a Christmas news letter

Tom & I celebrated our 17th anniversary in June...in an emergency room. We had been gone about 5 minutes, on our way to a romantic dinner, when Max called to say Logan had broken his arm. Thankfully they fixed him up in the ER (initially thought might need surgery) and our anniversary dinner was Taco Bell at about 9:30 with the boys in tow. Max was great-he calmly called us and then had Logan ready to go, including shoes, by the time we got home a few minutes later! We had to retire both our main vehicles. They were high milage (about 170,000 and 380,000 miles) and were developing issues. After having both over 10 years it was a huge change to adjust to something else. Lisa got a roomy family vehicle and Tom's new ride gets great gas milage for his long commute to work. Max became a teenager in August. He's in 7th grade and is 6 foot tall now. He got glasses in October, which really changed his appearance. He plays the trombone and is considering taking up basketball. He was excited to finally get a cell phone this summer, including unlimited texting! Logan's 11 and in 5th grade. (1st year of middle school). He's about 5'5"-Lisa will soon be the shortest in our family. In addition to the broken arm, he fainted at a school ag safety event this year. I was subbing and was paged to go to the event. I casually walked out to be told Logan was in the ambulance. Took about 10 years off my life in 10 seconds! Thankfully they thought he just stood too long and locked his knees, they didn't see anything wrong with him. Lucky kid went down during the ambulance presentation so he was right by the ambulance to get immediate attention! Tom still works on computer networking for Learfield Communications in Jefferson City. The company was just sold to an out-of-state company but he's been promised there won't be any big changes. We'll see how that plays out...Lisa still subs at the local school. We did a whirlwind spur-of-the-moment vacation this summer. We enjoyed the unique scenery of the Wisconsin Dells and the huge cargo ships at the Soo Locks in Michigan. The boys were disappointed they could SEE Canada but they couldn't go there, as we didn't have passports. We also drove over the 5 mile long Mackinaw Bridge that connects the upper and lower penisulas of Michigan. We had to replace the furnace this fall. The repairman said they would replace the defective part for free...but it would be at least a month before the part was available. We decided freezing didn't sound appealing and the furnace was 14 years old so we just got a new one. The next big project will be the basement. We had some leaking and had to rip out the drenched carpet. So, now we have to identify and fix the cause of the leak and then redo the flooring. It's always something... We hope you have a very Merry Christmas and a very Happy 2012! Love, Tom, Lisa, Max, and Logan