Michelle Diane Vardiman Fansler (1968-present)
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Michelle Vardiman High School Graduation 1986 18 years old
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Content:
Age:
Occupation: Business
State: Illinois, Colorado, California, Idaho
# of Children: 2
Click on any photo to enlarge
April 2006 Michelle Fansler 38 years old Admin Assistant at DA Davidson
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Links:
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Michelle Vardiman born 9 February 1968
Belleville, Illinois Scott Air Force Base
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1968 Michelle with parents, Larry &
Jeannette Vardiman
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Michelle with Father, Larry and great grandmother, Mollie Harris Vardiman (Wife of Miles)
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"Grandma Lou" Louise Carter Vardiman (Larry's Mom) with first grandchild, Michelle
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1969 - Michelle 1 year old
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Genealogy
Michelle discovered she loved hearing family stories when she was 17 years old visiting Grandma Santen and keeps on collecting genealogy
records and stories whenever she can.
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4 December 1969 baby sister, Kelly born
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House in Fort Collins, Colorado with Michelle's future son, Spencer Fansler, standing in front
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1974 Michelle first day of 1st Grade at Heritage Christian School where Grandma Lou taught 7th grade
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Belleville, Illinois (1968-1970)
Michelle was born 9 February 1968 and Kelly was born 4 December
1969 both at Scott Air Force Base in Belleville, Illinois close to both Larry and Jeannette's families.
Fort Collins, Colorado (1970-1974, Kindergarten & 1st grade)
"I attended Kindergarten and half of first grade at Heritage Christian school in Fort Collins, Colorado.
I remember walking upstairs during recess sometimes or after school to peek in the window
of the door into the classroom where my grandmother,
Frances Louise Carter Vardiman,
taught 7th grade English. I called her Grandma Lou. If I timed it right I would wait in the hall while the 7th graders left the classroom for their lunch break and
I would go into my grandmother's classroom and ask her what she taught the "big kids" today. She taught me grammar and spelling rules
that stick with me to this day and I believe are the reason I am such a good speller. My favorite rule that has helped me tremendously is:
"i" before "e" except after "c" or sounding like "a" as in neighbor and weigh."
My younger brother, Daniel, was born in April 1974 in Fort
Collins, Colorado the year we moved to Evergreen, Colorado. |
House in Evergreen, Colorado
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Guest house down the path from the
main house. It had a wall size map of the world that Kelly and I
used to love to study
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Evergreen Lake where we ice skated in the winter
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Evergreen, Colorado (1974-1977, 1st-3rd grades)
"We moved to the mountains in Evergreen, Colorado in November 1974 in the middle
of my first grade year. The living room had thick burnt orange shag
carpet and the kitchen had avocado green appliances and green and
yellow patterned carpet. My parents had a royal purple cloth covered
headboard. Kelly and I had pink carpet in our room. Mom made
macramé hangers (3 strands of rope wrapped around each
other to form a base with ropes that hung from the ceiling) for her plants and decoupaged (burning
the edges of a picture and shallacking it to a piece of wood) for
decore. To this day when I think of the 70s I think of burnt
orange and avocado green. "It was wild," according to my mom,
Jeannette.
We lived on a 1 acre lot with huge pine trees with an outhouse
in the back with newspaper cartoons covering the inside walls that
were fun to read and motivated Kelly and me to use the outhouse while playing in the yard
rather than go inside. There was a circle of huge boulders to
the side of the house perfect for playing house with my sister Kelly
as each boulder represented household appliances in our imagination.
Beetles infested many of the pine trees in Evergreen while we were
there and unfortunately the only way to save the healthy ones was to
cut down a large portion of the infected trees. I can tell
when a pine tree is infested by beetles just by looking at them.
The pine needles at the top start to turn brown because of the
beetles eating the sap from the inside so the sap can't reach the
needles at the top. Dad spent many
hours clearing our lot to save the healthy trees and although it
opened up the land to more sunlight it didn't feel as woodsy after
that.
Dad, having been a farm boy, helped out our neighbors
one time with killing their chickens by wringing the chicken's necks
and chopping the heads off. I remember mom kept us in the
house so we wouldn't see the mess. I peeked out the window and
saw dead chicken bodies running around without heads in our
backyard before they flopped over. It was fascinating.
Then we all got to help pluck the feathers off the bodies and have
one for dinner.
Dad read Bible stories to
Kelly and me at bedtime and we did family crafts together like making
homemade candles or chokecherry jam from the tart chokecherries we
harvested off the bushes in our yard. The jam was smooth and
delicious once we added lots of sugar. One of the things I loved about living in
Colorado, especially in the mountains was the four distinct seasons
and blue skies with puffy white clouds.
SpringI remember going for walks down the pine
and aspen tree lined dirt roads with my Grandma Lou when she
came to visit. She carried a book of Colorado flowers and pointed out the different flowers and told us their names. My favorites
were Indian Paintbrush and the Colorado state flower, the Columbine.
Summer
The family we helped with their chickens had two girls about Kelly and my age
and owned several horses. We rode the horses bareback a few times.
Dad took me on a hike up the mountain behind that neighbor's house and we camped
over night under the beautiful stars. We cut pine branches and
laid them down as padding for our sleeping bags.
FallIn the fall when the aspen leaves turned a beautiful gold Kelly and I enjoyed riding bikes up and down
the road and pretending the aspen trees were banks where we literally picked our pretend gold money off the trees.
WinterMy parents took Kelly and me snow sledding just down the road from
our house on a fabulous hill. We had a wooden toboggan. We also went
ice skating on Evergreen Lake. There was a little wooden shack
that sold hot chocolate that tasted so good after ice skating.
School
I remember my first day of school at
the local public school, Wilmot Elementary. We arrived during the lunch break and I was eating a banana and had my mouth full
when the kids all walked into the room from recess and I felt embarrassed. After that Kelly and I walked down the hill from
our house to the bus stop and rode the bus to school. Sometimes I would hitch a ride on the back of a huge St. Bernard dog
owned by the old man who lived on the corner by the bus stop. I ended up really liking my 1st grade teacher,
Mrs. Torrison. It was the 1970s, the hippie era. She had a reading corner with bookshelves in a U shape and
colored beads hanging down the entrance. She had a teepee in the classroom and a tank with tadpoles that we watched develop into frogs.
She taught our class how to meditate. She had us quiet down, close
our eyes and put our heads on our hands at our desks and visualize
going deep into ourselves into a dark area then climbing stairs to a
bedroom with everything we ever wanted. I think she was using this
to quiet the class down. I remember being called to the Principal's office on my birthday and receiving a birthday swat with the
soft padded side of the spanking stick covered in a bright red velvet. I think it even had gold tassles. The other side
was the hard board used on naughty kids. I never experienced that side. We also had bandana day where we dressed in cowboy outfits and wore bandanas.
That was a lot of fun and there was a "jail" where parents and kids could lock each other up in the gym. I don't know what they had to do or pay to get
out. I think it was a fundraiser. I loved singing Western songs as a class
like "Home on the Range", "America the Beautiful" and "The Cat Came Back the Very Next Day" with one of the 2nd or 3rd grade teachers who played a
double bass also known as a string bass with a deep sound.
Siblings
My youngest sister, Laura, was born in Denver, Colorado
in September 1976 just a 30 minute drive from where we lived in Evergreen. Dad worked
for the Bureau of Reclamation in Denver. When I asked my Dad how
we ended up living in Evergreen he told me when
he was flying in an airplane he looked down and saw a beautiful green valley in the
mountains near Denver and decided it would be a great place to live.
As an atmospheric scientist (meteorologist) he studied weather and
Colorado was certainly a great place for weather. One phrase by the
locals was, "If you get sick of the weather just wait awhile it'll
change."
Spiritual Life
Even as a child I could sense the spiritual warfare in Evergreen. My parents bought a house that had witchcraft
paraphernalia on the walls. My parent's cleaned it all up and had
our new pastor come over and pray over the house. It was kind of a
spooky place to live as the people that lived in Evergreen were
really into the hippie scene with long, unwashed hair, leather
fringe vests and a little "out of it", I assume from drugs. One time
a neighbor jumped in the back of our station wagon when mom was
driving away from our house. He held a knife in his lap and I looked
back from the front passenger seat of the car and thought the knife
was pointed at my sister,
Kelly. He asked to be let out at the stop sign down the road.
Another time a lady grabbed my little brother from my mom's arms in
a store and it didn't appear she was going to give him back.
Halloween was a big deal there and I
remember my 2nd grade teacher forcing me to crawl through the
haunted house at our school that was in the hallway between our quad
of four 2nd grade classrooms. Even though she forced me to go she
couldn't force me to keep my eyes open. I peeked once and saw a
witchy thing and a guy "sawing off" someone's leg with "blood"
squirting everywhere. I promptly closed my eyes again as I crawled through.
One time, my mom attended a conference in Denver and brought
a lady into our home who was suicidal, I believe, and demon possessed.
Kelly and I were in our bedroom having just been sent to bed when
they arrived. I remember hearing the woman scream this
horrific bloodcurdling scream when the pastor from our church was
praying for her. I perceived the spiritual battle going on and
heard our big golden Austrian Shephard dog named Snoopy howl right afterwards.
After that the dog was never quit right. He broke his chain
and chased cars at the front wheel and got run over three times.
My parents finally gave him to our vet to keep when we moved.
It was evident to me at 8-9 years old that the demons went into our
dog. Thankfully the woman chose to accept the Lord as her Savior and
thanked mom years later for her help.
As a result of all the exposure to the spiritual battle around me
when our pastor from Conference Baptist Church shared the wonderful
news that God the Creator of the world sent his son, Jesus Christ,
to Earth to die for the sins of the world I realized at 9 years old
that was for me! I accepted Jesus as my Savior from the dark,
evil oppression of sin and felt like a light turned on inside my
soul. We moved shortly after that to Auburn, CA where I was
baptized by our new pastor. I was so short I couldn't touch
the baptismal floor and had to swim out to him."
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House in Auburn, California
Lake of the Pines
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1979 - Larry & Jeannette Vardiman Family
Kids Left to Right: Kelly, Daniel, Michelle, Laura (being held) at
Combie Bible Church that met in the gym at Forest Lake Christian School.
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Michelle played basketball from 7th-10th grades
Girls played full court compared to her mom's half court days
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1982 - Michelle won California State honors in speech meet
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1982 - Larry & Jeannette Vardiman Family
Back Row: Larry, Kelly, Daniel, Laura
Front Row: Jeannette & Michelle
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1982 - 8th Grade Valedictorian
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Auburn, California (1977-1982, 4th-8th grades)
"Dad accepted a promotional transfer to Northern California to work as the Director for a cloud seeding project
to help end a drought out there. I remember crying when we drove up to our new house because the grass
was brown. That ended up being my favorite place to live because of the good friends I made at
Forest Lake Christian
school and unique lifestyle in a gated lake community. I really didn't want to leave when it was time
to move again after my 8th grade year.
School
I rode a bus to the local public school for 4th grade while on a
waiting list for the Christian school. Pleasant Ridge Elementary was doing a weird experiment with learning styles and attempted to try teaching math facts to
4th graders using kinesthetic learning but they didn't quite understand it yet. They had 4 classes in one
big building with no walls. Each class sat in a corner and 4 teachers all talked at once. Each corner
was a different math fact - addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
Then we would all stand up and move to the next corner for the next subject but we would still have to sit
still while four teachers showed us flash cards. It definitely did not work and is NOT true hands on kinesthetic
(movement based) learning. In fact, it made math confusing to me and all jumbled in my head. I ended up
majoring in business and got good grades in math but I really had to work at it. I remember many times
crying while my Dad tried to explain a mathematical concept to me in my high school years but I was getting
messed up because he kept skipping the one or two basic steps that I didn't understand which was typically
a multiplication or division error. I survived.
Kelly and I rode our bikes to Forest Lake Christian School where I
attended for
5th-8th grades and loved it,
especially my 7th and 8th grade years! I played basketball and volleyball
choosing sports over cheerleading and glad I did as I preferred to
be in the game rather than watching from the sidelines. The school used Abeka curriculum which
is traditionally home school curriculum as that is how the school started. I am so grateful for my education there
as I believe that school prepared me for college, especially my 8th grade English teacher,
Mrs. Gearhart, who taught us how to do a proper research paper. I shocked myself when I won first place for the
science fair with a research project on the height three different balls bounced: a golf ball, rubber bouncy ball
and tennis ball, I think. My Dad helped me figure out my topic and taught me the basics of how to perform
a scientifically accurate experiment. I created a tri-fold board showing my results. I thought some of the
other kids subjects were much cooler but apparently mine was scientifically sound. My regular success in such a
small school from speech meets (winning California State in costume
monologue), grades (Valedictorian in 8th grade) and sports built up my self esteem tremendously, but I found it a bit difficult to
adjust to being a "little fish in a big pond" when we moved to San Diego, California. I still managed to maintain excellent grades
and was near the top of the class in high school which enabled me to get a college
scholarship, but I wasn't fully prepared
for the "dog eat dog" business world where it no longer mattered how smart one was or what grades one got in the past.
Church
My parents were founding members of Combie Bible Church and became good friends with the pastor,
Dan, and his wife, Linda.
Dan and Dad loved backpacking and took the youth group on yearly backpacking trips. In junior high we went on a week long backpacking
trip to Glacier lake. I remember some of the boys put dried cow patties and rocks in my Dad's backpack and it was really weighing him
down. When he finally stopped for a snack break he discovered their prank! He was a good sport and just tossed them out of his pack
with a grin. Dan and Dad had a "ghost story" they liked to tell around the campfire at night called "Ma Bradley". Either Dad or Dan
would tell the story of this huge butch woman who ripped people's arms out of their sockets and the other one would hide in the woods
and at a key moment come tromping out snarling and making all the girls scream! I remember the first time my Dad was telling the story
and Dan came out of the woods. I screamed and jumped past the fire into my Dad's lap! Another time I told the story of Goldilocks and the
three bears while my Dad sat behind me and did the hand motions for me as if they were my arms. It was funny, especially when
he made a curvy figure for Goldilocks and I turned beat red! I have fond memories of those camping days and love being in
touch with several of my junior high friends through Facebook today. After we moved to San Diego, California my Dad brought me back to Auburn
one summer to
go on the week long high school Royal Gorge Backpacking trip so I could reconnect with those friends." |
1986 - My first car, Toyota Corona
that I bought for $800 with no reverse
in front of our house in Santee, CA
My parents lived there 20 years
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Michelle, college grad in 1990 with B.S. in Business Administration
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1990 - Michelle and Grandma Lou
I bought this 1982 Mazda RX-7
as a celebration for graduating from
college and paid it off in two years.
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San Diego, California (1982-2004, 9th grade-College, Career and Started Family)
"My Dad had always wanted to be a college professor but felt it was important to have real work experience first because
his favorite college professors that he always felt were the best had real world experience they could talk about. It was
finally time to make his dream a reality. We moved to San Diego, California in the summer of 1982 after my 8th grade graduation.
Dad taught upper math and science courses like physics at Christian Heritage College
(CHC) which was associated with Shadow Mountain Baptist Church
pastored by Dr. David Jeremiah. Both the college and the church have
changed names but they are still the same facilities in El Cajon,
CA.
High School
I attended Christian High School on the upper campus of CHC for two years for 9th-10th grades until my parents were concerned I was becoming
disillusioned by the rich kids claiming to be from Christian families but behaving inappropriately in my
judgmental
opinion. It was the best thing for me to go to the public high school because I no longer expected the other kids
to act in a certain way. I graduated from Santana High School in 1986, 9th in a class of several hundred.
College
Straight on to college where my Dad worked as the Academic Dean by then and Mom as the college nurse. It was
a very sheltered environment with only a few hundred college students but I loved it. It reminded me very much
of my Forest Lake roots. I was able to live on campus for the first three years with a roommate then moved off
campus my senior year in an apartment with roommates. I came out of college with no debt as I had a Cal-grant from
my good grades, a scholarship from my parent's working there and I worked part-time at a photo booth where I could
also study between customers to pay for books and incidentals. I graduated Magna Cum Laude in 1990 with my B.S. degree
in Business Administration.
Business Career
My first career was in Human Resources for Kelly Temporary Services, in-house, for three years testing, hiring,
placing temporaries on assignments and also firing them as needed. One time I had to fire a guy because his body odor
got into the paint and his smell was on the walls! Gross! I seemed to have a knack for negotiating a good deal to make
a good profit for Kelly Services but also get more customers over the phone so I was promoted to sales supervisor where
I went out on sales calls. I wasn't as good in person and found the constant rejection difficult. After a month I was
pulled back into the office because of a misunderstanding. It was all office politics and I learned the hard way
that even if my intentions are good and I am doing the very best job I can they can still be misunderstood by others
and used against me. I had worked from home one morning for four hours solid making calls over the phone because I was
able to get past the gatekeepers on the phone easier than in person and had made appointments for the afternoon. I was
so proud of myself for finally figuring out a system that could work for me to get in to see decision makers but when I
walked into the branch office at noon for some paperwork the East
County Branch manager called the manager in the main San Diego
office and told
her I was only working half a day. Even though I explained it was not acceptable as they expected me to be pounding the
pavement 8 hours a day doing cold calls. Ugghhh! I was glad to be
given my own branch office in South County, Chula Vista where I didn't
have co-workers to deal with. I utilized the time between appointments and walk-ins of temporaries to go through
all the training booklets for typing and computer programs Kelly Services offered like Word Perfect 3.0 and
Excel
getting my computer skills fine tuned and typing speed above 95 words per minute.
Over the years I have worked as an administrative assistant for Investment and Insurance
Advisors for a couple different companies, as an office manager for three years at our church,
taught myself web design and have fallen back to that whenever I have needed to be a full-time stay-at-home mom because I can do it from home, and as a marketing assistant for the Coeur d'Alene Chamber of Commerce. I'm thinking
about going into teaching next as I loved home schooling our boys
and find the educational environment so rewarding since that is
where I excelled. I love learning so I hope I will love
teaching." |
Victor and Michelle dating went on Dependants Cruise 24 May 1991
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Vic's console in CIC during Persian Gulf War 1991
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Michelle, Victor and his mom, Francie Fansler
1st West Pac Homecoming 25 November 1991
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Met my Husband
"Two years into my business career I met
my future husband, Victor Fansler, through a college/career "sing thing", a youth group activity after church
where we sang praise songs at someone's house. Another Victor had driven me to the "sing thing" but his car
was blocked in when I was ready to leave so I caught a ride with Victor Fansler back to the church where my
cute red sports car was parked. I didn't think I would ever see Victor again so I waved good bye thinking, "Have
a nice life" because he was leaving in a month for his first 6 month deployment. He was
persistent however and
knew my first name and where I worked so he called me the next day and asked me out. We couldn't work it out
because I worked days and he worked evenings so we hung up. He showed up at my work on Friday in the middle
of the day and treated me for lunch at an Italian restaurant down the road
but we had to go in my car because his car was packed all the way up
to the passenger seat. Then he drove away to take his
car and belongings to his mother's house in Fresno, CA and attend the family archery tournament they had every
year. He called me a couple weeks later and asked me to pick him up at the train station at the end of the month
which I did with welcome back balloons. We dated every day for a week and I went on the Dependant's Cruise
for a whole day out to sea where I met his mother and got sea sick
for several hours and had to get some medicine from the corpsman.
Victor tracked me down and showed me where he would be working in
the CIC (Combat Information Systems). I started snapping
pictures of him at his console where he was being trained to shoot
Tomahawk Missiles for the Persian Gulf War, it was spring 1991, and
I was told the area was classified and pictures are not allowed!
I was surprised they didn't rip the film out of my camera so I have
one photo of Vic at the console and thankfully the flash blanked out
the screen."
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Victor & Michelle Fansler Wedding 29 Feb 1992 with Parents
Larry & Jeannette Vardiman Roy & Francie Fansler
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Mic's Family at Victor & Michelle's Wedding 29 February 1992
Left to right: David, Billie (Larry's siblings), Daniel, Jeannette, Victor, Michelle, Larry, Laura, Frank Carter (Grandma Lou's brother),
Darlene (Jeannette's sister), Mert & her daughter, Megan (cousins)
Seated: Louise & John Robinson (Michelle's Grandparents)
Michelle's sister, Kelly, was stationed in Germany with USAF so
couldn't come |
Victor and Michelle Fansler newlyweds at La Jolla Beach, CA 29 Feb 1992
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Marriage
Victor and I wrote letters prolifically during his first West Pac (stands for Western Pacific).
We dated for a month after he returned from his 6 month deployment. He proposed in
December 1991 and we were married on leap day 29 February 1992 based
on when the ship
was in port briefly as the ship was doing "work ups" (going out to
sea for 1-4 weeks at a time) to prepare for the next West Pac. We had known each other 10 months from the time we met to the
time we married. I would recommend a longer time of dating as we didn't really know
each other that well and after two years we started having problems
getting along. It took us several years of counseling to work out how to get
along with each other. Thankfully we figured it out and continue to
give each other grace which I imagine all couples have to do in some areas.
I flew out to visit Victor at several ports during his 2nd West Pac from
Hawaii to Singapore and Hong Kong. It was wonderful and we have some
great memories like watching the sunrise bundled up in a blanket at the
top of Mt. Haleakala, going on an audio driving tour to the seven pools
on the island of Maui, to feeding monkeys while they climbed all
over and above us in a zoo in Singapore. |
April 1994 Homecoming from 6 week Drug Pac, Michelle expecting Spencer
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July 1995 Homecoming from third West Pac
with wife, Michelle and Son, Spencer - 7 months old
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July 1995 Homecoming with wife - Michelle, son - Spencer and in-laws - Larry & Jeannette Vardiman
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1998 - Carter crawled across the floor to see
Daddy's computer. Vic was taking MCSE & CCA classes through the Navy to become a certified Information Technology Specialist
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December 2000 - Fansler Family
Spencer (6), Victor, Michelle and Carter (3)
The boys are 2 1/2 years apart
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2001 - Rancho Bernardo Apartment after Vic got out of the Navy Spencer and Carter
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Children
"We miscarried in January 1994 at 12 weeks on our first attempt of
starting a family. We were trying to time it so Victor could be home
for the birth so we tried again right away. Spencer was born 20
December 1994. Victor was flown by helicopter from the ship, which was
100 miles off the California coast, to make it in time for Spencer's
birth. Spencer came three weeks early as a double footling breech
requiring an emergency caesarean section. Spencer had several
medical complications and still does to this day. He started out
with bi-lateral club feet and came home in casts which required two
surgeries his first year, one we went through while Victor was on
his third West Pac. Spencer had weekly cast changes for 5 months and
different special shoes and inserts over the years. Spencer had
another club foot surgery when he was 14 years old. We are very grateful that he can
walk. He tires easily when his feet become painful after a lot of
walking so he has a handicap placard so he doesn't
have to walk so far. Victor left for his third West Pac when
Spencer was 6 weeks old and returned in July 1995. It took a year
for Victor and Spencer to reconnect because of that long absence.
When he was little Spencer was really into fire trucks as we had a
mail slot in our front door in our home in Santee which was right at
his eye
level. We lived across the street from a fire station and
Spencer could peek out the mail slot to watch the fire truck go by.
He is extremely smart and is fascinated with anything to do with
robotics now.
Thankfully Victor was
transferred to shore command next, still stationed in San Diego, so
there was no problem with him being home for Carter's home birth! That birth went great and Carter was very
punctual arriving on his due date 13 July 1997 first thing in the morning,
barely waiting for the midwife to arrive.
When Carter was three years old he was knocked over by a bigger kid and fell
and hit the back of his head on the concrete causing a concussion.
It shorted out his vision center and he was blind for 20 minutes.
When his vision finally came back it came back double but we didn't know it
until he was about 5 years old and able to verbalize, "Huh, that's funny, 2
TVs."
I got him back into the specialist's office and they had him wear prism glasses
during his kindergarten year. When he was little he was really
into Thomas the train. I found a great deal in the "Pennysaver" for
a used Thomas the train set from a family who lived in the extremely
rich area of San Diego. I bought their whole box of trains and
tracks and the table for $100 and since the trains have a life time
warranty I was able to trade all the old, dog chewed trains for
brand new ones at no cost! Carter ended up with over $1,000
worth of brand new Thomas the Train engines for his third birthday!
Carter has a more dramatic/artistic flair and seems to lean toward
graphic design."
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First Home in Santee, CA
1994-1998
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Military Housing
1998-1990
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1992 Ford Chateau Class C 29 foot RV we owned
from 2002-2007
Click here to
see our 2003 RV trip across half the U.S. for a family reunion |
Homes
We bought our first home in April 1994 in Santee, California (East
County of San Diego) at 9343 Carlton Hills Blvd in April 1994. We lived
there for four years. After
Spencer was born I worked from home for a year making appointments for
the insurance/investment broker I worked for with USAA then when he
decided to move on I stayed home as a full time mom taking care of
Spencer's medical needs. Spencer's first memory is of a bike
falling down on the back porch and a water bottle popping off the bike.
He thought it was the bike's muscle. Carter was born in that home but
has no memories there as we moved into military housing when he was two. Living on enlisted Navy income
only ($1,400 per month) was not
feasible as our mortgage was $1,175 per month, leaving only $225 per
month to live on for everything else. So we sold the house in a short sale which means if we ever
want to use a military loan (FHA) again we would have to pay back the $10,000
we went negative for the realtor fees. We moved into military
housing for the last year of Vic's military career.
1999-2000 After Victor got
out of the Navy to become a civilian, working on computers, we lived in an
apartment in Rancho Bernardo for a year while Spencer attended
kindergarten at the local public elementary school.
2000-2001 Then we moved
into my parent's
house in Santee for a year and bought an RV to get away
one weekend a month for family time. I home schooled Spencer for
first grade using a variety of curriculum and taught him how to read. He
became an excellent reader and is typically 4-5 years ahead of his peers
in his reading level.
2001-2004 I went to work full-time as the Office Manager at Magnolia Wesleyan Church and we rented a condo a mile from
my parent's in Santee where we lived for another couple years.
Spencer attended 2nd grade at a local Christian school but it was
condemned the next year because of mold. When Spencer was treated
for mold, years later from a chiropractor, he had green stuff come out of
his ears! Carter attended Kindergarten and first grade at the
Christian school attached to the church where I worked so I was able to
eat lunch with Carter. I home schooled Spencer through the local
public school for his third and fourth grade years. Spencer used a
storage room in the back of the office where he did his classes online
and I checked on him periodically.
2004
We lived in our RV at Santee Lakes for 8 months in order to save $1,000
per month in housing costs in order to move to Idaho for a lower cost of
living and country lifestyle. We moved up Thanksgiving week in 2004 and
I home schooled both boys through the spring of 2005. We went
through the first winter without Victor as he was still working for SAIC
in San Diego. He joined us in February 2005 and God provided jobs
at just the right time. |
Fall 2004 in La Jolla, CA days before moving to North
Idaho
Spencer (9), Michelle (36), Victor (37), Carter (7) |
November 2004 Our home in North Idaho
|
December 2009
Larry and Jeannette Vardiman Family
By Family Group starting on Left side: Laura holding son ,Noah, with her husband, Tim, behind her.
Dad and Mom: Larry (sitting) with Jeannette behind him and Kelly next to Mom. My family to the right of Dad with Victor and Spencer
behind me and Carter in front of me. Right side: Daniel holding son, Ian,
with wife, Kriston |
Why Idaho? We believe God led us to North Idaho as a
combination of events opened the way. The first being a phone call
I made in 2002 to a junior high friend I played basketball with at
Forest Lake. I was discussing the high cost of living in San Diego
and she said, "Come up here, we have a lot of families who live on one
income up here!" In January 2004 my boss, the pastor of Magnolia
Wesleyan Church, asked me if I knew anyone he could interview for the
music minister position that was opening up. I instantly thought
of twin brothers who played guitars and had beautiful voices that
graduated from the music department from Christian Heritage College.
I searched for them on the internet and found their father who owned a
bed and breakfast in the same area my junior high friend lived in.
I contacted him and he got me in touch with his boys but neither one
were interested in the music minister's position. However, after
talking with their Dad I found out he ran a relocation service to help
Christian families get out of the rat race in California in order to
move to North Idaho. We arranged a weekend trip to celebrate our
12th anniversary and he charged us 50% of his going rate for his
relocation service. He hooked us up with a banker and realtor and
by the end of the weekend we put a refundable deposit down on a 1/4 acre
lot with building plans chosen for a house to be built by the housing
development contractor. We flew back
home at the end of the weekend and said, "What did we just do?"
The building plans went forward, the house began to be built, the loan
went through and Thanksgiving time came with a house to move into but no
job for Victor. So we packed up and in faith moved to North Idaho.
Vic's CareerOnce we were settled Victor flew back to San
Diego to stay at my parent's house
and keep working at SAIC and told his boss Monday morning that he had
just left his family in North Idaho. His boss said, "Is that a
good thing?" Victor clarified our intention for Victor to move up
once he found a job. The boss let him stay on as
long as he could but finally gave Victor notice in February
that he had to let him go so he could move on with hiring a replacement.
Victor surprised me by showing up for Valentine's Day with a two week
severance package. The timing was fascinating as he had a phone
interview that Friday and they wanted a face to face interview with
Victor on Monday and Victor was able to say, "Sure, I'm available."
He got the job and started working Wednesday. The job only lasted
three months as the company went bankrupt and we had difficulty getting
his last paycheck and our faith was really stretched. Once again
timing was fascinating as he received a phone call from Silverwood Theme
Park on his drive home from being laid off asking if he was still
available. Silverwood hired him as low man on the totem pole of the IT department with
three guys. The two guys above him both quit and he was promoted to
the manager position before he even started working! Although the
hours were excessive, especially in the summers, we were able to feel
more settled with Victor finally home!
Mic's Career and the boys
education I
also went to work full time and we put the boys in a private Christian
school, Classical Christian Academy, for the first two years that I believed was as close to my
experience at Forest Lake as possible. Unfortunately, 1 1/2 years
later both boys' teachers came to me in the same time frame and
expressed concerns over the boys. After several months we
discovered Carter was still having his double vision as well as epileptic seizures and Spencer wasn't
developing socially like the other 6th graders and received a diagnosis
of a developmental delay called Asperger's Syndrome. I
transferred from my full-time career as a marketing assistant for the
Coeur d'Alene Chamber to a part-time admin assistant for DA Davidson, an
investment firm. The stress of handling paperwork for multimillion
dollar deals on the stock exchange and trying to figure out what both
our boys medical issues were was too much. I finally quit and came
home full-time to take care of our boys medical needs.
I thought it would only take a year but it took three years before
Carter received a clean bill of health and was able to go back to
school. I home
schooled the boys during those three years through the public school's
online program. Carter went to the public middle school for one
quarter then transferred to Classical Christian Academy for his 7th
grade year where I substituted as needed. He did 8th grade at the public
middle school and plans on going to the public high school. Online homeschooling works well for Spencer. It may take him an extra year to graduate but because he
is also so intelligent academically we put him in some local
college classes to get dual credit for high school and college and skip
some of the high school drama and let him just focus on learning, which
he loves to do.
ChangesIn August 2009 Victor was laid off
as Silverwood was getting rid of several middle managers. He was
unemployed for four months but because we had taken a Dave Ramsey
Financial Peace class at our church the year before we were prepared
with an emergency fund and knew how to live on a budget. We made
it for two months then I went on a 6 week temporary assignment for Kelly
Services while Vic stayed home with the boys and kept looking for work
while collecting unemployment. We began to think he needed to
start his own computer business and made a website and started running
ads in the paper but only had a couple friends hire him for one day jobs. Vic received a job offer with our city's police
department in the two man IT team. He was hired and started working in
November 2009 and I was able to
come back home. We finally have a more normal lifestyle
since Victor no longer has to work the excessive hours.
We continue to give God the credit for how He orchestrated our move
to North Idaho. We still don't fully understand why He moved us
here but I am able to be a full-time stay at home mom, our boys have
both received wonderful medical care as many of the best doctors
moved up here for the better lifestyle as well and we teach Dave Ramsey
Financial Peace classes at our Bible church, New Life, to help others
learn how to live on a budget like we learned how to do. I coached robotics teams
for three years to help Spencer learn teamwork and be able to pursue his
interest in robotics.
In September 2011 we discovered a lump and I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I went through surgery and 6 months of chemotherapy.
My hair is growing back and I just have a few procedures to finish. I hope to work on my teaching credential starting fall 2012.
I continue to work on genealogy research whenever I can and maintain
this website with my Uncle David's regular infusion of documents that he
uncovers. If you want to share your story or provide a document please
email me at michelle@fansler.us.
Written by Michelle Vardiman Fansler 4 July 2010,
updated 13 June 2012
|