Christmas 2010
|
Dear Friends,
Again we find ourselves at that time of year when we make preparations to
celebrate our Savior's birth as well as for His second coming.
As we reflect on the past year we think of our friends both near and far
and hope the past year has been a good one for each of you.
Deb and Tony and their family still live at Linwood with their menagerie.
Tony changed jobs in February and now works for Burns & McDonnell, an
engineering consulting firm in Kansas City.
Deb still works at Ridgeview Animal Clinic in Olathe.
She also is taking graduate courses for a master's in public health.
Deb and Tony are active in their church.
Jennifer is 11 years old and in the
sixth grade at Basehor-Linwood Middle School. She plays the viola in the
orchestra and is also in choir at school.
Jennifer has been selected for the Northeast Kansas Honors Choir again
this year. She played softball this
past summer and is in confirmation class at church.
Jacob is in the second grade at Linwood Elementary.
He really likes school.
Jake played baseball this past summer.
Both Jenn and Jake will be in the Christmas program at church.
Mike and Melinda still live south of Valley Falls.
Mike still works for the State of Kansas and assists with the Wednesday
evening church school program at Faith Lutheran.
Melinda still works for the Prairie Band Casino.
Jessie is 18 years old
and graduated from Valley Falls in May.
She now is enrolled in pre-engineering at Washburn University and plans
to become a civil engineer (Grandpa is very proud.). She is living with Grandpa
and Grandma while attending Washburn.
Jessie helped Dean with data collection on a research project last
spring. She now works part-time at
a grocery store.
Kelly is 14 and graduated from
Valley Falls Middle School in May.
She goes out for track, volleyball, and basketball at school.
Also, Kelly is active in the youth group at church.
Joshua will be 10 years old Christmas day.
He is in the fourth grade at Jefferson North.
He played baseball this summer.
Josh will be a reader in the Christmas program at church this year.
Our bonus daughter, Nicole, and her family live at Perry.
Nicole is a copy editor and works from home.
Her husband works for a chemical company in Lawrence.
Their daughter is a sophomore at the
University of Kansas and is on the rowing team.
Their son is a sophomore at Free State High School in Lawrence and is on
the debate team.
The biggest event of the last year was Dean turning the big “70.”
We managed to surprise him with a birthday party at Gage Park. Dean still
does consultant work and works with K-State graduate students on research.
Dean continues as archivist of Kansas District of our church body.
He also is active in deaf ministry at our church and the Optimist Club.
As usual, we made a trip to Smith County, close to Memorial Day to visit
relatives and decorate graves.
Karlea is active in the Lutheran Women's Mission League and serves as Care and
Needs Chair at our church. This
doesn’t sound like much but she really keeps things going and is always busy.
Both Dean and Karlea are on the Board of Adult Education at church.
They also belong to two investment clubs, and Karlea is secretary of one
of those.
We went to the Texas Panhandle for the Hoobler Family Reunion the first weekend of June and stopped at Coldwater for a visit with Dean’s cousin. The end of June we attended the Cassoday High School Reunion for which Karlea is secretary. The following Tuesday we left for Illinois, Ohio, and Tennessee on vacation. We spent the 4th of July weekend with Karlea's brother and his family at their lake home on Douglas Lake in Tennessee. The main purpose of our trip was genealogy and Dean and Karlea were both able to spend time with Ohio cousins and were successful in our research. We had a wonderful trip and our cousins were wonderful hosts.
We continue to have season tickets for K-State football. They had a winning record this year—7 wins, 5 losses. We’ve attended every bowl game that K-State has played until this year. We just weren’t thrilled with sitting outside in Yankee Stadium on December 30th. Because we missed so many games because of church and family activities, we did not renew our K-State women's basketball tickets this year.
Karlea's Uncle Lee died in July after a long illness.
Dean's Uncle Thayne is doing fairly well after undergoing radiation
treatment for cancer earlier this year.
Karlea's brother and his family still live in North Carolina and northern
Georgia. Karlea's sister and her
family live in Wichita. Their
daughter is working toward her degree in Elementary Education at K-State.
Dean's sister and most of her family live in Atchison. Their oldest
daughter is in the Air Force and completing her second tour of duty in Iraq but
hopes to be home to her husband and son by Christmas.
They are making their home in Florida.
We would love to hear from each of you and learn about your family during the
past year. Your friendship is a
real blessing to us. We wish each
of you a very Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year.
Dean & Karlea Landman