by Merry Christmas to our family and friends! Here’s hoping that 2011 was good to all of you and, as the annual celebration of Jesus’ birth is about to happen, we pray that you will all be blessed as much as God has already blessed our family.
Without further ado, let’s rewind the clock to the beginning of 2011 and run through the many happenings that took place at the Moore Dynasty during the year. During the winter of their junior year, Jake played basketball and Jake and Mitch both advanced to the Regional meet in Power Lifting where Jake came in 5th in his weight class. In the spring, Mitch played baseball and made it to the Regional meet in Track in the 2-mile. David also did well in track, winning the mile in one meet and breaking 6:00 as an 8th grader.
The school year ended with the Junior/Senior Prom that got the twins out of their usual attire and looking sharp!
During the dry and hot-as-heck summer, Mitch and Jake worked as hands for a local rancher and had many interesting experiences such as trapping hogs and cutting one up for meet, killing snakes, repairing bridges, and stringing miles and miles of fence. As proud as I am of these two for the many accomplishments they’ve had, as a parent there’s nothing better than sending your boys off to work at a man’s job knowing they’re doing just fine and putting money in the bank to boot!
We all visited Indiana this year and got to see our immediate family for the first time in a while. Despite our plans to escape the Texas heat while on vacation, we found it was just as hot in Indiana this year!
With the start of school came band and football and the busiest time of the year. Mitch and Jake shared the Drum Major duties for the Iola marching band this year while Jake and David played football. In addition, the twins took 6 hours of college credit classes during the fall semester and survived the experience with GPA intact!
Unfortunately we met some adversity during this time as well. First, Mitch began to experience some heart palpitations that seem to be heredity. These kept him from playing football and running as he would have liked, not to mention the ultimate insult to such a strong, fit young man: being denied caffeine. It’s nerve wracking for him and us when he goes through an episode, but we’re comforted by the fact that Grandpa Chuck has gone through it and is still pretty spry at 66. Also this fall began, Jake injured his shoulder playing football, an injury that turned out to be a 270-degree tear of his left labrum. The injury was quite painful, caused him to miss a few games, and put quite a damper on his senior season. He just had surgery on December 19th and will be in a sling for 4 weeks before starting rehab. So far all seems to be well. God willing, he should be back to par by March. Although football didn’t pan out as we’d expected, the band advanced to the Area competition and performed well there in front of their proud parents.
(Dave was there too – it’s just hard to get a good shot of him because he’s always behind his French Horn.)
Marc continues to work as a systems analyst at the Texas A&M System. His job has changed a lot this year because of some unfortunate turnover within his team and a recent cross-town move, but overall his position seems secure as there is considerable demand for software development within and between the universities. Out of the office he published Recognition, a sci-fi novel, in e-book format and completed a draft of another, Christian novel that’s still in the feedback/editing stage. Marc also ran 2 half marathons and a full marathon this year, along with several other, shorter races, and is a regular user of Iola’s new track when the weather is fair.
Monica also continues to excel at her job as a 2nd grade teacher at Iola Elementary. Every school year brings new challenges; not least among this year’s are dealing with a new principal, the behind-schedule construction of a new elementary school building, and a fresh batch of students up from first grade. Outside of school, she continues to do the Sunday morning slide shows for Iola Missionary and enjoys spending time with her friends on too-rare occasions.
As 2011 draws to a close, we are thankful for the many blessings in our lives. We all continue to be active at Iola Missionary, our home church, and even though we have all dealt with substantial adversity this year on several different fronts, we enjoy the good and prosperous lives God has given us here in Iola. Despite the challenges, we wouldn’t trade our little bit of the country for the more material existence of the big city on a bet.
God Bless, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year to You!
Marc, Monica, Mitch, Jake, and David Moore
