Dear Family and Friends,

Dear family and friends,

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!  and the Happiest of New Years!

We aren't sending cards this year but we sure appreciate the ones we have received from you!  We'll be back next year with news and pictures!

2017 was a pretty good year for us.  Kiddo started out with a large role in Journey's James and the Giant Peach, Jr.  and then she decided that behind the spotlight would be more fun so she signed up for crew duty in three plays!  

We didn't do any traveling over the summer, just stayed at home and reorganized cupboards.  Well, I reorganized cupboards while kiddo attended Improv Invasion and Shakespeare camp with Journey Theater Arts Group, 

Worldview Academy Camp in Salem, OR, and our church high school camp.  Sometimes I wonder if there is summer camp for moms...

I was blessed to be able to teach Geometry last year to 8th graders.  It is typically a 10th grade class, but these kids were advanced two years in math.  We had a blast learning logic and proofs and even some trig.  We ended the year by firing rockets and calculating their height using homemade clinometers.  My classes this year are not quite as erudite, but still full of wonderful kids who like to learn.  As weird as teaching has gotten, I really appreciate my job and the people with whom I work.

Kiddo has switched to a local Christian school for the last two years of high school.  She is still drawing and is expanding her artistic outlook to photography as well.  We are looking ahead to college- exploring the options and learning a lot in the process.  Maybe George Fox, maybe Corban, maybe...?   She also got baptized this fall which was really cool.

We are ending the year by replacing our kitchen floor- not by choice, but because the fridge spewed water all over the laminate and we weren't fast enough to mop it all up before it got into the baseboards and drywall.  Ugh.  Not my favorite thing.

As of yesterday, the mold has been defeated, the new vinyl floor is in, and soon my wonderful brother will help me with the drywall.  Yay!
We are healthy, we are warm, we are out of the weather and we hope you are the same.  We pray for those affected by the hurricanes and fires this past year- may God hold them close.

Hoping for snow soon,
Love & peace,
Us

UPDATE:  We actually GOT snow!  Christmas Eve starting around 9am, and on through the day!  Made it tricky to get to family for festivities, but thanks to dad, we managed and we spent a leisurely day with my folks on Monday.  Yay!