Happy New Year from Stella, Jenette, Maggie & Mark!
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What a year 2011 has been… and if you haven’t visited the
blog before, here is a little re-cap of some highlights of our year….or, if you
have the time, you are more than welcome to scroll thru the previous posts.
M:
He is still employed with NC Power Systems here in
Tukwila and has been going non-stop with work.
The only real time-off he has been able to take was a week in June for a
rugby trip to Belgium with the Valley Kangaroo boys and a few days in October
for us to do some fishing with his sisters and their husbands over in Forks, WA. That was a ton of fun and I hope we can make
it an annual excursion.
The big news on his end is he applied for and was
accepted for a position in Dutch Harbor, AK that will start in Feb of 2012. This is a possibility that he has talked
about and hoped for, for a long time. I
remember him talking about it when we started dating. Have no fear; this change does not entail us
having to move up to Alaska (sorry Chevonne).
Instead, he will be on a 30 day on – 30 day off rotation. We are super excited that this opportunity
presented itself so that we might be able to actually plan things now, like making
it to more Griz games and a few more fishing weekends over in Forks.
J:
I was able to visit the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial in
January while I was there on a week of work assignments. That was a very powerful and moving
experience for me and I am so grateful I was given that opportunity. Next up, I cashed in some air miles and was
able to take a friend to Texas for a few days in celebration of her 40th
birthday in February. It was a fantastic
trip and I can’t wait to do it again.
I was kept busy from there with lots of work trips to
Montana and Oregon and locally here until June 6th when I was let go
from my job. I must say, it has been a
BLESSING! I submitted, and was approved,
for Commissioner Approved Training so that I could attend school for
worker-retraining. I am enrolled at
Renton Technical College for the five quarter Executive Assistant Program. So with fingers crossed, I should be done by
this time next year with an AAS degree in hand.
I am loving school, and my instructors are fantastic. I have already learned so much and am very
excited for what lies ahead.
M & J:
We
turned the big 4-Oh! this summer. So we
celebrated it with a big ol’ birthday BBQ at our house over 4th of
July weekend. It was a great day spent
with lots of friends and family, complete with Elden, Judy, Laurie and Ed
making the trip from MT and Dennie, Tommy, Shelley and John made the trip up
from OR. It was the first time all four siblings had been together since 2008. I was the lucky recipient of a Memory Quilt,
put together by my hockey girlfriends with major assistance from Celeste and
Mark. Papa Pete was even commissioned to
do a square. It is beautiful and will be
treasured for a long time.
The four-legged kids are all doing well. Stella will be turning 4 in a couple of days. She is still my sensitive child, meaning when
I am scolding Maggie and even raise my voice, Stella will slink off to her
crate. Maggie turns 5 in April and is
our 65lbs lap dog. She behaves like a
two year old sometimes when I see the red droopy eyes from chasing things all
day but still wants to follow me around the house like a shadow. “Can’t miss anything. must. stay. awake.” There wasn’t any hunting action for her this
last year, but we are hoping to change that this year. Sassy-pants is still around (turning 9 in
August), but keeping to herself whenever the girls are in the house. There is still no love between them.
The house is still standing and a mole has taken up
residence in the back yard. Grrr…… We are looking forward to Mark’s 30 days off
so that we can complete a couple home projects and he can have some time to
work on the Bronco.
That’s about it in a nutshell for us. We hope this finds you all doing well and
wish you happiness and good health in 2012.
