21 Month Capsule

For the past few years, I've had the noble ambition to type up a year-in-review, print it on nice paper with some photos, and send it out to family and friends. I usually get the review written, but the publishing part is where I stall. I stumbled upon one that I had written for 2008, and it seemed a shame to let it go to waste. So I added on some updates for the past 9 months and will now post it for your viewing pleasure. So instead of a year-in-review, it's the past 21 months in review...

The D. R. P.
At the start of 2008, we took stock of our finances and realized that we were building up too much debt. So we started our big Debt Reduction Plan. This included getting second jobs and doing all we could to minimize expenses. In January, Wayne started tutoring after school at a local elementary school. Cristina worked part-time at Brilliant Sky, a local independently-owned toy store. In addition to earning a little extra, we cut expenses by getting rid of our cable TV, changing our health insurance plans, and deferring our student loans. To defer our loans, Wayne decided to attend college part-time. He enrolled at South Mountain Community College, taking incredibly challenging classes like the Art of Storytelling, Golf, and Introduction to Cinema.

Spring
Doing his part to help the economy, Wayne bought his first gas grill with part of our tax rebate stimulus money. Sofia’s school, Arizona School for the Arts, requires all students to spend the 3rd quarter working on a massive research project, concluding with an oral presentation. Sofia’s presentation on Egyptian Pharaoh Hatshepsut was excellent. In April, Wayne’s mother, Fran, came for a visit. She quickly became a part of our busy lives. She got to meet our little dog Vivien. She attended several of Sofia’s performances at school, and ate at Pizzeria Bianco for her birthday. While Fran was here, Cristina attended her first 5-day Jin Shin Jyutsu training. JSJ is an ancient art of harmonizing the energy in the body. Cristina fell in love with the technique in 2007 and is learning to be a practitioner. Two days before she flew home, Fran took a tumble on the stairs and broke her ankle. So her last 2 days in Phoenix consisted of emergency room adventures, wheelchair exploits, and lots of family TLC. We were sorry she had to leave us that way!

Summer
Wayne taught summer school for the second year in a row. Wayne also had a week-long reader’s/writer’s workshop training to attend in July. But we were not willing to abandon our plans to get out of the valley for the summer. Initially, we were going to tour the west coast, but it became too hard to juggle this plan with Wayne’s commitments. So we opted for another cross-country drive to the east coast. The day summer school ended, the drive began. We spent 5 days on the road, stopping at Carlsbad Caverns and a Texas water park called Schlitterbahn. Our summer road trip included extended stays in Gainesville, Florida and Asheville, North Carolina (where Fran’s ankle was healing up nicely). To maximize our time, Wayne flew back to Phoenix the day before work started. Cristina and the kids took their time driving home, visiting as many museums, science centers, and friends and family that they could squeeze in.

Back to School
Sofia started 7th grade at Arizona School for the Arts. Alex began 2nd grade at Desert Marigold (DMS). Bella started 5-day preschool at DMS. Wayne continued teaching 10th grade English at South Mountain High School (13th year of teaching!) and Cristina was hired as a Kindergarten assistant at DMS. Her new job curtailed the toy store job, as being in the classroom is more time and energy consuming. In October, Wayne took Bella to her first Gator football game. Wayne, Alex, and Bella flew to Florida for Gator homecoming. Alex enjoyed his 2nd Gator Growl and saw the Steve Miller band. They all had a great time at the game and even got a few autographs afterward. (During that weekend, Cristina attended her 2nd JSJ training and Sofia stayed with friends.)

The Home Stretch
We had a rare Thanksgiving in that we stayed home and had no visitors. Wayne cooked a way-too-big turkey because he waited too long to buy one and the only ones left were 24-pounders. But the meal was good and the leftovers were plentiful. Christmas break also yielded no visitors. However, we did go to the Grand Canyon Baha’i Conference where we saw Red Grammer and (Cristina’s favorite) Smith and Dragoman. We also drove to New Mexico to spend a few days in the snow with Uncle Doug and Aunt Lynn.

2008 Wrap-up
Overall, 2008 was a good, productive year. The economy may be tanking, but our lives are chugging along full strength, with no serious injuries or illnesses, thank God (except for Fran’s ankle). Our debt is slowly going away and everyone is happy in their school and work.

Spring 2009
Cristina’s mom visited us in March while Cristina made her first solo trip to Germany since she was in high school. Her friend Marion had a baby last fall and she spent 2 weeks with her and Harald and their new baby. While there, she visited the Baha’i Temple in Frankfurt (she’s seen 3 of them now) and spent a night in London on her way back and visited our friend Paula Posas. Stateside, Wayne and the kids visited the little towns of Jerome and Sedona, Hoover Dam, Las Vegas, and Lake Havusu. Wayne’s parents came in late April and stayed through Mother’s Day with us. And Wayne did two notable things in the spring: he bought a ukulele, and he went off all drugs for the Crohn's that has been in remission for 3 years now.

Summer 2009
Wayne taught summer school for the third summer in a row. Cristina and the kids flew down to Costa Rica midway through June and Wayne joined them as soon as summer school ended. Full details of our Costa Rican summer were blogged, so there's no point recounting them here. But it was a great trip.

Back to School
Wayne started his 14th year of teaching the day after returning from Costa Rica. He’s teaching seniors and sophomores this year. Bella started Kindergarten with a new teacher, Ms. Susan. It’s the first time she has not had her mother in the same classroom and it’s going just fine. Alex started 3rd grade with Mr. Tanner, and Sofia began 8th grade at Arizona School for the Arts, where she earned 1st chair trumpet. Cristina continues to work at DMS as a Kindergarten assistant, this time with Ms. Julie.

Things to Come
The plan is to move to the east coast next summer, pending employment. The primary choices are Gainesville or Chapel Hill. Stay tuned for a blog post updating our years-old plan to move back east!