Cheryl Lou

Dear Reader,

I have been trying to think of a way to take some pressure off of myself for a while now. Each week I spend time thinking about these beautiful women, but I want to engage my audience a little more. I thought, Reader's, that you might like to hear some other voices similar to my first lady Amy Christensen Malan; she shared with us some of the people that left fingerprints on her soul. And... I loved it! I hope this blog morphs a little as I engage some other voices. If any of you want to be a voice e-mail or Facebook me. I would love to share your fingerprints.

I told my sister, Rana, that my lady this week was going to be my sister-in-law Cheryl and she wanted to share a blurb; below is her voice. Thank you Raner Daner!

Cheryl Lou,

     Cheryl Hawker married my brother Ross and has been in my life since I was 12 yrs. old, more than half of my life. Through the years, we as the Foster Family have experienced heart ache, laughing, and trying times.  I would like to share some funny moments that I have shared with Cheryl, these experiences still make me giggle and bring a smile to my face.  Our family loves to camp. One experience that comes to mind happened two years ago.  Rochelle, Cheryl, Delanie and myself set out to find a hidden camp deep in the woods of Utah, little did we know that we would end up in Wyoming rather than Utah, and to top it off nearly running out of gas. Cheryl was such a good cheerleader, literally.  She continued to rub the dashboard as if sending good juju and willing the car to the nearest gas station.  If you were wondering we did make it to a gas station and we did find the camp site in the woods of Utah. ;)

     Some of you may know Cheryl, but if you don't, she is an avid runner, I mean getting up at the butt crack of dawn runner. :) Although I am not a runner, I admire her will to push herself and enjoy running at the same time.   During the same camping trip as described above, Cheryl woke up early one of the mornings to get that run in.  Needing some band aids on her poor worn out feet, she grabbed what appeared to be band aids.  When she returned back to camp that morning she asked what kind of band aids we used, up further investigation, she had used breathe rights strips.  We laughed thinking that was the funniest thing that had happened.  I am not sure if Cheryl uses them to this day, you will have to ask her. :)

     One of Cheryl's many hobbies is documenting life's adventures with photograph.  She is a picture taking fool. One adventure that our family was able to participate in was visiting family in Hawaii.  Imagine if you will flying all day, getting into a hot humid air port running on about 4 hours sleep, the only thing I wanted was to sleep.  Our uncle wanting up to see Hawaii at it's finest moment got us up early in the morning. I HATE MORNINGS, but I wanted to participate and wouldn't you know it, Cheryl captured the moment I happened to wake up.   Although I am not sure where picture is, I am sure if you ask Cheryl she is more than willing to share in my dislike for mornings. 

     Cheryl,  thank you for loving and adoring my nephews and niece, this very apparent in your documenting there every move, attending football games and rodeo's, and anything else they are involved in.   I know you have spent endless hours at hospitals and doctors offices loving and caring for your family. I  might add that you make delicious dessert, Texas sheet cake and Oreo salad.  Cheryl, thank you for your documenting abilities and for the giggles and snorts. Love you, Ranalee.