2009 Year in Review - Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays family & friends:
2009 has been a typical year for us. To borrow Melia's recent description, "we are busy people"!

Naturally softball dominated our family time this year. It was wonderful to be focused on one team again! Duane gave in to the peer (and wife) pressure to coach a team again this year and we jumped into competitive tournament ball with a 14U team. There were many new experiences on several fronts (coach and player changes were not uncommon) but over the course of the year we saw the team transform into real contenders.

Between March and November we played in nearly 20 tournaments. Most events were in the Sacramento/Stockton/Modesto areas but we also traveled to Reno in Spring and Salinas in Fall. The team took a lot of lumps in the Spring/Summer season but improved tremendously in Fall, taking 3rd place in three of our seven events!

Between them Kali & Melia led the team in several offensive categories including hits (Melia) and on-base percentage (Kali). Melia was also the winningest pitcher for the team over the entire year. Quite an accomplishment considering she was one of the two youngest players on the team (12 when we began) this year.

On the school front this has been an interesting year with Kali moving to high school. She is doing exceptionally well in all of her classes. A few weeks spent in summer school repairing her grade in Algebra probably cured her of ever slacking off again. She HATED summer school and reminded me of it every morning when I dropped her off. We're both glad she won't be likely to repeat that experience again.

Melia is also performing well in school but I believe the social aspect of the experience by far is her primary motivator for getting up each and every day. I think it's possible that she sends more text messages before she leaves the house each day than I send in a week.




While softball did take up the vast majority of our time, it wasn't the sum total of our year. 2009 marked the transition to a household of two teenage girls (Kali turned 14 on March 30th and Melia turned 13 on June 13th). Of course along with that comes the expected - fights over who gets to use the bathroom, whose mess is in the bathroom, etc. We celebrated Duane's father's 65th birthday with family and friends this year in April and that was cause for the girls to dress in something other than jeans or softball gear. And in early June Kali had her third promotion ceremony in four years when she completed 8th grade. And in October Uno turned two!

Though we did not have the opportunity to plan or take a real family vacation this year, we did enjoy a few fun excursions here and there. When Kali went off to Hume Lake with the youth group from church for a week in July, Duane, Melia and I headed down to Aromas for a few days. While we were visiting Grandma & Grandpa we spent a day at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk where Melia's favorite ride is still the bumper cars! Earlier in July the girls and I went with some friends (moms & girls) to the American Idol 2009 tour concert. It was AWESOME! We also caught a couple of Giants games, including a game in Oakland vs. the A's on June 24th where we celebrated my birthday with our good friends the Carters. And most recently Duane and I enjoyed a fun day of food and wine tasting (well, I didn't taste the wine) with the Carter's and the Syracuse's.

Of course, 2009 wouldn't be memorable if I didn't experience some interesting medical mystery. This year it was shingles. It's truly a wonder that I haven't turned into a hypochrondriac!

Needless to say we have much to be thankful for as we wrap up 2009 - our health, our jobs, our wonderful families and great friends!

Happy holidays to you and best wishes for a happy and healthy 2010!

Margaret, Duane, Kali & Melia