Conley Family Holiday Letter 2009

   

 

 

   

Dear Family and Friends,

What a year it has been but I guess I say that every year. We have lots of works in progress. We are continuing to work on our old house, as life long learners we keep adding to our transcripts, and as teachers we are further enjoying or students. I am continuing to be involved in the community with the garden club, book club, and school board. The kids are both growing like weeds. Abbi is constantly improving as a flutist and Caelun has definitely entered the terrible twos.

We rang in the New Year with our dear friends the Badovinic family. Clint is continuing to take graduate classes towards his masters degree in vocational education. I took physical geography which the authors of NCLB feel I need to be highly qualified to teach philosophy. Physical geography is very similar in content to geology. My students thoroughly enjoyed following my class assignments on facebook. At the end of each lesson on the rock cycle, the geologic foundations of volcanoes, or the Oglala Aquifer I would ask “this is geography – where are the maps?” and one told me – “silly teacher they are at the bottom of the aquifer” of course – silly me. Yes I need to learn the rock cycle to be highly qualified to teach Locke and Hume, maybe they are at the bottom of the volcanoes.

February brought debate state finals held in Auburn Hills this year. Caelun had a grand time running the halls chasing after the big kids, climbing in the debate tubs, and swimming in the hotel pool. We had our best finishing place yet when we dropped on a 2-1 decision in the semi-final round against South Lyon who went on to win the championship. We came in 3^rd in the state which was very exciting –especially considering my top team of Andy and Talya were only juniors.

Spring means spring break and a wonderful trip to a new part of FL for us. My dear uncles, John and David, who lived in Key West for many years decided to sell their house and move back to MI. Lucky for us, some old friends from college, Joel and Melissa Turmo, just moved to Boca Raton and invited us for a visit. Clint’s mom, Rita gave us plane tickets for Christmas presents and off we went. This was Caelun’s first plane trip and he is evidently a born flyer. We enjoyed our time at the Gumbo Limbo Nature Preserve and the McKee Botanical Garden. Cae- Cae even got his first taste- literally – of the ocean. Caelun was in little boy heaven at the Turmo’s with piles of match box cars, two little boy compatriots David and Andrew, and slick tile floors. Those cars really did fly. It was a wonderfully relaxing get away.

April marks our big family Easter egg hunt. We had 12 kids hunting, our largest amount yet. Our dear neighbors and friends Jerry and Amy Hall helped me stuff 65 plastic eggs times 12 children- yep that is 780 plastic eggs. Yes we must be crazy but it is so worth it to watch all those kids run pel-mel down the hill at my dad’s farm and to see the joy everyone else gets, especially my dad, from watching them. Abbi had lots of fun helping to hide the eggs and Caelun really started to get the hang of it -in the picking them up part. The end of April also brought Caelun’s 2^nd birthday. Thanks to everyone who came, brought him presents and watched him destroy his race track-Match Box Car cake.

As always in the rhythm of the chaos we loosely refer to as our lives, forensics state finals came the week after Cae-Cae’s birthday. They were held at UofM Flint which was nice for me being that is where I grew up. Caelun again enjoyed chasing the big kids around. This year I had 3 students qualify and my orator broke to semi-final round. Again Andy, Talya, and Jen were all juniors.

May brought the Grand Rapids Knights of the Round Table Oratorical Contest. My dear student Talya won 1^st place and a $1500 scholarship for a beautiful speech on the value of the arts in education. May also had us finish enclosing our back/side yard with a privacy fence-also lovingly referred to as our big white baby cage. In addition we put in an 18ft. diameter by 48in. deep above ground pool- a birthday gift from my dad, and we built Cae-Cae a sand box- complete with sand from the farm. We planted our annual vegetable garden that Clint again made one rota-tiller width wider as our “lawn elimination” plan continues. It has been great fun to continue to landscape with the new structural addition of the fence. I repurposed some of my Grandpa Medford’s wooden ladders into a garden trellis. I kept telling Clint we need more “up-ey things” in our landscaping. Clint pointed out to me, with the trellis and fence we now have lots of structure, or as I so eloquently put it “up-ey things”

June brought the end of school and our dear Abbi’s 13^th birthday. In celebration we had a pool party to ring in her teen years. One problem -the late spring and early summer were quite chilly and the pool was only 65 degrees. That didn’t stop Abbi. She and one of her friend’s - Levi Velting jumped in with all their clothes on. I guess if you wear more clothes you will stay warmer. She picked out a lime green 18 speed bike as a present from us and again thank you to all who came, celebrated, and brought gifts. June also brought a 3^rd sinus surgery for me. I spent most of the winter with a low grade infection I just couldn’t shake with antibiotics. I never got critically ill – I just couldn’t seem to get fully better. The infection had spread in to my ethmoid bones and a portion had to be removed. Clint, being the wonderful guy that he is, post surgery in trying to comfort me told me “look you have matching dents above your eyes now. You are more symmetrical and symmetry is attractive.” Now that is a compliment a girl can take to the bank. Unfortunately at this time we also lost Clint’s dear grandfather Floyd G. Conley. He was a WWII vet. and truly grand man. I am grateful I had the opportunity to get to know him. As a history teacher I wish I had his stories recorded of going across France in a tank. He will be sorely missed.

July brought much work on our house. We began the big job of siding. We tore all the old aluminum siding off, caulked all the windows, and along the foundation, house wrapped, covered in ¾ in. foam and then sided. Our formally white house is now brick red. We also uncovered some architectural details in the trim that we have been able to high light.

56 tubes of caulk and 4 cans of spray foam later with the south/back side not complete we feel like we are making progress. We also feel like we should buy stock in silicone caulk.

We took a break in August while waiting for more siding to come in, and took a vacation. Abbi brought her best friend Perry, we plugged in the DVD player loaded with Baby Einstein, and headed south. We stopped in Akron, OH on the way south and my dear friend Jen Dunkel took us out to and amazing burger joint with burgers the size of your head. We continued on south to a tour of Luray Caverns, George Washington’s office in Winchester, VA, Skyline Drive, and finally Colonial Williamsburg. This was the highlight of the trip. Colonial Williamsburg really does have something for everyone, from the toddler to the teens, to us old geeky teacher folk. We hit the Science Museum of Western Virginia located in downtown Roanoke on the way back and stopped for a quick visit in Columbus, OH with my nieces and nephew and their families. We came back to MI refreshed and ready to continue work on the house and take on a new school year.

September harbored the beginning of the school year and Caelun heading back to our dear Auntie Pam. She is truly the best baby sitter/extra Grandma. They bake cookies and play. She also picks Abbi up and runs her places when we aren’t home yet. She is also going to be giving both Abbi and I some pie crust lessons which we are very much looking forward to. We are so thankful to have her as part of our family. The new school year also brought the new debate season. My 2 top debaters Andy and Talya are truly the best team I have had in my coaching career thus far. They are an unusual combination of intelligent, hard working, and coachable. They have brought a trophy home from every tournament they have competed at thus far this season. That being said I really thought this might be the final year of coaching a debate team for me. The decreased funding and new state graduation requirements have disseminated the ranks. We have been dramatically shrinking every year for 4 years now. All of a sudden a few weeks ago 9 freshmen, 2, sophomores, and a junior walked in the door. It is amazing how big trophies inspire folks to join. It is exciting for all involved as Andy and Talya are being scouted by college debate teams such as Kansas, Wayne State, and University Of North Texas. It has been a very rewarding year on the debate front. The end of September found us dealing with the loss of my dear Uncle David of Key West stories fame. His heart damaged early in his life finally refused to work. The loss of him has left my heart broken. There are special people that come into our lives changing us in ways we can only imagine. He was one of those people for me.

October brought a wonderful change for our household in that our dear daughter made a move from Traverse City Schools to Cedar Springs. This was a scary transition for her but we are very excited to have her around more and be able to provide the support system for her academic and extra curricular activities we weren’t able to when she was 2 hours away. I told her I am going to get a shirt that says “Super Band Geek Mom”. I am really looking forward to joining the whole band mom thing. We had a spooktactular Halloween. Abbi attended a bon-fire at one of her friends. We attended a different party at some family friends the Franks. Caelun was a cow and actually started to get the hang of the trick or treat thing.

In November my mother had cataract surgery on both eyes and it has been a success. We are glad she can now better see the world and she had each eye done in less time than it takes to go through drive through at a fast food restaurant. Modern miracles never cease. Putting my money where my mouth is as far as my position on the value of community service goes I decided to run for an open seat on City Council. On election day I won. I am looking forward to participating in this aspect of our municipality.

All of these adventures and more can be found here on the blog. I take so many pictures of the kids you can almost watch them move if you scroll through the blog fast enough. Abbi sent me flair on facebook that says “my kids think I am the paparazzi” or the “momarazzi” as one of my friends calls me. Clint, Abbi, and I are all on facebook where we also have lots of pictures. Technology is truly grand.

We are enjoying a restful Thanksgiving break and we had a splendid meal with dad’s delectable cooking. I actually made the turkey for the first time, but dad still made the rest of the spread. I wrote most of this missive during an off round from judging at the UofM national debate tournament. I sat looking out a window of Mason Hall at a sunny day with a beautiful azure sky, the last of the golden leaves clinging to the trees, listening to wonderfully talented and intelligent students advocate policy changes to help people in poverty. The night before leaving I sat grading papers and listening to the melodic strains of Abbi playing her flute and the deep belly laughs of Caelun as Clint tossed him in the air with “blast offs”. In between “blast offs” Caelun would run over to me for a hug. Clint looked at me, the sink full of dirty dishes, the dust bunnies in the corners, cob webs on the light fixtures, and the cat hair on the furniture and asked “so domestic bliss- is it all you hoped for?” my response – “all that and then some.”

We hope you have your own version of happiness and domestic bliss as fulfilled as we do. Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. May you have many such moments. Know that you are loved and as my dear Aunt Dave would say – don’t sweat the small stuff and in the end it is all small stuff.

The Conleys- Clint, Pam, Abbi, Cae-Cae, 2 cats, and a rat.