Periodical-Lee 2018

It’s been another year of transitions (because what year isn’t?) which included several milestones and family gatherings. It’s less frequent that we can all get together so every opportunity to gather is precious and eagerly savored and we share here with you... 

•    Twelve- # of camping trips and hikes taken by Denise as a Boy Scout leader; she serves as a commissioner and also co-coordinator for the Eagle Scout Board of Review

•    Eleven- months Sherman has been Co-Executive Director of the Crossings Community, an organization that significantly influenced him after his adult baptism. Now he’s joined its leadership, applying skills learned from his day job to help Crossings broaden and deepen its readership and conferences. Check out www.crossings.orgfor more information and videos Sherman helped create (and also appeared in a couple).

•    Ten- Denise’s milestone birthday is a multiple of this number and was the capstone of our year. Originally a couple’s weekend birthday getaway because the kids live out of town, we postponed the beginning of the trip to join a dinner meeting at our pastor’s house. Eventually Denise noticed that not all the guests were church members and realized the party was for her. While singing “Happy Birthday”, a special cake emerged from the kitchen presented by Amy and Noah, who made special trips to join the fun. Not a dry eye in the house! (On the card, see the largest photo: us four plus Noah’s girlfriend, Evan.)
That party was just the beginning of several days of family reunion (sadly without Drew), doing staycation stuff including a visit to an escape room, where we kept Amy’s perfect escape record intact. 

•    Nine- months Denise has spent studying for the Certified Senior Advisor (CSA), a rigorous interdisciplinary program for those seeking certification working with the elderly, which is a growing part of Denise’s day job as professional organizing consultant

•    Eight- number of major events where Sherman had pushed his own envelope as talent (emcee/sing/accompany) and tech (sound and videography), filling in as “jack of all trades, master of none” to help non-profits whenever and wherever needed

•    Seven– days in Montreal for the family gathering destination vacation, where we got to speak French semi-fluently, see fabulous city murals and Noah had his first legal drink (legal age is 19). Best of all was the informal family fun time between all the sightseeing and food excursions. (See upper right photo of three of us, sans Amy who couldn’t join this year.)

•    Six– years of study culminating with Amy’s Masters in Nutrition in December, augmenting her Registered Dietitian certification from last year. See www.satisfy-nutrition.comfor a taste of her insight on food and life.

•    Five- square this number to get Amy’s milestone birthday in November, just as Noah had a milestone (21^st) birthday in December, which led to a second “first legal drink” here in STL

•    Four– cats in our extended family. Our own Cuddles and Patches perennially hold the ‘Two’ slot but now that Amy has convinced husband Drew to have a second cat (nicknamed ‘Tiny Bug’ following the ‘Bug’ nickname of the older cat), we’re always excited to receive Snapchats sent to the ‘Grand-Paws’

•    Three– states visited on trip to see Amy and Drew in Idaho. Saw the local sites (like Drew’s mine), preceded by flying into Utah and saw the Historic LDS/Mormon Temple, plus a day trip of hiking in the Grand Tetons – lower right photo on the card. Good thing we went over Memorial Day because by Thanksgiving they moved to Denver!

•    Two- years Noah has been serving as resident advisor (lots of life experience) and years left for his mechanical engineering degree

•    One- as in the One who we celebrate this time of year...  

Health, happiness and humor to you in 2019! 

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Sherman, Denise, Noah, Amy and Drew

Periodical-Lee 2017

This year of transitions began with a quote I had heard in January that resonated throughout the entire year: “The days are long but the years are short.” It’s so poignant and self-explanatory that I hadn’t bothered to look up the quote until just now — it comes from Gretchen Rubin’s book The Happiness Project.

And in drafting this year’s letter, both kids asked the interesting question about what goes into the letter or more specifically, what gets omitted. Is it always just the happy stuff? 

It’s a blessing that our lives have been so filled with good stuff relative to the short word count for these letters that we don’t really need to include the sadder stuff. But like everyone, there are always challenges. And it’s really hard to write tersely about those challenges. So for this year, let’s just say that we truly appreciate the preciousness of life and good health, and how fragile these can be. 

And that in the backdrop of that fragility, having families reunite to see a new family form at a wedding is even more precious.

•    Twelve - training days Noah took to be a Residential Advisor (RA) in his sophomore year at Missouri University of Science & Technology.  

•    Eleven - days of hosting out-of-town guests for Amy’s wedding in August!

•    Ten - how many Boy Scout camping trips Denise went on. She’s still leading the Scouts (now as a Commissioner!) and will eventually persuade Sherman to go on his first Scout camping trip.

•    Nine - how many times Denise thought about adopting a dog from the APA (where she regularly drops off donations for pets on behalf of her clients from her professional organizing business). Patches and Cuddles, our resident cats, are not pleased…

•    Eight - number of free gourmet cupcakes Amy brought home from one of her registered dietician internships this past summer. Our heads spun from the diversity of all her internships and we rejoiced with her after she got her certification. She’s taking online classes this year and plans to earn her master’s degree in 2018

•    Seven – number of video interview subjects as part of a short film series Sherman worked on for a non-profit group throughout the year, including some film work in Denver! Check out crossings.org for more details.

•    Six – was the actual tally for how many times Sherman teared up during the wedding day. (Recall from last year’s letter there was a betting pool on the tally.)

•    Five - number of people who performed Hawaiian songs at the wedding rehearsal dinner, which was the only surprise in the weekend’s schedule. In addition to Sherman’s Hawaiian band mates (Jim Chickering and Wil Cruz), we were joined by close family friends Michael Kunz and Deb Bohlmann to sing Disney’s “Lava” as the soundtrack for a photo slideshow for Amy and Drew. The rest of the wedding weekend was excellently planned by Amy with beautiful personal touches throughout.

•    Four – as in Fourth of July. Sherman celebrated the holiday in Washington, DC, as part of supporting Circus Harmony (as a board member and also by not performing) in their appearance at the 2017 Smithsonian Folklife Festival.

•    Three – number of children in the family now, since we gained a son (didn’t lose a daughter), as pictured on our holiday card

•    Two - on his 2nd day at his summer job (Ace Hardware) there was a power outage and Noah had to process everything on pen and paper.

•    One - as in the One who we celebrate this time of year...  

Health, happiness and humor to you in 2018!

Sherman, Denise, Noah, Amy and Drew