Here is Curtis in his Navy summer whites
(cracker jack uniform) in front of their apartments.

Here is Katy dancing with a new friend at Youth Conference.
They built birdhouses for a service projects, the 2 boys from our branch built 3 bird houses and the 3 girls from our branch rebuilt their 1 birdhouse 3 times!!LOL
They took tour buses to Independence, Richmond, Far West and Liberty.
Katy had a great time and had no panic attacks.

This is Micheal (Mia's brother) we tend these two about once a week.
We enjoy it but they are a handful at times.
Here Michael is tickling Stefanie's feet.

Here is Curtis and Nikki with their pets preparing to leave for VA in January.
Trooper made it to V.A. but the fish
was forgotten in the car over night and became a fish pop!!
The kids hit the big snow storm on their way up and had to pull over and spend
the night .

This is Destiny helping tend Mia.
Destiny was able to keep Mia entertained and was able to
get her to sleep.

These are our wonderful missionaries who taught Stefanie the discussions, and this is our even more wonderful Stefanie who asked us what she needed to do to be baptized.

This is our Bearded Dragon Lizard named Puffer
who just licked the tank trying to get Katy's
Beta Fish named Ichigo, KATY SAYS:
"FISH ARE FRIENDS NOT FOOD"

The Japanese fan, that the McMurrys were so kind to give me,
was on the other wall, but looks wonderful here.

We hadn't found a place for the beautiful Japanese wooden panels, but with a suggestion from Destiny, Gmom and Pop did.

Dyer family pictures on the stairs down into the den. Gmom was so good at making things look really nice. Pop was so kind to do the measuring and placing of the pictures.
Thank you both!!!

We haven't posted in forever!!! I have had 3 computer crashes this summer and posting has not been a priority until now. So here goes:
Curtis and Nikki are living in Alexandria, VA. and Curtis commutes to Bolin, Airbase in D.C. everyday for work. His day starts between 3am and 5am and he gets off work between 5pm and 7pm most days. But he still spends at least 2 or more hours every evening with the help of Nikki to prepare his uniforms for the next day. They are planning on driving down to see us around Thanksgiving. Bryan is planning to have Curtis's truck running by then so they can take it back with them.
Doug and Stefanie have moved to a nice apartment in Grant City. It has 2 bedrooms and is moderately sized. They live about 2 miles from the factory that Doug and Bryan work at. Stefanie has been called as a councilor in the Young Women Program in our branch. Doug is working with Bryan on programming the machine that uses router bits to cut out gun stocks.
Katy has had her drivers license for about 2 weeks now and got a job this Tuesday (July 22nd) at The Corner Deli on the Albany square. She will be working between 2 and 3 hours per day, from 11am to about 1:30 pm. She has been a great help to me. She drives Destiny to the pool and runs errands for me. She also helps me around the house and helps when we tend two little ones named Michael and Mia.
Destiny is doing great. She played softball again this summer and did well. She also took swim lessons two weeks ago. She passed level 4 and will be in Junior life guard training next summer.
Bryan and I are team teaching the youth class 2nd hour. Bryan is still putting in many hours at work. They have just purchased a robot that once it is programmed it will sand the gun stocks. Tomorrow they will get a second C&C Router and will begin setting it up.
I am still the councilor over education in R.S. I am making a dress for Destiny this week. I have been on an organizing spree for the past month or more. I have organized the school file cabinet, my sewing box, the screws, nails, and other whatknots that were in the junk drawer and utility room and the extra bedroom that is now a storage / toy room. The best part is that Gmom and Pop came up about a week ago and I asked Gmom to help me rehang a group of family pictures and she ended up redecorating ALL my walls in the den and livingroom and put up a few more also.
It looks GREAT!!!!
The girls and I have started back 2 subjects per day for school and will jump into the whole thing at the beginning of August.

Bryan and I have been called to teach the Youth Class and I teach 2nd Sunday in Relief Society.
Our year has been the most fast and furious with so many changes. We have added 2 daughters and have gained a puppy. Curtis hasn't been home since October. We should see him at the beginning of March for a few days while he and Nikki pack so they can live in D.C. together.
We love you all and love checking out everyone else's blogs.

Katy and I heading out to pick our tree. A few less members went this year, but we will keep the tradition going. The smell of a fresh pine is a wonderful holiday smell.

Destiny and Bryan on hayride to pick out our Christmas Tree. A yearly tradition.

Nikki and I went to D.C. to see Curtis on December 22nd and I came back December 24th.
It was a really nice room and only $40 per night.
Curtis will graduate from A school of Ceremonial Guard Feb. 22nd.

Here is a picture of Curtis's graduation from basic training November 30th. Curtis is the 4th one back on this side. We so lucked out or were blessed to end up sitting were we did.
There were around 950 graduates.

Here is a shot of Nikki and Curtis at the Shedd Aquarium.
It was great to spend time with him.

A Letter From Curtis To Everyone

Boot Camp is ok, I'm halfway done! (Now he is 2 weeks from finished) I'm a section leader, which means I get blamed for about 20 other people's mistakes. As for working out, it's not bad, except my legs have a problem that hurts my calves. I deal with it. Boot camp is very academic, and it's easy to be set back in training, but I'm ok, so far.
By the way, I'm in LDS Boot Camp Sacrament; It makes me feel better just being here. I am learning a lot, drilling, ironing, uniform, & that there are rules for everything! I'm still not use to it. Also everything is done really fast, and according to our RDC's were never fast or good enough!
(Hard singing and writing at the same time.)

Reactions to Stef's comment.

This was Stef's finest joke of the night. As the grandparents were having their picture taken with the newly weds,
she said, " I thought we were having our wedding in a chapel not a nursing home!!!!!"

Here's our family minus Curtis. We had a great wedding but he was missed.

This is Stefanie and her father David Rameriz. He is a really nice fellow and lots of fun too.

Cutting the cake was fun and they were both tempted to get each other, but in the end they chose to be polite.

The wedding cake was made by an individual here in town and looked great and tasted wonderful. Notice the Mickey and Minnie on top, they were picked by the bride. She is a fun and lovely girl.

Doug and Stefanie Rameriz were married Thursday, November 15th, 2007 at the Albany Branch building in Albany, Missouri.
Chris States and Nikki Dyer stood up with them. It was a small and simple wedding that was beautiful and fun.

This is my kind of ride. I laid my head back and closed my eyes and it felt really nice, with a cool breeze from the rotation of the swings.
When we were as far up and as fast as they were going to go, I lifted my head up and opened my eyes.
UH OH! Then I got dizzy, so I shut my eyes and laid my head back and enjoyed the ride.
Destiny has on the pink shirt in the front right and I have on the pink pants right behind her.

We took the girls to Worlds of Fun
(and tons of misery!!!)
I chose rides carefully and took pictures instead.
Here is our crew on their first ride of the day. The Mamba!!!!
It was a great day. The park had a special for home schoolers, so it only
cost $91.00 for the tickets. Then we had kept back the girls chore money for two months so they had $40 to spend each.
The Lord provided a beautiful day, with temperatures in the low 80's a partly cloudy, He even held back the thunderstorm until 5:50pm, ten minutes before the park closed!!!
SO COOL!!!! Even with taking it easy on what we rode and how fast we moved around we were all wiped out that evening and the whole weekend. Bryan enjoyed the rides except for the Boomerang that looped and circled forward and then back very fast. That ride messed with his neck.

Last Saturday, Curtis had his test for permanent black.
This is an awesome picture that Nikki took of Curtis doing a double jump front snap kick.
Mrs. Clinton the senior instructor and one of the judges, was very proud of
Curtis's performance during the test.

Nikki did really well during her Orange Belt Test
Her break was done on her first try and was so quick I wasn't able to get a picture.
Most of the others took several tries to get their break accomplished.

This was taken during Nikki's orange belt test Thursday, August 9th.

Curtis is behind her to the right sparing another orange belt.

It would look better blown up, but I think it is still cool.

Today was branch conference and we had a change in our branch presidency. Brad Newey, one of the councilors in the last two presidencies was called as our new president. He is a very good friend and a real take charge and get it done kind of person. Before sacrament started, Bryan was impressed to know of the change that was about to take place and that Brad would be called. I believe this change will be a good thing for us.


We are starting home school up officially tomorrow. I like to use the end of summer when it is hot and not much is going on, then we take all of December off. We have been doing a couple of hours in July. Destiny has been working on math review and reading. I am trying an Amish reading course this year, Pathway readers. It comes with a hard back book full of stories about families and communities with strong morals, and has a work book to go with each reader and also a teachers guide with extra tips and ideas.

Destiny about to dive on her last day of swim lessons. All the kids who take lessons can come to the swim show and demonstrate what they have learned. We have been for the last 3 years and there is a pretty good turnout for such a small town. Everyone brings their lawn chairs and watches. Then there is a demonstration of how to save and take care of a injured or drowned person.

Destiny took swim lessons two weeks ago. She did very well. She was able to float, tread water, dive, and swim with each kind of stroke they taught them. The only hang up she has is retrieving an object from the bottom of the diving area. She loves swimming and this gives her a chance to go each day for an hour for 5 days and teaches her many swimming skills.
I could barely swim at 10 yrs old much less try different strokes.