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Happy New Year to all our friends and family! We know your time is precious, and we probably aren�t as interesting as we think, so just the highlights. If you don�t like to read, at least enjoy the pictures! Allen�s big news of the year is a trip to rural Mexico. He traveled with his Dad in connection with Engineers Without Borders to Aguilar, a small village that now has a clean water supply thanks to their efforts. Allen also continues to play saxophone in the Clear Lake HS Band. He is now 16, and eligible to drive as soon as he finishes his Driver�s Ed packet. He doesn�t like homework of any kind, so no telling when he will hit the streets solo.  Allen with a rare Texas snowman  Allen puts in some elbow grease in Mexico  Allen and his friend Heather Megan has had a shining year. She graduated from Clear Lake HS with high honors, and has gone on to attend St. Edward�s University in Austin, with a nice scholarship. She has definitely found her niche there, as part of a Service & Social Justice Living and Learning Community. She and about 13 other freshman live in the same wing of a dorm, takes some classes together, and work together on service projects. She has made some great new friends, and is eager to progress from black & white film to digital color in her Photography major. Megan also earned her Gold Award, the highest honor a Girl Scout can achieve. Because of the many years of service and effort involved, this goal is reached by less than 2% of Girl Scouts nationwide.  Megan at her high school graduation  Megan with her leaders at her Gold Award ceremony Andy also had a monumental year. On December 6th, he graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with highest honors, earning dual degrees in Radio-Television-Film and Linguistics. He'll stick around in Austin for a few months but has plans to move to Los Angeles in the summer. His largest film project this year was working as an electrician on a project called �Ex-Terminators� which will probably come out this summer. He is currently putting a lot of effort into genealogy research, and we expect him to discover that we are long lost royalty with an unclaimed fortune!  Andy and friends at the Texas-Oklahoma football game in Dallas  Andy at his college graduation Patty left her urgent care job in late August, and took a new part-time position at a traditional Family Medicine clinic. What a blessing this opportunity is turning out to be! She took a second part-time position this December as Medical Director for a CHRISTUS walk-in clinic at the Kemah Walmart. She doesn�t see patients there, but rather acts as supervisor for two Physician Assistants. Her stress level has fallen by half, and job satisfaction has improved. On paper this sounds pretty boring, but emotionally it was a huge change. That�s her standing in the snow - yes, SNOW! - at our home a few weeks ago.  A Texas winter wonderland Mike is still very satisfied with his job at NASA, and his latest project involves developing life support system (air, water, waste, habitation) technologies for lunar missions. He is active with the Houston Renewable Energy Group and organized a tour of homes with solar power this summer. And as mentioned, he works with Engineers Without Borders, and was so happy that Allen accompanied him on his Mexico trip. Although our home survived this year�s hurricane well, Mike�s childhood home in Galveston took a major hit from Ike and had to be gutted after four feet of water flooded it. We have (almost) finished helping his parents move to their new permanent home at a retirement community in League City.  Houston mayor Bill White attends Mike's solar homes tour God bless you and your families and friends in 2009! Love, Patty, Mike, Andy, Megan and Allen Ewert  Andy, Megan, and Allen at P.F. Chang's in Austin |
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