The Collier Family Blog

Sunday, 12 January 2020

2019 in Review

Dear family and friends,

It's 2020! We're looking forward to many things in 2020, but let's take a look back at 2019.

Kayleigh moved from eighth grade to her freshman year in (home school) high school. She danced with Ballet Excelsior Trainees in the spring, going to both Project Dance Houston and Project Dance New York. Naomi went with her on the New York trip and though the girls got caught in pouring rain on the first night, it otherwise went really well. Over the summer Kayleigh made a change and is now dancing with Magnify Dance's junior company and teaching a tap class, too. She continues to work on tap skills and keeps a connection with Excelsior by taking a tap class there. In December, both she and Abigail danced in the Christmas Spectacular at Champion Forest Baptist church, one of the main campuses for Magnify. They were very busy with rehearsals in November and into December. They performed in seven shows from a Thursday to a Sunday. The transition to high school has been challenging but she is working her way through it.

In March, Abigail was offered a position as a hip hop instructor at Magnify when their current instructor unexpectedly had to leave. It was quite a challenge to step in and almost immediately have to create choreography for their end of year show, but she pulled it off magnificently. In the summer she went to Parkersburg, West Virginia with Open Sky to do a week-long children's program with a church in the middle of a very poor area where much of the adult population struggles with substance abuse. She came back with her heart full for all the children she worked with. This fall she began teaching ballet and tap at Magnify and then was asked to step in for an injured dancer for the Christmas Spectacular. She and Kayleigh really enjoyed it though it was physically and mentally exhausting. Abigail will be graduating from high school in May.

Aidan began taking a couple of classes at Lone Star, managing to work around his full schedule at the Shadowbend YMCA. He took three more courses in the fall. He keeps in contact with his brother in Japan the most of any of us because they regularly meet up on a gaming platform and join forces in some epic game scenario. He also took on being a dungeon master (basically a director) for a group of friends that he and Tartan Alex used to get together with to play D&D style games. He loves providing unique voices for the characters that they meet in each game. He is great at making up his own voices, but he's also a mimic. At our new year's dinner, we were discussing the last trilogy of the Star Wars series, and in a sudden silence as the girls were talking about Kylo Ren and Rey, he said "Give me your hand" and we all could have sworn Kylo Ren was at the table!

Kyrie spent this year taking classes, working, and being producer for UTD ATEC animation lab's short, Stargazer. Animation lab is a two semester course that incorporates the various specialties in ATEC (Arts, Technology and Emerging Communication) into a production team somewhat like what they would experience in the professional world. Tartan and I were able to attend the premiere and it was superbly done. She graduates in the spring, but she has a capstone project to complete, classes to finish, an admin job for the research department and her volunteer work with fifth graders at her church.

Tartan Alex was able to spend a week home with us from Christmas to new year's day. We all were happy to have him here and we spent time playing games, watching all eight episodes of The Mandalorian, and seeing The Rise of Skywalker. He teaches English to elementary school age children in Tomei, a rural area of Mito, Japan. He enjoys it even though there are a few difficult children, but aren't there always? Currently, he's planning on staying another year before coming back and doing something new.

Speaking of Tartan Alex, Tartan (the elder) and Naomi went to Japan in July to visit him. It was an amazing trip. We walked around the Akihabara district of Tokyo, had dinner with my cousin, spent a couple of days in Kyoto and saw T. Alex's cozy apartment in Tomei. One of the highlights of the trip was being invited to visit his main school where we sat in on one of his classes and had lunch with another class after having a tour of the school. We got to participate in the lesson because the children were supposed to ask one another "what do you do on {day of the week}?" Once they found out they could ask us- they all lined up. Another memorable experience was attending church at Kyoto International Church. It was truly international with members from Japan, the US, Germany, Nigeria and China, among others. We sang in Japanese and English and the pastor spoke in Japanese while another member translated to English. It was an "event" Sunday in that everyone was encouraged to wear a summer kimono and they had extras for those who didn't have one.

Enchantment of the Seas next to Symphony of the Seas

As we finish this up, we just returned from our annual trip. We traveled aboard Enchantment of the Seas to Cozumel, Mexico on a four night trip. The best part was probably not having to do anything but show up for food. The worst part was motion sickness for some of us on three of the evenings when there were heavy winds. I found myself wishing we were on Symphony of the Seas, the largest passenger ship in the world, which towered over us at dock in Cozumel. We enjoyed listening to karaoke several nights, seeing the very talented performers in the musical shows, and just sitting out on deck or in one of the covered locations, reading, listening to music or just taking in the sunset. A few long naps were also indulged in and the girls had fun at Dancing Under the Stars.

As we look forward to all that God has in store for 2020, we hope and pray all the best for you and yours!

Love, the Colliers

Friday, 25 January 2019

2018 Year in Review

Kayleigh at Christmas

Aidan at graduation

Abigail from an Open Sky photo shoot

At the Lindsey Sterling\Evanescence concert on our anniversary

T. Alex before heading to Japan

Kyrie in Tennessee

Kayleigh didn't feel left out this year!

Dear family and friends,

Another year has flown by, and it’s time for yet another New Year’s missive from the Colliers. 2018 was an eventful year; here are a few of the highlights:

In April, Tartan Alex moved to Mito, Japan to teach English at a couple of elementary schools in Ibaraki Prefecture. This was a huge step, but one that Tartan Alex embraced wholeheartedly. Between learning the area - and how to navigate on foot, bicycle, bus and train!, putting together lesson plans, and figuring out how to do all the basic things of life when everything is written in a different language, he’s certainly keeping busy.

Kyrie continues to enjoy a busy college life at UTD. She attended two conferences as the marketing director for UTD TV, one in Minneapolis and one in Seattle. She applied and was accepted as the assistant production manager for the second semester of animation lab which produced an animated short called “Drift”. She is looking forward to being the producer for the next two-semester animation lab. She has also become more active at her church, volunteering with middle school girls.

In May, Aidan officially became a high school graduate of the Class of 2018. Congratulations, Aidan! Since then, he has been working as a nearly-full-time lifeguard for the YMCA, and will be taking classes at Lone Star Community College starting in the spring of 2019. Aidan also attended the National Order of the Arrow Conference at Indiana University in the summer, and was called out for the OA’s “Vigil Honor” - a very prestigious accomplishment! - in October.

In July, Abigail went to Mongolia as part of Ballet Excelsior’s “Saviour” ballet tour. The company danced two shows in the capital city of Ulaan-Baataar and one show in Darkhan, accompanied by a full choir and the Mongolian Military Orchestra. Like last year's trip to Bulgaria, Naomi went along as the photographer/videographer and Tartan provided tech support for lighting, sound, and prop construction. In the fall, Abigail began dancing as an intern with Open Sky Arts Collective, and she is absolutely loving it! In the lead up to Christmas, they had several inspirational performances at churches, children’s hospitals, and senior living centers.

Kayleigh continues to dance with Excelsior in their trainee program, and had a number of performances as well, including a busy weekend of shows just before Christmas. She officially became a teenager in June and has grown a lot this year. She’s taking two outside classes (writing and science) as part of our homeschool and doing very well in them.

Tartan continues work at ExxonMobil. He is also still the assistant children's supervisor at Bible Study Fellowship, where he is joined by Abigail in the senior level children's class and by Aidan, now in an adult discussion group. (Aidan also has the distinction of being the youngest "adult" in the entire BSF class!) This year, Tartan started playing with the music team at church, playing the cajon for a couple of months before shifting over to play bass keyboard. Both Naomi and Tartan have been trained as facilitators for GriefShare, a grief recovery program, and are helping to host a course being offered nearby. Naomi is still the treasurer for our homeschool association, Homewood, and every year she keeps adjusting to having older children.

Our big family trip this year was to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. We stayed in a mountain cabin in Sevierville, and made a couple of day trips into Pigeon Forge and to Cades Cove (in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park). The rest of the time we spent watching movies, playing games, and generally enjoying each other’s company.

That's what the Colliers have been up to this past year. We hope that, just as we have seen God working in and through us, that you have been similarly blessed. Looking forward to what 2019 holds in store!

Love,
Tartan, Naomi and the Collier Crew

Sunday, 7 January 2018

** IMPORTANT NOTE: This is the post for last year. 2018's post follows this one so don't miss it! **

Greetings to our friends and family as we head into 2017!

Another year has swept past and we hope it's been a blessed one for you whether in ups or downs.

We headed north this year through Missouri and on to Michigan. We drove through Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee and Kentucky. Over 3000 miles. We visited family and friends. We ate lunch at the restaurant Tartan's mom had her first job and then visited with extended family. In Michigan we spent New Year's Eve with a sweet family we visited last year- in California! And we spent a (too) short time with a friend of Naomi's from junior high who recently moved from Houston to Michigan. (And I waited until now to get together with her!)

Previously this year, Tartan Alex graduated with honors from HBU with a double degree in English and Creative Writing. He's taken a short term job as a tutor with the Houston school district. Kyrie took classes at Lone Star College and is preparing to transfer to The University of Texas at Dallas in the fall. For two weeks in the summer, Kyrie, Abigail and Tartan went to Poland and the Czech Republic with Ballet Excelsior to perform a ballet of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in a variety of venues including a small theatre that had never had a Christian group perform before and where they had to turn people away because it was completely full. Another performance was in a large square in front of a church where many people stopped to watch. Tartan spent his first couple of days there figuring out how to build the "stone" table and a frame for hanging prop curtains.

Aidan has continued with Boy Scouts and has until September to become Eagle. He completed his project and has just a few merit badges to finish. He is making progress in taekwondo. Though he has his black belt, there are degrees of black belt so he's working towards the next degree. His favorite class is weapons class. They don't fight each other with weapons but learn sequences of moves.

Kayleigh moved up to level 5 in ballet. She's a little young for pointe shoes; that'll likely come next year. However she danced in the annual Dance with a Purpose fundraiser for Ballet Excelsior. She loves ballet and hip hop, but her favorite is tap. Ballet Excelsior and the Excelsior Trainees perform in a Christmas show at Market Street almost every year. Kyrie is in the company and Abigail is in the trainee program. This year was special because Kayleigh got to dance with her tap class at the beginning of the show so all three girls participated. It was an interesting two days. The first night the temperatures were in the low 70s, high 60s. The second night the temperature was hovering around freezing.

Naomi learned a lot about the frustrations of gardening last spring. This year we're going to build an enclosed walk in garden box and hope for better success. She's also enjoyed loom knitting and plans to finish a small blanket and make a hat for Abigail (so she'll give back the one Naomi made for herself).

And now the photos…