Easter - 03/27/2005

 

Happy Easter,

 

We hope that you are having a great day. The weather outside is beautiful and warm. We are enjoying all of the religious programs on the Discovery Channel and the History Channel. It is always fascinating to hear how they explain everything and to learn how new discoveries change the explanations.

 

Living is Westbrook is much as we thought. The town’s population is 203 people. At the school there are less than 200 students. The largest class is the 8^th graders at 20. Wow!! Dad is enjoying teaching classes again. He teaches three regular classes and three custom classes. During the custom classes he also is the Director of Technology. Dad is only working 40 to 42 hours per week and everyone enjoys having him at home more.

 

Mom is still working in Hillsboro and we all miss her during the week. Mom comes home on Fridays and leaves Sunday night. She received an offer for next year to work in Big Spring. Right now she is still staying at the house in Corsicana during the week. We have received an offer on the house, but the closing is a ways off.

 

Lisa is doing a great job in Westbrook. She has a boyfriend – John – who is dating her within the rules Mom and Dad have. (Chaperones!) Lisa is maintaining her straight “A”s and is participating in AG, student council, National Honor Society and more. She also just received her letter jacket from Corsicana for ROTC.

 

Dirk is also doing a great job. He is participating in Tennis and his coach says he is learning very fast. Dirk is taking Algebra, is in the Gifted and Talented program, helps all sorts of people with computers, and more. Dirk is also in the Boy Scouts in Colorado City.

 

We have been working on the yard around the house. The school provides the housing as part of Dad’s contract and the staff receives an allowance for any work that they do. We put a sprinkler system in place, created walkways and planted about 140 shrubs. We put a parking place in on the North side and a retaining wall on the South side. We also created a garden area on the West side with a sprinkler system. We plan on planting the garden starting in two weeks. The electric valves for the system will be hooked up this week – until then Lisa is watering each day.

 

Earlier this month, over spring break, we visited Holly in Denver, met Sergio, and played with the new member of the family, Jordan. We have started putting Jordan pictures on the web site www.dirk.dykstra.com. We will try to add some each week.

 

We are also saving our money for the upcoming trip to Maui for Dawn and Shawn’s wedding. Dresses, suits, travel plans, and more. Hawaii is such an exciting idea that sometimes it seems unreal. This will be the first time for any of us to go to Hawaii. We are also excited about Dawn’s graduation from Marquette in May. Way to go! I guess Dawn and Shawn are swamped with work. We know that they have literally spent hours searching for the colors and outfits of the wedding party.

 

Megan is teaching in Alabama as she and Adam await orders for his deployment. We are all thrilled for the newlyweds and hope for a great duty station in Texas near Westbrook. (Unfortunately, it looks as if they will go to Washington state.) Over Easter they visited New Orleans and sampled the various tastes of the South. They now have a new Jeep Wrangler – We think it is the Rubicon jeep from the Tomb Raider movie and have asked them to check for Angelina Jolie’s purse in the glove box.

 

Damon is doing good and moving toward a career in the construction business. He is looking into apprenticeships for carpenters. In a few years, he will be one of the few carpenters with a business degree, a very promising combination. Damon is still involved with Ann and everyone here is impressed with her. We are excited for him and wish the both of them the best.

 

We hope and pray that you are having a great time this holiday and that we will hear from you soon.

 

Thanks,