SPOKANE TO LOUISVILLE AND BACK TO SPOKANE - 1976 TO 1984
We loved being in Spokane. The first few month were spent purchasing an acre lot on which to build a home and then deciding on house plans. We were living in a duplex during this time. We found a builder and that builder had a house plan we loved. With a few tweaks it would be a perfect home for a growing family. The home would be 2700 square feet on the main two levels with another 1200 or so square feet we could finish off in the basement. The main floor consisted of a living room, dining room, a large kitchen, family room, laundry room, and half bath. Upstairs were four bedrooms and two bathrooms. It would be situated on one acre of Ponderosa Pine trees in a lovely neighborhood. We purchased the home and property for $62,000. The home was completed and we moved in around November of 1976. We decorated the bedrooms, one for a boy, one for a girl, and one for a baby nursery. Ryan was born in September of 1977. A note about that: He was three weeks late in arriving. As always, Paul's mother came out to help with this newborn baby. She arrived just before Ryan's due date and ended up staying about a month, instead of the usual week. During that time, though, we canned peaches and pears so the time wasn't wasted.
Paul's job was with Gifford Hill, a company based out of Texas with an accounting division in Spokane. For the first few years, they were located in a high rise building in downtown Spokane. As a family, we enjoyed meeting Paul for lunch at Riverfront Park, just a few blocks from where Paul worked. I would pack a picnic lunch, as well as crackers, so the children could feed the ducks. Paul's commute was much less than in California but he often had to work very late into the night. I hated it when he did because he would have to walk through Riverfront Park to get to the car. It was a great place to hang out in the daytime but not the safest place to be late at night. Later the company moved out to the valley, not as fun for the kids, but much better for my piece of mind.
Three significant things happened in the next few years. Paul was called to serve as a counselor in our ward bishopric. He served with Jay Grant as bishop and Jim Sandberg as the other counselor. Paul was gone a lot of evenings with meetings and such, but it was a great learning experience for him. He enjoyed serving under Jay Grant as he kept the meetings light and fun. He also loved ice cream as much as Paul so, often, their Bishopric meetings ended with a trip to an ice cream store for a late night treat. This experience gave Paul great insight as to how a Bishopric should function and was the beginning a many years serving in Bishoprics. In 1980, the Bishop was changed and Paul was called as a counselor to Dean Conrad, and later as a counselor to Max Edwards. The Lord was preparing Paul for many leadership positions in the years to come. During this time, I served mainly in the Young Women's as usual, which I absolutely loved.
Todd was born in August of 1979. He was a wonderful addition to complete our family. With him joining our family, it meant a room shuffle for Ryan. He now joined Jon in his large, red and blue room. I can remember many a Sunday when Jon and Ryan would build massive forts with blankets in their room. They had great fun building them but they hated cleaning them up before bedtime. We loved our home and our neighborhood. The children were blessed with close neighborhood friends - Debbie Islebb was Andrea's friend who lived behind us. Jason Herman lived next door and became Jon's best friend. At Christmas time, we always did a 12 days of Christmas giving. The Islebb's and the Herman's both became the target of our Christmas surprises. It was fun for the children to ring the doorbell and run away, without getting caught, as they delivered the Christmas gifts each day. Truly, this daily giving was a highlight of our Christmas celebrations as the children grew up.
The third thing that happened was the eruption of Mt. St. Helens in Oregon. It was a Sunday morning in May of 1980. Paul had left for meetings and I was home with sick children. About 8 in the morning, I heard what I thought was a sonic boom. Thinking nothing of it, I went about doing what needed to be done with the children. About 2 o'clock in the afternoon, it started to get dark. I thought there must be a big thunderstorm approaching but soon realized it wasn't a storm. The sky kept getting darker and darker until it was as dark as if it were midnight. Not knowing what was happening, I opened the front door and noticed a mist of particles falling from the sky. It was at that time I said to myself, "My goodness, the Lord is surprising us and coming in 1981." I quickly prayed that Paul would make it home so we could experience it together. I remember not being the least bit afraid but very calm, especially as Paul drove up soon afterwards. When he came in, he assured me that the Savior wasn't coming but that the darkness was caused by ash blowing in from the eruption of Mt. St. Helens, hundreds of miles away. Church had been dismissed early and everyone was told to go home quickly. The darkness continued for about 2 hours. Around 4 in the afternoon, the skies began to lighten and, as it did, we noticed that the ash had covered everything outside. It was like we had been transported to the planet Mars. All we saw was grey.....grey everywhere. There was not a blade of grass or a leaf on a tree that wasn't grey. Everything was covered with several inches of grey ash. We tuned into the radio for instructions and were told to put towels around our doors and windows so the ash couldn't get into our home. The officials didn't know the content of the ash and didn't want us breathing it into our lungs. We were told not to drive a car, but in fact, to stay inside our homes until further notice. This we did until the next day. When it was determined there was no poisonous contents to the ash, we were told to secure masks for our faces and begin the clean up process. The whole neighborhood worked together to wash the ash off roofs and driveways and lawns. With this addition of water, the ash turned to a wet cement consistency and had to be shoveled into piles in the street. Later, the city came and scooped the mounds of ash from off our streets. It was a mess for a long time but everyone and everything survived the invasion of ash. In fact, our gardens for the next few years produced spectacularly well due to the nutrients the ash added to the soil.
Our lives began to change in 1981. It was that year that Paul received his Patriarchal Blessing. For some reason he hadn't received one when he was younger. When Bishop Conrad found this out, he immediately issued him a recommend. We set up an appointment with the Patriarch and Paul received a marvelous blessing at his hands. He was told many wonderful things, one of which foreshadowed a decision we would have to make in the near future. We didn't think much about it until, in 1882, it became apparent that Paul's company would be sold. Gifford Hill was a company out of Texas and they decided to divest themselves of companies that were not related to their core business. That meant the division for which Paul worked was to be sold. It didn't take long and a company out of Louisville, Kentucky bought it. They offered Paul a job but it would mean a move to Kentucky and starting over. After much prayer, and remembering the passage in Paul's patriarchal blessing, we made the decision to leave Spokane and move to Kentucky. We would need to be relocated by the end of August, 1882.
Paul and I flew out to Louisville to find a home to rent and to meet Paul's new bosses. He was going to be working for a family owned business and would be expected to set up the new accounting system for this company and its new acquisition. We had mixed emotions about moving. First, we loved everything about Spokane. Second, we would be moving to a state far away from family, and third, Kentucky was a state where the schools were integrated and we didn't know what impact that would have on our 4th grader and 2nd grader. We knew, though, that this job was an answer to prayer and for some reason we needed to move.
A little side note: About the middle of the summer of 1882, we got word that our neighbor, on our right, was moving. This neighbor had a dog named Casey and Andrea loved this dog. Often, she would go over to the neighbors just to play with the dog, if Casey hadn't come to her first. When the neighbors announced their intended move, they asked if we wanted their dog. They were moving to California and couldn't take Casey. If we didn't take the dog, they were going to take her to the Humane Society. Andrea begged us but we said that if the Humane Society couldn't find a home for Casey then we would take her before they put her down. In Andrea's 10 year old wisdom, she said, "If we can have her in a week, why can't we have her now?" We didn't have an answer for her, except, "You're right. Yes, you can go get the dog." Thus, we became the proud owners of a tan, cocker spaniel mix breed dog, much to Andrea's delight. Little did we know that we, too, would be moving by the end of the summer and taking the dog with us.
As the move came closer, we decided we needed a bigger car for travel so we purchased a decked out van, complete with bucket seats and a table. The kids were so excited as it would make the long trip to Kentucky much more enjoyable, especially with a dog. We put our house on the market and started packing. Our house didn't sell right away so we had to leave it empty. When everything was loaded in the moving van and our car was packed, we started our four day journey to our new home in Louisville, Kentucky.....dog and all.
We drove from Spokane to Utah but just outside Malad, Idaho, our brand new van blew a fan belt. Luckily we were at the top of a hill and could coast into a rest stop at the bottom. Paul hitched a ride into Malad where he found someone who would bring him back to the van and fix it. Meanwhile, the family and I were in the parking lot of the rest stop when a man approached and asked what had happened. I told him and he suggested he take a look. He did and was able to get the fan belt back on so, when Paul returned, the van was running. We did follow the repairman back to his shop so he could check the condition of the fan belt. He ended up replacing the one and checking all the others to make sure they were in working condition. A great start to our 4 day trip across the states.
The rest of our trip was uneventful, thankfully. We saw lots of scenery, played lots of games in the car, and listened, almost non stop to Abba, on the van's stereo tape player. We could sing every word of every song before we arrived in Louisville, Kentucky.
We finally arrived at our new home, followed by the moving van with our furniture in it. The first thing, of course, was to set up beds in each bedroom so we could sleep that night. We had a water bed at the time and, after Paul put it together, he started filling it with a garden hose. We then went downstairs to finish unpacking. It wasn't long before Jon came down the stairs and asked why we were watering the carpet. Paul bounded up the stairs and found the bedroom carpet covered in an inch of water. Water was also leaking down into the dining room through the light fixture. it seems the hose had slipped out of the waterbed opening and fallen onto the floor. After turning off the water, we ran to the neighbors to ask if they had a shop vacuum that would suck up water. Luckily they did and we began the long process of vacuuming up the water off the carpet. It took hours of sucking and many days of blowing fans on the carpet before we could safely put up our water bed. We had to make sure there was no moisture in the carpet that would mildew under the bed. Our adventure had definitely begun.
We enrolled the children in school. Andrea and fourth grade, Jon in second grade and Ryan in Kindergarten, even though he was still only 4 but he made the Kentucky age cut off. Because of the integration laws in Kentucky, children from white neighborhoods were bused into the schools in black neighborhoods and the black children from there were bused to white neighborhood schools. It was all based on a child's grade level and the initial of your last name. It just so happened that children with the last name starting with M and in the fourth grade would be bused to the intercity school. We could do nothing about it. We could only pray long and hard that it would be a good experience for our shy, little Andrea. She had a 45 minute bus ride to and from the downtown area of Louisville. The school was secured by locked doors and one had to buzz to be allowed inside. Andrea learned to love her experience, thanks to a wonderful 4th grade teacher. I volunteered to be the room mother so I spent a lot of time in her school, more for my own satisfaction that our daughter was safe. Jon and Ryan attended a neighborhood school and Todd stayed home with me.
We had many interesting and fun experiences while in Kentucky. One happened just after the Kentucky derby. It was the beginning of summer and we decided to make a picnic dinner, take it the a local park, eat and play a little baseball. We got to the park and noticed we were the only ones there. We brought out the food, ate and began to play. It wasn't long before we realized why no one was at the park. The weather had turned incredibly hot and humid and to be out in it was miserable. We didn't play baseball very long before we were drenched with sweat. We quickly packed up and drove straight back to our air conditioned home. We could understand why people there hibernated in their homes from May till September, when the weather cooled and the humidity dropped. Regarding the humidity - Paul would go out and mow the lawn and within minutes you would have thought he had just stepped out of the shower, clothes and all, from the effects of the humidity. Needless to say we did a lot of indoor activities during this time.
Another memory was losing Andrea's dog, Casey. She and Casey were best of friends. Casey would know when Andrea was due home from school and would bark to get outside so she could meet her at the bus stop. They slept together every night and were inseparable. One Sunday afternoon, we put Casey outside so she could do her business. After a while, we went out to call her in and she was nowhere to be found. We canvassed the neighborhood and called neighbors but could not find her anywhere. We were devastated and Andrea was beyond herself with worry for her dog and best friend. That night, we had a family prayer and asked for Casey's safe return to us. We all went to bed and tried to sleep. About 4 in the morning, I was awakened by a scratching at our front door. I bounded out of bed, opened the door, and there was Casey, bedraggled and covered with dirt from head to paw. I woke everyone up and we rejoiced at the answer to our prayer and that our Casey was safely back home.
Our ward was spread out across many miles and many school districts. Andrea's best friend at church lived 20 minutes away. We were put to work quickly upon our arrival in Louisville. Paul was called to the high council and put in charge of stake activities. I was called to serve in the Relief Society as the homemaking leader responsible for putting on homemaking activities each month. We felt like we were very much needed here, bringing lots of experience and new ideas to our ward and stake. One of the activities for the stake was a father's and son overnight camp out. We went out and bought a tent, specifically so Paul could take Jon and Ryan and sleep in a tent. All went well until it started to rain. It rained all night and Paul and the boys and the tent came home soaked. We put the tent in the basement, unrolled, to dry out. After several days we rolled up the tent and put it away. It wasn't until the next summer, when we went to a family reunion in Oregon and unrolled the tent, that we realized it had mildewed. It smelled terrible and split right down the middle as we were setting it up. So much for camping out.
About May of 1983, we decided to set down some roots in Louisville. It was then we began to look for property to purchase so we could build a home. We decided to look in Oldam county as they did not bus school children in that county. We found a new development that had building lots of 5 acres each. We found the perfect lot - gradual sloping lot perfect for a daylight basement, as area for a horse (much to Andrea's delight) and a stream running at the bottom of the property. We were so excited and soon found ourselves signing papers and putting a down payment on the lot. We did this one evening at our home and almost immediately, after the realtor left, we had this dark feeling come over us. We prayed about it and realized that we needed to have the realtor tear up the papers and refund our money. We didn't know why we felt that way but as soon as we called the realtor, we had a feeling of peace. A few weeks later, things started becoming very difficult for Paul at work. The owner had hired an old friend to be over the finances (a position he had promised Paul). This man started asking Paul to do things that were not exactly honorable in the accounting world. Paul, being a man of much integrity, couldn't do what he was being asked to do. He knew it was just a matter of time before this situation would become intolerable. I remember Paul coming home and telling me about his troubles at work. I wasn't worried or even concerned. The only thing that went through by mind was a song from a church play I was a part of in high school. The words of the song were "We're going home, We're going home." Paul immediately started putting out resumes to find different employment. About that time, back in Spokane, another branch of the original Gifford Hill was being sold to a former boss of Paul's. Paul called him when he found out and Terry Middaugh said he was about to call Paul. He wanted to see if he could entice us into coming back to Spokane and for Paul to be his controller for this new company. We, of course, jumped at the chance even though it meant a substantial cut in pay and we would have to move back to Spokane on our own dollar. We knew the Lord had been looking out for us and bringing us back home to our beloved Spokane.
We left Louisville in August on 1983. Upon our arrival, in Spokane, we rented a home in the valley and began looking for property to build. Our former home had sold but was back on the market. We looked at it but decided it wasn't for us anymore. We found a piece of property just down from the Ponderosa Elementary school. It was a third of an acre and in a nice, new neighborhood. We had plans drawn up similar to a model home we had liked from a few years back. We found a builder and commenced building our new home. Meanwhile, we lived in two rentals. We moved into the first rental, cleaned it up, put in furniture, and hung decor on the walls. It sold within in two months of our living there, after being on the market for over a year. We then moved into a rental in the Ponderosa area which had also been on the market for a long time. We cleaned it up (and it really needed a lot of cleaning), put in furniture, and hung things up on the walls. It sold also within a few months. Luckily, our home was almost done. We were a little concerned about some shear curtains that Casey had destroyed with his claws. We had taken the shears down which opened up the view in the living room windows and let in more light. When we mentioned the destroyed shear curtains to the realtor, he was so happy to have finally sold the property, due to our efforts to clean it up, he didn't care about the curtain. We were relieved.
We moved into our new home in the spring of 1984. It meant putting in a yard which we did ourselves, even the sprinkler system. We especially loved how we designed the backyard, putting in a fake waterfall and a large deck complete with a hot tub. We loved this home and our neighbors and ended up staying in that home for 22 years.
By this time, our children were in 5th grade, 3rd grade, and kindergarten. (We decided to put Ryan in Kindergarten again as he would have been the youngest in a 1st grade.) They all attended the Ponderosa School, just up the street for our home. I volunteered in their classes a lot and loved being involved in their school.
Paul's job was with Gifford Hill, a company based out of Texas with an accounting division in Spokane. For the first few years, they were located in a high rise building in downtown Spokane. As a family, we enjoyed meeting Paul for lunch at Riverfront Park, just a few blocks from where Paul worked. I would pack a picnic lunch, as well as crackers, so the children could feed the ducks. Paul's commute was much less than in California but he often had to work very late into the night. I hated it when he did because he would have to walk through Riverfront Park to get to the car. It was a great place to hang out in the daytime but not the safest place to be late at night. Later the company moved out to the valley, not as fun for the kids, but much better for my piece of mind.
Three significant things happened in the next few years. Paul was called to serve as a counselor in our ward bishopric. He served with Jay Grant as bishop and Jim Sandberg as the other counselor. Paul was gone a lot of evenings with meetings and such, but it was a great learning experience for him. He enjoyed serving under Jay Grant as he kept the meetings light and fun. He also loved ice cream as much as Paul so, often, their Bishopric meetings ended with a trip to an ice cream store for a late night treat. This experience gave Paul great insight as to how a Bishopric should function and was the beginning a many years serving in Bishoprics. In 1980, the Bishop was changed and Paul was called as a counselor to Dean Conrad, and later as a counselor to Max Edwards. The Lord was preparing Paul for many leadership positions in the years to come. During this time, I served mainly in the Young Women's as usual, which I absolutely loved.
Todd was born in August of 1979. He was a wonderful addition to complete our family. With him joining our family, it meant a room shuffle for Ryan. He now joined Jon in his large, red and blue room. I can remember many a Sunday when Jon and Ryan would build massive forts with blankets in their room. They had great fun building them but they hated cleaning them up before bedtime. We loved our home and our neighborhood. The children were blessed with close neighborhood friends - Debbie Islebb was Andrea's friend who lived behind us. Jason Herman lived next door and became Jon's best friend. At Christmas time, we always did a 12 days of Christmas giving. The Islebb's and the Herman's both became the target of our Christmas surprises. It was fun for the children to ring the doorbell and run away, without getting caught, as they delivered the Christmas gifts each day. Truly, this daily giving was a highlight of our Christmas celebrations as the children grew up.
The third thing that happened was the eruption of Mt. St. Helens in Oregon. It was a Sunday morning in May of 1980. Paul had left for meetings and I was home with sick children. About 8 in the morning, I heard what I thought was a sonic boom. Thinking nothing of it, I went about doing what needed to be done with the children. About 2 o'clock in the afternoon, it started to get dark. I thought there must be a big thunderstorm approaching but soon realized it wasn't a storm. The sky kept getting darker and darker until it was as dark as if it were midnight. Not knowing what was happening, I opened the front door and noticed a mist of particles falling from the sky. It was at that time I said to myself, "My goodness, the Lord is surprising us and coming in 1981." I quickly prayed that Paul would make it home so we could experience it together. I remember not being the least bit afraid but very calm, especially as Paul drove up soon afterwards. When he came in, he assured me that the Savior wasn't coming but that the darkness was caused by ash blowing in from the eruption of Mt. St. Helens, hundreds of miles away. Church had been dismissed early and everyone was told to go home quickly. The darkness continued for about 2 hours. Around 4 in the afternoon, the skies began to lighten and, as it did, we noticed that the ash had covered everything outside. It was like we had been transported to the planet Mars. All we saw was grey.....grey everywhere. There was not a blade of grass or a leaf on a tree that wasn't grey. Everything was covered with several inches of grey ash. We tuned into the radio for instructions and were told to put towels around our doors and windows so the ash couldn't get into our home. The officials didn't know the content of the ash and didn't want us breathing it into our lungs. We were told not to drive a car, but in fact, to stay inside our homes until further notice. This we did until the next day. When it was determined there was no poisonous contents to the ash, we were told to secure masks for our faces and begin the clean up process. The whole neighborhood worked together to wash the ash off roofs and driveways and lawns. With this addition of water, the ash turned to a wet cement consistency and had to be shoveled into piles in the street. Later, the city came and scooped the mounds of ash from off our streets. It was a mess for a long time but everyone and everything survived the invasion of ash. In fact, our gardens for the next few years produced spectacularly well due to the nutrients the ash added to the soil.
Our lives began to change in 1981. It was that year that Paul received his Patriarchal Blessing. For some reason he hadn't received one when he was younger. When Bishop Conrad found this out, he immediately issued him a recommend. We set up an appointment with the Patriarch and Paul received a marvelous blessing at his hands. He was told many wonderful things, one of which foreshadowed a decision we would have to make in the near future. We didn't think much about it until, in 1882, it became apparent that Paul's company would be sold. Gifford Hill was a company out of Texas and they decided to divest themselves of companies that were not related to their core business. That meant the division for which Paul worked was to be sold. It didn't take long and a company out of Louisville, Kentucky bought it. They offered Paul a job but it would mean a move to Kentucky and starting over. After much prayer, and remembering the passage in Paul's patriarchal blessing, we made the decision to leave Spokane and move to Kentucky. We would need to be relocated by the end of August, 1882.
Paul and I flew out to Louisville to find a home to rent and to meet Paul's new bosses. He was going to be working for a family owned business and would be expected to set up the new accounting system for this company and its new acquisition. We had mixed emotions about moving. First, we loved everything about Spokane. Second, we would be moving to a state far away from family, and third, Kentucky was a state where the schools were integrated and we didn't know what impact that would have on our 4th grader and 2nd grader. We knew, though, that this job was an answer to prayer and for some reason we needed to move.
A little side note: About the middle of the summer of 1882, we got word that our neighbor, on our right, was moving. This neighbor had a dog named Casey and Andrea loved this dog. Often, she would go over to the neighbors just to play with the dog, if Casey hadn't come to her first. When the neighbors announced their intended move, they asked if we wanted their dog. They were moving to California and couldn't take Casey. If we didn't take the dog, they were going to take her to the Humane Society. Andrea begged us but we said that if the Humane Society couldn't find a home for Casey then we would take her before they put her down. In Andrea's 10 year old wisdom, she said, "If we can have her in a week, why can't we have her now?" We didn't have an answer for her, except, "You're right. Yes, you can go get the dog." Thus, we became the proud owners of a tan, cocker spaniel mix breed dog, much to Andrea's delight. Little did we know that we, too, would be moving by the end of the summer and taking the dog with us.
As the move came closer, we decided we needed a bigger car for travel so we purchased a decked out van, complete with bucket seats and a table. The kids were so excited as it would make the long trip to Kentucky much more enjoyable, especially with a dog. We put our house on the market and started packing. Our house didn't sell right away so we had to leave it empty. When everything was loaded in the moving van and our car was packed, we started our four day journey to our new home in Louisville, Kentucky.....dog and all.
We drove from Spokane to Utah but just outside Malad, Idaho, our brand new van blew a fan belt. Luckily we were at the top of a hill and could coast into a rest stop at the bottom. Paul hitched a ride into Malad where he found someone who would bring him back to the van and fix it. Meanwhile, the family and I were in the parking lot of the rest stop when a man approached and asked what had happened. I told him and he suggested he take a look. He did and was able to get the fan belt back on so, when Paul returned, the van was running. We did follow the repairman back to his shop so he could check the condition of the fan belt. He ended up replacing the one and checking all the others to make sure they were in working condition. A great start to our 4 day trip across the states.
The rest of our trip was uneventful, thankfully. We saw lots of scenery, played lots of games in the car, and listened, almost non stop to Abba, on the van's stereo tape player. We could sing every word of every song before we arrived in Louisville, Kentucky.
We finally arrived at our new home, followed by the moving van with our furniture in it. The first thing, of course, was to set up beds in each bedroom so we could sleep that night. We had a water bed at the time and, after Paul put it together, he started filling it with a garden hose. We then went downstairs to finish unpacking. It wasn't long before Jon came down the stairs and asked why we were watering the carpet. Paul bounded up the stairs and found the bedroom carpet covered in an inch of water. Water was also leaking down into the dining room through the light fixture. it seems the hose had slipped out of the waterbed opening and fallen onto the floor. After turning off the water, we ran to the neighbors to ask if they had a shop vacuum that would suck up water. Luckily they did and we began the long process of vacuuming up the water off the carpet. It took hours of sucking and many days of blowing fans on the carpet before we could safely put up our water bed. We had to make sure there was no moisture in the carpet that would mildew under the bed. Our adventure had definitely begun.
We enrolled the children in school. Andrea and fourth grade, Jon in second grade and Ryan in Kindergarten, even though he was still only 4 but he made the Kentucky age cut off. Because of the integration laws in Kentucky, children from white neighborhoods were bused into the schools in black neighborhoods and the black children from there were bused to white neighborhood schools. It was all based on a child's grade level and the initial of your last name. It just so happened that children with the last name starting with M and in the fourth grade would be bused to the intercity school. We could do nothing about it. We could only pray long and hard that it would be a good experience for our shy, little Andrea. She had a 45 minute bus ride to and from the downtown area of Louisville. The school was secured by locked doors and one had to buzz to be allowed inside. Andrea learned to love her experience, thanks to a wonderful 4th grade teacher. I volunteered to be the room mother so I spent a lot of time in her school, more for my own satisfaction that our daughter was safe. Jon and Ryan attended a neighborhood school and Todd stayed home with me.
We had many interesting and fun experiences while in Kentucky. One happened just after the Kentucky derby. It was the beginning of summer and we decided to make a picnic dinner, take it the a local park, eat and play a little baseball. We got to the park and noticed we were the only ones there. We brought out the food, ate and began to play. It wasn't long before we realized why no one was at the park. The weather had turned incredibly hot and humid and to be out in it was miserable. We didn't play baseball very long before we were drenched with sweat. We quickly packed up and drove straight back to our air conditioned home. We could understand why people there hibernated in their homes from May till September, when the weather cooled and the humidity dropped. Regarding the humidity - Paul would go out and mow the lawn and within minutes you would have thought he had just stepped out of the shower, clothes and all, from the effects of the humidity. Needless to say we did a lot of indoor activities during this time.
Another memory was losing Andrea's dog, Casey. She and Casey were best of friends. Casey would know when Andrea was due home from school and would bark to get outside so she could meet her at the bus stop. They slept together every night and were inseparable. One Sunday afternoon, we put Casey outside so she could do her business. After a while, we went out to call her in and she was nowhere to be found. We canvassed the neighborhood and called neighbors but could not find her anywhere. We were devastated and Andrea was beyond herself with worry for her dog and best friend. That night, we had a family prayer and asked for Casey's safe return to us. We all went to bed and tried to sleep. About 4 in the morning, I was awakened by a scratching at our front door. I bounded out of bed, opened the door, and there was Casey, bedraggled and covered with dirt from head to paw. I woke everyone up and we rejoiced at the answer to our prayer and that our Casey was safely back home.
Our ward was spread out across many miles and many school districts. Andrea's best friend at church lived 20 minutes away. We were put to work quickly upon our arrival in Louisville. Paul was called to the high council and put in charge of stake activities. I was called to serve in the Relief Society as the homemaking leader responsible for putting on homemaking activities each month. We felt like we were very much needed here, bringing lots of experience and new ideas to our ward and stake. One of the activities for the stake was a father's and son overnight camp out. We went out and bought a tent, specifically so Paul could take Jon and Ryan and sleep in a tent. All went well until it started to rain. It rained all night and Paul and the boys and the tent came home soaked. We put the tent in the basement, unrolled, to dry out. After several days we rolled up the tent and put it away. It wasn't until the next summer, when we went to a family reunion in Oregon and unrolled the tent, that we realized it had mildewed. It smelled terrible and split right down the middle as we were setting it up. So much for camping out.
About May of 1983, we decided to set down some roots in Louisville. It was then we began to look for property to purchase so we could build a home. We decided to look in Oldam county as they did not bus school children in that county. We found a new development that had building lots of 5 acres each. We found the perfect lot - gradual sloping lot perfect for a daylight basement, as area for a horse (much to Andrea's delight) and a stream running at the bottom of the property. We were so excited and soon found ourselves signing papers and putting a down payment on the lot. We did this one evening at our home and almost immediately, after the realtor left, we had this dark feeling come over us. We prayed about it and realized that we needed to have the realtor tear up the papers and refund our money. We didn't know why we felt that way but as soon as we called the realtor, we had a feeling of peace. A few weeks later, things started becoming very difficult for Paul at work. The owner had hired an old friend to be over the finances (a position he had promised Paul). This man started asking Paul to do things that were not exactly honorable in the accounting world. Paul, being a man of much integrity, couldn't do what he was being asked to do. He knew it was just a matter of time before this situation would become intolerable. I remember Paul coming home and telling me about his troubles at work. I wasn't worried or even concerned. The only thing that went through by mind was a song from a church play I was a part of in high school. The words of the song were "We're going home, We're going home." Paul immediately started putting out resumes to find different employment. About that time, back in Spokane, another branch of the original Gifford Hill was being sold to a former boss of Paul's. Paul called him when he found out and Terry Middaugh said he was about to call Paul. He wanted to see if he could entice us into coming back to Spokane and for Paul to be his controller for this new company. We, of course, jumped at the chance even though it meant a substantial cut in pay and we would have to move back to Spokane on our own dollar. We knew the Lord had been looking out for us and bringing us back home to our beloved Spokane.
We left Louisville in August on 1983. Upon our arrival, in Spokane, we rented a home in the valley and began looking for property to build. Our former home had sold but was back on the market. We looked at it but decided it wasn't for us anymore. We found a piece of property just down from the Ponderosa Elementary school. It was a third of an acre and in a nice, new neighborhood. We had plans drawn up similar to a model home we had liked from a few years back. We found a builder and commenced building our new home. Meanwhile, we lived in two rentals. We moved into the first rental, cleaned it up, put in furniture, and hung decor on the walls. It sold within in two months of our living there, after being on the market for over a year. We then moved into a rental in the Ponderosa area which had also been on the market for a long time. We cleaned it up (and it really needed a lot of cleaning), put in furniture, and hung things up on the walls. It sold also within a few months. Luckily, our home was almost done. We were a little concerned about some shear curtains that Casey had destroyed with his claws. We had taken the shears down which opened up the view in the living room windows and let in more light. When we mentioned the destroyed shear curtains to the realtor, he was so happy to have finally sold the property, due to our efforts to clean it up, he didn't care about the curtain. We were relieved.
We moved into our new home in the spring of 1984. It meant putting in a yard which we did ourselves, even the sprinkler system. We especially loved how we designed the backyard, putting in a fake waterfall and a large deck complete with a hot tub. We loved this home and our neighbors and ended up staying in that home for 22 years.
By this time, our children were in 5th grade, 3rd grade, and kindergarten. (We decided to put Ryan in Kindergarten again as he would have been the youngest in a 1st grade.) They all attended the Ponderosa School, just up the street for our home. I volunteered in their classes a lot and loved being involved in their school.
Paul was busy at work, again setting up an accounting system for this new firm - Garco Building Systems. He was the CFO and many times, in the beginning, we had to forgo our paycheck in order to make payroll. These were scary times but we knew we had been directed by the Lord to make this move and had great faith that things would work our for us.
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