Hello.  I know, I fell of the face of the earth.  Not really, life happened.  Yep, a lot of life happened.

Anna is 3 1/2 and we live in Wilkesboro, NC.  I have been going to Gardner Webb University finishing my bachelor's degree and will graduate in August!  I plan on going to graduate school at App State if they will have me, to major in Higher Education, Developmental Studies.  I have been working over a year now at a group home for adults with developmental disabilities and I have been working at the local community college as a notetaker and as a teaching assistant (well, that ended last semester, but may happen again in the future if there are enough students.)

I finally started my non-profit-The H.E.L.P Center for Developmental Disabilities this past December and am in the processing of updating my website-developmental-disabilities.org-to reflect the mission of the organization.  I am recruiting both board members and charter members.  I am very excited.  We applied for a grant through Kindermusik.com/grants and are competing with 37 marvelous ideas for a prize of $1000.  You can vote for us by going to the kindermusik.com/grants site and hit the "all ideas" button.  Then scroll down til you find my idea-creating a resource guide for special needs families and click on the green circle that says VOTE.  Then scroll up and a voting box will appear.  Thanks.  You can vote up to ten times a day!

Mike is still doing his computer thing.  Anna is talking up a storm.  She loves being outside, looking at books, and going on road trips with her mommy.  Today we went to the Barnes and Noble in Winston Salem, because it is the closest one to us in Wilkesboro.  Hickory is just about as far, but we decided to have an adventure and go to Winston.

Anyway, that is a really quick update.  Can't wait til warmer weather, we got a boat this fall and look forward to getting it out on the water.  It is just a john boat, but it is the first boat we have ever owned.  Wilkesboro has a lot of water and we really want to spend some great family time enjoying the great outdoors around here.

We are trying to get our family site updated with photos and such.  I will be getting out another message from Anna soon and will be reworking the Mikaranna for Kids store.  Mikaranna for Kids will be a social enterprise to support the non-profit.  This means that 75% of the profits from Mikaranna for Kids will go directly to The H.E.L.P. Center.  Anyway, we are preparing for yet another winter storm and totally dreading it-I just heard on the news.

Until next time....stay warm and take care during this chilly winter.  If you are reading this from somewhere warm-if there is anywhere warm at this point-then I hope you sweat too much and get a terrible sunburn!  haha