Happy New Year !!

Out with the old and in with the new! 2005 is gone forever and now all we can do is look back , reminisce and file those memories. Some of us look back and find reasons to be regretful, mourn or grieve because of silly mistakes or a loss of some sort in our lives. Some of us back and are happy about what we see and are excited about what the future can hold for us in the year 2006. I find that I have to balance my emotions and perception of 2005 when I look back. Here are some of the highlights as I remember them. Some of these are positive and some are negative nevertheless that is what happened and has forever shaped our family.

One of our major accomplishments was that my student loan that has been haunting us for so many years was finally paid off and taken off of our credit report. YES!! That is a good thing. Katy dug in her heels and determined to get her emergency teacher certificate to teach in SC. Not only has Katy done that but she is working diligently towards getting her in service classes completed in the month of January so that she will have EARNED her PACE program certificate. Katy can fill you in on all the gory details if she wants but all I can say is WAY TO GO KATY!!! Katy has dedicated a lot of time, effort, money, blood ,sweat and tears into reaching this goal and our family is SO proud of what she is doing. Not only is Katy passionate about her CAREER but she knows that she has been called of God to be a teacher. Everyone knows that teachers do not get paid the salary that the deserve. However, if you were to talk to my sweet wife she would tell you that teaching is not about money but it is about shaping the lives of our future leaders, moms, dads etc. What the teachers in this generation do today will determine what kind of world we will live in tomorrow. As baby boomers that is very important to us not only to strive to raise our own children to be God loving productive members of society but Katy wants to use her skills and talents as a teacher to help other children outside of our home. Katy also landed a job as an ED teacher in Charleston County and she loves her job immensely.

My son Jeremy has been out of high school now since May of 2004 and is planning on attending a local college in Michigan. It is hard to believe I have a son in college but it is a reality. Not only is Jeremy in Michigan and in college but the child support payments that I have been making towards his future have now come to an end. The fact that child support payments being over is not necessarily a positive or negative thing. One of the things that I am happy about is that I finally did get caught up with the past due payments. That in and of itself is an accomplishment on our part and my not saying something about it would be remiss. Does that mean that my responsibility to Jeremy as a parent is over? Of course not, I am still his dad and I am still praying for his future and as I am able I will be contributing what I can towards that future financially. For the time being we are going to redirecting those funds that have been going towards child support towards becoming more stable in our household here in SC. Once that happens (hopefully in 2006) I will be able to make some better plans for how I can help out in a lot of areas.

In 2005 we have seen a lot of changes in our church home, Grace Fellowship Church in Goose Creek. Not only did the church renovation become complete but there have been some additions to our family. Our church family has an upgraded facility with a new sanctuary and new audio/video equipment which can be used to present the gospel of Christ utilizing the technology that is available to us today. We have been attending this church now for approximately 5 years and we have seen a lot of changes in that five years. I have been praying for several things for our church and I am happy to say that in 2005 some of those things came to pass. One of the things that came to pass is the renovation and the ability to upgrade our updated audio/video equipment. We added to digital projectors, one church pc and song show plus software so that we can project song lyrics and sermon scripture to the big screen at the front of the church. The praise team singers and musicians are also able to see the lyrics on the back wall. We also got a brand new baby grand piano for Earlene to play as well. The other addition to our Praise Team and church was the Teasley family who have jumped on board and are helping us with taking our "Praise" to the next level. Chris plays the keyboard and his son Wesley plays the drums. Pastor Tom has been teaching himself how to play the bass guitar and Chris has been teaching us proper stage craft and how to praise God in song and music. We have five praise singers who have been working very hard at learning new songs and being there on time for each practice. These things are a huge answer to prayer for me.

The year 2005 started out with a 2003 Pontiac which was purchased in December of 2004. That happened at the end of 2004 and I have been able to make all of my payments to the finance company on time. That means that I have some POSITIVE additions to our credit report. Student loan is gone, Child Support is gone and the car loan has been added. Not only that we finished paying off the loan on the Ford Escort so that car is ours free and clear. You never know, we might even manage to add a mortgage payment to that credit report in the next year or two.

I believe that sometime in November of 2005 we lost another member of our family. Sammy Moffitt, our beloved Terrier, had to be put to sleep. For some reason he lost control of his rear drive train (legs) and could not move around very well. We took him to several vets and had xrays taken but that said that even after LOTS of dollars that they could not garuntee he would ever walk again. That would have meant a doggie wheel chair and intensive care for going out side to do his business etc etc. We had to make a tough decision and decided that our best decision was to just put him to sleep. I will never forget the receptionist telling me that the procedure is irreversible. LOL... What in the world are they thinking about when they tell you this anyway?? Sammy Moffitt will always be a part of our family and we have lots of pictures and fond memories of him. Just before Sammy left us he and Angel had one last litter of pups and we kept one of his daughters, Ginger. Ginger is just like her father in that she is a wild child. Ginger is a loud mouthed rambunctious puppy who has been a bundle of joy to say the least. She is the gift that keeps on giving if you know what I mean. LOL...

Last but not least Justin and Kristina both excelled both scholastically and in extracurricular events such as singing and playing in the band. We are so proud of them to say the least.