This is our first letter for a few years.  The past few years have been full of challenges for our family, but I am glad to report that we have made it through!

We stand on the horizon of 2007 happy and content and thanking God for all of the blessings he has and continues to bestow upon us.  We are thankful for all of you, our close friends and family for your support and prayers over the past years.   We couldn’t have made it through without you.

We are all older and hopefully wiser this year.  Patrick turned 11, Amanda turned 14 and Thomas made us feel really old by turning 18!  Lets just say Wayne and Lisa are in their 40’s now and leave it at that.

Patrick has had a great year.  He has really grown up.  He is in the 5th grade at Charter Middle School in Newark, Delaware.  He joined the cross country team this fall and is enjoying being a part of a school team.  Over the summer Patrick attended soccer camp and basketball camp.  He is very athletic and loves sports.  He also worked his first job with Amanda at the farm our horses are boarded (yes, I said horses…more on this in a bit).  He and Amanda worked every day over the summer from 8:30 am until noon helping our friend Rose (also Amanda’s trainer).  He was a big help to Rose this summer since she ended up having a run in with a horse and the horse won.  Rose was left with a broken collar bone to nurse all summer.  Patrick helped her out by helping Amanda feed all of the horses everyday and doing a lot of manual labor things that Rose couldn’t do.  In return, Rose gave Patrick free riding lessons which he really took to, though he hasn’t shown much interest in riding in the past.  Now, he really likes riding and jumping.  The faster the better!   Of course as always, he remains cute and charismatic (with those little devil horns sticking out every now and then).

Amanda has had a great year too.  Her summer was a full schedule!  She attended two weeks of horse camp at the Kentucky Horse Park and was good enough that she ended up volunteering for the remaining 2 weeks of camp to help out the camp instructors, camp students and KHP staff. They kept her busy but she also had a lot of fun and enjoyed being around kids that love horses as much as her.  You already know about her working over the summer.  This is her second year working for Rose.  She also works for extra lessons and works some training off.  Rose has told me that Amanda and Patrick were such a big help to her this past summer.  She is very grateful and we are all very proud of both of them!  Amanda really got into eventing this summer.  She had at least one show every month from May to October and many months had two.  Her and Jake are a great team.  Amanda is in the 8th grade now at Beaumont Middle School.   She isn’t playing in the band this year because horses have taken over her life.  She spends every second she can riding and training.  As a result, we bought a sport horse in November for her.  His name is Acrobat.  Wayne and I joked with her that she had to make his barn name ADOBE, so in honor of us, she dubbed him “Dobe” Acrobat  (Get it? J).  “Dobe” will take Amanda to the next level of eventing.  Jake is still very good, but he is just too short to go above Beginner Novice.  “Dobe” is a 16.2 hand thoroughbred.  He has great breeding, but just didn’t like racing.  (His dad is Indian Charlie!)  He has a “Jake like” attitude and is very loving and willing.  We are hoping this will all pay off down the road in the form of a college scholarship or something?!?!?!   Anyway, right now she is having fun and that is what matters.

Before we leave the subject of Patrick and Amanda, you must hear about the “souvenir” they talked me into at Breyerfest.  Patrick, Amanda and Lisa go to the annual Breyerfest at the Kentucky Horse Park.  This year Patrick and Amanda took collecting “little horses” a little far.  We returned from Breyerfest this year with a “Zach Attack”.  Zach is a 34 inch tall (yes, inches) miniature appaloosa horse.  Patrick and Amanda are in love with him, and I must admit, he has wormed his way into everyone’s heart, even Wayne’s.  He is extremely smart and gentle.  He is trained to pull a cart, so we look forward to having transportation around our property next summer.

On to Thomas.  As has already mentioned, Thomas turned 18 this year.  He is a senior this year and will be graduating from Newark high school in Newark, Delaware in June 2007.  Thomas’ excitement for the year has been obtaining his first car, a really nice S10 Blazer.  He also got his first job working for Kroger this past summer.  Since he proved to be such a reliable employee, he got plenty of hours, which was just fine with Thomas!
Thomas has also worked hard and done exceptionally well in school this year.  He is currently on the honor roll!   We are very proud of him!  Thomas is also on his school’s cross country team and really enjoying it.

Wayne has had a wonderful and busy year.  He is still working at UK and teaching for KCTCS and loves it.  Wayne’s excitement for the year came when he was asked by Apple, Inc. to be a presenter in August at a conference in Texas.  His excitement was multiplied when he was asked to present at the 2007 Macworld in San Francisco.  He is really excited and we are all in awe of him.  This is a big honor!  The prep for it is time consuming at times, but he is enjoying it.  In his spare time (what little he has!) Wayne has been working on the house and property.  He has put up fence for the little horse Zach (regular fence doesn’t work – he crawled through and under it!), put siding on the barn, cut down the four pear trees we lost to a bad wind and remodeling the downstairs bathroom.  Of course there are always the little odds and ends that Lisa gives him to do! J

Keeping with the family tradition, Lisa had an exciting year as well.  Last December she left Citizens Commerce National Bank in Versailles and returned to UK campus.  She is now working at the College of Medicine in the Dean’s office.  She does the web design for the College of Medicine and some lite desktop support work for the Dean’s office.  Lisa is really glad to be back on campus.  She enjoys being able to eat lunch with Wayne and their friends everyday.  Campus life is great.  Being around all of the students definitely keeps one young.  In December, it will be three years since Lisa had surgery and Radiation Therapy for cancer.  We are happy to report all is well and Lisa is healthier than ever.  With God’s blessing, this will continue. 

Well, that pretty much sums up our year.  We hope you all have a wonderful holiday season and may God bless you and your family.

Wayne, Lisa, Patrick, Amanda, Thomas