Hello all ~ hope your year so far has been a good one. Thought I would give you just a few highlights from ours, but don’t worry, this is not a Christmas letter that will make you want to go home and kick your life…
We started out this year just like last year ended, running with Jordan’s marathon team on Saturdays, and all of us were able to run in the Surf City Half Marathon on Superbowl Sunday – Jon’s first half! Jordan’s 2nd full marathon was the OC Marathon, where he was able to better his time from last year at LA by an hour and fifteen minutes. Just after he finished his 8-month marathon project, Jordan missed a hurdle during PE and broke his collarbone – his first broken bone ever. He was trooper, though, and ran another ½ marathon two weeks later. I most recently finished the Nike ½ in San Francisco in October, not a stellar time as I was nursing an injury (actually it was a ‘personal worst’), but I finished and had a blast!
Jon signed Jordan up for Servite High School and we decided to move back to Anaheim into my old house, to reduce the commute and the rent. Until we moved, we enjoyed our proximity to Laguna Beach and many evenings down by the sand, the sunset and the La Sirena Grill.
It was different to go back to my old house, and a struggle to fit everything from our two lives into one smaller space (and no storage units) – we’re still working on that. I do love my neighbors who have been here over the 30 years I have had this place – Carol and Bob are still here, and still like surrogate parents for me. We take slow walks around the neighborhood with Julietta and Carol, and I get an occasional dinner delivered. We came home from Thanksgiving in AZ to a full turkey in the freezer and some stuffing on the counter! It is very comforting and familiar, although no one is as old in my memories (in my mind, we’re still wearing bikinis in the backyard and working out of my garage, having a giant Pizza Rosa pizza and beer for lunch!).
Those 12 fish we had at the end of last year turned into 70 – we had to get a bigger tank and figure out how to stop the madness. Fish stores will help you with that, and sold us a new addition with a larger jaw, enabling him to dine on most of the little critters over time. The rest that didn’t die from ick or fit through the new guy’s jaws, we donated to the fish store to give away to little kids. Now we have a nice, neat equilibrium with our big, vegetable-eating Plecostomus Pablo (he’s giant and loves carrots, broccoli and especially cauliflower, which will screw up the water a bit), and some smaller non-breeding friends (only one Molly – that’s the only way you can control them).
Servite has really been a family affair, and we have been to more meaningful meetings already than at Jordan’s prior schools. Jon volunteers at the school and helps with the Cross Country and Track practices as he can. He rides his bike on practice runs and fills in when no coaches are able to attend. We discovered that some of Jordan’s teachers actually taught my brothers, Mike and John! They have been out of school for 30 + and 40 years! Of course, other teachers haven’t been alive as long as I have been out of high school, too.
My grandfather passed away in October, almost a month after his 99th birthday; he was always kind to me and I have wonderful memories from the time we lived with him when I was 10, and the times my brother and I went out to help him chop wood for the year. The comfort I have is that now I feel like I can talk to him anytime I have something to say, and that he is truly peaceful.
The rest of my family is well; my parents are both healthy, not completely without incidents, but they look and feel pretty good. Jon had a choking incident that ended quickly, as they do when the outcome is good; it was very scary, though. Jon’s mom is as strong and lively as ever, still working everyday and ‘running the place’ at Macy’s down in Murietta. My brother John and wife Becky moved back from Sweden to Chicago, and I am happy to have them back in the states and in a time zone that allows phone conversations without having to plan for a few days ahead. Nieces and nephews are all thriving and multiplying – we have one more addition due in early February.
Some things I learned this year:
- My life is simple and happy, and I am fortunate for that.
- There is a limit to how long you can expect someone to hang around this world just because they have always been here, and 99 is a pretty good number of years to fit into a lifetime.
- I learned that doing the Heimlich maneuver is actually very hard to do in real life, especially on someone bigger than you.
- Kids are amazing – they’re resilient and smart, but still fragile at times and not completely unbreakable.
We wish you every happiness this holiday season, and a year filled with peace and love,