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First things first: 2000 has been a difficult year. We started with clearing out my aunt Jean's apartment where she lived for almost 50 years, and her 3 storage lockers. With a couple months preparation we moved her to a wonderful residence facility in April. Then proceeded to finish clearing out her apartment. We turned in the keys on July 31st. Will has been most patient and helpful as we turned our 2 almost empty storage lockers into 2 full ones again. We also spent time on our yard. I had a friend do the landscaping plan and we had a professional crew come in and do most of the work. Now we get to do the final bits of really making it ours. It is a good yard with a 3 tiered pond - we have frogs, dragonflies, hummingbirds, bees and butterflies. You couldn't pick a rose or move anything in the yard without uncovering frogs - little lime green ones, green ones with copper backs, dark mottled green ones with long toes…. And pond frogs - 5 at last count! The dragonflies come in all sizes and shapes too - small red, small light blue, very large black. We get Monarch butterflies, smaller orange and black ones, and white ones. The hummingbirds, of many different varieties, love the hollyhocks, penstamen (?sp) and Mexican sage. We also get large bumblebees as well as honey bees with all the lavender we planted. Will planted me sweetpeas again and is learning a lot about roses. He also made benches and a special water system for the orchids; which have been rewarding us with lots of wonderful flowers. We planted around 300 bulbs and will plant even more next year. Still have a couple drainage issues to work out, but it is coming together. August was preparing for invitro fertilization. September I was pregnant, but unfortunately it was an ectopic pregnancy so we had to go through the miscarriage process. Better than surgery, but still a couple months of recovery. The doctor has released me and we will make decisions after some quiet time together. In October, Jeannie was diagnosed with terminal cancer. She had a couple good weeks and then… We were able to get in wonderful 24 hour care for her and she passed away on November 22nd. I spent the last week with her, which was very important for her. Her other niece, Meta Jean, came down from Oregon in May to help her unpack in her new home and at the end of October to help her make the transition and set everything in place for her home hospice care. It also allowed the 2 of us to get closer which as my "closest" relative is important. I'm also thankful to Will's family. Warren (his Dad) and Vicki (his wife) came up and helped make Thanksgiving a wonderful holiday despite the loss. Now is the time for moving forward. In the "Costume & Dance" arena - I'm now head of our medieval group's Needleworkers Guild. We support historic needlework - classes, displays, apprenticeship program, etc. Since I need to be at a number of events, Will is getting his armor together and will do some "fighting". We also hope to do more dance events including classes in vintage ballroom dancing. I am still working part time doing arbitration, mediation, facilitation, and training. I've been doing more facilitation this year and really enjoying it. Maybe I'll even get my website updated this year - finally. I continue on the statewide board for the industry's lobbying organization and with Will's help, the group has a revised website. Early this year Will moved to a new department at Visa (now called Inovant) and became the technical lead on a major system re-architecture. Eventually all Visa transactions will run through this system and be scored for fraud possibilities - real time. He loves the challenge and the team seems to appreciate him. Will also has been taking classes at SF State and CSM toward his degree. Unfortunately they require a Physics class which has meant that this fall and next spring he spends 4 days a week having lunch in class. It is a long haul taking classes part time and I admire his stick-to-it-tiveness. Our website wouldn't be complete without pictures of Pete... We now have DSL and so we have new email addresses: We prefer snail mail to
Again we hope your year ahead is wonderful. If I've learned anything from all the trials of this year it is don't wait to do or say the things that matter. So thank-you for your kind thoughts and good wishes. Friends and family are priceless and know that your are appreciated. All the best for 2001 |
