1997 was a good year for all of us. It was my second year of teaching ESL at Fort Vancouver High School. Believe me, the second year is always much easier than the first. My big transition was last year when I went from teaching groups of 2 or 3 elementary students in New Jersey to teaching up to 40 high school students in one class in Washington. What a difference a "long distance" move makes!

Our biggest thrill in 1997 was moving into a new and much more accommodating house. It is so nice having a house as big as the one we had to leave in NJ. An unexpected bonus is that now we have the nicest neighbors we have ever had. Neighbors make a difference!

With teaching, I don't have time for much else, especially since I've been selected to be on a couple of committees at school - that's in addition to to two weekly staff meetings. However, I do always find time to visit my favorite store at least a couple of times a week (Goodwill, aka "Saks Fourth Plain").

In June, my mother and father came to visit from New Jersey. It was wonderful having them here, and Dad certainly enjoyed the numerous senior activities in Vancouver. It was not such a good trip for my mother, who suffers from Alzheimer's, and was pretty confused most of the time.

I had a special bonus from the school system this year. I was selected to go on an all-expense-paid trip to Russia for 9 days in June. The trip was in commemoration of the 1937 over-the-pole flight (from St. Petersburg to Vancouver) of Valeriy Chkalov - the Russian Lindbergh. The trip was a very big event for our little town and many local dignitaries and educators were in our party of 85. We were wined and dined wonderfully in Russia. I met Cosmonauts, four-star generals, and high government officials. Fortunately, I was able to get away and have dinner and social time with some Russian families. It was a tremendous experience, which can never be repeated. I have learned to appreciate the value of toilet paper.

In August, I took the girls to NJ for our customary visit. My family was all in good health, and it was wonderful to get to see them all. Unfortunately, we had to place Mom in a residence where she can get the constant care she now needs.

1999 has been a year of many changes. We spent most of the year getting ready for Elizabeth's departure for Japan. I was fine until the last couple of weeks before she left when I realized she would be gone for a full year! I now understand why the foreign exchange staff told students to thank their parents because they are making a big sacrifice - how true that is. Having a beloved daughter away for a year is very hard. I just try to remember another thing the officials said. Instead of missing your daughter, concentrate on the fact that she is having a wonderful adventure.

Mary's adjustment to a new (private) school, St. Mary's Academy in Portland, has been important this year. She was hesitant to go - we're going to let her make the decision as to whether she continues there for the rest of her high school. St. Mary's offers a tough college prep curriculum. Mary dove right into it, and is doing extremely well! She is also her homeroom representative, and (at 6'1") plays on the freshman basketball; team.

My mother's death from Alzheimer's was another change. Mom started deteriorating quickly in September and was gone by mid-October. Although she had suffered from the disease for the past seven years, it does not make her passing any easier.

I'm doing fine at school. I'm still teaching ESL reading, which is what I enjoy most.

My year has been filled with numerous stress factors, including my mother's and father's deaths, the retirement of my husband, the wonderful return of my oldest daughter, and the end of my youngest daughter's term as an only child. Other than all of that it has been a normal year.

During my month's stay in New Jersey cleaning out my folks' house I was able to attend my 30th high school reunion. It was great! I went with my old friend who has lived in Missouri since graduation. I still contend that the women look better than the men do.

I played a lot of golf this summer and fall and I'm getting much better, especially my driving.

My school year has been wonderful. I have most of the students that I had last year. That is the best news. They know me, and I know them. I teach reading all day with the Accelerated Reader program I have installed on the six computers in my room, the students finish a book and take a pre-made test on their particular book. So far, my 75 students have read and taken tests on more than 500 books.

I have also become an ESL mentor teacher for the school district, which means I facilitate study groups with regular classroom teachers regarding the ESL students they have in their classes. Thank goodness there is 20% more pay to compensate for frequent after school and weekend events.

All is well in Vancouver. It is great but sometimes nerve wracking having two independent and vociferous teenagers in the house. Let’s put it this way, it is either very quiet in the house because the girls are off somewhere or else it is very lively from the two of them bantering or because all of their friends are over, so there is never a dull moment.

I am having a good year at school. I am trying something new this year, which is teaching half of the day and administering the other half. It has been quite the learning experience. I share this position with one of my colleagues we run the ESL office. I had never realized how much work the office involved. We have 335 students in our ESL program and without a doubt at some moment during the day one student is sick, or in a fight, or in the wrong class, or waiting to get his transcripts approved. I go home more tired than I ever was just teaching, but I love trying new things.

I still play golf. I would love to tell you that I am a much better golfer now but that would be a lie. I usually have a score of 55-65 in 9 holes, and my drives have come a long way.

I did get back to the East Coast during July. It was great. I certainly miss my family.

This year has been a good year. I’m still teaching two classes a day at Fort Vancouver High School and running their ESL program the rest of the day. Most days it is a challenge but I like doing both. We have 330 students in our program as of December, 130 of them are Russian or Ukrainian and another 130 are Hispanic. The rest are Bosnian, Vietnamese, and the like. I still have a good rapport with most of these teenagers and a lot of them stop by my desk daily.

Having Elizabeth away at college has been another challenge for me. She is doing well and is at the right school but I miss our conversations and companionship. I really look forward to the holidays.

On the other side of the coin, I appreciate having time with Mary. I enjoy watching Mary turn into a sweet, caring young lady.

My golf game has remained the same but I have started to paint watercolors again and I love it.

I had a nice ten day period while the rest of my family was floating down the “old” Colorado. I did a lot of socializing with lady friends, saw those “artsy” movies my husband doesn’t like, and had a few interior and exterior decorating surprises for my family when they got home.

The year 2003 brought a big change to my life; I took a year’s leave from my teaching job. Over the past few years William and I had spoken about taking some trips once the girls were both safely at college and this was that special year. I did take the leave with mixed emotions because I do love teaching. In fact to confirm how much I like teaching, I have been subbing a couple times a week and believe you me; you don’t do it for the money or to lower your stress level.

Anyway, to the exciting part, in October William and I took a wonderful trip to Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Austria. Most of the three weeks there was spent on a riverboat moving down three rivers and a canal ending up in Vienna. And if you’re wondering we had great weather and a stateroom better than we have had on any other ship.

In August all four of us went back to the East Coast to see my sister in CT and my brother in PA. We also managed to get to the tent in Ocean Grove and a few Little League games in Williamsport, PA.

Not to forget, last Xmas we took the girls on a great cruise and land trip to the Sea of Cortez and Copper Canyon. Highlights were snorkeling with sea lions on Christmas day and the beautiful haciendas we stayed in.

In general, I am really enjoying being home and spending quality time with William.

I’d love to tell you that I have become a great golfer and watercolor artist but that would be far from the truth. I still love to paint and enjoy hitting that silly little ball around the golf course.

This year has been has been busy in the “get to know your world” category. We started the year in Tanzania on a two week safari, on to Norway in May, with the two girls to Western Europe by riverboat in July and to Egypt in December. It was wonderful getting to go to all those places. I think we went to two extremes cost wise, Norway and Egypt. I bet you can guess which has a cup of hot chocolate for $3.00 or more. My favorite trip was to Europe with Elizabeth and Mary. It was neat having the four of us together as we floated from Antwerp, Belgium to Basel, Switzerland. I’ll never forget the last night as we sat on the open deck watching the sun set in Basel on a beautiful clear evening.

We also went to the east coast to visit my brother and sister in August and to Cancun for my nephew’s wedding in November. Both trips were priceless.

It has been great having Mary at the University of Washington where she can easily take the train home any weekend. We haven’t been with Elizabeth as much because she’s been in Sri Lanka since August. We are so fortunate to have 2 wonderful and responsible daughters.

I am still out on leave from the Vancouver School District. I have to return next year or retire. I have never really gotten into substituting and traveling is too much fun to give up. So, now you know which way I’m leaning. I am still taking an occasional art class and painting, be it watercolors or pastels.

What a grand year we have had! I never would have imagined that I would ever have an opportunity to sleep in a Buddhist temple in Japan, to walk the ancient steps of Beirut, Lebanon, to have a private tour guide in Rome, and to walk in step with hundreds of penguins in Antarctica.

Other than a special visit home to see my family for the holidays our next trip will be down the east coast on the intra-coastal waterway.

Along the way we have given up both our golf membership and our Mt. Hood cabin in exchange for a beautiful floating home on the Columbia River 20 minutes from home. I enjoy the lively summer activities at our marina and William appreciates the quiet fall and winter. So we are both happy.

The girls continue to do well and are always full of surprises and adventures. I love it when one chooses to come for a night or two.

The thing which has had the biggest impact on our daily lives has been our nightly games of Scrabble. We enjoy playing and can become quite serious. Let’s just put it this way, I have memorized the 96 two letter words and Bill keeps track of our point spread amongst other things.

2006 was a good year for me. I sat and watched our older daughter graduate from Whitman College. William and I celebrated our 25th anniversary. I became a prolific watercolor artist. I got to go on three cruises.

There is not much more rewarding then watching your children graduate and knowing you’ve done something right. Elizabeth has since then landed a job with the Army Corps of Engineers.

Regarding our anniversary, twenty five years is a long time but we’ve made it and he still makes me breakfast every morning. To celebrate our 25th we took a cruise from Ft. Lauderdale to Montreal. The cruise was great but the best part was seeing my sister at our Connecticut stop.

In March we took the girls on a week-long cruise from San Diego. We find cruises a good way to spend quality time with them. The cruise was wonderful.

To top it all off, we recently finished our cruise to Africa and South America. The best parts of that cruise were breakfasts in the room and unlimited laundry and ironing service.

Concerning my watercolors, I try to paint every day and on the last cruise I painted fourteen paintings – a new record.

It has been another good year for the Browns. Both girls have now completed their undergraduate degrees and are gainfully employed; in fact they are both working two jobs at the present time. I say that they have one real job and the other one is for fun. I am sure the girls will elaborate more in their articles regarding the double employment.

When we are not traveling I spend many hours each day painting water colors. I paint most anything nowadays.

Thanks to William, we have a web site that shows my paintings to the world. I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I love doing them.

Hello, everyone. This year has seen a couple of firsts. We went on our first cruise of over sixty days to most of the Far East and I transitioned from a hobby watercolor painter to actually displaying and selling my works. Right now I have paintings in two galleries – in one of which I am the artist of the month. It feels great when someone comes up to you and says, “Did you paint this?” The other great compliment is that two of my neighbors have bought paintings from me and have placed them in a prominent spot in their houses, life is wonderful. By the way, on the cruise I painted 18 pictures on sea days.

I am also so proud of my daughters. They both have moved out and have wonderful jobs, so we must have done something right. I am sure they will tell you more.

The Browns took a year off from cruising in 2009 (actually, I took a quick one-week Alaska cruise in the summer) but we do have two cruises planned for next year, one is a small family cruise to Mexico and the other a longer one to the Mediterranean from Florida.

I am still painting watercolors and at this point I have over 100 paintings on the walls of my house “gallery.” I have also sold nearly 95 paintings without spending full days at craft shows. Neighbors and the handymen (who fix various things around our house) seem to be my best customers. I still have paintings hanging in a gallery in Vancouver and in a fish store/restaurant in the local area.

We spent a lot of 2009 planning for our Elizabeth’s wedding. She was very creative and put together a wonderful experience for us all.

Of course, the most exciting day of 2009 was September 19th, when our Elizabeth got married at Skamania Lodge to Scott Streett. I keep telling everyone that I now have a son and hopefully, some grandchildren in the future.

Last year was definitely not a quiet year for the travelling Brown family. We spent 95 days cruising in 2010. In February, we took a short family cruise to Mexico. In May, we took a 56 day cruise to the Black Sea and Mediterranean. To finish off, we took a 33 day cruise to Greenland, Iceland, and northern Europe. In between, I flew to the East Coast with Elizabeth to attend my niece’s (Laura) baby shower. The trips were all wonderful and I would repeat them in a heartbeat.

I am still a watercolorist and I love it. I have paintings for sale in four establishments as well as close to 100 at home either framed or not framed. If you need some paintings in your homes let me know.

I have taken up bowling so I or we go once a week. We are still looking for Vancouverites who play bridge and in the meantime we enjoy going to bingo. I am waiting for the weather to improve so I can play golf.

One more great thing is seeing so much of Elizabeth and her husband, Scott. Fortunately, they often come here or we there for weekends. Liz loves to play games so we get along well, she has that Ransom love for games in her and Scott is always a good sport with his mother-in-law.

Mary is still in Portland in the floating home. It is nice to know she is so close.

2011 has not been a very good year for the Browns. It started off in fine style with Adele & Bill taking bridge lessons. Adele was determined to learn enough to give her sister a good game. It was a lot of fun and Bill even started playing duplicate twice a week. Even then, there were some ominous events - a major foundation repair (jack the house up, then prop it up to level one sinking corner of the house) for one thing. We were also looking forward to some trips – a South America cruise in the fall and a trip to Yellowstone.

Since we couldn’t possibly live without cruising until fall, we took a 10-day voyage up to Alaska in the spring. Things continued in fine style with a two-week visit from Adele’s sister Elaine (the bridge player). We had many delightful outings together, including a trip to Seattle to see Elizabeth graduate with her Master’s degree from the University of Washington – the highlight was a Seattle waterfront tour by Segue where Bill crashed and burned after hitting a fire hydrant. We went to the Portland Grand Floral Parade, which is every bit as good as the New Years Day parade in Pasadena.

In mid-July, we went to Bend, Oregon with Mary to watch her do her first Olympic Triathlon. She did very well for a first timer (especially one who had knee surgery in January!) and a good time was had by all.

No sooner had we returned than we headed to the airport to pick up our niece, Julia Ransom, who arrived for a one-week visit. We had a good time with her. She is a delightful young lady and she entertained us royally.

Unfortunately, about this time (August), the roof fell in. Adele’s Parkinson’s really flared up from being a big annoyance to being a major life problem. We have had to cancel all our trips and steadily adjust our life style to accommodate the situation. It isn’t a lot of fun, but Adele can still get out to some extent and we are learning to cope with the new restrictions on our lives. Adele has inhome assistance three mornings a week so Bill can get out to the gym and run some errands. As an added benefit, Roberta (the home care lady) likes to keep busy and she has been doing a lot of chores for us. Bill has never had such neatly-folded underwear and such well-ironed shirts!

As we start 2012, it looks like Adele’s situation is improving so she can get back to being her old self some more. She is getting the best medical care we can find and things are somewhat stabilized now.

2012 was a slow travelling year for the Browns.

However, we still managed to have a pretty good time with extended visits from Adele’s sister and our (soon-to-be) globetrotting daughter, Elizabeth. Liz was on her way to DC for training as a State Department Foreign Service Officer and eventual deployment to Honduras.

Also on our activity schedule was a driving trip to Boise in June to watch Mary compete in a triathlon. The weather was very cold (41º) and windy. Mary didn’t enjoy her swim (water colder than air) and bike ride (35 mph wind) very much, but she finished with flying (though frozen) colors.

In May, Bill attempted his long-planned (3 years) solo photographic safari to Yellowstone. The trip was such a disaster, it was almost funny. Liz and Scott had driven through Yellowstone in April and reported beautiful, clear, warm weather, so Bill set out in May with great confidence. When he arrived in Yellowstone, he found sub-freezing temperatures and a white-out blizzard! When the snow got up to 10 inches he packed it in and headed for warmer climes. No pictures were taken. Bummer.

We did manage one air trip. We flew to DC in June to see Liz’s “graduation” ceremony from the Foreign Service school. It was good to see Liz and Scott. We were also able to squeeze in visits to Adele’s brother and family.

Liz and Scott came to visit in November so we could meet our new grandson and have two early Thanksgiving dinners. The visit was really grand and little Nelson is a real cutie. We plan to visit them in early 2013 in DC.

Adele continues to enjoy her watercolor painting. She created quite a few of them in 2012 and put the best ones in a 2013 calendar.

Despite a few health problems, we managed to get in some trips this year. We made two trips to DC to visit Elizabeth, Scott, and our adorable grandson Nelson (actually, we went just to visit Nelson, but his parents also happened to be there). Nelson also flew out here in May for a week’s visit with us and brought his parents with him. Adele’s sister and her husband came out for a visit in July. It was great having them, and they got away from the Florida summer! In December, we are planning a trip to Florida to visit them. Turnabout is fair play and we will be happy to get out of the rain for a bit. We were able to end the summer with our first cruise (to Alaska) in a couple of years. It was nice to get back on a ship again, even for a short trip.

We bid farewell to our floating home this year. We hadn’t been using it all that much and sold it to someone who plans to live on the river full-time.

Of course, the big news for 2013 is the engagement of our daughter, Mary. Her fiancé, Jared Weiner, is a great guy and we look forward to having him in the family. (There is absolutely no truth to the rumor that Bill paid Jared to take Mary off his hands!)

We’re still playing Scrabble every evening. After 8+ years, the current box score is: Adele – 759; Bill – 1196; for a total of 1955 games played. Number 2000, here we come!

This has been a very mixed year. There were some truly joyful events — and some of the other kind, too.

2014 started (or maybe 2013 ended) on a happy note. We flew to Tampa to visit Adele’s sister in their new beachfront digs in Longboat Key. As always, Elaine’s hospitality was wonderful and we got to see our nieces and nephews and their children. At one point there were 7 little boys, ages 6 months to 6 years bouncing around the place. What a scene!

As icing on the cake, our daughters Elizabeth and Mary – with their families – joined us. We spent Christmas on a short (7-day) cruise through the Western Caribbean. The weather was beautiful and the time spent together was priceless.

We returned home after New Years and prepared to enjoy another Pacific Northwest winter. The rain, wind, and cold did not disappoint and came through right on schedule, but we didn’t mind, because we were anticipating a new granddaughter from Liz and a new son-inlaw from Mary during the summer.

Both events came off as planned and were very special.

As if a new grandbaby wasn’t exciting enough, Liz chose our downstairs bedroom as the maternity ward. Old Granddad was pretty nervous, but, as always, Liz was very efficient and granddaughter Matilda was born without a hitch. Mother & baby were fine. Even Granddad survived!

Liz, Scott, our grandson (Nelson) and the new baby stayed with us for almost two months and it was really a delight.

Mary’s wedding was especially nice since several of Adele’s family made the long trek westward. In addition, my son Scott Brown and my granddaughter Jesse were able to come as was my daughter Kim Heiser, her husband Terry, and my granddaughter Emily. It was so great to see them all and to have them celebrate the occasion with us.

The rest of the year was not as joyful. After a lot of agonizing, the family decided it was time to move to assisted living. For those of you who have had family members go through this, I don’t need to tell you how difficult it was. We moved in to a very nice place on Dec. 5th and are still adjusting. Our unit is a very spacious 2 BR, 2 bath apartment and we are not as crowded as we thought we’d be. We’re still settling in and going through transition pains, but the staff and other residents are really nice and helpful people. There are many activities and programs so we are busier than we were at home! There is a swimming pool and a gym to keep us in shape. The food is nearly as good as it was on the cruise ships.

My health is still holding up pretty well and I’m looking forward to making some new friends. However, it must be said the Adele is of the opinion that “they’re all old people!” Well dear, so are we