Holiday Greetings

I guess I should have an update, since I have invited you all to visit our blog. Um...you could say I am a bit behind on the updates-I guess that I didn't meet that goal this month. A disclaimer before I start...There will be not be a lot of pictures in this post since I am on the family desktop. I found out tonight why my laptop would not start up for the last couple of days...the Hard Drive is gone!

The year wrapped up (yes, the pun was intended):

We started the year off with constuction around the house, a new cover for our back steps and little BBQ patio, new carpet, paint and rearrangement of furniture in the family room, and a remodel of our main bathroom (the only one with a place to shower/bathe).

Peggy and I traveled to Portland for the weekend of her birthday to see Wicked and spend a little time at the Creating Keepsakes Scrapbooking Convention. What a great production/show (Wicked that is)! Everyone should see it at least once.

Started camping in March and have to say this wouldn't have happened if we still had the tent trailer. Our trailer is a nice place to come get out of the weather and get warm. We went Razor Clam digging for the first time and liked it so much that we did it again in April.

Didn't do as much camping this summer as we normally do because we tackled cleaning and organizing Chris' garage. But we did get some long Holiday weekends with Mike and Linda (Chris' dad and mom), and a couple of outings with friends.

We ended the summer with a flood in the family room. The toilet in the powder room downstair decided to blow the intake supply off which sprayed all night until Chris got up in the morning to find about 2-3 inches of water saturating our new carpet and getting our things all wet. Took about a month to get things back together but now we have our family room back!

Husky games filled our Saturdays (along with Peggy's soccer games) this fall.

Kelly is in the 7th grade this year, taking all challenge classes (except PE and band). Didn't quite make it into Algebra but is still in challenge math class. He is in Jazz Band before school 3 days a week and also is in the Everett Youth Symphony's Jr. Orchestra where he is the Principal Trombone. (Visit the Website http://www.eyso.info/ on March 9 to view his "Winter" Concert via web-cast).

The Washington State Music Educators Association hold auditions for an "All-State Jr. Band" in the fall. This year they invited 7th graders to audition and Kelly's band teacher had him record an audition and sent it in. Kelly along with two 8th graders made the All State Band. His band teacher received the music for the students this week and had to call me. He left a message on our phone saying that he was speechless as Kelly was given 1st Trombone music. He is honored to have Kelly play in his band and to represent Evergreen. (He even emailed all of Kelly's teachers to let them know.) We will be spending our Valentine's Weekend in Yakima, WA. Kelly will be practicing all day on Saturday with a Concert in the evening.

Peggy is in the 4th grade this year and is also doing well academically too. She was on a soccer team this fall and they did really well. She plays defender and does a great job defending the goal! She also is in Campfire where they assisted a younger group for a food drive before Thanksgiving. They also provided toys for Christmas to an agency that assists families in need.

Peggy will be starting keyboarding in Jan and hopefully she will love it as much as Kelly does his trombone. She loves to sing and we will hear her singing in the shower.

Chris is still working for McKinstry as a foreman. They are grooming him to run his own jobs in the near future I think. We are lucky that he still has a job as the economy knocked out a bunch of work that his company had lined up. Things are picking back up. He is currently working on an Amazon.com building in downtown Seattle.

I am working for Providence Children's Center since Feb. I really like my job. I clock in and clock out and do all my work at the office. I really like my boss, the clinicians, the educators, the nurses and the support staff. They all have been very supportive.

We will be spending Christmas in Spokane this year and come home on Kelly's 13th birthday! I can't believe that my little snow storm baby is already 13! All I can say is WOW.

That about wraps up 2009. Thanks for visiting and please let me know you were here!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Ann, Chris, Kelly, and Peggy