Merry Christmas
and All the Best for 2009 from Cathy & Ted,
Sheila
& Blondie (the dogs),
Pokey & Cocoa (the Amazons), Big Red (the Macaw),
and Cleo & Calista (Chris’ cats)!
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We’ve survived another
year and it’s time for the annual form
letter! It has been a relatively eventful
year, so here goes...
Cathy got her “Read 180” program running
smoothly, but this year she really wanted to return to
a traditional classroom. So
she got a job teaching 6th grade at another school,
taking over a “broken” class in a really rough area of
the county. With her
usual skill, she got those kids (and their parents)
straightened out in no time, and is having some real
success in turning around the class.
How does she do it? By
caring and giving Fs when the kids deserve it - which
shocks the parents enough to get the kids to do their
studying! Almost all
parents care, it’s just that some (many?) teachers in
underprivileged areas won’t make the hard choice to
deal with the issue. To
me, Cathy’s bravery is awesome, given the cultural
differences in that area.
Chris, Janna, Geoff and Connor made some major
changes this year as well. Chris
completed his MBA, and was hired as the Regional
Director for lodging for US Naval Forces, Japan, which
includes all the Navy and Marine Corps installations
in the Far East. He is a
GS-15/O-6 equivalent - not bad for a kid who turns 30
this month. They came
through this past August on their way to Yokosuka
Naval Station, which is south of Tokyo, mainly to drop
off their minivan and cats for us to take care of
until they return in 3-5 years. They
live
on base, just a 5-minute walk to Chris’ work and a
10-minute walk to the boys’ school.
Chris says the savings in gas and utilities
will allow him to keep paying his mortgage on the
house in Atlanta, but asks if anyone needs a nice
place back there to let him know!
Janna and the boys are doing great and settling
in to on-base life, even learning a little Japanese. They seem to spend most of
their spare time in Yokohama at the big park and
shopping area, and have already started to fill their
apartment with Japanese souvenirs!
Greg, Rebekah and Kirsten had an interesting
year too. Greg is the
Training NCO for his Security Forces Squadron at
Hurlburt Field in Florida. He
took a team over for a deployment to Balad, Iraq, and
they all made it home safe after getting rocketed
almost daily for four months. Rebekah
completed her Bachelor’s Degree, and is still doing
great at AF Special Ops Command Headquarters in the
‘manpower’ business. Kirstin
turned 3 and is talking up a storm!
Unfortunately, Rebekah’s father passed away
last month, and Cathy flew out to take care of, and
really get to know, Kirstin while Rebekah and Greg
went up to Ohio to take care of things.
We’ll be going to their place for Christmas
this year again.
I’m still goofing off as a ‘retiree’. I’ve been involved with the
Chagos Conservation Trust for a while, and have
contributed to some studies they have conducted
regarding the conservation of those islands. As a result, this summer I
was invited to attend a week-long European Union
conference on climate change and biodiversity, all
expenses paid! The
conference was on France’s Reunion Island in the
Indian Ocean, and it was a very interesting trip,
considering I’m not yet a believer in man-made climate
change and was the only American attendee out of 600! It was very interesting to
get to know some of the people there, and especially
fascinating to learn how different European countries
think about global issues - the old world has a long
way to go before they develop a consensus on
anything...
Sadly, both of our dogs died this year, so
we’ve got two new pups, about 6 months apart. Sheila is an Australian
Shepherd and Blondie is a miniature poodle. They are very smart, and
extremely lively - Warning! Do
not get an Aussie unless you are ready to own a bobcat
on speed! The pups have
filled a real void in our lives - it is amazing how
important the dogs are to Cathy and me.
We had several visitors this year. Cathy’s brother, Gary, came
out twice. Garry Hedrick,
who was on Diego Garcia with me, visited with his
family, as did Anders Hansen, who lived next door to
me during pilot training - they came all the way from
Denmark where he flies for SAS!
Eric
is
still in Oklahoma and doing fine. We brought
him home for visits in January and June, and he
was able to see Chris who was here in June on a
business trip. Mom and Dad are still going
strong. Dad and I went over to a bomb
squadron reunion in Roswell this fall, and we all
go out to breakfast every Sunday. Kerry is
doing great. Her daughter Jessie is still in
Tucson and son Jon is now in Denver.
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Here're some other
Christmas e-cards you might want to see:
Don't forget to check out my website at http://www.zianet.com/tedmorris/dg/ You can see a bunch of pictures I've taken over the years on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/30832662@N05/sets/BTW, we are both on Facebook: Cathy: https:www.facebook.com/cat.morris.9484 Ted: https://www.facebook.com/ted.morris.1951 |
