2008 Newsletter

I found it interesting to read last year’s letter in preparation for writing this year’s. Some things change, some stay the same. And really, compared to many years, this has not been a year of much change. I am in the same job, Joyce still homeschools the kids (those left at home), Lynne has exchanged pregnancy for motherhood (that’s just a small change, right? ;-), John is still studying Computer Science at ACU, Philip is still finishing high school (well, he is done now), and Cara still reads voraciously.

Okay, so the biggest change for us this year was becoming grandparents with the arrival of our granddaughter Alanna on February 16th! Being grandparents has been a wonderful experience. I recommend it to those who are wondering if it is something they might want to do. Oh, wait, you don’t get to decide that, do you. And, that is one of the advantages of being a grandparent – very few decisions! Lynne and Ben are still in New Orleans, Ben is still chasing down criminals (literally) and also fulfilling his National Guard duty as required. Lynne is at home and takes care of a baby, a dog, several cats, and tries to rescue as many of the critters the cats drag in as possible. We had a nice visit with Lynne, Alanna, and the dog during Hurricane Ike (one positive result of the hurricane, in my opinion) when they had to evacuate New Orleans. Ben had to stay behind, of course.

This summer we (Joyce, Steve, John, Philip, and Cara) were able to visit Peru with Steve’s sisters Cindy and Becky, Cindy’s children Will and Maria, and Becky’s husband Tim (group picture at Machu Picchu is on the front of the card). We had a very nice trip with all the great experiences of a third-world country all compressed into a 10-day trip: beautiful scenery, impressive hand crafts, amazing ruins, national strikes, stolen passport, food poisoning, …. My bother-in-law Tim preached both Sundays we were there, and I translated one of his sermons into a language somewhat similar to Spanish (I hope), though I think there was a good percentage of made-up words sprinkled in here and there.

If I had to characterize this year I would call it the “Year of the Motorcycle.” After purchasing a newer motorcycle (to augment my old Nighthawk that wasn’t working at the time) late last year I joined a local motorcycle club. Between riding to work, a few club rides, and few family rides I put over 10,000 miles on it this year. Philip got his motorcycle license this year – on my birthday! In some ways it was a like a birthday present for me, because Philip accompanied me on a three-day ride down to Port Aransas and back. He rode my old 1984 Nighthawk. It was nice having company for the trip. Joyce decided to dust off her motorcycle license and bought herself two (!) motorcycles this year. She found a small Honda Rebel in January that she rode to get reacquainted with riding, and just two months ago got a nice Honda Shadow. She has already put about 1,000 miles on it. I’m trying to convince Joyce to take a trip into the Texas Hill Country with me over the Christmas break since the weather is supposed to be pretty nice.

There was one other significant milestone for us this year: We celebrated our 25th anniversary in December.  We had barbecue at a small local establishment with live blues music (open mic) and then went to an English pub and played pool. Probably not the most typical anniversary celebration, but it worked for us!

-- Steve