Sharon and Dave 2011

Hello friends and family! 

This year has been a fun year of travel, friends, and adventure. 

We were able to take TWO trips to Europe this year.  In July, Sharon was able to meet up with Dave in Dublin—he was already there for work meetings, and she came out for the weekend!  Their friends, Susanne and Pete, from the UK, also flew over for weekend fun in Dublin, and we all had a great time together.    Then, in September, we celebrated Sharon’s 40th birthday (which had occurred in June) with a trip to Munich’s Oktoberfest! We went with a group, and had a ton of fun, and besides all of the German beer drinking, we toured Bavaria and Salzburg, Austria!  In 2012, we’ll be again visiting London- once in January to help our friends Pete and Suzanne celebrate their wedding, and once in the summer to see some of the Olympic games!

This year, we also did something athletic for the first time!  We ran Warrior Dash---it’s basically a 5K through mud, obstacles, and fire!  Sharon had trained for it, but Dave did it with very little training.  And although we probably walked more than we ran (that mud really makes it difficult to really run), we completed it and were rewarded at the end with free beers.  We hope to do it again in spring of 2012.

We hosted two parties at our house, in the spring, and again in the fall, and in between them, we finally replaced the floors on the bottom two levels of the house with bamboo flooring.  However, less than two weeks after it was installed, heavy rains backed up our sump pump, and basement flooding caused us to have the new floors ripped up, walls cut 2 feet up, and get it all replaced and painted.  It was really hectic to get that all done, but we were glad when it was complete.  It was nice to have a party and be able to get the floors to look exactly like they had before the party when we cleaned up!

All the construction work took a lot of time of waiting around for and supervising various construction people.  It was a good thing, in that sense, that Sharon’s workload slowed down in August, after a very busy winter and spring.  She has continued her freelancing, and was able to welcome quite a few new clients this year, so she’s hoping that more work comes from these new clients!  She finally was able to end her editing job at WDCW-50, when they hired a new full-time editor, and she really doesn’t miss the money or the work!   Highlights this year:  running teleprompter for Jesse Jackson as he recorded a PSA, meeting the US Treasurer and running sound for a PSA she did, running a jib camera for four nights for a religious conference in DC, meeting the host from “Ace of Cakes” at Emmy Night, meeting an anchor from WTKR-- who she watched while she grew up in Newport News, directing an interview with actor Matthew Lewis from “Harry Potter”, and leading a group of patients from St. Elizabeth’s Psychiatric Hospital to produce their first PSA.  She continues as a freelance producer for Fairfax County Public Schools and Arlington Public Schools when she’s not working for other production companies or producing videos and webcasts for her own clients.  To stay in the know about the exciting adventures of a freelancer, “Like” her company’s Facebook page- just do a search for Picture This Video!

Sharon is also finishing up her last year with the George Washington Birthday Celebration Committee.  Through the past 10 years, she’s served as chair, vice-chair, and now is chair again, until the February 2012 events wrap up.  She’s working on the third year of the Cherry Challenge event, and trying to lead the committee to be more successful with sponsorships, as the committee has been asked to come up with 50% of the costs for all of their events---something none of them have any experience in!  It’s been a challenging experience, and like everything else, she’s learning on-the-job! 

Dave’s company had a “transition” year – getting bigger, moving into new areas (such as hardware and software sales), and some new faces in the staff.   The new office (we moved in Thanksgiving 2010) proved to be a great decision.    Dave’s engagements within the IT community were a great outlet for creativity and new business ideas, and he’s hoping to expand that work into 2012.  

We are really looking forward to 2012.  We can’t announce things just yet, but there are big changes coming to our lives in 2012.  They do NOT include a baby, or more cats, so you’ll just have to stay in touch with us to see what they are!