So, some of you have been wondering what Don and I have been up to! Well, this past August Don and I celebrated our 30th Wedding Anniversary! I gave him a nice watch....even had it engraved! He gave me a beautiful diamond yesterday, today, and tomorrow ring! This impressed me greatly for many reasons, not the least of which was the fact that it gave me hope for the future! After all, would Don Zehner invest in something like that if he wasn't serious about the commitment? I don't think so! He did tarnish the gift a little when he mentioned that it would be a great family heirloom to give to one of the girls after my death. Ha, you all thought I was the only one to espouse inappropriate things with bad timing! At least I am usually trying to be funny....Don was serious!
Anyway, yes, thirty years! So many things happened to Don and I in 1980 too. We both graduated from college, got married, began our careers, and then just a month later found out we were pregnant! Wow! Neither of us had insurance with our jobs, so there went all the money we earned immediately to the hospital and doctors! Back in those days they made you stay in the hospital five days too! That was crazy, they made us watch video's of all different types of things that they wanted us to know before bringing the baby home. Now, you are lucky to be in the hospital for a complete 48 hours! As you know that was only the beginning, now we have had six kids and thirty years of wedded bliss! Well, at least some of the time was bliss! Raising kids can really put the pressure on a marriage....especially the teenage years, and we aren't done yet! We really haven't even slowed down!
Now, don't get me wrong, I'd like to slow down. In fact, I had some great birthday girly trips with three of my best girly friends, Gretchen, Mary Jane and Linda, to Peoria, Culver, Fair Oaks Dairy and even Mustang Island, Texas, (It wasn't even anyone's birthday when we went to Texas!), where I absolutely slowed down to almost a crawl! Well, not exactly a crawl, the girls insist on some sort of exercise where ever we are, beach walking for exercise in Texas, but we always eat enough to void out any benefit we may get from the exercise, I am pretty sure! We now refer to ourselves as the four "Beaches". Sounds better than "Bitches", a moniker that one of the husbands gave us! I'm ready to go again girls! It was a great time and I really am ready to go again as soon as I get all this Christmas paid off and tax season is over! Where to next? Another friend, Bev, and I made another girly trip to our Dental Hygiene 30th alumni luncheon in Fort Wayne. All of us graduates that could make it met after the luncheon for further remembering, and I think I can safely say we all had a great time! Nancy and Cynthia even spent the night with us! I knew I liked those girls 30 years ago for some reason....now I remember why, they were/are a blast! Love you girls....I'm ready for another girly outing with you all too, Colorado, cruising, whatever we can all manage! I've even had some great get together's with old high school buds and other friends at the lake, Susan and Bud Thews are always up for something whether it be eating or cruising on the pontoon we own together. Another bunch of high school friends met just a few months ago when our friend Cindy King came up from Texas for a visit! Hey, Jodie and Tim, when are we going to do our Indi weekend too by the way, Kelly you want to come??? Cindy, you could always fly home too....well, maybe not...does Dan have you grounded again?
Speaking of trips, I also got to go visit Jordan in Spain with my sister Jackie and Aunt Lynne in March. I love all my family trips! I have a great group of kids, aunts, cousins, my sister and a sister-in-law that are way fun to travel with at any time! Spain was so cool! It is an amazing country....so different in geography, climate and people just as you travel from north to south! We did so many things! We visited the graves of Ferdinand and Isabella in Granada and saw many Easter rituals. The Moorish influence was strong there as it was so close to Morocco! The Alhambra was a huge fortress that was amazingly preserved and was a Moors stronghold until 1492. There were caves in the mountain/hill sides occupied by modern day Spanish hippies there too. We enjoyed amazing food everywhere, especially the olives, almonds, wine and olive oil! We did the "Tapas Walk" from bar to bar, drinking our Sangria or Beer with Fanta and eating the free tapas or appetizers as we went. We totally loved Toledo with it's old city, knife blades, and jewelry/carvings. We saw a bull fight in Madrid and famous paintings at the local art museum. We saw Roman ruins right behind Jordan's apartment in Talavera del la Reina and also many fine ceramics of which that area is known. We even got to meet some of the kids Jordan taught as well as some of her fellow teachers. All in all it was a very unforgettable experience, perhaps we will get to return some day! By-the-way, I took the Kindle that I got for last Christmas with me and it was great! I never ran out of a book and I was able to check my email, send email, and didn't even need wifi. I love my Kindle for so many reasons, the fact that I am addicted to books is just one of the reasons as I can download a new one anytime anywhere!
Now, what was Don doing during all this time? Well, Don doesn't travel....in fact, he tells me it is totally unnecessary as you can get on you-tube and see just about anything anywhere! So, he worked on some projects....even got a couple of them done, well at least one anyway. Let's see...here are some of his projects started just since the spring: he finished a landscaping project on the back pond, he began digging, stocking and deepening the front pond, he started insulating and reorganizing the basement...including a new "intranet" service, server cabinet and all, he began a repaint of the entire office building with new guttering, new paint colors, and a total tuck pointing of all the exterior glazed brick, he is presently having the farm ground divided off the "house" ground for a refinance, and he helped me with labels and this blog, as well as fixing my computer so it ran a little faster than molasses, he also put in new brakes, and fixed the door on a couple of the vehicles. Oh, I almost forgot....he did go on a trip too, in fact two of them! He went with Bryan on his 8th grade class bus trip to Washington D.C., and he went on a family trip to Madison, Wisconsin. We all wanted to see where Jordan would be going to school. Madison is awesome, four lakes, the University, and the state capital are all there! Plenty of cool places to eat, walk, and hang too! I just hope Jordan has some time to enjoy it, and I hope she can stay warm!! I hear it can get quite frigid there! We had to tell her that they have a pretty good football team there but I don't think she has taken the time to see them for herself yet.
That is a little hint of the types of things Don occupies himself with through out the year! He also has all his technology to keep himself busy. He is up to 6 monitors at the office, four at home, three at the lake, one netbook, two laptops, his iphone, and his most recent "toy"/work tool is his new ipad. And that brings us to work....now he can do it anywhere, anytime, with several different devices! Good thing he enjoys his work because he spends an awful lot of hours there! I about had a cow when he added the exercise area and wii room to the office downtown! I thought it was bad enough that he has a couch, fireplace, shower, and change of clothes there already! Now, some of you may believe he is just avoiding me and those teenagers but really it is a job that requires a lot of hours! He still has both the Logansport and Plymouth offices and has clients all over the U.S. and even a couple of International ones! One is a model who we are all very proud of, we knew her when she was just a model for us, her neighbors, and her American Girl dolls! Go Madeline, keep up the good work! Anyway, he is always busy, especially between Nov. and June. He likes to pretend he is only busy three months out of the year, but the reality is that he is busy always! Just way over busy during "the season". So, keep us all in your prayers that time of year as it is here already!! And with that I think I will end this part of the blog! Needless to say, there is always something happening to keep us both busy! My favorites are going to watch the kids, and now grandkids, and traveling! Dons....well judge for yourself, but I do know he really loves us all... all the time, no matter which computer/gadget he is sitting in front of! Love ya honey!! We love you all too!! PZ
