Mom's BIG Day

We’ve had more of the same weather this week. Not even the ragweed can grow in these conditions.

The big news I want to report on in this edition is what happened at church today. To do this right I must tell this from the beginning.

Mom began work as the secretary at our church in August 1982. Her career started with her first job at Nashville Sash & Door Company in Nashville. She worked there for a number of years, quitting sometime after she and Dad married. After I came along she was a stay at home mom. When I started school she went back to work on the tobacco market at Hancock’s Loose Floor which was perfect because she would have the summers off. When I was in high school the opportunity at church came along and she worked full time until early 2005 when she decided it was time to cut back her hours. Her knee replacement surgery later that year really kept her home from church more than she wanted but she still managed to get up there and work some. Knowing how much Mom still enjoys popping in to work in the office and realizing this is happening with less frequency Bro. Bill called me back in May and told me they were planning to recognize her for 25 years of service. I said, “I guess I don’t have to tell you just how uncomfortable she is going to be with any kind of public recognition like this.” All these efforts culminated at church this morning.

To start with, this was all kept secret from Mom so it would be a surprise. Today was promoted for weeks as “bring a friend” day but a letter was mailed out to the entire church membership last week explaining exactly what was going to happen. A fake letter was sent to Mom and Aunt Mar. The amazing thing is that with several hundred people in on the secret, it held until yesterday. The leak came from Indiana where Shelley Harvey, a former church secretary who worked with Mom, sent Mom a card Friday, not dreaming the postal service would deliver it the next day! When Mom called me and Vicki to ask if we knew anything about any special recognition we flat out lied.

The funny thing was that Mom went to work Monday when they were trying to fold and stuff the letter to be mailed out to the church regarding today’s events. Roni, the other church secretary, wound up having to come back to church after supper to get the letter and envelopes and take it home. She and her kids spent the evening getting the letter ready to to be mailed Tuesday. Mom also wanted to hear Brent’s last practice with the choir Wednesday. Fortunately, Brent knew she was in the hall listening but it kept him from giving the choir any instructions about today.

I guess it was a good thing Mom had a bit of a heads up so she could be somewhat prepared for what happened today. Because all this was on Mom’s mind she and Aunt Mar were running late for Sunday school. Kenny had to go to their house and insist they leave with him immediately. He dropped Mom off at the front door of the church where she walked in to a reception set up in the main hall for her complete with pastries and chocolate. She spent the entire Sunday school hour visiting with folks. She got several gifts and a large stack of cards. A few of the children’s classes made cards for her and brought them to her as well. Mom was also given a portrait of herself painted by David Head. David, the art teacher at White House Heritage High School, has been busy painting lately and recently gave us portraits of Jenna and Ben. He has promised to paint Nate.

If Mom thought the whole affair was over when the second service started she was wrong. After a baptism and a couple of songs Bro. Bill called Mom to the stage. He presented her with a locket and spoke about working with her for the last quarter century (we called Bro. Bill to be our pastor a few months before Mom became church secretary). He also announced that the church would be starting the Anne Swann Scholarship to benefit high school seniors from our church who plan to further their education. Mom was totally blown away by this point.

This was followed by Tennessee State Representative Robert Bibb who presented her with a framed copy of House Resolution 204 recognizing her retirement (see below). Mom had also been active in the Tennessee Baptist Church Secretaries Association (TBCSA) and two good friends, Lana Rose who heads up the TBCSA and Kay Woods, the secretary of the Robertson County Baptist Association, spoke briefly. It was really a good thing Mom was sitting in a chair for all this.

When Bro. Bill handed Mom the mic she told everyone how overwhelmed she was. She went on to say what a blessing it has been to work in the Lord’s House all this time and see all the ways people minister to others. So much of this has blessed her life as it has been done behind the scenes and her job has made her privy to all this secret good will. She also talked about how nice it has been to work with each of those on staff as well as get to know their spouses and see their kids grow up.

After church we went to Pauline’s house for lunch. She and Vicki had been fixing a few dishes for the last few days and while the main course was sandwiches they had several of Mom’s favorites: chicken salad, pimiento cheese, potato salad, deviled eggs. Dessert is the most important part of course and they served peanut butter balls and coconut cake. Derek, Amanda and the girls came for the occasion and stayed for lunch and we sure enjoyed visiting with them. Judy also came for church but her job required her to return to Ashland City so she missed out on lunch with us.

This evening Mom went to the choir pool party and had a great time visiting with everyone.

So Mom has had a very big day and I suppose thank you notes will keep her busy for a while. I was very proud to stand beside her and share the day with her.

By the way, for those of you who had Mom’s email address at church, you can remove it from your address books. I deleted it at her request. If you want to contact her you either have to call or send a note by snail mail (which isn’t all that slow as it turns out).

Joe

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STATE OF TENNESSEE

HOUSE of REPRESENTATIVES

HOUSE RESOLUTION 204 

By Representative Bibb 

A RESOLUTION to recognize Anne Swann on the occasion of her retirement. 

WHEREAS, it is appropriate that the members of this legislative body should honor those citizens who have performed with uncommon devotion and enthusiasm throughout their years of industry; and 

WHEREAS, Anne Swann is one such estimable person who has served with distinction for twenty-five years as an employee of Mt. Carmel Baptist Church; and 

WHEREAS, a member of Mt. Carmel Baptist for more than sixty years, Ms. Swann has rendered sterling service in many positions within the church, including those of Secretary, Church Clerk, GA Missions Leader, Sunday School Teacher, Vacation Bible School volunteer, and Choir Member; and 

WHEREAS, prior to her employment with Mt. Carmel Baptist, Anne Swann, a 1949 graduate of the Nashville Women’s Business College, dedicated her time and energies as an employee of Nashville Sash and Door and Hancock Loose Floor and as a stay-at-home mother; and 

WHEREAS, Ms. Swann will be taking a much deserved retirement on August 26, 2007; and 

WHEREAS, Anne Swann is an active and important part of her community and her profession, participating in numerous worthy organizations, including the Robertson County Home Demonstration Club; and 

WHEREAS, the widow of the late Joe Caner Swann, to whom she was married in 1958, Ms. Swann is the proud and loving mother of Joe Swann and his wife, Vicki, and the doting grandmother of Jenna, Benton, and Nate Swann; and

WHEREAS, Ms. Swann exemplifies the spirit and allegiance to family and community that are characteristic of a true Tennessean; and 

WHEREAS, throughout her estimable career, she has demonstrated the utmost professionalism, ability, and integrity, winning the unbridled respect and admiration of her colleagues and the membership of Mt. Carmel Baptist; now, therefore, 

BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE HUNDRED FIFTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE, that we extend to Anne Swann our heartfelt wishes for a happy and fulfilling retirement and every continued success in her future endeavors.

ADOPTED: June 7, 2007

SIGNED:

Jimmy Naifeh, Speaker of the House of Representatives

Robert T. Bibb, Representative

It’s still HOT!

We have had another week of triple digit temperatures. It is so hot that the cold tap water even feels tepid! The drought also continues. Jackie passed along this joke that is making the email circuit:

It is so dry in Tennessee that the Baptists are starting to baptize by sprinkling, the Methodists are giving out wet-wipes, the Presbyterians are giving out rain-checks, and the Catholics are praying for the wine to turn back to water!

RAIN! We got a brief shower this afternoon. I have a bad habit of mowing over rain gauges so I don’t know how much we got. About all it helped is morale, but it sure was nice to see it...and sort of strange. Vicki and the kids went outside to play in the shower while it lasted.

MORE STARGAZING. I mentioned the meteor showers last time--well, I was successful in waking all the kids up about 1:30 Monday morning. We all trouped outside and watched some of the most spectacular shooting stars for about 30 minutes. Nate was just excited to get to see the “Milky Wave.”

AN ANNOUNCEMENT. Vicki comes in to the living room where we are watching TV and says, “Well guess who’s having a baby!” Nate’s guess: “Us?” This brought much laughter from Vicki and me. Then Ben guessed his best friend Ethan which brought down the house again.

To cut the guessing game short the good news belongs to Derek and Amanda! We hear Riley and Harper are really excited. And I know that the parents to be again are excited as well, now that they have gotten over the shock. Their baby is due at the end of February. You know, I’ve never known a leap year baby....

A SAD GOODBYE. I have mentioned our friends Brent and Cindy Roycoft several times over the years. I have asked you to pray for them in the adoption of their son Tyler. Last Sunday Brent announced that he felt God leading him to a position with another church in Murfreesboro. He and Cindy have been at Mt. Carmel for almost five years. Next week (the 26th) is their last Sunday. Brent was not seeking this new opportunity, it found him and he said no to it twice. Cindy had even just accepted the job of being our Mother’s Day Out coordinator. We were all blind-sided last week and will miss them very much.

The last we have heard about the adoption is that they are still waiting for the final paperwork to go through. This has not gone smoothly as the birth father is not responding to any attempts by the adoption agency to contact him. Brent told me he hoped it would be wrapped up by Thanksgiving, but that would be fast. Please continue to keep them in your prayers.

MOVIE REVIEW. Vicki and I watched a movie this weekend that was recommended to us by her brother, Will. Facing the Giants is a movie everyone needs to see--very inspirational. It was produced by a church in Albany, Georgia, and is about a private high school football coach who has had five losing seasons and the season the movie focuses on starts out with three straight losses. The folks who produced this film felt called to do whatever it took to reach people for Christ. The project was largely a volunteer effort. I am figuring you can find the DVD in video stores as it came out in 2006 (we put it in our Netflix queue). If movies aren’t normally your thing we highly recommend you make an exception for this film. You will be glad you did. You will laugh. You will cry. And you will be challenged to reevaluate your relationship with Jesus.

Joe

It’s HOT!

Summer has gone into overdrive. We have had several days where the mercury got above the 100° mark. We have gotten within a few degrees of breaking a record. Not a “this day in history” record, but the record for Nashville’s all time high temperature of 107°! The humidity has been down which means going outside feels like stepping into an oven instead of a sauna. It is very easy to get dehydrated. We are getting a break in the heat wave this weekend with highs only in the upper 90s.

DROUGHT. While I don’t think we have it as bad as folks around Chattanooga and northern Georgia, we are really seeing the effects of the drought. It is not a good year to be a farmer. The freeze back in the spring destroyed a lot of fruit and wheat crops. Now the corn and soybeans are looking really bad. Nobody has been able to cut hay since early June and pastures are so dry and brown that the grass crunches under your feet. The ponds are really starting to dry up too. About the only thing doing well is tobacco, which thrives in a hot, dry climate.

BACK TO SCHOOL. As you know from the last newsletter, the kids have started back to school. Jenna has Mrs. Reneé Fehrman as her fourth grade teacher. Ben has Mrs. Vicki Rippy as his first grade teacher (she was Jenna’s first grade teacher as well). We dropped in at open house on Monday. The kids went to school Tuesday. Wednesday was a holiday for them before classes started on Thursday. Ben was truly disappointed that he would not be going to school on Wednesday. This is good!

Actually, Ben came home from school Tuesday saying first grade was easier than kindergarten. Jenna rolled her eyes and reminded him that it was only the first day of school. Thursday Ben reported that they did homework all day long. Nate, who has one more year at home, misses his playmates.

GIRLS DAY OUT. Ginger and Angi, two of Vicki’s friends from high school (and college), happened to both go home to Camden this week to visit family. Vicki drove to Camden Thursday to spend the day with them. She had a great time chatting and catching up on what’s been going on with them.

THE LITTLE LADIES WHO CRIED “SALAMANDER.” Mom picked up the kids from the bus Thursday since Vicki was in Camden. When I got there after work the big excitement of the day was over the salamander that had gotten into the house.

As it turns out, Mom and Aunt Mar had misidentified it. It was actually a blue tailed skink. Either way, it was a lizard which is bad enough--worse with it being in the house.

Aunt Mar actually spotted the lizard’s foot under the door to the garage, and when she tried to see what it was it scurried under the dryer. Being intent on evicting this cold-blooded creature from her house she began her vigil to watch to see when it would get bored and make a run for other cover. This is where Mom found her when she came home from getting her hair fixed and she was still there when the kids came home from school.

To be as brief as possible, Aunt Mar is not the one to pull guard duty when your house has been infiltrated by lizards. Later the skink easily got past her and made a dive for cover under the dishwasher. Even later they saw it make a break toward the living room. That’s when Mom called us. Vicki answers the phone to hear my frantic mother shout, “Come quick! Tell Joe to come quick! Come quick! Come quick!”

Hearing this from across the room I figure something is wrong with Aunt Mar so I bolt out of my chair and nearly knock Jenna over in the hall as I head for the door. Fortunately, Vicki had gotten a little more info from Mom before I got out the door in a panic. As Jenna overheard Vicki’s end of the conversation and realized the whole thing was over the lizard she doubled over the couch with laughter. Vicki did not know Jenna had caught on and thought from the way Jenna’s shoulders were shaking that she was crying in distress.

When I got there the lizard was taking refuge under the living room couch. It had already lost its tail from the whole ordeal. I caught it and carried it outside. When I stopped by the next day I noticed a towel on the floor in front of the door leading out to the garage. Mom now has strict instructions to calm down before calling about small reptiles in the house.

STARGAZING. If you would have driven by our house this morning between 3:00 and 4:00 am you might have seen Jenna and me sitting out in chairs staring up at the eastern sky (no one else wanted to get up). That is because we wanted to catch the Perseids meteor shower which actually peaks tonight and tomorrow night.The shower happens this time every year and gets its name because the meteors seem to originate from the constellation Perseus. This is because we are passing through the debris trail of the Swift-Tuttle comet. Each “shooting star” is traveling about 37 miles per second as it burns up in the atmosphere. That’s really moving!

Jenna and I saw several flashes as we were outside (they come about one per minute or better). I only caught one really spectacular one that had a long trail as particles broke off the meteor. One thing that is helpful is that we have a new moon right now so you only have to deal with the pollution of city lights. By the way, we are in for a lunar eclipse at the end of the month.

Another interesting, but slower moving show is Mars as it approaches the constellation Tarus. Tarus , the bull, is a “V” shaped pattern in the sky. The point of the V is the nose and the ends are the tips of the horns. There is a bright red star, Aldebaran, in the middle of the lower leg of the V--making Tarus look like he is glaring at you with his red, right eye. Over the next two weeks Mars will be moving into position symmetrically opposite Aldebaran to make Tarus look like he has opened his red, left eye. This whole spectacle rises in the east around 10:00 or 11:00 pm.

Joe

The End of Summer Break

We may have had unusually pleasant weather for the Threshermen’s Show two weeks ago, but summer has come back with a vengeance. It has been hot and humid with little rain in sight. This week marks the end of summer break for us and Vicki has been doing the back to school shopping. The carefree days of summer are over for the year and it is time to get back to the books.

SELF-CONFIDENCE. Vicki asked Nate to make up his bed the other morning. This is usually met with protest, and to Nate’s defense, he is still a bit short for the job. Vicki finally prevailed upon Nate to do the chore ending with an encouraging, “I believe in you!” As the slump shouldered boy shuffled out of the room. She knew he still wasn’t very confident in himself when he retorted, “Well, not too much.”

THINKING AHEAD. So it was near bed time and we were lounging in the living room. Nate, who was told to go brush his teeth, took the posture of a flying super hero and left the room with enthusiasm and gusto. Watching her brother leave, Jenna laughed and said, “He sure is funny. I hope his wife will be fond of it.” When Vicki started laughing Jenna continued, “And I don’t even know what ‘fond of it’ means!”

CHECKMATE. I have decided it is time to introduce Ben to the game of Chess. One night before bed I got the Chess set out and began introducing him to the pieces. I showed him how to set up the board and he tried it several times. He caught on quickly. Nate, who was sitting with us, said he wanted to try so I cleared the board and handed him the pieces. That little boy set the board up perfectly the first time, even getting the king and queen on the right squares. Vicki and I were impressed.

FUN WITH FRIENDS. We drove to Clarksville Wednesday evening to visit Mr. and Mrs. Krantz. I have said this before but they are two of the loveliest people you’d ever hope to meet. They love children (you should see their playroom/toy closet), which was a wonderful thing because our boys were wound up that night. I believe Mrs. Krantz hugged the stuffing out of all of us. She is also a short person and this was the first time Jenna was as tall as an adult.

BEN IS SEVEN! All my life I have heard those older than I comment how quickly time goes by and kids grow up. Boy, you folks sure know what you are talking about! Ben’s birthday was Friday. We got out the DVD of home movies from the time of his birth. It seems like that happened last year!

We celebrated Ben’s big day by inviting two of his friends, Ethan Bibb and Wil Swann, out to X-TREME in Springfield. X-TREME is a new kid oriented restaurant. They serve pizza and sandwiches and have lots of games for kids to play. After this we came home for cake and to let the boys play.

Ben got a new bike from Mom and Aunt Mar. He is outgrowing his old bike and this one allows him to ride without hitting his chin with his knees (well, I exaggerate a bit here). Another cool present is his new rocket. It is launched by compressed air and will go up over 100 feet. And then there is the retro Atari game. This is sort of a fusion of the original 2600 console and the single joystick games that have been popular for the last couple of years. It features a number of the old cartridge games preloaded on the system and has two joysticks. Now the kids can play with each other as they save for their more modern video game system.

REMINISCING. Among the games on Ben’s new Atari is Warlords. That sure brought back memories. The original game required the paddles so using the joystick with it is a bit strange for me. And with a second pair of paddles the original Warlords would allow four people to play. This was one of our favorite games to play during tobacco cutting time.

Cutting tobacco is one of the most physically demanding jobs I’ve ever had. Not only was the work hard, but it happens at this time of year, right at the peak of the summer heat and humidity. Most of the time we would eat dinner at someone’s house, usually the person we were working for would provide the meal. After eating we would take our places around the TV for the rest of the lunch break and play some video games. Of course, we would have tournaments to see who was the best player. The teasing and bragging rights were all part of the camaraderie that stands out in my mind. Believe it or not, Aunt Mar was a force to be reckoned with in Warlords.

ONE BIG PARTY. Susanne Pitt celebrated her birthday yesterday. Mr. Jimmie had a big cookout for her. He started out by telling her they would have a few of their friends over. He updated her early in the week hinting that he had invited a few more people, but it wasn’t until she discovered a large stash of paper plates, cups and napkins that her suspicions were aroused. When she asked Mr. Jimmie just how many folks were coming he sheepishly answered, “Oh, about 150.” So we enjoyed a big blowout next door last night. It was a lot of fun and we even had enough of a shower to settle the dust. Fortunately, their dog waited until after the party to tangle with a skunk.

Joe