Merry Christmas Friends and Family!
Happiest of Holidays to you!We just started this blog as a way to keep in touch with all of our friends and family, but many of you are probably wondering what we've been up to this year. So, I thought a welcome letter might be in order.
2009 has flown by!
Sam is keeping very busy. He started middle school this year and loves his new school, hates all the homework. He started playing the upright bass (bass violin) for his school orchestra. If you're not familiar with this instrument, think a cello on steroids. It barely fits in our car. This instrument has been his goal since starting orchestra, although we do think that it's initial draw was it's size (massive) and it's volume (chandelier rattling). School, practice, Confirmation, and time with friends and family are busy enough for Sam. He still loves a lot of quiet time to just be a kid and we think that's just as important as he does. Right at this moment his career goal is to be a computer software developer and professional video game player. This is the first year that super hero doesn't figure into his career plans. He's now as tall as I am, his voice is changing, and he gets more and more independent every day.
I'm still at home and finally feel like I've recovered from being a MomPreneur. We sold all three stores in 2007 just in time for the economy to tank. My health is still a challenge (how I worked as much as I did with the business I'll never know). I'm catching up on home projects that went by the wayside, writing, and teaching Sam's Confirmation class (which is an adventure in itself). I'm officially the CEO of the Olson household, which has made all of our lives easier if I do say so myself.
Darren had an eventful year. He still enjoys working as a VP at Midwave. His company is very good to him and we've been very thankful for that. After taking a tumble off his bike into Poison Ivy while on our Father's Day trip to Itasca State Park and developing cellulitis, we discovered that he was having some heart issues. Since his grandfather died at a very young age of a heart attack, we took this very seriously. Well, I did. Darren had to step out of the Land of Denial to admit that what he was feeling was more than muscle strain. My repeated, "You look like a cardiac patient" didn't seem to faze him. Darren had two stents placed to open up 90% blockages in two of the arteries in his heart in July. When the doctor came out to tell me how the procedure went he simply said, "You were right" and then proceeded to show me the pictures of Darren's heart. I would have rather been wrong. He's been very active and made some great healthy choices prior to all of this, so making these behaviors lifelong habits has not been that difficult. Thank you to all of you for your prayers and well wishes while all of this was going on.
We took a trip to Orlando again last January to escape the winter. Turns out, we brought it with us, but braved the 40 degree temps to frolic through the parks until we OD'd on Pixie Dust. Sam even swam in our rental home's pool one day! We attempted to flee the Disney realm by hiking a nature preserve only to find that it was owned by, you guessed it, Disney! We found out that we're not really theme park people, that we enjoy nature travel more, but still enjoyed being three kids for a few days. Sam still has It's a Small World stuck in his head.
We bought a pop up camper this Spring and used it to camp at Rice Creek Chain of Lakes Campground (10 minutes from our house), Itasca State Park, and Two Island Campground for Fisherman's Picnic in Grand Marais. We also camped in Camp Driveway, an exclusive resort found in Shoreview, for Mother's Day. I think we're going to make a lot of memories in our Canvas Cottage (OK, the boys think that name is WAY dumb, but I'm sticking with it because they have no alternate that doesn't use a word for a bodily function.)
Our kitchen is slowly, but surely coming together. Darren worked very hard ripping out the hideous plastic light fixture and replacing it with drywall and can lights. What a huge improvement. We replaced the even more hideous vinyl parquet flooring with slate tile to match the backsplash Darren put up. We've finally surrendered to the fact that our house will never be all done. The improvements that we made ten years ago when we moved here now need to be redone. Ugh.
We're happy, we're (sorta) healthy, and we're thankful for all that has been given us this year.
We're looking forward to a calmer 2010 and hope that you can check in here every once in a while to see what we're up to.
Peace,
Elizabeth, Darren, and Sam
