HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010
To all of our dear friends and our fortunate family;
We have had yet another busy year in our family. To start off with John still works at Semitool and we started the year off with a big pay cut, and mandatory vacation time for the past year. Recently a company in California has purchased his company so there are lots of changes in the future for him and us. We are praying they will be good ones.
Rebecca (28) and Claude still live in New York, and just moved to another apartment. They were outgrowing their current one with 2 little ones under foot. Joshua is 2 ½ yrs old now and such the cutie. He loves trains and Mighty Machines. He is always getting himself and his sister into lots of things. Hannah is the beautiful 1 yr old in October. She is so adorable and we have yet to see her in person but thank goodness for web cams, it is the best invention for long distance grandchildren. Joshua likes to read his books to us on it. Rebecca is a wonderful mom and is always on the go and doing some cooking, experiment or outing with her two.
Johnny (Paco) is doing great. He is now 26 and is still working at the Blue Cow car wash. He had a girlfriend that he was dating for one year but had his heart crushed when she decided it was over. He is on the mend and doing well. He also bought a Old English Bulldog, “Oscar”. Oscar is quite the digger and chewer. He comes over to visit us and Bella and Buttons. They are not so fond of this oversized puppy. But Oscar does not care, he is all about the play.
James and Amanda are living not far from us. He is doing great and will be done with parole this coming October. That is a huge milestone for him. They plan on being married in 2011.
Hope is doing great. She is 14. She is in the 8th grade and is a almost ‘A’ student and on the honor roll again. She will start high school in the fall. She has had a 2-year break on surgeries and we go back to Seattle in April sometime for her appointments I guess we will find out… She gets her braces off on January 15th. Whoo Hoo!!!! She has been going to the orthodontist for 4 years now and was officially his longest running patient. She is thrilled to get them off. Her teeth look so beautiful and straight. Amazing how they can move teeth from the palate to the gum line. She is quite the budding artist. She loves to draw her Anime characters and says she wants to go to school for this type of cartooning. She is currently taking piano lessons with my sister Debby. She is doing very well and she accompanied the school orchestra on the piano for a piece in the fall, and did fabulous. She also plays the viola in the Kalispell Middle School orchestra. She was in cross-country again this year and still loves to run.
AnnaGrayce is 9 now and still very tiny. She is in the 3rd grade, and doing very well. Straight A’s also. She is very inquisitive still and we call her the girl with a million questions. She loves animals and literally loves our dogs too much. She dresses poor Bella up in doll clothes and then takes photos of her. Poor Bella!! Anna is so out going and quite the creative soul. She loves to build things. Love lego’s and K’Nex. She enjoys playing with her niece Aroura when she is here.
Aroura is living with her great grandmother and Social Services is now involved. We have been driving back and forth for visits with her and to court hearings. We are hoping her mother can make right choices for Aroura and her twin brothers who are also in foster care. Hopefully we will get word soon on this case. We are the first placement if not. So we may be raising yet another little girl. It seems like we are destined to do that. We call it the girls club around here.
As for me, I am getting older but still raising kids. I stay at home a lot and have taken up the art of knitting for my grandkids. It is fun and keeps me out of most trouble. We are still refurbishing this old house and it seemed to be a 18 year old project. I love doing it. I put in a sitting garden last year and we just about live out there in the warm weather it is our next living room. This spring I plan to till up the north side of the house and create a shade garden to sit in and plant Hydrangeas and shade ferns. It will be very nice. I also redid the front planter in front of the old porch and it is beautiful and will be larger this year. So yes I keep busy and whenever we can I go and pick up Aroura Roze and bring her here for a few days. We enjoyed days at the lake this year a lot with the girls. Hopefully we can go on a real vacation this summer.
We are wishing you the very Happiest New Year and enjoy your families as they grow up too fast.
God Bless you all!!
Love ,
John, Tami,
Hope, AnnaGrayce and Aroura Roze
