We hope you will enjoy . . .

“A Peek through the Window for Sights and Sounds at Our Homes” December 2013 45th

Edition

3428 Omar Lane, Plano, Texas 75023

972-618-0400 972-618-0600

We appreciate your

friendship. You are in our

prayers because we know

you have had challenges

this year, too. We want to

hear from you. “May the

God of hope fill you with

all joy and peace as you trust in him, so

that you may overflow with hope by

the power of the Holy Spirit.”

- Romans 15:13

The Albertsons

Howard - in Plano; independent broker

for electricity in the Texas deregulated

marketplace, doing legal research

Sharron - in Plano; Life Chain state

director; Golden Corridor Republican

Women (GCRW) advisory board, ways

and means/directory chairman

Herb, Jenny, Abigail (19), Ben (17

½), Celeste (14), Daniel (11 ½), Eze-

kiel (7 ½) and Zachary (3 ½) - in

Olathe, Kansas; Bursar at MidAmerica

Nazarene University; home school

mom; six active siblings

Shari, Eric, Mitch (7 ½), Mandi (6),

Michael and Melissa (twins 4 ½),

Miles (3) and Matthew (2 months)

Earhart - in Eure, North Carolina;

stay-at-home mom; pastor of Upper

Room Assembly of God Church in

Gatesville; six energetic cherubs

Shirlene, Jeff, Lacie (12), Andy (9)

and Jacob (6 ½) Kazmaier - in Olathe,

Kansas; full-time mom; self-employed

architect; three happy kids

Heather - in Dubai; middle school his-

tory teacher at American Academy in

Al-Mizhar

If you can linger longer, here are a

few of the year’s events.

Howard helping commercial and resi-

dential accounts to save money on

electricity using Cirro Energy, Direct

Energy and Glacial Energy, doing legal

research online, following friends’

activities on Facebook, watching gov-

ernmental missteps reported on FOX

News; coping with the increasing chal-

lenges of Type 2 diabetes and wound

care appointments, celebrating better

vision after cataract removal, going

with Sharron to Kansas to be with Herb

and Shirlene’s families for Christmas

2012 (see photo above) and later for

Abi and Celeste’s graduations from

twelfth and eighth grades; updating

http://LifeChain.net and helping pub-

lish another GCRW directory with in-

formation that Sharron collected

Grandpa with Jacob and Andy Kaz-

maier in Olathe, Kansas were getting

ready for Grandparents’ Day at White-

field Academy in Kansas City, Mis-

souri (www.whitefieldacademy.org) in

Kansas City, Missouri.

Howard and Sharron visited Lacie

Kazmaier's room as well as Andy and

Jacob’s during Grandparents’ Day at

Whitefield Academy.

Grandma, Grandpa and Abi Albertson

celebrated Christmas 2012 in Sterling,

Kansas with snow.

Herb's family hosted Christmas 2012 in Sterling, Kansas. Front: Zeke and

Daniel Albertson, Jacob Kazmaier; middle: Abi Albertson, Howard and

Sharron, Jacob Kazmaier; back: Herb, Zach, Jenny, Celeste and Ben Albert-

son, Lacie, Shirlene and Jeff Kazmaier. We missed Shari’s family in North

Carolina and Heather in Dubai.

Sharron making hundreds of calls for

GCRW as chairman of directory and

ways and means committees, topping

previous years’ collections from spon-

sors; recruiting volunteers for several

friends’ successful election campaigns,

receiving volunteer awards with most

volunteer hours in the state; finding

more than a hundred alumni before

Pasadena Academy reunion and putting

together their stories in an online

“notebook;” celebrating hundreds of

books read by children and pre-teens as

librarian at Richardson Church of the

Nazarene; visiting with 150 Texas Life

Chain coordinators as state director and

with many of the coordinators in more

than 1550 cities across the U.S. and

Canada as coordinator of http://Life-

Chain.net for the 26th annual peaceful

pro-life, prayer event on the first Sun-

day of October, sending late-night re-

ports to Howard for the website and to

Royce Dunn who is the national direc-

tor of Life Chain; pleased that Kitty

and Chihuahua Puppy are tolerating

each other

Sharron had a photo taken with U.S.

Senator Ted Cruz in June (as did al-

most everyone else in Texas politics

sometime during the year).

Golden Corridor Republican Women

went to the state capitol in Austin at

least four times to promote pro-life

bills.

All those late nights volunteering for can-

didates and causes were recognized by

Texas and National Federation of Republi-

can Women as the most recorded volunteer

hours. (See photo at right.)

Sharron and County Commissioner

Chris Hill celebrated his election at his

swearing in ceremony, January 2, 2013

at Collin County Courthouse in

McKinney, Texas.

Shirley Jean Schmidt, Sharron's sister,

came from Oregon to go with Sharron

to Pasadena Academy reunion in Pasa-

dena, CA in May.

Heather came from Dubai for a visit to

14 states during the summer and went

to Sharron’s favorite restaurant with

her in August.

Pastor Chris Galloway and Sharron

congratulated children who read mis-

sions books to qualify for ice cream in

April at Richardson Church of the

Nazarene.

Sharron and Fr. Frank Pavone dis-

cussed the ecumenical National Life

Chain that takes place in 1900 loca-

tions across the U.S. and Canada.

State Senator Ken Paxton enjoyed Texas

Federation of Republican Women conven-

tion opening night with his wife, Angela,

and others: Sharron, former mayor Corbett

Howard, GCRW president-elect Piper

McCraw and GCRW past president Candy

Noble in San Antonio in October. Ken is

our favorite candidate for Texas Attorney

General.

Earhart siblings are proud of their baby

brother Matthew who was born on Sep-

tember 30, 2013 in Ahoskie, NC. He gets

lots of hugs and brings another smiling

personality into the already busy home.

Herb managing the student accounts

office as Bursar at Mid America Naza-

rene University, Olathe, Kansas, com-

muting to Sterling, Kansas to be with

his family on weekends until their

house sold and they all moved to

Olathe, volunteering at events in Kan-

sas City

Jenny homeschooling three teens and

three youngsters, babysitting two oth-

ers, handwriting for Sterling Services,

having fun with her flourishing garden,

packing to move, making new friends,

volunteering and having date nights

with Herb in Olathe

Abi (19) graduating from twelfth

grade, helping Jenny babysit, attending

high school camp and counseling at

children’s camp, working at a Christian

Daycare in Olathe

Ben (17 ½) in twelfth grade, creating

meals and snow sculptures (see chess

game above and www.hutchnews.com

/assets/9242888/snowcreationSnoopy.j

pg), playing basketball, working at a

coffee shop in Sterling, competing in

teen Bible quizzing with Celeste in

Hutchison and Olathe

Celeste (14) in ninth grade, with Ben

on a winning teen quiz team; helping

plan meals, advancing on the piano, en-

joying time with best friends before

moving, babysitting weekly for an

Olathe family

Daniel (11 ½) in sixth grade, partici-

pating in World Quiz at General As-

sembly, playing baseball, glad to have

boys in the neighborhood to play with,

happy to be in the youth group now

Ezekiel (7½) having fun in home-

school second grade doing third grade

work, participating in World Quiz at

General Assembly, playing summer

league pitching machine baseball

Zachary (3 ½) a bundle of animated

energy, wanting to “do school” like his

siblings and be ten on his next birth-

day, enjoying Legos with his brothers

All of them portraying a walking na-

tivity for Christmas 2012; working at

district children’s camp while Daniel

and Zeke were campers; going to

Church of the Nazarene General As-

sembly to see long lost friends

Shari homeschooling her second and

first graders, reaching into her mental

cobwebs to help Eric with his college

math course, getting ready for Earhart

Baby #6 who came on September 30

Eric staying busy with projects at

church, on schedule to finish his degree

in Leadership Studies at Regent Uni-

versity in May 2014, making fuel for

his diesel truck from recycled motor oil

in his “spare” time

Mitch (7 ½) enjoying all things LEGO

including Star Wars and Lord of the

Rings, camping out with Royal Ranger

boys from church, daily emptying the

dishwasher and teaching Miles how to

do it

Mandi (6) smiling broadly while driv-

ing a four-wheeler around the yard, en-

joying crafts (and snacks!) each

Wednesday night at MPact Girls, tak-

ing ballet lessons with Missi

Michael (4 ½) reveling

in time with Dad fixing

up the four-wheelers

and learning to drive a

“little” faster, asking of-

ten if he can “do

school,” marching

through the house with

Miles as his police side-

kick

Missi (4 ½) learning to say “Yes,

ma'am” in the preschool class at home-

school coop, jumping on the trampo-

line (and the couch), pushing her ba-

bies in the stroller while shepherding

Miles through the house

Miles (almost 3) taking unau-

thorized excursions to the

neighbors, trekking in the

woods with the big kids, learn-

ing how to color and then practicing on

flat surfaces throughout the house

Matthew (2 months) arriving on

Grandma Albertson's birthday, enjoy-

ing attention and hugs from all five of

his sib-

lings,

smiling

and

giggling

when

anyone

talks to

him

All of them glad for

a visit from Grandma

Albertson in Novem-

ber to help with the

six-ring circus and

the laundry

Shirlene helping with Lacie’s and

Andy’s choirs at Olathe College

Church of the Nazarene, enjoying la-

dies' Bible study, counseling for

Lacie’s group at church camp, driving

two hours each school day to take the

kids to Whitefield Academy in Kansas

City, Missouri, going on field trips and

volunteering with PTF

Jeff keeping busy on several projects

in his architectural firm, serving on the

church Sunday School Ministries

Board, counseling for Andy’s group at

church camp, taking his family to

Church of the Nazarene General As-

sembly in Indianapolis, IN for the kids

to be in the World Quiz and sight-see

in Chicago afterward at the Willis/

Sears Tower “glass ledge building”;

both of them teaching Andy's Sunday

School class

Lacie (12) in sixth

grade doing well at a classical Chris-

tian school as are Andy and Jacob, en-

joying art class, in church and school

choir, Bible quizzing, Upward soccer,

basketball, piano and swimming les-

sons

Andy (9) in third

grade, playing Upward flag-football,

basketball and soccer, in kids’ church

choir, quizzing, piano and swimming

lessons, helping Jeff with yard work

Jacob (6 ½) in first

grade learning to read, in quizzing,

playing Upward sports and building

Legos with Andy, taking swimming

lessons

All of them enjoying their playful Eng-

lish Golden Retriever puppy

Heather brought fun ideas from Dubai.

“Does anyone want to join us for a

camel ride?”

Heather in

her sixth

year of

teaching

social

studies at

American

Academy

in Al-

Mizhar,

Dubai as

pastoral

team leader

head of the Horse house (one of three

"houses" or teams) coordinating Week

Without Walls field trips (below)

spending Christmas 2012 in Lebanon

(skiing AND beaching)

enjoying the sun in Lebanon

spring break in Jordan and India; short

trips to Fujeirah, Al Ain, Ras Al

Khaima (other emirates), long weekend

in Istanbul, Turkey

summer whirlwind trip through 14

states to visit siblings, friends and

historical sites for her job (in George

Washington’s pew in Williamsburg,

VA in photo above), expecting to

spend Christmas 2013 in Frankfurt,

Germany to go to markets and concerts

having high tea at the seven-star Burj al

Arab (above in the elevator with

friends); dining in the highest lounge in

the world

(above) dressing for a play in Ras Al

Khaima, singing holiday songs in a

mixed acapella group in a local mall

(first professional gig!); yachting and

brunching; attending an Emirati

wedding, tutoring on the side,

volunteering at the USO (below)

Our e-mail addresses are: Howard - HA@nm-tools.com

Sharron - SJ@Albertson.ws

Herb - HAAlbertson@MNU.edu

Jenny – HJABCDE@hotmail.com Eric - EJE1028@hotmail.com

Shari - EarhartFamily@yahoo.com

Jeff - JKazmaier@Kaz-Assoc.com

Shirlene - SKaz@kc.surewest.net

Heather - HCAlbertson@rocketmail.com