Happy Holidays greetings from Little Rock

Good family shot from December 24th, 2009. Can you believe the decade after Y2K is over? Not me!

Merry Christmas

Greetings Family!

This is great, being able to keep in touch with everyone and to be current on information. Thank you, Laura, for getting this going!

We have had trouble with our computer and I believe, now, it is in good working order. Out here in the country we don't have DSL, just dial-up and it sucks! Takes FOREVER, to do anything!

I didn't know if you knew, we lost our nephew, J.D., October 2nd. JD was my brother's only son and it has been a very rough year. JD started getting very ill in July and everything progressed from there. He had been fighting 5 years of brain tumors, a devastating loss to our family. He was a great guy and loved by so many. We live in a wonderful community, the out-pouring of love and support for Jack and Sue and J.D. has been, to say the least, overwhelming. We miss him everyday, everyday. God only granted us 13 years with J.D.

J.D. loved Halloween, that was a rough one, Thanksgiving, Jack and Sue flew out to Colorado to visit friends, Christmas, well, we are being strong for each other and look for brighter days. The healing will take a long time and I feel so badly for my brother. My mom is having a tough time too...so we'll hang together as a family.

Shelby, Shannon's daughter, is a freshman at Crawfordsville, and has been selected to play on the girl's varsity basketball team! I wish you could see her play, your Grandfather Bayless would love it! She played one game on the freshman team, one game on the JV and now has played 3 games varsity. She is doing well, a little nervous, but she'll do just fine.

We are all ready for Christmas, our tree is beautiful this year and the house looks pretty. We had about 50 people here, last evening, for a holiday party. It was a blast, I believe everyone had a great time. Tons of delicious food and adult beverages!!!

We wish you all a Blessed Christmas, and know, that you are all loved dearly and missed.

I love you,
Jamie/Aunt Jamie

Funny Looking Deer Caught on the Trail Camera

Nathan helped me position my trail camera during an October visit and then gave a deer-like pose to make sure it was working properly.

News from Country Club Road

So nice to hear from everyone. Congratulations Kris! Susan and I cooked turkey, taters, and noodles (in the traditional Bayless fashion) in Austin with Nathan. He is working on the set of the new Predators movie as the stand-in for Topher Grace, 'living the dream (every day)' as he says. Since he was busy and Evan was away, we decided to go to Texas. Evan went with a buddy to Spain for the holidays. He looked at university programs where he might study next year. As with his trip to St. Lucia, he remarked that all of the women were beautiful- you notice those things after a couple years at Wabash. The flu has kept Susan and her hospital very busy. This year, I've been deer-watching (as opposed to hunting) with Big Al. I've enjoyed many sunsets this fall at the Bayless farms but haven't fired my gun or shot an arrow (except for target practice). Mom (Janis) and I will be going to San Francisco during the second week of December for a geophysics conference (mine) and hope to see our California clan while we're there.

Keep the news coming! Randy

Hi from Portland!

Hi guys,

Hope everyone had a great turkey day and Laura didn't have to resort to the frozen pizza! (I love the dolphin pic!) My holiday was great until the Portland water supply had an e-coli scare. It makes you appreciate clean water when everything must be washed using water that's been boiled.

One of my big news events was that I was given an employee appreciation award in October. The award comes at the recommendation of other staff (still don't know who recommended me) and it's unusual for someone who's not in the buildings to get it. They give 3 each month, but only about 25 a year and we have about 3600 employees, so I got lucky. I'm still trying to figure out who the lady in the picture is since I feel much more rocker chick than this shows!

Kristin

Here's the nice writeup that went out to the community:
Even though Kristin Bayless works behind the scenes, she is a key player in district communication. Kristin is a systems analyst in Information and Technology Services. Kristin brings information to the desktops of employees and parents. She manages teacher and school websites, the district portal, and the educator access and parent access side of the student information system. She sets up user-friendly webpage templates and trains teachers to post their class-related content. Kristin also manages the staff portal and the parent portal. These password-protected sites provide information for employees and families. The staff portal contains hundreds of pages of forms, instructions, and data for all departments and operations of the district. The parent portal, also known as Family Access, provides one-stop shopping for parents. Kristin maintains this site that is an interface of data available to parents about their students. Parents can access their student’s grades, homework, missing assignments, attendance records, even meal accounts. It’s clear that Kristin loves her job. She responds quickly to requests and patiently answers questions that come her way. Because of Kristin, parents and employees have information at their fingertips—literally.

Thanksgiving from Gulf Shores

Rae and I drove down to New Orleans and then over to Gulf Shores, AL for just a few days prior to Thanksgiving. Great trip. Check out this sand creation.

Wishes for You!

Wishing all the family a very Happy Thanksgiving! We'll be counting our blessings (you among them) tomorrow - and remembering Kirk as a young man with his massive piles of food at Grandmother & Grandfather Bayless' house.

Evan is in Spain, Randy & Susan are in Austin with Nathan. Mom & Dad will be spending the day with us.... I'm cooking with a back-up frozen pizza on stand by!

Love to you All -
Laura

Kissing dolphins

So great to see news from the Kirk and Rob Bayless family's! Love it - what great times you are having. This is my latest outing - a trip to Roatan, in the Honduras. Fiona the dolphin & I had a lovely time getting to know each other. Then she and I and 3 other humans and about 14 other dolphins had fun swimming together. Life is good!

Picture from Fayetteville

Bayless Family News

Welcome family! Please start your posting now - news, events, travels - let's use this tool to stay in touch a little more and a little better....