To our family and friends,
2015…the year of Marty McFly, water on Mars, the VW
emissions scandal, and the white and gold dress that made history. Clearly I’m resorting to social media as my
primary source of current events. What a
year it has been! Had we the celebrity
status to dominate major world headlines, this would all simply be a recap.
To be shown during her
wedding cake cutting
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Elia
began the year as a meager 20 pound creepy crawler and has blossomed into a
capable runner! She thoroughly enjoyed
her St. Patrick’s Day birthday party, namely the cake, and maybe the
glitter-ridden tutu. She began standing
on her own (and walking the next day) in June as a happy/scary and long-awaited
surprise for Mom and Dad! Her word bank
has exploded from roughly 10 in January to the point that she will now repeat
almost any word we say. Her favorites
include “cake,” “purple,” “no,” “apple,” “bookie,” and “Elmo!” We’ve had many great memories as a family,
but some of best things about having a kid have been doing kid-intended activities
all over again: frequenting playgrounds, discovering hose and water table fun
in the backyard, blowing bubbles, petting farm animals…she makes everything
more entertaining.
I’ve continued working as a Timken product engineer, largely
with railroad tapered roller bearing design.
Yes, the world still uses railroads, and in fact it has been one of our
fastest growing markets, which is why I visited our plant near Knoxville, TN in
November for training and partly why I flew to China in August! Knoxville is a beautiful place for running,
eating, and spending a 4-day business training trip with two coworkers. China was unlike anything I’ve ever
experienced. Not only is it a different
culture and time zone and language, but staying in huge cities like Wuxi,
Yantai, and Shanghai is something I’ve never done even in America! Ben (a coworker) and I spent 9 days on 6
planes and in 3 Chinese cities, visiting 2 Timken plants for tours and project
discussions and 1 office for a presentation.
We ate delicious, strange, and strangely delicious foods and enjoyed
exploring Shanghai and figuring out the public transportation over the weekend. Take-aways: China is big, crowded, and far
from here, but I always love traveling.
I got to recruit at two career fairs and enjoyed a few fall weekdays
helping at Timken’s 2015 Habitat for Humanity house, hanging siding.
Bro/sis Bear Rock adventure
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There
are few things I love more than a good bearing design, but I enjoy some hobbies
in my free time. I played in local
Ultimate Frisbee tournaments in January and May, and even brought Erin and Elia
to the wedding of two friends from Ultimate, joined by the love of flying disc
toys and, now, each other. Ultimate
pick-up games have continued on Sundays throughout the year, and we enjoyed added
competition from my college team captain Peter, visiting from Japan, and my
sister/her boyfriend, Courtney and Eric, visiting from camp this summer. I’ve continued teaching piano to three
Schumachers (Simeon, Sadie, and Lillian) and had the pleasure of a fourth,
young Brennan Calhoun who just started piano, for a few months this summer. This wasn’t my best year at getting out and
hiking but I made two backpacking trips in the beauty of fall to make up for
it—to Marietta, OH with two church friends and Dolly Sods, WV with a larger
group.
Erin
has continued work in the service sector, babysitting as many kids as possible
at all times. Other than Nugget Handful
Joseph, she watches the three Jurica children semiweekly and does child care at
Parkside some mornings. Elia the
Extrovert has certainly learned to make friends, call the nursery home, and
adapt to our “consistently inconsistent” lifestyle. Erin has been volunteering biweekly at the
Pregnancy Support Center in Canton for several years now, ecstatic at the
regular opportunities to talk to hurting women about life, babies, and Jesus
Christ. Her unpredictable (but
well-scheduled) weeks have included mom/kid’s play group, neighborhood prayer
group meetings, meal deliveries to pregnant women, and numerous visits to the
OB/hospital because…
We
had a new baby! Like, really new; Sophia Noel Joseph was born
December 18 in the morning at Aultman, Canton.
Fresh baby scent lingers in her tiny pores, sparking my idea for a new
Yankee Candle. Erin agrees that she is
much more lovely and pleasant on the outside, having grieved mama for many
moons this year. We don’t know much
about her yet, except that she is healthy and adorbs. Looking forward to her growth throughout next
year!
Despite parenting, we haven’t slowed
down this year socially, largely which includes hosting friends and family for
meals and board games. We are one of
three Parkside Young Married life group lead couples, so we planned a cookout
and corn hole tournament this summer in our yard and a Fall Festival at the
church (featuring caber tossing, pumpkin carving, chili and bonfire s’mores, an
event to repeat!). We invest in church
activities together and separate. Erin
sings for the worship team still, and enjoyed leading a women’s Bible study
this summer. I teach Jr Church some Sundays
and help lead youth group on Sunday nights, which allowed us to both
participate in our church’s Wednesday night Bible study this fall. I aided on youth weekend retreats to Camp
Ligonier, PA and camping at Clay’s Park Resort, making me wonder how much fun I
can have and still be considered a volunteer.
And we both served as “crew leaders” for our Mt Everest VBS week this July! In the height of summer we took walks, disc
golfed, and made campfires. Now with the
despairing weather we have switched to board games with friends. Painting, normally a least favorite pastime,
stands as a solid marital memory of this year, as we had the opportunity to
paint nearly an entire house together…
Family 1-year / house
52-year photos
But
wait! We left you last year with a
cliffhanger, wondering if we would ever find a house, fix it up, move in, and
sell our Hillcrest abode. It only took about
13 months to complete that entire process, and now we’re home on Northridge St
NW! Preferring to maintain the same town
(even street number), we moved to upsize and to find a cheap foreclosure that
could be gradually flipped for a profit.
Having been partially packed up for months, we finally moved in April
and have since “finished” unpacking and remedying major house issues. Besides having a furnace, plumbing lines,
window glass, and some carpeting installed, we have repainted virtually all of
the living space, done a 75% makeover on the kitchen and guest bathroom, fixed
plumbing and electrical issues, furnished the house with some purchased and
woodworked furniture, curtains, wall décor, and more. Our old house grew embittered without us,
refusing to sell until October, joyfully ending a 9 month financial
layover.
Saving her life, all
day every day
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Home projects are a wonderful part of
life, but we escaped them every chance we had.
To visit friends and tour potential new hometowns, we took a Tour de
Virginia in April, spending time with college friends around DC, and continuing
into the Blue Ridge Mtns, Charlottesville, and Richmond while the Kauffman’s
grandbaby-sat until our return for Easter Sunday! We spent Memorial Day in
Greensburg with my family—my sister and I took an overnight trip to our
favorite Laurel Highlands trail for rock climbing, hiking, and camping in
hammocks. We returned for my cousin
Eric’s wedding in June and hiked throughout Hocking Hills with Ohio friends July
4th weekend. Again, sparing
no vacation days, we took two full weeks at the Outer banks, one with my family
in Duck and one with Erin’s in Kitty Hawk, during which we discovered: Jockey’s
Ridge, Historic Corolla, Stack ‘Em High Pancakes, Dark ‘N’ Stormies, Lowe’s at
the beach, Nugget’s daring love for the ocean, and a 10mi kayak trip is in
still waters. We returned to western PA
for our “babymoon” (read: “final hurrah”) in Oct so Nugget could enjoy a
grandparent weekend and we could enjoy coupling in Pittsburgh, seeing many fun
restaurants, museums and parks, and walking around downtown. Thanks Mom and Dad!
And back to the babies: pray that they
get along as they grow up, that we can continue having more, and that they all
learn to follow “Jeetha” (Jesus). Though
we are without sponsors, comments, or readers, we are blogging the lives of our
young ones at josephbabies.blogspot.com, where you can find all pictures and
details of why we love these kids. We
hope the best for your 2016. Abide in
Jesus and remember His grace and His peace.
Love,
The Josephs
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