There have been a couple major changes in the family this year that I am pleased to share with you.
Anna Maria has been accepted to a low-residency MFA program in both nonfiction and fiction writing at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. Classes begin at the end of December. She was also a runner-up in Ruminate magazine’s 2009 short story contest and wrote a monthly gardening column for a local newspaper.
Her husband Steven still teaches visual and communication arts at Eastern Mennonite University, but is now the chair of that department. He also continues freelance photography -- shooting weddings, senior pictures, publicity photos for musical artists and whatever else his lens finds to do. His biggest freelance successes were getting nature photos published in Orion magazine, an environmental magazine, and in Blue Ridge Country, a regional magazine.
Eliza Grace, now eight, and Magdalena Hope, now six years old, still have sleepovers and campouts with “Gramma Nete”, whom they have re-nicknamed “Graham Cracker” and visit often. Both enjoy taking ballet classes and drawing.
Ana (Sam) and Chad Updyke’s son Thaddeus is now a year old and walking everywhere and climbing on everything. Chad is an electrician for a salt manufacturing plant in Watkins Glen. They moved into their first home and now live in Millport, New York.
I am still employed part-time as an adjunct paralegal professor at a vocational technical college in Harrisonburg, Virginia, and do a little bit of freelance writing and editing. I appreciate the support and encouragement from my friend and neighbor Butch. We run together four days a week. He also stayed with me when I was in the hospital for three days this year with pneumonia and fixed meals for me upon my return home. Then, too, we enjoyed a trip to Florida where we ran a half marathon together, and to the Virginia Beach area where we also saw the Jamestown settlement, Williamsburg and Yorktown.
May God bring blessings and joy to each of you this holiday season and throughout 2010.
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