Greetings, holiday shoppers!

LOTS of stuff to report in 1995. First and foremost, we have MOVED to: 1005 Smokewood Dr., Apex NC 27502. Home: 919-362-7749. Thom at work: 919-543-5255, thaynes@vnet.ibm.com. No home page yet...;-( Yes, we are officially 'Apeckers' now! Come visit us! We love our new neighborhood -- lotsa kids, trees, nature trails, a library...

In August, IBM announced it was closing my programming lab in Westlake Texas. So I had to either transfer, or find another job. I looked around Dallas, and found lots of programming jobs, but nothing I really liked. There were SOME IBM jobs in Dallas, but again, didn't excite me. I found what I wanted in Raleigh (Research Triangle Park), with the Aptiva home PC development team. If you want to buy an Aptiva or ThinkPad, let me know -- I can get you 25-30% off.

In July we had a WONDERFUL visit to sister Carol and bro-in-law Mark, in Anchorage! We drove/canoed/hiked to get to their homemade home, a log cabin on their homestead in the Wilderness. No bears jumped us! We waded across waist-deep freezing water to get there, no thanks to the beavers. We took a great 4-hour cruise in the bay, and saw a whale, sea lions, puffins... hiked up a massive glacier (frozen river).

In September we trekked to Cleveland for Andrea's 20th high school reunion. Bar-hopped on a trolley car, disco-danced... enjoyed the Indians near-dream season... sick about the Browns...

Alex (4.75) and Ethan (3.17) seem to like their new day care/school.

Andrea has accepted an O.T. position at Western Wake Hospital, outpatient pediatric rehab center, just a few miles from home, in Cary. She'll assist with marketing, treatment, and development of the program (acquired and developmental disabilities). Exciting times are ahead with anticipated compeltion of a new pediatric emergency center in late '96, unique to this area.

We love being surrounded again by trees! We're lucky to live close once again to Ma and Pa Haynes (38 miles south, in Sanford). They graciously put us up for a spell while we waited for the house to close. We look forward to exploring the Carolina mountains and ocean again... The boys love playing with their next-door neighbors -- 2 blonde boys nearly the same ages! When together its hard to tell them apart.

One downside to our location -- we're a scant 10 miles from a nuclear power plant. So try to keep a straight face wihen next you see us, as we'll have third eyes and little heads coming out of our scapula...!

Happy days to you!!!