 Hannah
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North_Dakota_Wheat
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Jacob
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Wednesday, December 27, 2006
Merry Christmas,
Happy New Year everyone. It has been so long since I wrote to everyone. The kids have changed so much and I wanted to share pictures and stories about them as I consider all of you as such an important part of my life.
Whoever said having 4 kids was not any harder than having 3 either didn’t have 4 kids or had many baby sitters to take a few of them off of their hands. Here in Texas it is always busy and either stressful or exciting depending on how you choose to look at it. I usually am able to focus on the positive and the wonderful blessings in my life, though not always. We experience hardships also but these we get through with faith in God, love of family, and hope for the future. Our kids of course are our most special blessings.
John Welch is 14 now and in the 8th grade. He loves music and plays the trombone and loves to sing. He loves game boy and reading and gets frustrated because he has very little time to do these activities because of school work and other activities. He loves church and volunteers as assistant in Children’s Church. He played football the last 2 years but has chosen not to play in high school so he can focus on school and the activities he loves more than football. I am always so proud of him as he is such a nice, loving young man. It will be exciting to see what he will become as he grows up. I always remember my mom saying one day that she wondered if John Welch might become a minister one day. I wonder about this too as he has such a strong love for God and for people and this love appears to be maturing as he gets older. He has a kindness about him that is very nice to see. He has also mentioned an interest in becoming a music teacher and a writer as these are his other loves.
Elizabeth is 11 and is in the 5th grade. Her favorites are dance, which she is in her sixth year and church activities. Elizabeth loves to sing and is in the grade school choir and has been in the church choir. She loves to run and she loves to dance and proudly exclaims that she is not a “girly girl” but is a “tomboy”. Elizabeth is our very responsible child and has a diligence and organization about everything she does which is very much admired and appreciated by her parents as we are lacking in these areas. Some of my favorite moments are watching Elizabeth dance. She has such grace and beauty about her both inside and out.
Hannah is almost 6 and is now in Kindergarten. Hannah has an incredible strength of character about her. She feels strongly about everything which leads to the most wonderful and sometimes frustrating moments. Hannah has started dance this year and loves it. She has class only one day a week but often insists that she wear her dance clothes on other days when we take her sister to dance class. Hannah loves to run and swim and got her first new bike for Christmas this year. Hannah has a style all of her own. You will often see her in some very interesting outfits that are just “Hannah”. Hannah also loves church and singing and will often be found playing in the house by herself and singing away.
Jacob has just turned two and attends daycare. He has hit the terrible twos hard with much screaming but is very sweet and very cute which brings a lot of joy. His sisters and brother adore him, which he takes full advantage of. He talks only a little so far and can get frustrated pretty easily when we can’t figure out what he wants. He loves his daycare and acts better there than at home which I am thankful for. He received a little tykes red car and a little bike for Christmas and we can hardly get him off them.
For John and myself we have experienced some big changes. John now takes some classes, which mostly focus on science, as this has always been a great love of his. His research continues to make progress and he has enjoyed using the NMR spectrometer to investigate his protein.
For myself, I have also had a change in job. My new job allows me to have enough emotional and physical energy to focus on my family so I truly appreciate it. I now work on call and go into emergency rooms around the city and work as a psychiatric consultant to the physicians to determine the needs of patients with mental health concerns. The job is in the middle of the night and only 3 days a week which frees me up to be a dance/band mom after school. I have loved this change of focus in my life but miss my old job doing therapy with teenagers and miss my old co-workers/friends. I hope to return to a similar job in the future as my years working at the psychiatric hospital were wonderfully awarding.
Writing this letter reminded me again of how many wonderful blessings I have in my life. I consider each of you as a blessing though I do not get to see you very much any more. The kids and I always enjoy it when we go up for a few days and stay with Mom and Debbie and get the chance to see many of the members of the family. Unfortunately we haven’t had much chance to go further north to see all the extended relatives but I will try to do better in the future. When I saw Ramona and Lois and their families at Thanksgiving last year it reminded me of the good people I had been missing by not making more effort to drive further north.
Time is going by so fast and I feel old in spirit but am really only a little old in age as I turned 40 this year. The hard times really do make us stronger if they don’t break us. I am very thankful for the blessings of all of you in my life and hope that all of you have a wonderful year and had a wonderful time celebrating Christ’s birth.
With love,
Michelle
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(0) comments
Happy New Year everyone. It has been so long since I wrote to everyone. The kids have changed so much and I wanted to share pictures and stories about them as I consider all of you as such an important part of my life.
Whoever said having 4 kids was not any harder than having 3 either didn’t have 4 kids or had many baby sitters to take a few of them off of their hands. Here in Texas it is always busy and either stressful or exciting depending on how you choose to look at it. I usually am able to focus on the positive and the wonderful blessings in my life, though not always. We experience hardships also but these we get through with faith in God, love of family, and hope for the future. Our kids of course are our most special blessings.
John Welch is 14 now and in the 8th grade. He loves music and plays the trombone and loves to sing. He loves game boy and reading and gets frustrated because he has very little time to do these activities because of school work and other activities. He loves church and volunteers as assistant in Children’s Church. He played football the last 2 years but has chosen not to play in high school so he can focus on school and the activities he loves more than football. I am always so proud of him as he is such a nice, loving young man. It will be exciting to see what he will become as he grows up. I always remember my mom saying one day that she wondered if John Welch might become a minister one day. I wonder about this too as he has such a strong love for God and for people and this love appears to be maturing as he gets older. He has a kindness about him that is very nice to see. He has also mentioned an interest in becoming a music teacher and a writer as these are his other loves.
Elizabeth is 11 and is in the 5th grade. Her favorites are dance, which she is in her sixth year and church activities. Elizabeth loves to sing and is in the grade school choir and has been in the church choir. She loves to run and she loves to dance and proudly exclaims that she is not a “girly girl” but is a “tomboy”. Elizabeth is our very responsible child and has a diligence and organization about everything she does which is very much admired and appreciated by her parents as we are lacking in these areas. Some of my favorite moments are watching Elizabeth dance. She has such grace and beauty about her both inside and out.
Hannah is almost 6 and is now in Kindergarten. Hannah has an incredible strength of character about her. She feels strongly about everything which leads to the most wonderful and sometimes frustrating moments. Hannah has started dance this year and loves it. She has class only one day a week but often insists that she wear her dance clothes on other days when we take her sister to dance class. Hannah loves to run and swim and got her first new bike for Christmas this year. Hannah has a style all of her own. You will often see her in some very interesting outfits that are just “Hannah”. Hannah also loves church and singing and will often be found playing in the house by herself and singing away.
Jacob has just turned two and attends daycare. He has hit the terrible twos hard with much screaming but is very sweet and very cute which brings a lot of joy. His sisters and brother adore him, which he takes full advantage of. He talks only a little so far and can get frustrated pretty easily when we can’t figure out what he wants. He loves his daycare and acts better there than at home which I am thankful for. He received a little tykes red car and a little bike for Christmas and we can hardly get him off them.
For John and myself we have experienced some big changes. John now takes some classes, which mostly focus on science, as this has always been a great love of his. His research continues to make progress and he has enjoyed using the NMR spectrometer to investigate his protein.
For myself, I have also had a change in job. My new job allows me to have enough emotional and physical energy to focus on my family so I truly appreciate it. I now work on call and go into emergency rooms around the city and work as a psychiatric consultant to the physicians to determine the needs of patients with mental health concerns. The job is in the middle of the night and only 3 days a week which frees me up to be a dance/band mom after school. I have loved this change of focus in my life but miss my old job doing therapy with teenagers and miss my old co-workers/friends. I hope to return to a similar job in the future as my years working at the psychiatric hospital were wonderfully awarding.
Writing this letter reminded me again of how many wonderful blessings I have in my life. I consider each of you as a blessing though I do not get to see you very much any more. The kids and I always enjoy it when we go up for a few days and stay with Mom and Debbie and get the chance to see many of the members of the family. Unfortunately we haven’t had much chance to go further north to see all the extended relatives but I will try to do better in the future. When I saw Ramona and Lois and their families at Thanksgiving last year it reminded me of the good people I had been missing by not making more effort to drive further north.
Time is going by so fast and I feel old in spirit but am really only a little old in age as I turned 40 this year. The hard times really do make us stronger if they don’t break us. I am very thankful for the blessings of all of you in my life and hope that all of you have a wonderful year and had a wonderful time celebrating Christ’s birth.
With love,
Michelle
