Drury Family Update

2011 DRURY FAMILY UPDATE - Posted January 1, 2012

2011-12-31T10:54:00.001-08:00

LAUREN

Lauren is 6 years old now and loves kindergarten. She draws and paints and plays school with her sister and most of all enjoys playing dolls and making a mess of her room when her parents are not looking. We find Lauren singing wherever she is: in the car, at dinner, at church, in her bedroom, even in the bathroom (actually: especially in the bathroom).

Quotes of the year from Lauren:

"God doesn't make chicken nuggets; they're not real."
"My jack-o lantern looks weird--I think I put on too much eyeshadow."
Dave asks: "Do you know who I love?" Lauren replies with nonchalance: "I know, it's me!"

KARINA

Karina loves to do cartwheels and handstands in the living room and is deeply engaged in after school art and also in art camp at Taylor University. Outside of school, she loves to play school--setting up her bedroom as a fully functional classroom, where friends and siblings all receive her keen instruction.

Story from this year:
Karina cleaned the bathroom and got paid some money from Kathy. She said: "Oh, good, I need more money... I gave $3.75 at church this week and you know the $5 I made from selling the gift cards I made? I gave that too so now I don't have money, so thanks!" (This was all the money she had at the moment, apparently she hasn't learned about tithing, just about generosity--total generosity, that is.)

MAXIM

Max launched into his Scratch computer programming deeply this year, creating animation videos and learning all kinds of things. Even though he's now in the 5/6th youth ministry at church, he still likes Legos and Star Wars--but he's now officially a "big kid" and no longer a child. He informs us from time to time that he is in "adolescence." Yes, Max, we've been there too.

Story from this year: Dave comes into kitchen to find Max fixing a bowl of predawn breakfast-- pouring out some fiber cereal.
Dave: "Why are you eating my cereal?"
Max: "We have testing at school today; they told us we have to eat a healthy breakfast."
Dave: "How do you know that's healthy?"
Max: "It doesn't have any marshmallows in it" ... after several bites Max begins rummaging around the kitchen cupboards.
Dave: "What are you doing?"
Max: "Where's the sugar? That stuff tastes horrible!"

KATHRYN

Kathy sadly lost her last remaining grandparent (Grandma Mae Veldheer) this year. But the year was full of many joys as well. All three kids in school much of the day, Monday through Friday. The extra time in Kathy's life filled up with Kids Hope mentoring, volunteering at the schools, gardening, cooking healthy, and exercising far more than ever before. She still loves to plan vacations and made her 15-year anniversary cruise with Dave one to remember.

DAVID

It was a key year at College Church as the massive SoulShift (www.oursoulshift.com) emphasis and What If outreach campaign both kicked off and reached outside of the church walls pretty far. He continues to write, edit and do research on his Fridays, and some of the same skills are now needed at the Church too. Every now and then Dave and a few other Marion Dads play video games together to be irresponsible and thus recapture some of their lost youth.

2010 Drury Family Update

2010-12-13T16:32:00.001-08:00

This is our annual Drury Family Update for 2010. However, this year is a first, Kathy has written the update. Yes, the words will be less crafty and the humor gone, but nonetheless here is our year wrapped up:

This has been a fun year of memories including lots of travelling. As a family we went to Schaumburg, IL for spring break and went to Legoland Discovery Center. We went on a long 12 day vacation to the Shenandoah National Park area in Basye, VA where we rented a house on a mountain. We also made the yearly visit to the grandparents cottage in Walhalla, MI at Long Lake. Dave and I were blessed to take 3 get aways together: Jacksonville in Jan., Dayton, OH in Oct, and San Antonio in Dec.

Dave:

*Ageless Faith came out March 1-- a book he co authored with his dad Keith

*He reworked Soul Shift that he co-authored with Pastor Steve DeNeff that comes out in 2011.

*He did several side projects with Thomas Nelson Publishers primarily for work with Max Lucado's new book Outlive Your Life that came out in September including writing the participant's guide for the book.

*He continues to work hard in the Executive pastor role at College Wesleyan Church.

*Enjoyed his new Heroscape hobby with Max and always enjoys video gaming.

Kathy:

*I enjoyed my first break in 10 years after sending our youngest to preschool.

*I became a Kids Hope mentor again after a 15 year break.

*I enjoyed gardening as always.

*I led a bus trip of young senior adults to my home town for the Tulip Festival in May.

*I enjoyed 2 shopping trips away with family and friends in October.

*I have enjoyed being in a Bible study on Wednesday mornings with ladies at church.

Max:

*He enjoyed learning "Scratch" at computer programming camp at Taylor University this summer.

*He spends most of his free time with anything Star Wars or Legos.

*He enjoys playing Heroscape with his dad.

*He did a couple track days in town and came away with some ribbons.

*He enjoys Splash and Club Splash at church.

Karina:

*She accepted Jesus as her Savior in January.

*She took 2 art camps at Taylor University.

*She sang in the kids choir at church in the spring.

*She learned to sew at Club Splash at church.

*She took swimming and tennis lessons.

*She got her first pair of glasses and a root canal in the same week!

Lauren:

*She took ballet for 5 weeks this summer at CSA in Marion.

*She started tennis lessons this fall.

*She took swimming in the winter and fall sessions at IWU.

*She started preschool (pre-K) at Westview in August where she attends 5 mornings a week.

*She enjoys singing and dressing up.

Drury Update on the Last Year (2009)

2009-12-05T05:28:00.000-08:00

Welcome to our family update site – we post here annually on what happened the previous year in each of our lives. We all went on a family vacation to Gatlinburg, TN this year (enjoying hiking in the mountains, the aquarium and the hot tub at our Chalet). Scroll down to see the other pics and details from the year.

Be sure to leave a comment here to let us know you stopped by!

Lauren 2009 Update:

Lauren loves singing and dancing (see her videos on Kathy's Facebook).
Had swimming lessons.
Goes to MOPS, Sunday School, Story Time and Club Splash each week.
Dressed as Cinderella for Halloween. (As well as many other days of the year.)
She hiked a 5 mile trail in the smoky mountains with the family!
Quote of the year: "When we go on top of the mountain can we say 'Hi' to God?"

Karina 2009 Update:

Changed schools along with her whole class to Westview.
Had her first hospital overnight stay in April (dehydration from rotovirus).
Lost her first tooth in November.
In Kids Choir again this year in Club Splash.
Made jewelry in Club Splash to support the building of wells in Zambia.
Had tennis and swimming lessons.
Quote of the year: "I want to be a pastor, a gymnastics teacher, a music teacher, kindergarten teacher and an art teacher when I grow up."

Maxim 2009 Update:

Max was in Program Challenge (an advanced computer class after school and in the summer).
He ran a mile in 8 minutes and 43 seconds (a bit more than twice the time of a professional).
Had tennis and swimming lessons.
He made a birdhouse in Club Splash (in order to raise money for wells in Zambia).
Spent many hours playing Legos and Heroscape.
Now officially knows much more Star Wars trivia than most fans.
Quote of the year: [Upon agreeing with his mother unexpectedly] "I'm getting older, so I'm starting to think like you now."

Kathy 2009 Update:

Kathy entered the 5k Wildcat Challenge in Marion and completed it.
Enjoyed MOPS this year (on the leadership team in Spring).
Fun to be back into fantasy football (with people in our church).
Enjoyed places we traveled to this year (Parent's Cottage in Michigan, Spring Lake friends, Tennessee, San Antonio)
Liked getting even more into gardening this year.

Dave 2009 Update:

Dave visited several "trust" villages in Zambia in July along with a team from our church.
He did research for Max Lucado's forthcoming book on Acts.
He enjoyed the Indianapolis Writer's Conference.
Dave continued to work with the leadership of College Wesleyan Church.
Commuted to work on his new bike most of the summer.
Picked up a new hobby with Max: Heroscape Game.
Spent nearly every Friday writing: co-writing two books in 2009 (Ageless Faith & SoulShift).

The Drury Family in the Last Year

2008-12-05T08:08:00.000-08:00

Welcome to our family update site – we post here annually on what happened the previous year in each of our lives. Scroll down to see the pics and the details. Be sure to leave a comment here to let us know you stopped by!

General Family Updates from January 1, 2008 through January 1, 2009:
>We moved into our new house on March 8th
>We all attended the Wesleyan General >Conference in Orlando, Florida in June
>While there we also took a vacation to Disney World
>We drove up to Michigan a few times to stay at Kathy’s parent’s cottage
>We spent some time at our district Family Camp in Fairmount, IN
>We met Dave’s new nephew Sam and spent a week with him and his parents (John & Mandy) during their visit in May
>Our kid’s new favorite hobby – to sing along to funny songs on the family iPod (see Kathy’s Facebook profile for videos)

Lauren in 2008 Highlights:
>Turned 3 in July with a “Dora Beach” Party
>Likes to do “hair salon” with her mommy & sister
>Plays dress up constantly (changes clothes multiple times a day)
>Enjoys MOPS group, moms group & Sunday school because she can be with her friends.
>Likes “reading” her preschooler books
>Does not really enjoy coloring (except on the walls apparently)
>She was the first Drury kid to be potty trained – before she was 3
>Lauren rode her first roller coaster this year!

Karina in 2008 Highlights:
>Karina turned 5 on Easter with a “Madeline” party
>Took Tennis lessons in the fall and learned a ton
>Baked cookies and sold them to everyone she knew to help build a well in Zambia
>Took swimming lessons in the winter
>Loves to draw and color for HOURS each day
>Now wears skirts or dresses only 300 days a year (down from 330 last year) – she’s branching out into pants from time to time

>Loves singing and being in the kids choir at church: http://www.facebook.com/video/?id=744746310&s=30&hash=4b64a4b27478849217551df27c511e90#/video/video.php?v=48402346310 849217551df27c511e90#/video/video.php?v=48402346310
>Loves to laugh http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=39833511310

Max in 2008 Highlights:
>Had a Lego Party for when he turned 8 in June
>Took Tennis lessons in fall
>Loves school and joined the “program challenge” because he’s good with computers
>Was a part of Upward Basketball (January and February)
>Joined Kids Choir at church (see video above)
>Had a fun “Colts Day” at Lucas Oil Stadium on the field where Peyton Manning plays.
>Mastered Mario Cart on the Wii – no one seems to be able to beat him consistently
>Will have a singing part in the school program this year
>Likes Star Wars again (memorizing the 4 minute “Moosebutter” song about it this year)… see here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lk5_OSsawz4&feature=related)

Kathy in 2008 Highlights:
>Moved into new house after picking out all the details for it.
>Landscaped the house shortly after move in.
>Got two other moms together and they now do a Supper Swap each week
>Loves her Mom’s Group on Tuesday mornings
>Joined MOPS leadership this year—doing the publicity & newsletter
>Went to the MOPS conference in Dallas with the local MOPS steering team
>Loved watching the Olympics with the family (including making our closing ceremony meal we do every other year – themed around the ethnic food of the host country)
>And she’s indoctrinating the kids in Olympic Love: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=35947271310
>Known as the “queen of Facebook” by her friends

Dave in 2008 Highlights:

>Went on a marriage retreat with Kathy in September
>Went to the “All Pro Dad” event in Indy on the Colts Field with Max
>Has led the church through a strategic planning and realignment process this year
>Hired two new wonderful pastors at College Church: Thad Spring & Charlie Alcock
>Loves having a great time with the staff and leaders at CWC – the role and environment has been a great fit.
>On the side he taught the IWU Christian Ministry Capstone class for Seniors about to go into the ministry or to seminary.
>Continued working on vacation days with research assistance for Max Lucado and his forthcoming book on fear (included a trip to San Antonio for planning.)
>His grandfather died in August, which resulted in a trip to Arizona for the funeral—good to see his grandmother, aunts, uncles, extended family.
>He surprised brother John in New Jersey for his birthday party in November – showing up by train after already being in Washington DC for a speaking trip
>Plays cards each week in Marion with a bunch of new friends.

Christmas Update -- December 25, 2007

2007-12-10T18:24:00.000-08:00

It has been quite the year of transition for us as a family, moving from West Michigan back to David's hometown... Marion, Indiana. We're now living in a rental home next to Indiana Wesleyan University near College Wesleyan Church where David works now as the Executive Pastor. We're building a home in nearby Gas City and expect to move in around February. Thanks for stopping by to see this once-a-year update on our family. Feel free to leave a comment to let us know you came by.

-The Drury Family

Lauren 2007 Update

2007-11-20T08:52:00.000-08:00

Went from not talking at all to talking all the time
Went from serious to goof ball
Started to love all things Mickey Mouse and Disney
Wear play high heals around the house every moment of the day
Loves her Dora blankie
Hugs and kisses her brother and sister every day when they come home from school
Thinks her mother is the queen of the universe
Thinks her father exists to wrestle her daily

Karina 2007 Update

2007-11-20T08:43:00.000-08:00

Loved going to "Art-itude" -- her amazing art school in Michigan.
Started pre-school at Lakeview, her Dad's old school in Indiana.
Had a 4-Year Old "Princess Party" in March. Loved it!
Draws and does amazing crafts on her own every day.
Started Ballet classes in Marion from 2 IWU students.
Had her first Ballet recital in November.
Getting pretty good at "Finding People" game on the family Wii (the "Druii")
LOVED going to the cottage in July.
Has worn a dress on 330 of 365 days in 2007.

Maxim 2007 Update

2007-11-20T08:33:00.000-08:00

In two Spring Lake chess clubs: large one at school and smaller one at the library
Finished Soccer season in Tri-Cities.
Fun Star Wars Birthday party in June.
Started at Northview school in Gas City after moving--loves school.
Made a great new best friend: Silas Vermilya
Increases his Wii Tennis ranking every week.
Loves the new CWC building--like a little Samuel

Kathy 2007 Update

2007-11-20T08:22:00.001-08:00

Sold her house in Michigan in less than 4 months. (Her 3rd success at selling by owner)
Made plans for a house with Jim D and began building in Indiana.
A great Tulip Time with all three kids in the street scrubbing parade
Colts win the Super Bowl... family featured as Tri-Cities Colts Fans in paper!
Joined MOPS at CWC... an amazing group!
Helped lead the women's ministry at SLWC
Her friend Shelly took her on an amazing trip to Disney celebrating her 35th birthday.
Fun family trip to parents cottage over 4th of July.
Trip to New York City with Mandy (Sister-in-Law) & Sharon (Mother-in-Law)
Two sad deaths in the family in January & February: Grandfather Henry & longtime family friend Hazel.

David 2007 Update

2007-11-20T06:52:00.000-08:00

Things Dave remembers that were great from 2007:

The Colts Win! NFL Champs!
Feeling more and more strongly led to search for an Executive Pastor role in the spring.
The really special way the staff and people of SLWC sent us off as we were leaving that church. Amazing people there!
Steve DeNeff hiring me on to join the team at CWC as Executive Pastor--great fit!
Trip to Turkey with Dad & brother John.
Six week summer break with tons of family time.
Researching on the doctrine of Heaven for Max Lucado's message series and book.
Going to an all-expenses paid night watching the 2007 Colts Season opener--including the unveiling of the Super Bowl Banner!!!
Excitement of first Sunday in our new CWC building--and enjoying the amazing facilities since then.

Things Dave is blocking out of his mind from 2007:

The amount of boxes he packed
The number of times he has moved major appliances around
The endless trips between Indiana & Michigan in moving trucks
The times he lost in Settlers of Catan to Rob P & Steve T
The 4 weeks of transition between our old CWC building and the new CWC building
Trying to project when a 10 million dollar church building will be completed
Being sick so much--like never before in his life this year

Merry Christmas 2006 from the Drury Family

2006-12-10T11:53:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the 2006 Update for the Drury Family. This blog is updated just once a year at Christmas time... sort of like a Christmas card letter, sans postage and paper.

Scroll down for pics and updates on each of us.

____________________________________

We hope you’re having a great Christmas season.

This year has been full of some great vacations and travel as a family and for just Dave & Kathy as a couple. Ministry is going great at Spring Lake Wesleyan, Max is loving Kindergarten, Karina is excelling at art school and Lauren is just beginning to talk.

We’re having a ball and enjoying life--from our small group to our neighborhood to our marriage. It’s all good. Check out our yearly update blogs below on each person in the family for the scoop on our lives if you‘re out of the loop.

-Merry Christmas from David & Kathy

as well as Maxim (6), Karina (3) & Lauren (1)

Drury Kids at Halloween:

Drury kids at "Thanksmas":

Dave & Kathy on the Cruise:

Lauren 2006 Update

2006-12-10T11:28:00.001-08:00

[Update given by Kathy]

Learned to crawl at in the summer and walk in the fall. She says a few words. She got her first haircut. Her mouth is full of teeth. She was a honeypot for Halloween with her brother and sister being bees. She likes Baby Einstien, Mickey and Minnie Mouse, and Elmo. She sleeps great and has been thankfully very healthy. She loves getting into everything!

[Pictured here: some of Lauren's first steps]

Karina 2006 Update

2006-12-10T11:27:00.000-08:00

[As told to Dad as he typed it for her]

“I went to art school and did pictures. I painted and colored with crayons and chalk. I played dolls and books with Lauren this year. I met Mickey Mouse and Minny Mouse and Goofy and Donald Duck at Disney World. My favorite toy is Barbies. I went to the lobby and watched daddy play the drum. My favorite food is watermelon. My favorite DVD is the Sing-a-long Songs at Disney video. I also went to the cottage this year and played with Max and Lauren."

-Karina Drury

[Editor’s note: Karina loves ballet now as well. Pictured above: Karina dressing up. Pictured below: Karina at a Disney world dinner.]

Maxim 2006 Update

2006-12-10T11:24:00.000-08:00

[As told to Dad as he typed it for him]

“I did young 5’s year at Jeffers school. I went to the bus to go to school every day. I played at the cottage with Taylor and Jackson (cousins) in the summer. When I was playing soccer I learned a lot of cool moves. I went to Disney World and got a new umbrella—Oh and I rided the Thunder Mountain ride. The first time I went to kindergarten with Mrs. Taylor I got a cookie, and I saw a few new friends. I learned to play tennis at tennis lessons too. I like Scooby Doo, Star Wars, Legos, videogames and my sisters. That’s all.”

-Max Drury

[Editors note: Max lost 4 teeth this year so far]

Kathy 2006 Update

2006-12-10T11:22:00.000-08:00

2006 was a wonderful year for me. I started the year by joining weight watchers in January. By May I had reached the goal I had hoped and in less than one year I
lost 85 pounds!

We had a great time in February taking the kids to Walt Disney World in Orlando for a week. In May Dave and I headed to Costa Rica for a great long weekend seeing a friend and Dave speaking at her retreat.

We spent a lot of time this summer at my parents new cottage on a lake about 80 minutes north of us. July 6 was our 10th anniversary and we went to a remote island called North Manitou. The ferry comes only once a day and there are NO provisions on the island and the only people who live there are the rangers when on duty. Beautiful and quiet nonetheless.

In October we went to IN for Dave's 10 year college homecoming. Nice to see Mom and Dad Drury and old friends from back in the day.

In November Dave and I went on a cruise to celebrate our anniversary. For those interested here are the details about that:

5 nights
Royal Caribbean: Enchantment of the Seas
Port: Ft. Lauderdale
Stopped at Key West, Cozumel and Cococay (private
Bahama Island)
Met some great people from all over the USA
Had a PERFECT week in all ways!

Thanksmas was celebrated in Marion IN with the Drury clan Thanksgiving weekend. As far as ministry goes I served on the Womens minisry team, served as the Lobby childrens teacher and small group leader with Dave. I still cut hair for friends and family at home and still work when I can marketing The Fruitful Life. I still love being a stay home mom and am thankful to be able to do that. Christmas will be here in West MI and not too busy.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

-Kathy Drury

[Pictured above: Kathy at Mayan ruins in Cozumel. Pictured below: Kathy at Hemmingway's house in Key West.]

David 2006 Update

2006-12-09T15:24:00.000-08:00

David Drury had a great year of fun with family and friends. He did some of the following things in 2006:

David is now the venue pastor for the lobby, the third worship venue at SLWC, which is an interactive “coffee shop” style gathering that meets on Sunday nights. [launched weekly in May]
Because of staffing shortages David also helped out as the Interim Junior High youth pastor at SLWC in the summer transition which he really loved doing. [Summer]
David has been leading a retooling of the small group ministry at Spring Lake Wesleyan Church, focusing on deeper Bible study and teaching in the groups.
David decided to keep up with the rest of the emergent church crowd and had his hair tipped, so now he looks like he’s from California. [September]
He taught the class "Power, Change and Conflict Management" three times for the Masters in Ministry program at IWU.
He taught the class "Leadership in a Vacuum" for Asbury Seminary which was an intensive one week course. [September]
He taught the class "Methods of Bible Study" for the BBC extension program for the West Michigan district. [Summer]
Dave’s continues to write frequently for his website, www.drurywriting.com/david, which was nominated for the Page One Herchzel Award for excellence in rising above the blog fray in 2006. Though nominated he lost the award to www.drurywriting.com/keith.
David and Kathy took a long awaited Caribbean cruise which they both absolutely loved! [November]
Dave finished writing a new emerging church spirituality manuscript titled Mahogany Messiah: Nonreligious Reflections on the Religious Life. It’s been picked up by a publisher and should be out within a year.
He traveled with his father, Keith, to climb Mt. Elbert in Colorado which had the deepest snow he had ever seen on its slopes. [January]
David took up martial arts a few years ago and just this October he passed his test in Konigun Ninjutsu to earn the rank of Kagebushi (Black sash and gold tiger with red medallion).
He traveled to Costa Rica with Kathy to speak for the Unidos Por Christo parachurch leaders retreat and to see family friend Andrea Bermudez. [May]
Dave and Kathy now plan a late December trip to Russia to catch up with his great-uncle, Mikhail Gorbachev, after they learned of his declining health in November.
He started in June as Max Lucado's researcher as he works on his upcoming book about John 3:16. He took about 10 days off from work to complete the research. [June]

[This has been a pseudo-fictional account of Dave's life in 2006 written in the traditional third person form used for such. Every other one of these bullet points is true, and the others are false. Do you know which is which?]

[Pictured above: A pretty darn good day in Coco Cay. Pictured below: too much caffeine that day]

Christmas Update

2005-12-24T15:45:00.000-08:00

This is the Drury Family yearly update blog. It will likely only be updated once a year. It's sorta like those long bragging letters many of us send out for Christmas... only it's online, and with more pictures, and it's funnier, and we didn't have to cut down any trees or purchase any stamps to make it.

Come here each year around or shortly after Christmas to see an update on what the family did in the prior year. We'll still send a simple Christmas card or e-mail out to some people notifying people that this is updated.

Make comments on this post here to let us know you stopped by.

-David & Kathy Drury

Lauren 2005 Update

2005-12-23T16:18:00.000-08:00

Lauren Elizabeth is our 3rd beautiful baby and so far she has learned how to eat and spit-up, look around, laugh and even roll over! Okay, we'll stop already with the baby details.

Highlights:

Born on July 14th in same hospital Kathy was born in (Holland, MI) - for baby pics click here
Dedicated on November 6th at Spring Lake Wesleyan Church
Made her first out of state trip (to Indiana) in December and travelled pretty well
At 5 months is already wearing 12 month-old clothes (95th percentile in height and weight)
Knows whenever Daddy picks her up and promptly pukes all over him to show him her love (don't worry, that link is not really of Dave & Lauren).

Karina 2005 Update

2005-12-23T16:12:00.000-08:00

Karina is now in her "terrible two's" which we don't agree with because she's such a little angel that never gets in trouble at all. :-( Actually, we call them two other names: the "tornado two's" or the "terrifying two's." We call Karina "Little Diva" when she's trying to get her way and order everyone about the house (including Max, which is actually a little funny to us.) We though Max was bossy!

Highlights:

Karina turned two this year and had a strawberry shortcake party.
In April she went to Grand Rapids to see Disney on Ice -- one of her favorite things are the Disney princesses -- so this was just short of heaven for her.
In the summer she loved to be outside and ride her toy bikes and try to keep up with all the older neighbor kids.
Karina loves going to church (God's Greenhouse).
Had fun at the cottage we went to on Labor Day and aslo visitng Uncle Tom and Aunt Becky's cabin up north.

Max 2005 Update

2005-12-16T17:51:00.000-08:00

Max is getting all grown up on us now. He's getting taller by the second and still loves to run and play with his Thomas trains and build amazing inventions with his Legos and assorted parts, junk and strings he finds around the house.

Highlights:

He finished preschool at Kinderkirk in Spring Lake.
He had an Incredibles movie birthday theme (he had a bunch of kids over for the first time for his b-day). He LOVES the Incredibles.
As a family we got into Geo-Caching and Max loves to run the GPS unit.
He attended the J-Force VBS at our church and loved it and took swimming lessons again this summer.
Max started the Jeffers Elementary School young 5's class and now rides the bus each day like a big kid (half-day of school).
He was sick a lot in the fall.
He started Chess club in the fall as well and knows how to move all the pieces.
At Thanksgiving he was proud of the fact that he could already count up to 120!
Max even did his own Christmas shopping at the school shop for his imediate family this year.

Kathy 2005 Update

2005-12-16T13:21:00.000-08:00

Other than being pregnant for 9 months and having a baby and then taking care of the baby (which in and of itself is quite a lot) Kathy had a lot going on this year with the family and some trips. As usual, the highlights of her year are again the places she went on vacation.

Highlights:

Traveled to West Palm Beach for pastor's wives conference in January with three other pastor's wives.
Began work on promoting and manging the distribution of David's book. It's been a fun challenge to market a book as a stay-at-home mom and a good chance to do something with David.
Went to Bay Harbor in Petoskey, MI for a vacation with whole family before the baby came.
Went to Cedarly Retreat Center with Dave in Wisconsin -- a fun, relaxing time without the kids.
Went to Chicago in June for a Magnificent Mile shopping trip with Dave's Mom and Amanda (sister-in-law).
Lauren Elizabeth Drury was born on July 14th. See above.
Did a fantasy football team this fall (name: the Powder Puff Girls). Record: 6-6 so far.
Served on the women's ministry team this year -- helped plan and run several events.
Got into walking after the baby was born.
Still cutting hair quite a bit and now has a nice new floor in her little hair styling shop in the basement (curtesy of Uncle Tom!)

David 2005 Update

2005-12-16T13:11:00.000-08:00

Overall David had a great year of ministry at Spring Lake Wesleyan Church. He did some writing and teaching on the side and had a lot of fun at home with the kids and some fun with Kathy out on dates and on vacation (admitted less of this once Lauren was born, but things are getting back to normal now.)

Highlights:

Hiked in the High Sierras of California with Dad, Keith, and brother, John.
Taught a few classes (a FLAME class for ministers-in-training, a Call to the Ministry forum, and an online Masters class for IWU.)
He led the church in it's 40 Days 2005 as the church went through the book he wrote in 2004.
He spoke at a few churches and retreats about The Fruitful Life book which has sold more copies than he ever planned on in the first year.
He began writing more regularly (about once a week) at his web-site on spiritual life and ministry issues.
Built a treehouse (mostly done) and sandbox (totally done) in the backyard with some help from Max and Karnina