Happy New Year 2018

Peace!

We hope you had a good year in 2017, and wish you a meaningful, fulfilling one in 2018! Let love and kindness prevail!

If you rarely see or hear from us, or haven't kept up with Facebook posts, below is a quick summary. Note: no more kids in college! We are down to simply paying off loans!

Wolfgang (known as Jakob to us) lives in Oakland, CA continues to build his business. Check out his designs on his website, Cathartic Productions. Ian continues to live, work and play music in Ashland, OR, but is heading to Chile in February, and will be on tour in Alaska this summer. Kira earned her teaching credential last spring, and now teaches geometry full time in Hayward, CA, mainly to sophomores. Keep her in your prayers! Not an easy job!

Our 30th anniversary was this past July, but our kids managed (from afar and without my contact list) to plan a surprise party at our house the day after Thanksgiving. We definitely never suspected that! They wrote an awesome song and performed it for us, and also made a retrospective video. They're the best!

We hang out with and enjoy the antics of our 4 cats, Lily Mae (mama cat), Gomez (our big boy), Selina (our goof ball), and Baby Girl (the mouser). They like it when it's quiet here, making themselves scarce when the house is full.

John and I did not teach this past fall, but are gearing up for the spring semester. Not teaching allowed us to see the Full Solar Eclipse (awe-inspiring), visit Yellowstone (amazing), and attend Burning Man (huge and too vast to take it all in)--it was Jakob's 10th year there, and quite an experience. We are thinking of going back in 2020. We met up with Ian and Kira at the High Sierra Music Festival, with Ian at the eclipse, and Jakob at Burning Man. Over the past few years, we've had more opportunities to visit, hang out with and/or travel with some awesome long-time friends...notably Wine Country, Silver Spring Lake, the Eclipse, Yellowstone, etc. I also took a week long trip with my mom during my spring break, and we had a wonderful time.

We are usually busy teaching, do Israeli dance a lot, are in the Temple band (love it!), and most days enjoy happy hour at home (often while watching the sunset from our sidewalk), go to the beach when we can (swam with dolphins at Moonlight beach), hike, and travel. I ride my new electric bike to keep up with John on his regular mountain bike. We brought our regular bikes to Two Harbors, Catalina in December, and I actually did fine on a regular bike! Saw a fox up close, sunsets, ate at the same restaurant/bar every night, and made new friends who live in Carlsbad.

We still have signs on our door that say Camp Harland and Harland Hotel, and our home continues to welcome friends and family throughout the year. We get to see our nephews and nieces a lot, and our home is still often the hang-out for the 20-35 year old crowd, as they always find food, libations, places to crash, blankets, pillows, etc.

If interested, click here to see recent photos of us, the kids, and maybe a cat photo.

Wishing you a wonderful new year!

Love,

Julie and John