2010 in Review

Hello, friends and family!

Well, we’re to the end of yet another year. We hope that this finds you all happy, healthy, and in the midst of a great holiday season. 2010 has been another busy and exciting year in our house. We are now over halfway through our time here in Lincoln, and have come to feel very at home here. As a family, we have stayed pretty close to home this year, but we did manage to sneak in a little travel here and there. Over Memorial Day weekend, we traveled to Missouri to camp for 4 nights with Cliff’s parents. We had fun swimming and boating in the lake, and we enjoyed the time relaxing together. One month later, we drove out to Denver for a reunion with some of Cliff’s friends from high school. These two trips, along with some camping with friends in the spring and summer and our annual family retreat to Mahoney State Park in December, allowed us some opportunities to get out of town and have some fun. We also enjoyed visits from Cliff’s parents in January and December, and from Gina’s parents in July (which included a visit from Gina’s sister and her two kids) and December.

Cliff has been busy as always with his graduate duties and his work toward his DMA (Doctorate of Musical Arts). Early in the year, he also took on some part-time administrative work with Arts Incorporated, a business that operates several of the local arts groups. In February, he had the opportunity to co-present a session with his professor at the College Band Directors’ National Association regional convention in Normal, IL. The two them will be presenting once again in a few months at the CBDNA national convention in Seattle. This summer, in addition to his work at Arts Inc., Cliff played euphonium in a few concerts for the Lincoln Municipal Band and survived a short camping trip with just him and the kids (he let Gina stay home to scrapbook!). The fall has been a busy one with continued work on his dissertation, preparations for his recent conducting recital and, of course, his duties with the Cornhusker Marching Band. His travels with the band this fall took him to Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Dallas, Texas for the Big XII championship, and, just this week, San Diego for the Holiday Bowl. Cliff will finish his course work in the spring semester and be ready to defend his dissertation in the summer. In the midst of all of this, he has been diligently combing the college job search web sites and applying for a variety of exciting positions for next school year. To say Cliff has been busy is an understatement, but he has learned (and continues to learn) so many things that he is excited to apply in his next position.

Gina has kept busy, as usual, with the kids and taking care of the family. She continues to teach several water aerobics classes per week and really enjoys the interaction with her participants. This summer, she added working at the YMCA child watch to her schedule. This job allowed her to pick up more hours over the summer, but still be with the kids. In the fall, she switched her schedule so that all of her work is now at the Y (she previously taught in two different locations). Her weekly schedule now includes 4 water fitness classes, 2 Fit for Life classes (low impact chair aerobics for seniors) and one child watch shift. In her spare time, Gina continues to read, watch French movies and scrapbook. Her prized project this year was a retrospective family album for her parents; it sure was fun to sort through all of those old pictures! Right now, Gina is enjoying the calm before she once again dives into moving preparations for next summer (“Wait a minute…didn’t I just do that??”).

Laura has had a big, big year. In June, she finished a very successful year in preschool. Over the summer, we got Laura her first bike, and Dad spent plenty of time running up and down our street teaching her to ride it. Her balance has improved a lot, but lessons will resume this spring. In August, Laura started full-day kindergarten, and she…..LOVES it!! She settled into the long days even easier than we could have imagined. She continues to love to learn. She is doing very well at school, and math, reading and writing continue to be her strongest areas. She is now learning to read independently, and she is able to write some complete sentences with little or no help. Laura turned 5 in September, and definitely sees herself as a “big girl” now. A recent highlight in her life was a ballet-in-residency program at her school during which she learned all the ins and outs of the local production of The Nutcracker. We took her and Nathan to see the real show this month, and now we have a little girl who loves to dance and spin all over our house. Laura also has continued in swim lessons and will start back into gymnastics at the YMCA very soon. We are very proud of all that Laura continues to accomplish each day.

Nathan has really blossomed this year. His issues with being separated from Mom while she teaches her classes at the Y have pretty much evaporated. He has now become somewhat of a mascot in the child watch. He has many “girlfriends” (aka employees) there that find him extremely entertaining, and he continually charms everyone from us to the checkout ladies at Walmart. He talks and talks and talks all the time!! Some of the funniest things come out of this kid’s mouth! Nathan has also matured in other ways. He now loves to sit still and listen to books, and his behavior at events such as Dad’s concerts is amazing for his age. We sure are proud of our little guy! He is learning to do so much more on his own….now if only we could get him to love his vegetables as much as he loves to talk!

Overall, it has been a very good year, and we are looking forward to the next chapter. We are excited, albeit a little nervous, to think about where we might live by the end of next summer! Until then, we wish you all a very, very happy 2011. We are grateful that our paths have intersected with each and every one of you, and even if we don’t see some of you often, know that you are in our thoughts!

Love,

The Towners
Cliff, Gina, Laura & Nathan