Last year our common friend Lin Pinneo in Lakewood invited me over for a Seahawks game and dinner and the opportunity to meet her friend, who had recently retired from teaching junior high SPED in California. Paula was up here visiting family and friends without a plan on what to do next in her life. We kept meeting for dinner and Seahawks football and talking a lot - it was great talking to a fellow teacher and someone who "got me" and someone who I could talk shop with. I then was teaching a lesson at PCCS (Pierce County Christian Singles) entitled "Do Something." As I was preparing for that lesson God was screaming at me to literally DO SOMETHING - ask her out for a date! So after the lesson that night I asked her if she wanted to go out....she said yes before I could finish. So the next Saturday we met for coffee and donuts at Top Pot Donuts in University Place and began reading and sharing from The Battle Ground for Prayer from the movie The War Room. We then went for a walk along the waterway in Ruston (this site will play a role later). Then Paula got an offer to work as a live-in nanny for Jeremy (Lin's son - he had just gone thru a divorce and had full custody of his kids and needed a nanny for help - and he lives in Lakewood! Paula actual;ly babysat Jeremy when he was 6 years old - Lin and Paula have been friends for over 40 years,) Next was a road trip to Athol, Idaho to meet Emily and her family (one of Paula's daughters). So we packed up her dog, Latte, and my two dogs, Beau and Groban, and headed out to spend Thanksgiving in Idaho. We made it official when we got back that we were indeed in a dating relationship. In February we went to see the fantastic musical Hamilton on opening night at the Paramount in Seattle and then a month later she was a chaperone with me as I took 40 of my students to see Hamilton (yep - we got to see it twice!!!!!) I proposed to her at Ruston Way May 20th with a flash mob of 53 people in a surprise party.

I retired in June 2017 from 30 yrs. of teaching. I planned on my “Retirement Trip” and visited family and friends in Washington, Idaho, and Kentucky. I was scoping out where I wanted to live and had planned to move to Kentucky. My daughter Jessica in Kentucky, suggested I go back to WA because I had family and friends here. She was open to having me live closer to them. But she wisely made the suggestion to go back to WA. I’m so glad I did! I wasn’t looking for a spouse but I found the perfect one for me! I had told God to use me wherever He wanted and I would step out of the way. God is good!!! Ron explained very well our dating so I won’t repeat it. Ron found out that I had been involved with DivorceCare in CA so he asked if I wanted to help with the group that he lead at his church. I really felt God moving in that group. It was also confirmation that I was healed from my divorce. I had felt when I retired that I still had some nurturing to do and thought I would do something with kids but didn’t know what. I have been with Jeremy and the kids since last October. I have felt like part of the family and the kids say I’m the Nana-Nanny! I will miss them when I move out. One thing both feel is that God leading us in the future, is to open our house to fellowship with others. We both love being hosts and Ron loves to cook for others. Ron and I are enjoying traveling and having fun experiences. We have traveled to Idaho, gone to the Hamilton play twice, went to a Mariners game, went to coffee many times, went on a couple of hikes, saw many movies, worked in the yard, and played cards and had dinner at Lin and Chuck’s many times. It is so exciting to see how God will lead us as our family with our little pack of dogs!