December 23, 2015
Dear everyone I know,
Right now I’m in Coeur d’Alene Idaho, sitting at Josh and
Megan’s kitchen table, looking out the window at 15 inches of snow! I’m here to celebrate my newest Grand Baby
Elizabeth’s first Christmas with her and her parents. J It’s warm in the kitchen, Megan is making
spritz cookies, baby is sleeping, and Josh is working…so I thought to use this
time to get this letter written.
We not only have a new Grand Girl but also a new Grand Boy! Scott’s son Brad and wife Megan had their son
Elliott Scott on February 10 and 12 days later on February 22, Elizabeth LaRue
was born. Both are thriving cutie pies with big smiles; I have to admit that Elliott
has a lot more hair than Elizabeth. In
fact, my sister has called him Prince Luscious Locks.
Scott and I had a good 2015; not as much travel this year as
last year… if you read my letter last year, you know we traveled the country
for six months. As wonderful as all that was, I needed to find a job and in
January I started work at Greenwood Middle School as a 6th grade
instructional aide. This past September
I switched over to the Central 9 Career Academy, a vocational school for 9
school systems. I’m doing basically the
same thing at C9 as I did at GMS…friendly nagging and crowd control.
Travel. Last Easter I
came to Idaho to meet Elizabeth and contrived to hold her for the whole
week. Once school was out in May, we
headed west again in our RV with Sam and Jenna as co-pilots. Stops included the Corn Palace in Mitchell SD,
the Badlands, Mount Rushmore, Devil’s Tower, Wall Drugs, and Little Big Horn, ending
up here in Coeur d’Alene for some family time.
Leaving Sam and Jenna here to tickle Elizabeth, Scott and I continued to
Oregon, meeting up with Cousins Sue and Bob Wilkins, and then driving and
camping up the coast, ending up in Seattle.
Back home by mid-July, we had the house re-sided and the roof replaced, and
then I was back to work. Work really
puts a damper on things, doesn’t it?
Scott is still enjoying his retirement – he makes noises about finding a
part time job but he’s not looking really hard.
My son Josh and wife Megan are having fun with Elizabeth,
watching her grow. Josh programs from
home for HP and Megan is an elementary school counselor. Idaho is way too far away from Indiana for my
liking but we skype often and they’re good about sending me pictures of
Elizabeth’s smiley little face. I crocheted
her a blanket before she was born, the colors of the rainbow. It makes me happy to see that it is her
favorite blanket, the one she sleeps with it every night!
My son Tim and Mary are both teachers in the Lafayette
Indiana school system. Mary is an
English teacher at the high school and Tim is teaching 8th grade
algebra. They’re doing so well with
raising their boy Clark – he’s a fun little guy and I love it when I get to
hang out with him.
My son Sam and Jenna are living in Bloomington Indiana. He’s working as a Tech Writer, hoping to get
a novel or two published, and Jenna is working as a Costume Technician for the
Jacobs School of Music, at Indiana University.
Scott’s a lucky guy – both of his children and their
families are mere minutes down the street.
His daughter Jessica and her husband Shawn have two girls. Kaylinn is a high school freshman and Kamryn
is in 5th grade. Brad and his
wife Megan are handling two babies…their daughter Gretchen is 19 months and
Elliott (aka Prince Luscious Locks) is 10 months.
My boys and their girls, Scott’s kids, and all the Grands
make us very happy. Grands are the best,
aren’t they?
PS
It’s now Christmas Eve morning and I’m back at the table,
sitting next to Elizabeth as we both eat our oatmeal. It’s still snowing! There has to be almost 20
inches out there on the porch. Yet when I
talked to Scott this morning, he informed me that yesterday in Greenwood it was
60 or so degrees and a tornado hit the area.
Weird Weird!
As I was making my oatmeal, I heard Megan tell Elizabeth
that it was her very first Christmas Eve!
And I had to laugh because it’s my 58th Christmas Eve. And wow, how the cast of characters in my
life has changed! Life is as weird as
that tornado but as long as I’ve got Scott and my boys and girls and all those
grands to hug and roll around on the floor with…Life Is Good!
HO HO HO and Merry Christmas!
