The Hand Herald

Chapel Hill, NC    --    December, 2002    --    Vol. 12

2002 has been great year here in our “new” house in Chapel Hill.  We have just survived, intact, a vicious ice storm that left many of us in the Triangle without power for five or more days.  (God bless the pioneers!)  So we are finally getting back to normal and ready to think about Christmas, only to find out it’s less than two weeks away!! 

Pete just had his THIRD birthday and is currently celebrating by instantly deciding he’s ready for the potty (and staying dry all day at preschool today!), and by asking “Why?” all of a sudden (which, you realize, may be the end of any sanity for his parents!).  He is learning to live without his fleece blanket that he occasionally loses, understanding now that there is a future and it may produce his blanket.  And he absolutely loves his preschool and all his friends there and his teachers and especially music and playing with Play-dough and cars and trucks.  The teachers and the director at Orange Preschool all delight in his charming personality and cute looks, and the teachers are already trying to grab him for their individual classrooms next year! 

Katie Rose is now five and a half and quite the little schoolgirl.  She LOVES kindergarten, delights in it, soaks it up, was made for it.  She has a fabulous school called Frank Porter Graham elementary (or FPG for short) which is teaching her to read and write (which she is learning in leaps and bounds!), along with many other skills which fascinate her aging parents such as speaking Spanish, learning about all the interesting animals in the science lab, and weaving Indian wear in the “long house.”  Katie Rose proudly rides the bus with her new neighborhood friends and wonderful bus driver.  She continues to dance in ballet and dabbled in soccer last spring, and she’s been taking a music class Wednesdays.  And she loves Daisy Girl Scouts.  But her all-time favorite activity in the summer is walking across the street to our fabulously re-done swimming pool and learning to swim.  She’s gotten to be quite skilled and even jumped into the arms of her swimming instructor in the deep end!

Debbie has been head-spinningly busy volunteering in the kids’ schools, taxiing the kids hither and yon, leading a Girl Scout Daisy troop, and performing multiple duties for the Durham Mother’s Club, including being Secretary.  She ran the Book Fair at Pete’s school this fall and is a continual face on campus at Katie Rose’s school and in KR’s class.  Debbie learned some very useful skills last spring when she took a temporary position as a school occupational therapist in the Durham Public Schools, her first position in pediatrics.  She also learned that it is TOUGH to work “part-time” and split herself between work and kids and home!  So in the summer when school ended, she opted not to go back for the fall and instead is again doing PRN in nursing homes on occasional weekends.  Debbie continues to ring in a Durham handbell choir and now plays a beautiful new silver flute with gold lip plate named Gabrielle (she has a heavenly tone like the angel Gabriel!) in the Chapel Hill Village Band.

Joey continues to work in IBM's accounting center in RTP, although he gave up his exceedingly stressful position as the Americas’ Ledger Coordinator to learn a new job as a lead in the Ledger Deployment team.  Thus, his life is no longer controlled by monthly crunch times and beginning-of-the-year sleepless insanity (including 90+hour weeks Jan. and Feb.).  His busy time is now the fall, but he will be “over the hump” by New Years, and for the first time he gets the week of Christmas off!!!  He likes his team, and his job is fairly “recession-proof”—at least we think so!  Joey spends his free time tinkering around on the computer, playing with the kids, being involved in church activities, and riding his bike (especially in the summer, although Dad Herron now has a Cannondale and oddly thinks that November is “fine riding weather”, so Joey recently dusted off his long tights.)

This summer, we went to upstate New York with the Hands for fun and relatives.  We stayed near Lake Ontario and had a fabulous time at Niagra Falls, the Buffalo Zoo, a wonderful kids’ museum in Rochester, and at Luray Caverns in Virginia.  We also took an idyllic family vacation with the Herrons and Wilkes at Lake Gaston, NC in a fabulous huge house with perfect views.  For Thanksgiving and Christmas, we are staying put!

More cousins are being added to Ryn (9), Lance (6), Collin (2), and Abigail (1 ½).  Margie had Andrew in March, and Scott had Josiah in October.  Shawn is expecting in July, so even the “baby” is having babies! 

We all wish you a Merry Christmas and invite you to check out more family photos at joeyhand.com!!!