We are blessed to have many friends and family nearby, so it almost seems like folks live our daily ups-and-downs with us. However, for the sake of those further afield, here is a quick recap of our most recent year.

Building a Habitat for Humanity house was the year’s highlight for Dave. From April through August he was totally engaged and thoroughly excited to work with the delightful Jay family, his friend and co-lead, Terry, and numerous willing volunteers. Add in a very supportive neighborhood, financial sponsorship from The Columbus Foundation,  and excellent direction and logistics by the Habitat MidOhio staff and he found the combination unbeatable. Visit the Jay Project website for more details and lots of photos. Dave’s other major event was repair of an arthritic thumb, which required surgery to rebuild the carpal-metacarpal joint. While he is most appreciative for the medical talent and excellent outcome, he did use some of the 3-month rehab to write a Healthcare without price is bad medicine post about his perception of the system’s inefficiencies. He also enjoyed building and photography last winter in Tucson, a bit of which can be seen in the Dave’s 2012 Southwest Favorites album, and posts Photos are back, Not quite the same, HDR at Mt Lemmon and others in the January, February or March archives.

Susi dedicated most of her summer to visiting family & friends and completing some larger studio paintings while Dave was out building. She especially enjoyed spending time with her Dad and going on two art trips. First was the inaugural Plein Air Convention in Las Vegas, an inspiring week of presentations and demonstrations by some of the country’s top art experts that was attended by over 500 artists passionate about painting on-location. Contacts from the convention led her to a week at the Publisher’s Invitational Paint Out in New York’s Adirondack Mountains, where she got to know many professional artists in a small, intimate setting. In the fall, Susi Co-Chaired the 2012 Ohio Plein Air Competition, and enjoyed making paintings around the state. She was quite excited that the Springfield Art Museum chose one of her works for their Ten Year Anniversary Ohio Plein Air Society Exhibition.

Our children both continued to hone in on their futures this year. Rebecca decided to leave theatrical management and NYC, and has moved home for a while, where she works long hours as a Starbucks manager and a Sur La Table cooking class assistant. We love this opportunity to spend more time together, and to enjoy her wonderful cooking as she ponders what’s next. Ben, while still waiting for the Army to finish processing his medical discharge for a bum knee and sore back, has narrowed his focus to finishing college as soon as he gets out. Ben and Kelsey also decided to pursue an amicable dissolution of a marriage that never really seemed to work while they lived apart during their duty in the service.