Happy Holidays!!!!

We hope 1998 treated you as well as it has us. We’ll take a few moments to bring you up to speed on what kept us busy and entertained throughout the year.

After 1997 we decided to take a nice vacation to get away from it all. We found the answer on a ten-day cruise on Royal Caribbean during the first two weeks of February. We visited Cozumel, Grand Cayman, Jamaica, St. Thomas, the Virgin Islands (U.S), San Juan, and Haiti. Words can’t describe how quickly one forgets about what’s been left behind at home. Not once did either of us call in to check on work, or even on Teddie! The cruise itself was a bit unusual thanks to what got the blame for everything in 1998—El Ninio. The water patterns, so we’re told, were reversed. The crystal clear water was nowhere to be found the entire trip. In fact, except for the last two days, we were treated to 10-20 foot waves. We had managed to procure a private, two-guest-and-a-diver submarine for a dive of 800 feet only to have it canceled because of the waves. We went to the office and talked with the divers—they told us these dives get canceled two, maybe three times a year. Sigh. Guess we’ll just have to take another cruise sometime! If you’ve never been on a cruise, treat yourself! Even though you pay a lot up front, and even a bit along the way, it is like no other vacation. Because everything is taken care of for you, you quickly get out of the mode of worrying about things which leads to quick relaxation. We highly recommend it!

In May we went to Las Vegas to enjoy a few days with several groups of friends. Gary’s brother Brian came with us also, for his first trip to Las Vegas, and promptly won $2,500! We weren’t so lucky, nor was anyone else. Had a great time though with friends and family even if we didn’t win big.

We decided early in the year that our house was way too big for Teddie and the two of us. We began searching for a smaller one-story home and found a plan that met our needs in early May. In October we took possession of our new home which is across the street from Shawnee Mission Park in Lenexa, on the south west side of the metro area. Unfortunately, after being on the market since summer, our current house hasn’t sold. Since we added so many amenities, it is higher priced than our neighbors’ homes so we’ve not found people willing to pay for the value. Since we are slow to move into our new home, we won’t have a Christmas party as we have had in the past but instead an early spring party. And just because the house is smaller, don’t think we can’t accommodate guests! We still have three additional bedrooms to put you up when visiting Kansas City--and we now have a Soft Tub (portable hot tub). We will continue to test and evaluate the tub as often as possible to make sure it is in working order when you visit!

Gary left AT&T in August and began working for a consulting company, Maxim Group. His first assignment runs through February of next year with Sprint PCS. He gets the benefits of being self-employed while having a marketing / human resource department making sure he has things to work on. Jeanel wanted to retire from AT&T with their retirement offer but alas was not allowed to. She’s organized a group from all over the country and has been talking with dozens of attorneys (check out our home page to be shown what she’s up to). She hopes it doesn’t come to lawsuits, but so far that seems to be where it is heading.

Lest we forget, Gary turned 30 this year. Jeanel of course is ecstatic because the first digits of our age are only one off now—it sounds a lot better to her. She gathered up many of the people that we worked with in the past few years and had a nice Mexican dinner and pseudo-party. The food was great as was seeing everyone again.

Jason continues his studies at Pittsburgh State University in Kansas. He began there this January and is currently in his second semester.

The RV purchase-and-travel-the-US-and-Canada plan continues to sit and occasionally get updated on the computer. We’re on many of the RV mailing lists and go to the shows here in town. With the new house’s lower payments we hope to begin putting money aside to allow us to purchase a RV in a few years without sacrificing the house. When we are driving around town we always take an admiring peak at the RV’s we see drive by. Maybe in a few years we’ll be on the road with them.

Of course, we’re on-line and try to keep our web site up-to-date on our yearly happenings. Every month or two we put out what’s been going on, where we are heading, etc. I promise to get pictures of the new house up there in the next several weeks. Be sure to stop by while surfing the Internet and drop us a line on e-mail or the good ole’ postal service. We’re sometimes slow to respond but we love to hear from everyone throughout the year.

As we close out the 1900’s, may we all have the opportunity to share memories and create new ones with our friends and families!