Well,
here
is this year’s news… Not much and not very exciting
but maybe something of interest:
Cathy
is
finishing up her last year as a teacher… or so she
says. She
was eligible to retire last summer, but decided to
carry on for another year. Her school
is K-8, and she is teaching 7th & 8th
grade Social Studies and History, as well as
remedial reading for elementary students.
I
haven’t done very much that I can point at and say
“look at that!” I still take pictures and try to
help out with a local living history outfit. I did cut
off my pony tail finally (donated it to “locks of
love”) and I had a couple of minor surgeries -
another one to fix my foot and one to fix my throat,
which hasn’t quite solved the problem. BTW, if you
can avoid throat surgery, I would advise it!
This
past
summer Cathy and I took a trip down to Florida
mainly to swear my youngest son in for another
enlistment in the Air Force. He and
Rebekah are doing well in their careers. Greg tests
for Senior Master Sergeant this year, and Rebekah
was selected as the A-1 (Personnel & Services)
NCO of the Year for the entire USAF! Grandaughter
Kirstin
is quite the gymnast, artist, and reader too!
We
also
took the opportunity to go down to SW Florida to see
Cathy’s brothers.
We tried our hardest to spend our kids’
inheritance by staying in nice hotels along the way,
and really enjoyed the Edison Beach House on Ft.
Myers Beach, the Gruene Apple B&B in New
Braunfels, and the Sheraton on the corner of Bourbon
& Toulouse Streets in New Orleans. If you get a
chance to stay in those places, I think you’ll like
them.
In
September
we once again attended the annual film festival here
in Las Cruces.
As always there were some really good flicks,
and some real dogs.
Best of all, Cathy got to meet one of her
favorite actors, Lou Diamond Phillips, who turned
out to be very gracious and personable too.
In
November
our son Chris got to stop by for a week en route TDY
(TAD for you Navy types). He and his
family are still in Naples, Italy where he is a
civilian working for the US Navy. Janna is a
full time substitute in the elementary school there,
and Geoffrey (oldest grandson) is now in Boy Scouts. Connor
(youngest) is a Webelo Scout. Both are
on the honor roll at school, and we are very proud
of them.
We
had
other visitors throughout the year (you know who you
are) and in November my sister’s son, Jon, got
married in Colorado, although we weren’t able to
attend.
I
suppose the really big news is that my folks moved
into an Assisted Care community in September. Dad’s 86
and is fully disabled through the VA. Mom is 84
and has some dementia.
For quite a while they’ve been able to help
each other out and make up a lot for the other’s
disabilities. Over time though, they needed more
help than my sister Kerry or I could provide on a
daily basis. They are in a beautiful place in a 2-BR
apartment with
their dog and don’t have to do anything but show
up for meals in the dining room.
As
luck
would have it, just a few weeks after they move in,
Dad became very ill with a series of ailments and
has been in the hospital or rehab since late
September. He’s
doing well enough that they let him come over to the
house for Thanksgiving and hopefully only a couple
more weeks of rehab to go and he’ll be home for
Christmas.
We
had
Eric home twice this year – for Christmas 2012 and
again in September.
He is really doing well there in the home in
Oklahoma. His
meds are well balanced, he can carry on a long
conversation, and he’s got a girl friend too.
