Merry Christmas from Around the World

2017 has been a fabulous year with many changes in our lives.  For Kim and I, the biggest change was retiring at the end of the 2016-17 school year after a combination of 65 years of public education service.  I retired in May with a total of 26 years and Kim officially retired the end of June with 39 years.  We've had a great career.  We have loved teaching and Kim has loved being a Principal.  It was a happy sad day when we said goodbye to many colleagues and friends and associates.

Starting July 1 when Kim was a free man, we took off and visited children and grandchildren in St. George, Utah, Castaic, California and Arvada, Colorado.  There's nothing better then spending time with the ones you love the most.  We also were able to make a visit to my parents in Coin, Iowa.

The middle of August took us to a two week training at BYU to prepare us for our 10 month teaching excursion to Xi'an, China.  We really had no idea what we were getting in to but we jumped in with both feet and have had no regrets.  We have now been in Xi'an almost 4 months and are quickly coming to the end of our first semester of teaching Freshmen (for Rhonda) and Sophomore (for Kim) college kids.  Our classes are mostly girls.  We both only have 2-3 boys out of 30 in each of our classes.  We have learned to love these students and their culture and this city.  We have also been able to explore many parts of the city.  We have traveled to the far west, Xinjiang Province of China and seen some beautiful country.  It's more barren and dry then Xi'an and much less populated.  Everywhere in Xi'an there are people.  People People People Everywhere!  We have had wonderful experiences that have changed our perspective and opened our eyes to the many children of God that exist in the world.  We would never give up this adventure.

Love to all our family and friends who we miss so very much.