Merry Christmas 2009!

Well good Christmas to you. When I sit down to write this letter it seems that it was about three weeks ago that I wrote the last one. But since I can't remember what I wrote, it must have been at least 4 weeks ago. Does this mean I'm getting old? Well I am and so are you. Cheers. The good thing is that with age comes a greater appreciation for the things that really matter.

This has been an important year in our lives. I have been reinvented. For 8 years I have posed as a respectable software engineer. However, on January 9th of this year, I was promoted from respectable software engineer to the esteemed position of unemployment. And so the year began. However, on August 31 I started a new livelihood. I am now a professor of Computer Science at Flathead Valley Community College. I love being around the college students, challenging them and being challenged. I'm teaching subjects that are stretching my areas of expertise. All in all, aside from the grading, I think I can say definitively that I enjoy teaching this stuff more than living it daily behind a desk.


Owen, in my terms, is becoming much more functional. Holy smokes, if you and I developed new skills as fast as Owen has this year for our whole lives then by age 40we would be smarter than the combined genius of Einstein and all his relatives. But alas, most of you know the difference between a 1 year old and a 2 year old. He has a will and is getting better and better at communicating it! He loves his two brown silky blankets. You and I talk about health care and wars in the middle east. Owen, he talks about jumping, falling, bananas, mine, and motorcycles. When mom is driving he yells out 'yahooo....wheeee' three times as often as when dad is driving around the turns. He has finally proven that momma drives more 'vigorously' than papa. Owen loves everything in its place and one of his favorite chores is feeding the dogs. And yes, when he starts eating more food he will have to mow the lawn with a push mower too!


Laura is feeling the affects of being three months pregnant. Yep, here goes round two. She still enjoys working two days a week at the vet shop and the other five days a week she is working on keeping the house inhabitable and improving Owens functionality.


Mica and Cerah are bored, except when Owen is chasing them, then they are annoyed.


Ah, but enough about us.


We hope that you find this Christmas season and upcoming year to be more meaningful and less busy. That you will experience the joy no man or woman should live without, love more deeply, dwell in the moments where time stops and look around. We hope that you will experience restoration of lost, run down or run out relationships, revisit the deep friendships you've had and strike out in new ones. Jesus came for these things. And now, at Christmas, in response to this hope let's celebrate!


Owen says...'yahooo....wheeee!'


Micah and Cerah don't say anything. But if they could, they would say come out to Montana, we'd love to play!