Tom & Brenda's Family Journal

Today we are in Shafter, California visiting Dave & Mia Moorhead, our pastor and wife from Caledonia.  We attended their new church, New Hope Community Church.  They are meeting in a youth canter close to their home.  There were many similarities to the work at Dutton School. Here is the music/worship team preparing for worship.  Yes, Dave is playing the guitar.  The team sounded very good and we sang some of our favorites including "How Great Thou Art".  They also had a children's choir who presented.  It was so good to hear Dave preach again.  His sermon on Nehemiah 5 was very applicable to the economic situation in our country today.  You might want to look at it. There is lots of work to a church that meets in a public building setting up and tearing down every Sunday. We also spent some time learning about Shafter.  It is a small town outside of Bakersfield.  In some ways, it feels like a town from the 1960's.  Small town with close families.  The girls can ...

We traveled from Phoenix to Shafter , California today to visit our dear friends, Dave & Mia Moorhead and family.  Dave was our pastor in Caledonia until he moved to California last summer to start a church here.  It was so wonderful to see them tonight at their home.  Mia fixed a delicious dinner and we had a great time catching up.  I will share more later about the trip here and about life in California but I knew you would enjoy seeing pictures of them.  The twins have grown but all the kids are as sweet as ever. Ben with two friends- Lyz and Mike I will write more detail tomorrow.

We are here in Bakersfield, California. Just checked into our motel and we are getting ready to go over to Moorheads . Our trip from Arizona was great. We saw some beautiful country-lots of mountains and some beautiful valleys. We are looking forward to seeing the Moorheads again. This is the start of an very busy 2 weeks. I haven't even told you about our last day in Phoenix. Maybe later tonight. My computer isn't working right now and I'm on Tom's. So I won't add any pictures until I get back on my own computer.

Today we went sightseeing in Phoenix and really saw more than we planned because I entered the info into the GPS incorrectly.  Tom said, "This really doesn't seem like the right way."  And he was right, but we saw new parts of the town. We eventually made it to the Biltmore Resort.  This famous motel was built in 1929 under the guidance of Frank Lloyd Wright after he was called in to help the original  architect.   You will see his touch in these pictures These first pictures are from the lobby. We walked around the gardens and there were stunning.  There were lots of flowers which is unusual for this area.  Most gardens are desert gardens with lots of cactus and rocks. There is an outdoor restaurant and lots of outdoor seating. After the Biltmore, we went to Tempe and Arizona State University.  We had attended some softball games there last Feb. and ASU went on to win the national championship.  Today was opening day of the 2009 season. They were playing McNeese Universi...

Today I spent most of my day working on my book.  This project has been in the works for about 4 years..  I actually didn't begin writing it until about two years ago.  Because it is historical fiction, it takes lots of research for every chapter to make sure it is authentic.  Each event, each street name, every type of food has to be researched so that takes lots of time. The book is about another Sault girl who I have much in common with although she was born 150 years before me.  She was born in Sault Ste. Marie and lived on the St. Marys River.  My story is about a year trip she took with her father in 1809 - 1810 to Ireland. Tom went golfing with Glenn Compton in Sun City West.  Glenn is a great golfer and a good friend.  Our weather is warming up again but we are heading to weekend rain and cool (60's) but we will be on our way to California to visit the Moorheads-Dave Jr. & Sr. and families and Tom's Aunt Viv and cousin Kathy and her husband, Phil.

I'm having a hard time even remembering what we did yesterday.  That's relaxing.  Oh, yes, now I remember.  We ran errands and even found a credit union where we can do our business transactions.  The credit union website had said there wasn't one here in Arizona that was in the same network as ours back home.  Tom called the GR branch and they gave us an address but said we had to use the ATM machine.  When we found it, we went inside and talked to the director and he said to use the teller.  So that was great.  And it was just across the way from the library. After that we visited a local library so I could do some research for my book.  I'm looking to find how they traveled between Ireland and London in 1810.  If you have an insight, I would appreciate hearing about it. We finished up our day with a visit to Coldstone Creamery.  Kristen's company owns Coldstone , so we thought that would count as research for her. I worked quite a bit on my book.  Thanks to all ...

The Arizona Cardinal's loss in the Super Bowl has been a disappointment for the entire valley-except for Chris (Kristen's boyfriend) who is a Steeler's fan.  We had a fun time watching the game and 'chatting' and skyping with family during the game.  I had conversations going on between the Soo ,   Middleville and North Carolina-some at the same time. Today we worked on family business and making plans for the next few weeks.  We are leaving for California this weekend to visit friends and family.  I'll tell you more about that later. The morning was warmer than usual so we ate lunch on the balcony.  We took our walk exploring more neighborhoods around here. The Mayo Clinic has a branch here in Scottsdale and you can see it from the balcony.  It is the white building on the left off in the distance.  This must be a popular hospital during the winter. Last night we watching some 3-D tv and had fun with that.  Kristen had picked up the glasses at the supermar...