Holiday Greetings!!!!

This "card" hopes to find you and yours well!

We made it home from England ahead of schedule. In fact, we are currently staying 3 hours southwest of home on the Maine/New Hampshire border. The lighthouse above is just down the street from us. We were planning on spending this whole year in England, maybe longer. But Jon's work schedule became unbearable. It's one thing to pull 14 hours a day for a deadline, but not when it becomes regular hours. He finally asked to be transferred to a new client. April 1st they sent us back to the states, along with 3/4 of the team. Everyone was glad to be off that project. The project was suppose to continue through the end, but everyone was sent home by June.

Before we left, we made one more big trip out. We went and saw Anne Hathoway's house, Shakespeare's birthplace, Oxford, Avesbury Circle and Stonehenge.

The first picture is the Hathoway house. You can see how thick the thatch roof is. The gardens were lovely. The house is full of antiques and reproductions.





Shakespeare house didn't impress as much. There was very little to see. They had a show of sorts before you went over to the house. It was rather Disneyified.


  

England is full of stone circles. One the best we saw was in Avesbury, west of London. The circle isn't small. It goes around the entire village. Unlike the famous Stonehendge, you can walk right up to these rocks, which vary in size. Some the size of a large dog, while others are at least 12 feet if not taller.

 

And of course the infamous Stonehenge, could not leave England without seeing it. Unfortunately, you can no longer get close to the rocks. The guard is as close as one can get. You can also see the height of the rocks. Across the road is a flock of sheep. They are the sheep of the original Legend of Stonehenge Sheep. But we left England before we had a chance to write it.

Our first landing back in the states was in Houston, Texas. We had left the RV there in hopes of selling it. Instead we picked it up and visited with some long time friends and headed for DFW. Jon started work pretty soon after returning, and flew up to New Hampshire. Diane and I stayed longer to visit with family and friends. Then the RV started having issues, so we ended up staying longer than planned. Jon flew back and we started our drive up to New Hampshire. We visited with a family along the way. Their eldest daughter and Diane did a writing class that I led, and did some literature classes together, and are currently doing a writing club twice a week. Skype is a wonderful thing. After we left them in Kentucky, the RV broke twice, so we were delayed more. But we finally made it. 

Through May and June nothing much really happened. We stayed in a long term hotel near Jon's office. When we stayed in the RV before, we had two older cats. This time we have two younger ones. Amore is middle aged at 7, so she does fine. Mai-lee was OK, but Chula needs running space. So the hotel gave him more flying space. We took several short trips to check out areas to possibly move to, and visited with homeschooling families whenever we could. One of our trips was up the Franconia, NH for the Lupine Festival for our anniversary. We go every year we can. It's simply breath taking. Lupine's are like bluebonnets - same family - but are usually 2 to 3.5 feet tall.

In July, Jon's company sent him to CA for a meeting and Diane and I headed for Washington state. There is a camp there - Satori - where she spent a wonderful week. When it was over, she was totally exhausted, and ready to sleep for a week. Then go back again. She is already counting down the days until she returns next year. This is a brainiac camp. It was very intense and she loved it! The classes covered everything from ballroom dancing, to art, to computer languages, medical diseases, and a whole class on fonts. She discovered she loves ballroom dancing and is quite good at it. One night they had a time travelers ball. Jon's mom made her a medieval costume. Jon was able to join me, and we toured the state while she was at camp. 

He returned back to work and Diane and I stayed a few more days. We had Diane evaluated while in Seattle. I've always known there was a piece of the puzzle missing, but we have never been able to track it down. Since she was so tired from camp, she could not compensate as well. Her evaluator told me it was no wonder we hadn't figured it out. They see many cases like her, where kids have been tested and such to no avail, only to find out it's stealth dyslexia. She now has an official diagnosis of dyslexia (for reading), dysgraphia (for writing), and dyscalculia (for math). As serious as it all sounds, Diane is doing just fine. She will graduate from high school this May at the ripe old age of 16. Since we have always homeschooled, we have been able to accommodate her needs. The last few years have become harder for her as she is no longer able to just muscle her way through things. She has started several therapies that will make it easier for her, and with an official diagnosis, she will be able to get accommodations in college. I felt very vindicate in how we homeschool, as most of the things the evaluator said we need to do or look for in a college, we do at home naturally. Because it suits her best. So to all those in the world who have criticized our homeschooling and how we homeschool - HA! The experts say it is exactly what she has needed all along.

While we were gone we had some cosmetic work done to the RV and moved back into her when we returned. We spent the rest of the summer living on the beach. Here you can see the view out our front window. It was lovely being so close to the water, that we could walk on the beach whenever we wanted. We did have to take the cats, especially Chula, out frequently to either walk on the lead or in their playpen that we built while in Texas. He needs a lot of stimulation, or is impossible to live with. I had a picture of him in the playpen, but I can't find it.

Diane's Latin class that we had so much hope for at the end of last year, turned into a nightmare. The teacher decided against doing an Independent Study Program, after she offered it to Diane. Things could not be resolved, so Diane dropped the class at midterm with an A. Unfortunately it left a very bad taste in her mouth. It took months, but she finally agreed to continue with me. I was brushing up on Latin skills, that I don't have, when I ran across another Latin teacher. After much back and forth, Diane finally agreed to try his class this fall. It has been a smash. And she is looking forward to the second semester next year. He has promised her harder work as well. And has sent me two Latin story books for her to translate. Her evaluators are very interested in this, as dyslexics don't do languages. But there is a small subset of them that do languages very well. I think he told me that in the twenty years they have been doing evaluations, they have met 4 or 5 kids in this subset. They want her to take another language this summer to see how it goes.



In September Diane turned Sweet Sixteen. We went out to dinner and a play, with cake and presents back at the RV.





September also began my health journey. I have been diagnosed with several bacterial infections. It has caused all sorts of symptoms or some of the symptoms might lead to something else that cause the infections. It's a chicken or the egg kind of thing. I hopefully bottomed out in Oct and seem to be back on the way up and getting stronger day by day. At my last appointment, she was saying at least May for complete healing - if I'm lucky. I'm on a strict diet and more supplements and pills than food. Jon says I'm on the bread and water diet, with no bread. The most frustrating this is I can do so little. I'm not use to just sitting around all the time, but I have little choice. Some days I can't even hold up a book to read or be able to concentrate on the words even if I could. Thankfully I've had Diane home with me to help me. Or I would be in real trouble.


In October we moved into a rental house for the winter. It appears Jon will be here until end of Jan, and then we don't know. But until then, we managed to find a place on the water again. Here is the view out the back of the house and I can see the ocean from the couch. Up until Dec, the weather has been warm enough in the house, that we could open the windows for a few hour each day. We have lots of south face windows, and Maine does sunshine in the winter.

I'm not moving much and not a whole is getting done or adventures happening. I was able to find enough recipes that I could have so we had a good Thanksgiving. I'm already working on what we can do for our Christmas dinner. Fortunately Jon is willing to do most of the cooking, as I am not able to do any. Diane helps in between her studies and extra classes. Next year will be even better as I regain my strength and stamina.


Down the road from the lighthouse is this Maine Christmas tree - it's made out of lobster traps.It sums up Maine pretty well.

And we just got some exciting news. Diane and Jon started a ballroom dance class last month. We tried to find her a teen group, but were not able too. The good part is that their instructor has just asked her to be his partner in the Pro Am Dance competition next month. Pretty impressive since she has about 14 hours of instruction in dancing, some of these people have been practicing all year. Diane is not a competitor and tends to avoid competition as a result. But these generally raise a lot of money for charity, so she's willing to try. The best part for her is that she will have to learn the whole dance routines, so more new steps and dancing time.

We wish all of you a happy and prosperous New Year, with a couple of pleasant surprises.

Merry Christmas 2011 and Happy New Year!!!

From the New England Fenner's