Year In Review 2015

Merry Christmas

and happy upcoming new year!!!

The year of 2015 has been full of excitement, joy, and challenges, just like every year.

Extended Family:

We were blessed to again have my parents visiting Arizona during the initial part of the year.

We were hit with a rough diagnosis for my Mom in November.  Anything like that makes time together a special blessing!

I was able to fly to Minnesota to be with her during two difficult treatments, and it was nice to be able to be helpful!!!

After much treatment and a long year, my Mom is okay, though not unchanged.

She's not expected to need any major further medical care for this particular diagnosis - yay!

We got to spend time with Greg's Mom and her husband Dan a few times this year, since they live in Green Valley, Arizona, south of Tucson.  It's still a two-plus hour drive, but it's well worth it to be able to hang out with them!  

Home:

Early in the year, we started getting organized to have some home remodeling done.

In September of 2014, we had water damage in a number of places where our roof leaked.  We got our roof all renewed in January - yay, no more leaks!

It took quite a while to get things sorted out with our insurance company because there was more damage than initially realized.  Eventually, though, we had a big check in hand and were interviewing contractors!

We had every bit of flooring in the house replaced, almost every wall in the house painted, new lights in the bathrooms installed, and Greg & I have been minimalizing (I know that's not a word, but you know what I mean!) by sorting through our possessions and only keeping the ones that are meaningful or useful or beautiful to us.

Here are some photos of the final results!

Great room:

Master bedroom:

Reading corner in the great room:

Entryway:

Kitchen:

Guest room/my office:

Guest room/my office, wider view:

Guest bathroom:

More guest bathroom:

It's a complete joy to live here and to be surrounded by things we love in a home that's comfortable and cozy and filled with our personalities.  I'm very grateful and I love our home!

Travel:

As far as travel in 2015,

we had a great time visiting Minnesota this summer for our week at my parents' cabin.

We spent a LOT of time kayaking and enjoyed the peace and quiet on the lake.

Greg has his third (!!!) sabbatical coming up in 2015, so we're investigating fun adventures.  We're hoping for a BIG travel experience, but we're not sure where/when quite yet - keep watching this space!

Greg's Work & Volunteering:

Since I'm writing Greg's section this year, get ready for a little bragging about my amazing Man!

Greg has made great strides on projects vital to Intel.  He succeeded at pleasing a client who was disgruntled with the lack of results he'd gotten from Greg's group up until Greg took over the project.  Fantastic! He covered THREE co-workers' sabbatical/vacation time off AT THE SAME TIME (thankfully that is done because it wasn't very fun!)  Amazing!  Greg is the Foosball KING; he has made time for fun (and a little exercise!) by playing Foosball after work most evenings with co-workers.  Wonderful!
He also continues to play the guitar.  A blessing to my ears!



He is widely recognized as the best Audio volunteer at our local church and his sound mixing skills are legendary!  Everything sounds better when he's behind the board.

Christie's Work & Volunteering:

This past year I have been continuing to post training videos on the Chirp YouTube channel in order to help families and churches who want to sharpen their skills.  My videos cover topics related to child development, communication skills, behavior management, sensory processing, and special education.  

Allistair helps with distribution!

I also raise awareness for and distribute the Chirp Curriculum, a specialized curriculum to help churches and families teach their children Biblical truths.

I volunteer as the leader of our church's special needs program (though we call it the 1:1 Team to hopefully lessen any stigma families or students might feel).  We continue to enroll new students slowly, and we're constantly praying for more volunteers to join us!

Thanks for catching up with us this holiday season!
We wish you happiness with your friends and family members.
We wish you wellness in every area.
Most of all we wish you a thriving relationship with Jesus and the people around you, because those are the only things that truly matter!

Merry Christmas from Greg & Christie

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