Merry Christmas
It was a rough year with some good times thrown in. I'll get the rough stuff out of the way and go on to the good stuff.
Late last October, we had to put down our sweet Golden Retriever/Yellow Lab mix, Sammy. He was 14 and had had a very good life, but it was difficult. In December, my Dad died, June my Mom died, and this October we found out Rich has prostate cancer. He's having robotic surgery January 12, and we're looking for him to be 100% in about 6 weeks.
Now to the good stuff. December saw us at Paynes Prairie once again, camping for Christmas. During the week we were there, we had our friends Joy & Dian, and Ryan and his former girlfriend, stopped by as well as Rick, Beth and her family. Charley and Lizzie spent the night and had a good time playing with the dump truck that Santa had brought Lizzie and exploring the woods. The folks next to us had a young boxer, Bear, and a boy and girl around Charley’s age and the kids had fun together. Dickens wasn’t too happy about having Bear in his space, but they managed to get along pretty well, considering. Before Charley and Lizzie left, we had a picnic at the playground and wandered along the boardwalk, watching several kinds of egrets, herons, anhingas, eagles, grebes, wood storks, alligators, snakes, turtles, and people.
January saw us back at the RV show in Tampa for a long weekend. My knee bothered me so much on the second day that we rented a wheelchair. Poor Rich was pushing it all day, much of it in sand, and he was tired out when we finished up. We had Charley and Lizzie (and did they love riding on my lap in the wheelchair!) Saturday afternoon for a while at the show then took them to a great little pizza place in Tampa, then back to camp where they spent the night. Rich says next time, he gets to ride and I get to push the wheelchair
In February we went to see Gordon Lightfoot - he was sick so his voice wasn't at it's best but it was a fun concert none-the-less. The day after the concert, I left for my week-long Sanibel meeting, which went well.
March - Harold & Martha were here for the day. As always, it was great to see them.
Rick, Cody, Tyler, Rich, Judy
Austin, Allyson
Dickens
In April, Rich's younger, Rick son, and his family came down from New York on the auto-train for vacation and stayed at our place for a few days. On Saturday, we took them to the teaching zoo and had a picnic at Paynes Prairie. From there I took Tyler, Cody, and Allison and we came home and made two big pans of lasagna for dinner that evening. Thank heaven I had such good help – it was a fun time while Rich took Jess, Rick, and Austin on a quick tour of the University campus and Gainesville. It was great to have them all with us.
In May we took a couple of weeks of vacation to Jackrabbit Mountain, NC. There I learned that, because of budget shortfalls in the state (which had been passed on to the University) all three of my staff had been cut from the budget! Didn't make for a great time, since I was on the phone several times a day trying to figure out what we would do to keep on track. (Next year we are looking at additional cuts, so we’re hoping my position is secure!) After we got work problems settled down, we had three days of bad weather – wind gusts for more than 24 hours of over 50 mph. We were right on the lake there and we kept expecting the camper to blow away! It was only the third time we’ve been out when the wind was so bad at night that the whole camper shook, but it held up fine, unlike the tarp we always put up to give us a little more shelter since we cook outside! The tarp pretty much shredded on the second day, but we were amazed that it lasted as long as it did.
June was a difficult month, since my staff would be gone come July first. Luckily, we were able to hire one of my people on soft money, one of my people went to a good group in the Chemistry Dept., and the other went to Chemistry but was assigned to taking care of the faculty and their groups who were assigned to QTP, so in essence, she never moved. The Physics department has taken up the slack with our Physics faculty, so we've got everything covered, albeit sparsely.
Ted, Rich, Amber, Natalee
In July, our first great grandchild, Natalee, was born to Ted's elder daughter, Amber. That makes 8 grands and 1 great-grand for us! Rich flew up to NY on his summer trip to see his family and was dazzled with Natalee!
September was pretty quiet, I'm happy to say.
October saw us in Pine Mountain, GA at F.D. Roosevelt State Park for a week. We were both sick so we stayed pretty close to camp but enjoyed ourselves none-the-less. I turned 60 toward the end of October and at work they had a great party for me with gag gifts, signs all over the building telling any and all that I was over-the-hill, along with a grand cake. Rich had a dinner for me at home with Rick, Beth and family, and friends. It was all great, much enjoyed and even more appreciated. The end of October we went to Jacksonville to see Neil Diamond and what a tremendous show that was! The best we've been to in years.
In November, we went up to St. Simons Island, GA for our 21st anniversary weekend and had a great time. Drove up to Savannah where we spent the day wandering through a train museum, along the waterfront, and having a great lunch at a cool little place called Blue Moon Brewery.
And here we are in December again. We'll be going back to Paynes Prairie for the week between Christmas and New Year's and expect to have Rick, Beth and family, as well as some friends stop by and join us for some celebration.
A quick recap of our kids & their kids: Ted turned 40 this year and Tressa had another birthday too! Amber, 20, had Natalee and is keeping busy with her and Autumn, 16, is keeping busy with school and her other activities.
Rich’s younger son Rick is 34. He and Jessica have a houseful with Tyler (16), Cody (15), Allyson (12 this month), and Austin (10). Rick is still working 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.
Beth is now 31, and she and Kevin are having an interesting time, what with Charley turning 9 and Lizzie 4 this year. Charley is doing well in school and Beth is teaching Lizzie to read. Last time they were up here, Lizzie had just learned how to wink! What a howl that was.
Rick turned 29 this year and is working with Publix Supermarkets as a meat market manager trainee. He should be getting an assistant manager position before too long. He's working at the Publix by our house, and we see him there more often than we see him here! He had bought a motorcycle a year or so ago, sold his 2 year old Honda several months ago, and about a week after he moved into a new apartment, the motorcycle was stolen! Thank goodness Samantha (Sam), his girlfriend, has a car, so they're able to get back and forth to work.
Then we have our three "adopted boys" Kevin, Ryan, and Josh. Kevin and Anna had a new addition to their household in November, Nolan, who is absolutely adorable! They are still in Knoxville and we hope to see them sometime in 2009.
Ryan is still in Texas after having gotten his Ph.D. from UT Austin. He's working for a company that deals with forensic engineering. He travels a good deal and works to see why buildings and other structures failed, whether they need to be torn down or can be repaired, etc.
Josh and Jenny have come back to the US after having spent 1 1/2 years living on St. John's and working on St. Thomas Islands in the Virgin Islands. They're happy to be home and have bought a beautiful home in Alachua. We went to their house for Thanksgiving - first time I haven't prepared/helped to prepare a Thanksgiving dinner for 40 years! What a good time we had with Charlie and Linda and Dewey and Laurie, Caitlin and Mike, and Josh and Jenny. We ate way too much and still ended up bringing food home!
We hope you have had a great year and are looking forward to an even better one next year. We're still in the same place we've been for the last 21 years, so if you're going to be in the area, do let us know - we'd love to see you.
Home phone: 352-375-8717 Judy's work: 352-846-1125
Judy's cell: 352-226-2594 Rich's cell: 352-226-2595
Take good care and stay happy and healthy.
Love,
Rich and Judy
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