Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,
It has been a hectic year at the Statucki household. I’m guessing sooner or later it will start to slow down.
Tazia started her junior year at Southwest Career and Technical Academy (SWCTA) this year. Tazia is in the dental assisting program and after a semester of three dental classes, Tazia has determined that she doesn’t want to be a dentist and is leaning towards being a veterinarian (the cheers in the background are my mom’s). Tazia is editor of the school’s newspaper, state secretary for HOSA, a member of the school board student advisory committee, and is in National Honor Society. With all of these activities, it is a good thing that she passed her driver’s test in September so that Tina or I aren’t driving all over Vegas. In her spare time, Tazia is searching for her future colleges. The list currently consists of Colorado State, Cornell, Oregon State, and Hawaii. We should gamble more so we can win Megabucks to pay for her college.
Quinton is in the 8th grade. He enjoys fishing and loves going with Grandpa Blake. Blake even took Quinton to Minnesota for 10 days to go fishing. Quinton also got to go fishing when he helped Blake move Grandma Karlie’s stuff to Washington. Quinton is becoming quite the collector of survival gear. Gone are the days where we can threaten him with dropping him off in the middle of the desert. Odds are he could survive there longer than the rest of us. Quinton is also playing his first team sport since our failed attempt to get him to play t-ball when he was five. He is playing lacrosse for a local middle school and even practices with a high school team on his off-days. For someone who has long hair, it seems strange that his goal is to play lacrosse for the Air Force Academy or to go to the Coast Guard Academy.
Tina may have had the most hectic year among us. She was enjoying her new promotion as a dean when she found out that she was going to be RIF in March. The good news was that she got back her teaching position at SWCTA, but she was going to have to go without a paycheck in August. The better news came the last week in July when, due to retirements and administrators leaving the district, she got her dean’s job back at East Career and Technical Academy. Tina is actually enjoying her job as a dean, as she doesn’t spend every weekend grading essays.
My life is boring compared to everyone else’s. I am still the program leader for the video game technology program at SWCTA. I did go to Stanford for a week for some software training and Los Angeles for a week to attend a conference last summer. Between work and taking Quinton to practices, I keep pretty busy.
We made a major change to our Griswold family vacations this year. In March, we purchased a 33-foot travel trailer. This was my compromise to Tina for purchasing my truck last year. I have sold my stock in Holiday Inn because now we vacation at KOAs. We have taken the trailer to Colorado for my brother’s wedding, twice to Reno to visit Tasha and her family, and California twice. Quinton isn’t too happy about the camper as he doesn’t get to use his survival gear as much as he’d like.
We wish everyone the best for the upcoming year and a happy holiday season.
Craig, Tina, Tazia, and Quinton Statucki