Merry Christmas from the Cornell family

The Geariety Update
Heather Geariety

Mike, Joseph, and I have been in Marion, Iowa, for a year now, and things are going really well. Mike accepted a job at the end of last year as a programmer at Heritage Microfilms in Cedar Rapids, and he is enjoying both the position and his co-workers. He certainly has a very flexible schedule and works a lot less than I! I am still in my position as Manager of Perishables at Hy-Vee in Marion, and I absolutely love it. My co-workers are fantastic, and I am able to spend some time outside of work with them also. I am still striving to be a store director at Hy-Vee, and hopefully that will happen in the next few years. I plan to work myself into two other lateral positions in the company, and then I will be able to apply for my own store. For fun this year Mike and I were able to spend a week at the cabin with many of our friends. We also took many trips to Minnesota to see family and friends. Joseph and I also spent a week with Caitlyn this summer, and I was in Las Vegas for a few days this month to meet up with Caitlyn to see some shows and relax.

Now on to Joseph: the most important person in our family. Joseph turned two this year, and we are experiencing a little bit of the "terrible twos". For the most part, though, we are having a lot of fun and amazed at how much he is learning. He especially enjoys Thursday nights when he has music class and is able to play with other kids and learn new songs and play instruments. His favorite activities include swimming, dancing, playing with his tools, playing sports with Daddy, and waking Mommy and Daddy up early in the morning! We would like to wish everyone Happy Holidays! Feel free to stop in and visit us anytime!

Coachie's Corner
Caitlyn

Has it really been another year already? Life has been so busy and exciting since last Christmas, I don’t know where to begin. I guess I’ll start with what’s closest to my heart out in Washington, the softball team. Last spring was my first season as an assistant softball coach. My love for the sport has only grown. In fact, that's why I've titled this "Coachie's Corner." The girls on the team call me Coachie and, in fact, I can only think of four people in the town of Ellensburg, WA, who call me Caitlyn anymore. Hilariously, just the other week one of the new ladies on the team asked me why my mom had named me Coachie. Last spring was quite the season. While there were some minor difficulties with a fellow coach, I learned some important life lessons about the kind of person I want to be. The ladies on the team did a great job, and we ended up with the best record in Wildcat Softball history! I keep telling people it’s all because I was coaching, but they just laugh.

Last spring also came with the exciting news that I had been accepted for a National Science Foundation fellowship called Watershed Activities To Enhance Research in Schools (WATERS). Not only does this grant come with an esteemed title, but I also get a nice stipend, which is a welcome improvement over the four-digit salary I was making last year.

I decided to spend the summer doing research in Washington so that I could keep my apartment and possibly milk some more money from the graduate studies office. I also joined a slowpitch team, and I was finally able to hang out with the seniors from the softball team once they’d graduated. The hardest part about being in Washington for the school year was that the people I would normally hang out with were on the team.

This fall, one of the captains from last year’s team graduated and is now a graduate assistant for the softball team (my title last year), and she moved in with me. The fall was extremely busy for me as I was a softball coach, elementary school science teacher (part of the WATERS fellowship), lab instructor (for my thesis, I taught the CHEM 101 lab), and college student (Wayne will be so excited to see that listed last). I have so much more I could tell you, but I’ve realized that I’m taking up about half the newsletter. My email address is included, so be sure to keep in touch! I hope everyone has a very, very merry Christmas! J

Wow! And Another Year!
LeeDogg

The sabbatical leave of last year has ended, and I am back at MSU. This February will mark my 22nd year. Whoa … that must be a misprint. Although I will hit the “Rule of 90” in March, I have no specific thoughts of retirement. So far. At the moment.

Last spring I was able to spend some time in Washington, watching the CWU Wildcats play softball! It was great fun. (And the Quirks continue to graciously provide me with a home-away-from-home.) And I made a couple trips to Iowa, not to mention using Heather & Mike’s home as a waypoint when driving to/from a conference in Cincinnati. There will, no doubt, be a couple more trips to the south and to the west coming up in the next few months.

Surprisingly, I actually went an entire summer without coaching softball, which gave me some extra cabin time. One project that we hoped to get started this fall was to add on a screen room. When excavation for the foundation was to begin, though, we discovered that the existing cabin actually has no foundation … There is just sort of a thin concrete outline that it sits on. So the screen room was put on hold as we now sift through plans for a new cabin. (It is good that I had no imminent plans for retirement!)

Since Jo was with Caitlyn in Washington for Thanksgiving, I spent the holiday at my folks’ house. They are getting along pretty well, although my dad has been dealing with a compression fracture in his back that put him in a nursing home for a short time last summer. (When you are 83, you probably should not be bounding around on a riding lawnmower!) The silver lining is that this has given my mom a chance to hone her driving skills!

I trust that you and yours have had a healthy and prosperous 2007, and that you are looking forward to grand adventures in 2008.

Mom's World
Jo

I don’t know how it happens, but it seems that each year is busier than the last. Much time was spent with family this year for many occasions from celebrations of the start of a new life together late last year (my nephew Ryan and Jenni) to the celebration of a life taken too soon (mom’s significant other, David, lost to cancer at just 55). Last winter, Lee and I went to Phoenix for a weekend. We were very happy to connect with our friends Bob and Jane Maas and had a great time sightseeing and visiting with them. In March, we threw a surprise 70th birthday party for Dad and his twin, Bena. They were very surprised, and we all had a great time. In June, my sisters and I had a bit of a surreal “family vacation” at the cabin (which had moments rivaling Chevy Chase’s Vacation movies) with our long-divorced mother and father. It was an unforgettable week with many, many laughs and lots of fishing -- which we all love. And, the fish were indeed biting! Lee and I spent much time talking over ideas for the property in Hackensack. We are excited to see what progress has been made by the end of next summer.

We have been fortunate to have had Caitlyn home from Washington several times, and I made it out to visit her over Thanksgiving. We had some good “girl” time with massages, shopping, sightseeing, eating out, and a much-appreciated invitation to Thanksgiving dinner with our family friends, the Quirks, in Ellensburg. Heather, Mike and Joseph made the pilgrimage to Minnesota many, many times for which we are very grateful! I visited down there last spring and also again in October. I went along to Joseph’s Thursday night music class and did the silly things all the other moms, dads, and grandparents were doing to engage their children.

Dad and Charlotte moved back home in August. After he left the nursing home, he lived with my sister Shelly and then Charlotte’s daughter, Jean. While their generosity was greatly appreciated, I know he is so very happy to be able to be back home and sit in his favorite spot and look down the road. Mom is doing an amazing job staying active and trying to stay connected to people. She has nearly painted the entire inside of her house since Dave passed, just keeping herself busy. Mom decided that life was indeed too short and informed my sisters and me that we are going on a Caribbean cruise with her in January. We are all really looking forward to it!

I am teaching first grade again this year and marvel at the progress that has been made and what these little six- and seven-year-olds can do. A recent development at school is the use of stability balls in place of chairs in my classroom. It’s all research-backed and very interesting! Other than that, the stress and rewards of teaching continue. Caitlyn frequently encourages me to move to Washington with Lee so we can all open up a coffee shop together. Some days . . . !

Wishing you all of life’s blessings.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

For photographs, updates and comments:

http://cornell-2008.blogspot.com/

• Lee.Cornell@mnsu.edu
• Jo.Cornell@inbox.com
• Caitlyn.Cornell@inbox.com
• HLGeariety@gmail.com
• MGeariety@hotmail.com