Christmas Letter 2003

What happened with the Sharps this year?

Julie and Dave still live in Tempe. They got two golden retrievers this summer: Haley, a four-year-old female, and Comet, a male puppy. (Lucky Dog was almost 12 years old when she passed away earlier this year.) Comet is now taller than Haley but is still very puppyish.

Julie works at Hayden Library at ASU in Tempe and Dave works at Broadcom. Julie has a Masters Degree in English Literature and has almost completed her Masters in Library Sciences.

Dad now lives in Sun City and keeps very busy going to see music shows and going dancing. In fact, Dad's often out on the town at night while the kids are home doing boring things.

Mom still lives in Florida and came to visit us this year, redecorating rooms for us during her visit. Mom has retired from Interior Design but still fixes up and sells her own homes.

Steve and Tanya have been going to ASU West. Tanya finished her breast cancer treatments and surgeries in June and is really happy about starting a new job at the American Cancer Society in January. Steve and Tanya started a club at ASU West called CARE, for Cancer Awareness, Resources, and Education. They've been organizing a Relay for Life that will be at ASU West the first weekend in March. We've been amazed to find that everyone we know has been touched by cancer in some way, so the relay is Steve and Tanya's way of contributing to improve the outlook for all cancer patients. Join our team or make a donation to the ACS!

Steve and Tanya are both going for degrees in Communications and have both been doing excellent in school. Tanya is specializing in Event Management and really enjoys it. Steve has had some serious short-term memory problems, caused by Lipitor, that are taking a long time to clear up and and are making school extra difficult. He will be seeing a specialist about that in January. Tanya only has four more classes to go, and her mom and sister, Linda and Chris, now live nearby in Surprise, Arizona.

Kathy is working at a small software company called Performance Software Corporation. After working at AG Communication Systems for over 16 years, Lucent bought out the company, and the Phoenix facility will probably be closing within the year. If you ever worked at AG, you can join the AGCS Grapevine to stay in touch with everyone. Kathy really likes her new co-workers and is hoping for a long and happy career with Performance Software.

Kathy still enjoys hiking and now has a digital camera and takes lots of hiking and canyoneering photos. Kathy has joined a new rock gym near work, and plans to go to yoga weekly again starting in January, but has not yet found a convenient aerobics class near work.

Steve, Tanya, and Kathy are still living together in Glendale. They went on the annual four-day Havasu Canyon hiking trip in May, and then in June celebrated Tanya's recovery with a great, nine-day Grand Circle trip. And Kathy went on the annual nine-day Utah canyoneering trip the week of Memorial Day and had a magnificent time.

Have a great 2004, everyone!

Kathy

Linda, Steve, Tanya, Kathy, Lukas, Chris at Thanksgiving