Christmas Letter 2008

Welcome to our paperless Christmas newsletter!

2008 has been a crazy year, but we've had a lot of fun!

As of December 23, we've been in Wichita for three years. It hardly seems like that long, but time flies when you're having fun.

We both have been able to travel a lot this year.

In March, we attended a friend's wedding in Oahu, Hawaii. That was a place we could get used to visiting! We spent a week seeing the sights on Oahu and enjoying the local culture. We kept a blog of our experience for the folks back home. They lost Cathy's flight reservation on the return flight home. Cathy was a bit disappointed that they found it! Kirk's happy they did- he's pretty sure that Cathy would still be out there if he had left her there to sort it out. :)

In the summer we went a trip to Albuquerque for a Wildman Family Reunion. Cathy drove from Wichita and met Kirk there, as he flew in to Albuquerque from a business trip. We got to catch up with a lot of family members and enjoyed going to the Botanical Gardens. There was one new adventure/scrape with the law as well- Cathy may be wanted in Oklahoma for driving through a change only toll booth. There was no teller and Cathy is not in the habit of carrying cash, so not knowing what else to do, she drove right through the toll. She has not gotten a ticket in the mail yet, but she figures it will come back to haunt her sometime!

Kirk went to Boston, MA and Austin, TX on business this year. He particularly enjoyed Boston. When he was not attending the Vision Show, he enjoyed seeing the sights. He did not have much time to sightsee, but he went to the harbor where the Boston Tea Party happened, saw a few churches, and walked by the aquarium, although he did not have time to actually go in.

We were able to go back to Colorado Springs for Thanksgiving. It was great to be with friends and family and to see something besides...flat. Being away from Colorado has shown us how much we took the mountains for granted. Of all the many things we miss about Colorado, being in such beautiful surroundings has got to be one of the things we miss the most. While Wichita has been good to us, we hope to live in Colorado again sometime in the next decade or so!

We had some sad news in June. Kirk's grandmother Wilma Zoerb passed away. We were happy that we had been able to visit her a few weeks prior to her death. She was in good spirits and shared some of her world famous recipies with Cathy, for which we are now extremely grateful.

In August, Cathy was laid off from her technical writing position at Case New Holland. She really enjoyed her time there, but it was nice to move on to something else. She's currently teaching English at Friends University and at Butler Community College. She loves that the schedule means that she works at home most of the time and hopes to continue working at the schools for a good while.

Kirk is still working at Spirit Aerosystems in manufacturing research and development. The Boeing strike affected Spirit greatly, and he is currently on reduced hours. We're thankful that he was not laid off all together for the time being. While the reduced pay is kind of a bummer, we're enjoying his long weekends! It's going to be difficult to go back to five day weeks once production gets going again.

We have some family close to us now. Kirk's brother Kevin, his wife Sylvia, and our niece Vanessa moved to Wichita so Kevin could take a job as a police officer. It's nice to see them and our little niece so often. They're expecting another child in March, and it will be neat to get to see the new baby when he or she is new. We did not see Vanessa until she was a toddler, as they were living in England until this year. After having them so far away, it's nice to be able to drop by any time.

We were also excited to welcome our new nephew! Caiden Noah is the new son of Kelly (Kirk's sister) and he is one of the happiest baby we've seen. We were in Colorado shortly after he was born in April, and we've seen him several times since then. It's been fun watching him grow.

We hope that this Christmas letter finds you well. If you're ever in the Wichita area, give us a call- we'd love to see you. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Love,

Kirk
Cathy
Sarah the Wonder Dog
Zippy, Mini-Pat and the Notorious P.I.G. (the guinea pigs)

Want more? Check out our sporadically updated family blog!