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December 2008

Dear Friends and Family,

Please note our new address: PO Box 724, White Rock SC  29177.  For now our cell phone numbers will stay the same: Jen - 704/996-0933 and Darryn - 980/355-1427.  Jen's email is j.morrison@artofeducating.com and Darryn can be reached at d.bouknight@jendarryn.com. 

2008 brought great changes and many good things.  With just a "for sale by owner" sign out front, we sold our house in Charlotte - 2723 Olde Whitehall - after less than two months on the market.  Darryn moved down to my parents' house in Chapin SC (where I had been for a year) and after a month of considering his options, found a position with a strong, 80-year-old architectural firm, Jumper Carter Sease, in Columbia.  Despite the toughening job market, he didn't have a problem.  All of the work on his portfolio paid off.     

I was afraid Darryn would move down here and hate it.  Transitions are difficult and I knew he was leaving a company he loved and many good friends.  He spent the last 11 years at FWA and was pretty torn up about leaving.  His FWA peeps threw us a great send-off party which made the leaving both easier and harder.  As it turns out, however, this has been a good move.  Darryn enjoys his new colleagues (who seem much quieter than the FWA folks - Darryn couldn't believe everyone didn't go to lunch together everyday) and is able to continue with his main architectural interest: designing and building schools.  In the end, we weren't sad to leave our first house behind, especially after we found out the HVAC system was on its last legs.  We got out right before the annual yard raking was to take place, and we've been sending positive thoughts to the young couple who took over that task.  What we've learned is that a house doesn't make a home; being together is home.  Neither of us misses the two-hour drive back and forth between Chapin and Charlotte, and I feel very lucky to be able to snuggle up to my man every night (except on nights that I'm snoring - then he has to sleep in the other room).   

These days in South Carolina are days with our families.  People are amazed that we are living with my mom and dad and not planning immediate escape.  It's actually a mutually beneficial arrangement in an enormous house - Darryn and I have the second and third floors to ourselves.  We split bills, Darryn and Mom chat over recipes, and we take care of the household's five dogs and three cats when Mom and Dad travel on their various excursions, including a recent two-week tour of Italy where Dad almost lost a toe in the Vatican.  We intend to stay here until our plans settle out.  Staying with family is also beneficial because we get to spend a great deal of time with my sister and brother and their children: my nephew Ben, who is about to turn four, and Mary Ellen, who is about to turn two.  We also spend more time with Darryn's family, especially his mom who is now a resident at White Oak, a nursing home in Newberry.  As a whole, the Bouknights are holding up, despite various illnesses and getting older, and they are strong supports for each other.  I knew 16 years ago I wanted the kind of man Darryn would be when I met his father, Rudy, an embodiment of faith and loyalty.  Rudy drives to White Oak every day to spend the day with his wife.  Even though it looks like it wouldn't take much to blow Rudy over - he's tall and skinny as a whip - he is a steadfast helper to his two older, widowed sisters in Newberry and the man everyone depends on in his church.  Looking back, since Carolyn went into the nursing home soon after, I am glad for the good memories of their fiftieth wedding anniversary celebration at our house in Charlotte.  It was a beautiful day.

One downside to our move has been the transition for Spot and Sammy.  Spot hates being outside and is not fond of my parents' dogs.  After twelve years on the "inside," he doesn't know what to do when he's scared by the sound of thunder or fireworks, so he runs off, and because he looks so cute and helpless, friendly people tend to pick him up.  The first time he ran away, he ended up spending the night at a local dog spa (we guess he needed a vacation).  We haven't been able to convince Sammy to stay at my parents' house, so he has now moved down to my sister's house in Charleston, where he lolls around with two of his brothers and seems to be reconnecting well.  We take Spot down to Charleston every once in a while to visit.        

You can see much of what I've been up to on my website, www.artofeducating.com.  I have not renewed my teaching contract for next year and I am negotiating with USC to begin my PhD in Educational Administration in the fall.  Budget cuts have hit school districts and state-supported universities hard, so I'm not quite sure how things will work out, but Darryn and I are optimistic and determined, and we have the support of our families.  I hope to stay with my current school district, Newberry County Schools, in another district-level capacity while I get started on the 21 courses and 12 hours of dissertation work I need to complete in order to become Dr. Jen Morrison.  I am eager to rejoin the world of academia, and I've been talking with my advisor about becoming certified as a principal as part of the process.  While eventually I see myself as a college professor, I can also see myself serving public schools as a principal along the way.  In the meantime, professionally I have been as busy as ever.  This year I presented in Indianapolis IN and San Antonio TX, made an unsuccessful bid for a Board of Directors position with ASCD, contracted a fair amount of independent consulting work (which I am beginning this summer in North Carolina), and published my first big article, "Why Teachers Must Be Data Experts," in an international journal, Educational Leadership.  I also have my first student teacher, a Newberry College senior named Katie Kidd, who - if I don't drive her crazy - will become a great teacher and carry on the ideas and philosophy I've brought to the classroom for twelve years now. 

Of course, Darryn and I have all kinds of plans for 2009.  Part of the benefit of leaving our mortgage behind is the opportunity to pay off a few bills and travel.  I was going to buy Darryn a couple round-trip tickets to our favorite city, the Big Apple, for Christmas, but over the last few months I've become a little obsessed with Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series.  After I read all four books two or three times each and saw the movie twice, I discovered they filmed Twilight in the Columbia River Gorge, a scenic state park near Portland, Oregon.  So, instead of New York, thanks to Meyer's teen vampire romances we're heading to the Pacific Northwest.  (Don't worry - I've moved on to Jane Austen now.  It's all about romance and happy endings for me, whether with a vampire named Edward Cullen or the dashing Mr. Darcy.)  Darryn's hoping to catch one of his new favorite bands, Fleet Foxes, at the Crystal Ballroom while we're in Portland.  2008 was the year of Wilco, whom we saw perform with Bon Iver in September.  It was a beautiful concert, set outside in the pine trees at the Koka Booth Amphitheater in Cary NC.  Check out Darryn's 2008 Music Picks.      

While making new friends and reconnecting with old friends in South Carolina, we're also committed to staying in touch with our friends in Charlotte and elsewhere, so we'll be on the road a lot. 

Take care and best wishes for 2009!

Best, Jen

Pictures from top to bottom
= The Morrison homestead in Chapin SC with Mom and Dad's newest dog, a Labradoodle named Buni, in the foreground (front porch addition designed by Darryn and value engineered by Margaret Morrison)  = Ben with the pink princess castle cake Darryn and I helped him bake in Charleston SC = Ben as Batman making a serious face   = Mary Ellen with her mom, Tricia Morrison, and Darryn with Ben at the SC State Fair  = Carolyn and Rudy Bouknight at their 50th Wedding Anniversary celebration in Charlotte NC, June 2005  = Spot and Buni on the back deck  = Twilight by Stephanie Meyer, what all the teens are talking about (picture retrieved on 1/19/09 from www.barnesandnoble.com)  = I walked the 10K Cooper River Bridge Run in April (#32609 - time to finish: 2 hrs, 8 min) and Darryn and I participated in Charlotte's 5K Twilight Run (time to finish: 45 min) in May.

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