I was tagged for a meme by Theresa at Seeking Diligence Blogspot to answer the following 12 questions…

1)What is your school name and why?

When I homeschooled our daughter for part of 4th, then 5th and 6th grade in the mid ’90’s we just called our school by our last name, B—–Homeschool.

2)How is your weather today?

Very nice crispy but sunny with puffy white clouds in the sky…

3)What steals your joy?

Confrontation. My own selfishness.

4)Name five blessings you received this week.

1) Spending time with my children in Washington.

2) The joy of reading a good book.

3)  Extra insight in the book of James that I’m reading

4) My daughter being accepted into UW for her last 2 years of college.

5) My husbands phone calls from California.

5)Favorite Scripture

There are so many but since the 4th grade one of my favorites is… 

John 14:1-3 ~ “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” 

Of course the King James version that I memorized this verse from in the 4th grade talked about a mansion not just a room. I think I was excited about that prospect….

6) Who in the Bible do you think you are most like?

 Moses for his public speaking awkwardness, the woman at the well for her evasiveness, Sons of thunder for their act first think later attitude, Peter for talking big and then denying Christ in a pinch. Thank God for His mercy and grace…

7)The passage of scripture you read last:

The book of James. I’m reading the whole book everyday for 20 days…

8) Have you ever praised God for something weird?

   Yes lots of things other people might consider weird. Finding something on sale, finding the perfect gift for someone, having a meal turn out. There are probably way weirder things that just aren’t coming to me…

9) If you were making a greeting card for God what would it say.

There are no words to express what you mean to this undeserving sinner. I want to shout your praise in a stadium filled with people!

10) What is the best miracle God has performed in your life, or what is your favorite answered prayer?

    I think the best miracle is that God’s hand was on my Father to cause Him to be the first in his family to immigrate to the U.S.A. where he later heard God’s call on his life at the Billy Graham Crusade in Los Angeles in 1963. This was a huge miracle in our family and has affected so many areas of our lives. My favorite answered prayer is that God has extended His grace and mercy to my children.

11)What is the most fun thing you have done lately.

Had a early birthday party for Dear with friends and family at our friends home in Washington and the other meals and evenings with my children.

12) How did you choose your screen name.

Sat around with my brother and others while he forced me to start a blog. We went back and forth. I’m a happy person in general and I wonder about a lot of things. (I’m curious) So I came up with The Happy Wonderer.

So now I tag whoever would like to do this meme. Maybe you don’t know what to post. Go ahead and do this meme and you’ll have a fresh post…

Hey! Let me know if you do it….

I nabbed this meme from Connie at Practicing Theology.

Here’s how it goes, grab ten coins out of your pocket, purse, couch cushion or wherever it is you keep your loose change. You have to have ten uniquely dated coins, so if you get a duplicate, pull out another until you have ten unique dates. Next, tell your readers a little about YOU the year that the coin was minted.

1978 ~ Married for 4 years, teaching 2nd grade in the Public School system and pregnant with our first child who was born in January of 1979. Josh was 10 lbs. and I had him naturally, ouch! Living in Huntington Beach, Ca.  Dear has decided to work for someone else instead of being self-employed. He gets a job in the Rock and Sand Industry.

1983 ~ Married for 9 years. SAHM with two boys ages 4 and 2. Living in Huntington Beach, California with plans to move to Ventura to cut Dear’s commute time down from 2 hours each way to a wee 10 minutes. Dear worked the swing shift so I’m home alone with the boys from noon to midnight each weekday. Only had to go to emergency twice during this time with son #2. Thankfully my sister Vera lived around the corner so I could drop off son #1 on the way to the ER. At this time Dear is working in a quarry digging and loading trucks with sand and gravel with a front end loader.  (We moved to Ventura in 1984)

1985 ~ Still living in Ventura, California with our boys in Kindergarten and 2nd grade. We’ve met some lifetime great friends at Bible Fellowship Church in Ventura, Dr. Dave and Jody. I’m pregnant with baby #3 and Dear’s father Rex passes away in October before Katie is born. She comes early on December 27th. Katie is delivered by our friend Dr. Dave who is doing his residency at the County Hospital in Ventura. We dropped our boys off at Dr. Dave and Jody’s and picked up Dr. Dave to go to the hospital so he could deliver Katie. It really was great having a good friend deliver our little girl.

1991 ~ Living in Bothell, Washington for 3 years. Verna my widowed MIL is living with us. I was very busy with a Cleaning Business helping to put Dear through school. Verna filled in the gaps watching the kids when I wasn’t there.  We moved to Washington so Dear could complete his B.S. degree and attend Pharmacy School at the University of Washington. GO HUSKIES! Our friends Dave and Jody had moved back to Washington for Dave to start a Family practice so we had great friends already in Washington which made our transition easier moving so far from our families.

1994 ~ Dear has completed his schooling and a residency program and is finally getting a great income working full time for a Start Up Biotec Firm in Seattle. I’m looking forward to retiring from my house cleaning business. The kids and I take a trip to Los Angeles to be with family and attend as many World Cup games and activities we can. Dear joins us for part of this trip.

1996 ~  This was a year of many trials by fire for us. We had a major landslide behind our home up to the foundation of the house. We walked away from our 4600 square foot home and all of our equity because the landslide threatened the foundation and stability of the house and the price tag for sinking pilings and stabilizing the land around the home became more than we could ever afford. We had a mother in law apartment in the basement of this home where Dear’s mother lived. We had to find other arrangements for her, also. We started the life of moving yearly from one rental home to another. I began homeschooling Katie who was socially persecuted at school. She was in a gifted program and at recess the other girls in this program called her the germ and told anyone who played with her that they would get infected. Her persecution was very hurtful but the decision to homeschool her was a wonderful healing experience for all of us.

1997 ~ My MIL Verna died in May. Our oldest son graduated from high school in June and in the August headed off to Westmont College in Santa Barbara, Ca. It was a very emotional year of separations for me. In the fall we had to move to our second rental home.

1998 ~ Moved to our third rental home and within a month were informed the owner would be selling it out from under us. Not wanting to face moving all our stuff again we made an offer on the house and it was accepted. Then miracle of miracles the bank gave us a loan with no hassles. We were living in a home of our own again. We thought this would be impossible so soon because of defaulting on a loan and giving a previous home back to the bank. But for some reason (God) the bank chose not to ding us with that on our record. Nothing showed up about our default. 2nd son in his senior year of high school.  Daughter in last year of junior high.

2002 ~ Oldest son is married to his High School sweetheart for one year.  Husbands company bought by Amgen. His department moved to Thousand Oaks, California. Dear decides not to move. He took some time off and then was called to work as a contractor for Amgen. During his time off Dear and I took a winter trip to London over Valentine’s day. What a wonderful time just tubing into London each day from So. Kensington. We also took a train to attend a Worship Conference at Tim Hughes’ church outside of London. Another day trip we took was out to Cambridge that was so beautiful and very cold. While staying in So. Kensington we discovered a great drink, a Kensington Dream, that Dear watched the bartender make and still makes for me once in a while here in the states. He’s threatening to post the recipe on my blog soon. Hopefully I won’t lose many readers cuz I enjoy a hearty drink here and there (in moderation if you please…) 🙂

2006 ~ Another year of big changes for us. Dear’s contracting days in Washington ended and he made the decision to finally take a full-time job with Amgen in Thousand Oaks. We decided not to sell our home in the Seattle area but to let our 2 adult children who aren’t married yet live in it and take care of it while Dear and I live in Southern California. We ended up buying a one bedroom condo in So. Cal. We had already planned a trip to Britain for a walking tour with our good friends Dave, Jody, Bob and Jan and when Greg accepted the company’s offer for employment he made sure they were ok with his leaving for 2 weeks just after starting his job. What a great tour of Britain it was and we’re so happy we stuck to the plan.

Change has really been the theme of life for us over the last couple of years. We are learning not to hang on to tight to whatever situation we are in today. We know who holds our future and we are working more and more on trusting Him with it!

Boy if you made it through all of this congratulations! If you feel like playing this meme let me know ….