MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

A few highlights from 2004... We returned from our Christmas holiday in Dec. ‘03 in Florida just in time for winter to hit Kansas full blast! I was able to escape the winter for 3 days in January because of a business meeting and conference in San Diego, which was great except that I had to play catch up at work after being out so much. Our search committee for the next dean of libraries was kicking into high gear, conducting reference interviews on ten applicants. I won’t bother to tell you about the Library Funding Task Force, Electronic Dissertations Task Force, state budget concerns, staffing issues, etc. Let's just say it has been a very busy year. I even got to serve as Acting Dean for 2 months (and believe me, 2 months was enough!)  As the fall semester began, the new dean was in place. We are busy bringing her up to speed. The new year may bring many changes in the organization. Not sure where I’ll land, but I don’t intend to leave K-State anytime in the near future!
School Jenny is a senior! She visited several colleges in KS, FL, Arkansas and Wisconsin beginning in March and throughout the summer. She applied to UNC-Asheville, and if accepted will make a visit there. She may return for a long weekend at Beloit College in WI in February if accepted. Won’t hear anything on the out-of-state apps until Jan. but KU (in Lawrence, KS) has accepted her. Jenny continues to work at Gymnastics Plus.... Jenny Senior Picture Class of 2005 Jeff is now a junior, which is just as hard to believe. He’s leaning toward a career in computer science, perhaps in game design! He has already taken all the computer science that MHS has to offer. His current class has an online component that is given through K-State.	Sports News Diving and gymnastics kept many of our weekends busy during January, February, April and May. Jeff had a great 1st diving season, improving his scores with each meet. He pulled a 1st place at the 2nd-to-last meet of the season, then went on to the State meet where he placed 6th out of 33 divers. During the season he broke one school record getting the highest sophomore diving score! Jenny had 1 gymnastics meet in January and 3 in February that we were surprised she survived - we discovered that she had mono at the end of January. Between that and an upper respiratory infection she missed 3 weeks of practice, and much-reduced practices in February. She was determined to compete. Two weeks after gymnastics ended, she moved into diving - again, reduced practice time because of the mono. (Couldn't get a great picture of Jen diving, but you get the idea... ). Girls High School gymnastics for fall 2004 was on the chopping block due to budget cuts. Jenny and other team members spoke at a school board meeting. They even convinced coaches from the local gym to apply for the high school coach position. Lots of ugly politics involved. She was very disappointed because she would have been co-captain of the team, 4th year varsity.  Despite the setback, she and another teammate organized the 'team' and others and bought "I could've been an MHS Gymnast 2004" t-shirts for the girls! Jeff worked on his diving in the off season: he practiced during the girls' workout time in the spring, participated in the local ‘club’ team when school ended, then went to a diving camp in TX before heading to FL for the summer. Boys high school diving practice started back up in mid-Nov.; Jeff placed 1st (of 14) at the first diving meeting of the 2004-05 season.
Other Family News Son Joel is super busy at MG Studios where he is a video & audio production editor. The studio is working on a couple of kids TV shows, one of which is now syndicated on national TV. It isn’t showing out here, but if you run across “Gina D’s Kids Club” that’s Joel’s show! (The last he mentioned, it’s on at the crack of dawn... ) Sister Carole and her son Steve moved to Florida in April. Steve found work at Disney and seems to be settling into life there. Carole has some severe health problems and went into a nursing facility in early Sept. - escaped from there and is now sharing an apartment with Steve. Mom had a heart attack in August and underwent bypass surgery. With all these events, plus their being without electricity for 9 days after hurricane Charley passed over the Orlando area, it was NOT a great summer. Mom is now home, living on her own, and doing okay. Fortunately, my brother George was consulting in Tampa since Sept. so he has been able to keep an eye on Mom during this recovery time.		Travels In addition to visiting colleges with Jen, I did my normal amount of work-related travel: San Diego in January, Chicago in April, Milwaukee and Orlando in June, Minneapolis in October. I visited Florida to see Mom and son Joel at the end of June, and managed to get to a library conference while I was there, too, and of course, visit my old friends at Rollins College. I didn’t take any additional vacation time during the year - I think I did enough traveling!  The vicious cycle begins again shortly after the holiday when I travel to Boston for a library-related meeting. Visitors Mom came out to visit at the end of October after spending several weeks with her sister Jo in Clearwater.  Cousin Gary stopped by in November on his way back east.  A former colleague (who lives in Texas now) visited in May.  Mi casa, su casa.  Y'all come down now, ya' hear!
As December 2004 ends, we head back to Florida to spend time with family and friends.   Here's wishing you all the best for 2005! Charlene, Jenny and Jeff

 

 

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