Tag Archives: Update

The Latest 02-05-2018

February 5, 2018 Tom Vander Well 1 Comment

It’s been a while since I’ve updated family and friends on the latest happenings with Wendy, me and the crew. Here’s the latest…

The best Christmas gift 2018: Milo James Vander Well!

Our grandson, Milo, is doing really well. Arriving five weeks early and weighing in an ounce over five pounds, he’s now over eight pounds and growing. Taylor and Clayton are still adjusting to life on a three-hour sleep cycle and all of the regular challenges of a newborn. We, of course, don’t get nearly enough of him but an extended visit to grandpa and grandma’s house is coming up and we’re excited.

Sharing the message in the Auditorium services at Third Church.

January 1, 2018 meant two transitions for me. First, I was named CEO of C Wenger Group (CWG) the company I’ve worked for since 1994. My transition into leadership has been long planned, but the exact timing has not. A few months ago my business partner and I agreed that the timing was right, so I’ve not had long to prepare. Functionally, things won’t change much in the near term other than taking on entirely new layer of administrative work and responsibilities while I set the course for our company’s future. Second, I have accepted a slightly larger role in the auditorium services at Third Church. This means preaching a little more often [FYI: you can find messages on the TRC channel on YouTube or through the TRC website] and consistently taking the leadership role in Sunday services.

Wendy and I officially stepped down from leadership in Union Street Players, our local community theatre, after 12/13 years of service on the Board of Directors. We didn’t exactly know the other transitions were coming, but felt that it was time and now we feel the synchronicity of it. We will still volunteer and support USP and be in shows when the timing is right.

Wendy continues to work for CWG and her administrative gifts have already become invaluable in helping me with my new realities. She’s been volunteering some of her time at the Pella Opera House in recent weeks.

We’re headed on a Caribbean cruise in a few weeks, and can’t wait for 7 days away from the Iowa winter.

Madison continues to work for Laura Geller New York from her home in South Carolina. She’s doing great and has settled into community there.
My folks are doing well in their retirement community and continue to reside in independent living. Dad continues oral chemo for his Multiple Myeloma and cares for mom with love and fidelity. Mom is her doctor’s oldest surviving Auto-Immune Hepatitis patient and continues to battle Alzheimer’s as best she can.

Taylor and Clayton are in Des Moines focused on little Milo. Clayton is doing a short research project for the UN in February which is a great feather in his cap. Taylor is on maternity leave for a few more weeks and then will return to her job at ThinkDigital.

Celebrating Suzanna’s birthday this past fall.

Wendy’s sister, Suzanna, has started a successful career with a bonding company in Des Moines and is living in the Des Moines area.

So thankful for the family and friends who fill our lives with so much love!

Wayfarer's Journal

Vander Well Update

March 13, 2015 Tom Vander Well 2 Comments

So, we’re a few days shy of two weeks in the new digs. Everyone is asking me how things are going. After the first few days of complete and utter shell shock, we are loving the new house and feeling extremely grateful. Life in the new house has quickly fallen into what I consider to be three distinct types of living “zones:”

Zone 1: This space has to be relatively set up and have a semblance of order for me to sanely function (Like my home office):

office

Zone 2: This space is functional, but may be relatively messy and you might have to still hunt through a box or two to find what you need. About 80% of the house is still Zone 2, like the Great Room in the basement where you can watch television, play a game, or watch a movie, but you’ll have to dig through three or four boxes of DVDs to find the movie you want to watch.

Zone 3: I don’t even want to think about Zone 3.

But, we are getting back to normal life and that has been fun. It has helped that the past week has been GORGEOUS spring weather with sun and temps in the 60s (and even touching low 70s).

In other news:

Taylor is deep in the 2nd semester of her Master’s program at the University of Edinburg, Scotland. She works a couple of days a week at Steampunk Coffee and is doing an internship for the contemporary art museum in Inverleith House in the middle of the Royal Botanical Gardens. She recently nailed down an internship (which will serve as the study for her Master’s dissertation) with Art in Healthcare, which sources and places an impressive collection of artwork in healthcare environments across Scotland. She will be finishing her dissertation and returning to the States in late summer. Yes, Wendy and I plan on visiting her but have not set a date. Likely May/June time frame.
Madison is back in classes at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs after a short respite. She will finish her degree in Communication in the next semester or two. She continues to love Colorado and can often be found hanging out at Peak Place Coffee. When not in school she’s a flight attendant for Sky West Airlines and serves mostly on regional flights for United Express. She’s also running Madison Kate Cleaning on the side and putting in some time in sales and training with DermaDoctor. Goodness, I don’t know how she does it all.
Suzanna, Wendy’s youngest sibling, is still living with us. The weekend of our move she starred on the local stage as the lead in Anne of Green Gables. It was a three hour production in which she had the lion’s share of the lines, was on stage most of the show, and had just short of 6 million costume changes. Suzanna is working days at Total Choice Shipping and a few nights a week at Kaldera. She is saving for college and intends to head off to Hawkeye Community College in the fall with a plan to transfer to UNI to be a theatre major.
Wendy and I have been pretty focused on the move, but finding time to continue positions on the Board of Union Street Players. I’ve been teaching a Wednesday night class and have been delivering messages on Sunday mornings every 4-6 weeks or so.
My dad was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma this past month which has been scary for all of us, but we have been assured that it is perfectly treatable, he is in relatively good health, and he will begin treatment as soon as possible. Meanwhile, mom feels like her Alzheimer’s meds are helping her and is still considered to be in the early stages. We really enjoyed having them visit this past weekend.
Wendy and I make our first trip of 2015 to the lake next week, baseball has been seen on our tv screens, and we grilled hamburgers last night, which means summer can’t be far off!

News Briefs, Wayfarer's Journal

Boxes and Briefs

February 3, 2015 Tom Vander Well 2 Comments

I realize that I have posted very little from our personal journey in recent weeks, and I admit that this has been largely by intent. The truth of the matter is that life for Wendy and me has fallen into a very monotonous pattern and there is very little interesting to tell. I’ll give you a brief summation.

We are less than four weeks from our moving date. We closed the sale of our house on Columbus Street in mid-January and are renting back from the new owners, a wonderful couple who are riding the deep of winter out in their RV down south somewhere. Our new house has taken far more time and energy than we ever imagined as we make a seemingly endless number of decisions about an infinite number of small details. I feel awful complaining about such a huge blessing, but I really am weary of it all.

Wendy has been packing like a mad woman. We’d put about half of our lives in storage when we put our house for sale last fall, now the majority of the other half is sitting in boxes as we pare down to only those essentials we need for the next few weeks. Life is in full transitional mode.

I have been teaching a class called The Language of God on Wednesday nights at our church. I am transitioning into a volunteer role of helping coach and mentor a team of men and women who will be teaching and preaching on a regular basis in our church auditorium. This has meant more regular opportunities for me to teach, as well.

Wendy has been absolutely amazing with all of the house and moving plans. It’s overwhelming for her as well, but she has done an incredible job managing all of the details and keeping me on task (which is a exhausting task in and of itself).

Suzanna was cast in the starring role of USP’s production of Anne of Green Gables and has been busy learning more lines than she’s ever had to memorize before. The production is scheduled for the weekend that we move. She is still working three part time jobs and saving money for college next fall.

Taylor is in her second semester at the University of Edinburgh and doing well. She got a part time job working at a coffee shop and is desperately looking for a “placement” with an art festival to fulfill her master’s requirements.

After taking some time off from college, Madison started back at University of Colorado at Colorado Springs this past month while continuing to work as a flight attendant for SkyWest Airlines. Flying the friendly skies has both its pros and cons, but she is grateful for the opportunity and the travel perks. We are too, as we get to see her a little more often!

I continue to recover from a hotel room robbery that stole my entire personal and vocational electronic lives. This has meant a lot of hours rebuilding, restoring, and reporting claims. Ugh.

Anyway, that’s the skinny.

Cheers.

Wayfarer's Journal

We’re In Hot Water

December 13, 2013 Tom Vander Well 1 Comment

Over the past few years Wendy and I have been slowly trying to update and renovate our cozy little tudor style home. We have worked with an architect on a master plan that includes some really cool changes inside and out. Before we get to that, however, there have been a lot of necessary, but not so sexy, updates we’ve needed to make to the infrastructure of our house. We’ve sort of taken it at a pace of one major project per year. Roof needed to be replaced. Gutters needed to be replaced. Windows needed to be replaced. Siding on the 2nd floor needed to be replaced. Last year we needed to deal with waterproofing the basement and shoring up the foundation.

We actually accelerated things this year with two major projects and a minor project. This past spring we tore out the old concrete steps in our front yard and poured a new front patio. Just a few weeks ago we replaced the green monster. Our home came complete with an ancient green boiler about the size of a small Sherman tank. Estimates of its age put it somewhere in the 50-70 year range. It was terribly inefficient and the heat escaping out of it turned our bedroom (on the floor right above it) into a virtual sauna each winter.

We replaced it a few weeks ago along with our hot water heater with new, high-tech units. The new boiler is a fraction of the size and looks like a jet engine. We can already tell the difference. It still keeps the house nice and warm but heat escaping off the old boiler used to make it nice and toasty in the basement boiler room. Now it’s like a typical chilly basement.

The old boiler is still sitting in the basement. The contractor discovered upon trying to tear it out that the core of the old boiler is made of steel and weighs a ton (pretty literally). They’ve spent weeks trying to get someone here to cut it in pieces and haul it out. Looks like that will finally be completed next week.