Hello to all our family and friends
around the world. This year we are
trying something a little different. We
are publishing our newsletter to our web site which is a handy way of getting
this out to those technologically set to receive it. (It’s also great for justifying being
terribly late putting this out.) For
those of you who are 
seeing this online and not by
Christmas card we apologize. Wendy’s
little address book decided to take a holiday of its own so we have been
scrambling to relocate addresses to send out cards. So, if we missed anybody we apologize in
advance. This year finds us comfortably
ensconced in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia US of A and enjoying it very
much. The area has so much to do and the
climate is mild without giving up having seasons. We are in the third year of a three year
assignment at Joint Forces Command and are looking to extend for a fourth
year. The world remains volatile as we continue
to wage the war on terror and Bob remains in uniform as long as they’ll have
him to carry on the fight even in our small way here in Virginia. But, as always, we pray that the Spirit of
the living God will shine a light into the blackness that occupies so many
souls today and that peace can be realized.
As I write this newsletter comes word of the assassination of Bhutto by
Al Qaida in Pakistan demonstrating again why we need to keep praying for an
awakening of the spirit of the living God in the hearts of so many who would do
harm. In the face of events such as
these I am mindful of God’s promise that he will not give us more than we can
handle. This is true in personal
struggles and in struggles of great moment.
God grant wisdom and strength for each of us no matter what we face
today. We face it with Him.
Ian turned 16 Christmas Eve and he can’t wait to get his
driver’s permit. Not one to have simple
tastes he has decided he loves Ford Mustangs and wants one. He has been informed to save his
pennies!! He is now in his sophomore
year of high school which makes mom and dad feel a little older than we
like. Ian is working towards an honors
degree and has an ambitious course load which includes Honors English and
Honors World History this year. He
joined the school anime club and has begun learning some Japanese there to go
along with his French. He continues with
scouts and achieved his Star rank this year.
He is very close to completing requirements for Life and the leaders
feel he could have his Eagle Scout rank within a year. He has become the Dance Dance
Revolution champion of church youth group and has become rather a good dancer
because of it. Who knew the boy had
rhythm? He is finally expressing more of
an interest in music displaying his natural ear and we are looking into drum
lessons for him in the new year. He still swims at the YMCA. His instructors
think he has the power to compete so we are encouraging him to try for the high
school swim team next season.
Starting 6th grade this year meant yet another school for
Ryan but he is settling in well. He is
in an advanced math class but science is his favorite subject right now. He is continuing with the gifted students
program, Quest, and this is still the highlight of his week. His musical parents are particularly thrilled
that he expressed interest in band this year and is learning to play the
clarinet. He is doing well practicing
ahead of his assigned lessons and he is hoping to shift to saxophone next year
(they don’t allow you to start with saxophone in 6th grade at his school.) Ryan continues to enjoy playing AYSO soccer
and has had to put up with his soccer crazy father as his coach for the past
two seasons. He loves to play
forward. He moved up to Boy Scouts in
the spring and is getting adjusted to doing more for himself. He is working on his tenderfoot rank and even
ran for a patrol position this last term missing it by one vote. This year also saw him move into the church
youth group where Ian attends. He hangs
with his brother and is an active participant during lessons. Again, he has to put up with dad who
volunteers in the Youth group. Ryan
still loves arts and crafts and is Mom’s craft buddy! He did a summer program learning about
photography and digital arts. He even
got to develop film (how retro!).
Sean is in second grade this year and doing great. Gym is his favorite class which isn’t a
surprise since this is our all action boy.
He won the first student of the month award for the new school year and
hasn’t looked back. His teacher calls
him “Red Fox” from when we went to orientation and she asked him if he had a
nickname. He told her that was what he
nicknamed himself so she has adopted it—what a character. He fell in love with baseball this spring and
played fall ball as well. After one year
in T-ball one of the coach pitch coaches saw something in Sean and drafted him,
one of only a few kids his age drafted.
The team won the regular season and took second in the tournament and
Sean got some big hits. His coach and
most of his team moved up to minor league in the fall and Coach almost called
him up at the end of the season. He is
going to look him over for spring minor league.
A future major league star? He sure loves it and even attended the Old
Dominion University baseball camp this summer.
Sean is also continuing in cub scouts and bridged over to Wolf this
year. He shoots a mean arrow. He continues to participate in the children’s
programs at church and sang with his age group during the Christmas service
this year. He also continues to take
swimming lessons at the Y with Ryan.
Wendy keeps busy as the taxi driver for three active young
men. She enjoys volunteering at the
elementary school library and is looking into applying to become a substitute
teacher. She is enjoying a ladies bible
study at our church and is still teaching four year olds on Sunday mornings and
5th Graders on Wednesday nights. Wendy
has been a loyal gym rat this year trying to get to the YMCA most days for
either aerobics or spin class. Wendy
also got to attend her 25th high school reunion this year. We happened to be in the right country on the
right coast to let us do it. She still
can’t believe how long it’s been—when did everyone grow up? Wendy got the opportunity to sing again this
year participating in the church Christmas play. She has volunteered to be an alternate for
the church praise team to add to all the other stuff she is doing.
Not much to tell this year.
I continue in my position as Deputy Director of the Joint Forces
Intelligence School for Outreach and Assessment and I added school
administration to my portfolio. But,
with all that I spend much of my time working major initiatives for joint
training such as a new joint intel pre deployment
program and standardizing training assessment community wide. Interesting TDY’s to Korea and Hawaii this
year made for some long but enjoyable travel.
I got the chance to attend the Joint Forces Staff College this year for
a 10 week program and met some incredible patriots doing our country’s business
around the world. I continue to sing as
an alternate on the church praise team and various other projects. I also sang in the Church Christmas
play. I was blessed with the opportunity
to sing the national anthem at a Norfolk Tides (AAA) baseball game and a minor
league hockey game. Both required
auditions so I must have done okay. I
have also sung for a couple of military ceremonies and our prayer breakfast
this year. It’s been a slow singing year
by my normal standards but fun and rewarding.
We had a couple of wonderful
vacations this year. We got to take the
boys to Washington DC for the first time in Feb and got to see all the famous
monuments and buildings and visit the National Zoo. But we think the most fun for them was
sliding around on the snow and ice in the Mall!! Our summer vacation this year was to Smith
Mountain Lake here in Virginia, not too far from Roanoke and Lynchburg. Bob got to drive a pontoon boat for the first
time and Wendy, Ryan and Sean had a blast tubing
behind the boat! We also stopped at the
Natural Bridge and drove along the Blue Ridge Mt Parkway scenic route. We fell in love with the area and highly
recommend it for a vacation, especially if you like to boat.