We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Posts...
When we were on vacation last week, we were able to meet up with some old friends. Their oldest daughter has since contacted me. We were childhood friends and haven't seen each other for about 15 years. So, I wrote her an email to bring her up to speed. I thought it was fairly informative, so I decided to post it:
So, I'll fill you in real fast on the last 15 years of my life. That should bring you up to speed, and then I'll chit chat.
I'll just cover the major event:
My mom and dad divorced in the fall of 1996. They have both since remarried.
I started high school (yep, my first time at a public school besides kindergarten) that same fall at Kellogg High School in... you guessed it... Kellogg, Idaho. (remember I grew up in Wallace, ID.... about 12 miles away.)
High school went well. I did good. Didn't play sports. I found my time best spent doing whatever I wanted. So I got a job (at Dave Smith Motors) and worked and did whatever I wanted (never anything bad).
The summer before my senior year, I started dating a girl. I was a little reluctant, but she wouldn't leave me alone. We dated our entire senior year, and then when we graduated high school (2000) it was time for me to make a difficult decision. Break up or get married. I know...it's not the simplest of decisions. So, I asked her to marry me. She of course said yes. Three months later we got married. It was a beautiful outdoor wedding on August 26, 2007.
Wedding Pictures
The next day we drove to Moscow, ID and the University of Idaho so that I could start college the following day. That's right....no honeymoon.. Bummer...I know. I had been accepted to the U of I, and decided to try my hand at Electrical Engineering. I had no idea what it was about, but it sounded cool and my high school physics professor said they made a lot of money (yeah, that was a priority for me then... hey, I was young.....ger). It went well. I got good grades. We lived in Moscow the entire time, and in May 2005 I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering. I'm sure you can do math, so you've already figured out it took me 5 years instead of 4. That was not my fault. I had a crappy adviser that gave me crappy advice. That put me behind a semester, and then I just figured "what the heck; I'll make it 5."
Graduation Pictures
You'll notice at the end that I may or may have not done a little partying in college. Hey, we all make poor choices. It just seemed like a good thing to do. Well, on graduation night, it came to a climax. It was the last time I partied.
About a month before graduation, I started interviewing for jobs. I ended up taking a job with a company called POWER Engineers. It's an engineering consulting firm, and I was hired as a SCADA/Substation Engineer. I dig it. It's a great company with great people, great opportunities, great benefits and it's fun. I was hired at the Billings, Montana office. They paid for us to move up there, and we've been there ever since.
We weren't too happy to move to Billings. There's nothing there but dirt and sagebrush, but we knew that it must have been for a good reason. So, we went ... with a lot of faith. We have met some great people there, and now have a huge community of friends that we love to hang out with. We were youth group leaders at our church for two years. It was a blast, and I do miss it. The then youth pastor decided that it was time to move out of high school ministry and into something that was more relevant for the things that God had put on his heart. So, he started a 20-something group... thing. It's hard to explain. It's not like a bible study or another church service. It's simply a group of people who meet on Sunday nights to wrestle with what God's calling is for our lives. We dig it. It's fun.
Then last November we found out that we were pregnant. From there, the blog fills in everything.
You can check out some of the things we've been up to through the years by the myriad of pictures on our website:
http://www.joeandlynnell.com/
To sum it up: life is great, and we've truly been blessed.
I will resume your regularly schedule vacation posting updates tonight.... or tomorrow... or whenever I have time. Family first.
So, I'll fill you in real fast on the last 15 years of my life. That should bring you up to speed, and then I'll chit chat.
I'll just cover the major event:
My mom and dad divorced in the fall of 1996. They have both since remarried.
I started high school (yep, my first time at a public school besides kindergarten) that same fall at Kellogg High School in... you guessed it... Kellogg, Idaho. (remember I grew up in Wallace, ID.... about 12 miles away.)
High school went well. I did good. Didn't play sports. I found my time best spent doing whatever I wanted. So I got a job (at Dave Smith Motors) and worked and did whatever I wanted (never anything bad).
The summer before my senior year, I started dating a girl. I was a little reluctant, but she wouldn't leave me alone. We dated our entire senior year, and then when we graduated high school (2000) it was time for me to make a difficult decision. Break up or get married. I know...it's not the simplest of decisions. So, I asked her to marry me. She of course said yes. Three months later we got married. It was a beautiful outdoor wedding on August 26, 2007.
Wedding Pictures
The next day we drove to Moscow, ID and the University of Idaho so that I could start college the following day. That's right....no honeymoon.. Bummer...I know. I had been accepted to the U of I, and decided to try my hand at Electrical Engineering. I had no idea what it was about, but it sounded cool and my high school physics professor said they made a lot of money (yeah, that was a priority for me then... hey, I was young.....ger). It went well. I got good grades. We lived in Moscow the entire time, and in May 2005 I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering. I'm sure you can do math, so you've already figured out it took me 5 years instead of 4. That was not my fault. I had a crappy adviser that gave me crappy advice. That put me behind a semester, and then I just figured "what the heck; I'll make it 5."
Graduation Pictures
You'll notice at the end that I may or may have not done a little partying in college. Hey, we all make poor choices. It just seemed like a good thing to do. Well, on graduation night, it came to a climax. It was the last time I partied.
About a month before graduation, I started interviewing for jobs. I ended up taking a job with a company called POWER Engineers. It's an engineering consulting firm, and I was hired as a SCADA/Substation Engineer. I dig it. It's a great company with great people, great opportunities, great benefits and it's fun. I was hired at the Billings, Montana office. They paid for us to move up there, and we've been there ever since.
We weren't too happy to move to Billings. There's nothing there but dirt and sagebrush, but we knew that it must have been for a good reason. So, we went ... with a lot of faith. We have met some great people there, and now have a huge community of friends that we love to hang out with. We were youth group leaders at our church for two years. It was a blast, and I do miss it. The then youth pastor decided that it was time to move out of high school ministry and into something that was more relevant for the things that God had put on his heart. So, he started a 20-something group... thing. It's hard to explain. It's not like a bible study or another church service. It's simply a group of people who meet on Sunday nights to wrestle with what God's calling is for our lives. We dig it. It's fun.
Then last November we found out that we were pregnant. From there, the blog fills in everything.
You can check out some of the things we've been up to through the years by the myriad of pictures on our website:
http://www.joeandlynnell.com/
To sum it up: life is great, and we've truly been blessed.
I will resume your regularly schedule vacation posting updates tonight.... or tomorrow... or whenever I have time. Family first.
posted by Joe at
10:27 AM
1 Comments:
WOW!
That was a great re-cap. I love the pictures.
Grannie
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Anonymous, At
8:54 AM
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