Christmas Letter 2012

Dear Friends and Family,

I hope this letter finds you and your family all healthy and well. We have loved getting your Christmas cards and keeping up with many of you, whether it is through e-mail, facebook, or snail mail.  Our family has survived yet another year. Hopefully we are not just older but a little wiser and stronger, too.

Rick took a new job with a company called TASC a little over a year ago. ATK was getting a little unstable and although he loved the people he worked with, we both got a very strong impression it was time to move on. Within two weeks Rick had job offers from two different companies, neither of which would require us to move. He took the job with TASC.  About five months later, ATK began laying people off in his department. We feel very blessed and lucky to have a job for however long it lasts. He loves the people he works with and feels like he learns so much from those around him. He currently works with the Young Men (ages 12-18) in our church and loves it.

Sharon is still working on going to school and will be for a long time. She has really taken seriously the advice from the movie, What About Bob?, and chants to herself all the time, “baby steps.” She just finished her junior year and will spend the next year and a half as a senior in Communication Disorders.  A few years ago she got involved with a charter school. She was asked to serve on the board and lost her sanity for a few moments and said yes. The school opened its doors in August. The work load has decreased greatly and our kids have been able to benefit from the school and its wonderful teachers.

Courtney turned 16 and went on her first date, with a good friend of hers from Washington. She is working on learning to drive and both her and her mom are chanting “baby steps.” She still loves writing and reading and spends most of her time doing just that. She is getting to be a very good violinist and is working on starting to teach lessons this year.

Brittney is 14, still loves the color pink and ballet. She has had a challenging year. She hurt her ankle in February and is still trying to recover. She has not been able to go on pointe shoes for the past 9 months. She is getting very discouraged. We have been to a couple of different doctors and physical therapists. It seems to be slowly improving.

Alex is 11. He marches to the beat of his own drum. He has no problem wearing two different shoes to school or scouts if it is all he can find. He started learning computer programming this summer. He loves the piano and is improving quite fast.

Sarah is 9. She is an amazing dancer and is as flexible as Gumby.  She was so excited to be on the dance company with her sister Brittney this year. She has been working really hard on her reading and writing, two things that do not come easy for her. She has also been working pretty hard at violin, even though it’s not her first love. She loves babies and has asked Santa for a little sister this year.

Brady and Brian are in first grade this year. Brian is quite the reader and thinker. He has started learning piano from Alex. Brady is working very hard on his reading and is improving. He tries not to get discouraged even though reading is hard for him. He is a hard worker and would spend all day with Grandpa on the farm or his dad in the yard and garden, if he could.

We have been very blessed and look forward to another wonderful year.