2006 New Year's Letter

Greeting in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ!

2006 has been a busy year. Isn’t it weird that the older you get, the faster time seems to fly by! We have tackled a few more projects on the house. The last of our mature poplar trees died and had to be cut down in the front yard. Tim finished the gate/arbor project the spring. In the dining room he installed laminate flooring, replaced/added wood molding/casings, and installed a new patio door (the old one was warped and the walls rotting from badly installed siding a few years ago.) He added swings and a slide to Daniel’s play yard, and is currently frantically trying to finish a castle he has designed for Daniel for Christmas. After that, he wants to start on building Daniel a loft bed with a desk in a castle motif. Daniel requested a “secret hide-out” to be figured into the design somehow.

We enjoyed several short vacation trips this year. We went to Iowa the first of July to celebrate Tim’s Aunt Bev & Uncle Armond’s 50^th wedding anniversary. It was Daniel’s first time there since he was born. Needless to say, we were chastised for not coming sooner! Daniel had a ball playing in Aunt Shirley’s barn and hayloft, bowling and playing model trains with Uncle Vernon and Aunt Donna, and flirting with his pretty 2^nd cousins at the anniversary party. He always has had an eye for pretty girls! We made two trips to visit Andrea’s Aunt Carol and Uncle Bill in Lexington, KY. In July during our visit with them Daniel got to go to an air museum, and to a fair. He loves to ride rides! We returned in October to visit with Andrea’s other two aunts who were up visiting from Florida. Tim did a video of the three sisters reminiscing about their childhood. Daniel enjoyed playing with cousin Frank, and Sam their collie.

This fall we went to two Renaissance Festivals; a small one in Fishers, IN, and a HUGE one in Ohio. Daniel went sword in hand to defend king and country, and a few damsels. It was a lot of fun. We may try to make costumes for all of us to wear next year.

We had a bittersweet time as we said “goodbye” to Tim’s step-brother Brian’s family when they moved to Phoenix, AZ this summer. It is a great opportunity and career advancement for Brian, but Andrea misses Katie a lot, and Daniel really misses his cousin Delaney. They love it there, are making a lot of new friends, and have a beautiful new home. We are excited to be seeing them as they come home for Christmas.

We made the decision this year to home school Daniel. Andrea is still very nervous about it, but believes it is the right decision. We attended our first IAHE (Indiana Association of Home Educators) conference in March. We felt like a “deer in the headlights” with all of the materials and resources available. Daniel will officially start Kindergarten next fall. We are doing some informal preschool work now on numbers, the alphabet, and writing letters.

Andrea stays busy taking care of Daniel full time and helping her dad with his budgeting. She enjoys having an occasional “girls night out” with the gals from our home fellowship group, and her friend Lora. She had a nice visit with her friend Lisa Williamson this summer who had recently moved from here to Utah. Daniel loves playing with her girls Abby and Elizabeth and misses them a lot. In February she began her own home based business as an Independent Beauty Consultant with Mary Kay Cosmetics. After using the product for over 25 years, it seemed a natural fit. She is still working on learning the skill of booking classes, but is slowly building a customer base. You can check out her personal online website at www.marykay.com/andreamiller1989 for 24 hour shopping. There is no shipping fee on any orders that need to be mailed J

Andrea’s dad spent 6-8 weeks with us this spring/summer as he recovered from a severe bruising that resulted from 3 broken ribs he suffered during a fall on the ice in March. It was not diagnosed correctly, and due to his blood thinner he nearly bled to death internally in May. He had 1-½ weeks of rehabilitation, then came home with us for awhile till he was stronger. He’s doing much better now, and in addition to his various prayer classes he teaches is trying to start his own home based business selling a “healthy chocolate” called Xocai. Andrea had two surgeries this year. One in August to repair a hernia that was a leftover from her C-Section, and one in October to remove some uterine polyps. She also wound up with a stress fracture in her right foot and was in a cast type boot for 8 weeks.

Tim still has half the stitches in his eye from the corneal replacement surgery over a year ago. They want to leave them in as long as possible to try to stabilize the astigmatism that has developed. Tim had been swamped at work as a high profile project came to a close this fall. He was putting in very long hours, and added a few more gray hairs! His office location just changed the week before Christmas. We will all miss him being located right at the Circle Center Mall downtown. Andrea and Daniel came down for their last lunch and walk thru the tunnels to the canal last week with Tim.

Tim spent a lot of time helping a couple of friends put new roofs on their homes, in addition to all his own projects. His project list is unending! This fall he decided to take a break from teaching the Home Fellowship for a while. We have still met a couple of times a month, once for fun/fellowship, and once for some type of lesson. This September we went on a camping trip with some of the group (the brave ones J.) It was Daniels first camping trip and he loved it! In spite of the rain, and Andrea losing her voice, it was a blast – mud and all! The relationships in the Home Fellowship group have become very close and we miss seeing each other weekly, but the break has been good. As of yet, we do not know when we will resume the regular schedule.

Daniel is a robust soon to be 5 year old now. He rarely is still, or quiet! Last year he turned 4 with a pirate party. This year he will be the caped crusader Batman as he turns 5. Daniel loves his play days with his cousins, and friends. We try to take a lot of trips to the park, Children’s Museum, Zoo, and hiking in the woods with daddy. He attended his first VBS this summer and had a ball. This fall he is in the AWANA’s program. His age group is called “Cubbies”. He does scripture memorization that he has to recite to his teachers at each weeks meeting.

Daniel had swim lessons this summer. He learned how to “bob” under water, and pool safety. He spent as much time in his new pool at home as possible. His 10 ft. pool sprung a leak, and was replaced with a 16 ft. quick-set pool. He is still upset that it had to be taken down for winter. We enjoyed our annual trip to the pumpkin patch again where Daniel’s quest was to bury daddy in the hay (which he did quite successfully.) Daddy made a Superman “S” on Daniel’s pumpkin this year. Daniel was “Flash” for Halloween, and zoomed all over the house after eating too much candy!

It is easy to loose sight of what this season is all about in the midst of all the hustle and bustle of the festivities. Try to keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, and the incredible gift he gave to us over 2000 year ago……Himself.

May His Peace be with you this Holy Season,

Tim, Andrea, and Daniel