Michigan happenings

Greetings all!

Last night Rachel had her first solo competition. She has a really fun tap routine this year to a cool blues instrumental piece called "Rollaway Jam". She got a "Top First" rating and placed in the "Top 10" (10th) overall for her 11 & 12 year old age category for all dance types, which was a good finish for her first competition of the year. She competes again next weekend with all her routines (1 solo and 3 group routines).

Nicole just wrapped up her Bantam basketball season,she did a good job overall. Dave did a good job coaching. There were many positive comments by parents regarding the improvement of their kids over the season and how much their daughters enjoyed playing this season. So that was nice to hear.

I am playing on a 2.5 tennis team now at the Y. We had our first matches Friday and won decisively (the other team didn't show up...forfeited)we were disappointed to not play, but we played against ourselves and had a good practice. We have 2 doubles teams and 1 singles (I've been selected to be the singles player...guess they think I have the endurance and can hustle good). We'll see... we play our next matches on the 17th.

Dave is officially "off without pay" for the next week as part of his company's plan to cut expenses. Going without a paycheck for a week stinks, but at least he still is employed and will hopefully stay that way. I'm still working at Kohls 2-3 nights a week and subbing occassionally.

A few weeks ago we went to Ohio to visit our old neighbors Don and Abbe Kennis who moved from the neighborhood 2 years ago. It was great to spend sometime with them and catchup.

Last Friday night we had Linus and Kelly VanderWyst spend the night with us. They were heading to a wedding in Ann Arbor on Saturday. It had probably been 10 years since we have seen them, but picked right up where we'd left off. It was really great to see them. Linus entertained the girls with stories of what he and Dave did as kids hanging out during the summers in Appleton.

Don't think there is anything else to report here. Sparky is back to his "sparky" self after being on death's door with pancreanitis 3 weeks ago...no more meat/fatty scraps for him anymore. Both dogs have since gotten their spring clips and look like pups.

Hope all is well with all of you. Enjoy hearing what's going on with you at school Hannah. Best to you all!

Love,
Donna