a very *belated* Merry Christmas to all! What a whirlwind of a year this has been!

It all started on a dark and stormy night…ok, just a dark night…back in January when I signed up for the University of Phoenix’s intensive 14-month online masters program in Curriculum and Instruction. It has been quite a ride adjusting to “virtual” classes where you never actually meet anyone and everything is done through reading. I have, however, met one gal who lives here in Tucson and we’ve gotten together a couple times. It makes the whole experience a little easier when you have someone who can relate!

Would you believe that the U of Phx program didn’t let me take any time off to travel this summer? It was pretty interesting trying to work on a statistics class (my first ever!) while vacationing in Morocco & Cyprus (you can read/view photos about those adventures in the other links on this webpage). The highlight(s) of the entire trip, though, were of course getting to visit my dear friends, Melissa & Naomi!

When I got back, it was time to start school again. Only this time I had been demoted from 4th grade down to 1st grade! ;) I have enjoyed *almost* every minute of this new experience, but I admit that I do miss my 4th graders. The best part of 1st grade has been working closely with one of my best friends, Melissa (a different Melissa). The worst part is being exposed to all those new germs – I’ve been healthy for about a total of one week this entire semester…bah humbug! ;)

A few years ago I welcomed Joey into my home - a green parakeet.

Unfortunately, she (yep - just found out she's a her!) is just a little too loud for my ears. So this fall I welcomed Kelsa into our home - a yellow parakeet - to try to subdue Joey. Kelsa was quite the opposite of Joey...well, until I finally took her to the vet to get rid of her mite infestation around her beak. Wouldn't you know that something like that would cause pain and make Kelsa talk quietly? Well, now that she's all better she can talk up quite a storm, too! But they're both so adorable...most of the time...! :)

You would think that this would be enough to chew – grad studies, new grade level, etc. But God had other plans…someone named Jim. :D We met online back in the END of August (I love you, Jim!) and have been inseparable ever since. This inevitably led to our engagement on Saturday, December 16th! The original date kept getting switched around (the surprise was that it’d be in a hot air balloon!) and it eventually landed on a school day. However, I refused to take a day off so close to the holidays and spend almost 2 hours planning for a sub – so I made him tell me why. He hated me knowing when he was going to propose, so instead he surprised me up on Mt. Lemmon (Tucson) after we finished eating their famous pie. He said, “Have I told you that I’m the luckiest man in the world? But there is one thing that would make me even luckier…if you’d marry me.” And my response was “You’re asking me now?!...Of course!” …And the rest is history…well, almost… ;) Yes, I admit that this is all moving extremely quickly, but it turns out that we have many mutual friends through church. My parents have researched him, his parents have researched me. Apparently we both check out alright… ;)

And that’s been my life this year… I trust that you all have many joyous memories to look back upon and anticipate what this coming year holds. Please write and let me know all about those things – I love hearing from each and every one of you!!! May you have a very blessed Christmas and a jubilant New Year!

Love,

marie & jim :)