The Happy Couple

Paul and Melissa

Update April 22, 2009

Paul’s Bulkhead:

Paul has been on a couple more training cruises and is now in dry dock. He is catching on to his job but did commit one major faux pas. He washed and waxed the floor in his office on ship and made a sign stating “wet floor” and his chief read it and said that under no circumstance would he put that sign up. Paul forgot that there are no floors in the Navy. However you do have decks in the Navy. You also do not have walls, they are bulkheads. You do have some doors but you have more hatches. And there are no ceilings but you do have overheads. Navy speak…neat. He still likes the Navy and is having fun. But there is one bit of big news; Paul is engaged to be married, yes that’s right. And hold on to what you got, they have set a date. July 25, 2009. She is a very nice Christian girl; she lives with her parents in Spokane, Wa. Her name is Melissa Sessions. Although we are surprised, we are supporting their decision. We would like them to wait and get to know each other better but we are on the sidelines in both boys’ lives. Many questions come to mind as they face married life but at this point we look to God to help them and we find ourselves on our knees more and more.

We are hoping for some pictures of the happy couple soon so stay tune.

David & Elizabeth’s Cockpit

Let’s see, last time I told you that David & Elizabeth were expecting their first child. Well we have found out that the doctor says the baby is in fact a boy (we’ll see). I am sorry Elizabeth, I am from the old school and I’ll wait until the birth. Anyway, his name will be John Ray VanDyke. Even better news is that David will not be deployed so he will be with Elizabeth and John at the birth. God worked out the details. What a great God. The not so good news is that they will not be able to make it to Paul’s wedding. Elizabeth will be too far along and it would not be practical for her to try and get on an airplane and fly to Washington State.

They are getting the house ready for John’s arrival. David is building a deck on the back of the house, which is a bit rough because right now the poor guy is working 12 hour shifts.

Jane’s Classroom

We have been wondering if Jane was going to have a job next year due to all the budget cuts in the school system here. She has been told that she will have a job next year so that is good news. Her and her teacher work so well together and it would be a shame for them and the children if they could not be together.

Jane is in the process of painting the house. She started to paint during her spring break but things came up and she is still working on it. She is almost done; we just need to rent a long ladder for the back of the house. Believe it or not but I have a little roof repair job left over from hurricane Charley.
We went kayaking this last weekend, yes this is one of the things that get in the way of completing projects, and saw 4 dolphins. We love to go kayaking it is so relaxing after a tough week at work. It was extra special because we kayaked to a favorite restaurant. Too bad it was closed. We’ll have to go back again to have lunch, dockside!

Terry’s Cubicle

Well nothing has changed at work, for Terry, except that things continue to get worse. How is that possible? We continue to pray and know that God is in charge. Terry has used his new work shop to make some picture frames and fix a few things that Jane brings from school that are broke. Between that, kayaking and Jane, Terry is able to keep what is left of his sanity. Well, all that and God. What would any of us do with out God in our lives? By the way the big project that Terry was saddled with is done and they have two of the ride vehicles with the new lap bars in them and they are working fine. What a load off of Terry’s shoulders.

Summer in the City

The Anderson family is gathering the week of July 31 – August 7 to celebrate the 60th wedding anniversary of Reuben and Mary Ann. We’ll have 19 coming in from Nebraska, Michigan, Washington and Missouri. The piano is tuned and ready for some hymn singing and there’s sure to be some story telling and slide shows. All we have to do is get the popcorn and the root beer floats ready.

Thanks for your continued support and prayers!

Here is a video someone out in Everett, WA. took as the USS Abraham Lincoln CVN 72 was returning to port after a 3 week of training cruise. Paul is on the ship and if you look real close you still can’t see him. He is, no doubt, deep in the bowels of the ship tending to his job.

Update December 20th 2008

Paul’s Corner

Paul is back in port until the first of the year. They will have two more short training cruises before going into dry dock. We talked to him when he got back in to port and he said that he only had one day that he was sea sick. The problem is that he throw up in the office. Now not everybody can come into his office due to the nature of his department but none the less the ship got real small because it seemed everyone on the ship heard about his throwing up and now he has that rep. Anyone who has been in the military knows that once you get a rep it follows you wherever you go. Oh well I guess there could be worse things to be known for.

Paul told Jane that he is very happy with his life right now. And he is happy with what he is doing. Last blog entry we told you that Paul had a girl friend that he met on line. That relationship is over. There were some issues and he broke it off. We continue to pray for Paul and his future wife whoever she may be.

We will not see Paul for Christmas but he will be going to visit David and Elizabeth from January 7th thru 13th. I know they will have a great time. It will be good for them to have time together before David goes overseas.

If you are interested you can check out the Abraham Lincoln CVN 72 newspaper, the Penny Press at: http://www.cvn72.navy.mil/pao/penny.html.

David & Elizabeth’s Corner

David and Elizabeth are doing well. As we said Paul will be visiting them so they are looking forward to his visit. Everything else is going along. Nothing much going on other than the day to day routine stuff. Oh yeah there is one small thing they told us that is going on. It’s not a big thing and really nothing to get real excited about but I thought that I might mention it here. We are going to be grandparents, no big deal………………... WE ARE GOING TO BE GRANDPARENTS!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! Sometime in August, due date is August 27th. Their 2nd anniversary is August 25. Please pray for them. David is due to be deployed this summer and may not be back home until some time in September. Reuben had made a cradle for the grandchildren and David slept in it when he was little as did Paul and all the cousins. Elizabeth would like to use it for her little one. We think that is great. Can you imagine us as grandma and grandpa…now that is a hard concept to wrap your brains around?

Jane’s Corner

Jane is now on Christmas break or is it winter break? We have to be PC you know. She is glad to have some time off. She has a few things to do before this Thursday, Christmas, It will be just us and mom and dad Anderson this year. But we always have a good time. We had been storing some of our friends stuff while they were between houses. It took up Paul’s room, the front room and the garage. They have now closed on their new house. The good news is they came and picked up their stuff today so we have our house back. We were very glad to help them out. It is nice to have our house back and it is very nice that they have their things back. Some of the things they have not been able to use for some time due to moving around knowing they would have to pack up and move again so it is especially nice for them.

Terry’s Corner

Terry is struggling at work. He has been working with an engineer at work on a big project and a week ago the engineer left the company and Terry is holding the bag. His stress level went through the roof. Not only does he not want to do the drafting stuff any more but now he has to try and finish the project successfully from a project manager’s point of view. Not only that, the politics and possible layoffs at work is making everyone’s morale the lowest it has ever been. We continue to pray because our guidance and strength come from God and God alone. Now that we have our garage back Terry is turning his half of the garage into a small work shop. Jane’s Mazda is happy to be back in its home, on Jane’s half of the garage.

We do not ever want to forget that God has blessed us with two wonderful young men, a beautiful daughter-in- law with a soon to be grandchild. We are also grateful for loving parents, jobs to go to and each other. Not to mention all the daily blessings that He showers us with.

Here is hoping that this Christmas will be a wonderful time of getting together with family and friends and celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior. Praise God for all that he does for us because He loves us so much.

Okay, I am giving this a try and see how it works. So here it goes.

What’s up with Paul:

Paul is out to sea right now. His ship came into port and he moved on to the ship. They spent some time in port and he was trying to get familiar with the ship. He got lost a lot at first. He told us that he got lost looking for the head (Bathroom). He got lost looking for the chapel. I think you get the idea that it is a big ship. As I said they put out to sea on a training cruise. I have no idea where they are and I could not say even if I did know. His cell phone doesn’t work when they are out. As a matter of fact it doesn’t work when they are in port. He has to get off the ship in order to get a signal. We can communicate with e-mail. It is his military e-mail address so we have to watch what we write and he checks it while on duty, he has an office job so he has access to a computer more than most. He got sea sick the second day out. We have not heard from him in the last few days but we heard through the grapevine that he is feeling better.

He was not able to come home for Thanksgiving and will not be coming home for Christmas even though they will be back in port. They will have three short training cruises before putting into dry dock for 6 months. Maybe during dry dock he will be able to come home.

I guess the big news is that he has a girlfriend. I think they met on eharmony.com. She lives in Indiana and is a Christian. At this point we don’t know a lot more than that. We will keep you posted as more information comes to light.


David and Elizabeth News:
David and Elizabeth have bought a home on 1 ½ acres near the Air Force base. It is a nice place. They are doing very well. Although David’s schedule changing has them a little frustrated. I believe he is on mid’s, no wait, I think he is on 12 hour shifts right now. That makes it even worse. Please pray for them.

We were invited up to see their new place for Thanksgiving. We had a great time even though it was a very short visit. We got to see Elizabeth’s parents, Sherry and Donald. Her brother Jonathan and his girlfriend were also there. That was very nice.

It looks like David will be going on deployment this coming summer. He is back on the flight line so that means he is on the list. He’ll be out for 4 months, a long time for a young couple who haven’t been married very long. Elizabeth plans to work at the Christian camp that she has worked at for several summers to help keep her mind off David’s absence.

David tested for E-5 and missed it by just a little. He will get it next time. Elizabeth is teaching horse back riding. She really loves that.










Update on Jane:
Jane loves her job but more than that she loves working with her teacher, Polly. They work well together. This year has been a very good year in terms of the children. She is always talking about a technique they are using with the children. It is called “Conscious Discipline”. It sounds great. You may want to ask her more about it if you work with children or have children of your own. Her principal is determined to have pre-K next year so hopefully she’ll have a job next year. The church we have found is really a blessing in our lives. We are moving slowly but we are finding our place in the church body. It feels so good to be in a wonderful loving church.


Terry’s buzz:
Terry is still trying to decide what he wants to be when he grows up. He had better hurry he is growing up very fast. Terry has a web site up and running. I think you know he is involved with a social web site, navydads.com. Now he’s started a site for Air Force parents, family and friends, airforcedads.com, go check it out. It is small but it should grow pretty quick. He is thinking about starting another one for Army parents. Not sure when that will roll out. Of course he is trying out this blog too.
There has been a lot of talk at work about layoffs but nothing as yet. We are praying about some things as far as what to do if there is a layoff and about some ideas that have come up about ministry with the military. But we continue to look to the Lord for our guidance. He is still working on his book, “I should have run for President in 2008” it slowed down as the election was coming to a close but he is more than ever determined to complete it after seeing the election results.

The Purpose of all this

This is where I will up date the military careers of Paul and David. That is as much as I can. Something’s I can’t talk about mainly because they can’t tell me. Anyway I am going to try and keep you all updated.

The Beginning

We are going to try this and see how it works. I find myself trying a lot of new things lately. I am not sure if this a good thing or not but it is happening none the less.