2004

Beth's son, Charley (5 years) at Easter.












Merry Christmas!

Yikes! It’s that time again. It comes up faster and faster every year. I hope you 2004 has been good to you and yours and that 2005 will be even better.

Christmas last year was spent camping at Paynes Prairie State Park. It’s only about 15 minutes away from our home but we feel as though we’re hundreds of miles away. It turned very cold last Christmas - something that we’re looking forward to this year (today was 81 degrees!).

January and February were pretty typical, then March came and we were in St. Augustine for a week for my annual symposium. Come April we were on St. Simon’s Island for a week for another meeting, then home to get ready for camping. We left early in May for Jackrabbit Mountain NC. We took the small boat - just flipped it over on top of the pop-up and headed up. No fish worth writing home about but enjoyed having the boat along for some nice twilight boat rides. Just before we left, I found out about a semi-precious gemstone show in Franklin, so I drove up and made a great haul of fluorite, lapis lazuli, jade, and all sorts of other beauties. I’ve begun making jewelry and I love to work with semi-precious gemstones! I’ve been doing pretty well selling necklaces and earrings - I’m branching out now and trying to design pins, watchbands, and barrettes.

Springtime of this year was tough - my best friend (after Rich) died and then we got a phone call on Memorial Day morning telling us that Mom was on her way via ambulance to the hospital - another stroke. This one was much worse than the others and she is now in a nursing home just down the street from my younger sister’s home in Inverness.. The stroke has greatly exacerbated her dimentia but even though it is very difficult for us to see her this way, it is clear that she is very happy and well taken care of. Dad is living with Betsy so he is near Mom and is doing fairly well.

On a lighter note, Rick is now 25 and is the youngest ABC manager in the district. There is discussion that he will be given a larger store soon. Rich is continuing to enjoy retirement - I’m jealous, what with 6 years to go before I can.

August 24 saw the birth of our 8th grandchild - Beth & Kevin’s daughter Elizabeth Rose. She weighed just over 5 pounds and was 20 inches long - tall and skinny, just like her mom. She’s growing like a weed and is a real cutie. Charley thinks she’s his own and is very protective of her. He helps change diapers, give her baths, and reads to her.

The summer was horribly hot and humid - seems to get worse every year. I know this year was the roughest summer we’ve ever had here since I’ve been in Gainesville - 21 years now. We got the remains of Hurricane Frances, which did quite a bit of damage around town - no damage to our house but the huge oak tree out front was split nearly to the ground - it was still standing though, which was a mixed blessing. Jeanne followed close on Frances’ heels - we were quite worried about our 60’ oak tree that was only about 20’ away from the house. As large as the tree was, had it come down toward the house, it could easily have damaged the entire structure. Rich, however, had other ideas. He got a couple of heavy chains and 2 chain binders, and proceeded to wrap the tree tight. It was good enough so the tree didn’t come down during Jeanne and shortly thereafter we were finally able to get a tree service in to take it out. We were quite relieved to have it gone even though we miss the shade.

The first part of October we headed up to Cosby in the Smokies for 2 weeks - even then we didn’t have much cold weather. On the way up, we stopped for the weekend at Indian Springs State Park in NE Georgia. It was hot and humid, and thankfully the camper has A/C. We wound up spending most of the weekend inside. However, when we got to Cosby, the weather was just glorious and we enjoyed just lazing around in camp watching the leaves change.

November was busy for us - we had Thomas and Uschi Herz from Germany visit. Thomas had been a post doc at QTP and they try to get back to the US at least once a year. They really want to move here permanently but jobs in theoretical chemistry aren’t a dime a dozen. The next week Kevin Shuford and his friend Anna came in from Chicago. It was good to have Kev back even though it was for only a few days and Anna is great. Only a few days after they left it was Thanksgiving and we did our usual QTPdinner. We had a nice assortment of countries represented - Spain, France, Mexico, and Sri Lanka among others. The day was beautiful and we were lucky enough to give our friends from around the world a taste of a traditional Thanksgiving dinner.

Now we’re trying to get geared up for Christmas and then the year starts all over again.

We hope you have a very Merry Christmas and a healthy and happy New Year. If you’re ever in our neighborhood be sure to give us a call.