2023 Memories

Dear Friends,

Happy New Year!

The faithful Holiday card senders among you have guilted us into a reply!

2023 was full of fun days for us … as well as many mundane ones.

Our first adventure out was in mid-January to meet with Katie (and later cousins Annie and Richard) in Southern Illinois for a day of hiking and the returning of granddog Bayesie. We were blessed with good weather … and good fellowship. 

In early February family and friends gathered to wish Grannie (aka Alice Anderson, Joelyn’s mom) a Happy 86th Birthday. As most of you likely know, Grannie has lived with us nearly four years now. She has a basement apartment but engages with us throughout every day. Grannie continues to struggle with dementia … and at times we struggle with the burden of the care that requires. 

Joelyn headed off to Portland for her own birthday celebration shortly thereafter. Stephen’s sister Sandie hosted her for a trip to Mt. Hood, a visit with cousin Nancy, and an Eagles concert.

Grannie still has the family farm East of Petersburg, Nebraska, where Joelyn grew up. A lot of our energy and time this year has gone into maintaining the farm and our ongoing rehab of it (with the help of friends, on occasion). While headway is slow, the work this year was significant as the kitchen, upstairs, and basement (new bathroom) areas are mostly done now. We have tried to reuse as much product as we can during the project which doesn’t always translate into "easy."  An example of this is the harvesting of wood from the various outbuildings, then disassembling (some of it was cattle rails for a truck, for example), cleaning, ripping, planing, sanding, priming and painting it. It was a bunch of work … but it is fun to know where the wood came from and that it got a new life.  2024 should end with all of the inside done as well as a good portion of the outside concrete work complete.  It has been a fun but lengthy project. We truly find joy from spending time there, including the excitement of seeing a car other than the mail carrier on the county road in front of the farm! It is peaceful and regenerating. Sunrises while sipping coffee and sunsets from the party barn are a daily ritual.  We enjoyed celebrating Christmas there this year and Santa filled our stockings hung on a temporary mantle over our redone fireplace.

In March we traveled to Jefferson, Texas, for some goodbyes. Jefferson is a special place to us as Pop Pop and Grandma lived there during our girls growing up years. For Stephen, it has been a lifelong destination as his Grandma lived there and his father Alfred grew up there. We had a wonderful graveside and Celebration of Life service for Pop Pop, he had passed in October 2022, and shared special bonding time with all of the family as we said our farewell to Jefferson too. It will always be a source of fond memories for us.

We were blessed to have Stephen’s mom with us for extended stays in June and December. She is finally unburdened from the care she gave to Stephen’s dad as he declined through all the devastating stages of dementia. We do NOT have a good gene pool on that front. 

Joelyn has the blessing of a highly flexible work schedule and a job she LOVES. She serves as a Lunch Lady at Lincoln Public Schools and is off work when school is out. We make good use of that. Stephen waffles between describing himself as overloaded and unemployed. He and his colleagues opted to shutter one of his startup endeavors in 2023. It was another one of those “if only” stories … and was ultimately steamrolled by ChatGPT.  The “almost” VC investor described KNIMO (for KNowledge In MOtion) as ChatGPT before ChatGPT existed … little consolation but a somewhat cool image for our rearview mirror stories we will repeatedly tell when our dementia turn comes. His other business continues to frustrate all. It has good reviews but is still struggling to gain enough traction to pay salaries. He will hand the president title for that company, Collaboration Insights (see yumivu.com), over to another founder in February and return to focusing on his product marketing consulting business while keeping fingers crossed for a future paycheck for all the work invested. As a silver lining, the flexible nature of our work has been helpful as we strive to care for Grannie and as we’ve enjoyed travel.

A fun travel highlight of our year was a five stadiums in five days trip with our girls and Kody in July. We started in Pittsburgh and then visited Cincinnati, Cleveland, Detroit, and Milwaukee. It was a ton of fun, albeit exhausting. We are excited that our girls have been “raised right” as Katie now only has two stadiums left to visit and Kristi three. Mom and dad are way behind.

Shortly after returning home we had to say goodbye to Barbara, a trusted (most of the time) friend for many years. We had purchased Barbara for $4,800 from a Russian named Boris on a corner lot dealership in New Jersey shortly after Katie graduated from High School and drove her home from our family vacation … an around the clock trip so that we could go to a game at Fenway. Barbara served Katie throughout college and us for many years after that. However, after a wreck, she had been placed on long-term hospice and finally succumbed to her injuries this summer. As she was an organ donor, she was sold to U Pull It. Her final act was to leave metal shards and ball bearings strewn across the garage floor and a ghost white tow truck driver as she shot him like a cannon from the house to the street (1:1 gearing ratio we presume). Joelyn had MANY requirements for the next Santa Fe, Benny. Oddly, Stephen had to travel to a dealership in New Jersey to find/buy it.

Our fall trip was to California for nephew Parker and Nikkie’s wedding. It was SO much fun. It was fun to see all of our family again. We are so excited to have Nikkie join the family … with the bonus of adding a solid Seahawk fan to the family.

While we have many fun tales to tell, most of our days, however, are spent just enjoying living what many might call a mundane life. We have a new pooch that brightens our life, good neighbors (one of whom joined Joelyn to be part of the largest women’s sporting attendance in history), and beloved family and friends who help give meaning to our lives. For Stephen, one “can’t miss” activity is his weekly Tuesday night date night with cousin Luella as they watch in eager anticipation for great treasure to be discovered on Oak Island (History Channel - but don’t torture yourself). Being a Mariners fan has prepared Stephen for this perpetual disappointment. Luella, who is a spunky 91-year-old, coaxed Stephen into joining her in starting and leading a Small Group writing group at church this year. His saucy pontifications can be found at SabbathPotluck.com (or by googling The Musings of Gatortoad).

Joelyn enjoys intricate cheffing, fu fu coffee drinking, and cougaring on multiple Kansas City athletes. Grannie’s culinary life is one of great contrast.  Daily lunches of beans and rice from chef Stephen and gourmet meals each night from Joelyn (though Stephen would argue that his meals are much like Herb Tarlek’s suits with endless possibilities between white and brown rice and pinto, black, navy, and red beans).  

Finally, we have been blessed to have many of you visit us throughout the year. We’re a bit anchored down by our current lot in life so REALLY appreciate the visits … and likely overwhelm all guests as a result.

Love and Blessings,

Joelyn, Stephen and Sage

P.S.  We’ve placed a few 2023 pics below for your enjoyment.