2006

Merry Christmas!

It’s been a busy year – have you noticed how the older you get the faster time goes? We certainly have and it’s pretty scary! Remember when you were a kid how the year dragged on and on and you thought Christmas would never arrive?

A quick update on family and friends:

Rich’s older son Ted is 38 now and Tressa just had a birthday October 16th. They’ve been married over a year now – doesn’t seem possible it’s been that long already. Ted’s girls, Amber (17) and Autumn (14) are growing up too fast. Amber is living with Ted and Tressa and Autumn is in Virginia with her mom. We were able to stop by Tazewell on our way back from the family reunion and spend some time with Autumn and celebrate her birthday. We had a good time with her and enjoyed all her stories about school and friends.

Rich’s younger son Rick is 32. He and Jessica have a houseful with Tyler (14), Cody (13), Allyson (9), and Austin (8). Rick recently got a job with the Chenango County Sheriff’s Office as a Corrections Officer, which he seems to like. And the stories! Jessica has gone back to work in health care.

My daughter Beth, turned 29 this year, is a stay-at-home mom; her husband Kevin is working for a title company as their IT specialist; Charley, their 7 year old son is in first grade; Lizzie (Elizabeth Rose) turned 2 in August and is a pistol. She’s learned she can drag a chair around thus giving her access to all sorts of interesting things and she climbs like a monkey. She’s talking a blue streak and is giving Charley a run for his money.

My son Rick is 27 already has worked for ABC liquors for several years , has been promoted several times and is now manager of the largest ABC store in Gainesville. He’s looking for a house to buy soon and stays busy with work and his dog, Monster.

Kevin Shuford, our “adopted son” was married to Anna Shiplov in May and he has gotten a Wingner Fellowship at Oak Ridge National Lab. They had just moved into their new home in Knoxville, TN when we were there on vacation.

Ryan Chancey, another of our “adoptions” is in Austin, TX working on his Ph.D. in Engineering. Haven’t seen him, but talk to him often. He seems to be thriving and traveling all over for school. He’s been offered a job made to order in Tampa with a firm that does

Josh Highlander, the third of our “adoptions” has graduated with his Engineering degree and is working in St. Thomas, VI. He proposed to his girlfriend, Jenny and she said yes, so we’ll have a wedding to attend in April.

We spent last Christmas at Paynes Prairie State Park – just about 15 minutes away from our house. The weather was beautiful and we had Rick, Jaime, Beth, Kevin, Charley, and Elizabeth at camp for a Christmas breakfast of Belgian waffles with strawberries and whipped cream. Lizzie (about 16 months then) loved her Grandpa’s waffles and spent more time gnawing away at her waffle than she did opening presents. Charley, however, loved the campground and we explored the area around the site many times. We found a cool trail that led through the brush in our site, out to the campground road, then in through another site and back to our site. What fun! We took the kids to the playground, engaged in some bird watching (saw some eagles, water snakes, pileated woodpeckers, green herons, egrets, a black-crowned night heron, played on the playground, and all sorts of other things. We rode our bicycles all over the park (for which I suffered for months because of my arthritis, but it was worth it). The week was great and restful and I didn’t want to go back to work...

January saw us back home and hard at work.

February was busy preparing for my annual symposium which had us on St. Simons Island, GA from Feb. 24 through March 5. Josh & Jenny came up to the hotel for the first weekend – we had a two-story suite, so were able to put them up on the first floor. We had a good time trying out new restaurants. Found a great Mexican place and a fun BBQ spot. Will see what else we come up with next year. I’m hoping that Rick can meet us up there for the weekend, but don’t know for sure yet.

March was a busy month. We had lots of birthdays – Mom, Margy, Josh, Bob, and Mom & Dad’s 61st anniversary. We drove down to Eustis, FL to see Harold & Martha and had a good visit with them. I had several training meetings for work and we left on vacation on the 24th for F.D. Roosevelt S.P., Pine Mountain, Georgia. Nice time – very relaxing and good weather. We camped right on the lake there and it was beautiful.

April was a little slower, thank goodness. I don’t have much on my calendar, so if there was anything of great import, I blew it! We did put in our first vegetable garden in several years and it was nice to have fresh okra, beans, corn, and tomatoes.

May was a busy month – Josh graduated, I had lots of meetings and classes for work, Robin came down, spent about a week and we had a great time, Rick had a birthday, Kevin & Anna were married, and Tyler had a birthday.

June was interesting. I took a self-defense class and the last night, fight night, ended up in the ER with a couple of broken ribs. Thanks to the accident, we found out I have some lung nodules (which we are watching with CT scans but the nodules are not expected to be anything important), a stenosis in the C5 vertebra which has been causing numbness in hands & feet (had breast reduction surgery the end of October to help take the strain off the vertebra), and spent the next several months recuperating. I won the fight, though! Rich started work at the Citgo station near us – says he was bored at home, but I think the reason was he didn’t like housework! He loves the job and his hours are the same as mine, so we can continue to be a one car family.

July was Jess’ birthday, I took more classes for work, Rich & I took a Turkish cooking class, saw the Kingston trio (great show!) and Robin had a birthday.

August was HOT and HUMID. We finished up our Turkish cooking classes, I had several job interviews and offers which I turned down, and Lizzie turned two.

September
Josh proposed to Jenny on her birthday (wedding in April of 2007), Beth celebrated her 29th birthday and we vacationed to New York for a “Park-keisinger” (Parker-Keisinger) family reunion then to Tazewell, VA to see Autumn, then to Frozen Head State Park, TN. Unfortunately the weather didn’t work with us – it was rainy most of the 2 ½ weeks we were gone (only had 5 days of sunshine while we were gone). The rainy weather seemed an omen -my cousin Mary, who had been fighting cancer for several years, passed away, Sue (Rich’s sister-in-law) choked and EMT’s broke two ribs (one of which punctured a lung) while giving her CPR. She has since recovered, and Rick P had a birthday as did Autumn.

October as always is a busy month – my Dad, Betsy, Charley, Cody, Rich, Tressa, and I all have birthdays. Josh was back in the States for a visit from St. Thomas, I tore the meniscus in my left knee and had surgery for that a week before the reduction surgery. Recuperation wasn’t fun, but the results were worth it.

November had more birthdays yet – Austin, Kevin V., and Ted celebrated birthdays and Beth & Kevin and Rich & I celebrated anniversaries. We will have our usual Thanksgiving dinner for friends. Rich & I did our first big craft show – sold our wooden reindeer, the jewelry I make, door hangers, sun catchers, as well as crystal snowflakes, icicles. We did quite well and will try it again this year with an even broader inventory.

December has birthdays for Amber & Allison, and Rich & I will be at Paynes Prairie for the week between Christmas and New Years. We’re going to take Dickens (our 4 year old Australian cattle dog/pound puppy) with us to see how he likes camping but will leave Sammy (our 14 year old golden retriever/yellow lab/pound puppy) home with Cleo the cat.

Our very best to you and yours for a happy and healthy New Year – know that we are thinking about you.

Love,
Rich & Judy