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August 26, 2007 marked forty amazing years since, with eyes full of stardust and a heart full of idealistic (albeit unrealistic) fervor, I married a minister. That marriage has weathered 26 moves, including 10 very interesting years in Alaska—one on a remote island accessible only by boat or plane. We’re talking weathered!  Interested in the details?  It’s actually the subject of my newest book,True North. It has also produced three handsome sons and five adorable, intelligent, above-average grandchildren.  Let me introduce you.

My husband Jim is handsome, smart, somewhat intense, and often funny.  (he’s also humble and hates it when I say these things; so, of course, that’s why I do!). After 25 years of pastoring and 16 years as a District official, he currently serves as the Superintendent of the Northern California and Nevada District of the Assemblies of God.  Jim’s hobbies include finding solutions, arguing with the social/political talking heads on TV, and playing golf.  He loves jazz, science fiction and classic cars. He’s pictured here in his ’68 Olds Cutlass convertible.  It’s now been two years since Jim hit a little bump in life’s road resulting in five-way coronary bypass surgery.  He’s still feeling great and going strong. Thank you, Lord! Since he’s the love of my life, my best friend and most encouraging supporter, I’d like to keep him around for a while.

Our three adult sons are Forrest Damon, Derek Ian and Dustin James.  Forrest lives with his family in beautiful Coeur D’Alene, Idaho, where he works as a hair stylist.  After five years as a manager, Derek is now a newly-appointed regional training specialist for Starbucks. In his spare time, he loves to work out at the gym. His wife, Deirdra—also a work-out enthusiast—is a part-time massage therapist and full-time mom.  Dustin is still single and once again living in Sacramento where he has just graduated from a local culinary academy.  That’s three careers now and counting.

Our “adopted daughter”, Karissa, (a friend of the family) has been with us for four years.  During this time she’s completed a two-year course in Christian counseling and has been a great blessing to our family. Karissa is very involved in a local inner-city church and was just promoted to manager at Starbucks, so we’re really getting the “perks”. 

Last but never least are our five grand-est kids—Fallon, McKayla, Liam, Olivia and, Logan, ages 13, 11, 12, 7 and 2 respectively.  We’ve also “adopted” Kayla Rose, age 8, the daughter of our oldest son’s girlfriend, Mary. They all light up our life and help keep us young.  Since they live in different places, we continue an annual tradition called Camp Gramma.  For two fun weeks during the summer it’s become our custom to turn the yard and house into a camping experience, including arts, crafts, outdoor activities and Bible lessons.  This year, however, at the urging of our oldest grandson, Camp Gramma went “on the road.” That meant the Sacramento contingency flew to Coeur D’Alene where we rented a cozy little cabin which became “headquarters” for “Summer of the Spies”, complete with crime scene tape, investigator’s portfolios full of all kinds of fun secret agent stuff, and lots of activities. In addition, every morning we gathered in our secret meeting place for Agents in Action where we unraveled and learned to apply lessons from the Bible. Even so, the highlight had to be the oozies that shot silly string and learning to use the magnifying glasses to burn leaves.  Thanks a lot for that little lesson, Grampa.

Now that we have one official teenager and two more close behind, finding cool themes that appeal to everyone is becoming a bit more of a challenge. The real challenge for Gramma, though, is just seeing the grands grow up so quickly.  Still, one mention that maybe they were getting too old for Camp Gramma brought protests all around, so guess we’ll keep the games going.

Not to end on a sad note, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t say that we lost an important member of our family just a couple of months ago—a furry one.  It was our 15-1/2 year old spaniel dog, Freckles.  He’s the one pictured with me on the Welcome Page. We sure miss him.

INTERESTED IN A BIT MORE BRADDY ADVENTURE?  VISIT JUDI’S KITCHEN CAFÉ.

Updated 04/08/2008 using Microsoft FrontPage 2003