December 2010 Christmas letter

As I look back over 2010, I am continually amazed at God's provision for us, His awesome attention to detail and His protection. I pray you've experienced this yourself because, I gotta say, life is pretty dull/sterile/hopeless without Jesus!

Here are synopses of our lives:

Nate - started cooperative preschool AND hockey this year! He attends ParentShare Preschool three days per week and calls it is "real school" as opposed to MouseTrap daycare where he attends whenever I'm working. He is growing like a weed, both height-wise and verbally. At four, he's in the embarrassing statement phase of life - one that's great for stories but produces cringes for everyone else at the time. My most memorable anecdote this year: At the fair, we were sitting in a crowded area eating dinner. He points out the woman right behind him - less than 5 inches - and says, "Mommy, look at her hair." This woman has a long braid hanging down her back. I say, 'Yes, isn't she pretty?" He says - "Yeah, and she has a REALLY BIG bottom."

Mary Grace - turned 11 this year. She is in fifth grade at Academy Charter School, taking piano lessons, played basketball and participated in robotics this season. She is busy raising money with her Girl Scout troop to take a California trip next May and walk the Golden Gate Bridge with 3000 other scouts. She's as tall as I am - finally - and a huge help with her little brother. Her favorite thing this year was our big family vacation and the fact that we added a kitten to our household this fall.

Luke - is going on 15. He ended 8th grade with a class trip to Washington DC and started high school this year. He has adjusted well to the idea of permanent grades, deadlines and endless hockey practices. He's a swing player on JV and varsity hockey, and also ran both JV and varsity cross country. He's a member of Mat-Su Youth Court, where teens learn the law by acting as prosecutors/defense attorneys and judges for their peers who have pled guilty to misdemenors. His least favorite thing about this year was the loss of his beloved cat/best buddy, Casey, who disappeared last August.

Roger - turned 40 and had THREE separate parties to celebrate this fact. He continues to travel about half the year all over the world, to Belgium, S. Korea, China, Ethopia and Dubai. After three years, we've found peace despite his frequent absences and he does love his job. He also likes staying home when he has time off, but was a good sport for a five-week, multi-state/Canada vacation in June. We visited family in several states, spent a week in NYC before heading up to Nova Scotia. It was one of those once-in-a-lifetime family trips.

Me - cannot believe I'm almost 30! Ha. I'm on my next-to-last class to finish up my master's degree. After much prayer, I decided to take another year to finish graduate school before Nate started kindergarten. I've been substituting long- and short-term, and teach a Wednesday night class to 5-6 year-olds at church. While full-time teaching is the eventual goal, I'm willing to wait for the right time. It is a trick negotiating solo parenting with full-time work and extremely busy kids.

We look forward to hearing from you all - my new email is rewrighter@gmail.com. If you have yet to visit Alaska, come on up! We promise fishing, four-wheeling, mountain hiking and glacier-visiting. May God bless you in 2011.

It has been a VERY busy October. Nate and Grace are dressing up tonight as Thomas the Train and Red Riding Hood to go out and forage for candy. (Roger was the big bad wolf.) I bought four bags of candy so we're set. On Friday, Grace had her 11th birthday party, complete with 8 girls and a trip to our church's Harvest Festival. They had a great time...although I'm thinking this will be the last year to have so many at once. Each year they get bigger and louder and more giggly...

Roger was in Belgium most of this month. He's home now but thinking he's leaving again Tuesday for Malaysia. This means less than a week at home...sigh. In the meantime, I've been doing a long-term sub job for Grace's teacher at Academy. The kids are great but the schedule is beyond hectic as a single mom. With all three kids doing sports and activities, most nights I'm not home until 8-9 p.m. which leaves very little time for prep or grading. Her teacher comes back Wednesday and I'm counting the hours. The job has put me far behind in my research class so I have to really hustle to get the research done and the paper written by the end of this month.

Luke is a swing freshman on the high school varsity hockey team. This means he gets to play both varsity and JV, in addition to playing on the bantam team for club hockey. Some days he has three practices back-to-back, which is great but leaves him exhausted. He's doing okay in school so far but hopefully he'll improve as he adjusts to the bigger classes/more distractions of high school. His first HS games are Wednesday; I'm trying not to stress at the thought of all those bigger kids slamming Luke against the boards.

Mary Grace is playing basketball. They had their first "game" last week, although there's no scoring and the 4/5th grades play together. The coaches are also the referees and basically guide the girls through the plays in 5-minute increments. Grace made a basket during the game, despite having nothing to practice with at home and never having played before. She's busy with piano and Girl Scouts and robotics....and putting up with me as her teacher.

Nate is skating IP - or intro-to-play hockey twice a week. I have deja vu everytime I watch him because he's just like Luke at this age...although a little whinier. I have a video of his first time on the ice - he's the player in white in the middle of the frame. (see below) It's amazing how fast he learns. Although he's missed almost a month of preschool, we did manage to go on a field trip to the local reindeer farm, where Nate was quickly bored with feeding the reindeer.

We have a loss and a new addition to our family. Our beloved Casey cat disappeared around fair time last August. We think/hope he wandered into someone's RV, and rode off to a new home. I REALLY miss him - he was one of a kind. A few weeks ago, we visited the local shelter and came home with Anubis, a black kitten who is adorably crazy. He torments our older cats mercilessly, races around the house attacking things and has terrible gas whenever he eats the older cats' food. (The kids want to call him stinky) So now I feed him separately just like I did Casey. He's great but there'll never be another Casey.

Fall begins

Our schedules are ramping up the more weeks of school pass. Roger's been gone for three weeks and counting so he's missed most of it, but we've been healthy and busy.

Luke is in the middle of cross country. He switches between JV and varsity each race. The race pictured here was at Colony High. He's at the end of a 5K (I love the expression of the kid in Wasilla yellow - he's trying SOO hard!) which Luke finished 8th out of 143 boys. Luke is determined to letter as a freshman and this has given wings to his otherwise reluctant feet. He's decided to play club hockey another year (ugh) as a Bantam prior and after the high school hockey season. That starts next week so we'll have about 3 weeks of overlap juggling two sports. Luke is also involved with youth court and he wants to keep a 4.0 in advanced classes so this will be a very busy time for him.

Nate's first day of preschool was today. One of my goals was to enroll him in a cooperative preschool like I did with the other two. I didn't have time last year so was thrilled when a spot opened up at Parentshare Preschool's 4 year-old class. He's pictured with his teacher, Jenny Nash. I'll be working twice a month - along w/ various other volunteer work, I'm sure - but really looking forward to getting to know other families with boys Nate's age. Nate will be in the IP hockey program this year also. I can't wait to see him all padded up and hitting the ice for the first time....and second, third, fourth, etc., etc. It'll be deja vu Luke all over again. I'll be sure to take video and post it.

Grace will be doing Battle of the Books this year. (Yeah, I bribed her with the promise of a hamster but the girl needs to READ.) Her girl scout troop is raising money for a trip to SanFran in May to attend a bridging ceremony on the Golden Gate Bridge. I'll try to work Disneyland in while we're there. She's also taking piano lessons and talking about joining the school basketball team when the season starts. We'll see if that happens. She's my laid back girl in between two very high energy boys so it's nice to have one restful child. She's almost taller than I am and we can no longer wear the same shoes - her feet are bigger!

Roger is supposed to come home later this week. I hope he gets to stay at least as long as he was gone. I've just started one of my final graduate classes on classroom research. It's basically a semester-long qualitative research project which I will grit my teeth and endure. Only two more after this and I'm DONE. I've also started writing again. After a two-year hiatus, I'd forgotten how easy it is to lose myself in words. I'll start scouting for an agent after Christmas.

Everyone had a blast 4-wheeling at the Jonesville mine over the weekend. The kids got totally muddy but it was worth it.

Summer is over...

School started for Grace Monday and Luke starts high school Thursday so summer is over for us already! We set a new record for consecutive days of rain, beating a 1951 record of 27 days. We're at 31 and counting. So it's just as well school is starting because everyone is going stir crazy. Last week we managed to pick 10 cups of blueberries at Hatcher Pass. It was pouring rain but we were high in the mountains and had a gorgeous, if watery, view. We got home soaked to the skin but very happy. (Or Luke and I were. We're the only ones who really like blueberries.)

We bought two four-wheelers and a trailer last weekend. It was a pretty good deal on Craigslist and I think the kids will have fun. They'll ride them around the yard til the snow flies and I plan to invest in helmets next spring. We'll also need another 4-wheeler because we can't all fit on two.

Roger left this morning for South Korea, then Malaysia, then Belgium and either Miami or CT. He'll be back in three weeks or so. We have tickets to see Bill Cosby Sept. 13 and I hope he's back by then.

Luke started cross country two weeks ago and made the varsity team. He now calls himself the "Varsity Hard Body" and his goal is to letter in the sport. His first meet was last night; the next one is this weekend in Anchorage. Grace's first piano lesson is next week. She's also keeping up with Girl Scouts and church. She plans on doing basketball at school later this fall...that should be interesting. And Nate starts preschool next month.

I'm taking this year to finish my master's degree. I had two interviews last month but didn't get offered either position - both went to experienced teachers. Some years are good for beginners, some years aren't, or so I'm told. I was concerned about putting Nate in full-time care, while working full-time and finishing school anyway, (not to mention being a single parent most of the time) so it's probably for the best. I'm treating this year as a gift. Hopefully next year something will happen. In the meantime, I'm already plotting a trip for next summer.

We're home and enduring a typical AK summer - 4-5 days of rain for each sunny day. Grace is at camp this week sleeping in a teepee instead of a cabin (which she wasn't thrilled about but that's what she gets for procrastinating her sign up). Luke follows her next week and is doing a hockey camp this week. He finished the orientation for Mat-Su Youth Court and got sworn in last night. In youth court, teens act as lawyers for other teens who have a first-time misdemeanor. The youth court kids act as a prosecutor, defense attorney or judge. Luke is pretty excited about it - he seems to enjoy knowing the law (and how to manipulate it).

Nate started swimming lessons and is learning to put his head in the water without freaking out and kick with straight legs. It's all quite exciting...

Roger got home Monday from Ethiopia finally. It's nice to have him back even if he's working. I'm studying for a big test I have to take on Saturday to make me highly qualified to teach middle school social studies. I don't recall learning most of what I'm studying until college so it's a challenge. It'll be interesting to see if I pass. I'm at the mercy of the school district for a job - no calls yet - and trying to enjoy the rest of summer and not freak out.

In between Roger getting home from Bankgkok last Friday and leaving for Malaysia Saturday, it's been a packed week. Luke got home from Washington DC early Monday morning. They visited all over DC, including the White HOuse (no cameras allowed) Capitol Hill, the Smithsonian, Library of Congress and went to Williansburg, visited Jamestown, Arlington and Manassas. He took a ton of pictures but very few of them are of him. They did visit Madame Tussaud's wax museum and I've posted a few just for fun. Judging from his body language and his stories, he had an awesome time although he'll just shrug and say it was okay if asked directly.

Right after he got home, the kids' school swung into high gear for World Fair. Every classroom gets completely immersed in whatever culture or period of history the students choose. Luke's class did British Imperialism, complete with a Yorktown and African savanna. He was a Zulu warrior who got slaughtered by the British at the Battle of Roark Ridge (or something like that). Grace was Molly Pitchard, who lived during the Revolutionary War. I helped a lot this year, being done with my own program for now (YEA! - am now a fully certified teacher and on the job hunt!) and it is a lot of work - taking out desks, making scenery, costumes, memorizing lines, preparing food, etc. We held it yesterday and it's open to the community until 5:30. A looong day but worth it.

Finally, Roger fixed up a riding lawn mower we got for free last winter. A neighbor left it out so the engine block cracked. It's brand new and we bought a motor for it. After a couple delays, he got it running and built a ramp so we can drive it into the shed. The kids took turns driving it around. Hopefully instead of whining when it's time to mow, there'll be fighting over who gets to do it.

I've also posted a photo of Nate at an Easter egg hunt and Grace when we went skiing at Alyeska.

Next up: Luke gets 'promoted' from 8th grade...