Cheesy Christmas Letter

I have a love/hate relationship with Christmas letters. I love getting them, as it's hard for me to keep up with all of my friends and family. It's almost like a primitive blog. I hate writing them. I never know what to say. Do you really want to know how the last year went or do you want the sugar-coated synopsis? This year I'm going to do both. First, here is the official letter that will be sent out with the holiday cards. Later in the week I'll post the "real" letter.

Greetings from Searcy!

Another year has passed, and what a year it was! Jess and I can honestly say we never expected anything like this. The year started off in fine fashion. I finished up my first full year teaching organic chemistry at Harding, while Jessy was busy being the best mom in the world. Jessy and Madeline spent spring break with Ma and Pa in Indiana, while I went on an adventure through the southeast. Paul Murphy and I set off from Searcy and headed east to visit friends and family. The trip was highlighted by a 3-day camping trip on Cumberland Island off the coast of Georgia.

The real adventure began upon our return. Maddy fell ill with RSV at the end of March. RSV is a respiratory virus that is relatively harmless in children and adults, but can cause quite a few problems in infants. Additionally, Maddy had her first seizure. We rushed her to the local hospital, where she was then airlifted (Her first helicopter ride!) to Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock. A miracle occurred, as Maddy recovered faster than anyone could have predicted or expected. After initially telling us to prepare for a long stay at Children’s, we were able to go home the next day. Our friends and family were amazing during this time, as the hospital lobby was full of love and support. Maddy still has occasional seizures, and has been diagnosed with epilepsy. She continues to grow like a weed. She loves to read, play outside, and loves her baby dolls. She had a great first birthday party back in April, and continues to make her mommy and daddy proud. One of my favorite memories came during the third visit to the hospital in November. Maddy was beginning to feel better, and wanted to walk around. She quickly picked up on how to push her IV pole up and down the hall! She was a huge hit with the nurses.

Jessy went back to work full-time in May. She worked the front desk at the local Best Western until November. She changed jobs and is now a Client Service Aide at the hospital. She still works the night shift, but it is three nights per week instead of five nights per week. That’s a great thing, especially for someone who’s pregnant. Yes, we are expecting our second blessing sometime around the end of June.

How’s that for a year? There are so many other things that happened. We finished out the second bathroom in our house, replaced a few more windows, got another dog, got rid of said dog. Maddy’s gone from eating mashed food to eating anything we put in front of her. It’s truly been a whirlwind.

Jess and I want to thank you all for the support and love you have shown us over the past year. We are so thankful for the hugs, the shoulders to cry on, the food that was brought over, the visits to the hospital. It is such an encouragement to us to know that you love and care for us. We will never be able to repay you for the love you have shown us.

In Him,

Kevin, Jessy, Madeline, and Baby Stewart

The Cost of Education

Take a few minutes to read this article first.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/12/education/12tuition.html?ex=1323579600&en=dbfec38a47b56028&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

As an educator at a private university, I found the article interesting. First, the operating budget of one private school with 1500 students is over a $100 million? Here we have over 6000 students and an operating budget just over half that. I would be extremely interested to know our cost per student ratio. Second, I can see value in raising tuition to match expectations. For example, over thanksgiving my father-in-law sent me off to purchase a printer. I went out and bought a name brand printer on sale for a ridiculously low price. He immediately assumed that the printer must be bad for some reason (last year's model, not dependable, etc.) because it was cheap. My favorite example of this is haute cuisine. If I tried to serve you a small piece of raw beef liver covered in goat's blood, you'd head for Wendy's. However, if you were in some fancy restaurant some people would pay $125 and call it good.

Maybe we shouldn't fear tuition increases as much. To be honest, we could raise tuition and increase the amount of aid per student and end up at a net push financially. Each student would pay the same amount as they are today, but they would be getting a better "deal". Would you rather go to a school giving you a $10,000 scholarship over 4 years or one giving you a $15,000 scholarship over 4 years?

Kohler Strike

There's a strike going on at the Kohler plant in Searcy, AR. Searcy is a small town of 18,000 in rural Arkansas, about 60 miles north of Little Rock. In the last four years, two major employers have left town (Armstrong Flooring and Whitaker Furniture) and one is leaving at the end of the month (Maytag and its 600 jobs). All total, somewhere close to 1400 jobs have been lost in the last four years or so if I rmember correctly ( a big if).

So now the Kohler workers go on strike, and 231 people are standing on the side of the road instead of earning money. I give Kohler two weeks or so before they announce that they are relocating operations to some other place, probably China or Mexico. They had trouble with this same union back in the spring and gave up $1.3 million in concessions. That's not going to happen again. How can these people not realize that they are expendable? They are lucky to have decent paying jobs in this town. Kohler can train someone else to make a stainless steel sink for half the money somewhere else.

I understand that unions had their place back in the twentieth century. Not anymore.