We hope this
message finds you and yours healthy, happy, and prosperous at the end of 2018.
We had a couple of setbacks in our family this past year.
Dad spent the first two months of the year in the health care system, the first
month mostly being warehoused in the hospital and the second in rehab. He spent
the third month at home, but the system dropped the ball and he developed a
severe infection which led to his passing on April 9. Altogether, it was an
unsatisfactory encounter with the health care system.
We were just getting over that when Mom took a misstep in a
dark restaurant and broke her femur, just below the hip. She spent three weeks
in hospital and three weeks in rehab, returning home at the end of June. She
still wants to stay in her condo and is managing OK so far. Less than two weeks
after Dad’s passing Mom also lost her cherished cousin, Reinhold Geres. She had
an unexpected treat in July when her cousin Irene Hohm visited from Invermere
BC thanks to the efforts of Irene’s son Dale. We all, including cousin Larry
Schwentke, had a great visit and enjoyed it very much.
Carla continues to work as a network analyst for CGI Group
in Regina. But their big news is that Tyler landed a full time job as part of
the production team for the local news at Global Regina. He works 2 PM to 11
PM, so that cuts into their together time, but Carla is still able to walk home
for lunch most days and they now have weekends together. He gave up virtually
all of his part time work, most of it on weekends, but still works several
Roughrider home games for TSN. They had two big adventures this year. One was a
road trip to a wedding in Lethbridge, followed by most of a week in Edmonton
and a day or so in Saskatoon on the way home. In September they flew to Ottawa
to visit with Tyler’s Dad for a week.
Darren’s family has now been in Victoria for just over a
year. Their original commitment was for two years, but they have extended it to
three. Sue is working full time as her company’s on site representative in the
construction of Victoria’s new sewage plant. She seems to be enjoying the
responsibility, but it comes with the challenges of coordinating sometimes
conflicting viewpoints. Darren is working part time from home. He normally
works from about 9 AM until 2:30 PM between dropping the boys off at school and
picking them up again. He works with his office online and spends a lot of time
on the phone conferring with co-workers.
Neither one traveled a lot this year. Sue is focused on the
Victoria project and only travels occasionally to her Vancouver office for
consultations. Darren went to Fort McMurray a couple of times. His company owns
part of an oilsands mine and is working on a process to expedite the settlement
of particulates in retention ponds. He had to visit when they started and again
to follow up on progress. It is similar, but different from the work he has
done for most of his career.
They made the annual July pilgrimage to Ontario for almost
three weeks at Sue’s family cottage and they all made a pre-Christmas “Sue’s
birthday” trip to Hawaii where they again met up with Sue’s family. Darren and
the boys were here in March before Easter and all four of them will be here for
Christmas.
The boys are growing like weeds. They are doing great in
school and have made plenty of new friends, but are still each other’s best
buddies. They are both in swimming and soccer this fall and Justin is also
taking karate.
Laura is still working part time, usually three days a week.
She has taken up running as a fitness activity and participated in a 10k run
this past fall. Brett is in his second year at St. Gregory School. He coached
volleyball and touch football this year. He is still playing hockey in winter
and softball in summer. Brett also undertook a front yard renovation that
occupied him for a good part of the summer.
Speaking of summer, their camping opportunities were more
limited this year with Laura back at work, but they still made it to Cypress
Hills for a week and a few weekends at Buffalo Pound.
They also visited Darren’s family in Victoria.
They went to Calgary for a few days in September/October and were met with a snowstorm. They persevered outdoors at Calaway Park and the zoo, but were a little more comfortable at their indoor activities.
They also visited Darren’s family in Victoria.
They went to Calgary for a few days in September/October and were met with a snowstorm. They persevered outdoors at Calaway Park and the zoo, but were a little more comfortable at their indoor activities.
The twins started half-day-in-the-morning kindergarten this
year and are quite enjoying it. They are excited about their new friends and
the new things they are learning. They are also taking swimming and Ukrainian
dancing this fall. Their favourite activity is still being read to, but they
are starting to recognize some words on their own. They love to play
imagination games with their ponies and other toys, dress up as princesses, and
do colouring, stickers, and things in their activity books. Louisa just turned
two – my favourite age. She loves singing, dancing, and “reading.” She copies
everything she sees and hears, creating plenty of entertainment for Grandma and
Grandpa.
As for us, our main activity is babysitting, except for summer when Brett is home. We are usually there three days a week. We go first thing in the morning. I walk the twins to the school bus stop and then go home while Celeste stays with Louisa. (She has become quite a Grandma’s girl!) I go back at noon to meet the twins getting off the bus and we all spend the rest of the afternoon at their house. We are quite enjoying watching them all grow.
We went to Victoria in January in two shifts. Due to a
miscommunication, Glenn changed his flight to go a few days early. When the
error became apparent, there were no Air Miles seats available to change back.
He was there from the 22nd to the 31st. The conventional
wisdom is that Vancouver is rainy in winter and Victoria is sunny. Don’t
believe it. It rained every day and he only saw blue sky briefly a handful of
times in a week. But you can believe what you hear about flowers in January.
We visited Victoria in late January, early July, late
August, and early November. Hurray for Air Miles!
In July we went to a genealogy conference in Pierre SD. (“Peer” as they say in the USA.) We would not normally have gone that far, but the lady who gets Russian church records for Glenn was one of the speakers and he wanted to meet her. We also managed to join the Matlocks in Cypress for a couple of days of camping and met them in Buffalo Pound for a couple of day trips.
Best wishes to
all for a joyous Christmas and all the best in the New Year.
Glenn &
Celeste
