Shepard Family Update, 080808

Dear Shepard family members and friends,

What a pleasant summer this is turning out to be! And not just up our way in the mountains. Down the hill, in the Valley and the Bay Area, triple digit days have been few and far between this year. Nathan would say, "See the Global Warming scare is NOT all it is touted to be!" I would bite my tongue in face of such political comments, and simply appreciate the fact that the weather has been relatively pleasant.

But from what I hear, that is not true for all of you. Blessings on you if you are having to endure hot, muggy weather. However, everything is relative when it comes to weather. I talked to Mom in Washington a few days ago and said, "We are having cool weather here." She replied, "We are having hot weather here." Turns out we were both talking about temperatures in the 80s!

080808: On this day 5 years ago my dad, Eugene Shepard, died. On this day 86 years ago, Cindy's dad, Joe Harris, was born. This is also the day the China Summer Olympics start. And it is a day the casinos claim is the luckiest day of the year. (Yeah, right.) It is also "the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it!"

I received some more pictures of the July family reunion this past week from Barbara. Thanks so much! Nathan invites any of you to visit the online location for his pictures from the reunion.

I am including two family pictures for your viewing pleasure. The first one is a picture Barbara took at the family reunion and shows Kim and Jeff Clark from Blue Springs Missouri. The picture also shows the words that were on the wall of the social hall where we met, that spoke eloquently of our time together: "Welcome home... one in Christ Jesus," from Galatians 3.

The other is a picture of Eugene Shepard and Joe Harris (click on the picture to see a larger view of it) and their respective daughters, on what was among the happiest days of their lives. Joe is walking Cindy down the aisle of the La Mesa Church of Christ in December, 1968. Gene is walking Linda down the aisle of the Linda Vista Church of Christ in August, 1970.

I failed to mention in my last email that early last week we had two birthdays in our family. Happy Birthday to Barbara Shepard and Jeff Clark! They both share July 28 as their day of birth. Not the same year, but within 1 year of each other!

Here's a brain teaser for you: Barbara and Jeff both were born in a YEAR that starts with 5, but only one now is at an AGE that starts with 5.

Figure it out. The first one to do so and email me wins a prize.

Also Happy Birthday to Jeremy Ortiz, Kim Clark's older son, in El Cajon, Ca. He turns 28 this coming Tuesday.
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Steve