Christmas Letter, 2010

Once again, I ran out of time to do Christmas cards. So for your reading pleasure, here is the Christmas Letter that would have been in all of the cards.

Merry Christmas 2010
Dear Family and Friends,
Merry Christmas! Hope you all had a wonderful year and plan on spending the holidays with those you love.
As usual, it has been a busy year for us. We were able to sell our ranch this summer and are currently in the process of building a new home for us on our 240 acres of farmland. It still has a couple more months before being completed, the sheetrock should be in by the end of the year. The new house is just 1 ½ miles from Jeff’s parents house, and the kids are already having fun riding bikes or walking back and forth. We hope to be moved in by the end of February. In the meantime, we are renting a house between Floyd and town.
The children won’t stop growing.
Shelby is 13, in the 8th grade, and now taller than her mother. She has hit 5’8”. She is on the Junior Varsity cheer squad, plays on the Junior High volleyball, basketball and will probably run track again in the spring. She was selected for National Junior Honor Society for the 2nd year in a row and continues to be on the Honor Roll. She was also went through Confirmation at our church this spring. She’s grown into a beautiful young lady and makes us very proud.
Ch’ree is 11 and in 6th grade. She is on the Junior High and Elementary cheer squads and lately has been singing the National Anthem at the local ball games along with her best friend Gabby. She is also on the Honor Roll and will play her last year of Little Dribbler basketball this winter before going on to Junior high next year.
Chance is 8 and in 2nd grade. He is still the tallest in his class, and his feet have caught up to mine; we wear the same size boot! This year he played Flag Football and will play Little Dribbler basketball as well. He loves to play Legos and video games, and is also on Honor Roll.
Drew was 5 last month and in his 2nd year of preschool. He loves that he is one of the “big kids” this year in his class. He loves Legos and Transformers. He’s still my little “snuggle-bug” and is growing up fast.

Jeff still enjoys his job with the Portales Fire Department. He is still on the Floyd School Board and we will be coaching Ch’ree’s basketball team together. We were blessed with more rain than usual this year and had an awesome crop of hay grazer. Doubly blessed with the fact that we were able to sell it all as well.
I’ve been busy working as a substitute teacher and was hired as assistant cheer coach at Floyd, too. On top of that I decided to go back to school and work on my teaching degree; I took four classes this fall and made all As and Bs. I haven’t had time for any hobbies this year, plus it’s all packed up into a semi trailer we bought for storage, since we didn’t know what our living accommodations would be until the house was built. Jeff and I both got to play on a softball team this year. The Portales Fire Department participated in a co-ed adult city league, Jeff played right field and I played 1st base. I can’t wait for next summer to play again!
We took a couple small trips with our family this year. In June, Jenny’s mom and Wayne and some friends of theirs rented a place in Ruidoso for a few days. We met them there in our camper and went to see the historic town of Lincoln, and to White Sands Monument by Alamogordo. We also camped in Mora over Labor Day for the annual Essary Family reunion, and in June went to Littlefield, Texas for the revived McCarty family reunion.
We’ve had new family members join us, but lost a couple as well. I became an aunt two more times this year! My little brother and Nancy had their first child, a baby girl named Somi. Jeff’s sister also had a baby, a boy named Brogan. Both were born in July. Of course we have seen Brogan several times since they just live in Lubbock. But Somi is all the way in Atlanta, we hope to see her this coming year. We lost my Gram in March, and Jeff lost his Aunt Jerrie in August
Our family hopes you all have a wonderful Christmas, we look forward to seeing many of you in the coming year.
Love,
Jeff, Jenny, Shelby, Ch’ree, Chance, and Drew

House and life update, December 8th 2010

As of today I am done with this semester of college! I completed 13 hours (four classes) and am confident I did well in all.
And now that is finally over, I can actually put some new(er) house pictures up and update you!

Our Texas Star front door. I love my door, even though we don't live in Texas)
The whole house all bricked in

The back door. The blinds are IN the door! Very cool!!

Now that most of the outside is done (still have the porches and some more siding to finish), the slow inside part is next. The electricians have been there running wires (lots and lots of wires). There are actually TWO heating/cooling units. One for the kids rooms, and one bigger one for the rest of the house. Someday in the distant future when the kids are all grown and gone, we can shut the smaller one off and shut the doors, saving some energy.

Today I got to pick out cabinets and get them ordered. They are a beautiful maple, I can't wait til they come in (but I must, they won't be ready until mid-January). We hope to have the drywall and fireplace (or heater) done by Christmas, we want to spend Christmas morning there.

Now that the semester of college is behind me (until January 19th, that is), I have a lot of things to catch up on around here. Like laundry and more attention to housework. And cleaning out the car I feel I have been living in. Cooking more meals for my family. Subbing at school. Getting the little cheerleaders going for this year. Christmas cards. Playing with the kids (and playing with the kids' video games. Indiana Jones Legos for Wii!!). Next semester will start before I know it, so I better get all that done!