December 2006
Dear family and friends,
Once again the year has flown by, and we find ourselves in fast pursuit of 2007. We hope that this letter finds you and yours happy, healthy, warm, and with full tummies (if you're lacking in any of these areas, we encourage you to stop by our house in NC for some TLC)! It's been a rather hectic year with some big changes around our house, so here's our annual update.
We'll start with the sad news to get it out of the way. Matt and Elin both lost grandparents this year. Elin's Grandma Ulrich passed away in late January, and Matt's Grandpa Steusloff passed away in May. We each attended our family's respective funerals, but were unable to attend the other due to the cost of unexpected plane tickets. These were sad times for us, but due to their illnesses, we're satisfied that our loved ones are in a better place.
We also lost our dog Maggie in March after a long battle with bladder cancer. We were only alone for a week when we were contacted by the local Corgi rescue about a stray dog that had been found in Wake County. Despite having heartworm and uncertain living conditions, our new companion immediately assumed the "belly-rubbing position," quickly found his way into our hearts, and joined our home the following day. Matt dubbed this little guy "Edgar Friendly" because he's the friendliest dog we've ever met, occasionally even running off to go make new friends. Eddie has been given a completely clean bill of health, including a successful recovery after his neutering surgery this month.
One day in April, Matt called Elin with "good news and bad news." The dealership where he'd been a mechanic told him that he no longer had a job there. When asked if this was the good or the bad, Matt replied "both." He'd been unhappy with the boredom, fluctuating pay, and dismal future prospects of being an auto mechanic, and had been looking for a job since January. He successfully applied for unemployment, and spent the next 7 months making life decisions, applying for jobs, and enjoying his time off. He's currently working seasonally as a driver's helper at UPS, and will start back to school in January. His ultimate goal is to have as much vacation as Elin does, and plans to get a degree from UNC-Chapel Hill in "Peace, War and Defense." Neither of us wants to move to Washington DC, so he's planning to combine this major with City Planning, and hopes to find work in RTP for one of the local governments.
Elin's EPA job continues to be enjoyable, partly due to the distraction of singing. She's helping sing lots of harmony in the EPA band called "Alexander Drive." They perform for special EPA events, and sometimes just 'cuz. She also enjoys the trips to exotic locales. This year the she attended a scientific meeting in Montréal. This was her second trip to Canada (ever) and she was able to dust off some of the French that got put away after the second year in college. She has lots of paper writing to do, and lots of paperwork to do. This usually means sitting in front of the computer for long times, making a chiropractor, spine specialist, and physical therapist necessary to keep the pain away. She's thankful for all of them on the rare occasion that her back goes out rolling over in bed (no kidding).
Elin's other job with PartyLite has turned into a fun little distraction. She attended the national conference in St. Louis in July, and rolled it into a vacation to the Lake of the Ozarks. Matt flew out after all the candle craze died down and did some business of his own visiting a "Mozarkite" mine to pick up rocks. The button business has slowed down a little, so Matt now creates all kinds of unique pieces including jewelry, magnets, and of course the popular shiny rocks. If you're looking for candles, custom gem or lapidary work, give us a call!
So now for our little travelogue... Elin kidnapped Matt the weekend after Valentines Day for a trip to Asheville, NC. Matt was told to collect a few items and get in the car, which was already packed for the weekend. He figured out where we were going about 45 minutes into the car ride, but was slightly unprepared since he left his wallet at home. Ooops. We went to Emerald Island and stayed with Elin's coworker Betsy for Memorial Day. Everyone except Eddie thought the ocean was great. His little legs won't let him get in very far before the waves come a little too close. We managed not to get sunburned, and enjoyed people watching and reading. In July we made another business/pleasure combo trip to see Elin's dad in the UP of Michigan. It was a little weird seeing the sunset at 10:30pm, but the weather was nice and the fireworks were good. Elin held a candle party with Mary Catherine while Dad and Matt went out shooting. More rocks were collected, which makes sense since Republic is an old mining town, and the UP is know for having lots of ores. For Labor Day we escaped our only "hurricane" (aka rainstorm) in Atlanta with friends John & Melinda. We had fun attending DragonCon which is a convention for everything that has a cult following from Happy Days to Star Wars, Mythbusters to Dungeons and Dragons. We also visited the Coke Museum, Cook's Warehouse, Dave & Busters, Ikea, and stopped at Bass Pro Shops in Charlotte. In October we took a road trip with Eddie to Missouri. Our first stop was in the Smokey Mountains where we visited two wineries, took a horseback ride, hiked, shopped, and got irritated at the horrible traffic. Our second stop was in Cadiz, KY to visit Matt's friends the Jergens'. There we fished a little, walked around the neighborhood, had some yummy food, shopped, and even got a little time in at HamFest. From there we drove to Columbia where Elin's cousin Micah was married to Katie. We got to see quite a bit of family, and enjoyed the live band at the reception. We'll probably make another trip to Columbia in 2007 for Elin's cousin Aaron's wedding! Of Grandma Bolton's 7 grandchildren, 5 of us will have been married in 4 year's time.
We are staying home for the holidays again this year as all of our family lives in places where it snows in the winter, making travel unpredictable at best. Matt's German cousin Christine visited us at Thanksgiving during a brief break between jobs in California. We had 6 people for dinner, and enough food to feed at least 16. Elin's brother Shaun and Melissa discussed coming for Thanksgiving last year when the weather was terrible in Michigan, but considering the impending arrival of nephew Ethan Shaun Ulrich (due December 28th), they wisely decided to stay home just in case. Matt's sister Heidi and Rob also visited this year in May around the time they got married on the beach.
When we aren't busy with the daily routine, Matt and Elin enjoy playing D&D, hanging out with our friends, playing games, cooking (Matt got a smoker in September), and attending the roller derby. We've gotten rather addicted to the roller derby, and when there wasn't a bout in October, we got our fix of harmless violence by going to the demolition derby at the State Fair. Some of the roller girls were competing, so we went to support them. We just purchased our 2007 season tickets, and got ticket numbers 3 and 4 (our other friends got 1-2 and 5-6). Matt is now the president of our homeowner's association and has been working to have more regular meetings. He also joined the local gem and mineral club, and was recently named president of that organization too.
On the whole, it's been a pretty good year! We've had a few bumps in the road, but seem to take everything in stride and keep forging ahead. As we close, please know that we're thinking of you, and hope to hear from you again soon.
Much love,
Elin, Matt, and Eddie
P.S.- There are lots of pictures from this year posted on Elin's website. Go check them out here!