2000-2009 - What a Decade!

2000 - Our baby was our dog, Katie. I was teaching at Woodside High School - High School Choral Director - (this was my first year at Woodside - and I had just taken the Select Mixed Chamber Choir Die Meistersingers to the White House to perform. Fun times! Rich was interim pastor at a church in Virginia, while also working on his MDiv at Southeastern Seminary.

2001 - Still teaching High School Chorus - still loving it - Took the choral department to Gatlinburg for competition and won the Grand Champion Trophy for highest overall scores of the competition. When I went to collect the trophy, (only the teacher was allowed to collect that particular trophy) the person in charge said, "honey, you need to get your teacher to come down and get this one." Rich became pastor of a church in Virginia, while still working on his MDiv.

2002 - Still teaching at Woodside High School and also preparing to be a mommy. Martin was born in May, thus ending my teaching career. (outside the home) Rich was pastoring our church and graduated with his MDiv at the end of this year.

2003 - Moved to NC for Rich to pursue the PhD program, Rich began working for Sears full time while also working on his PhD, had a devestating miscarriage at 12 weeks along, continued to be at home with my sweet Martin. Our dog, Katie, became "the dog", losing "baby" status when Martin came along. She only made it into pictures on accident. (she is an amazing dog that loved our children and was very gentle with them!!)

2004 - Rich continued to work very hard for the family at Sears, while plugging away at the PhD, Aaron was born in December!!

2005 - I adjusted to having 2 small children, began cloth diapering, learned how to sew so that I could make the cloth diapers, got really good at it, and started selling them. Rich still worked incredibly hard for our family - for which I was so thankful - it was hard not having him around much, though!

2006 - Rich still working full time for Sears, and on his PhD, he got hired to work for Garner TV and Appliance - great move for him - he had a much better work environment and was able to make more money. Started homeschooling Martin. Jonathan was born - he was healthy and happy - but the delivery ended in C-section with complications that led to a 6 week recovery that had to take place in Virginia with my mom and dad. Mom had to take care of me and our 3 children for 6 weeks. Rich had to stay in NC and still go to work. Tough times - but thankful for all the help during that hard time. We sadly, decided to find our sweet Katie a new home. We were unable to give her the attention that she needed. We found a wonderful home for her and still get to see pictures of her and hear how she is doing!

2007 - We moved to Campus Housing and loved it! I adjusted to being a mom to 3 boys. Rich still worked hard and finished up his Seminars and moved toward writing his dissertation. Continued homeschooling Martin.

2008 - Rich began to see the PhD as a never ending process unless we made drastic changes. He decided to quit his job and ONLY write his dissertation. Thankfully we had enough in savings to live on while he did this. A month and a half after he quit his job, we were very surprised to be expecting our 4th child. Still homeschooling. Rich finished dissertation and graduated in December!!!!
2009 - Our 4th child and daughter, Rosalie was born. Easy delivery and easy recovery. Rich worked from home teaching online courses through several Universities. We were so thankful that after many years of him being away from us most of the time. . . he was able to work from home and be with us all the time. What a huge blessing! Still homeschooling - Martin and Aaron.

What a busy decade we had! It was full of lots of change and lots of blessings!

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