Crazy to think that it's been almost two years since we've blogged an update about the family! It really feels a lot more important now that we've moved from Kansas to New Mexico. This might be a good way for us to keep in touch with friends and family from Kansas, Texas, Utah and lots of other wonderful places.
First off, we really miss the great friends we moved away from in the McPherson, Kansas, area!!! To our dear friends, the Starks and Marshalls, we just really don't have words to express our gratitude for the friendship and love you gave us. May that friendship continue for all the years to come! And we (especially Dedrick) apologize if we haven't made a good start of staying in touch. We also appreciate all the kind members of the Newton Ward of the LDS Church who were friends to us and our kids during our four years in Kansas. And we miss other friends and acquaintances from work and school in the area.
So far the move has been quite a challenge, but I think we'll be very happy in the long run here in Aztec, New Mexico. We've begun making good friends here, too, and hope to continue to do so. The country here is really beautiful - dry desert locally, but with high mountains and forests very close by. The desert is beautiful with canyons, mesas, mountains, hills, rivers, lakes.
Dedrick's job at Williams is a big change from his role in Kansas, where he was engineer for a single natural gas liquids separation plant. Now he is responsible for the southern half of a vast natural gas gathering system. The full system is 3700 miles of pipeline, 5700 wells or interconnects, dozens of compressor stations, all spread over 3800 square miles of high desert terrain. Three large gas processing plants handle the gas that is gathered, but the plants are supported by other engineers. The farthest sites he supports are two hour drives one way from the office. So far he's only gotten stuck in the mud once!!!
Damian is working in the Aztec School District as a substitute school teacher for grades K-12, while attending New Mexico Highlands University full-time in pursuit of her special education teaching degree. It's a big challenge to juggle while being mom, too, but she's really loving the opportunity to be in the schools, and spend time teaching directly with kids of different ages and different subjects.
Damian and Dedrick recently celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary with a very nice steak dinner in Durango, Colorado.
Rebecca is 12 now and that magic teenage number is not far off. She has been playing flute in the band and started track today. She wants to compete in high jump, sprints, and a relay event. She's been doing well in class, and is slowly adjusting to sharing a room with her sister.
Aidan is 9 and has been making friends in the neighborhood and spending time with Dedrick playing computer games together. He's excited that he finally received his Bobcat and Wolf awards in Cub Scouts, along with many beads and arrows for the electives. A lot of those were earned in Kansas, but never awarded. On to Bear!
Kaliska will be 8 next month and has made some good friends at school. She keeps us all laughing and smiling. She is still a prolific artist and is looking forward to getting baptized next month.
The family took a vacation to Orlando while Dedrick attended an engineering training there this past December. It was a lot of fun and we went to see Universal Studios, Disney World, Lego Land, the aquarium in Clearwater where Hope and Winter, the dolphins from Dolphin Tale, live. We enjoyed the feast and show at Medieval Times. Finally, we went to a citrus plantation where the family took a tour on a monster truck school bus. Every one of the kids got to drive the monster bus for a few minutes - we never in a million years thought that our kids' first driving experience would be in a monster truck with 10 foot tires!
There are lots of things to do in the area and we're planning day trips to go and see lots of them for weekends and spring break and summer.
The LDS Church in Aztec has been great to us so far, and Damian and Dedrick are enjoying the calling to teach the 14 - 17 year old youth.
That's all for now, but hopefully it'll be a little sooner than two years between blog updates next time!
Maybe next update we'll post pictures of the house, some local ruins and petroglyphs. Take care!!!
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