by Dear Family and Friends:As 2013 draws to a close, let me risk jinxing things by saying it was, by most accounts, a reasonably good year for the Moore Dynasty. No major calamities were encountered, so by this important measure all is well here in Texas!
Considering the year chronologically, the early winter has all but been forgotten except for the well being out of commission on Christmas Day. Collectively, we’ve never been so glad to visit Monica’s parents as that day, when everyone was rather in need of a bath!
In the spring, Jake finished up his first year of college at Sam Houston State and worked on the grounds-keeping crew while Mitch worked full-time at a local BBQ restaurant and took some classes at Blinn College, carpooling with Marc a couple of days per week.
David ran the 800 and 1600 during track and advanced to Area in the mile. (This fall a new student who can keep up with Dave moved to town, so in 2014 he should get better training runs in than ever before.)
Dave also got his driver’s license in the early summer and has done well during the “training period” that we’ve traditionally kept the boys in until they turn 17.
Monica and Marc continued their current jobs with Iola ISD and the TAMU System, respectively, mostly without incident. After an internal “austerity period” and shakeup, Marc was promoted to be the manager of his group, albeit one significantly reduced in size.
Various combination of the Moore men ran some road races together, most notably the Fightin’ Texas Mud Run in the spring:
and the Iola 5K just before school started:
We also got in a few rounds of disc golf, too:
In the summer, Monica did her last tour of duty as the Iola Missionary vacation bible school director and David, foiled by a delay with the DMV, lounged about on summer vacation.
After coming back from Sam Houston, Jake moved into a house in Bryan with several fellows from Iola High. He has been working in the grocery business for the last few months and is now with HEB. We see him fairly regularly since he’s nearby and he goes to work out with Marc at his office at least once a week.
Mitch joined the Army and went off to basic training after the spring semester ended. After 8 weeks of basic in Missouri, he moved on to San Antonio for his medic training and just completed that stage on Dec. 13th. It’s off to Fort Benning in Georgia next and who knows what after that?
Marc, Monica, and David made the trip to Indiana for the July 4th reunion for the first time in a few years:
Later in the summer, Marc, along with brother-in-law Jason Lay, went to Monterrey, California to get trained up on Android development and expanded the Black Shards Press Daily Apps empire into the Google Play store, where millions of $$$ have not been made, to-date!
The fall brought back-to-school, Marc’s aforementioned role change at work, and of course football and band for David:
Related to his change of housing, Jake transferred to Blinn College in the fall as well and has adjusted to living on his own by acquiring new cleaning and organizing skills! Although he’s moved out, we continue to see him regularly, which is nice.
More recently we celebrated Monica’s 45th birthday in style by taking in the new Hobbit movie and eating Chinese food from Vy’s:
Next week we look forward to welcoming Mitch home for a few days before he heads off to Georgia, then it’s on to the Christmas season and some much-deserved time off for everyone except Jake, who will most likely have to work over the semester break.
In all of this, we will try to remember “the reason for the season” and be thankful to God for the many blessings in our lives!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Love,
Marc, Monica, Mitch, Jake, and David Moore
