School is finally out and my summer has begun! Emily and I will travel north in about 10 days to visit my family and celebrate my niece Maggie's birthday. It will be fun to see everyone-it has been almost a year since we saw them last. Emily is planning on attending Bluegrass Community and Technical College in the fall (she attended there a year ago)in Lexington. She will live at home and commute to Lexington for class. Right now I think she wants to study Anthropology. Allison is taking two summer night classes at Cambridge College in Boston. I think she has about 5 semesters of 2 classes at a time before she will graduate with a B.A. in Psychology-it takes a long time when you are restricted to 2 classes a session. She continues to enjoy her work at the Germaine Lawrence School. Allison has recently moved from Somerville, to Arlington, MA-both on the outskirts of Boston. I continue to work on needlepoint, knitting and scrapbooking and never have enough time to do any of it. Although summer has begun for me it will be short-we start back to school on August 6th-much too early. Take Care. Mary Jo

Happy Easter! We have had a wonderful day here in Kentucky. After church this morning, Emily, her boyfriend Jeremy, Carolyn and I met Lyland, Bill, Carolyn and Reid for a wonderful Lunch at the Chop House in Lexington. It was delicious. I had a great steak, although I may end up regretting that decision-my gout has flared up. I was pretty miserable with it on Saturday, but with great drugs am much better today.

I had a great Spring Break-went on a cruise to the Bahamas-a first for me. There were 9 in our group and we had lots of fun. I think the highlight would have to be doing the deep water swimming with the dolphins at Dolphin Cay Atlantis. I was really neat to be right in the water next to the dolphins. We had a scooter to propel us through the water so it was easier to "keep up" with them. Although it was a very controlled swimming situation I thought it was great.

We left from Port Canaveral on Monday and returned on Friday-short and sweet-but it was long enough to know that I would definitely go on another cruise! Now I just need to save up for one.

I am busy with both needlepoint and knitting. I am currently in a needlepoint class doing a Christmas decoration. By the end of the third class, the canvas should almost be completed-which is unusual-I start many projects and rarely do I finish them in class. This is the canvas I am doing Christmas Basket-the basket will come out of the canvas-I think we will use wire to give it dimension-that is what we will work on in the last class in 2 weeks. I am still working on afghan blocks for the Great American Afghan class I am in with my knitting. I have taken 7 class, finished one block but have 2 more very close to being completed. I won't even mention the knitted socks I have started.

The girls are both doing well. Allison has finished one of her classes and is looking forward to completing the other one. She is planning on taking classes during the summer as well. She is ready to be done with school. Emily on the other had is spending a lot of time working on crafts-a t- shirt quilt, and some other small projects. She will start classes again in the fall.

School is going well for me. I am deep into my new position as school technology coordinator(STC) I am curious to see if i will be teaching classes next year due to budget cuts or if i will be able to devote all of my time to the STC position. It would be much easier to only do the STC position-our school is large enough to need a full time STC but we will have to see how the budget goes and what our enrollment will be next year. Even though there are now 3 middle schools in Georgetown, my school, Scott County Middle, continues to be the largest and keeps growing!

I almost forgot-Before I left on Spring Break the University of Kentucky fired Billy Gillispie as head basketball coach (after two seasons) while I was gone they hired John Calipari as coach-it looks like next basketball season will be an interesting one to see.

Take Care. MJ

It is hard to believe that it has been two years since Chris died. The girls and I miss him terribly, but we go on. Looking back at this past year there are many things that Chris would have reacted to. Again, he would have been thrilled that I enjoyed my summer at Spindletop and would have moaned and groaned with me that we started school so early in August. He would have been pleased with the outcomes of my eye surgeries (I sure am) and would have been sorry that I needed to have surgery on my left knee. He would have been thrilled with how well both Allison and Emily have done in school. Although he probably would have preferred that Emily stay at Western Kentucky University, he would have supported her decision to sit out a semester-I am sure he would have enjoyed having her company at home during the day. Chris would have loved the surprise we pulled on his mom with Allison coming home for Thanksgiving Chris would have been thrilled that my nephew Ryan and fiance Jill got married but would have been very disappointed that the weather kept us from attending the wedding.He would have been happy the weather did not keep Allison from making it home for Christmas. Speaking of weather, Chris would not have been happy with the winter we had-the cold was always so difficult for him. Chris would have been very sad at the passing of his Aunt Virginia, but very pleased that his cousin Carolyn and her husband Reid are expecting a baby in late April. Chris would have been happy to see that Barack Obama is the President of the United States-Chris commented several times on Obama's accomplishments. Chris would be distressed to see the state of the economy, and probably even more distressed to see the state of the UK Basketball Team. (I have a feeling Chris would be one of the fans calling for the firing of Billy G! )Chris would have been sad at the death of Marge Lee-a long time employee of Delta Chi and Fred Hammert a Delta Chi from Texas. Chris would have enjoyed the Family Trees the girls and I made for both his mom and mine as well as the progress I have made in other scrapbooking things. Chris would have encouraged me to go ahead and enjoy myself with my Monday Night Knitters group, and the Needlepoint Guild. Chris would have loved having tickets for Mama Mia! Wicked, and Cirque Dreams-he really liked attending the theatre.

As time passes things become a little easier, and different. I've made many a mistake in the past two years-who hasn't-but for the most part I have gotten along pretty well. I still think about how Chris would react to things or how he would suggest I handle something, he was always so good at giving his opinion. I know that he is keeping watch over Allison, Emily and me and helping to make things as easy as he can for us. For this, I am truly thankful.

The girls and I are doing well. We miss Chris each and every day and really appreciate all of the thoughts and prayers that have come our way during the past two years. Thank you . Love, Mary Jo

Happy New Year!! It is hard to believe that it is 2009 already. I have been busy since the last time I posted. Both of the girls were home for Thanksgiving-it was a last minute decision for Allison, so we kept it secret and surprised her grandmother. We all had a great few days together. I had a second surgery to finish straightening my eye in early November and then right before Thanksgiving I had a 'scope done on my left knee-it turns out I had a torn meniscus. Slowly but surely I am recovering from both surgeries. My eyes are nice and straight-my right eye is still a bit red, but it will go down over time. My knee is much better-I am doing physical therapy right now which really helps although it is a pain to do.
The girls and I were scheduled to go to my nephew's wedding in Chicago on December 20th. Emily and I were going to drive up and Allison was going to fly in to meet us. Well, Chicago was hit with a "big" storm so our plans were changed. Fortunately, Allison was able to get her flight changed and came to Lexington. She had no problem getting here, but when she flew back to Boston that was a different story-her flight from Cincinnati was delayed several hours-it was coming from Chicago. She did make it back to Boston after a very long day of traveling.
We had a quiet Christmas here in Georgetown. Christmas Eve was at our house with Chris's mom and our friend Eddie. Christmas Day we went to Lexington to Lyland and Bill's. We had a great time.
Allison has started knitting so we hit the local yarn shops before Christmas and after Christmas for the sales. She got a set of needles and yarn for a sweater (I am sure she will finish hers before I finish mine!) for Christmas. Both Allison and Emily spent one evening making creatures out of socks-it was a fun project that took a lot more time than they thought it would. Emily has since made two more creatures and said it does get easier the more you do it.
Santa left a Wii Fit under the tree for me. I have taken it out of the box but have not tried it out yet-I am afraid when I do I will get nothing else done.
Emily is home until the end of January-she has a very long break. I am sure she will be ready to return to Bowling Green when the time comes. This coming weekend we are going to Louisville to see Wicked. The girls and I gave Carolyn tickets for the play for Christmas-of course I had to buy a ticket for me and Emily decided she's like to see it as well. I am excited about going, but a bit sad as well. Chris gave me a weekend to Chicago and very good seats to Wicked the Christmas after his surgery (2005) We had such a good time and I know he would have really enjoyed seeing it again.
Take Care. MJ