A Year End Wrap Up and Christmas Letter 2009
Introductions and Apologies
This web site started as replacement for our annual Christmas letter. I thought it would be easier to maintain on a year round basis. In general I was right especially before I discovered Facebook. This was a great way to share pictures and just let people know what we were up to. The same kinds of things I do on Facebook now. It is actually easier to share the pictures on Facebook than to post them here. There are some changes to the site though that may make sharing pictures almost as easy on here.
After May of 2009
I’ll pick up after May of 2009, since that is where I quit making entries. Part of that was because we got busy with Ren Faires and that takes us into May.
We did two Ren Faires in Omaha on 3 weekends in May and then made our annual trip to Sioux Falls for the faire there, the first weekend of June. Sioux Falls was COLD! The sun did not shine while we were there but it did come out as we were pulling out of the parking lot. We towed the camper there this year. That worked really well. Kathy, Susan (Kathy’s sister), Lee and I went to the faire. Will stayed in Grand Island with Chad’s parents and started his first boy scout summer camp before we got home. He spent a week at summer camp out at Camp Augustine south of Grand Island. It was cold and damp but not too much rain at any given time.
We had to have our cat Hazel put to sleep. She was in kidney failure. She was 12 years old. Kathy got her in Lincoln as a rescue cat from Pitts Veterinary Hospital right before we moved to Norfolk.
Star Trek played at the Grand Theater in Grand Island. The Grand is a community run theater that brings in second run movies on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It is a wonderful old theater. Tickets are a whopping $3.50 for adults and I can get popcorn and drinks for all 4 of us for $10. They offered a promotion giving a free popcorn and drink to anyone that would show up in costume. Kathy heard about it on the radio and on Facebook on Thursday. We had decent looking costumes for the 4 of us by Saturday night. The shirts Kathy and Chad wore were purchase from Skagway for about $1.50 each. We were the only ones to show up in costume.
Father’s day weekend we camped out at Kathy’s Dad’s farm with her family. We picked lots of nanking cherries and made syrup from them. We ate pancakes with fresh cherry syrup for breakfast.
July
Will turned 11 on the 4th of July. We had lots of family at the house and shot off a bunch of fireworks. We drove down to Animal Medical Clinic and watched the fireworks at Fonner Park from there. We also shot off fireworks in the parking lot. We launched a sky lantern that was really cool. It glowed as it flew off into the night.
Chad and Lee spent 4 days out at Camp Augustine for Webelos Camp. It was a hot few days in July but we had a really good time. Two of the other Webelos from Lee’s den (Jaden and Jr.) were also on the camp out with us. Lee earned 4 Webelos pins including Aquanuat (the only Webelos pin that Will did not earn).
Chad left Webelos camp and flew from Kearney to Bozeman Montana for a weekend. He was appointed to the Chapter Presidents’ Council as Liaison to the Divisions Council for the American Planning Association. The executive board met in Bozeman, the home town of the CPC President Andy Epple. While there Chad bought an autographed copy of Three Cups of Tea, at the suggestion of another planner on the executive board. The author of the book lives in Bozeman. This is a great book if you haven’t read it. A very good look at a part of the world and culture that American’s do not understand well.
We spent a couple of weekends camping at Chad’s Dad’s farm. One weekend was perfect and the other was Africa hot. The generator and air conditioner made the Africa hot weekend bearable.
Kathy did not go to the Stampin’ Up convention this year but is still an active demonstrator. She has at least one show a month for people at work.
August
August started with the 2nd annual Overland Trails Council Merit Badge University. Almost 90 different merit badges were offered in 2 days out at Stuhr Museum and around town. Chad got volunteered to be merit badge councilor for Archeology. He managed to recruit a real archeologist, John Heaston, to help teach the class and it went really well. Kathy helped with the veterinary medicine badge and Will earned Citizenship in the World, Geology and most of Family Life. It was a fun weekend. Next year Kathy wants to be councilor for textiles and Chad will be the transportation coordinator.
We made our 4th trip to Hastings for Kool Aid Days. The boys raced boats in the Jammers Race again. Lee won best design for his boat and got to ride in the Parade on Saturday morning. We actually took him back to Hastings so he could ride in the parade. This is a great event if you haven’t ever been there. And to think that Kool-Aid was invented in Nebraska.
School started in mid-August. Will started middle school at Walnut. Chad took some pictures of Will going into school but did not embarass him by getting out of the truck. We had to change our entire routine. Kathy drops Lee off on her way to work and Chad drops Will off and then drives back across town to work. Kathy usually picks Will up from school. Lee walks home.
We started working on a tree house in our back yard. This is a project that has been planned since the Grand Island Utilities Department cut back the old silver maple in the back yard last year. The project evolved from being built in the tree to being built around the tree about 7 feet off of the ground. This project was one that Will used for his Family Life merit badge since it was a family project. The boys even helped mix the concrete for the footings.
Our first fall season faire was the Kings Crossing Faire in Iowa at a vineyard south of Council Bluffs the weekend before Labor Day. Will and Lee both started running high fevers about the time we got to Sue and Mark’s house. Kathy and Sue went to the faire and Chad stayed at Sue and Mark’s with sick boys. There were more vendors than patrons at the faire so it was not a big success. We took the boys to the Dr. on Sunday when we got back in Grand Island and they tested positive for the Flu. The diagnosis was H1N1 since that is what was going around at the time. They got to spend most of the week at home but recovered well.
September
Chad’s Mom turned 70 this September. All of the kids and grandkids were home over Labor Day weekend to celebrate. A good time was had by all.
We had been keeping our eyes open for a new camper all summer but good used campers were really hard to find this year. Kathy’s dad found one in Milford though and thought we ought to drive up and take a look at it. We bought it that day. We moved from a 1980 camper that was showing a lot of wear to a 1996 model that is in very good shape. Chad sold the old one on Craig’s List.
Chad and Will went to Mt. Rushmore with Troop 114 again this year. This time Will was going as a boy scout and member of the troop instead of as a guest. We had to take a nebulizer for Will though as he still was not recovered from his bout of H1N1. It rained all weekend and was really cold. Both times we were in South Dakota this year it was cold. Chad and Will did not make it through the whole 10 mile hike this year. They quit at the 1/2 way point. Will tried really hard but just wasn’t able to breathe and walk. One of the boys on the trip had a fever of about 101. He didn’t start showing signs of being sick until we got to South Dakota.
We did our first western faire. “How the West was Fun” at the Bellevue Berry Farm. It was a fun event and it is amazing how many Ren related craft items can be repurposed for the wild west. The product line crosses over very well. Western costumes weren’t too tough either. Kathy even sewed herself a dress for the event.
Chad’s planning professor Brito, sent them tickets for a game again this year. He sent them the tickets for the 300th sellout game. It was a gorgeous night, a fun game and nice to take part in a bit of Husker History.
October
The first weekend of October Chad and Kathy went to Washington DC. Chad had board meetings in DC for the American Planning Association. Kathy was able to go with him. Part of the meetings included the opening of the United Nations Housing Conference and Awards. Jon Bon Jovi was one of the speakers at the awards ceremony. Amazingly enough he has done some pretty cool housing related projects. We did not go to the ren faire in Sioux City since we were in DC.
The second weekend of October was supposed to be the Pirate Festival at the Bellevue Berry Farm (Omaha). The event was canceled though due to snow and freezing weather. I think the promoter made the right decision. It was too early for that kind of weather and there would not have been any patrons. That was the end of our faire season. Not the best year we have had but it was fun.
The middle of October brought scout popcorn sales. Both boys wanted to sell at least $1500 worth of popcorn. Lee did not have school the Friday after sales started. I took the afternoon off and we went to City Hall so he could sell popcorn. He filled up an and entire sheet and sold almost $500 worth of popcorn that afternoon. The boys continued to sell popcorn through the middle of November. Lee ended up selling over $1800 and Will sold over $1500. That will pay for camp for both of them next year. They also earned a trip to Lincoln in December to tour Memorial Stadium and go to a Cornhusker Basketball game.
November
Chad ended up making another trip to Washington DC at the beginning of November. He was invited to represent the concerns of local flood plain administrators in FEMA Region VII at a listening session on the National Flood Insurance Program. It was an interesting trip, quick and busy: two nights in DC, 10 hours of meetings, flights between Omaha and DC and the drive between Grand Island and Omaha. He did get to have dinner with an old friend, Jim Benson, while in DC, though. Chad and Jim were roommates back in college and went to high school and jr. high together. One of the great things about DC is the food; there are great restaurants there.
We got the tree house mostly finished on one of the nice weekend. The boys still have to climb the ladder to get into it but they have a nice place to stand. Everyone agrees that it is nice and sturdy.
We followed our annual habits for Thanksgiving. We attended Chad’s Aunt Jean and Uncle Lenny’s big dinner the Saturday before thanksgiving and then hosted a large dinner at our house on Thanksgiving Day. We had 22 people eat at our house that day. (Chad, Kathy, Will, Lee; Keith, Joanne; Mark, Susan, Andrew, David, Katie; Lonnie, Bonnie, Christine; Annette, Richard; Nadine, Bryce, Katie, Kyle, Chris; Ron) Chad and Keith (Kathy’s Dad) did not get up early on Friday to try to get any good deals. There just wasn’t anything interesting enough to get up for.
We got our Christmas tree from Hardin’s in Kearney. It is a very nice BIG real tree. They cut it after we picked it out. Will even helped carry it to the truck this year. It is kind of amazing when they get big enough to be helpful. We had to go buy a different tree stand for this tree and we put a 70lb bag of sand on the back two supports. We are hoping that Suki our cat doesn’t knock it over this year. (She tipped over the tree three times last year.)
December
We went to Kearney for our 3rd trip in 3 years to watch the Tri-City Storm (hockey) play during their Scouting with the Storm promotion. Scouts from all over the Overland Trails Council were at the event. This year was particularly good because the Storm won the game. Lee earned 2 tickets to the game from the Pack for his popcorn sales. 10 boys from the pack went to the game.
Our street put luminaries out again this year. It was just a few days after we got 12 inches of snow so it was very white and bright. It was a cold night but a very successful event. It is nice to live in a neighborhood where people do things together and make and take the time to share experiences.
Will and Lee both sold more than $1500 worth of popcorn so they earned a trip to Lincoln for the Cornhusker Experience. They each got to take a parent (how convenient) to tour Memorial Stadium and then go to a Cornhusker Mens Basketball game. There was a lot of snow on the field at the stadium but they had moved the snow off of the N at the center. One of the tour guides suggested to the boys that they should make snow angels on the field. They didn’t want to but Chad took the opportunity to make a snow angel on the 40 yard line. How many people can say that they made a snow angel on the 40 yard line at Memorial stadium in Lincoln?! We stayed at the Embassy suites again this year–they have a swimming pool, arcade, and huge breakfast buffet–and the boys had a great time.
We broke from our normal Christmas routine and stayed home this year. Chad read at church on Christmas Eve and the boys wanted to open presents at home on Christmas, so we knew we would be here in the morning. The blizzard conditions across the state kept us home though. We hope to get to Kathy’s brother Ron’s house later to celebrate with her family and then will celebrate with Chad’s family on the 2nd at his parent’s house.
Highlights of the Year According to Will and Lee
Chad asked Will and Lee to identify their highlights from the year as he began writing the entry above. Here is what they identified:
Will
I remember lighting fireworks on my birthday.
I remember saving for, buying and opening my Compaq notebook computer.
I remember selling $1,500 of Boy Scout popcorn.
I remember that on Thanksgiving I ate something different than everyone else.
I remember watching the Big 12 football championship.
Lee
Celebrating New Years at Grandma and Grandpa’s house.
Lighting fireworks on the 4th of July.
Selling popcorn at City Hall on October 16th.
Watching the person with the world record spinning a basketball perform on December 19th. (This was the half time show at the basketball game check them out at www.championsforever.com)
Eating omlets and french toast at the Embassy Suites on December 18th and 19th.
Will’s last day of elementary school
Today was Will’s last day of school at Knickrehm. He has had 6 good years there. He has learned a lot. Made a lot of good friends and I think had a good time. The pictures below are from his first and last days.
Just before they left the building today, the school Principle put the music from the “tunnel walk” on the speakers at school and let the 5th graders walk through the halls to say good bye to everyone and exchange high “5′s” with other students and teachers. Then the 5th graders got to walk out of the school first with everyone else following.
Spring Camporee
Chad and Will just got back from the spring camporee. This was Will’s first camporee as a boy scout. We spent the weekend at Fort Kearney and the boys participated in a civil war reinactment. They had a great time.
On Sunday after the camporee the troop did a 10 mile hike. One of the 5, 10 mile hikes required for the hiking merit badge. Below is a picture of the boys that completed their first 10 mile hike. Chad spent a lot of time walking with Matt. He even let Matt where his hat since it was bright and sunny and Matt did not have a hat that cover his ears and they were getting sun burned.
Another Winning Poster
Will won the state Arbor Day Poster Contest. He found out on monday. You can see his poster here. You will be able to vote for it in the National Competition.
Here is a link to the poster contest site. Voting will be March 30th to April 3.
Winning Times in the Nabity Household
The boys have been busy the last few months. Will has entered several poster contest through school. We found out today that he won the State Ag poster contest. The Governor will be coming to visit his class in May becuase he won.
It was science fair day at school and Will and Lee won for their project. They get to go onto the District contest. They studied yeast and how well it grows in various natural and artificial sweetners. Interestingly enough it will grow in Sweet-n-Low. Our hypothesis is that there enough dextrose as a bulking agent to give the yeast food. Maybe that is next year’s research topic.
In February Will found out that he placed first in the statewide Poison Control Week poster contest. His poster is on two billboards in Omaha (53rd and Center and 59th and Maple). He was recognized at the school board meeting on March 5th and then in the newspaper on March 15.
At the end of January we held our Pack Pinewood Derby. Lee took first place and Will took second.
Wii’s and Extended Warranties
On January 21, 2007 I bought a Wii. At the same time I purchased a 2 year replacement warranty from Best Buy. It was new technology and I wasn’t sure that I would get a good Wii. $39.99 seemed like a reasonable bet against problems.
On February 1, 2009 my Wii quit reading disks. Lee wanted to play with the Wii Fit and the Wii would not read disks. I followed the directions in the book and nothing worked. I called Nintendo and they asked if I had purchased an extended warranty. After a couple of calls to Best Buy I was able to determine that if it had quit working on January 21, 2009 I would have been covered and would have recieved a new Wii. Unfortunately I was 10 days too late. Best Buy would not cover the repairs.
The customer support people at Nintendo were great. They understood the problem and even though they could not offer any help over the phone they were able to give me the option of sending the Wii console in and getting it repaired (along with a new 1 year warranty) for $75. I shipped it off yesterday. It should be back in 11 to 16 days.
One of these long posts with lots of details
Delivering Popcorn
Thank you to everyone that bought popcorn from Will and Lee (or Chad and Kathy). The boys met their goals. They each sold more thatn $1500 worth of popcorn. They each earned a $65 gift card from Wal-Mart and an additional $50 gift card from Wal-Mart. They got to throw a pie at me. You can watch the video of that below.
Their sales will also help support the pack and send both of them to camp this summer.
Christmas
We had a great Christmas. We spent Christmas Eve at home and went to Kathy’s brother Ron’s house for Christmas day. We celebrated Christmas with Chad’s family the weekend after Christmas. All of Chad’s brothers and sisters were there except for Kurt. The boys had a slumber party with their cousins at Grandma and Grandpa’s house on Saturday night.
Cub Scout Christmas Party
We had our December Pack meeting at the First Baptist Church. The boys in the pack played a couple of games and one of them got to throw pie at me at that meeting too. I forgot one at the last meeting. As is the tradition with our Pack we gave the boys their pinewood derby car kits for Christmas.
New Years Eve
Will and Lee spent the night with their Grandma and Grandpa and their cousins Caleb and Kaden. They stayed up till midnight ate pizza and had an all around good time. Chad and Kathy spent the night at home and made and ate sushi. The sushi was very pretty and tasted wonderful. It made for a very pleasant New Years Eve.
On New Years day we had left over sushi (Lee was disappointed that he didn’t get any.) and japanese noodles. That meal was equally tasty and pretty.
Cornhusker Experience
On January 2nd we went to Lincoln for the Cornhusker Experience. This was one of the incentives for selling popcorn. All of the boys in the state that sold at least $1500 worth of popcorn were invited and they could each invite one other person. Will and Lee both earned the trip and invited their parents (we would not have driven otherwise). On January 3rd we got to tour Memorial Stadium and the training facilities for the football team. Then we got to go to a Cornhusker Basketball game. We spent the night both Friday and Saturday at the Embassy Suites in Downtown Lincoln. It was a very nice mini vacation.
Pinewood Derby Cars
We spent several weekend in January working on Pinewood Derby cars. We followed several of the tips in the Speed Secrets book. It made building the cars a much more time consuming project. The boys built cars and Kathy and I each built a car. The speed secrets must help though becuase Lee finished in first place and Will finished in second place. Their races were really close.
Wii Fit
Kathy wanted a Wii Fit for Christmas but I was not able to find one in the stores. We found one at Walmart in mid-January. We stopped in to pick up a few things walked by the electronics section just to see if there were any in stock. Kathy said she didn’t even know what kind of box to look for and I told her I didn’t either because if I had seen one I would have bought it. We didn’t find any so we go the other things we needed and checked out. At the check out lanes I looked over and “Oh that is what kind of box they come in.” and pointed out a gentleman checking out with a Wii Fit. I commented that he must have gotten the last one and he responded that there were a whole stack of them over by the jewelry counter. We looked in electronics not in jewelry. I found a display cross marketing them with women’s work out clothes but no Wii Fits. The women in the jewerly department helped me track them down. The guys in electronics had just picked them up and moved them back to electronics. We go our Wii Fit. It really is a lot of fun and can provide a good workout.
Marbles
One of the presents that Lee got from his Grandmother (Chad’s Mom) was a set of Marbles with 20+ different marbles games. The boys have been playing marbles occasionally since then. Lee has even been playing with some of his friends. I took a couple of pictures of Will and Lee playing marbles and sent them to my Mom.
My Mom sent this message back in response to the pictures:
Klondike Derby
The 23rd and 24 of January were really cold. I think the high on Saturday was about 10 degrees. It was a perfect weekend for the Klondike Derby. It is a scouting event and winter race. The boys have to push and pull sleds around the Camp and do a number of scouting activites such as: orienteering, fire building, first aid, stretcher carries, setting up a tent while blindfolded and even spitting licorice for distance and accuracy (kind of like spitting tobacco but not quite as disgusting).
All the World is a Stage…
William is on the scenery crew for the 5th grade play, The Case of the Missing Monet. He is in this video from Channel 5 news:
Facebook Once Again
I have written about Facebook here before. I’ve been on Facebook for about 6 months now and I have found many friends that I haven’t talked to in years on the site. This last week I’ve added several old friends including my drama teacher from my senior year in high school. A large number of my friends from my senior drama class were already friends on Facebook. Right after graduation we started a round robin letter that went from person to person and lasted for about 3 or 4 years. Each person would send write a letter stick it in the envelope and send it the whole package to the next person on the list. It was an early attempt to create a social network. (Or maybe to sustain a social network that already existed and that was spreading out geographically.)
Facebook allows those social networks to collapse both distance and time. It is an an amazing compression routine.
I am quickly approaching critical mass from that senior drama class. I think that I have over half of the members of that class in my friend list including the teacher. Interestingly enough the teacher was a first year teacher just out of college and only 4 or 5 years older than her students. We had more in common than we could possibly have known at that point in time.
Grand Island Senior High had 3 drama clubs. I was president of one of them. Moose and Ginny were the other two presidents. We knew that we would have a new teacher for our senior year and the we met the summer before our senior year to plan what we wanted to do. As presidents of the clubs we had a plan in place when school started and we managed to get our teacher to go along with it. It was a very good year. I’m not sure that our teacher ever really knew what we had planned for her.
I’ve stayed in touch with a number of those people over the years but Facebook has made that so much easier.
Merry Christmas
I hope that this Christmas finds everyone healthy, happy and doing well. As you can see (if you read through the entries herein) we have had a very busy year. The boys keep getting older and we seem to keep getting busier.
We will be spending Christmas Day with Kathy’s family. Both of us have to work on Friday and then this weekend we will celebrate with Chad’s family.
We wish all of you a very Merry Christmas.
Chad, Kathy, Will and Lee
Lighting up the Season
A couple of our neighbors, Linda and Saundra, came up with a great neighborhood project for the holidays. They thought it would be fun to put luminaries out along the sidewalk for the 3 blocks of 23rd Street between Sycamore and Wheeler. They asked Kathy if she and her bear cubs would help. Kathy used her Stampin’ Up die cut machine to die cut the bags and the words and the snow flakes. The Big Shot made this project much easier than it would have been otherwise. Kathy and the bears helped fill the bags with sand and put candles in them and then several of us put them out on Sunday December 7th. It was a perfect night, cool but not cold. I’m glad they decided to do it on the 7th because the 14th and 21st have been miserably cold. They looked great and we had a lot of people drive through the neighborhood.
Yet another Popcorn Update
It was nice today and Kathy took the boys out selling popcorn again. They hit their goal. So far we have sold $3006. There are still a few days left so I am sure that we will sell some more. Thank you to all of you who helped them reach thier goal. I will post pictures of the Cornhusker Experience after we get to go. The boys (and their parents) will get to go to Memorial Stadium in Lincoln and do the tunnel walk and then get to go to a Cornhusker Basketball game.
Will and Lee sold enough popcorn to pay for all of their camping for the next year. They also raised about $500 for the pack.
Cub Scout Popcorn Update
The boys are getting closer to their goal. As of tonight we have sold $1785 worth of popcorn. Only $1215 left to sell and we have 14 days to do it. If you haven’t order and want to help you can still do so.
If you want to help you can buy some popcorn from the boys at the links below:
Lee:
http://www.orderpopcorn.com/Store/Catalog/Affiliate/AffiliateLandingView.aspx?AffiliateCode=TEGZQE6
Will:
http://www.orderpopcorn.com/Store/Catalog/Affiliate/AffiliateLandingView.aspx?AffiliateCode=TEGZQDK
Mystery Camporee
Will and I spent last weekend at the Heartland Shooting Park just outside of Grand Island. We were guests of Boy Scout Troop 117 at the fall camporee. It was a mystery camporee. No one outside of the organizers knew what the events were going to be. This was not a camporee for merit badges or to hone scouting skills but rather it was just a fun weekend for scouts to enjoy.
The weather cooperated beautifully. It was in the mid 60′s during the day with sunshine and some wind. It didn’t get too cold at night. (Right now there are gusting wind’s. It is 32 degrees and sleet.) The weekend weather was perfect for a campout.
The events were a lot of fun. There was a pancake cooking relay, a gun fight with water guns and candles, a contest to build a Rube Goldberg device using at least 5 mouse traps (Boy Scouts can be really timid around mouse traps, especially after about the second or third time they get snapped.), paint ball target shooting, a pop identification test, and a foot print matching exercise. The boys all had a good time. Will got up at campfire on Saturday night and asked a couple of riddles. It was impressive to see a Webelos Scout get up in front of all of those older boys. Several of the leaders commented about that. Troop 114 (we went to South Dakota with them in September) won an award at the camp fire for exhibiting scouting spirit during the camporee. They took home a white buffalo. That will be a traveling trophy.
I’m not sure which Troop Will is going to choose to go into but either 117 or 114 would be good troops.
A Bit about the Way I Blog (Timelines)
You may notice that posts some times appear that weren’t there before. Not just posts like this one that appear were written tonight and appear under todays date but posts like the one about the trip Will and I took to South Dakota, or maybe our vacation trip to Oregon. Those take more time to write so they don’t necessarily get posted as quickly as they should. I do back date the publishing date so this thing stays in a mostly chronological order. That is why if you scroll through you may find a post that you didn’t know was there. I added it a month after the event and dated it at the time of the event.
