Jeffrey's Graduation May 13, 2010

It was a wonderful service, with two of our favorite songs sung: Be Thou My Vision, and To God Be the Glory, and two of our favorite heroes speaking: Colorado Senator Kevin Lundberg and Eric Ludy!
We were blessed by God's presence and His truth! Though our married sons could not come, we were honored by the Kaus family, Cruz family, Steve and Grace Cary, and Esther Mendez coming especially for our family. Thank the Lord for our 3rd homeschool graduate!

Senator Lundberg speaking

Eric Ludy speaking


Jeffrey receiving his diploma from Senator Lundberg

Turning the tassels

The graduates with CHESS administrators and speakers

Jeffrey with his proud parents

Jeffrey with his younger siblings

The Johnstown Albertsons

Emily and Jeffrey

Jason and Jeffrey

Beth and Jeffrey

Quinten, Harry, and LeighAnna Kaus with Jeffrey

Mother-Daughter Tea Party

Last Friday, my girls and I went to the Mother-Daughter Tea put on by our homeschool umbrella school, CHESS. It was a nice time of fellowship, crafts, devotions, and eating with other homeschooling mothers and girls. We were seated with Annie Nelson and her daughters, Evangeline and Annika, and we enjoyed visiting with them.

The girls and I had pictures made after we got home. The sun was so bright, it was hard to keep our eyes open. Beth is wearing a Jr-Sr. Banquet dress of her sister-in-law, Brenda. Emily is wearing a bridesmaid dress from my wedding 26.5 years ago, and I am wearing a dress made from the fabric left over from our wedding, that I made for our 25th anniversary.

Miscellaneous

Back in November, we attended a Wycliffe Associates Banquet in Ft. Collins. The missionary speaker, Kris Russel, did the chalk drawing below as he spoke. We were given the chalk drawing as a gift for the "work" I did coordinating the calls and reservations for the banquet. Recently, we got it framed and installed in our family room. It is a large picture, and needed to be behind glass because of the chalk dustiness. It is a beautiful reminder of the price Jesus paid so that we can be in right relationship with God.

A picture of us girls on the entry stairway of our home.

Gentle cream and plum raisin: our new living room wall colors. When we get the pictures hung, there will be more pictures. We have to get it back together soon! Jeffrey's party is next week!
This is very different for us, to have all of our walls painted other colors besides Country White!

Springtime on our mound with the bulb flowers we planted last fall.

Our lilacs in back are in bloom and so pretty!


Our neighbor's ornamental crab tree that we always enjoy in the spring.

Couch time at the end of a long day. We don't have our curtains and blinds up in the living room yet because the window woodwork is not finished being painted. I'm not embarrassed, just sunburned from PE that day.

Jeffrey's senior pictures--taken Easter weekend in Colorado Springs

Jeffrey is graduating with CHESS (Colorado Heritage Education School System), our private school umbrella for our homeschool (Country Acres Christian Academy) on May 13, 7 pm at the United Methodist Church in Greeley. On Friday, May 14, we will be having an open house celebration for Jeffrey from 6-9 pm at our home in Johnstown.

From the back of Jeffrey's graduation announcement:

To Mother and Daddy: Thank you for loving me and loving God. Your consistent, godly lives taught me how to love the Lord, and I believe that was the most effective part of my upbringing. Thank you for loving God, and living your lives completely for Him. Mother, thank you for paying attention to my textbook work; for making sure I understood it. Daddy, thank you for the practical instruction in areas like working on the car, building a shed, painting, plumbing, gardening, and many other things.
To Randy, Tim, Beth, Jason, and Emily: Thank you for being my loving siblings. Thank you each one for what you have taught me!
Most of all though, God is worthy of my praise! If He had not blessed me and personally worked in my heart and life, I would not be here. I thank Him for redeeming my life, and saving me from sin. He is my Hope.
My future plans… I am currently working at Johnstown ACE Hardware, learning more than I ever imagined. I plan to start an online course from God’s Bible School in Cincinnati, OH in August, working toward an Associates degree. I am most interested in a life work in missions.

- Jeff Albertson

Home School Day at the Capitol

Today was Home School Day at the Capitol in Denver. We attended the rally on the west steps of the capitol. We didn't get any crowd shots this year, but these few pictures. Jeffrey was helping some people move today, so he didn't get to go. We took our niece, Hadassah and our friend, Ephraim with us to fill up our empty van seats. Thank the Lord for a cloudy, not rainy or snowy, day. Here is a picture of Hadassah, and in the background, Ken Buck, our County District Attorney, who is running for Senate for Washington, DC, visiting with people in the group. This was before the rally.

Zooming in on Ken in the middle:

Our family with Ken Buck. We are praying he will be our next Senator from Colorado. He's a really good guy who loves the Lord and will do what is right for our country!

Cory Gardner, currently a State Representative, is speaking in this photo. He is running for 4th Congressional (our district) to go to Washington as Representative. The others standing behind him on the steps are the homeschool- and family-friendly legislators in our state government. One of those men spoke who is a homeschool dad of four. We are thankful for a good homeschool law in Colorado and appreciate those who keep it that way!

The speaker at the rally was Bill Armstrong. He has been representative and senator for our state and in Washington in past years, and now is President of Colorado Christian University. He also received the Statesman Award from Christian Home Educators of Colorado. He is one of our heroes for his godly leadership for Colorado! He said several times, "Thank God for homeschoolers in Colorado!"

Some fun recent pictures

Beth and our friend, LeighAnna Kaus.

Trampoline fun with Lincoln and the Kaus kids.

Emily and LeighAnna

Emily, LeighAnna, and Lincoln

Popsicle break after trampoline playing.

The Johnstown-Milliken homeschoolers at the Celestial Seasonings field trip this month. Notice the cute hairnets!

A lineup of kids and helpers at Federal Heights Sunday School ready to number off to play a game. Jason is the tall one!

Lincoln, the 3 year old sweetie that we babysit, made a parade of cars and trucks, then lined up the bugs to watch the parade go by!