This has been a year of blessings and hardships for us. In June Valerie (mom) was hired as the Director of Special Education for Big Spring Independent School District. Big Spring ISD is a medium size school with around 3700 students and nine campuses. She is doing a great job and when we go shopping in Big Spring people are always stopping us and saying what a fantastic Director she is. It has meant a large increase in work load and hours, but we are all adjusting. We may purchase a home in Big Spring to help her be at home more often and so we can have a bigger home and a garage.

Dirk (dad) is still the Director of Technology at Westbrook Independent School District and doing good. They replaced almost half of their teachers this year and the technology training they received from Dirk before school started has made a huge difference in a number of grades already this year. He has an intensive technology training program set up for spring and a bunch of the teachers are really looking forward to it. He finally has a number of students training on web page design, so the district web site should start to see student web pages being built. The new teachers are also waiting for the students to be experienced enough to help build their pages. He has enough work for his web design students for January through March already. He is a little behind due to a couple of illnesses. You can read about them on the family blog at http://family.dirkdykstra.com/ and you may also want to check out the spider bite he had during the summer. You can subscribe to the blog and receive all the updates as they are posted during the year.

Lisa is still the front-runner for Valedictorian at Westbrook. She is way ahead of the second place student in her class and there is almost no chance they can catch up. She already has 30 semester hours in college classes from three of the local Junior Colleges. She has been accepted to a number of Universities already, including her number one choice - Angelo State University (ASU) in San Angelo, Texas. She is considering International Business and Educational Administration majors. She plans on double majoring. With the 30 hours she already has in she should be able to double major and still finish in four years. She is also considering a special honors program at ASU. In Westbrook she doing great and is taking her dad's web design class. You can check out the school's web site at http://www.westbrookisd.com and see if you can find Lisa's pages. She will be building the pages for the First Grade teachers starting in January.

Dirk II is still working at the Sonic in Colorado City. He goes in for about three hours on the mornings that he is available. He takes care of the flowers and the concrete. It is amazing how often people dump drinks out of their cars on the concrete. This attracts bugs, flies, and dirt. We have learned a lot about how to keep a drive-in clear of bugs and filth so that it smells good, the car-hops don't slip and fall, looks clean, and so customers can eat with their windows open. Dirk II went and took his driving test for his temporary license the day after his birthday and passed. He is learning fast and can work the stick-shift just fine. He also purchased a 250cc scooter a couple of months ago and will be attending motorcycle training in January with Lisa. In Texas you can receive your motorcycle license at 15 with a restriction to 250cc or less. Dirk II will be able to drive to work and school on his scooter by himself in January. He is very excited. You can see pictures of his scooter on the family blog.

Damon and Ann are expecting a little addition to their family at any time. The official due date is January 6, 2007 - we are all very excited. When dad got back from the hospital with his heart problems the medicine made him very sick. So we contacted Ann to check on what he could eat. She is an expert on nutrition and was a big help. Damon is holding down two jobs - real estate and produce manager. The two of them also purchased a nice house in Milwaukee and are learning the wonderful benefits of owning your own home, plus the costs.

Megan and Adam are also having fun with their home in Yelm, Washington. That is a little west and north of Texas. A little too far that is. They are really enjoying the area and have even learned how to ski. You can see them standing on their skis at the bottom of the hill by visiting our family blog. They have also been mountain climbing, camping, and many other outdoor activities. Megan is doing a fantastic job as a teacher and is also the swim coach.

Dawn and Shawn are looking forward to Shawn's last semester at college. They came and visited in Texas at Thanksgiving time. You can see some info on the family blog and we will have more pictures on the family website soon. http://www.dirk.dykstra.com - go to Latest News. Shawn is really looking forward to finishing his school and we believe Dawn is also. Once they both start working full-time again it should really help their finances also. The only sad part of the visit was that we did not get to meet Sadie (their dog). She had to stay home.

Holly and Jordan are doing good in Lakewood, Colorado. Jordan has visited Grandma's house twice this year and had a blast each time. Photos of the visit are up on the family blog. Holly is now working at an "On The Border" restaurant near a large mall in the Denver area. She loves living in Colorado and plans on staying there for quite a while. Jordan is growing like a weed and is a smart as can be. He loved checking out the goats next to Grandma's house. Grandpa got him a new "big boy" Sponge Bob bed. Holly says that he started sleeping in it right away with no problems.

We hope that you enjoy your holidays and we invite you to watch the blog and web site for more photos and news.

Have a great holiday,

Dirk D Dykstra Family