2011: A Look Back

Dear Friends and Family,

We hope that “y’all” are in the midst of enjoying another holiday season filled with family, relaxation and celebration. 2011 has been another year of great changes in our family. At the start of the year, we were surrounded by snow, living in a townhouse apartment in student family housing at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. We enjoyed our time in Lincoln while we still had it, taking in as many of the city’s offerings as possible. Of course, during this time Cliff was also working his tail off to finish his degree and to apply for jobs. In the meantime, Gina spent a great deal of time on the Internet researching the locales of all of the potential jobs and imagining our family’s future in these prospective new cities. When all was said and done, it was Milledgeville, Georgia that would become our new home. Now, we are enjoying the space to spread out in our new home and soaking in the days of sun and short sleeves in our first winter in the Deep South. The move was made in the hottest part of July; 100 degrees when we left Lincoln and 100 degrees when we arrived in GA!! We have since spent the second half of the year settling into our new surroundings, meeting new friends and exploring new places and new regional customs. It has been an adventure to say the least, but we are enjoying the ride!

To say Cliff has had a big year would be an understatement. It’s not everyday that you transform from “Mr. Towner” to “Dr. Towner”! After 2+ years of hard work, Cliff finished his coursework in May and successfully defended his dissertation on wind-band literature in early July. In the midst of this, he traveled to GA for his job interview, and a few weeks later he was offered and accepted the position of Director of Band Activities at Georgia College and State University. His new job involves directing the Wind Symphony and Jazz Band, running the pep band and teaching a variety of academic classes. His first semester has gone very well. An added bonus for the family is that Cliff is home a lot more than he had been during our time in Lincoln. This means he is around to eat dinner with us almost every night, and he was able to cheer on the Huskers with us at home this fall instead of spending all day with 85,000 people at Memorial Stadium. Now that we are settled in, Cliff is looking forward to spending much more time on his bike exploring the area and to getting back into his yoga practice.

For the second time in two years, Gina found herself in the role of “move organizer”. This involved time spent researching schools for Laura, continually reading the online rental listings for Milledgeville and sniffing out any free boxes that could be found in the city of Lincoln. She also spent a great deal of time during the first half of the year working at the YMCA in her dual roles of fitness instructor and child watch employee. She was given a very nice farewell party by her wonderful morning water fitness class before the move. Since the move, she has enjoyed making our new place feel like home; she has particularly enjoyed having a normal sized kitchen once again! Although she misses her water fitness very much, Gina has been enjoying the flexibility in her schedule that allows her to focus on her role as stay-at-home mom. One of her favorite new activities is taking Nathan to the weekly story time at the local library and visiting with the other stay-at-home moms. She hopes to find ways to get her fitness activities back into her regular routine in 2012. In the meantime, she still likes to scrapbook, and she is enjoying getting to know new friends, while making sure to stay in touch with her old friends.

Laura continues to grow and make us very proud. In May, she wrapped up a very successful year of kindergarten with a great program for the parents on the last day of school. She loved her school in Lincoln very much, but has taken the move across the country and to a new school in great stride. She is enjoying first grade very much; she still is a very strong reader, and she has been doing well in math, working once per week with the gifted teacher in extra math lessons. Science, social studies and P.E. are also among her favorite subjects (her P.E. teacher has nicknamed her “Miss Nebraska”). Laura has continued with her love of gymnastics, both at the Y in Lincoln, and now at a local gym here in Milledgeville. She is making great progress and practices all the time at home. Her new activity here in GA has been ballet through the college’s community dance program. This culminated in her role as an angel in the annual local production of the Nutcracker. She continues to be the spunky, silly girl we couldn’t imagine living without!

Nathan is a busy little man and entertains us all the time. He still talks more than you can possibly keep up with, and he is an extremely observant little guy. He too has continued with gymnastics, first at the Y, and now at the same gym as Laura. He seems to love both the activity and the time to be around other kids. At home, he is busy learning lots of the things preschoolers learn: letter sounds, numbers, cutting with scissors, using a pencil, painting, using the potty, and on and on and on. Nathan loves to be read to, whether by Mom, Dad or Laura or by the ladies at story time. He still enjoys playing with his Hot Wheels, his trucks, Lincoln Logs and trains, and he loves playing with his sister when she gets home from school. Nathan is a very funny and silly little boy who is a ball of energy that we all envy.

Well that was 2011 in a nutshell. It was a great year full of challenges and adventures. Of course, that is what we want out of life, so we could not be happier. We look forward to 2012 in great anticipation of what awaits Team Towner. We hope 2011 was good for you, and we hope for health and happiness for you in 2012.

The Towners