Here we go again.
Melanie is now 16. She's a junior in High School. She was in the color guard again. This year, the Homestead High School Spartan Alliance Band came in 4th at "state". She has now started driving and she tries to get me to let her drive my car just about anywhere we go. So, I let her drive on the roads during a recent snow day. And she even got to drive the Indiana portion of our bi-weekly trips from Fort Wayne to near the Toledo airport for the kids weekend with their Dads. She also has a very nice boyfriend and they went to semi-formal together.
Brian is in the 7th grade and he just turned 13 in November. He continues to excel in his drumming ability and he is sure to be part of the drum line when he gets into high school. He tried out for 7th grade basketball, but the number of boys going out made the competition stiff. He continues with Boy Scouts and has earned 1st Class. We've been to the Wright Patterson Air Force Museum in Dayton, OH with the Scouts. He also likes skateboarding and playing video games.
Michael Victor also had a birthday in November and he just turned 7. He finished up Kindergarten in May and started 1st grade this past August. Even though the school is right in our backyard, Michael takes a bus in the morning from a neighbor's house and he is dropped off by the bus right in front of our house in the afternoon. He did Coaches Pitch little league in the summer. And he started Cub Scouts this year. He earned his Bobcat badge and he is working towards earning his Tiger badge. He attended summer camp at the YMCA and he is a very good swimmer. For Halloween, he was the Black Spiderman. Besides Star Wars & Spiderman, he loves playing video games.
Wendy is now working full time for the American Cancer Society. We were involved with the Relay for Life in June and Making Strides Against Breast Cancer in October. As chairman of the Relay for Life event, Wendy was able to triple the number of teams that participated and increased donations by over $10,000. She was also the Recruitment Manager for the Making Strides event. This past July, we all went to Hawaii to visit Wendy's cousin and to spread her Aunt Nancy's ashes. Hawaii was awesome. We went to Pearl Harbor, a Hawaiian Luau, and we even went underwater in a submarine. Wendy decided that it would be better if she were Michael's Tiger Den Leader rather than Pack Committee Chairman. I help her out as Assistant Den Leader. And because of Wendy's challenges with breast cancer, she was offered a very nice makeover by a group associated with the mobile mammography unit in Fort Wayne.
Since Wendy is Michael's Tiger Den Leader, I continue as Committee Chairman for our Cub Scout Pack and I still maintain the web site for the Pack. I also attended a week long training session called Wood Badge. Even though it is given by the Boy Scouts of America, the things that you learn are applicable to ALL aspects of your life - home, work, community. I actually got to be in the Buffalo Patrol and that is very cool. And I played some softball in the church league. At work, our company was successful in achieving the CMMI Level 5 rating that we've been working on since late in 2005.
We are thankful for all of our friends and family. We wish we could see you all more often.
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