amazing sand dunes there to ride all over & along the beach; great lighthouse and other sights!) Gold Beach, Or! (Honeymoon spot by the Rogue River!) Northern Calif. near Eureka area! (Huge Redwood trees! „Even drove through one! WOW!) Mendocino! (Stayed at the same B&B from our honeymoon…‟same room even…Victorian Farmhouse! Thomas Kinkade has a painting of this place!) A little more of San Francisco! (Pier 39 and clam chowder for Rick! Lombard Street for me! Wheeee!) Monterey Bay! (Extremely loud and aggressive sea lions, but cute none-the-less…also great antiques here!) We ended our splendid vacation with a visit to the Apple Farm Inn located in San Luis Obispo! (Our favorite place to go!) On our trip we saw many colors, as the fall leaves were changing, and so much of God‟s beauty everywhere along the road! It was a much needed and most memorable trip for us, and we are thankful for those 25 years the Lord has blessed us with…oh, and our AMAZING kids! Hmmm, did we already tell you about them? HA! May you stay focused on the real meaning of the season…the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ and why He came to this earth! He loves you and so do we! Merry CHRISTmas from the Pollgreens!
Rick, Sandy, Mike, Jake and Amy!!!
(email:pollgreen@juno.com and on the web: www.pollgreen.com to see our family page!)