Christmas 1999 (first child born)

January 8, 2000

Dear Family & Friends:
Here we are in January 2000 having survived that pesky Y2K bug. It appears that our home computer survived the event without noticeable impact so we (actually, I, Larry) are sitting down to share some of our year’s activities and accomplishments. I planned to send something out during the Holiday season but time was not on my side. It’s amazing just how quickly one’s millenium can just slip away. But first…some lingering news from 1998 since we failed to generate the letter last year. Just bear with me here and I’m sure you’ll make it through this.
Beth and I (along with our two four-legged, furry children) moved into a new old house in October 1998. We did this to celebrate our one-year anniversary. The house is about 22 years old and had a “very Brady” look about it: never been updated. We’ve spent some time, money, time, money, and time at some updates. It now has a nice “very Brady but somewhat updated” look about it. This is really a slow process, but we’re making progress. It has plenty of living and sleeping space, with closets that really seem to fit a much smaller house. We do love the neighborhood, yard, area of town, and basic layout of the house. Tracker and Daisy (our two four-legged, furry children) are quite happy with the place now that they have a big yard to patrol. We are happy here in the last home we’ll ever own (yeah right).
A couple of trips were included in 1999’s activities. In May, Beth and I visited a Little Rock friend currently living in Oak Ridge, TN. We took the opportunity to spend some time in the Smokey Mountains and at least one factory outlet mall. We really had a great time. As luck would have it, we’ll be heading out again in June 2000 for his wedding.
In July, we headed south to Auburn, AL for some wedding festivities. It was good to spend time with several of our friends from church who also made the trip. Auburn is a nice little city with highs in the 100s on July 31st.
Of course the biggest highlight of 1999 was the birth of our son Lawson Ford on October 26th. We did this to celebrate our two-year anniversary. He started out his life by giving his parents some scary moments (although his morphine-laced mother didn’t really realize it at the time) but everything turned out just fine. He just needed a few hours to get accustomed to his new environment. Beth was a real trooper through the pregnancy as well as the labor and birth. It was touch-and-go there for a few hours; I thought she was going to quit. But we were pretty much committed at that point and decided to go through with it. I’m glad we did.
Why didn’t anyone really tell us about the first few weeks of parenthood? We were sure the model we had picked up at the hospital was faulty in that it had absolutely no volume control and a seemingly endless supply of “waste products”.
Lawson, his parents, and his four-legged furry siblings are all getting along just fine. We just do whatever Lawson requests and things work out. He is really starting to respond to us and we are really feeling some of the joys of parenthood. (Can you believe I’m saying this?)
We spent Thanksgiving with the Templetons in Fayetteville this year. Christmas was spent with the McCollum clan in Russellville. We welcomed the New Year back in Fayetteville. I was able to get some very valuable video footage of the nieces and nephew counting down the millenium. This will surely embarrass them in about 15 years.
I guess this about wraps up our message. I have included our address, email addresses, and telephone numbers below so that you can update your Rolodex (or Palm Pilot). We hope you and your family have a great 2000! Who knows what we’ll do to celebrate our three year anniversary this coming October.