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Mary Murdock Hello Bob and Nancy, This letter is long overdue, and I apologize. I never told you how much I enjoyed your visit here and how lucky I feel to be your daughter-in-law. I look forward to when we can see you again. Thank you so very much for the Wedding gifts. The beautiful quilt looks great in our living room. Thank you also for the Birthday gift. We had a great weekend on the Northshore. After your visit here, I found myself extremely busy and yes, a little stressed. I was very fortunate to find a good renter for my condo after trying to sell it with no luck. We're happy we decided to rent and not take a loss by having to drop the price too much in order to sell. Our renter moved in August 1st and I couldn't wait to move in with Darrel and live as a married couple...together. It took some time getting used to my new home in St. Paul. I was not familiar with the area and my commute to work went from 5 miles to 25 miles. Boy, was that tough at first. When winter came I admit I freaked out a bit. I really don't like highway driving when the roads are snowy and icy. So now I just spend the night at my mom's when the weather is bad. It works out really well. We took our Fall trip at the end of September. Back to the UP we ventured, but found we were too early. The leaves had just started to change and with the memories of the previous year's fall trip, we both were a little disappointed. We saw a few new sights, and spent more time relaxing. Next year, we will make sure the timing is right! Our Holidays were busy with my family, Ricky's family, and Jason's family. It's always nice to see everyone. We missed Roy when he was here over Thanksgiving because I was horribly sick, running a temperature around 103 for days. I missed that feast I look forward to each year. It's been a darn cold winter, so we have been spending most of our time at home. We play Scrabble, watch movies, cook yummy meals (Darrel does most of that) and last weekend we began putting together our new website. It will take some time putting together, which we have plenty of, at least until Spring comes. I think about you two often, and hope you're doing well. Happy Belated Birthday to you Nancy! Love, Mary |
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Pauline Joubert January 24: HI Nan and Bob, We are here in New Port Richey, FL, and I'm enjoying the area in spite of some cold weather recently. It has only been in the 50s lately but will be in the 70s from this day on for at least a week. Since the mobile home was unoccupied for a whole year, it needs a lot of attention. We will take a break from work one day this coming week and go to the beach for some sun. I started exercising at Silver Sneakers at the YMCA yesterday with Stan. The progrm runs three days a week so should be in good shape soon. Nancy, do you still exercise at work? My knees hurt so much this morning I had to get up and stretch a bit. I have arthritis in both knees and they need the exercise. We will be staying here until April, then it's back to NH to try to unload some things from the house and get ready to sell. After that, things are still up in the air. If we don't sell this one by then, we will come back here and make changes to furniture, etc. In the meantime, we will enjoy the warmth and just keep watching the news of the northeast. My good neighbor Brian is watching the house for us and has alerted the police to put it on the "watch list". Must go for now and get back to tasks at hand. I hope you are both well and having a good winter so far. Love and hugs, Polly |
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Rick Murdock Dear Murdock Muse, February 20th 2009: All is well here in Minnesota as the snow continues to linger and the sun continues to shine. We recently moved into a very spacious four bedroom house in Plymouth and we couldn’t be happier with the location, as it is in “Money Magazine’s” number one places to live in the country. And so it is! We are in a very family oriented neighborhood that is close to everything. The kids are enrolled in swimming classes and are performing very well. So far Daniel has sailed right through the first three levels of his circuit and Jack – who was skittish about swimming – (as he is with most things aquatic) has made tremendous improvement with his efforts in the water. Trinity has zero fear of the water but was reluctant to jump to us in the water via diving platform. But since I started attending her lessons, she has become increasingly familiar with assisted jumps. Deanna got me into swimming by purchasing goggles for all the kids (to accompany our own sets) so that Daniel and Tanaya could swim underwater and collect items that I strategically placed in the mid level and deep sections of the pool. Currently I am trying to teach Tanaya how to dive headfirst and collect multiple items in a single attempt. She remains idle with the idea of jumping head first because her preferred method of jumping feet first and having to flip in the water has surprising success. Daniel has been learning how to play the cello and also guitar. His cello lessons were off to a slow start because he didn’t much care for his first instructors’ critiquing of his posture while playing the cello, but he didn’t give up, and now he is advancing quite well. His fingers get sore from the practice but he tells me it has been getting easier now. He prefers more physical activities like football and baseball and is looking forward for the snow to melt so he can hang out with his friends and play. He was in football last fall and was the most promising player because of his speed and handling in the game, and he even won a medal for his ability as the first string quarterback! Jack has become infatuated with computers as of late and has displayed a natural ability to navigate the web and gaming programs offered in his after school programming. He is so creative and sweet to people that most everyone in his classroom adores him. When I drop Jack and Daniel off at school each morning, the halls echo with their names as they are habitually greeted by their friends. A most rewarding observation, as I was never considered with much regard while I attended school. Trinity has an eccentric personality, which makes her stand out from her peers, but she has been making progress with her social skills and is gaining a bit more confidence in developing friendships. Always the actress, Trinity will often entertain her peers only to get tired of the attention and isolate herself for a spell while she re-calibrates for the next revival. She enjoys listening to the Dramatics and singing “Whatcha’ See Is Whatcha’ Get” en route to her daycare each morning and is starting to learn the lyrics to the Rolling Stones classic “Fool To Cry” although she only will sing the part “Daddy you’re a fool to cry” and “whoooo” makes me wonder why” (it is so adorable to hear her sing those parts over and over with this hint of a dog howl creeping in the background of her vocal styling’s. ) Very attached to her Dad, she is. We adopted two puppies from a rescue shelter and are working on training them, which is never fun in the winter time because they are so eager to track in whatever they can to mess the house up. But we continue to adore them regardless. So I guess I can say that I am really looking forward to the muddy rain- soaked paw prints of spring time and you will know that statement is saturated with sarcasm. So we will keep the mop close by in anticipation of it. Deanna and I have been keeping afloat despite the trying economic times and couldn’t enjoy each other’s company more. I have always been a fan of relaxing to a good movie and such, but oddly we have been more active with other things this winter. I detest the cold, so we got a membership at the local fitness center and so far I have lost a considerable amount of weight and Deanna has been toning her body quite fantastically. We did go and see “Seven Pounds” at the theater and went and saw the new “Friday the 13th “ on Friday the thirteenth! Both movies were very well done for the genres they are in. Speaking of Friday the thirteenth, our sixth year anniversary will fall on Friday again! For those of you that aren’t aware, Deanna and I got married on Friday the thirteenth in 2003, so this is always fun for us. Many people find it to be an unlucky day, but for us the superstition is without merit. I couldn’t be happier knowing we have proved it to be the opposite – it is, in fact, a very lucky day for us, because we never believed we would find our soul mate after the potpourri of unfortunate relationships we were in prior to finding each other. Well, I have to get to sleep now because I just eyed the clock and discovered it is 2am and we have swim lessons with the kids at 10am. I am up way too late because Grandpa Murdock encouraged me to set up a “Facebook” page and I figured as long as I am doing that I should just go ahead and write the Muse as well. Hope all is well with our readers nationally and internationally. - Rick Murdock and family |
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