The Odums of Orangevale: 2008 in Review

The Odums of Orangevale
2008 in Review


Warmest greetings and God’s blessings to each of you who are reading this. We, as a family, believe that Jesus is the answer to every soul’s question, and especially during this time of celebrating the Christ Mass, i.e. Christmas, we are constantly reminded and always learning how much God truly does love and care for His people. It’s been years since we have sent out a *legit* Christmas card and family update, so, just two days before Christmas, we have created this collection of thoughts to share with you all.

2008 brought many, many blessings including:
• A 2 story rental home that’s closer to the kid’s school as well as giving both kids their own room and an office for me
• “Closure” to our home on Primrose
• 2 motorized chairs: one for our home here in Orangevale and one for me to use at my parent’s house in San Carlos
• Motorized adjustable beds (gifted to us by very dear family friends form the Bay Area) which allow us better sleep options and care ability during attack and recoveries.
• 2 chair/recliners for our living room (which are well suited for me to be in if during an attack.)
• A cell phone (daddy’s old one) for Missy. She’s “off the hook” happy about it……get it? “Off the hook”…um…okay…moving on now….
• Reconnection with friends from Jr. high, High school and even college and churches via Facebook.com
• Closer friendships and family relations.
• Blessings, prayers and support from our FOP, MPPC & TPC families

Missy says “COOKIE!!” (Missy loves random things and words, so her random word currently is “cookie”…don’t ask me, I only live here)
Okay, anyway, as we continue, Missy is up next and is standing tall (actually, she is taller than her mother, even as I type!) in the face of her oncoming teen years and scholastic academics. Wow. That read pretty cool. She’s’ doing great with her grades and is loving school.
Missy turned 14 this past September and is the most comfortable she’s ever been at school. Of course, she’s an eighth grader this year and is enjoying looking down the class ladder. While enjoying being in the *ruling grade* this year, she realizes that next year will bring a very different but exciting new year for her as she will begin…HIGH SCHOOL!!!! She can’t wait. Many of her friends are going to go to the same high school that she will attend, so she will have a core group of friends to transition with. Very cool!
She also played soccer this year and really enjoyed it, As the season progressed, she became more and more confident and accurate with her kicks and passes and she did a great job! She says that she especially enjoyed the weekly practice scrimmages with the boys’ teams and BEATING them!!! This year also brought many slumber parties and marathon cartoon watching, but the thing she loves most to do is…read. She is just devouring books, one after another! I just get dizzy trying to keep up with who is who in which book at what time in what part of what series…see what I mean? Her mom and I are so excited for her to have such a desire and ability to read like this at this age.

Joshua says “Hi!”
On May 6th of 2008, Joshua turned 9 years old; an occasion that was filled with fun and excitement. He notes that this was our first year in this home and he really likes this house the most!
He has been enjoying laser tag, playing as much as possible being that it is one of his favorite games to go and play with friends.
In Orangevale Soccer, he says he had a really fun time and even learned how to head the ball during a game (as well as practice).
His favorite games at school are Two-Touch and Prisoner (plus he loves to tease the girls at any opportunity, though he does not like getting the resulting *kick* that usually follows…) When asked what his favorite subject in school is, he said “recess”…smart guy. After much consideration, he says Reading is his *favorite* subject, if he had to choose. His grades accurately reflect his enjoyment of school and the hard work he puts in and we are very proud of him!
While at home, he says that playing video games on Daddy’s computer is the “funnest” thing to do, but he is always amazed by how many hours go away while he is battling in the universe in Lego Star Wars, as well as “Star Wars: Empire at War”. His longest game session to date is 8 hours and he wants to make it to 24 hours…Daddy doesn’t think that’s going to happen any time soon, but he can dream, can’t he? He also loves to ride his bike and rough-house with Annie, our dog (Annie, incidentally, outweighs him by a good thirty to forty pounds!) Joshy also loves playing with his Legos, making up battles with his toys (all over the house) and riding on his Daddy’s lap while on his motorized chair returning home from church.


CC says “Merry Christmas!”
Probably THE busiest Super Mom-Super Wife-Superwoman that has ever NOT donned a cape (not that we’ve seen anyway…). She handles all Odum inbound and outbound traffic, is the nurse for sick children and husband, often taking care of dishes, laundry, vacuuming and carpet cleaning ALL THE WHILE earning exemplary certificates from her work!!!... SIMULTANEOUSLY EVEN!!!!! She flat-out amazes me all the time.
This Christmas season, she has been able to decorate more to her liking because we have now gone through nearly all of our ‘garage Boxes” that we have toted from home to home for several years and many homes. This year, her decorations are perfectly and intentionally placed throughout the house, from one end to the other, including Christmas lights around the tree, the living room windows, fireplace, cabinet and even Annie’s crate! In spite of all of the different life circumstances that could be bringing her down to a crawl on all fronts, CC just keeps on getting it done and blessing everyone she comes into contact with. I am THE MOST BLESSED man on the planet…granted, I’m a tad bit biased, but it’s true! Whenever she is able to create a window of down-time, she likes to read, assemble a jigsaw or play a board game with me and the kids.


Wade says “Step by step, rung by rung…Merry Christmas!”
See?! THAT’S what happens when you are listening to Huey Lewis while thinking of a title for your next person’s paragraph (which in THIS case just happened to be mine!) Let that be a lesson to you writers out there. Don’t Huey and write.
Okay, this letter will be going to some folks who may not know what has been going on with me or us for the last few years, so those of you who are in the know, please forgive the familiar information while I share a somewhat brief “Catch me up”: In September of 2006, after only 3 years at Fair Oaks Presbyterian Church as their Director of Media Technologies and over 8 years in the Media Ministry itself, and over 20 years as a live Sound/Recording Engineer in the Christian Music Industry as a songwriter/arranger, musician & vocalist…, my working tenure in those trades came to an abrupt close after I was diagnosed with a rare debilitating and progressive muscle disease called Hypokalemic Periodic Paralysis (HKPP). Essentially, HKPP means that my body does not process or utilize potassium correctly, and as a result, I suffer attacks of paralysis and seizure-like episodes of muscle spasms, sometimes even daily. Each attack results in some degree of permanent muscle damage and resulting chronic pain. That’s the quick and short of it.
As a result, our family world has changed in dramatic ways, as has our income, our outflow and our faithful infrastructure. God has PROVEN to me that He cares for the lowly, the fallen, the broken, the fallible and the obviously tarnished. During a time of prayer in my house a few months ago, with a very good friend, I heard my own voice say “…my body may be broken, but my spirit is not” and that single phrase pretty well encapsulates my battled frame of mind, from day to day. He does not give us more than we can handle WITH HIM and believe me, I AM THANKFUL He is with me, even now. Though I cannot drive anymore or walk long distances (I now have a motorized chair), my depth of gratitude for “the simple things” I have taken for granted, has deepened immeasurably and seems to deepen a bit each day. If it was Thanksgiving, I would list some of the many, many things that I am tangibly thankful for now, and that list would likely read of obvious simple things like being able to still walk, to be able to still see, to hold my wife and my children and to just go out to dinner…
This year has brought me back in touch with friends and family that I have not seen or connected with in quite some time, prior to this year. I became connected with Facebook.com and before too long, I was connecting with people form my past as well as folks from my present and those relationships have proven very encouraging and a source of strength to me. My hope and prayer is that 2009 will bring wellness, happiness, stability and warmth of friendships and love of family to our home, even every day of the New Year.


Shadow says “…MeowwwRauuuuw” (which I think means “Merry Christmas. Now leave me until I demand more food. You may leave now.”)
CC brought Shadow home to us while we were living in Orange County, just a month or so after we had gotten married in September of 1989. Shadow considered herself “Feline Grand Poobah, Queen of the Roost” until 1984 when I brought home an adorable kitten (Jazzy) from outside the local Safeway where his owner was giving away his kitten siblings on a very cold winter’s night. The last straw for Shadow’s rule was In September of that same year when Missy was born; from that time one, Shadow developed her own little “Kitty-tude” in response to loosing her position as Feline Grand Poobah and has maintained it ever since. She too, has been a faithful, yet ever-so-slightly-temperamental feline companion over these past many years.
In 2007, we lost our beloved Jazzy, rather suddenly to a sudden kidney illness and it took a few months for ALL of us, including Shadow, to get through the mourning and heartbreak.
This year, 2008, brought Shadow’s 19th birthday and, though she is now a very skinny “Shadowcat”, her personality is ever present and she is just as cranky as she ever was and just a tad hard of hearing.


Annie says “…Woof…rrrrrrwoof…rrrrrrrrruuf woof!” (which I’m pretty sure means “I love you all, now WHERE’S THE CAT WHO’S LIVING UPSTAIRS IN YOUR BEDROOM??? I WANNA PLAY TAG!!!)
Annie’s 3rd birthday was this year and she has reached her nominal weight of 95 lbs. She is our Doberman/Hound/Shepherd mix and family companion. Just a few months back, while the kids and I were upstairs and CC was at work, a “visitor” decided to “visit” our home through the rear sliding glass door. I heard the door, as did Annie, but I never got to meet our “visitor” because Annie chased him into the back yard and over our side fence where he made it out to the street and into the neighborhood. I have always hoped that our dog would “do the right thing” when confronted with a thief or an attacker, and I am THOROUGHLY confident that we are as safe as can be with our beloved Annie on the watch. She is my pal and my guard when I am home alone when the kids are in school and CC is at work. I take her for walks around our little neighborhood with her wearing a chest harness and leash with me in my motorized chair; we have a great time together and she has become quite strong now, being able to actually pull my chair and me together; over 400 lbs combined weight! She’s tipped me over a couple of time due to her strength as well as my not being prepared, but I am far wiser for it now. She’s a loyal and best friend and our family’s defender (besides my shotgun and rifle, but that’s for another time… )


Well, that’s the best I can do to bring y’all up to date on us here Odums. We miss and love you all and hope to be able to see or hear from each of you this coming year, 2009!

May God’s peace and His blessings be manifested within you and about you and may His face shine upon you and bring you His peace.

Merry Christmas!!

With love-

Wade, CC, Missy, Joshua, Shadow and Annie