God gave us our
Christmas Presents
Early in 2012!

It all started on February 29 when Steve was called into his boss' office and told that Southwestern College was going to do away with his job and today was his last day. It was a shock to us since Steve had been there for 17+ years. After about one month Steve took a part time job with NASDA doing Agriculture Surveys. He went and interviewed farmers and surveyed their fields. It was a good part time job but Steve desired to get back to a job where he didn't have to travel and work 8 to 5. He continued to look and on November 30 he started working at the Kansas Veteran Home as the Information Resource Director. Besides working on computers, he is learning to work on servers, phone lines, television hook ups and anything else technical. We praise God for this early present each day. During this time, we saw our provider - God - provide for our needs. We never lost our provider just how He decided to provide for us.

In April, Peter was invited to attend the Chemistry Department at Kansas University Grad Days. After visiting and touring the facilities, Peter was invited to come be part of the Doctrinal Team. Yes we now have someone attending KU. Peter started his studying in August and will be doing it for the next 5 years. This past 4 months he has be taking classes, supervising a Chem 1 lab, grading papers, and studying. Peter continues to love to ride his bike. In May he rode almost 400 miles from the Oklahoma border to Skyler, Nebraska. It took him 4 days. He is found taking rides around Lawrence now too.

Since Steve didn't work a full time job, we were able to take a three week vacation back east in June. We had saved up the money before Steve lost his job and we saw it as a blessing to not have to get time off.

We started our trip heading out to Hoxie so Veva could take her dad to his appointment on Monday with his eye doctor in Wichita. On Tuesday, we headed on our trip back east. Our goal was to go visit places that had the Ruggles' name tied to it and also to attend Steve's niece, Genna's High School Graduation.

You wouldn't believe how many places we visited. In Ohio, we visited Ruggles Beach, Ruggles Road, a town called Ruggles which had Ruggles Cemetery and Ruggles Church, and the place that made Ruggles Ice Cream in Orville. We purchased 2 half gallons of their ice cream and indulged. Yummy!

After Ohio we headed to Stafford Virginia to attend Genna's Graduation. We met up with Steve's Mom and Dad, Steve's sister, Sonja and her husband, Mike and daughter Jessica and her son, Drayton at Steve's sister, Sharon and her husband Ed. After attending her graduation and reception, we headed north with Steve's folks. Sharon had plan for us all to spend a week in Newport, Rhode Island to celebrate Genna's graduation.

Our first stop was Glassboro, New Jersey to visit Steve's Aunt and cousins and especially to have the famous hoagies. While in Newport, we traveled to Boston where we saw Ruggles Station (an active train and bus station) and Ruggles Baptist Church on Ruggles Street. For those who are baseball fans, we toured Fenway Parks. Back in Newport, we also took a scenic drive around and ended up at Ruggles Street. Also one day we drove to Sandwich, Massachusetts to visit our friends, Russ & Melody Wight. We also found out that Sandwich was known for the hanging of Bathsheba Ruggles for the murder of her husband, Joshua Spooner. She was the first and last woman hung in United States. The last day in Newport we went with the Ruggles Family on a Light House Boat Ride around Newport Harbor.

After leaving Newport, we traveled to New Hampshire to tour the Ruggles Mine. We collected lots of rock including quartz and mica. Our next stop was in Columbia Falls, Maine to see the Ruggles House. We toured the house and learned a lot about the Ruggles who built the house. It was a sad story.

Next we left United States and drove to Middleton, Nova Scotia, Canada. There we meet up with Shirley (Ruggles) Sullivan to talk genealogy. Shirley showed us the house and memorials for Brigadier General Timothy Ruggles. We also went and watched the low tide at Fundy Bay where the seals were out.

On the way home, we stopped and saw old friends and made some new one. Once we got home, we had traveled just short of 6000 miles.

Ruth started her year off working in Schuyler, Nebraska in the HR department. In June, she has now been working for 2 years. Veva was able to spend a week with her in May hanging out with her in the evening and during the day doing scrapbooking and relaxing while she was at work. In the fall, Ruth was asked to interview for a different role at their corporate office and got an offer. After praying, she decided to take the offer and move to Wichita. Steve helped Ruth looked for a home and they were able to find a cute 2 bedroom duplex in North Central Wichita. She officially moved back to Kansas the first of 2013. She is still trying to readjust to living in Kansas again. She misses Nebraska, especially her church. Her new job involves traveling to plants around the United States working with their HR departments.