Hale Family Tales

Some highlights:

-Ryan started a new job.  He loves it - it is almost like a new baby in and of itself.  He works hard and I admire him for it.

- Hannah learned cursive and her addition and subtraction facts.

-In February, Ellie had a second set of tubes in her ears and her adenoids removed but she continued to have issues all winter.  I am keeping my fingers crossed in that so far this fall and winter she has had only one ear infection even though she has had a case of the sniffles a few times.

-We decided to adopt another child this time from Ethiopia.

-Hannah played her first piano recital.

-Ryan led a mission to help a church in Swaziland set up a chicken farm micro-business to support the large number of children whose parents have died from AIDS.

-I learned that homeschooling is very much a full-time endeavor and love (almost) every minute of it especially when I remember the amount of commitment it requires and allow myself to forget about the dust multiplying on every surface and the gunk in the corner of the shower.

-Our house has been on the market since summer.

-Ellie moved to a toddler bed.

-Hannah crosses the street to go the the neighbor’s house to play.

-Saturday has become the official house cleaning day.

-I learned to blog.

-Ellie learned how to write her name.

-We spent more time this year with both sides of grandparents than in the last few years.

-I took a marvelous, relaxing vacation alone with my husband.

In the next year…

-we will have another child in our family.

-we will have a resolution about whether we will be in St. Louis or Denver.

-Ellie will be done with her pacifier (sooner rather than later).

-we will get in touch with an old friend whose husband we just found out passed away a couple of years ago from cancer.

-we will laugh with our kids everyday.