Jacob's 17th Birthday

Sunday we had an interesting day... Jacob wanted

to celebrate his birthday on Sunday so he could

have his Chick-Fil-A friends come and play football.

So, after Church we all headed to the Park to grill

burgers and hot dogs and play football.

Well... We got to the Park and in was overrun

by Postal workers. They were having a

company picnic. So we left and went to another

park and they were having some Shakespeare

get together... So we came to our house.

We had some scrumptious food

and then walked to the park in our

neighborhood.

After the sun went down and they couldn't see

the ball anymore we walked home and

played board games.

Here is our goofy

17 year old son...

The 27th was his actual birth date.

We rode our bikes to do some

shopping and we had to stop by

Chick-Fil-A to get his birthday

milkshake.

Then for dinner we went to get his

long waited for.... Hot wings from

Nino's Pizzeria.

YUM!!!

We hope you had a great birthday Jacob!

17 years has gone by way too fast!

Crossroads Christian Fellowship... New River, AZ

Just going over a few songs before starting time...

On stage... As the sun sets...

What a beautiful back drop... They said they

set it up just for us :-)

Thanks Crossroads Christian Fellowship

for having us out...

We had a great time and fine food. The area is

so pretty and peaceful. Hope to go back again.

Ranching And Mining Festival in Peeples Valley AZ

Tommy, Megan and Sara found something to
keep them occupied until time to sing.

Tommy on the zip line...

Sara's turn...

And here comes Megan.

Band scramble...

Musicians put there name in a bucket for whatever

instrument they want to play... Their name is drawn

and they create a band with those names. They have

one hour to practice three songs and come

back to be judged.

Here is Philip in his band...

Philip and Jake Workman.

Philip's band took 4th place.

Jacob with his band...

Jacob's band took 3rd place.



The guys... Colin, Jacob and Philip

finding some play time.

Tommy getting his horse ready

for the rodeo.

Tommy racing his horse against another...

He let this young man win. I told him

he is way too generous and when you're in

a race... You race to WIN!

Here he is in the bucking bronco competition...

He took first place... Wah Hoo!!!

Barrel racing... Again, first place.

He's becoming quite the cowboy.

Too bad he's a city slicker.

On stage.

I was going to take videos and put some clips up

for everyone to hear... But the wind was blowing so much

I was afraid all you would here was wind.

It was a fun time. We had some good singing moments

and some... Well... Not so good singing moments.

But it was a great get-away from the city life.

Now it's back to business...

Goodbye Big Red... Hello Goldie

A few days ago I posted about the death of our Buick. Our mechanic said that Big Red (Ford 15 passenger van) was soon to follow. What a bummer! Not only were both vehicles dying at the same time but we have grown quite attached to Big Red. About 8 years ago we searched for the right van for our family. We wanted LOTS of room. We needed room to seat the 8 of us and whatever neighborhood kids we could take along to Church. We searched all over Colorado Springs and could not find the one we liked. Finally Colin found the perfect one... But it was not in Colorado. We loaded up the kids and took a drive to Shawnee, OK where we found Big Red at Joe Cooper Ford. We all fell in love with the Big Red Bus.

We drove the van home and soon it was part of the Shuler family. It has taken us to many Church gatherings and many fun trips with friends and family. We have loaded him up to the ceiling with camping gear and headed to the mountains for some much needed R & R. He became the hauler of all our sound equipment to all of our singings around Phoenix and out of state. Plenty of room for everything. Thursday was a sad day in the Shuler household... For it was the day we said goodbye to Big Red...



But here's rest of the story... It does have a happy ending. Let me back track just a little.
After our mechanic had told us that we needed to start looking for a new vehicle, we thought we had a little more time. So we decided we would just drive Big Red a little longer and save some more money for a larger down payment on a van at a later date. We had already talked to the Honda dealer, but when they called back I told them we weren't ready and to check back with us in a couple months.

Wednesday, on the way home form work, Colin called and said, "The van is dying... I can't drive over 30 mph." Oh great! What now? When he got home we talked and then the whole family gathered in the living room and began to pray for God's direction. This was something we had never faced before... We have been working so diligently to be completely debt free and being very careful how we spend our money. Making a MAJOR purchase like this was flurbing me out BIG TIME! We prayed and I cried. It was not one hour after praying that the phone rang and it was the Honda dealer again. Colin talked to them and we planned on going over to see what they could do for us the next day... Through much talking and negotiating we now are the proud owner of a 2010 Honda Odyssey... It only had 7 miles on it when it came off the truck that morning...

Meet Goldie...

Now here's the really fun part of the story... Thursday, after Colin got off of work I met him at the Honda dealership, with the help of Paul (my father-in-law). Colin had already been there for a while before we showed up. He was already looking at Goldie. I came around the van and a gentleman approached me, put out his hand to shake mine and said, "Hi, I'm Jason". I looked up at his face and said the first thing that popped into my head, which was, "Whoa... You look like John Elway"... He smiled and said, "I hear that a lot". Now this is really ironic. When we lived in Colorado I always said I was going to buy my next vehicle from John Elway... He has ALWAYS been my favorite! This was weird.

So, after the deal was made and the van was purchased we put a #7 jersey on Jason and took a picture with our new van and John Elway... I mean Jason...

This is as close as I'm ever gonna get to John Elway...

Pretty cool, huh?
It is hard to get used to not having a huge red
van... It's hard to find the van in the Walmart
parking lot now. It is hard for people to spot
us going down the road. Some of the people
at Chick-Fil-A said that it wasn't a "Shuler" van.
It was more of a "Soccer Mom" van. Well, we
are NOT soccer people. We'll get used to it and
so will everyone else. We are thankful for God's
help and direction. We now have a reliable
vehicle to last us for many years and we have
A LOT of memories to create with Goldie...

Country Baptist Church 10-3-09

Here are a few pictures of our singing at the

Country Baptist Church's anniversary celebration.

The kids are ALWAYS a big hit!

On this picture, you not only get a nice shot

of Paul picking the guitar, but you also get a

close up of Tommy's spiked hair :-)

Jacob on the guitar... Philip on the mandolin.

"Extra Touch" was another group that helped in

the celebration.

After all of the singing and a great Beans and

Corn Bread meal, Pastor Coy told a little story...

Since he wasn't supposed to preach ;-)

(When you have a church packed with people,

you can't tell a preacher that he can't preach)

We had a great evening... Thanks to all who

were able to come out and join us.