2019 Miller Missive

A brief recap of our year:

Jason is still working for OSPI helping Title I schools and was promoted to Assistant Director. He continues to do some traveling around the state as well as to Kansas City this year for a national conference.  He also worked some more on his mad Tai Chi skills which the boys mock as being the only martial art designed to help you defeat really, really slow-moving people. And on the side, he spent some time with the nice people of Rotary Club serving and learning more about our local community.

Irene continues her job of wrangling feral minions. Her time is increasingly filled with chauffeur duties so it was quite exciting when we got a new (to us) minivan with heat, air conditioning, and a radio that didn't have temperature requirements. She also braved her old nemesis and took a college chemistry class. She was thrilled to set the bar high for Josh next year, but slightly disappointed that there were no explosions in the lab.

Josh continues on his quest to create the ultimate fighting stacking robot with his high school robotics team. He voluntarily attended summer school since it involved hours and hours of video game programming. His bedroom has become the place where old electronics go to die and, hopefully, be re-purposed. To keep balance in his life, he is taking an Enduro-Burn class for P.E. and we get weekly updates on how much weight he can lift with various body parts.

Michael has yet to meet an instrument he doesn't like. And he's met quite a few. He switched over to a jazz piano teacher mid-year and his life may never be the same again. Attending all of his Jazz Band events is practically a part-time job, but the music is fun and he really rocks his piano solos. We require him to keep going to school on the off chance that he doesn't become a jazz rock star, which is good because he always comes home with fascinating tidbits of history and science to share with us.

Ben is shaping up to be part Niels Bohr, part David Beckham, but without the tattoos and he doesn't speak a lick of Danish. All right, maybe he just plays some great soccer and geeks out with chemistry and math. Since Nana moved out here, he's spent some quality time with her and flour, sugar, eggs and the oven. So far there have been no complaints about the pies, cookies, and cupcakes they create. Under extreme duress, he started swim lessons this winter so now he won't die. He'll thank us later.

Isaac also started swim lessons, but he loves them. Except the part where his mouth, ears, nose, or eyes may get in the water. Or near the water. His love of Legos knows no bounds, nor does his ability to get his possessive little hands on his brothers' creations. He has a dance style uniquely his own that we try to catch on video whenever we can. As a bonus, he makes a great alarm clock for his older brothers.  Teenage lethargy is no match for his indefatigable enthusiasm.