Grandma Ronk

Bonnie Jean Ronk, 77 of Naples, Florida and Granville, Ohio died peacefully at her Naples home early Sunday morning, March 6th 2011.

Bonnie was born June 5th, 1933 at Buckeye Lake, Ohio. She is preceded in death by her mother, Janice Ford, sister Roberta Arledge and half-brother, Cecil Ford. She is survived by her husband of 39 years, Paul H. Ronk, three step-sons; Paul D. Ronk (wife Rachel) of Charleston, WV, Steven Ronk of New Lexington, OH and Thomas Ronk of Montgomery, AL. Two half-sisters; Bonnie Nadine Valdez(husband Jerry) of Texas, Paula Kay Dorn of Kentucky and half-brother Paul Ford of Georgia. She also leaves behind six grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, many nieces, nephews and numerous friends.

Bonnie served in the U.S. Navy from 1952-1956. She worked with Hospice of Licking County, Ohio for 25 years. She was active in her churches, Eastland Heights Baptist Church of Newark, Ohio and East Naples Baptist Church in Naples, Florida. She was a member of the Eastern Stars for more than 30 years.

Bonnie had a compassion and love for people; she dedicated her life to serving others. Her smile and love of people will be greatly missed by all who knew her.

A Memorial Service will be held at East Naples Baptist Church on Tuesday, March 8th at 7:00 pm. A service in Ohio is also being plannned, and Bonnie will be buried in the family cemetery in Ashland, Kentucky.

Really God? A baby?

As Christians, we talk about wanting to trust God with our future, following Him even though we don't know what the outcome is, etc. I have said those words even prayed them- many, many times. And I meant them. I thought. But I have learned that if you pray that pray - you better be ready for what God is going to do. Here is a story of what has been happening in my life for that past 2 months.

My period was due on or around Dec. 23. I have never been 'on time' so when I was a couple days late - no worries. But I have never been 5 days late.

On Dec. 28 I took the first pregnancy test. It was positive. I freaked out. And not the good kind of freaking out. The shaking, can't breath, how did this happen?(don't answer that!) kind of freaking out. Rick took the news much better than I did. I went through the day in a fog, cried many times, and had no idea what to do next. When I got home from work - took another test. Positive.

Dec. 29 - took a third test. Positive.

On Dec. 31 - I had a doctors appointment with my Thyroid specialist. When a person has thyroid problems and a strong family history like I do - it is very important to have your thyroid checked and leveled out. (If your thyroid levels are low, you might have problems conceiving. Or if they are high, you have a greater chance of miscarrying)
I tell the doctor that I THINK I am pregnant but not positive. After being chewed out for not coming to her before I conceived, she told me congratulations and that she would run a pregnancy test along with my other routine blood work.

Jan. 3 - The nurse calls me and confirms that I am pregnant.

On Jan. 10 - I had take a pee test at my family doctors office to get the 'Proof of Pregnancy' sheet so that I could schedule an appointment with the Birth Center. I was 7 weeks along.

Oh my goodness. I am really pregnant. I am really going to have a baby and be a mom. I am not ready for this!! This is not the time yet! We had a plan and a baby was not in the picture! I am not ready to be a mom. What is God thinking?????
These were just a few of the things that went through my mind. Rick had to remind me over and over again that this is what God must want. God is in control. We have no idea why, but God wants this baby to be born to us, right now. We have to trust Him. That is really hard to do when it comes to making another human being!

Call it hormones or whatever you want but for those few weeks, my emotions were like a roller coaster. Some days I would be SUPER excited and happy about the baby. The next day - I wouldn't even want to say out loud that I was having a baby hoping that this was all a dream and I just needed to wake up.

Thankfully I have leveled out and for 90% of the time, I am happy and can't wait for August to get here so that can hold and see my beautiful baby. The other 10% is me freaking out that I have no idea what I am doing I just pray that I don't ruin this baby's life! :0)

There is more to the story and I will finish it. But in another blog.


**Disclaimer: When we were in Vegas, my dad was telling people that he was praying we were making him a grandpa on our trip. We both got very upset with him cause that is just very weird and awkward to be going around saying.
Even though I do not know (even if I did, would I really tell you?)when we actually made this baby - the time line shows that it happened AFTER we got home from our trip out west.

2010 in Review

The year 2010 was a good year for Rick and I. A few highlights from the past year:


Jan/Feb. - We spent time in Haiti ministering to earthquake victims.

Feb. - We bought our first house and became residents of Nitro.

March - We celebrated Rick's great-grandmas 105th birthday.

April - Worked on painting rooms in our house & our nephew turned 1!

May - we moved into our house & I had a wedding shoot

June - VBS at church & Bethany's wedding on top of a mountain

July - family vacation with Overdorfs at Myrtle Beach & 4th of July at camp

August - WV State Fair, Hawks Nest with my daycare Busy Bees, and KWCE teen retreat

Sept. - Boom's Day, Jessica's wedding, my 1st WVUvs. Marshall game,
Jacob's 16th birthday & weekend trip to WI for Gezzi's wedding

Oct. - Weekend at camp with the guys, my 24th birthday, Hippie Joe's visit, &
the Pumpkin House

Nov. - our trip to Phoenix, Las Vegas, & Salt Lake City, &
Thanksgiving with Rick's family

Dec. - Christmas programs & work parties, OUr first Christmas in our house,
Christmas with Mama, and my family.


We did have some not so good times and things that did not get crossed off of our to-do list but God was good to us through it all.

I can not wait to see what God has in store for us in the year 2011!!!!!!!!!!!

Where does this leave me?

I am so confused. I thought that I had a plan and then when I was told that if I wanted to start back at Marshall in January - I would have to start over from scratch. No way, no how.

Now what?

Most logically - finish my already close to being done degree at JBC. Sounds simple enough.

If only it were simply . . . .

JBC won't let me take any classes that I need at other colleges and transfer. so, here are my options . . . .

Plan A: I have to CLEP (which I am not smart enough to CLEP Bio or History - which I need both) and beg on my knees while promising my first born child to the Distance Learning office at JBC that no, it will not take me another 2 years to finish two classes.
Problem: Um, I just don't see any of that happening.

Plan B: leaving my husband, my bunnies, my house, my work, my kids and moving back to JBC to finish up the last 4 classes (assuming I pass Systemic Theology tomorrow night) and work a job with enough hours to still make a house payment and some utilities. And if I pass those last 4 classes, then I would be able to actually, one and for all, graduate in the spring. 3 years later than originally scheduled.
Problem: Hate it, hate it, hate it, hate it, hate it! I DO NOT WANT TO LEAVE MY HUSBAND for 16 weeks.

Plan C: Try and CLEP 2 classes over and over again till I pass. And contact KCU to see about attending class for my last 2 bible classes. Possibly - but retarded JBC will more than likely reject the credits unless I am on campus.
Problem: The whole CLEP thing and who knows if KCO others the specif 2 classes I need.


I need to finish up this useless degree so that my husband will be proud of me. So that my family will quick saying behind my back 'she shouldv'e waited on getting married'. So that Rick's family won't look at me like a complete loser.

I don't know what to do. Expect grit me teeth and get this horrible experience over with so that I can move on with my life.

I just wish I knew how to do that . . . . .

I am ready to FLY . . . .

I have accomplished day one, baby step One: Shine your sink. And I am very proud of myself. All I wanted to do was go to bed and watch some Netflix but I pushed myself to clean my kitchen so that I could shine my kitchen sink!
I am going to get control of my house and in turn my life. One day; one baby step at a time!

Days 5-11

I had intentions of typing out day by day of the rest of our trip, but I didn't do while on my trip and of course once getting back home I have no time. :0( So I am blogging my daily Facebook status to finish off the rest of our trip. I do have pictures - over 600 of them to be exact - but have not even looked at them yet.

Day 4 (Phoenix/Vegas): Visited more with Raquel, drove through the desert to the Grand Canyon, continued driving to Las Vegas, checked our cool hotel room, ate dinner at the Treasure Island Buffet, caught some of the TI pirate show and then called it a night.

Day 5 (Vegas): did some exploring and shopping on my own and when the guys got out of 'work' we power walked up and down part of the strip. Ate dinner at the #1 buffet in Vegas- the desserts were to die for!! :0)

Day 6 (Las Vegas): slept in, cruised the strip, found Chipotle, took some pics, surfed the net at McDonalds, ate dinner at the Bellagio buffet (yuck), saw the Circus De Cirlie show 'O' (amazing!) and the walked around Caesars Palace. My body is extremely sore!

Day 7 (Las Vegas): Spent most of the day at the Hoover Dam. The evening we ate in the Eiffel Tower and hit the last few places on my to-do list. We ended the evening with some slot machines - the hotel gave each of us $20 so we spent that and 'made' $25 between the two of us!

Day 8 (Las Vegas/Salt Lake City): Packed/checked out of our amazing room in the Encore, lunch with Rick & Brett at the Pizza Place, did some tourist shopping, and then hit the road to Utah! After many, many, many hours we finally arrived at our last destination of our trip - Salt Lake city.

Day 9 (Salt Lake City): Spent some time at BackCountry.com - the warehouse, lunch at Cheesecake Factory, shopping downtown, swimming and playing with Logan and Sarah, and ended the night with Panda Express and BONES.

Day 10 (Salt Lake City): Rick skied at Snowbird for 3 hours on fresh powder, then we drove to Park city and walk around, and ate dinner at the Blue Iguana.

Day 11 (Salt Lake City): we walked around the Temple grounds, after some confusion about canceled flights, switching airlines and flight times, we visited the REI store, went back to the airport, had CPK for lunch, said good-bye to the majestic Utah mountains, spent hours on airplanes and in airports and finally arrive...d safely back in Charleston WV. Very sad that our wonderful Western vacation is over. :0(

I had a wonderful time on our trip! And I can't wait for the next just Rick and Julia vacation!

First Three days . . .

As I type, I am sitting out in the beautiful dark night of Arizona. (And I mean dark, they don't believe in lots of streets lights because it hinders your view of the stars. How cool!?! )The pool is to my right, the fireplace is sitting on my left and the dessert mountain is sitting directly in front of me. Life is good. Very good at the moment. :0)

Rick and I have had a wonderful trip so far. Let me start at the beginning -

We flew out of Charleston on Friday evening, had a small lay-over in Houston (my first time in Texas!)and finally landed in Phoenix around 11:30 local time. By the time we got our rental car, and discovered that even a McDonalds in Arizona serves unsweet tea with 10 splendas,drove 45 minutes to our family/friends home it was 1 am local - 3 am WV time! I was beat and not very with it!

Saturday we spent visiting and getting to know our host family. Raquel is the sister of Rick's Aunt April. I have never met her or her family - Rick had only meet her once. They have a gorgeous home! And are very friendly, love to talk and feed us!
:0)
We finally got motivated and left the house around 2 pm and went shopping at an outlet mall. Rick found some dress pants, I drank a yogurt/fruit smoothie and Rick had some pretzel bites.
From there we headed to the a place called Rawhide. It is a real life western town with cowboys, guns, burros and beer. It was free to enter the town and some of the activities cost money. We paid to see the Arizona Roughriders do a little gig and then just walked around. I bought some John Wayne magnets in the gift shop that I can't wait to put up on my fridge!
We meet Raquel and Maurell for dinner at a place called Flo's. It is VERY similar to P.F. Changs but a local place. It was real yummy food!
We came home and asked if we could light a fire and sit outside on the deck. We did and it was FREEZING! It was only 62 degrees but we had on our coats and toboggans! Deserts temps do not compare to WV temps!

Sunday we attended church with our host family and then headed to the Phoenix Zoo. Rick and I have never been to a zoo together so I was super excited! We saw lots of cool animals and walked a ton! I can't really say what was my favorite exhibit. They had a GIGANTIC tortuous that was pretty cool, but I also like the lions, giraffes, koalas, zebras, etc. :0)
Our host family's 14 year son has been in a play all weekend and we attended the afternoon performance. It was "Guys and Dolls Jr" and they did a great job! It was kids ages 7-14 only and I was very impressed.
Now we are just chilling out at the house. I am typing this and listening to my Jack Johnson songs while Rick takes a night hike up the mountain. This trip has been wonderful so far and I can't wait to see the Grand Canyon, Vegas, Hoover Dam, and Salt Lake City - all in the next 8 days!