Only one photo this year, of the entire family taken in August on Maui, where smiles are easy to come by...
• 12 - Number of days on our summer vacation to Hawaii. Denise, Sherman and Noah spent a few days on Oahu visiting Sherman’s relatives (not enough time!) and sightseeing (Pearl Harbor - always get choked up), and of course, local food!
• 11 - Number of players on the newly formed JV (Junior Varsity) soccer team (or any soccer team), and from that Noah got oodles more playing time than the previous year.
• 10 - Number of days Noah spent at the Philmont High Adventure Boy Scout Ranch. Literally a mountaintop experience, and life-changing in ways that continue to pleasantly reveal themselves.
• 9 - Combined total of bathrooms (four) and TVs (five) in Amy's college apartment of four suite mates. We’re all fairly certain that for the parents' generation that number was two, and for grandparents that would have been one.
• 8 - Number of speaker presentations at the NAPO-St. Louis Organizing Expo in 2014. (That’s National Association of Professional Organizers to the uninitiated.) At the 2014 event, Denise will be one of the two keynote speakers!
• 7 - Number of weeks Sherman spent doing part-time campaign work for Proposition K, a long overdue ballot to bolster the public school district’s finances. Although exhilarating, Sherman will probably retire from local politics to finish with a 1-0 record, following Tony La Russa’s lead of retiring while on top.
• 6 - Number of performances of The Enchanted Island, a musical based on Shakespeare’s The Tempest for which Sherman was the accompanist. A great experience, Sherman got to work with folks of all ages and diverse backgrounds, and he got to use all his electronic/musical gadgets (including an electronic score with foot pedal for turning pages).
• 5 - Number of majors before Amy honed in on Dietetics. At one point she remarked “I should major in switching majors - I’m getting pretty good at it!”
• 4 - Number of radio shows Denise’s business had in 2013 on 1380 AM in St. Louis. Look for episodes each month in 2014! (http://www.1380thewoman.com/Programming/LetsTalkShop.aspx)
• 3.14159… - the math/numbers geeks in us could never omit this from our list. We celebrate Pi Day annually on March 14th, and look forward to 3.14.14 - the premiere of the Veronica Mars Movie!
• 3 - Number of generations, as of 2013, our family has in the Boy Scout’s Order of the Arrow, with Denise earning the honor as a Scout Leader. This follows the lead of her father Phil when he was a boy and Noah in 2010.
• 2 - Number of Brentwood High School drum majors in our family as of 2013, with Noah stepping up to the role this autumn. We’re fairly confident that Amy and Noah are the first sister-brother combination to have done so, and almost certain they’re the first to have both ascended during their sophomore years.
• 1 - One big happy family gathering in Maui… after a few days on Oahu, Denise, Sherman and Noah headed to Maui, where Amy joined them and the rest of Sherman’s mother’s side of the family. More relatives, surf, sun (maybe too much?!?), food and of course, shave ice!
Here’s to health and happiness in 2014!
Sherman, Denise, Amy and Noah
