Guest blogger: 2016 from Tirzah

As I mentioned yesterday, the Smalls don't do Christmas newsletters.  (We do love to receive and read others, though!)  Mom, Tirzah, and I each wrote versions of 2016 in review to combine into a newsletter.  We each tried to write about different parts of the year, so as not to be too repetitive, but that only kinda worked.  Tirzah's review of the year was so fun that I had to share it today--ON THE FIRST DAY OF 2017!!!  So here's Tirzah's full version, which was also cut down/modified for the printed edition.
(P.S. always being mistaken for each other is one of the most entertaining things for us.  It's fun to be un-twin twins.)



If you've actually been reading this newsletter, you will know by now that Sharon turned 18 this year, which will quite possibly lead you to the conclusion that I turned 16.  Unless, as many seem to believe, Sharon and I are one and the same, in which case, I turned 18 this year as well.  So many people have been getting us mixed up, that I am beginning to get a little confused myself, or was it herself?  As you know, my exceedingly young appearance just makes the whole situation more complicated.  Anyway, enough of that.

We spent our first two months of the year greatly anticipating the arrival of Kea Hufford along with  her friend, "That Other Girl."  Since any situation can be made more bearable if you have someone to suffer along with you, the two came together to attack Mom's book projects, not to mention having to put up with life in general at the Smalls.  Kea arrived a week and a half in advance of "That Other Girl" to insure that we were all ready to behave when she arrived.  To our great surprise, we discovered after her arrival that "That Other Girl" had a name, Anna Kranz.  We are proud to announce that, through great self control, it was several weeks before she discovered our name for her.

The next several months of the year were dedicated to slaving away at a spelling book and a star book, which Mom has long had in the works, only none of us could've guessed how much work was left.  In spite of frustration, confusion, exhaustion, and several demons that greatly enjoy inhabiting our computers and coming out to taunt us at the most inopportune times, the work went on...and on... and on...

And into all this craziness we welcomed Johannah Orwiler into our home in early May.  No amount of work and exhaustion could decrease the excitement with which we looked forward to that wonderful date, May 6th.  Although she had met us the year before and already had ample evidence to prove that we are most definitely crazy, we somehow enticed her to come and live with us for the summer while she worked at the state park.  (A mistake no one hopes to make twice in a lifetime.)

Unfortunately, the day after her arrival, we had to say goodbye to Kea as she headed home to Alaska.  Anna bravely remained for another month in an attempt to complete the spelling book.  Despite all our best efforts, she, too, had to leave before the project could be completed, but we were, oh, so close!

And we can't forget to mention the new member of our cow family that was born in mid-May.  To our surprise and delight, Polly finally decided to give us a calf.  Our exuberance at his birth was only a slight bit overwhelming for her.  We only had one dilemma:  He needed a name.  Since our other three cows' names are part of a song, we decided we had to keep with the theme.  If it weren't for Youtube, we would've been stumped as we realized that the only part of the song that we actually knew was "Polly, wally, doodle all the day," which happens to contain the names of our previous three cows in a very fitting phrase.  Even after listening to the whole song, we still didn't quite know what to do, because, although it contains several great girl names, names for a male calf were rather scarce.  After much contemplation, our lucky new calf was dubbed with the name Grasshopper.  Yes, it's in the song.

Sharon and I, or was it Tirzah and I?, were thrilled to acquire several more vacation rental house cleaning jobs this summer.  To our surprise, we were kept rather busy throughout the entire summer cleaning an average of eight houses a week, sometimes dragging Johannah along to get jobs finished in time as well as to make the most of our time together while she was here.  It was with great sorrow that through much overuse and travel we lost our dear, faithful partner in the business, our beloved Shark vacuum cleaner, in early August.  Thankfully, because of Amazon's quick service, we were welcoming a shiny new partner into our business within three days.

In late August Johannah returned to college, leaving the house to just the three of us again for the first time in six months.  Whoever said that "three is a crowd" was quite wrong, as the house suddenly felt very empty and lonely.  But, in case we forgot, we are still the Smalls, and within four days the house was once again filled with people, as we watched several nephews and a niece for a few days, as well as having other family and company interspersed throughout that time.

In September I finally took the plunge (and, yes, that "I" is Tirzah, I checked my school profile to make sure) and signed up with a program called Lumerit to begin earning college credit.  Although I have come to realize why people go away to school, I have attempted to learn the art of late night and early morning studying in order to help out when babysitting or enjoy time with the oodles and skadoodles of company that we so enjoy welcoming into our home.

Thanks to a wonderful flute teacher, I also had the opportunity to be part of a small ensemble accompanying a choir this fall.  The music had its challenging sections, and I quickly realized that I had a lot to learn when it comes to playing as part of a group.  It was great fun, though, and a good learning experience.
With December has come cold.  We were more than thrilled to finally be able to receive with the cold some long awaited snow--the first to qualify as "real" snow in 4 years!  Because of previously scheduled appointments, we missed most of the enjoyment of fresh snow on the two days that it arrived, but Sharon and I have since tried to make it up by taking at least a little time each day to go sled or practice our abominable snowboarding skills.  Now as we run headlong into 2017, we look forward to whatever God has in store for our lives because, whether we seek it or not, "Adventure is out there!"

Happy New Year, everybody!  May your year be full of amazing blessings and memories, even beginning today!