1999
To all our
Friends & Family:
Hello again!
It’s been another year and it’s time to take a look back as well as
remember all of you. We’re so
grateful for all the people in our lives and love to stay in touch with all of
you. In January, we attended a
family reunion and Don’s nephew’s wedding.
At the wedding, all of Don’s siblings were there, Anne sang karaoke and
all the cousins had a rare chance to see each other. Don started the year doing computer training for USWest and
BaxGlobal. His travels took him to
Phoenix, where he saw his aunt, Ruth. He
visited some other cousins, too, and then drove north to Jerome and Sedona.
He went hiking and climbed on a beautiful stone arch in one of the
canyons. He also flew to Winnipeg,
Indianapolis, Cleveland/Akron, Louisville and Minneapolis giving computer
classes.
In the spring,
we took Quinn to see Elmo in Grouchland at the Civic Center. It’s great to see all those little ones simply transfixed
at seeing shows like that. We also
had a garage sale, which will be our last.
It took 2 months to prepare for it (during which we couldn’t park in
the garage) and 3 months to recover from (to get rid of the unsalable junk).
It was an ordeal, but we did end up with a cleaner house.
One of Don’s accordion buddies, a former national champion, was in town
during this time and they had fun getting caught up.
We skipped our
usual trip for Anne’s birthday (June 1) and had a luau for her 40th
at the house. All our family and
Anne’s friends were there for barbecue and hula dancing. The reason we skipped the trip was that we had 4 weekend
events scheduled in June: three
family reunions and Don’s 20th high school reunion.
Don’s Swedish and Norwegian cousins got together in St Paul, Anne’s
Dutch cousins met in Marshalltown and we had our annual Kerby Reunion in
Glenwood, Missouri. While in
Minnesota, we all went to the Mall of America.
Quinn loved the amusement park the best.
The Hoover High School Reunion was simply great and Don saw many people
he’d known for 30 years.
In
July, we almost took it easy. Don
made a short trip to Branson to attend a National Accordion competition and see
some family. He had fun reuniting
with his musical friends. Then, we
flew to San Diego for a wedding. We
visited some more cousins, went snorkeling, shopped, went to the zoo, had a
fabulous dinner with some of Anne’s clients and generally had a grand time.
In August, Don spent most of the evenings annoying Anne while practicing
for the Iowa State Fair accordion contest.
He won 3rd place (a white ribbon) and made some new accordion
contacts. Dad, his wife, Lina, and
a bunch of folks from church were there to cheer him on.
He also wrote some reviews for an accordion web-zine and he enjoys
staying involved with the world accordion scene.
Oh, wow, probably the biggest single event in our lives is one that is of
almost no significance outside our home: Quinn
became potty-trained. (This is the
reason people hate Christmas letters, isn’t it?)
Parents understand.
Don
turned 38 in September and had all his trousers altered.
Again. He’d spent the
summer installing an intranet for a window manufacturing company, then he did
two months at a large insurance company updating 800 PCs for Y2K compliance.
That was a very hectic but rewarding job.
Now, he’s taken a permanent position with Solutech, an IT consulting
company. He’ll be working in 801
Grand, the same building Anne works in, so we can carpool.
Anne is still in commercial real estate at Principal Capital Management.
She travels to southern California once a month about 9 months of the
year and her job is going really well.
We
celebrated Don’s dad’s 76th in October with a triple birthday
party: Don’s brother, Bob, and
his sister-in-law Susan joined us for their birthdays at Don’s dad’s house.
Lina served a fabulous meal, as usual, and it was simply perfect.
We took a weekend camping trip in October to Preston, Minnesota.
We visited some of Don’s family on the way up and slept in the van for
two nights. We had a deal that if
it was below 35 degrees, we’d stay at a B&B.
It reached 34 our second night in the van.
But the gorgeous night sky and fall weather made it all worth it.
We hiked through two caves and got home just in time to attend Anne’s
mom’s 60th birthday party. It
was a priceless roast in a courtroom setting with her loved ones testifying that
she was guilty of accomplishing far too much for her years.
We then retired to a wonderful meal at a nearby restaurant, which
Anne’s dad had reserved and furnished with his own paintings.
Outstanding party! November
6, we had a quiet 6th wedding anniversary.
We went out for supper and saw Victor Borge with Don’s dad and Lina
that night. Very memorable evening.
In November, we also had a double birthday party for Anne’s grandpa,
Karl, who turned 95, and Quinn, who turned 4.
He got a baseball mitt, a space shuttle and a backpack for school.
He continues to amaze us with his vocabulary, singing and excellent
memory.
More
exciting things happened, such as remodeling the bathrooms, getting a new
furnace and AC, but enough’s enough. After
re-reading this letter, we realize how grateful we are for our many, many
blessings.
Until
next year,
Don,
Anne & Quinn
515.221.9246
donsevers@hotmail.com