Holiday 2009 Letter

Dear family and friends,

We hope this finds you doing well and enjoying the holiday season. It was another busy year between school and work. We were able to spend a long weekend in August at Shaver Lake visiting friends at their cabin. We always have a great time there and the kids enjoyed jet-skiing, fishing, campfires, and, of course, making s’mores!

Mark & Cindy
In May Mark was offered the opportunity to teach again at La Costa Canyon High School where he added AP Calculus to his Geometry and Statistics classes. He completed his ELL certification and is also the math department’s instructor for a new software package the district is piloting. His love of playing golf seems to be on hiatus although he enjoys following the PGA tour events. He remains active with Ryan’s high school as a Foundation member and designed and maintains the football team website as well as being on the chain-gang for home games. He also continues to consult for a start-up company.

Cindy continues to work at the elementary school as an Instructional Aide for a Kindergartener and doing admin jobs for the office. This is her fifth year coordinating the martial arts enrichment program for eight elementary schools and recently took over the admin and website for a local lacrosse organization. She also helps a friend with his Colonial Educator’s business creating fliers and materials for his presentations. She started a blog so family and friends could see what we are up to so be sure and visit it!

The Kids
Ryan is in the 10th grade and busy working toward his driving learner’s permit. He has completed the on-line portion successfully and once he passes the practice test, we can go to the DMV for the real thing! He played football on the JV team this year as an offensive left guard. He did very well and was one of the biggest kids on the team at 6’1” and 245 lbs. Ryan continues to struggle academically, socially, and emotionally and he really does not enjoy being at school. He is now paying the price for a series of bad choices but we have been attending counseling each week and he is trying to put his life back on a positive path. Things are improving and he’s learning that trust must be earned and we won’t allow his choices to impact his siblings. Keep him in your prayers that he will find peace within himself and see the potential he has to be successful.

Connor is in the 7th grade and continues to enjoy middle school and his teachers. He chose art as his elective this year and does really well in it. He received his Black Belt certification in September and has chosen to stop training for now to spend more time playing lacrosse. He was RB’s ball boy for the JV and Varsity games this year and continues to be annoyed we won’t let him play Pop Warner football! You can often find him practicing his kicking out back with his football net and loves wearing his variety of jerseys!

Kelleigh is in the 6th grade and adjusted to middle school life well. She likes changing classes and has really great teachers. Math and art are her favorite subjects and she reads over five books a week – you never see her without one! She took piano lessons until the summer and we hope to begin with a new teacher after the holidays. She continues to practice and plays very well. She and Connor are working towards earning cell phones but have to make the Honor Roll first. Much to our annoyance, their new favorite pastime is to argue as soon as they lay eyes on one another!

“The Boys” are very spoiled and have yet to realize they are dogs! Shadow is now 10 and Buddy is 2. They have their daily routine complete with games, naps, daily snacks from Grandma, bones to chew, and no shortage of attention!

We wish all the best to your family in the coming year and hope that you will keep in touch as we enjoy hearing from all of you.