Easter Pictures

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!!!

God Bless...

OH Spring - where art thou!!!

Will spring EVER arrive...I'm so sick of being cold!!!

I'm in my house right now freezing...nice day so far to be off work...

Jackie

Last Spring Snow - hopefully

We did not have much snow to work with...
But we managed

Jordan and Isabel with our version of Frosty!!!

Hopefully now we can get on with Springtime...

New Pictures

Grandma Connie did pigtails!!! Oh my!!!
The kids attacking Chad one night last week before bed...

Snow Days...FINALLY

How cute am I...
Take my picture by the tree mom...

Look at the snow...


See my new snow suit and boots...I'm ready to go outside.

Slow picture days...

I find myself not taking many pictures in the months between Christmas and Easter. I guess the hub bub of the holidays are gone and I'm tired of lugging the camera here and there. It never really snowed so I did not get that shot of Isabel in her new snow suit that probably won't fit her next winter - go figure. I guess technically it is still winter so who knows.

Well, I hope everyone is well and doing fine this windy night...tomorrow we can usher out February and hope for the spring to stay around a while longer in March...

Ok, enough moping around for me. I'm going to go take a picture of my kids...

Winter Photos

Jordan's crazy hair day at school

Isabel and Grace

Pretty Girls!!!

My little Kansas Day Girl

More crazy cousin time

Monster JAM

Nicholas, Jordan and Justin having a good time in the suite

More Monster JAM fun...

Sorry it's been so long...

A few random pictures from Christmas...

Merry Christmas from the Bonds

2008 Bond Family Christmas Letter

This year has been exciting and challenging to say the least.

In January due to the foreseeable housing market decline and other issues, Chad decided to make a change in careers. He went to school to become an over the road driver. This meant leaving mid-January to attend school in Memphis, TN. The school was seven days a week (for three weeks) and very intense...however Chad came out graduating at the top of the class. Once he returned to KS he would then enter his mentorship program with another driver (Jim) for six weeks. During this six week period, he was not able to come home so about half way through the kids and I went up to see him in Effingham, IL (after a brief stop to see Sherri in Belleville). When he again returned to KS he got his own truck and began the unknown over the road driving (OTR). He ended up in about every state east of the Mississippi in that two month period. Luckily (and with a lot of prayer) he was able to secure a dedicated Wal-Mart route driving out of Harrisonville. This started in June and has worked out great so far. In November Chad became a mentor himself and now has his first student in the truck with him.

It's not been an easy year, but our motto is to just take "one day at a time." Looking back to January, there were times when I did not think we could hold all this together, but we did. I am so thankful for my family everyday, from the way Chad spends every home moment playing with his kids to the way Jordan has stepped up and taken over those household chores that Chad used to do (even emptying the diaper champ on trash day - although he tells me all the time that it is my turn).

I even had to do some jobs around the house this year that I don't particularly like such as fixing the sump pump valve when it got stuck open this summer when we had those downpour rains. Chad told me over the phone as I was doing this duty "you can wash your hands when you are done, just reach down in there and grab that valve." I survived, and even managed not to drop the cell phone in the hole.

This year has been tough, we had our share of family loss this year. The day before Christmas last year, we lost Chad's Grandpa Foster after his battle with cancer. In March my Grandma Lucille passed away after a long battle with Alzheimers disease. In June we lost my Uncle Eddy at only 49 years of age. Eddy fought a long tough battle with cancer for the last two years of his life. He was a remarkable Christian man and we will miss him tremendously. In July my Aunt Cuca passed away (dad's brother's wife) she will be missed by her family especially uncle Rudy and her boys. In August, Chad's Cousin Ryan passed away unexpectedly; this might be the toughest one of all as Ryan was only 33 years old. He left family, friends and a son who is about 2 years old. We think about these loved ones often, they will be missed.

The kids are doing great in-spite of all that we have gone through. Jordan is in 4th grade and Isabel is in pre-school three days per week and learning all kinds of things such as her ABC's and numbers up to 10 in Spanish.

I continue to work full-time at Lockton as a wellness coordinator for one of our clients working on-site at their location to serve the employees and help in the Benefits office. Two good (or great) things this year was that my brother Robbie made it safely home from serving a six-month tour in Iraq. We are thankful that he is now back home in IL. The other is that my mom got married in October to a wonderful Christian man. His name is Darrell and they are very happy together.

Well that's probably enough about us...I hope everyone reading this has a wonderful holiday season spending every moment with family and friends. I've learned this year that without family and friends, life would sure be tough. I've leaned on them so much this year and I very much appreciate everything that everyone has done for us.

Merry Christmas, and God Bless...

Love,

The Bond Family
Chad.Jackie.Jordan.Isabel

Christmas Decorating at the Bond House

Chad got the tree and helped set it up, but then it was all up to us...

Isabel helping her bubba...

All done...

Thankful!!!

Sometimes so much is going on that I forget to stop and really be thankful to everyone that is in my life...there is so much to be thankful for yet we rarely stop and really reflect on it.

I'm so thankful for my God that provides for our family even in these tough times...I'm thankful for the love of my life who on his only day off yesterday hung Christmas lights on the outside of the house just so his children can have a "normal" Christmas this year since he is gone so much...I'm thankful for my kids who even when I yell at them during the Friday night trip to Wal-Mart still love me in the morning...or my son who aced his Social Studies test yesterday and got a "B" on the Science test today. I'm thankful for my family, even the ones who live on the other side of the world. I recently started emailing my cousin Johnny who lives on the Island of Cyprus (in the Mediterranean) and we are swapping pictures from here and there. I am thankful for my friends who I can call after not talking for such a long time and just pick up where we left off...I'm thankful for my job, having such a wonderful caring company to work for makes going to work so much easier. I'm thankful for my warm home that I can find refuge in every day, and I'm thankful for this wonderful country that we live in.

When you start listing everything out, you soon realize that there is not much to really complain about these days after all...

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone...
Love,
Jackie

Rock Chalk Jayhawk!!!

Jordan and I went to the KU Basketball game last night and had a GREAT time. I got tickets from a co-worker that had two extra and off we went...KU played Emporia State...I wanted KU to win (of course) however, a small part of me wanted ESU to do well...

We had such good seats (row 4) you could see the sweat on their faces...

The little Jayhawk's name on his jersey is "Baby Jay" this is what we used to call Jordan when he was a baby...I thought that was cute.

We had a wonderful time together and Isabel had a good time with Aunt Donna.

A Branson Christmas

Here are a few pictures from our trip to Branson this past weekend. We had a great time...

Silver Dollar City Fun...

We met Miss Branson at Cracker Barrel

There really is no place like home!!!

Halloween

Here are a few highlights from Halloween Friday night...what a beautiful evening. Snow White did not even need a jacket covering her pretty dress. Sorry can't write more I must get to bed and get my beauty sleep...I'll post more pictures from our Branson weekend soon:)

Happy Halloween!!!