This year marks a first for us -- placing an annual newsletter on our
website. You gotta have access to the internet to see it now!
(You will see thumbnail photos in a few places below. If you click on
them, you will bring up a larger image of the picture. To get back to the
letter, use the "back" function of your browser. Also, there are
several points throughout the letter where a website "hotlink" was
created. They were placed there to enable you to jump to another website
to give you more information about what is being talked about. )
Dear Friends and Family,
Happy 2001! Our family sincerely hopes that you and yours had a very
Merry Christmas and a truly Happy New Year! As we begin the 21st century, this is a
time for reflection, a time for evaluating our goals and our achievements
towards those goals. How did you do in this past year? How did Y2K affect you?
If you are reading this, you have noticed that we are trying something new
this year -- placing our "year in review" on this web site. It enables
us to provide you with much more information and pictures than we could have
otherwise in an annual newsletter. Hopefully you have access to the Internet and
can access our site. We would love to get your feedback on our little
experiment!
Family
Because of Y2K and Dale's line of work, our year had an unusual start. Dale
was about 14 months into a consulting engagement at Seattle-based Holland
America Line - Westours as an Oracle
Applications DBA for their Financials installation and interface support. HALW
put together a Y2K "retainer" for Dale's services and asked him to be
on-site when 1999 became 2000. They put our whole family up at a hotel one-block
down the street just in case something happened and his services would be
needed. We looked at it as a bit of an adventure and had some fun. Some of
Dale's HALW co-workers were in rooms on the same floor. We played Pictionary and
watched the TV as the New Year was rung in around the world without any Y2K
issues. Tammy and the kids followed Dale over to HALW just before midnight where
Dale helped shutdown the Financials system and databases. Then we all went up on
the roof of the five-story building to see what kind of celebrations we could
see. Their office is located near the Puget Sound shoreline on the north-end of
Seattle, just west of Seattle Center.
We all got a great view of the fireworks shooting off from the Space
Needle! No lights went out anywhere, no buildings exploded, no planes fell
out of the sky. Afterwards, we all went down and started up the computers,
databases and Financials systems without any hitches. Dates came up just fine.
The months of planning and the minor bug fixes and software patches that got
applied helped add the HALW systems to the growing list of other Y2K
non-events. After sleeping in, we all headed down to Dale's sister Penny's
place in Tacoma where we spent the rest of the New Years holiday.
Our home went through some of
its final big remodeling changes this last year. The gas furnace got replaced
(probably 30 years old and was on it's last legs). We gutted the two bathrooms
down to the studs and replaced virtually everything. It was a bit interesting
for us for a couple of weeks going without a bathtub or a shower! We made do
with sponge baths and washing our hair in the kitchen sink until one of the
bathrooms had a semi-working shower. We also finished the un-finished utility
room downstairs. There was plumbing for another ˝ bathroom (toilet and sink) in
the utility room as well so we had that installed too. Then we painted the
outside of the house. It was long overdue but kept getting put down on the
priority list. Now we have been through virtually every room in the house since
we bought it back in 1990. All that is left is some minor updating here and
there -- the usual stuff that never seems to never be done. Tammy is appeased for
the time being -- and that is important!
We completed our 17th year attending our church, Westminster
Chapel in Bellevue. (If you are not familiar with it, we are a good-sized
church with attendance some where around 1500 on any given Sunday.) We really
enjoy the direction that Pastor Gary Gulbranson is helping to lead us and the
subtle changes that some of the services are taking on. We got a new pastor of
music who Dale got to know a little bit better in a smaller group setting at the
Men's retreat. Really appears to have a Godly heart and is very down-to-earth.
Dale and Tammy changed Sunday school classes again. The children's program
went through a few changes in the last year or so and the older two kids needed
a place to go to during the time that we were attending our class. Dale really
wanted them to experience the children's choir program that meets during the
11:00 hour. Kids join their parents in the "adult" service up until
just about the time the pastor's sermon is to begin, then they all head off to
Children's Choir. They put on another great children's Christmas program for the
church this year and Tyler even had a small solo! He has a good voice but
sometimes is reluctant to use it. For now, Farris is kind of going along for the
ride. Although he is not old enough yet, Casey appears to want to get up there
soon. He loves music and may have the best talent of the bunch.
Dale and Tammy knew several of the people in this new 9:30 Sunday school
class so it was not a hard switch to make. We have had fun getting to know some
of them a little bit better this past year. They had a summer weekend class
family retreat at Cascades Camp and
Conference Center (located 25 miles east of Olympia and Interstate 5, near
Yelm) that we all went to. The kids enjoyed the time -- especially the Blob!
(Ask them, and Tammy, about it sometime!)
Dale, Tyler and Grandpa Rae (Dennis) attended Father/Son weekend at Warm
Beach Family Camp this summer. We were one of only two multi-generational
attendees there. The weekend was a surprise for Tyler and he had a blast having
Dad and Grandpa to himself the whole weekend. Dale really enjoyed it too and we know
that his Dad did as well. We just might have to make this an annual thing!
This summer we had most of the five Rae siblings and their families in one
spot for a day or two (except for James who is working a new business in
Portland). It is difficult to get us all together now days since we all live in
different areas and have conflicting schedules. Brother Steve (Mary) and sister
Penny (Mark) live in the Puget Sound area but Dale's youngest brother, Jim, and
his wife Marcie live outside of Boise, ID. They visited us so we had a good
excuse to have everyone over. The reason for their visit requires your prayers,
however. Their two oldest children (another joined the fold later in July,
Mallory Lucille) have some health challenges. Madison, who is the oldest at 4,
has been having seizures in the past year or so and is on seizure medications.
Doctors have so far been a little stumped as to the exact cause. They came to
Seattle to visit a Specialist at Children's
Hospital and Medical Center to see if they could get some answers. Little
Jonah, who has PKU, is getting old enough now to realize that he does not always
get to eat what everyone else can so tougher times are coming. Again, your
prayers would be appreciated.
Our family vacation this year was a big hit with the kids -- Disneyland!!
(OK, Dale and Tammy enjoyed it too!) Dale took a couple of days off on either
side of a weekend in August and we spent five days in the Magic Kingdom, which
was plenty. The days were a bit hot so we opted to stay up as late in the cooler
evenings as the kids could handle it, then slept in the next morning. Most
nights, they made it to the midnight closing. If was Casey's first trip on an
airplane, which he thought was pretty cool.
We hosted the Rae family Thanksgiving again this year, which was no small
feat! Dale's brother James and brother Jim's family were the only ones who were not
there from a Rae clan that also included Grandma and Grandpa Rae from Wenatchee
(Dennis and Connie). We were also glad to have Dale's distant cousins, Lee and
Christine Jacobson and their children, back from a few years in Switzerland
where Christine is from. In total, there were ten adults and eleven kids seated
around our dining room and living room. Tammy, with Grandma's help and some
potluck help from others, pulled off a wonderful feast and a good time was had
by all. The cousins had a ball playing with each other and we believe our house
has mostly recovered now…
We spent Christmas at Dale's parents home in Wenatchee
this year. It has been quite a few years since we have done that. (In recent
years, we have had our Christmas at home here in Kirkland to try to begin
establishing some of our own family traditions.) Penny and her family were also
there so we had a houseful at Grandma and Grandpa's place, but it was fun. And
there was snow! The kids had a ball, tubing down the gentle slope of the back
pasture. We opened our presents on Christmas Eve. Then Dale, brother-in-law Mark
and Grandpa (Dennis) went skiing up at Mission
Ridge on Christmas day. There were still a few spots that were a bit light
on snow (translation: rocks!) but it was a great day of skiing and "guy
time". The "gals" spent the day chatting and preparing the
Christmas dinner while all the kids were outside playing in the snow. The day
after Christmas, Grandma and Grandpa even arranged for us all to go on a real
sleigh ride at a horse ranch outside of Leavenworth.
The time seemed to go by much too fast but we did get a chance to quickly visit
with some old Wenatchee area friends on the last day or so. We just don't seem
to be able to spend that much time there anymore.
Dale and Tammy
This August 24th marked our fifteenth wedding anniversary. WOW! Doesn't seem
like it has been that long. Dale got Tammy some golf clubs so she can start
picking up the game that Dale has been flirting with for the past four years. It
is something that we want to be able to do together well into our retirement
years. Time to get Tammy started!
We continue to play coed volleyball together on a Kirkland
city league team that Dale organizes called "Mix and Match". The
Winter 2000 season marked the second season in a row that we won our B1 division
so we opted to move up to the "A" division this last Fall. Competition
was definitely a lot stiffer but as a team we feel this is where we belong so we
will stick it out for a season or two and see if we can meet the challenge! We
enjoy the night out together as well as the time we spend with the friends we
have on the team.
We also went in with several others again on Seattle
Mariners (baseball) season tickets. Everyone in the group splits up
the approximately 80-game home schedule and we end up going to around 10 games
during the season. We looked at the games as mostly a "Dale &
Tammy" date but Dale did take Tyler to a game on his birthday which they
both enjoyed.
A
chapter was finally closed this past fall. One of Dale's good friends from high
school and college days finally got married -- Pat O'Connell. Pat is currently a
pilot for Delta Airlines and has lived back east for quite a few years, near to
the major hubs for the airlines he has worked for during the years since he left
the Air Force. We took a quick weekend trip to Macon, Georgia to attend the
wedding (while Grandma and Grandpa Rae watched the kids at our house). Catherine,
his new bride, is a real sweetheart. They met at the church that Pat has been
attending. Dale really enjoyed seeing Pat and catching up a little bit -- as
well seeing the whole O'Connell clan and their families. We wished we could have
spent a little more time there…
Dale
In January, Dale hit the big 40, but that was only the beginning of
a year full of new things in store for him.
Dale had some big occupational changes take place in 2000. For over
two years, he had worked for a northwest-based Oracle software consulting firm, ECS.
He was one of the original employees when it started back in 1997. For many
years, though, Dale had a desire to see what it would be like to be out on
his own. After talking with an old business partner for over six months about
the possibilities, he decided to give his two-week notice. Leaving ECS was not
an easy decision for Dale to make. The company was doing very well and had grown
to over 80 people. He had made many friends among his peers and earned a mutual
respect with many of those in senior management. In November of 1998, Computer
Sciences Corporation (CSC), one of the largest consulting firms in the
world, acquired them and ECS was being looked at to shore up the west coast
Oracle practice for CSC. The future looked bright and stable.
In the end, however, Dale still decided to strike out on his own. His long-time
college friend, Larry Brown (a lawyer and CPA) helped put together and file the legal
paperwork and Rae Consulting, LLC was born.
On February 1st, he started his first consulting contract at Flight Safety
Boeing International -- a joint venture between Boeing and Fight Safety Training
International. As the work on that contract started to slow down, however, Dale
started thinking about what his next contract might be.
In March, Dale received a call from a friend at church who he had gotten to
know a little bit better the previous year while coaching the church softball
team that they both were on. This friend was working for a well-financed startup
company called Terabeam Networks and they
were in need of someone who had good Oracle
software skills. At the time, Dale was not really interested in becoming an
employee again with his consulting business off to a great start but thought
there would be an opportunity for a future consulting engagement. If wouldn't
hurt to go in and hear what they had to say…
After six and a half hours of interviewing with several people, including the
VP of the division, Terabeam decided they liked him and made him an offer before
he left. Dale was a little overwhelmed to say the least. After a few days of
soul-searching, talking with colleagues around town, calling Terabeam back to
answer more of our questions, Dale made one last phone call. He countered their
offer and, one-day later, they accepted it. He started fulltime on May 1st and
now works about five miles away from home, another big plus. We won't go into
all of the details about what Terabeam does (or hopes to do!) but you can check
out their website at http://www.terabeam.com
if you would like to know more. Or ask Dale the next time you talk to him.
In March, Dale was able to go to a Holland America "reunion".
It included many of the people he worked with during the six years he worked
there fresh out of college. It was great to see and catch up with some
people he had not seen or heard from in quite awhile. Time goes by so
fast!
Dale was elected to and just completed his 5th term of office on the NorthWest
Oracle Users Group volunteer Board of Directors (seven members). Many of
those years he served as the President of the four-state group but is beginning
to think about transitioning on. The group is thriving and puts on two great
conferences a year but it might be good to bring in some more new blood. As the
kids get older, more time spent volunteering for this is less time he can spend
with the family.
Dale continues to help out with the Sports Ministries at Westminster. Most of
this is centered on the organization of the softball program (that has three to
four softball teams during the spring and summer) playing in a city league at
Marymoor Park in Redmond.
This year their four softball teams posted a combined 42-17-1 record for a
winning percentage of .700. No club finished below the .500 mark and two
qualified for post-season play. The men's Division I second season team that
Dale managed had a perfect 14-0 record, advancing to the multi-league and
multi-divisional tournament where they played against some of the best teams in
Bellevue and Redmond. In this strong field, they finished the tournament in 3rd
place for a great end to the softball season.
More importantly, though, in the last year Dale has been talking with one of
his other coaches about other possibilities of outreach for Westminster Sports
Ministries. This coach has a heart for sports ministry and is a freelance sports
writer. This last year he wrote two issues of a Westminster Sports newsletter,
which were published and distributed by Westminster. Dale created an initial
website for the softball program and is looking to expand it for more of the
Sports Ministries.
Tammy
Tammy continues to run the household and enjoys being a stay-at-home mom. She
is still content in her decision to leave her professional nursing career in
order to raise our children. It is a decision we both are constantly reminded
the importance of -- at least for our family -- given the many newsworthy items
that float across the various media mediums these days as a direct result of
dysfunctional family situations. Being a daily part of our kid's lives is so
important during these impressionable years. We want to be the ones who daily
provide them instruction, show them the values that we hold dear, comfort them
when they are hurting, rejoice with them during their triumphs, bring them up in
a loving, Christian environment -- OK, we'll get off our soapbox now…
As the main chauffer for many of the kid's activities, she is on the go quite
often. This year she volunteered for a few PTA projects at school, including a
leading role in the successful school fundraiser.
Tammy loves to work in the yard and it is source of relaxation for her. She
can spend hours out there, and does quite often. She has transformed the
landscaping around our home over the years to be one of the prettiest in the
neighborhood. She has quite a bountiful vegetable garden as well, providing us
with fresh garden treats throughout the summer. The kids love it.
On Sunday nights, for several sessions, Tammy continued to play in an SPU
(our old alma mater) coed volleyball league. Dale could not play regularly
because most of our baby sitters were unable to sit on Sunday nights and taking
the kids with us to matches was too hard on them. Dale chose to stay home with
the kids while Tammy got the extra night out. Good female volleyball players are
harder to find so she was a bigger overall asset to the team anyway -- an easy
decision to make.
Tyler
Tyler turned 10 this August and is now in 4th grade. He continues to do very
well in school. He is very outgoing, will talk to anybody of any age about
anything, and has no trouble making friends. We sometime have to go rescue some
poor adult who asked Tyler the "wrong question" and is in the middle
of a 10-minute dissertation on the finer points of a particular Game Boy game or
something! He loves to read, has exceptional writing skills (received several
awards at school over the years for his stories), loves to build with his
growing sets of Lego blocks and plays on the family computer whenever we let
him.
One of the big changes for Tyler this year was at school. His ITBS scores
(Iowa Test of Basic Skills, given to all students around the country) were high
enough (top 5%) to gain him an invitation to a "gifted" program in our
district called Quest,
so we entered him into the one-day pull out program. This "Enriched Pull
Out" program "…provides extension and supplemental learning
experiences with an emphasis on higher level thinking. Students are high
achievers whose basic learning needs can be met in the regular classroom; but
whose mental ability demands a challenging, enriching curriculum." In the
last year or so, Tyler had shown signs of being bored in school and we were
concerned that he was not being challenged enough. Maybe this will be just the
thing for him. So far, he has really enjoyed it and is doing exceptional work,
according to his Quest teacher. He is also keeping up and doing well with his
regular class work at Robert Frost
Elementary, a condition of the Quest program.
He played baseball again this year, his first year of kid-pitch. As you can
imagine, at this young age the frequency that a young pitcher can throw the ball
anywhere near the strike zone is pretty low! But they have to learn sometime.
Consequently, there were generally lots of walks given to batters. Tyler started
off well, but unfortunately got hit by a couple of pitches in a few early games
and never got over being gun-shy the rest of the year. In practices, when the
coach pitched, he was not afraid and did as well as anyone on the team. But in a
game, his mind would take over and he would not trust any kid to get it over the
plate and would start backing away as the pitch came. We will have to wait and
see if he wants to try it again this next season.
Along with his brother and sister, Tyler spent lots of time during the summer at
our neighborhood pool. (So did Tammy, actually.) He had a few swimming lessons
and did well. The swimming helped his conditioning for playing soccer later in
the Fall and we noticed a difference in his stamina. He really enjoyed soccer
this year and never complained about being too tired. They had a pretty good
team, coached by men we have known for several years who are great with the
kids. Along with finishing in 2nd place in their division, they finished with
the highest sportsmanship points per game of any of their divisional rivals.
During the school year, most Monday nights still find Dale and Tyler off to
either a Den or Pack meeting in the Cub
Scouts program where Tyler is now working on his Webelos badge, his fourth
year in Cub scouts. This next year, Dale will have to pull double-duty assuming
Casey wants to be in scouts too.
Farris
Farris turned 8 in September and is in the 2nd grade. She loves school and
continues to do well there. She loves to read and will jump at any opportunity
to read with us. She has quite a doll collection and will play in her room for
hours with them and their accessories. As with Tyler, although not to his
degree, she also likes to build with Lego blocks. She has her own Game Boy and
will also play on the family computer whenever we give her the opportunity. As
mentioned above, Farris also spent lots of time during the summer at our
neighborhood pool. She is a little water bug and is swimming as good as Tyler
is. You probably noticed by her school picture that she got braces this
year too.
The biggest thing for Farris this past year began with another invitation to
join a local gymnastics team. For several years Tammy has signed her up for
beginning "ballet" and gymnastics sessions -- all of which Farris
seemed to really enjoy. She showed she had great flexibility, some artistic
flair and athleticism even then -- as well as some tenacity and determination to
"get it right" that seemed out of place for someone so young. Two
years ago, Farris was asked to join the Northshore
Gymnastics team -- and we tried it for a month -- but Farris was not quite
ready for the mandatory three hour, twice a week practice sessions. What a
difference a year makes, however.
This last year, Farris joined the team and has really taken off. (For those of
you that might know something about young girls gymnastics, she is a Level 4.)
We are constantly amazed at the things our little eight year-old can do! On her
team, she was one of only three at her level to qualify for the Fall State meet
in Olympia this past December. She competed against 19 other state qualifiers in
balance beam, floor exercise, vault and bars -- and finished in sixth place in
the all-around competition. Not
bad for her first year!
Casey
Casey turned 5 in August and, just like his older two siblings did before
him, is attending Rose Hill Presbyterian Christian Pre-School. He loves going
and is beginning to adapt to a structured school-like environment. He loves
books and being read to and is just starting to sound out letters to words. It
won't be long before he is reading by himself. He loves music, sings well for
his age (translation: on key), and at the end of any movie is the first one to
want to get up and dance to the closing music! He is a very happy child with a
ready smile for anyone. Casey idolizes his big brother and wants to do
everything that he does. He also loves to build with Lego blocks, has his own
Game Boy, and will play on the family computer anytime.
Casey had his first real swimming lessons this summer. The first day he went
kicking and screaming, which made a nice scene for Tammy to have to deal with,
but we knew he had an instructor experienced with small children. By the end of
his first lesson, he was over his initial fear and doing things better than most
of the kids in his class. He continued to do well throughout the summer and has
become another one of our water babies.
No sports for Casey yet, but he will probably start T-ball this coming year. He
may also want to start Cub Scouts too, which will keep Dale hopping.
Well, that about wraps things up for this "Year 2000 In Review". We
hope you enjoyed it and that we helped to provide you with some more insight
into our family, particularly those of you that we do not get to see very often.
For you out-of-towners, if any of you are ever in the area, please be sure to
look us up!
Dale, Tammy, Tyler, Farris, Casey
