Well as always the year had its ups and downs.
Chelsea graduated from Ohio State, so that was a big event. The actual graduation was a cattle call, lines of students walking through and getting their diplomas en masse. Still it was Chelsea's day and after grinding through school and investing the time and money, it was worth it for her to have her moment in the limelight.
It was turbulent in the homestretch as Dan's mother was in a bad car wreck - bad enough that she was in a coma. So the decision was made to come back to help with her business and also to help her recover. Poor Chelsea had to commute to and from Columbus during the last of her time at OSU. So that made it all the more difficult.
They now live in house trailer on our property and Chelsea is redirecting her career and is thinking of becoming a school teacher now - specializing in science. She is substituting now to get a feel for it and is making plans to take the needed coursework to become a full time teacher for next year.
We celebrated her graduation with a trip to North Carolina's Outer Banks. We rented a house down there for a week. The stay had its moments to say the least.
Annabelle is doing well in school and wants Mommy to come substitute teach in her class someday. Chelsea said that you need to tell your teacher to call in sick someday. Sterling is mischievous as always.
Vanessa and Eric are maintaining. Vanessa has become a girl Friday or maybe a better term is a facilitator for her church. It has grown and has 2 services on Sunday mornings now. With the growth, scheduling and planning became more chaotic. So she was hired part time to help keep everything running smoothly. Eric made the switch to Pepsi and is good with the change. Slightly better hours and scheduling so that he can spend more time with family.
Elaina is now in Junior High, hard to imagine having a grandchild that old. Violet tried her hand at cheerleading (Ugh), but this winter tried basketball - and is liking it (Yeah!). Elliot has been a handful at times in preschool, maybe he has my temper. And young Thomas is getting around and talking, so he is at a fun age.
Joe and Sam bought their 1st house in New Lebanon this fall. They bought a house trailer and are acting as their own realtors after the realtor they hired simply wasn't performing - no show on appointments, not returning calls, etc. Sam has a new job, she works in the office of Dayton Freight. Joe has a new boss. The owner of LaVecke Lighting retired and sold off the business. The new owner is an electrical engineer. Joe is excited because they are looking more into the controller market where companies control lighting and electrical service operations via computer. So potentially new products to sell down the road.
Ryker is trying to run his preschool. I guess the one day the teacher sat down for story time. So Ryker did not care for the story as he told the teacher - "Could you stop now, we are going over to the toy box and play with cars." He then grabbed another boy and left the group.
Chad and Sarah are also maintaining. No big changes for 2018. He is still a mechanic for Montgomery County. She is still teaching. His project dujour is rebuilding a backhoe. He is trying to bring it back to life as he has some tile on his property that he wants to redo. He has done a good job of fixing our vehicles this year, it is nice to have a mechanic in the family. I can do some of my own work, but these modern vehicles can be so difficult to diagnose and repair.
Cash is still enjoying working on little projects and putting stuff together. Definitely headed for being a mechanic or doing something mechanical in the future. Serenity is enjoying her school and is doing well.
Me and Becky are counting down to retirement. February of 2019 has been selected. Getting the i's dotted and t's crossed have been a pain. Becky qualifies for medicare as she is disabled, but we have insured her under my insurance all these years. Making the change from private insurance to medicare has been a major undertaking. Much wailing and gnashing of teeth. The battle is not over -we are dealing with bureaucrats and they are unflinching in their enforcement of nonsensical rules. But hopefully by January things will have been worked out.
