Dear Friends and Family,
If there has been one consistent theme to the three years we’ve been married, it is unpredictability. This year was no exception. So here is the 2007 batch of changes for our family…
This is John’s fourth year in the Army, which meant we were scheduled for a change of station. Though John requested to stay in Alaska for another three years, by some combination of Murphy’s Law, the US Army, and God’s grace we found ourselves with orders for Fort Knox, Kentucky instead. Packing during Fairbanks’s - 40˚ F February was no fun, but we did enjoy the pothole-riddled 600 miles down the Al-Can highway and the three-day ferry ride to Washington. After visiting family and friends in Washington and South Dakota, we continued on to Kentucky. We arrived in April and immediately started looking for a house.
After an eternity (OK, two months…), we finally bought one: 1300 sq. ft. on five acres, with a pool and a garage almost as big as the house. It is about 10 miles from post in beautiful farm country. It’s a fixer-upper, so both of us have stayed busy working on the house and property, but we enjoy having our own place and we have learned a lot about sheetrocking, plumbing, landscaping, and other home maintenance skills. John even learned to like cats after he brought home two kittens to handle the nasty mouse problem we had when we moved in.
When he is not working on the house or yard, John is thoroughly enjoying his new garage and the MIG welder, plasma cutter, tube bender, and other toys he bought to go with it. Unfortunately, there are hardly any off-roading trails nearby, but the time he used to spend testing his Jeep on the trail is now spent experimenting with it in the shop. He is considering welding as a career when he gets out of the Army in 2009. For now, John is working as an instructor; he teaches privates in Basic Training about landmines and IEDs (improvised explosive devices). Essentially, he shows new soldiers how not to get blown up. The best part is that instructors are basically non-deployable. Recently, John passed another promotion board and will officially become Staff Sergeant Cupps early in 2008.
Emily took a couple semesters off and spends her time working on the house and hanging out with her boys. She loves it. She and Jason got to do a little extra traveling this year, spending a week in Texas with Auntie Faith, and another week road-tripping in Pennsylvania with Mom, Abbie, and Nathan. While Emily and Jason had a blast on the trips, poor John finally got a taste of being home all alone. We were all thrilled to be back together.
Emily was recently accepted into the nursing program at the local college and will start in spring. After four years and five schools to get this far, she is happy to be finished with all the pre-requisites and start on the real stuff. She will graduate in December of 2009 if everything goes according to plan, which we don’t particularly expect.
Jason turned two in September. He regularly amazes (and occasionally terrifies) us. He finally started walking in April, at the age of 19 months, and since there has been no stopping him. Except for stiffness in his right arm and leg, he has pretty much caught up with his peers and most people don’t even notice anything unusual. He sees a great therapist to enhance the quality of his movements, but the real key to his success is his motivated little personality. He is smart, curious, and ALWAYS busy. If he isn’t trying to take something apart, he’s trying to turn it on, open it, climb on it, wrestle with it, immerse it in water, or light in on fire. Currently his favorite things to do are help Daddy in the shop, help Daddy “drive” the Jeep in the backyard, play outside with his trucks, read books, play with the kittens, and listen to music. We love being his mom and dad!
The three of us wish you all a merry Christmas and God’s blessings in the New Year.
Much love,
John, Emily, and Jason Cupps
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