December, 1998

Merry Christmas to All of You!

We hope it has been a year of personal enrichment for all of you. God has continued to bless us. And although we are challenged, we are always given the resources to overcome the challenges and to grow from the experience. Well, enough philosophy. Let us visit the year that was.

Andy had a much more interesting year than he may have chosen for himself otherwise. Throughout the year, he continued to attend Franklin University pursuing an MBA. Although he has learned much and made many friends, he is very anxious to get it done. Come August of next year, he will complete the 18^th grade. J Andy’s career had a hiccup this summer. He got the opportunity to stay home with the boys for a couple of months while he lined up potential employers. Andy now works as an Internet consultant. His present assignment is at Battelle which is an engineering research company near The Ohio State University.

Judy has had another incredibly busy year at Bank One where she continues in the compliance area. She made numerous business trips and juggles the boys while Andy is at school. The merger of Bank One with First Chicago has caused additional challenges (i.e., more work, not enough workers) in her life. She still likes here job (since she thrives on chaos), but is a little worried about getting burned out. She is trying to take off 2 weeks over the holidays. That should help!

All of you who have children know what an incredible experience it is. The boys have really developed into a little Andy and a little Judy. Timmy, the oldest at 3 ½ , catches every detail, obeys the rules, and hardly ever stops talking. Jeffy, the youngest, lives for the moment, eats like a horse, and is pretty successful at using his size to fully irritate his brother. They are, however, each other’s best friends.

The really, BIG news this year, is our new house. We sold our first house in March. We fell into a unique arrangement. We moved into our babysitter’s daughter’s house through Labor Day weekend. (She moved out temporarily.) Anything that was not an apartment was a very good thing. We took a few pictures of the house as it was being built. The basement hole, the framing, the roof, the drywall. Wow! It was great to see it progress. Now that we have been here over two months, we still cannot believe that we are here. We probably would not choose the same builder again, but we are very happy with what our mortgage payment is getting us. The landscaping and the garden are being planned. Judy’s got her canning jars all ready to go. We just planted 40 trees (pine, Maple, fruit), but with 3 acres, there is a lot left to do. We will use the winter to concentrate on the interior. We wanted to include a picture with this letter, but weren’t that organized. 

We hope that each of you have had a successful and healthy year. Our wish is that you will take some time to enjoy the miracle that is Christmas and find true peace and happiness in your lives which can only be found through the love of God and his son, Jesus Christ.