Happy Holidays!
Here’s wishing a great Holiday season for you and yours. 2005 has been
quite a busy year for us
The biggest activity this year again, was the building of our new
house! We moved in during July/August, though
there were still some things not finished, but as we reach the end of 2005,
things are mostly complete except for the stone facing on the fireplace and the
wrought iron railing out front (and of course a million little details). We decorated for Christmas and had 2
beautiful trees and lights around our windows in the front – very festive! Unfortunately the PC that our website is
stored on is experiencing some technical difficulties, so I’ll have to get back
to you when you can check out the progress.
We had our first visitors to the new house in August. Laura’s brother Dave and his wife Emily flew
in from Dayton, OH. We spent two weeks
exploring the sites of Oregon – Crater Lake, jet boating on the Rogue, the
Oregon Coast (Newport and Seaside), and the Columbia River Gorge. We also did a lot of local hiking and saw
some awesome waterfalls.
As usual, Laura has been VERY busy at work. She spent the first half of the year traveling almost weekly to
Portland to work on an opportunity with a client there. The rest of the year had less travel, but
there were a couple of trips to Plano and to Connecticut in the second half of
the year. We were able to sneak out a
visit to the Oregon coast for our 10th wedding anniversary in April,
and again for Laura’s birthday in October.
We also had a long weekend in San Francisco to visit Ben and family and
to take a quick wine purchasing trip in Healdsburg on the way home.
Our dogs Chelsea and Tori continue to be a big part of our lives. Chelsea’s full grown now at 90 lbs and 5 ˝
years old. Tori has become a full
family member, at 95 lbs and 3 ˝ years old.
They go with us everywhere. They
accompanied us on many of our site seeing visits with Dave and Emily, only had
to go to the kennel for one overnight stay.
Tori got a bad case of salmon poisoning in the fall, and had to stay
overnight at the Vet one night with an IV, but she’s fully recovered, and
fortunately cannot get it again!
(Chelsea had a minor case of it around Thanksgiving of 2004, so now we
don’t have to worry about it anymore).
Laura and Gregg are continuing to play tennis. Laura played on a USTA team at the local tennis club again this
year. Gregg didn’t play as much because
of the house building activity, but he’s getting back into the swing again.
We’ve had to have an interesting diet change this year. In October Gregg was diagnosed with Celiac
disease, which is a non-tolerance to gluten.
This has cut out quite a few food favorites from our diet, including –
beer, pasta, pizza, bread … I think you get the picture. Laura has jumped right in to learn how to
bake gluten free bread, buns, and cookies.
There were some pretty hilarious “loaves” of bread at the beginning, but
the last 3 have been successful, so she must have it figured out. Fortunately Gregg can still eat steak,
potatoes, wine and margaritas, not to mention Cheetos, Fritos, and potato
chips!
Both of our Moms came to visit this Christmas season. Laura was able to arrange their flights so
that they met in Chicago and traveled from Chicago to Portland together. They are returning home in early
January. We also had Ben, Ilana and
Jasmine join us for Christmas. Good
thing we have all those bedrooms – as they were fully occupied!
The only new addition to our extended family this year was a great-nephew
Mabry Madden in early December (parents are
Laura’s nephew Toby and his wife Melissa).
Hope you all had a great year and hope to hear from you soon! If you ever have plans on being out our way,
please let us know as we love to have company!
Our email addresses are still the same:
greggster7@charter.net and lauraster7@charter.net or
laura.steinwand@eds.com. Please drop us
a note sometime or visit us online (AIM) – look for greggster7, limglshome, or
limglseds.
The Steinwands
1394 SE Laurel Ct.
Roseburg, OR 97470
(541) 957-8525