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RON and DIANE (DAY) SHERMAN
Ron's thoughts about:
The Past: Being amazed at watching while little girls turn into women having jobs, homes, cars, and making life decisions with just a little help and encouragement from their parents.
The Present: We're gradually learning to live without the "kids" activities consuming the majority of our time and thoughts.
The Future: Thoughts of retirement dance in my head, but with so many options of things to do when the time comes, it's just fun thinking about what the future might bring.
Diane's perspective (and you know, she always was talkative!):
Hi, everyone,
Well, more years have gone by since we've seen most of you, and life has thrown us some good things and some bad things. Ron's mom and dad are both gone, and so is my dad. Losing a parent is hard, and I imagine most of you have had to face that by now. But we're blessed that my mom is doing well and looking forward to a trip to Branson, MO this fall (after surviving a two-day family party for her 80th birthday in June!).
We're a few years older, but hopefully, also a few years wiser and more content. We still try to learn or do something new every week (used to be every day, LOL) and have had some adventures in visiting new places on our way to and from visiting children the past few years. This year, we even got to Pawnee City, Nebraska, where my dad lived as a child. That was really special!
Most of the time, though, we stay pretty close to home. We are still living on our wooded 5 acres near Lacey, Washington, in the house Ron built...and keeps building on to...and now we've started remodeling! This place is an ongoing project and great hobby for Ron! He has been cancer free for almost 6 years, so we've been blessed in being able to keep working and visiting our children and enjoying life in general. He still works (too many hours) as a DSHS financial section manager for the state, but we can see the possibility of retirement coming (hopefully)--sometime after our youngest daughter finishes college.
She's 19 and will be a senior this fall (2006) at Whitworth College (oops, Whitworth University now) in Spokane, as well as being encouraged to become an employee there, so I think she's well on her way to independence. Our 22-year-old daughter fell in love with Oklahoma while going to OU in Norman on a scholarship, and is now employed by the state in Oklahoma City and is getting ready to sign the closing papers on her first home as I write this (and we didn't even have to co-sign. Hooray!). It looks like homeschooling these two girls was successful. Thank goodness!
Our two older children, John and Stephanie, are both married, and between them have given us nine grandchildren so far. As of 40th reunion time, our children are 39, 37, 22, and 19, and our grandchildren are 19, 17, 14, 12, 9, 8, 6, 5 and 3. John and his family live in Tacoma, while Stephanie and her family live right next door in a home on our other 5 acres.
You can see that we've always had the opportunity to be around kids--and still do! In fact, we're still kids ourselves: you know, it's kind of an interesting identity crisis to be in one's second childhood at the same time as parenting young adults and grandparenting several little ones. Will the real "me" please stand up?
I really am trying to define myself a bit more...a couple years ago I joined a band for people "better than 50," and I'm still enjoying it immensely. We've taken a couple of "field trips" to Oregon to visit and play with other bands, as well as performing for local community groups at "low-stress" events. We mainly just have fun playing music and making friends. I still do a lot of computer work--some teaching, some design. And now I am webmaster for two organizational sites (the WV66 site at www.oocities.org/westvalley66 and the Olympia New Horizons Band site at www.olynhb.com) as well as my personal ones. It's fun...and I do TRY to keep them up to date! I also enjoy volunteering at the county fair and sharing my enthusiasm for spinning and dyeing and working with natural fibers and yarns. Besides those interests, there is church work and rearranging the "empty nest" and experimental cooking and messing with plants and reading and well, whatever else sounds interesting!
Isn't life grand? I don't think any of us could really have predicted 40 years ago where we'd be today. We've had highs and lows we never dreamed of, and life is richer after 55 than any wet-behind-the-ears teenager would ever have believed! Remember when "over 30" was considered beyond the outer limits? I guess we'd better not tell those kids what they're missing. They'll have to wait and find out when they reach our age!
May God bless all of you with His love,
Diane
You can contact Ron and Diane via e-mail at
shermanhome@msn.com.
To see more of Ron and Diane, click on the small pictures below.
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