Happy Holidays From The Conleys The Year That Was 2014

Dear Family, friends, in-laws and out laws,

We are wishing you a: Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Eid Mubarak, Happy Diwali, and a Joyous Solstice and Yule.  Hooray for celebrating and if you are not celebrating any of those things may you have something to celebrate.  We bring tidings of good cheer from the Conley household.  It has been 2 years since I have sent out our previously annual missive. In those 2 years our big kid has gotten a drivers license, gained skills in the field of veterinary care while working at a local vet, graduated from HS, and started college at GRCC. In that time our little kid completed kindergarten and 1^st grade,   hiked up several mountains, and has become an amazing reader. In this time we have also endured the loss of my dad Bob, Clint’s grandmother Florence The Great , and his  uncle  Spencer as well as one of our fur children Miss Kitty.  While our hearts are heavy and we find there are large holes to be filled, moving on and filling them we are, with hearts of gratitude for the time and relationships we had. 

This past January is when my  dad passed away from a heart attack brought on by the impacts of pneumonia.  He was 88 years old and other than the 4 weeks he spent  in the hospital with pneumonia  and the post recovery  he was independent and living life on his own terms. Clint and I were with him when he passed and he left this world as he had lived his life,  on his own terms and making his own decisions.  We should all be so lucky to live and die on our terms after 88 trips around the sun that were pack full of life to the brim. He is deeply missed but we all know that life is a terminal condition and I am grateful to have had the time we did and that he got to leave calling his own shots.

February was a time for adjustment.  I had previously started home health care for both my parents prior to my dad getting sick and we expanded this for my mother. The folks from Clark Home Health care were phenomenal and I was astounded at the gains she made in personal independence. She has been doing her own laundry, fixing her own breakfasts and lunches, and washing her own dishes. We have a dear friend and neighbor Amy Hall that is a retired geriatric nurse who is providing foot care and helping with showers. Clint and I bring her dinner every day, check her medications, get her to medical appointments, and handle household maintenance and lawn mowing and thus far she is doing well on her own. Clark Home Health signed off on her needing help based on the gains she made. Her GP doc is suggesting that we re-evaluate this winter but so far she is the most independent and functional I have probably ever seen her.  Caelun has had some difficulty with the loss of Grandpa Bob but the combination of time and the caring staff at school has helped him tremendously. February brought the end to the policy debate season and as my dad would have told me “the learning must go on” so it did and as a testament to my students despite the distractions of their coach losing her father they broke to quarter finals at both the JV and varsity levels at the GVSU State Debate Tournament. 

March and April headed us into spring. Clint went through some of my dad’s seed stores and started seeds. 12 flats in total. We also began plans for a memorial garden that was a vision of my brother Tom. The plants and shrubs began to arrive from every corner of the country by the dozen. Because life goes on we had our annual egg hunt at the farm with 8 kids hunting 90 eggs each. We had a moment when the bell rang and it wasn't  dad ringing it but ring it we did off the hunters were off as it should have been. April also brought a glorious day for a space themed birthday party with bubbles and Tang galore as the little kid celebrate the completion of his 7^th trip around the sun. We also had some drama when the metal roof that pre dates my grandparents purchase of the farm in 1941  blew off the  house. It then rained several inches into the house. I had wanted to replace the roof on the farm the previous year but my dad had vetoed it. Let me tell you there was much swearing at a dead guy on the 9 pm drive to the farm in the snow/rain in the dark, with flash lights, because the power was knocked out, to assess the damage. Damage there was lots of water, carpet had to be removed, and KILZ and new dry wall are our friends but there is indeed a new metal roof put on by T&C Construction with a 40 year warranty on the paint. With fresh paint inside, the old farm house can again accommodate the next generations of Medford’s and their progeny. I did tell the little kid the next roof is his problem and I won’t veto him if I am still around when he says it needs a new one.

May brought more plants and plans for the memorial garden, state finals for forensics where I had several students competing, and the big kids senior prom and graduation. What a glorious sunny day it was we watched her walk across that stage to collect that piece of paper signifying the end of a chapter and the beginning of another.  Memorial Day weekend also brought the fruition of the planning for the garden party at the farm to celebrate my dad’s life and plant his memorial garden. My brother Tom flew in several days before and along with Clint, our neighbor Jerry Hall, my nieces Tracy, Jenny, and their husbands Scott, and Todd and Jenny’s daughters Courtney and Isabell we built a pergola designed by Tom and Scott. The plants and shrubs for the garden came from hundreds of family and friends. We gathered together on a warm sunny day to celebrate my dad’s joys and achievements,  honor his service in WWII, share our grief, eat a wonderful meal, and walk his trails on his beloved farm and all those things were accomplished. Caelun said it best in his closing quote from Dr. Seuss “How did it get so late so soon? It is December before it’s June. Look at how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon?” We spread his ashes in the garden and in many corners of the farm as he had requested. The garden bloomed  all though the summer and will again in the spring. There is plenty of space if anyone wants to add anything, there is a bench at the pergola for those wishing to sit and appreciate the view, the fire pit for those wishing to have a bonfire. I know dad would be happy to know he was remembered in this way.

June brought the fabulous celebration for our big kid's HS open house. There were tables groaning with  food, 2 chocolate fountains, and mountains of cake. Everything was draped in red and black  her school colors with my grandmother Ethel Medford’s antique canning jars filled with silk flowers from David Steinhoff's crafts as a reminder that even when people leave they are still with us. Her sweet face was displayed everywhere represented in images from the day she was born to the day she walked across the stage to get her diploma. Two days before is when we learned of the passing of Florence The Great but as she would have wanted,  the joy should go on and so it did where her card and gift that were already written and prepared  were presented. We ate, celebrated because regardless of pain and loss … and even more because of pain and loss,  joy must not be postponed.  

In July we celebrated Independence Day at the farm with a bonfire in dad’s garden and sparklers. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows and spent the night looking at the stars until we went to bed under the new metal roof in the old farm house where folks that share my DNA have been falling asleep for more than 70 years and with some luck will continue into the future for generations to come. July also brought the final decision  on where the big kid would head to school. She had been deciding between Ferris State and GRCC and she decided that GRCC’s size and distance from home was her preference so we helped her set up a schedule.  Our Cherry trees did there thing and we have 23 pounds of frozen cherries in our freezer. If you are hungry pie come on over.

August we headed out to the Blue Ridge Mountains to a cabin in NC. We hiked, and slept, and hiked, and read books, and hiked, and ate, and hiked. I took lots of pictures… another gift my dad left me the ability to make beautiful images of places I have been. My mother was not thrilled we went on vacation but through the care of our neighbors and our big kid she managed quite well.

September we headed back to school – 2^nd grade, college freshman, and 2 veteran teachers. Caelun has moved to a new building with new teachers and support  folks, Abbi is a new college student, Clint had a waiting list for his pharmacy tech classes, and my debate team in spite of having had funding cut has kids coming out of nowhere so on we go. I do believe fundraising has become a 2^nd job … or maybe it is a third since my photography business seems to have been taking off but at any rate none of us are bored.  Because we clearly do not have enough to do we bought a lake house on Nugent Lake in Baldwin. We were attending a wedding in the area and stumbled across the house for sale from a foreclosure directly across the lake from our dear friends the Halls and so we made a crazy low offer and heaven help us the bank took it. We are looking forward to sunny days there this summer. The apple trees at the farm produced bushels and bushels of apples. After making apple sauce, apple pie filling,  and apple butter we bought a grinder and press off of Amazon and made our own cider.  11 gallons was the final total and we have 1 gallon left heading into Christmas. 

October came in cold and wet but that didn't dim our enthusiasm for the Red Flannel Festival that is held in our town the 1^st weekend in October every year for the past 75 years.  We sponsored the Read To Ride programs where the kids can earn free tickets for carnival rides by reading books. Caelun ate his weight in elephant ears, took pictures from the top of the Ferris Wheel and came home with pockets full of candy from the parade. This month also found our daughter Abbi making a very difficult and adult decision to put our 14 ½ year old cat, Miss Kitty,  to sleep. She had been ill for some time and with supports from the vet, Abbi had given her an additional year of high quality life but eventually there just wasn't more to be done. We miss her friendly meows but we are glad she is not in pain.  My debate team sold pumpkins after getting them donated by Under The Pines Farms as a fund raiser. Caelun thought picking a truck load of pumpkins a day after it rained was the most fun thing ever. My students found him slipping in the mud and climbing on pumpkins to be the most fun thing ever. J We then had our annual Halloween party at the farm. We carved pumpkins, ate lots of food, drank mulled cider made from our own apples, and drove around the trails with our 1993 truck and trailer on a hay ride.  It was a glorious day. Halloween came in Blustery and cold with even a few snowflakes falling. Caelun was a black cat and his costume was furry and made of fleece so he was toasty warm. Mom and dad… not so much. After 4 blocks Clint suggested just raiding Grandma’s candy bowl  and calling it a night but no way said the black cat.  We came back home for boots, mittens, and hats and headed out again. I asked after 2 more blocks – nope, again after 3 more blocks… nope, finally after 2 more blocks and a very full  bag of candy the cat proclaimed us to be done and we headed home to examine the loot.

November rolled in with some crazy snow storms. We  got 30 inches breaking all kinds of records for snow for the month of November. We had a fabulous Thanksgiving being joined by our dear friend from college Dawn Landis and Clint’s step mother Mary and step sister Amanda and her kids  Noah and Eli. We sent plates to Clint’s Dad Floyd and my mother making it a total of 10 for dinner.  We had peach crisp, quince jam included with the cranberry sauce, cherry, and apple pie all from our trees. From our garden we got pumpkins for pie, green beans, broccoli, carrots,  potatoes, and beets. We also had fresh sage for the turkey.  We all gobbled ‘till we wobbled.  The weekend after Thanksgiving we hiked up to the farm to cut a tree. We found just the right one in Caelun’s estimation and it is enjoying a place of honor in our living room.

As we roll through the last days of the year we look back on joys and losses  and we are grateful to be taking fingers to keyboard once more to reach out and connect with all of you, near and far that help to make the trips around the sun worthwhile. We can continue to be found on facebook and if you are in the neighborhood of  our burgh that celebrates underwear please stop in there is always coffee and if you call ahead there will be cherry or apple pie in no time.

May there be love , peace, and joy in whatever you are celebrating this season and many you find ways to fill the holes created by loss with joy.

Love,

Clint, Pam,

 Abbi, Caelun,

 Nutmeg the cat

Happy Holidays From The Conleys- 2011

Dear family, friends, in-laws, out – laws, acquaintances, and random folks who stumble across this on our family blog- Happy Holidays!

We hope this missive finds you well and as the financial adviser Dave Ramsey says “better than you deserve” We frequently feel that we are blessed with better than we ‘deserve’.

I think I said in last year’s recount we bought a house basically next door to us for my folks. January brought us much renovation and preparation on the house. The house was a foreclosure prior to us purchasing it, which means it was very bare as far as appliances and such. Curtains had to be made, blinds installed, appliances bought and installed, furniture bought and set up to make it hospitable for my parents. We are keeping the farm, but they didn’t want to bring most of the appliances and furniture, deciding most of it either needed to be replaced or should stay at the farm for use there.

February opened with the ground hog day blizzard with 17 inches of snow falling in one day. We had several days off of school that were spent digging out. Abbi didn’t’ appreciate the giant plies of snow but Caelun found then highly entertaining. February also brought Abbi’s freshman swirl dance with lots of fancy clothes to be procured and a pile of teens at our house doing hair and tying ties. They kicked up their heels and danced the night away. February also brought Abbi taking and passing driver’s training and she has now been logging her hours behind the wheel. Again I know HOW did THAT happen?? She is a very cautious driver and has been honing her skills on the trips back and forth to visit her mom. She has driven me to lots of places in town and she is always attentive and careful.

March brought forensics season. My team brought home trophies from several tournaments in several categories. My dear Caden who I coached for 4 years-gave me practice speech after speech in the category of impromptu– sometimes several speeches in one day all in a grand effort to break to semi final round at state finals. It is exciting to see a student set a goal and then really put forth the effort to get there.

April brought forensics regional s with all 4 of my kids who were competing, qualifying to state. That same week also brought State finals for HOSA for Clint’s students including the new biomedical debate team I helped him to coach. Yes I know – biomedical debate it sounds like a marriage of Clint and my majors – scary (wink). It also brought spring break and Easter where we filled almost 800 eggs for our annual hunt. The weather was beautiful and there were 10 kids hunting. Caelun our ‘little baby’ turned 4 and is reading and counting how did THAT happen?

May opened with state finals for forensics at Oakland University and all that hard work paid off for Caden where he found himself breaking all the way to semi final round . That is such a wonderful feeling to see a student work so hard and achieve a goal. This is why I teach. As I explained to Caden, his hard work and resulting achievement was the best payment as a teacher I could ever receive. Clint completed yet another of his grad classes towards his masters degree getting him down to 2 classes remaining. We planted our garden again a rototiller width wider in our continual process of lawn elimination. I also planted 5 new standard apple trees , 3 pear trees, 3 paw paw trees, and a quince bush all at the farm.

In June Abbi finished her freshman year and turned 15 – yes I know hard to believe. We had a warm weekend with swimming , pizza, and a bonfire in celebration. We enjoyed having a house full of family and friends to celebrate. Later in June we built an ENORMOUS play fort – like you can see it from space play fort -with rock wall and slide. I think the big kid has had as much fun on it as the little kid.

In July we went on vacation. Our Abbi continues to not want to travel so it was just the little person that went with us. We took the ferry across Lake Michigan to Milwaukee where we hit the Milwaukee Botanic Gardens, The Domes Botanic Gardens, and the Discovery Science center. We then moved on to the outskirts of Chicago where we visited Lego Land, and the Chicago Botanic gardens. Where Caelun loved the fish and Clint and I loved the roses.

August rolled in and we worked on more siding on our house as well as repairing wiring and plumbing . This is also when my parents decided to make the full move to the house in Cedar springs so we spent most of the rest of the summer moving them, cleaning out the farm, and continuing to make their ‘new’ house comfortable and habitable. Other than that we spent much time harvesting our garden, swimming in our pool and Clint spent a good deal of the summer writing the new pharmacy program for KCTC. This was unpaid but is something he feels very passionate about . We are excited to see the new program come to life next school year.

September sent us back to school amid much disruption in the education system from lack of funding at the state level. We continue to try to do more with less and we do our best to have it not impact kids but we are at a place where that isn’t always possible. I have to say it seems we as a culture value education the least I have seen in my life time. That being said debate continues on at my school. I thought forensics was going away but my principal figured out a way to make it fly so forensics continues. I will note that while law makers seem to value education very little the students seem to value it more. I think I may have the most eager to learn over all group of students I have ever had. There seems to be a prevailing view that getting an education and in the case of the area I teach, communication, is critical to being successful in the ‘real world’. While I have always held this view the students have sometimes needed convincing. My dad a 40 year teaching veteran told me from the beginning of my career in education that teaching is one quarter salesmanship. That doesn’t seem to be the case this year and eager learners are exciting for a teacher. Ever the optimists I hope that as these kids move into positions of leadership they can change our societies' over all lack of value for education. Here is hoping. Clint is in the final stages of launching and marketing the pharmacy tech. program for next year at KCTC, he is currently teaching Med Lab, and taking the next to last class for his masters degree in vocational education. September also meant Caelun got to start pre-school. We got a diagnosis of Autistic Spectrum for Caelun, the very low end but enough to qualify him for Early Childhood Special Education for preschool in the mornings 4 days a week through the Cedar Springs Public Schools. Through this program he gets the much needed speech and language therapy and the PT /OT we were feeling he was needing. In addition we enrolled him in a private pre-school, called Wee Folk, in the afternoons and for a full day on Fridays when he doesn’t go to Cedar Trails. We are thrilled with both programs and he LOVES going to school. In the morning when we wait for the bus he jumps up and down and shouts when it comes. It is like Disney Land every single day. While he has some speech delay and struggles with some fine motor skills such as eating and potty training he continues to be a rock star in the reading and math areas. His teachers both say he is reading somewhere in the 2^nd grade level and is starting addition and subtraction. He continues to be an exceedingly happy and affectionate kid who finds joy in almost every moment of every day and as a parent what more can you ask for? Abbi is working hard at a new venture, the school newspaper titled The Approach. All summer we thought this program was going away due to budget cuts and the need for a minimum class size but they pulled together 30 kids- bless the teacher /advisor doing the newspaper at Cedar Springs, and the newspaper is a go. She has put in countless hours editing and learning lay out. I think this is really a niche of hers and we are excited to see her excelling. We are also very proud of her for earning academic honors awarded from last year and she continues to excel l academically this year.

The first of October was Red Flannel Day, our town festival. The weather was terrible the week leading up to it but was beautiful on the festival. Caelun was very distraught to find out that having just completed his first full week at both schools that there would be no school on Sat. His response, “OH NO!!” I explained that there would be a big parade and a carnival. He somewhat dejectedly agreed that that would be ‘okay- sigh’ Luckily Grandpa Bob has been taking him on tractor rides in his trailer behind his new John Deer Lawn mower all over town every Sat or we might have revolt on our hands unless we could generate a town festival every weekend. Fall also brought the onset of the debate season. The topic this year is space exploration and in spite of debate programs being cut everywhere I for some reason have one of the largest groups of new serious debaters I have ever had. We are having a wonderful season learning the basics of argumentation, research, and case construction. They are enthusiastic and hard working which again is exciting for a teacher and a coach. We had the first of what we hope is an annual tradition of a Halloween party at the farm the weekend before Halloween. We carved pumpkins, went on a hay ride around the trails and had a bon fire. We had 7 kids and numerous adults. This also gave all the kids an additional opportunity to wear their costumes. Caelun was a monkey- I know that seems appropriate. Halloween meant not 1 but 2 Halloween parties for Caelun between his 2 schools. The evening weather was clear and beautiful. Abbi used her creative abilities to turn herself and several of her friends into zombies and the monkey was very excited to take his plastic pumpkin and trek from neighbor to neighbor showing off, which was actually more fun than the candy. Both of the kids were exhausted at the end of the night.

November brought the Grand Rapids Metro Debate league where my novices placed 7^th. I was pleased with the entire team being all new kids. November all so brought Thanksgiving and it was nice to have the short trek to next door to have Thanksgiving with my folks. We have so much to be thankful for I can’t even begin to list it all. I do have to take a moment here and brag about my fabulous husband and his research skills. The 2^ndweek of Sept. I got a sinus infection. I know – 4 sinus surgeries and that shouldn’t be happening but it did. 9 weeks, 3 late generation heavy hitting antibiotics, 6 weeks of steroids, and 2 weeks of gentamicin irrigation later I still had it and was going downhill. I had a CT scan and the ENT didn’t have any solutions for us. Clint started researching. He said to me “If I can cure you will you love me forever?” my response was “ I will love you forever no matter what” he said “yes but I would like forever to last a bit longer than it looks like right now.” The answer he found… baby shampoo. I couldn’t make this up. The Mid West Sinus Institute and the Mayo Clinic have done studies. I will attach links at the end of this letter for folks looking for more information on it. The issue is a bio-film in the mucus coats the bacteria and keeps the antibiotics from working. The baby shampoo breaks up the bio-film and lets the antibiotic work while also actually washing away much of the bacteria. It is a 1% solution of baby shampoo in saline 2.5 cc of baby shampoo to 8 oz. of saline) used as a nasal irrigation. Within 48 hours of starting this treatment my voice came back and the infection started to recede- and yes I plan to hold good to my promise of loving Clint forever (wink).

December is here and I am 80% better. We are discussing one more round of systemic antibiotics but I am functioning quite well. Clint just got an e-mail response telling him he aced his final in his grad class, and tomorrow is the last day of school for all 4 of us before winter break. May all of you find joy and true love this holiday season and all the year through – magic cures of baby shampoo or by other means.

Peace, joy, and love- especially love,
The Conleys

Clint, Pam, Abbi, and Caelun- and we still have cats, rats, and fish.

 

Links on the research on baby shampoo as a sinus irrigation.
American Journal of Rhinology http://www.neilmed.com/pdf/babyshampoo.pdf

The MidWest Sinus Institute http://www.midwestsinus.com/treatment/nasal_washes_rinses/types_of_nasal_rinses
University Of Pennsylvania http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18284857
http://www.sinuses.com/postsurg.htm

Happy Holidays From The Conleys

 

I look back on the blur that was the year 2010 and can hardly believe this blue ball falling around the sun has made yet another complete rotation since I last took fingers to keyboard to write this yearly missive. As quickly as the time flies by I am equally astounded at all of the adventures our little family manages to cram into the 525,600 minutes our planet takes to make this annual celestial maneuver. I will attempt to recap this amazing ride- hold on.

The year started with an early close to the debate season. State finals changed the time frame to Dec. and sadly we were snowed out. As anticlimactic as this was we had such an amazing season I can’t possibly complain. As a coach it is wondrous to have a combination of smart, hardworking , and coachable debaters. My Amazing Andy and my Talented Talya are both now on scholarships debating for Wayne State but in their tenure as Forest Hills Central debaters won trophies at every single tournament we attended last year but one. As a coach I think a season like that only comes around ever so rarely and I am grateful to have had the opportunity to ride that particular ride.

January found us with Christmas in our review mirror and an empty section of floor where the Christmas tree had been. Clint and I spent part of the week off between Christmas and New Years reclaiming a section of our original 150+ year old floors by sanding, staining, and sealing with polyurethane a section of the living room floor. We rang in the New Year by scrapping the last section of walls in the living room covered in textured paint and 7 layers of wall paper, washing, and painting first with KILZ and then with the final coat of paint. Our little ball of energy found this particularly amazing and when we weren’t looking turned the paint can, that was newly opened, full of paint in the deep orange shade called fragrant cloves, on to the living room floor. At least it was on a section of floor that hadn’t yet been reclaimed. You have to laugh. We have actually left the little footprints until we sand the section of floor in question. January also found me presenting my resignation for my seat on the Board of Education. There were folks who felt my recently elected position to City Council was a conflict and rather than become entangled in a drawn out legal battle for a job that is a volunteer position I stepped down. I enjoyed my work on the BOE but I know I leave it in capable hands and I am enjoying the new set of challenges on City Council.

February brought a shortened mid winter break so we took a mini vacation to Great Wolf Lodge an indoor water park in Traverse City. Abbi brought a friend and all of us had a fabulous time. There is really something for everyone from the big water slides, to the kiddie pool with bubblers, to the giant bucket that dumps hundreds of gallons of water down on the soggy visitors of the park. After 3 days and 2 nights we were all thoroughly water-logged and ready to come home.

March brought forensics season. We had an incredible season. We again brought home a trophy from every single tournament. We had 4 qualify to state finals Rachel and Talya in Oratory, Andy in Extemp, and Jen in Imprompt. Rachel had a conflict and couldn’t attend the state final competition, but I had two more Caden, and Erin come along to cheer them on and get ready for this year. Of the 3 that went to state finals all 3 broke to semi final round and Talya broke all the way to final round. It was a wonderful end to a wonderful forensics season.

April brought my 40^th birthday, and 15 days after my birthday Caelun’s 3^rd birthday. I will tell you having a baby later in life has so many blessings one being it is difficult to feel old when you are watching your little person smear cake everywhere. We again had our annual Easter egg hunt out at the farm. We hunted eggs, flew kites, and had a wonderful picnic. Spring came and we planted the garden. I extended my Spring break by a few days to have periodontal surgery to replace with a graph some gum tissue lost during pregnancy and thus prevent loss of a tooth. It was successful and I am once again reminded of the amazing capabilities of modern medicine to improve our quality of life.

May brought the end to forensics season and the fabulous State finals finish I stated earlier. It also brought another sinus surgery for me by an extended break at Memorial Day . I spent much of the school year on steroids trying to reduce swelling and pain and on antibiotics trying to clear up an infection in the bone in my sinus. The surgery went smoothly and here is hoping the 4^th time is the charm. So far so good-I am feeling great and seem to be in good health. The warm spring weather also brought and explosion of our strawberry patch in the front yard. The kids loved walking out the front door in to the warm sunshine and picking berries.

In June we had Abbi’s 14^th birthday our 5th wedding anniversary and as an anniversary present the purchase of a shed. What could be more romantic than a steel shed to store your stuff? We also painted our very old sad garage in an attempt to have it match our newly sided house that we did last year. We also hoped the paint would breathe a bit of life back in to it. We think it helped. June also brought our annual summer vacation- this time again to New England where we met up with my old high school friend David Hilbert and his sweetie Jill. We visited science centers and historical sights in true good geek couple fashion. Feel free to fell sorry for our kids. We came home to enjoy the remainder of the month swimming in our pool and playing in the garden. It was far warmer and better weather for these endeavors than last year.

July came in with -this one time at band camp- you guessed it our dear Abbi headed off to band camp. She marched and played for some times 12 hours a day in the baking sun to prepare for this season’s performance of Celtic Celebration. We are very proud of the hard work she and the rest of the marching Red Hawks put into the week of band camp and for the season in general.

August- opened with the now annual reunion of my First Lake friends. It was wonderful to see our kids play together while toasting marshmallows around a fire with friends you have now for over 25 years. Our garden really exploded and we have literally hundreds of quarts of: tomatoes, peaches, spaghetti sauce, pizza sauce, salsa, salsa verdi, pumpkin, roasted red peppers, roasted hot peppers, apple sauce, jam and jelly- raspberry, cherry, strawberry, and quince along with hundreds of pounds of food in the freezer- broccoli, cauliflower, sun dried tomatoes, green peppers, rhubarb, strawberries, This is in addition to all the food we ate all summer. Our flowers and our roses specifically continue to bring us joy and amusement as well.

September took us back to school and began Abbi’s high school career as a Cedar Springs Red Hawk. The 2010/2011 school year has Clint entering his 5^th year at Kent Career Tech. Center and is my 15^th year at Forest Hills Central teaching and coaching debate and forensics. How did THAT happen? Did I mention the continued rotations of planet earth sneak up on us? Our wonderful Auntie Pam Agnello continues to watch Caelun along with our neighbor’s 10 month old Kyla. Caelun loves his Auntie Pam and LOVES the new baby. He calls her HIS baby- and covers her with kisses. September also brought marching band season. The theme this year is Celtic Celebration and involves some very beautiful and very complex Irish and Celtic music. Even hearing and watching it over a dozen times I didn’t get tired of it. Abbi was the handler of the gold ribbon to make the Celtic knots and it was a truly beautiful show to watch as well as listen to. Marching season meant lots of football games and marching band competitions. It also meant lots of Caelun running in the football stands bouncing back and forth from strategic locations where Clint and I had placed ourselves and yelling at the top of his lungs “YEAH MARCH MARCH MARCH MARCHING BAND!” We had a few melt downs when he was completely destroyed because he couldn’t follow the band- particularly the drums on to the field. I have a feeling I may be a band mom – waaaay in to the future. I am okay with that.

October brought our town’s annual celebration of underwear. I just love saying that- “Our town facebook page is We Celebrate Underwear.” I took a personal day on the Friday of Red Flannel weekend to be able to fully enjoy the festivities. Caelun and I watched the 3 on 3 basket ball with the Red Flannel Court playing basketball in their dresses, ate hotdogs at the library fundraiser, watched the children’s parade, and strolled the flea market. On Saturday I fulfilled some of my band mom duties by volunteering to sell programs at the Red Flannel Band competition while Abbi rehearsed with the rest of the band. I sold out my programs very early- I know hard to believe- (wink) so I got to go listen to the band warm up. They were practicing in the band room with the music filling the room, bouncing off your chest, and reaching in to your gut in a very visceral, tangible way. It was emotional and I was reminded of the power of music to move, motivate, and inspire. It had rained much of the morning but quit just in time for Cedar Springs to take the field. What a glorious way to spend a fall afternoon- listening to the beautiful strains of Gaelic music preformed by your daughter and her band mates. I came home to meet up with Clint, Caelun, and my friend Debbie Hammer in time to hike up the block from our house and watch Abbi march past us in the Grand Parade with the rest of the band. We closed the night with a stroll on the midway, some toasty elephant ears, and a hike the opposite direction up the block to watch the fireworks. Yeah for a party for underwear. A week later brought us Abbi’s first homecoming. We had found the perfect dress and the perfect purple plaid pumps. When she returned from a morning makeup and hair session at a friend’s to get dressed for her date to come meet her (I would say pick her up but they are all freshmen and I was the chauffeur) Clint watched her glide out looking absolutely stunning, he turned to me and said “How did that happen? I have a daughter that looks like …that…and she is going to a high school homing dance… how did that happen?” Did I mention the rotations of this blue ball falling around the sun seem to get away from us? Her date and boyfriend, Hayden Park, is a wonderful young man and is exactly 1 foot 6 inches taller than she is. Let’s just say we did lots of pictures seated. They had a fabulous time dancing the night away. We closed out October with Halloween. Caelun was a dragon or as he puts it a “drayon rawr” This is the first year he really “got” the idea of trick or treating and gosh was it fun! I am speaking of the fun for me but I think Caelun had a good time as well. We went to a party at the home of Jeff and Julie Franks, which has become somewhat of an annual tradition for us. Caelun practiced his “rawr” and tried to convince folks he had tricks up his fleece covered sleeves but he mostly got lots of “awws” and “how cutes” but he did get plenty of candy to replace the energy spent on the “rawrs” and the hiking from house to house.

November brought to a close marching band season with Cedar Springs qualifying to state finals held at Ford Field. You know you love your kid when you drive 3 hours each way, pay $16 each for entrance tickets, $6 to park, and hire a baby sitter to watch the 3 year old to watch a 15 minute performance you have seen a dozen times. How ever many times we had seen it we had not seen it on Ford Field. They came in 7^th which was 3 places higher than last year. We watched on TV the next day as the Lions played football there and Abbi pointed out the marking tape they had put down the night before to make their marks was still there- how cool is that?! Yeah Red Hawks! November brought the beginning of debate season for me this year with the Grand Rapids Metro League and all brand new debaters. The goals are don’t: throw up, pass out, die, have a seizure, wet yourself, or make out with the opposing team. Hay we all have to have goals. I will tell you all of those things have happened at a debate tournament except one- I will let you guess which one. We had a fulfilling Thanksgiving- the key word being FULL with my dad continuing to make his amazing spread and us just cooking the turkey. We all gobbled ‘till we wobbled that is for sure. Clint and I also were becoming aware that my parents might be starting to have some trouble living way out in the country. We – and I mean Clint- got an idea with so many foreclosed houses on the market – several on our street -to have my folks purchase one near us and move there for the winter. We made and offer on one literally- 1 house away- the Wed. before Thanksgiving and we closed the 17^th of Dec. We have since been in a whirlwind of trying to get it ready for my folks to move in, which is why this missive is later than normal in arriving on your door step. We are not selling the farm for those who are concerned.

The end of the year closed this whirl of planet earth. Clint added the completion of 2 more graduate classes. He is now on the down slope for his masters degree and teaching certificate. I also have completed 2 more classes with 1 remaining to expand my history cert. to a full social studies cert. making me “highly qualified” to teach all social studies classes rather than just history along with my comm. cert and dance cert. All of this whirl wind and more can be found here on our blog at conleyfamilycedarsprings.com- drop in any time. May this next rotation of planet earth find you enjoying the ride as much as we do.

The Conleys- Clint, Pam, Abbi, and Caelun

The cats- Miss Kitty & Nutmeg & assorted pet rats & fish.