**May God grant you and yours Peace and Wisdom in 2003**

Roger's: criscoll@core.com

Dorene's: legaltrans@core.com NEW!

http://www.geocities.com/dorifam

Roger's update:

Roger graduated with a CDL Class A & B in 2002, obtaining his CDL license in June, one day before our 15-year wedding anniversary! We were so proud of him in this accomplishment, now having a college degree and a CDL! He would still like to go back to college again and get a certificate in some type of Business program.

Rog is still working in traffic job, and assists in our typing business. He has also been looking around for a good place to get his trucking career started. We're praying that when the time is right he will be led into a great career job for that! Right now though he is very very busy with his traffic consulting job!

After a busy 1 1/2 - 2 years or so playing in the church band, Rog took a break in January during the CDL school. With job-hunting, and school, and then getting very busy with the traffic consulting job, he has not been able to yet step back in the band. We sure miss him up there but it has been a good time to take a break with all we have had going on!!

THE BABE.

Birth story is at our baby page along with more pictures!

Boy did I have an exciting, busy, change-filled year! Our lives opened up to welcome our little Ryan Joseph, 9 days late, on my 37th birthday! This was conveniently during a very long slow period in my at-home typing business. I enjoyed a 6-month maternity leave, with a few tiny projects interspersed therein, but mostly learning to mother a newborn again and trying to keep the house up and things going! We enjoyed our final "newborn" time very much, and will treasure it always, just as we do our older ones' newborn periods. I have not succumbed to the "third one doesn't have a picture book" syndrome, and instead did get me a (cheap but nice!) digital camera in April and took thousands of pictures of all the kids! Unfortunately it broke at Halloween and I got NO Halloween pix but did borrow a regular camera for Thanksgiving and Christmas!

Chris enjoyed a lengthy vacation with Mama and Papa while we completely renovated his bedroom in March/April, and he came home to a newly painted blue-green room with a freshly washed carpet and scrubbed furniture and a new arrangement! It was such a pleasure to get that room SPARKLING! We had not been able to do that kind of deep cleaning in there before as our house is very small and it's hard to completely move items out of one room while the person is still in the house!!! I still have plans of renovating the kitchen and hope to put down Pergo wood floor covering throughout the kitchen, laundry room and living room. Moving our desk area from the "dining room/office area" over to the living room wall, then moving our kitchen table into the dining area, and moving cabinets from the laundry room to the kitchen for more storage/counter space - is my plan for January!!! It shall be a big but worthwhile project! (The floor may be later though -- we shall see!)

In late July or early August we received some typing work again from a prior business I used to work for in 2000, and we were kept busy typing address files for a few months. Rog still occasionally types address files for them.

Rog at this time was continuing to look for a truck driving job. At this time I was also looking for a part time or full time job, as the money coming in was not consistent enough. I could not find a job for a few months, and then out of the blue a job opened up where I worked for 6 years from 1989 through 1994 before being laid off during maternity leave, and I went back on October 17 as a part-time legal secretary! It is going well and almost sometimes seems like I never left! It was neat how that fit into place right when I needed it to. Ryan's day care also fell into place as if it was meant to be. I'm home for the kids before and after school. And during school breaks if I don't have anyone to watch Chris & Colleen I can take some work home to do.

Ironically right after I started back at work my legal transcription boss got REALLY busy! It never rains but it pours!! I am happy for her though that her business is going so well!

I will probably not be doing much typing at home any more--I did complete an 11-tape job while working outside the home but it was very difficult! The season of my doing lots of at-home typing seems to be coming to a pause, at least for now. But thank God for it, and I may return to it one day!

January 2 will be high time for me to start watching my weight again -- needless to say it may be at LEAST next Christmas before I'm anywhere near my goal weight. I am planning on doing Weight Watcher's, having first researched it after Halloween and finding it to be just what I'm looking for at this time. I'm doing it online, and Rog may be doing it along with me. He kept off pretty much the weight he lost a few years ago, where I, on the other hand, well, didn't! I had had good fortune with Weigh Down in 1999 and 2000 but seemed to get unfocused with it, so something new seemed to be a better plan for now. I'm enjoying some goodies now but plan to be pretty strict once I start it!

We also plan to start EXERCISING -- I have not been getting to the Y or walking like I had been -- but hope to start in January. Chris & Colleen had been going swimming all summer at the Y, and we have a wonderful assistant working with Chris on swimming and also going to the playground all summer doing one-on-one assistance with Chris. We will also try and get that set up again in January! Colleen would also like to go back to art, which we have not been to since THE DAY OF my and Ryan's birthday!!! (I was going into labor there - well, read my birth story on the web page.)

I also had to take a break from performing music at church. Right before Ryan was born I stepped down from playing for the children in service. I hope to get back to that very soon! Choir stopped having performances in 2001, I believe, but the choir began again in the Fall of 2002. I, however, did not feel I could fit it in at the time -- I hope to attend again maybe in the spring!

is in his final year at his school's MH class. At 12, he'll be going to Junior Hi next year -- we just don't know where yet! We need to speed up our research after Christmas and decide where we would like him to go. He is enjoying his class very much and has had good health for the most part this year, for which we are thankful! We still would appreciate prayers for optimal health/speech/communications enablement.

Christopher had a complete checkover in May in regard to some suspected allergies, and it was determined after a day in surgery (scoping!) that he has whey/lactose allergies. Any gluten/casein/soy, etc. allergies were ruled out by the testing. So Christopher has been on a lactose/whey free diet since January. We are very used to it now, and I LOVE Silk Chocolate Soymilk, and the Smart Beat lactose-free cheese isn't too bad! We have to be careful at parties and things because Chris will gravitate to the Doritos bowl in a flash (like his Mom J ) and has radar to ANY pizza contained in ANY room. (He does have some without cheese or with the smart beat cheese sometimes).

After I wrote and sent my Christmas paper newsletter Chris began a tough sleeping jag at the same time Ryan was getting up at 4 or 5 a.m. for some reason, so Rog has been staying up with Chris while I get up at 4 or 5 with Ryan. I hope THIS is short-lived and that we can get some good sleeping results soon....

Ice skating has been a much greater success this year -- we have been going almost every Tuesday! Chris is regaining his confidence on the ice and has started to even let go of the instructor's hand a little! Even I, four times while Rog watched the other kids, strapped on ice skates and ventured out again after 3 years of not skating! Very wobbly but glad I started working on it again!!

is now in the third grade and likes her teacher. She still plays with neighborhood friends although this time of year we're not seeing them as much! Colleen, at times, has had a little trouble concentrating, so she will be getting some extra help for that this year after a while of trying to get all the pieces in order. We are still waiting on the final arrangements.

Ryan Joseph has brought a lively, fun, new balance to our lives this year. Arriving on 2/22/02 (on Dorene's 37th birthday!) Ryan also weighed almost the same as his mom at birth, 8 lbs., 11 oz., and was 21" tall. He was also born 4 minutes before his mom!

Ryan is now crawling all over the place and is trying to pull to stand! He is now attending a day care that he seems to be enjoying very much, while I work part time again. He seems entranced with the Christmas lights, and enjoys exploring all the rooms in the house! He is eating all sorts of different foods and has a hearty appetite! He has a cheerful disposition and he often reminds us of Grandpa Jerry! And his favorite word is dada!

As always, we pray for the peace and leading and wisdom you all need in your lives, and my God give us all grace and strength as we go through our days here on this earth. It is not always easy, but

Love, Roger, Dorene, Christopher, Colleen and Ryan

2002 Christmas pictures, part 1

2002 Christmas pictures, part 2

Main Christmas page

Roger's

Dorene's