Good Morning All:

Yesterday, July 17,2008, Rick came by the house and gave us a check for $116.00. This was the balance of what all of you put in for the reunion. We wanted to spend it on something that was lasting. As some of you know, we have pulled up most of the bushes in the front of the house. We went to Lowes and bought four (4) Encore Azalyes, these bloom three (3) times a year. They are blooming now. We also bought two (2) rose bushes. These will be planted in place of the bushes we took out. As they bloom we will be reminded of the beautiful family, and friends we have, and the wonderful reunion, you worked so hard to plan.

THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING. YOUR LOVE SHOWS IN SO MANY WAYS.

LOVE DAD AND MOM/NANNY AND PAPA

There are not enough words to express the deep feelings of gratitude your dad and I feel for the deep caring and hard work that went into the planning of the family reunion. All of you did an outstanding job. We are so very proud of you. You have all grown into wonderful adults. Caring, responsible, loving. Rick, thank you for the wonderful website. Erica, you did a GREAT job on the dvd. John thank you for finding such a wonderful place for us to get together. Thank all of you who traveled, gave up time, money, and family obligations, to come.

Just to let you know, Dad is watching the web site as I type, and is crying.

I will now have time to sit down and enjoy the website, as well without worry about who is watching. LOL

Love to all
Mom and Dad

(posted by Rick for Dotti)

TO MY CHILDREN, GRAND/GREAT GRANDCHILDREN AND FRIENDS:

Of course we know that there are no in-laws or steps in the Deffenbaugh Family, so you guys are also considered my children, grand and great grandchildren, and I hope that you feel the same love that we give to the others.

To our friends, the only thing we can is that it is a shame that you are not a Deffenbaugh (LOL), but we will consider you as such – OK? But then again you may not want to be one, and be as crazy as we are.

Only GOD knows the complete true meaning and amount of our love and thanks to all of you. Mom and I have been truly blessed by all of your love and caring that you give to us. Mom and I have discussed many time that we are responsible for 32 of you – and the Lord said – be fruitful and multiple. (FYI: from Grandma and Grandpa Andy there are 78.)

I am so full (tears are flowing as I type) that I can not begin to express how I felt on Saturday and all I can say is that we love you all and pray that God will bless you just as he has blessed us.

I am not going to even attempt to thank each of you independently for what you did, and have done in the past and what you will do in the future, which we know will be great. That would take a very large book and I am not a writer. Just know that you are all in our thoughts and hearts all of the time. Again we want thank you, thank you from the bottom of our hearts – and my God be with you and bless you as we have been.

Love and Kisses,
Dad and Mom

I for one want to thank each and everyone of us that was involved in the planning and execution of this great reunion. It was a perfect success, with basically no drama or major incidents. Rick thank you for setting up the website and the paypal account. I think we should keep this up and running, not just for plans for the next reunion, but why not just to keep everyone connected? John, I thank you for finding the perfect location and for one thinks it was perfect. Erica, thank you for the magnificent work you did on the video. Thank you to the rest us for the hard planning we did. Next time won't be so stressful.........who am I kidding? Stress is the Deffenbaugh's middle name. It was all great and all that mattered is that we were all together for Mommy and Daddy.

Megan, welcome to this looney family. I hope we didn't scare you away.

Great to see all of you.
Love,
Wendi

Well we only have 3 more weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Have we forgotten anything? Everyone make your lists and check them twice. Gee Christmas in July. See everyone soon.