This year we've had many changes and some near disasters. We're now a family with a college student and all teenagers! Well, almost, since Amanda is just twelve.

The storms of last winter were real drought-busters. We weren't directly affected, but it was exciting (well, for the meteorologically-minded among us) and disastrous for a lot of people in this area. With record snowfall in the Sierra Nevada, skiers were in heaven! Tim, Amanda and Jocelyn went cross-country skiing once or twice and had a wonderful time.

It was a very hot summer (until November) this year and in California that means fire. Sharon's parents had to evacuate the house they have lived in for 49 years because of the great fire which swept through Pt. Reyes National Seashore. Ironically, the same fierce winds which fanned the fire came from an unusual direction and blew the fire away from their house.

Tim is still with Bechtel - for the moment. He has almost been put on "holding status" this fall - one step away from a lay-off. He recently started work, however, on a job in San Diego, which will last a few weeks, and which means he'll be commuting home on weekends. Besides the one weekend a month he serves the U. S. Navy, Tim helps with Terry's Boy Scout troop and has organized a few rock climbing trips. He also was able to go on a couple white water rafting trips last spring, and were those rivers running high! He helps, when he can, with Amanda's softball team, and he and Sharon started working out at a local gym this summer. (You know, it's one of those mid-life crisis things.) Tim says we never had toddlers or 10-year-olds, but THEY'VE ALWAYS BEEN TEENAGERS!

This year has brought a lot of changes for Sharon. She attended the local community college in 94-95 to obtain a medical assisting certificate. Carrying 14 units in the spring semester, with a graduating senior and sixth grader in the house, pulling all-nighters - once during a monster storm during which the computer didn't crash - she somehow made the dean's list (something that didn't happen the first time around 25 years ago). She even turned down a day to go skiing with the family over spring break (temps in the 60-70s, record snow pack) to WRITE A STUPID PAPER. Enough role-modeling for our student children, already! In the meantime, a job opportunity came up and, with some delays, she started working in late August for Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital part-time as a medical assistant on a mobile clinic. It's demanding, interesting, M*A*S*H-style medicine and conducted mostly in Spanish! (Actually, the clinic has a wonderful staff and is pretty organized.) Sharon also is still offering Hands On Science classes, playing bass clarinet in a new community band and helping out with schools and Scouts. Last summer Sharon also started volunteering at a local free clinic. About the same time she taught a two-week class called "Cooking and Folk Arts Around the World" for a children's summer enrichment program. The kids loved it, they prepared and ate some exotic (for Petaluma) feasts, but Sharon was very sick most of the two weeks so doesn't remember much of it!

Terry finished off senior year with some important accomplishments. He was on the school's academic decathlon team again, which finished fifth in the state competition. He put together an Eagle Scout project this summer, organizing the construction of some cabinets at a local historic site, and completed it before he reached 18 in September. He just finished his first semester at Santa Rosa Junior College and we're really proud of him. Some of you might remember when Terry was about 10 he declared, "I'm going to be a genetic engineer." Well, he's going for it! After finishing at J. C., he wants to transfer to UC San Diego. This summer, he started working at a water quality lab here in Petaluma. He's looking for another job, though: the latest job at the lab involves raw oysters put through a blender. Since school started in the fall, he and his friends, now scattered across the country, have discovered e-mail, and use it extensively. He spends his free time with his girlfriend Jaime, continues to help out with his old Scout troop (he's now an assistant Scoutmaster) and backpacks when he can.

During one recent incident Terry asserted his independence. We were having a Friday evening let-loose free-for-all involving wrapping paper rolls, pillow-throwing and a plastic axe from a Halloween costume. Mom was trying to feed the family before leaving for the hospital Christmas party, just when "Don" from the computer store called. As Jocelyn was trying to communicate thought he din, Terry announced for all to hear, "I'M 18 YEARS OLD AND I CAN DECIDE WHETHER OR NOT TO EAT BROCCOLI!!" Don probably figured we needed a lot more than a repaired computer monitor.

Jocelyn is a junior this year. She is still active in the school's choir, to the tune of three periods in the school day and as director's assistant won an award last spring. She's really looking forward to a spring choir tour to eastern Canada. (Mom's hoping to go, too.) She is a teacher's assistant for one of our favorite English teachers, and belongs to a student writing club called Writer's Block. In October was the highlight of the Biology II class: a week-long trip to Yosemite. Last summer she still attended Petaluma's Girl Scout Day Camp and as one of the older girls, helped to organize much of the camp program. Summer school is in the picture for her this year as well as last; Jocelyn will be taking some classes at our J.C. as well as through the high school. She took two swimming classes this fall as part of her P.E. credits. Some bouts of tonsillitis have slowed her down quite a bit, but every chance she gets she hangs out with friends, either with them or on the telephone! One of Jocelyn's dreams when she gets out of school is to do the entire Pacific Crest Trail (Mexico to Canada).

Two weeks ago when another powerful storm swept our coast, Terry and Jocelyn were both awake most of the night, unable to sleep. Sharon, waking Amanda up the next morning for school, heard a voice from the bathroom, "Hmm, it sure is nice going to the bathroom with all the animals here." As it turned out, her brother and sister had in the middle of the night rescued our terrified rabbit from the stormy backyard, and sequestered it, with food, water and newspapers in the bathroom. Chipmunk, our cat, equally as freaked out by the high winds, had taken refuge with her friend(?) the rabbit.

We lost our other kitty, mischievous Bagheera, when she was hit by a car early one morning in June. This was graduation week, when Sharon was in TWO minor traffic accidents, was throwing a big party for Terry and was offered her job. A little stress, maybe?

Amanda is now in junior high! She is still under 5 feet, but she's doing OK. We were proud of her recently when she brought home straight A's; we hope it lasts! During the summer, Amanda went to a Girl Scout resident camp for 6 days, in the gold country, a few miles away from Angels Camp. The theme for her unit was "Cave Explorers". She went to Mercer Caverns one day and went on a tour inside them and then on to Natural Bridges, where there were all kinds of limestone formations and the water was at least ten feet deep and was freezing! They wore life jackets, though, so they didn't have to tread water. The second day she went to Moaning Caverns and rappelled 161 feet down! One hundred feet of it was free rappelling, or pretty much just sliding down the rope. Amanda and the other girls in her group had to wear coveralls. Amanda says that hers were so big, they sagged down to her knees! She also went white water rafting and x-country skiing last spring. Her one sport she loves is softball; she'll be trying out for the majors in February. Amanda also loves to shop, and is still the "little consumer" in our family.

In early August, Tim and Sharon (Amanda was in camp, the older two stayed home) went to Lake Tahoe to attend Sharon's nephew's wedding. We knew the wedding was going to be memorable when at a post-rehearsal barbeque in Sharon' brother's backyard, the bride and groom, along with about 20 other people, engaged in a whipped cream war. Well, the wedding the next day was very nice. The scene of the late afternoon reception was on the north shore of Lake Tahoe, with the southern Sierra as a backdrop. As the guests assembled, the theme from "2001 - A Space Odyssey" played, and the bride and groom, in full wedding dress, parasailed along the shore, towed by a speed boat! We won't forget that wedding.

We also worked in two short camping trips this summer: one along the Eel River in northern California and another time, with Amanda and her best friend Meredith, to Yosemite. We took our bicycles and found out it is THE way to get around the Valley.

Another aspect that made our summer unusual was that Jocelyn's friend Katherine lived with us for three months. Add Jaime, who is here quite a bit and assorted friends and we ended up with a household of...TEENAGERS. One night in early September, Sharon, arriving home from work about 9:30, noticed we had an assortment of chemistry books, school schedules, coffee cups, fast food containers, someone on the computer, someone on the telephone, and probably the TV and stereo on...our living room had been transformed into a college dorm! Ah well, we'll still miss them when they're gone.

As we read the wonderful letters we've been receiving, we think of our friends spread across the country and wish we could see you all more often. We're hoping, in the coming years, to be able to travel more, but with two or three kids in college, who knows! And, if any of you head this way, please let us know!

We hope you have a warm, happy holiday season and a wonderful 1996.
Cheers!