I was discharged from the military losing all military privilege. We filed a law suit in Federal Court and 25 months later I won that suit and was reinstated in the military. According to my commander, it was as though I had never been discharged. I served one more year in reserve status with the Washington State National Guard and then went inactive for two additional years. I was retired in 1997 with full privilege having served a total of 31 1/2 years.

Diane has always been my staunchest supporter, and has put up
with a whole lot of "stuff," over the past 19 years. I am including her bio with
mine on this site because she too, had such a wonderful,
creative and meaningful career before our paths ever crossed,
got snagged and connected.

Diane is one of those rare people
who is ravenously interested in everything. In her retirement
she has developed a passion for understanding the historical
Jesus and the origins of the Bible. I certainly have learned more
than I ever knew I might be interested in. Her other hobbies
include collecting things, (old "goodies" a.k.a. "uglies"),
tapestries, carpets, textiles, art, and it seems to go on
and on. Lately, she has also been teaching a humanities course at the local community college. She has also gotten involved in rejuvinating the Visual Arts and Arts and Crafts portions of the Island County Fair. Her time is fully occupied but then an active mind is a sound mind so there is hope for the future :).

My eldest son Matt, with his wife and five children, has finishing
his education with dreams of being a project manager. His creative mind and expertise
in design make him a CAD buff. He loves
to create both as a creative designer and photographer, and
the computer gives him a way to experiment with those ideas.
He is a consultant and creates illustrations for company manuals
and those strange booklets we all get with the do-it-yourself
projects. For the past several years he has been doing remodeling for our Adult Family Home which opened in January 2006.

David, his wife and his three sons and daughter , are avid outdoors and sports folks. Becky is a speech therapist and currently working with David in his fish fly business. David finished a Masters Degree in Business while working full time for the Railroad. In addition to hunting,
fishing and kids' sports, David makes those strange gizmos that
go on the fish hooks with the funny feathers and little multicolored
balls that you can buy in the fish and tackle stores. His business is booming as he now has a company making those gizmos in the Phillipines and he sells them in sports outlets here at home
Quite amazing.

Andy and his wife, Elicia, just finished building a new house and were busy making that into a new home. Andy was a trained mechanic, could fix anything that has moving parts. He did elevator repair work prior to his death. He was everyone's best friend and could fix anything. Elicia is a registered nurse and worked primarily in the premature intensive care nursery prior to Andy's death. They both loved the outdoors and were avid four-wheeling, and snowmobiling through
the hills and dales. This was where being a trained auto technician had its real advantage since they rebuild their vehicles after each trip.
ANDY WAS KILLED 2 MAR 07 while out with his wife snow mobiling, he died instantly after being catapulted into a ravine when his ski cut into a hazards sign buried under the snow. http://www.gaylinkcontent.com/storydetail.cfm?storyid=3062

Tom finished his two years of college before he helped me with my political campaign in 1998. He was also my producer when I had a radio internet talk show. He moved in to his own new house but is so busy doing surveying for a major construction company that he rarely has time to enjoy it. When possible he loves four-wheeling and snowboarding and river boating

And then there are the grandkids. They seem to proliferate, now at nine. The wonderful
part of being a grandparent is that those kids come and go and
grow and our job is to love them, spoil them and provide our
own unique form of discipline. You may recall from my autobiography
that not only was I raised in Norway but my sons all were raised
speaking Norwegian as their first language. So as the grandkids
came along, I became Bestemor (best mother, grandmother), and
Diane, who had been dubbed "Dud" by Andy in 1989, is known as
Bestedud. And with that of course I smile because Diane is so
much a grandmother in the eyes of my sons and their children.

In March 2004, Diane and I were married by a judge in Portland, Oregon. It was one of the most exciting experiences, it really made us feel different, like others after having been together for 15 years. The devestation was loosing that "legitimacy" when the Supreme Court of Oregon ruled that the marriages "never took place".
But we still have the certificate on the wall, and the grandkids were all there at our Episcopalian wedding and blessing, so we take the small gifts and hope to build on them in the future. Then on July 23, 2007, we register as Domestic Partners in the State of Washington, one step at a time

updated 8/07