1999 was a year for growth for all of us. David changed to
a new position at work where he is now leading a group of researchers.
This assignment is expected to be over in the spring, at which time he
will decide what is next for his career. At home this year, David
has been a busy guy! He was the manager of Mike's spring Little League
baseball team (the Columbia Tigers), and is happy to report that the team
went 15-0-1 for the season! The kids were a great group to work with,
so it was a lot of fun for him. However, it was also a lot of work,
so in the fall, he decided to be just an assistant coach for Mike's fall
league team, the Columbia RedSox. This team's record was not quite
as good - they were 0-15-1 for the season. Will David decided
to be a manager again next spring? Time will tell... but probably
so! In addition to the baseball commitments, David also volunteers
regularly at Mike and Kim's elementary school. He is now in his second
year of being the school webmaster, and he mentors students in the Gifted
and Talented program who are learning how to do webpage design.
Jenny also saw new opportunities for growth at work this year. She moved from being a Project Leader to being a Deputy Branch Chief in the same organization. This shift into management did cause some stress and frustration, but she has really enjoyed the challenge and the opportunity to influence a wider spectrum of issues. This new job will take her travelling overseas as much or even more than she was doing in the past three years. This is something that she really enjoys, and she is relishing the opportunities to visit interesting places and meet new people. At home, Jenny has been busy working on various PTA activities, and volunteering at the school. She has also spent a lot of time this year on her newest hobby - creative scrapbooking. This has kept her busy since mid-summer, as she has been working diligently on various projects, from an extensive recording of our family vacation, to a scrapbook calendar project which took over two months to complete.
The biggest changes this year, of course, have been seen in the lives of Mike and Kim. Mike is now in the 3rd grade, and is doing great. He was busy in the spring with coach-pitch baseball, then in the fall with kid-pitch baseball. He really enjoyed having his dad for a coach! Mike settled into the catcher position in the fall, though he spent some time in the field and on the pitcher's mound, too.
At school, Mike's doing great. He does well in all his studies, but especially likes math. One highlight for 3rd graders is learning to write in cursive. He practiced that over the summer in anticipation of such a grown-up skill.
Mike's main hobby right now is Poke'mon - he collects cards, plays the card game, and most importantly, plays the Poke'mon GameBoy game every waking moment that he's permitted. Remember how boys in the 1950's would memorize stats on baseball cards? Mike knows every stat on every Poke'mon character, and loves to tell us lots of interesting facts just to be sure we're not behind on our Poke'mon expertise.
Kim saw some major changes this year as she grew into a school-aged kid. She said sad goodbye's to her friends at the daycare center where she was enrolled since she was 4 months old. Then she settled into Kindergarten and her new after-school daycare home with ease. She is very busy learning to read. She tries with lots of enthusiasm and determination to sound out words that are new to her, and she has quite a repertoire of words that she can read on sight. Her kindergarten class is a wonderful place for exciting experiences, and she is flourishing there.
Kim played her first season of soccer this fall, in the clinic level of the local league. Her team is called the Soccer Stars, and they will meet up again in the spring for eight more weeks of fun. She will also start Little League T-ball in the spring. She's already quite a hitter.
One interesting social development occurred this fall after Kim left her old daycare center. She started talking on the phone to her best friend, Dara. They were missing each other in September after they'd gone to separate kindergarten schools, so they began a nightly ritual of chatting (and mostly giggling) on the phone. Since then, the frequency of the calls has lessened, but the friendship is still growing strong. Kim and Dara have mailed letters to each other, have had many play dates, and a few sleepovers.
We had lots of fun family experiences this year - our big trip to Florida and Disney World, visits here by many family members, trips to visit other family memebers in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Oklahoma, etc. We have been blessed by good health and lots of love. We hope that you have had the same good fortune.
Thanks for stopping by this page to catch up with us. Please keep in touch throughout the next year.
With warmest wishes to you and yours for a wonderful holiday season and new year...
The Harris Family
David, Jenny, Mike and Kim