I have really wanted to get back to blogging, but the days just fly by. Busy with school work, activities with the girls, exercising, playing outside and of course lots of housework! I decided my first post this year will be our Christmas letter seeing it's a good recap of last year.
Merry Christmas
God has blessed us with another amazing year at the Heiss household. We were excited to have wonderful new neighbors the Strong family who moved in down the road the end of last winter. They have three children: Saleh (7), Boaz (5) and Simeon (22 months). Their boys will be in the same grades as our girls. Tanya watches the girls when I teach and we spend many afternoons going on walks and playing outside together. It’s so nice for the girls to have playmates that live right down the road and they are strong Christians too.
Mary is growing up so fast and I can’t believe she is already 19 months old! She started going on the potty at 15 months old and hasn’t stopped. We are not in panties yet, but I am proud of her and hope to be done with cloth diapers soon! Mary loves her big sister and she copies Emily’s every move. It’s especially funny to watch Mary color as she moves her head as much as the crayon or marker. Mary is a great climber and very active; she seems to get into everything and is persistent. She likes to keep mommy on her toes and I am so thankful to have an extra set of eyes with Emily.
Emily loves preschool at Lambs of Our Savior and is becoming so grown up. At church she often follows along, listens to the pastor and later tells us about the sermon. Emily can say the Lords Prayer by herself and she loudly sings the prayer at dinner no matter where we are. This summer we realized she has inherited her mother’s genes and has allergies. Right now she is on the GAPS diet with no sugar, dairy, eggs, gluten, soy and any other grain. We hope to add more food back in, but her stomach tummy aches and cough have gone away. YEAH! Emily loves riding bike and can ride to the end of our private road and back, which is a little bit difficult seeing we live on a dirt road and there is a hill too. Our road is about a half mile long. In the spring Emily played soccer at Preschool and this summer she played on her first t-ball team. At her first organized sports experiences she looked like a natural athlete. I told her on the way to her first t-ball practice that she needs to run after the ball when someone hits it; on the way home I told her that if she is playing third base then she doesn’t need to run after the ball hit to right field.
Between Emily’s special diet and our garden I spend a lot of time cooking and preparing food. This fall I taught two sections of Business and Professional Communications at Adrian College, which is a writing intensive course. I am glad I have only one prep because I keep very busy grading papers each week. I also continue to help my brother’s business Sun Towels and I’m the discussion leader at the Chelsea MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) group. Over the summer I played women’s sand doubles in an Ann Arbor league and enjoyed playing pick-up volleyball at a friend’s sand court in Chelsea. Now that it’s cold out I often sub on a women’s indoor volleyball team in Ann Arbor or drop in for pick-up in Chelsea. This year I also started attending workout classes at a local church a couple of mornings a week when Emily is in preschool. I find I am so much a happier if I make time for exercise. One of my new year’s resolutions this year is to get back to blogging; so check back in January at bheiss.blogspot.com.
This year we planted an orchard with eight apple trees in memory of Jim’s dad who died in January of 2010. We now have 2 golden delicious, 2 red delicious, 2 jonathans and 2 macintosh trees plus a nice fire pit and several large rocks to sit on around the fire. It’s a great place to think about dad and we look forward to enjoying the apples this fall. Jim was promoted and moved into a new position at Consumers Energy this summer. Now he works on Corporate Strategy including the development of a new strategy center website, metrics, and improving customer engagement. In October he was awarded an “Ethics in Action” award at work and we could not be more proud of him. The past couple of years Jim started hunting deer; I think he is continuing his dad’s passion for guns. He hasn’t gotten a deer yet this year; but he helped Steve (my twin sister’s husband) with the two deer he shot during hunting season. Jim continues to enjoy brewing beer and using his own hops from our garden.
We hope you and your family have a wonderful Christmas.
Jim, Beth, Emily, Mary & Lucy (our yellow lab)
