What have you been up to for the past 40 years?
After High school I went to Westmont college in Santa Barbara and got a BA in Business/Economics. Went on a short term mission to Kenya with college and met Pete, my husband. We were robbed and I had an ax at my throat but we returned unscathed. We worked on an organic farm/ranch in So. Oregon after college until we were fired for undiplomatically getting all in the face of our bosses for some unfairness towards us, got "real" jobs in Phoenix to pay off student loans then did a stint in Mexico for a year with Harvest doing agricultural development/mission work. We quit after confronting our boss about his extramarital affair. Next we got jobs at a boarding school in Rimrock, Arizona. Pete taught science and I taught Math after the current math teacher went to jail for shooting his wife. Then we moved to Sisters, Oregon and worked for Small Farmers Journal a magazine for those who farm with horses and mules. I had a cancerous tumor removed in 93 and unexpectedly got pregnant with our first son after thinking that wasn't in the cards for us. Pete went back to school and got his Oregon teaching license and we took a teaching job in Fairfield, Idaho population 350. We had two other children and eventually moved to La Grande where we had always wanted to live. It fit our criteria of: in the northwest, four seasons, college town, we could afford to buy land! The cancer returned right after we moved here and I had surgery and a round of chemo. We dusted off our dreams of owning a farm and plunged into 43 acres with outbuildings, hay barn and a tiny house built in 1910. Most of our energy has gone to making it habitable but this summer we bought cows! We're in it now! Pete teaches at the high school and teaches snowboarding in the winter and firefights in the summer. I've been homeschooling the kids for middle school and loving it. We sent our oldest to the high school this year and intend to shuttle them on up there when they are ready.
We attend a four square church here and love it. Our marriage almost failed when the kiddos were little but by the grace of God we were able to put it back together.
