Holiday Greetings!

Both the kids are in high school finally! They go to Corona Del Sol in Tempe. Erik is a junior and Sarah is a freshman. Erik just took the practice SAT in preparation for the real one in March. He decided to not wrestle this year to instead focus on his grades as he's in honors courses. He wants to be a nuclear engineer, specializing in fusion technology, and so will need to work hard to get into a good college who specializes in that. No steady girlfriend yet, but not for lack of trying. The big news for him is he is driving!

Sarah started out her freshman year doing well, but has been struggling lately when it came time for final exams. She's lobbying to be home schooled, but the problem with that is I'm not home...so that's not going to happen. Her good news is she has a “boyfriend” named Alex. They don't actually see each other outside of school but I did make him come over once so I could meet him. Seems like a nice kid. Sarah is leaning towards being a vet tech working with animals, and perhaps one day a K-9 police officer. She'll probably go to the vocational school starting in sophomore year because they offer a vet tech certificate.

Lynda’s biggest news is she left ASU and took a job as the HR Manager for Chandler-Gilbert Community College. There’s 1,000 employees counting adjunct faculty and 18,000 students. It’s a very nice campus for being a community college. It even has dorms, sports teams and a performing arts theatre. She’s learning a lot and enjoying the people she works with. She has one more class and then will have a graduate certificate in educational technology and instructional design. She plans to start teaching one class on the side as an adjunct professor at Chandler-Gilbert next fall.

The biggest change for all of us though is that Lars got a new job, but it’s in Novi, Michigan! It’s been nice to have a steady income again, but it's difficult to be apart so much. We try to see each every other weekend but that doesn't always work out. He's renting a room in a nice house from an older lady who has adult children there and one other renter. He's liking his job although he's travelling a lot more than expected to Kentucky and Ohio. We are waiting it out for now - we have to live in our AZ house until next September or else would have to pay back the $8,000 tax credit that the government provided to buy this house. Don't want to have to pay that back!

We are looking forward to seeing each other, friends and family for Christmas in OH/KY/TN! We're flying out Christmas Day to meet Lars in Ohio and see friends for a few days. We'll go to Kentucky Tuesday after or so to visit family and friends and then all my siblings and mother are driving to Gatlinburg in TN where we rented a house in the Smokey Mountains from Wed through New Year's Day. Should be a blast!

We wish you and yours a very wonderful holiday season. Remember it's not about Christmas presents, it's about Christ's presence! Love, Lars, Lynda, Erik, Sarah

Fall in Michigan

Oranges in bloom!

Miles and family

Hailey is in a shy stage and doesn't like to be looked at or talked to when she first comes over. She can give stink eye better than anybody! But when she smiles for the camera she's adorable!

Day of service

My church congregation performs many, many service projects in a year, but once or twice, we select 2-3 people in our own congregation and go to their houses to help with projects. Yesterday, which also happened to be national day of service day, I was the lucky recipient. I've had to put so many projects on hold since Lars has been working again, plus me starting a new job and also taking two graduate level classes, that it's become overwhelming. I had a very long list, but inside the house and out, and didn't expect but a few to get done.

The "crew" showed up at 8:00 am. I didn't count the number, but I suspect at least 30-40 arrived at various times. I was most impressed with the children, who worked really hard. They also managed to squeeze in a little fun jumping on the trampoline.

While one crew was outside trimming bushes, palm trees, fruit trees and the grass, another crew was inside completing my "honey-do" projects. Outside I needed a few bushes torn out because they were the kind that grow so fast that I couldn't keep up with trimming them on a regular basis so it was easier to take them out and replace them with something that still looks good when overgrown. :) There were a few bushes by the pool that also needed to come out because the leaves keep clogging up the pool filter. There was also a dead palm by the pool that needed removing. I was thrilled by getting all that labor done of dragging the trimmings from the back of the yard to the front because our City will pick it up for free, but it has to be out near the sidewalk. The kids did a great job doing the hauling!

In the end, we were able to help my neighbor also, who had been expressing a desire for a long time to have one of his trees cut down, and so we did. Then he reminded me that one of my trees along our block wall fence was damaging our shared wall with its root system. I didn't really want to see that tree go, but I knew he was right that it would just continue to damage the wall, so the crew cut it down too. I couldn't believe that we were able to get all that work done outside!

On the inside, the list was long:

remove the damaged door from Erik getting locked out of the house
install the new door
install the hardware on the new door
install a cat door
replace a ceiling fan
clean the wood blinds
replace a vent fan in one of the bathrooms
repair the kitchen sink faucet
re-set the low tire indicator in my car
install license plate on my new used car
replace Sarah's bedroom light switch
hang a shelf in the bathroom
clean my permanent furnace filter
replace the water spigot outside
take the corroded water sprayer off the hose
re-program my sprinkler system

I would have been thrilled to get 2-3 items off that list, but they all got done! And in under 3 hours! What a wonderful gift. I feel like I won the lottery! I can't thank my church family enough. I truly love each and everyone dearly! The picture doesn't show everyone, so I will try to remember them all in name:

Hoppa family
Ludwig family
Tredway family
Boirum family
Welly family
Bashford family
Hatch family
Sims family
Brown family
Atkin family
Johnson family
Oplinger family
Smith family
Starks family
Jones family
Alfaro family
Heywood family
McMaster family
Willis family

Our new used car

Found a used car on Craigslist that we were able to buy since Erik is driving now. It's a 2001 Honda Civic but only has 79,500 miles on it. Got it for about $1,000 under blue book value from someone in our neighborhood. In fact he lives on the same streeet that we lived on before we moved to this house. Small world! Actually Lars is going to drive this car and give me back the Mazda. Erik can drive the Buick.

Erik's junior year first day

Smitty kitty

Sarah's freshman year first day

Erik's Court of Honor

Erik received his Eagle Scout rank on Sunday, March 20, 2011 at our church building. Greg Atkin was the master of ceremony and Bellamy Brown introduced Erik to the friends gathered there. Greg and Jay Simms presented the Medal to Erik and Erik presented the Mother and Father pins to me and Lars. Todd Smith gave a wonderful talk to and about Erik and also made a slide show of pictures of Erik over the years in Scouts that was wonderful! Granny, Betsy Simms and Carrie Moyle made yummy desserts for refreshments. We had cookies, cupcakes, brownies and punch. We laid out a display of pictures of Erik over the years as well as some of the projects he made during his years of Scouting. It was a great celebration, and we are very proud of his accomplishment!