Anyway - if you feel like reading, our Christmas letter is below!
Christmas 2013
Dear Family and Friends,
Hello! For me personally, I always enjoy this time
when I get to sit down and reflect on our past year in order to share just a
little bit of our adventures with each of you.
Our Animals – China, our wonderful
dog, is still doing great J She is just as much of a couch potato as she
has ever been but has also become quite the “guard” dog with the boys. During the summer she is outside with them
often, seemingly sleeping in the sun, but if someone approaches the yard, she
puts on her “mean dog” face and lets them know they can’t enter the yard. Nate especially loves her and often sits next
to her on the couch, resting his hand on her back. Misty is really showing her age but she still
has spunk. Sure, her jumping isn’t quite
as high; her hearing isn’t quite as keen; but she still loves to snuggle in and
stay warm! It’s hard to believe she is
about 18 years old. We did lose one pet
this past year – Stratocastor passed away not long after Christmas last
year. We noticed the day after Christmas
that she was having trouble walking; we were trying to decide what to do when
she made the decision for us, curled up and went to sleep forever. We are thankful for that but I sure missed
seeing her on the porch this summer, stretched out in the sun!
Our Kids – Josh and Nate are doing
great. We worked on homeschooling this
year with Josh in K-4 and Nate in preschool.
Both boys enjoy learning and, more importantly, enjoy learning at home J They also attended
a weekly homeschool co-op where they were able to enjoy gym class as well as
other learning classes. We have moved on
to bikes with training wheels this year – Josh and Nate both love their new
bikes and their new freedom to ride in the drive-way. Josh continues to entertain us with his
stories, jokes, and take charge attitude (He often asks me if it is his time to
be charge . .. ). Nate continues to have
that sweet spirit that coincides with his “all boy – not afraid of anything”
attitude. I’m his best buddy right now
and I wouldn’t change that for anything!
Our Work – Darryl continues to drive
a Taxi for Calder City Cab in Grand Rapids.
It is something he enjoys most of the time but does get a little stir
crazy sometimes. So far, God has not
opened any other doors and has supplied for our needs through this job. I am still helping a friend out and watching
her children – ages 3 and 10 months. We
added a Girl to the mix with all of the boys as the 10 month old is . . well, a
girl ;-) My boys love her and would like
her to live with us . .. except now she is ‘on the move’ and they really don’t
like that at all!
Our “fun” – Darryl continues to play
with the group “Alive” and has enjoyed that more this year despite his long
hours at work that make it hard to stay awake during practice. He also enjoys writing and recording his own
music too. Scrapbooking is still my main
hobby and I had the opportunity to take a weekend away with friends to do just
that in the fall. It was a great get
away and I got a lot done!! I have also
enjoyed singing in the Lakewood Choral Society again this year and am looking
forward to an upcoming Christmas concert.
Our “Not so much fun” – As I write
this Christmas letter, Darryl has been off of work for over 2 months. At the end of September, after struggling
with a very sore back, he ended up flat on his back due to a back injury. After a trip to the ER, some awful pain meds,
and an MRI he was sent to a Neurosurgeon to see what could be done. It continued to get worse so he was sent for
a CT scan as well where they found that the L4 and L5 Vertebrate had “tipped”
and were severely irritating the nerves making walking very difficult and
causing his legs to go numb. During this
time, he started dealing with stomach issues that turned into pain so severe
that I had to take him to the ER again; after several tests it appears that he
has gastritis and a possible ulcer.
Thankfully, a very, very plain, simple diet has helped that all heal and
he is doing much better (and has lost 30 pounds!!). We are still working on the back issues but,
again, some good news is that it seems to be less painful and the numbness is
not so severe. Having Darryl home has
been great – we’ve always joked that we wish he worked at home so we could
always be together but, he is technically self-employed so we’ve had to really
trust God to supply our needs, which He has done. It hasn’t been a stress free 2 months by any
means, but I can say that our faith is stronger J We are hopeful
that he can slowly return to work over the next month and going to hold off on
any surgery to see if it continues heal on its own otherwise surgery will have
to happen at a later time.
Our Home – If you have read this
letter through the years you know that I often have a “water” story. Well, I don’t want to let you down! This spring, this area experienced severe
flooding – some of the worst that has been seen in a very long time. All of our neighbors had water filled
basements and ran sump pumps for weeks to get water out. We did not J We did end up with just one small “puddle” in
a low area in the basement but I think that was from all of the neighbors
adding water to a water logged ground.
We did have a “flood” of our own, though . .. our water softener broke
and flooded our basement. Not once, but
twice. Seriously. Uuuggg!!!
After the second time, we replaced the old girl and put in a new system
(Thanks to the Cullegan Man!) which, after almost 3 months, is finally working
the way it should – the secretary knew my number because I called that office
so many times!!
Our Vacation – This year we enjoyed
a fantastic family vacation with the boys.
We decided to stick close to home and headed to Mackinaw City for a
week. The boys were beyond thrilled – we
even made a countdown chain to hang so the boys could keep track of how many
“sleeps” until we left. I can’t even
express in a letter how much fun the boys had but on the morning we were packing
to leave the boys cried, ask to be left behind, requested that we take the
pictures off the hotel walls to take home with us and we had to drive over the
bridge one last time. Even now, 6 months
later, Josh will ask when we are going back because Mackinaw City is his
favorite place. Can you guess where we
are going on vacation next summer??
