Wow! 250

As I write to report on Christmas and close out 2008, I am amazed to see that in a little over five years I have written 250 editions to our newsletter (or posts now that it is also a blog). I am truly amazed that I have stuck with it this long.

CHRISTMAS 2008. We have had a great Christmas here. The weather turned really nice -- warm enough that I even dug out some shorts to wear around the house. That’s a far cry from Monday.

As you may have guessed, the big gift around our house is a new Wii (however, a Nintendo DS was not under the tree). If you have not kept up with home video game systems the Wii is a step up from the GameCube (and a major advancement from the Atari 2600 I grew up with). The sound and graphics are better and the unit can handle more complicated games. It can also get on the internet (though it doesn’t do satellite connections well -- BOOO!!). The neatest thing is that the controllers are now wireless. They are also motion sensitive. On top of that, the Wii can also detect if the controller is pointing at the TV, and where on the screen it is pointing. Not only are you untethered but lots of games actually make you get off the couch and move around.

We have two game discs: Wii Sports and Wii Play. These discs include things like billiards, a shooting gallery type game, tennis, golf, bowling, and boxing. Watching someone play is about as fun as playing. For example, when Nate swings his golf club or baseball bat he sometimes spins a 180 and falls to the floor.

We have gotten the most laughs from boxing, not from watching what’s on the screen, but the person doing the fighting. This is because the player holds a controller in each hand and actually throws punches. Jenna truly does hit like a girl. Ben simply flails at his opponent’s mid-section. Nate, on the other hand, sends his body into all sorts of contortions and dance steps in his attempt to KO his opponent. I’ll have to say, the boxing game will make you break a sweat.

Of course, all this motion requires plenty of open space in front of the TV. You never know just how much space an active kid might require. Ben and I were bowling against each other last night. When it was his turn I did my best to move out of his way while still being able to watch the TV to see how well he bowled. Within about four frames I discovered I needed to be wearing safety equipment to guard against flying limbs. On my next trip to Wal-Mart I am going to look for a face mask ... and a cup.

THOSE RESTLESS BOYS. I was scheduled to run sound for last Sunday’s service. The boys usually don’t sit with me in the sound booth, and when they do they leave early for Children’s Church. This time they did sit with me, and by the second half of the service they were tired of sitting (there was no Children’s Church because it was Christmas Sunday). By the time the boys started getting restless we had gotten to some music in the service which was keeping me about as busy as any of the musicians playing an instrument on stage. Every time I saw them do something out of the corner of my eye something would happen to require my attention on the sound board. I corrected them as I could but was helpless to do to much because I needed to keep my mind on what I was doing.

At one point Nate got up and darted behind my chair only to trip over the chair leg. I’m sure the people below us were wondering if something was coming through the ceiling. I had already told Nate to sit once so when this happened I was none too happy. I spun around, grabbed his arm, and yanked him back to his chair. I know my feelings were pretty transparent on my face because after the service several friends who sat behind the sound booth and have boys older than mine ribbed me pretty good.

What made me laugh was what Lori Swann shared with me. Her son Wil, who is the same age as Ben, said that watching Ben and Nate made him tired. Wil, buddy, you ought to live with them. (A few paragraphs ago I had to run them and their sword fight out of the study where I am typing. The battle sounds are getting closer again as I type this ... yep, there they go. I’m about to send them outside to play.)

A PRAYER REQUEST. On November 3, 2004, I wrote in this newsletter the following request for prayer:

I heard some news yesterday that is really sad. Randy Chatman is a friend who is just a few months older than I am. He grew up less than a mile from my house and we went to school from the 1st grade through the 12th grade together. While we haven't seen each other much since graduation he has always been one of the nicest people I've known. He has just been diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease). I am at such a loss to understand and simply devastated for him.

Randy’s ALS progressed over the years. Recently it was becoming hard for him to breathe. Randy passed away yesterday. His parents, Bill and Anna, are crushed. (Mr. Bill raises the crops on Mom’s farm and I sometimes mention what he’s doing in the fields here.) Randy never married so his parents and older brother, Darrell, are the closest relatives he leaves behind.

As far as I know, Randy is the first of our high school graduating class to pass away. Randy was just four months older than I am.

Joe

Merry Christmas!

Winter arrived Sunday and from the feel of it the season means business this year. We got up Monday morning to a low of 9° F. Things have warmed up a lot since, but rain has moved in. Hopefully it will be pretty tomorrow since it will be too warm for a white Christmas here.

CHRISTMAS FUN. We are very blessed to have a community of family and friends here. And for me that includes the people I work with. Thursday my office had a Christmas party for lunch, and Friday our staff was included in the school system’s Central Office Christmas lunch. Both were really fun simply because I work with great people. Of course, the kids all had their Christmas parties at school on Friday.

Friday evening we went to another party at the Coffee Mill in Cross Plains where there were friends, food, and live entertainment. Last night we went to Kenny and Lori’s annual Christmas party. Tonight we went to our Christmas Eve service at church, and after that Mom, Aunt Mar, and Pauline came over for supper.

In the middle of all this we got a chance to celebrate Vicki’s birthday. Sunday afternoon we hit a matinee showing of The Tale of Despereaux (good, but the story was a little slow in places). When the movie was over we met Mom, Aunt Mar, and Pauline for supper at the Mexican restaurant in White House.

CHRISTMAS ANTICIPATION. Part of the fun of Christmas is seeing the excitement in your kids. I went in the boys bedroom after they had been sent to bed. Nate was sawing logs, but Ben was too excited to go to sleep. I can remember being like that. I will report on what the kids got for Christmas when I write next time. Right now I will share the boys’ letters to Santa which appeared in the Robertson County Times today. Here’s Nate’s letter:

Dear Santa,

I’ve been a good boy! I follow the rules at school and I only turned my card to a warning once. So...presents for me! I want 9 Bakugans and 3 holders and a [Nintendo] DS. They are cool and fun. Jenna and Benton and me want a [Nintendo] Wii. A Wii is awesome!

I’ll be the taster on the cookies before we put them out for you. (I’ll only eat one!)

Your friend,

Nate Swann

Ben’s letter appeared a few pages later:

Dear Santa,

I hope you had a great summer. For Christmas I want a Bakugan, a Nintendo DS, a Nintendo Wii, and a wireless game controller.

Your friend,

Benton Swann

Not to spoil the surprise, but Nintendo and the people who make Bakugans are going to love us this year. And I don’t mean to leave Jenna out -- I don’t think they do Letters to Santa after second grade -- but the kids have been dreaming and saving for a Wii for a long time and she’s contributed to the pot as much as the boys have.

Merry Christmas!

Joe

Catching Our Breath

Well, we haven’t seen any snow to speak of here, but we have had more chances for a wintry mix of precipitation this December than in previous years. A lot of school systems were closed in Middle Tennessee on Friday due to snow (we ran two hours late). Last night we got a minor ice storm which closed our schools today (though I was able to go into work without a problem). Ben is trying for one more day though (by wearing his pajamas backwards tonight).

MORE MUSIC. I seem to still be in the musical production business. I mentioned the children’s musical at church when I wrote last. As soon as that was over a crew moved in to redecorate the stage for the adult musical this weekend. I found myself behind the sound board for this production so I got a whole other round of rehearsals this past week. They performed Saturday night and Sunday morning and did a great job. Now that all this is behind us I think things will begin to slow down a bit. I know I was worn out. I was too sleepy to stay up last night and went to bed after supper. I slept about 10 hours.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY VICKI. Wednesday was Vicki’s 39th birthday. The kids and I gave her cards, a CD, and a gift card to the iTunes Store, but somehow the rest of the celebration got lost in all the busyness of the holiday season. I am hoping to take her out for a birthday date this coming weekend.

CUTTING IT CLOSE. Vicki has said I must tell this on myself, so here goes. As I’ve gotten older I have found I need to trim my eyebrows (among other things) more and more frequently. I have a little battery powered trimmer just for this. The trimmer even has a guide comb to aid in trimming to a desired length.

The other day I saw I needed to shape my brows up a bit so I got the trimmer out. I removed the comb so I could trim the middle and actually have two eyebrows again. Then, forgetting to replace the comb, I started to trim my left brow. It was when the trimmer sounded like a weed eater choking down in tall grass that I realized my error. Upon surveying the damage I discovered I had two tufts of hair over each corner of my left eye. A good 70% of the middle had been shaved to the skin. There was nothing left to do but finish shaving all the way across and be thankful I wear glasses and have almost blonde eyebrows. Vicki has gotten a lot of enjoyment from this.

Joe

The Hustle and Bustle of the Holidays

Wow! What a full week and a half. ‘Tis the season to be busy. The day after Thanksgiving we dug out our Christmas decorations. Our tree is up and most of our rooms have a festive touch. However, we haven’t even gotten to the outdoor decorations, and I’m not sure we will this week either.

It’s been pretty cold, at least it feels like it has been cooler than normal for this time of year. We’ve even seen a few snow flurries which prompted the kids to wear their pajamas inside out hoping for a snow day.

ANGEL ALERT! A lot of our free time since Thanksgiving has been taken up with getting ready for the children’s Christmas musical, Angel Alert, at church. We were involved with some of the set decoration as well as setting up all the extra A/V equipment that goes with a production like this. When we weren’t at church doing that we were at church for rehearsal. I think Thursday night was the only time we weren’t doing something with the musical. (Well, there was Monday, but we had Scouts.)

The kids put on two performance, last night and this morning. I must say they did a great job. They really sang out and those with parts played them well. One first grader enthusiastically shouted the first song Friday night. He got one of the lines wrong, stopped and shouted, “Sorry, Mrs. Vicki!” (Vicki Schultz directed the choir) and went right back to singing. Nate was part of the preschool choir. Ben and Jenna sang in the older kids choir. Jenna even had a solo part, the first verse of O Holy Night. She sang it so well. Vicki and I were really proud of all the kids.

EVERYONE LOVES A PARADE. We had our annual Christmas parade on Cross Plains yesterday. It was a cold, cloudy day. I always laugh about the parade being longer than the town (it was by about a quarter mile), but it’s turning out to be a great community event. I think I heard someone say there was over 100 entries. There sure was plenty to see. We had enough floats to have a contest (the Cub Scouts won). Jenna and Nate rode with the children’s choir to promote their musical. Vicki walked the parade route handing out flyers.

Ben rode with the Cub Scouts. Their float was a huge improvement over riding in my old truck last year. A team of parents worked together to transform a lowboy trailer into a huge Radio Flyer wagon (the wheels were three feet tall). I had seen pictures of the float under construction and knew it would be big but was surprised to see it needed a semi to pull it. The float was really well done.

TOUR OF HOMES. Also in the mix of weekend activities was the annual tour of homes in the area. Vicki and I didn’t make any of the homes, but we, along with Jenna, hosted one of the locations on the tour (the Cross Plains Coffee Mill). This tour is a fund raiser for a local scholarship.

WORRIED ABOUT THE FUTURE. I’m sure all of us wondered about our futures when we were kids. I know I used to wonder who I would marry, if she’d be a local girl or from somewhere else. I remember being on vacation and wondered if I’d had a chance meeting with my future wife at the pool or the beach or something.

Nate had things like this on his mind the other day when he said to Vicki, “I’m scared about getting my driver’s license. I don’t know how to drive yet.” Vicki, trying to put his fears to rest, told him not to worry about that right now as he had plenty of time to learn. Fifteen minutes later he returns to express an additional concern: “I just don’t know who I’m going to marry!” She, of course, told him he had plenty of time before he needed to think about this as well. She went on to say, “All you need to worry about now is being the best five-year-old you can be.”

BLOG OF INTEREST. Lori Swann is on a business trip to Jerusalem. She left Tuesday and will return later this week. She is getting to do some sightseeing while there and has started a blog to record her experiences. If you’d like to read up on her adventures and impressions of the Holy Land you can do so at loriswann.wordpress.com.

Joe

Counting Blessings

I hope everyone has enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving meal like our family did today. As I reflect on the day I realize there are so many things we have to be thankful to God for. Not only did we eat well today, we never wonder where our next meal will come from. We live in a multi-room home with indoor plumbing. It is warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Every morning we get up and have to decide which of our many clothes we will wear for the day. We are in excellent health and can work to provide for ourselves. Our kids are receiving an excellent education. And most importantly, we are free to worship God publicly. It is so very easy to take all of this for granted.

LAST CHEMO! Speaking of health, unless upcoming tests prove otherwise, Pauline had her last chemo treatment Tuesday. We are so glad even though the final word on all of this will come closer to Christmas. She has done very well, and even spent yesterday cooking for Thanksgiving.

THANKSGIVING ACTIVITIES. For me the kick off to every holiday season is the Cross Plains Heritage Commission’s covered dish supper the Thursday before Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, I had a stomach virus that night and missed it. At least I was better the next day.

East Robertson Elementary served their Thanksgiving meal Friday. I was unable to make it to that one either, though my stomach was much better. Vicki ate with all three kids (the cafeteria ladies let her spread her meal out). When Vicki was eating with Nate he looked over his tray, pointed to the meat, and asked Vicki to identify it. She told him it was turkey. Then he asked, “Why did they put slobber all over it?”

Sunday night marked out annual Community Thanksgiving service at church. It was held at our church with Cross Plains Methodist, Friendship Baptist, Milldale Presbyterian, and Owens Chapel Methodist participating. We had a big meal before the service. The Men’s Chorus from Friendship sang and their pastor, Keith Jackson, spoke. Milldale’s pastor, Kyle Gott, lead the communion. It was really a great service. Close to 400 people attended.

THANKSGIVING DAY. Today was a beautiful day. The kids and I spent this morning getting leaves off the yard. We cleaned about a third of the yard and spread the leaves in the old soybean field behind the house. Vicki spent the morning cooking.

We all gathered over at Pauline’s around 1:30 for dinner. The menu was the usual ham, squash dressing, sweet potatoe casserole, mashed potatoes, deviled eggs, corn, green beans, rolls, and cranberry sauce. This was all topped off with carrot cake. After clearing the table the kids and Mom played a game of Monopoly (I was the banker and helped Nate). Mom blew everyone away.

DIFFERENT HABITS. When you have a married couple there are bound to be differences in the way they do things. For example, I am pretty good about putting things back where I found them. Vicki tends to set things down wherever she is when she’s done using them. The pen I try to keep in the computer desk best illustrates this.

Oh, if only I COULD keep a pen at the computer desk. Vicki is always taking the pens off somewhere else. We have pens that started life at the computer desk and have migrated to God only knows where. I think she sticks them behind her ear and forgets them so they ride on her head only to be discovered hours later when she is nowhere close to the computer. It wouldn’t be so bad, but I like to use a specific type of pen, the Pilot Precise V5.

Recently she defended herself to the last when I asked her to find at least one pen for me to write with. She gets defensive now because this has been going on for years. This time Jenna looked through Vicki’s purse and found two pens from the desk right off the bat. My new favorite nickname for my wife is “kleptoPENiac.”

RECOMMENDED PODCASTS. I recently got an iPod Touch. We all enjoy the games I have downloaded on it. I also enjoy several podcasts. Here are the ones I enjoy listening to. You can subscribe to any of them on the iTunes store free of charge.

LifeChurch.tv -- I enjoy Craig Groeschel’s sermons.

John Eldridge and Ransomed Heart -- I subscribe to a couple of these.

StarDate -- A daily astronomy update from the McDonald Observatory.

StoryCorps -- A weekly podcast from the StoryCorps project.

The News from Lake Wobegon -- Garrison Keillor -- Need I say more?

Two Chairs, No Waiting -- A new podcast for Andy Griffith Show fans.

Speaking of astronomy, Jupiter and Venus are putting on a great show every night just after sunset. The Moon will join them for a tight conjunction Monday night.

Joe

The Brevity of Life

This last week has been fairly routine for our family, and I was wondering if I’d have much to write about this weekend. Then a colleague and friend of mine passed away unexpectedly around 2:30 Friday afternoon.

Barry Baker was the Supervisor of Career and Technical (Vocational) Education for our school system. He was returning to Springfield from a meeting Friday afternoon. As he was driving along Highway 431 (the Tom Austin Highway) he was involved in a head on collision with another vehicle and died from injuries sustained in the accident. He was 54. The other driver, who happened to be a student at one of our high schools, had fallen asleep at the wheel and drifted over the centerline of the road. He was ejected from his car and will be okay.

Mr. Baker and his wife had one daughter, and had recently become grandparents. He had been one of the Agriculture teachers at East Robertson High School for many years (though after my time as a student there). He has been working in his current capacity for about five years. In that time I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know him (I already knew his wife as she taught at one of our schools). His office has been next to mine after we moved to our current location last year.

Mr. Baker was a man of extremely few words (for those of you on Mom’s side of the family who remember Warren Letsinger then you’ve got the idea), but once you initiated the conversation you found a real friend. Due to his nature he was a great listener, but I always valued what he had to say. I guess it was because I knew whatever words he said were carefully chosen. Many teachers recognized this and would come to him for advice. He was also well respected among our supervisors at our Central Office as well as his old faculty at ERHS.

I don’t know if Mr. Baker was ever a Boy Scout, but he took their motto to the extreme. His car was practically a traveling toolbox, complete with an air tank for flat tires. I once told Vicki I was glad he and I travel the same route to work in case my truck ever broke down.

The hardest thing about all this is the abruptness of it. It just reminds you that there is no guarantee that you’ll come home when you walk out the door on any given morning. Mr. Baker is the third school system employee I knew to have died this school year. The other two were ladies who lost their battles with cancer (one of them died Wednesday) and were not unexpected. I knew these ladies well, worked with them regularly, and had a high regard for them, but the relationships weren’t as close as knowing Mr. Baker.

Mr. Baker’s funeral is tomorrow. Our schools will operate as normal, but our offices will be closed in his honor. This funeral will not be easy for any of our Central Office staff.

Joe

Fabulous Fall

We have been enjoying some of the best fall leaves that I can remember in a long time. There’s beauty everywhere you look. I sure wish it all lasted longer than 2-3 weeks. We’ve also been enjoying some warm weather. I’ve even gone upstairs and retrieved a few short sleeve shirts. The temperatures took a nose dive over the weekend.

There’s been a lot of activity going on in our area fields too. The Pinsons have been combining the soybeans, and Bill Chatman has been plowing the corn fields in preparation for sowing wheat. Last night he was still at it when I went to bed.

UNDER THE WEATHER. I think it all started when Ben began coughing after we got home from vacation. This eventually spread to Vicki. Then Ben started feeling pretty rough last weekend. Next was Aunt Mar. By Sunday neither Aunt Mar nor Ben felt like going to church so I stayed home with the two of them. Vicki took Ben to the doctor Tuesday and learned he had walking pneumonia. He also missed school Wednesday and Thursday. So far Nate, Jenna, and I have stayed relatively healthy.

SPEECH WRITER. I think I have mentioned that Jenna is in 4-H. They had their local speech contest a couple of weeks ago. She really struggled with writing it, but she must have written a pretty good one as she won second place in her class. She’ll get to go to the county speech contest toward the end of January. Her speech is titled Caring for Our World.

THAT’S JUST GROSS! So Vicki and Jenna were watching TV when a commercial for some Internet search engine came on. The premise of the ad was how easy it is to find answers to obscure questions like, “What are hot dogs are made of?” This made Jenna turn to Vicki and ask, “So, what are hot dogs made of?” After Vicki replied, “You don’t want to know.” This look of horror came over Jenna’s face. Voicing her thought she asked, “Dogs?”

Well, Vicki did straighten Jenna out of the ingredients of wieners, but now they are both wondering why the food is called a hot dog in the first place. I sure don’t know, but then my preference is for another misnamed food anyway -- hamburgers.

AFTER SCHOOL SNACK. Think back to childhood. What was the first thing you did when you came in from school? Get a snack, right? For me it was a peanut butter sandwich. Well, our kids are no different, and Mom and Aunt Mar are eager to please -- too eager. I got to their house a little earlier than usual the other day and saw the whole spread. Jenna had finished eating, but Nate was still in the middle of his meal. While no ice cream was served this particular day (an oversight I’m sure) I found Nate working on a bowl of Cheerios, a cup cake, M&M’s, Reese’s Cups, and Teddy Bear cookies. And we wonder why they won’t eat much for supper.

BIG DREAMS. It’s that time of year when kids start to think about what they want for Christmas. We used to get catalogs from all the stores when I was a kid: Sears, J. C. Penny, etc. I loved looking through the toy pages in these books. It seems like Service Merchandise would print the best selection of toys in their wish book. I think they printed a special toy catalog. Well, for our kids THE book is the Toys ‘R Us catalog. They pour over it, pass it around, put it by their bed at night, etc. Since Jenna and Ben know some inside information about how Christmas works they know they’ll have a budget for picking out what they want so they are really busy trying to prioritize their wish list. What they don’t know is how much that budget is. I’m sure this will begin to drive all of us crazy soon if Vicki and I don’t decide on an amount quickly. ‘Tis just about the season!

Joe

Back in the Swing

Being in Florida for a week may have made us more sensitive to this, but it seems like God flipped a switch as we went from early fall to almost winter overnight. We’ve been running our heat since we got home, and we had our first frost yesterday morning. The kids have also enjoyed their annual run through Steve Freeland’s corn maze.

CANCER UPDATE. I haven’t mentioned Pauline’s chemo in quite a while. She has been doing really well. She even had another treatment while we were in Florida. She went today for a CT scan to check her progress. We are hoping the results of this will give us some idea how many treatments she has left.

Speaking of results, we are relieved that Mom got good results today. The Monday after we got home from Florida (the 20th) she was scheduled for her annual mammogram. This year they asked her to come back the next day for more tests which revealed two spots of interest. She had a biopsy Monday of this week (the 27th), and, as I said, the results came back negative. (For those who may not know, Mom had breast cancer back in 1990.)

POLITICAL BOY. I will be so glad when Election Day has come and gone if for no other reason than to silence our phone. I sure wish the Do Not Call list applied to political campaigns!

Nate sure has the election on his mind (he has learned about it in school). He’s been asking people at church, etc., “Are you 18 yet?” If the answer is yes he then wants to know, “Are you voting for Obama or McCain?”

What makes this funny to us is Nate’s concept of old. To his five year old perspective all adults simply have a larger age than his. Nate is not so sure what that number is, so everyone gets the “Are you 18?” question. This includes Aunt Mar who has seen 18 years go by more than 5 times now.

LOST AT HOME. Everyone has to get up during the night to use the bathroom. Maybe not every night, but we’ve all done it. We find the bathroom, take care of business, and return to bed almost automatically. Nate, on the other hand, gets lost. We know this because we hear him frantically running through the house in the middle of the night looking for the bathroom, and we have to get up and steer him in the right direction. We’ve had a lot of close calls, but no catastrophes.

THE WHISTLER. Ben has learned how to whistle, and he sounds pretty darn good! It took me forever to learn how to whistle, and I can’t say I do it correctly. I can only whistle when inhaling, not exhaling like most people do. I sound like a sick bird. Jenna is a lot like me in this, and when she hears Ben whistling it sort of gets her goat because he sounds better than she does. Since Ben is a Star Wars fanatic we mostly hear The Imperial March coming from his lips (with Nate humming right along), but since Disney World we’re getting some Yo Ho, Yo Ho! A Pirates Life for Me mixed in.

THE CAMP OUT THAT NEVER WAS. You’ll remember that we went camping back in September. While on that trip we talked about getting another trip in before cold weather got here. Everyone liked this idea, but when we started trying to coordinate with the church calendar it got pushed back to October 24 -- last Friday. This was all a go until we saw rain in the forecast for Thursday and Friday. Rather than letting this be a total loss we just called all the families who planned on camping and organized a party at Kenny and Lori’s barn. We had pizza, the kids played, and the adults visited. We were 11:00 getting home. We had so much fun everybody just got together again the next night to watch the Tennessee-Alabama game. Being true orange blooded Tennesseans we quickly lost interest and started playing several games including Trivial Pursuit ‘80s Edition. We had a lot of fun regardless of the pitiful football game.

A STARTLING DISCOVERY. It was late June that we found our cat Lilly in the fence row in front of Pauline’s house. She was very small then -- a newly weaned kitten. That was the only time I looked to determine her gender. Imagine my surprise yesterday when I was watching Lilly play with a toy and as she rolled over...I saw something very unexpected! Upon closer inspection I looked at the kids and said, “Guys, we have to rename the cat. Lilly is a boy!”

Rag me all you want, but just take comfort in the fact that I like to respect a cat’s privacy as much as anyone’s. Besides, there’s a lot of fur down there on her...him. Anyway, Lilly is now Willie. Vicki is having a hard time with this adjustment.

Joe

Our Disney Vacation, Part 5

This will be my last installment of our trip to WDW. What I have written here only scratches the surface of our trip. We do have pictures...over 650 of them, not to mention the ones Dianna gave us from her camera. We haven’t even looked through them to cull out the bad shots. I did get some once in a lifetime pictures of the inside of Space Mountain. We were riding the Tomorrowlad Transit Authority (People Mover) which goes inside Space Mountain. They happened to have the lights on doing a safety check. Usually you see the roller coaster trains zooming around in the dark. This time we could see everything about the ride.

I’ll end telling about Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom. No one in our family had visited these two parks before.

SUNSCREEN. It is amazing what a difference going 750 miles south makes. We enjoyed weather down there that we’d had 4-6 weeks ago here in Tennessee. One reality for our family is sunscreen. We are so fair we can sunburn in a cave at midnight on night with a new moon. Jenna could apply her own sunscreen which helped. The challenge was getting the boys to stand still so we could grease them up and still get out the door in time to meet the Cotters. They say your epidermis is the largest organ in your body. I can vouch for that.

One morning Nate was goofing off. I had told him to get dressed and put his breakfast dishes away while I finished putting sunscreen on Ben, but he got distracted. A moment later I got on to him for not doing what I told him to do. He said, “Rats! So much to do in my life,” and then started scurrying around, acting busy.

HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS. The rides that were the biggest hit here were the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, the Rock ‘N Roller Coaster, and Toy Story Midway Mania. The Rock ‘N Roller Coaster is the only Disney ride that takes you upside down. It does so three times: two loops and one corkscrew. The kids had heard about this ride early on so the standard question from them before went on any ride was, “Does it go upside down?” It became the family joke because the kids asked this of everything, including the Monorail.

Nate was a little scared before boarding the Rock ‘N Roller Coaster. You see, after loading the cars they move forward a bit and wait for a countdown. At the end of the countdown the ride takes off, accelerating to 60 MPH in 2.8 seconds. Watching this from the line Nate’s anxiety began to build so Vicki told him to pray if he felt scared. A miniute later he tugged on her arm and said he wanted to pray. Here’s his prayer: “Dear God, help me not to be scared on this roller coaster. And God, I know You’re going to be with me. Thank You.” Then he smiled real big and was good to go. Everyone was really pumped up after riding this.

The ride you need to Fastpass first here is the Toy Story Midway Mania. The technology behind this is incredible. As you ride this you stop at several different shooting gallery scenes. You have a gun on your seat and shoot the targets projected by a computer in front of you. You are also wearing 3-D glasses. All the projected targets appear to have depth as well as the projectiles coming from your gun (darts, water, etc. depending on the scene you are at). The computer even keeps score for you. This is a must do ride!

While the rides are good, the neat thing about Hollywood Studios are the shows. There are quite a few shows here and they average 30 minutes. This leaves you with a lot to do in a short amount of time which is why one of our days here was so rushed. Fantasmic combines live action with animation projected against water and retells the story of Fantasia. The Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular recreates key scenes in Raiders of the Lost Ark and then shows you how those stunts were done. And the Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show recreates a high speed car chase scene like you see in stories like the James Bond films. Both of these shows include explosions that are close enough for you to feel the heat. We also enjoyed the Beauty and the Beast and Voyage of the Little Mermaid stage shows.

Our table service meal here was at the Sci-Fi Drive-In Theater Restaurant. All the tables here are shaped like cars and they all face a large movie screen. The movie is a bunch of movie trailers from old science fiction B movies with a few cartoons mixed in. It was just corny enough to be really entertaining.

ANIMAL KINGDOM is half zoo, half amusement park. It is the prettiest of all the Disney parks. One of my two regrets of the whole trip was not returning here for at least part of another day. This park, or parts of it, usually close earlier than the other parks due to the animals.

We really enjoyed seeing the animals whether it was from a walk-through exhibit or on a ride like Kilimanjaro Safaris. The Flights of Wonder show featured different birds and was fun to see. The Festival of the Lion King and Finding Nemo stage shows were both excellent. Expedition Everest was the roller coaster to ride here, and while it doesn’t go upside down there is the Yeti to contend with. The kids rode the Kali River Rapids (white-water rafting) twice and were drenched (which is why the adults opted out).

My favorite dining experience was the Tusker House Restaurant. This is an all-you-can-eat buffet featuring foods with an African flavor. After supper (Kenny, you’ll enjoy this) I was eating my ice when Nate stuck his hand down in my glass to get ice for himself. He didn’t seem to understand why I got on to him and said, “You can still drink it.” Trying to make him understand I said, “Not after you stuck your grubby fingers down in my glass I can’t.” I guess he still didn’t get the point because he stuck his wet fingers up to my mouth and said, “Here, drink this.”

RECOVERING. Well, this pretty much wraps up our trip. We only stopped at Ellis Brothers Pecans on the way home (well, I already mentioned spending the night in Tifton). It wasn’t easy to get up and go to work and school Monday morning. We all had the post vacation blues. It felt like it was Wednesday before we got caught up on our sleep.

We had been dreaming about this vacation for a long time, and it lived up to all our dreams. As a matter of fact, Vicki has been riding rides in her dreams just about every night since. I would go back and do every bit of it again. We’re even talking about doing it again in 4-5 years.

My computer says I have written over 5300 words about our trip. I hope I have not overdone it. All this doesn’t even cover all the special little moments like when Ben or Nate would spontaneously want to hold our hands as we walked through the crowds. I’ll bet that won’t happen the next time we’re there, and I am so glad we have things like that to look back on.

Joe

Our Disney Vacation, Part 4

In this edition I am going to focus on two of the four parks we visited: the Magic Kingdom and Epcot. Keep in mind that the events recorded here happened over several days due to our park hopping.

ROLLER COASTERS. Oh, before I start I should just own up to a weakness now. I cannot stomach roller coasters. It’s not that I haven’t tried. The first roller coaster I rode was the Mini Timber Topper at Opryland. I threw up in the bushes. The last one I tried was Chaos, also at Opryland. I managed to keep my lunch down, but it wasn’t easy. I rode a lot of things at WDW, but I sat out on the roller coasters. (I’m not sure where this comes from with me. When taking flight lessons I would always fight nausea when the instructor demonstrated a stall or some other maneuver, but I never had a problem when performing the same maneuver myself.) Nate faced his fears pretty well, though one time he reached over and grabbed Vicki’s hand when he got scared. A few minutes later he didn’t need to hold his mom’s hand so he threw it back.

CROWDS. When we went to WDW in 2004 we were surprised at how empty the Magic Kingdom was. Well, I think Fall Break has caught on in four years. The parks were far more crowed this year.

You might think we saw a lot of foreign guests due to the current economic situation, and there were plenty. But the majority of guests were Americans by far. I knew of several families from Robertson County with plans to visit WDW over Fall Break. We hadn’t been in the Magic Kingdom a half hour the first day when we ran into Sharon Keay and her family (Vicki taught with Sharon in her Bransford days). Later Jenna saw a classmate, Will Gregory, and his family. And Wednesday night at church Randy Hall told me he saw me from a distance at one of the parks.

THE MAGIC KINGDOM. I don’t think there was anything new here since 2004, but we enjoyed riding our favorite rides and watching our favorite shows. Of course, it was all new to Nate. Ben says he doesn’t remember his last visit either. One of the first things we tackled was Space Mountain. Nate was so excited after riding this roller coaster he was almost beside himself. Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain were also big hits. Other favorite Rides were the Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, the Jungle Cruise, Peter Pan, Buzz Lightyear, and Goofy’s Barnstormer. As to shows, you can’t beat Mickey’s PhilharMagic.

PIN TRADING has become a big thing with our kids. Disney makes all kinds of pins, and Dianna started each of our kids off with one (as well as a gift card). Many Disney cast members wear lanyards with pins for trading. Once the kids traded for pins they liked they spent their money for more pins and had a blast trading all week. (You too can get in on the fun at www.disneypins.com.)

My favorite memory of the week involves these pins. We had just gotten off the Carousel of Progress when Ben said, “My pins!” While in the show he had taken his lanyard off and been sucking on it. When he noticed it was wet he set it on the seat beside him to dry and forgot to pick it up. We doubled back and two different cast members checked the theater we rode in but didn’t find his pins. We were told they would check again after the park closed. Ben tried to be tough, but when he saw Vicki he broke down and cried.

Vicki and the kids then went on the ride Buzz Lightyear while I stayed behind to look for the pins again. I was going to ride the Carousel again if needed. As I waited for the theater we rode in to come back around I got a cast member to agree to let me go in and look for Ben’s pins. I found them within ten seconds (thanks to the flashlight on my key ring) and was waiting at the BuZZ Lightyear exit with the lanyard around my neck when Ben came out the door. I will always remember that smile and hug.

HOOP DEE DOO MUSICAL REVUE. While this was at the Ft. Wilderness Campground, I will include it here. This meal and show was two table service credits for us. The food was really good as well as the show. It was a very fun evening, but we really wouldn’t say this was a must see show.

EPCOT. I think Alex has a great alternate definition for the Epcot acronym. He says it means Every Person Comes Out Tired (it actually stands for Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow). This park was new for the kids. There are three new popular attractions here since Vicki and I last visited in 1994, and all for them were hits with our family. When you first arrive at Epcot the first thing you should do is get Fastpasses for Soarin’. That was the one of the coolest rides I’ve ever been on! It simulates riding in a hang glider. Mission Space and Test Track were also lots of fun. Spaceship Earth was another favorite of the kids.

I really enjoy spending time in the World Showcase part of Epcot, but the kids weren’t so enthused, so we didn’t even make it to all the countries. Our big meal here was at the Akershus Restaurant. This was a character meal with five princesses: Ariel, Belle, Cinderella, Jasmine, and Sleeping Beauty. We had a photo op with Belle when we arrived and the other four visited our table during our meal. What was so funny was that Nate was watching Cinderella and was actually checking his hair when she was a couple of tables away. He must have been nervous because he asked to go to the bathroom after just getting back from there. When we were reminiscing about our trip on the way home we asked Nate if he enjoyed meeting the princesses. He downplayed this saying, “We boys don’t like princesses!” Yeah, right. I think we’ve just had a preview of the year 2020.

Joe 

Our Disney Vacation, Part 3

All the way down to Florida Nate kept worrying about having to go to school the next morning. I don’t think he had the vacation concept down yet. Saturday morning, at Ann Beth’s house, he was really concerned so Vicki sat him down and explained it to him. “Nate, you have a whole week off from school. Tonight we will be at Alex and Chris’ house. Tomorrow we are going to Disney World. The next day we are going to Disney World. The day after that....” As he listened he got more and more excited. His eyes sparkled. He started giggling. He began jumping up and down. It was a precious moment. He didn’t quit worrying about school until we got to the Cotter’s house.

Since we had park hopper passes I think the most efficient way to tell about our trip is to present you with our itinerary and then focus on different amusement parks later. So, here’s how the trip panned out for us starting with Friday, October 10.

FRIDAY: We got the kids out of school early and were on the road by 3:30. We drove to the Yergler’s in Marietta, Georgia, and spent the night. A pleasant surprise for us was that Ginny was home from college on Fall Break.

SATURDAY: Ann Beth fed us breakfast and sent us on our way. We drove to Jim and Dianna’s house in Ocoee, Florida. Aunt Linda and Uncle Bob were there. We ate pizza and enjoyed visiting until it was time for bed.

SUNDAY: Dianna fed us breakfast before we left to check in at our resort. After checking in we went to the Magic Kingdom and met the Cotters there. After watching the SpectroMagic parade and the Wishes fireworks show the Cotters left. As resort guests we stayed for the Extra Magic Hours. This was the only day we took advantage of this (we were too tired for it after this).

MONDAY: We started the day at Epcot. We had planned to hop over to the Magic Kingdom later but rain moved in and caused us to leave Epcot earlier than planned. The afternoon was sort of a wash. We had reservations for the Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue at the Fort Wilderness Campground. After supper we took the bus to Hollywood Studios for the Fantasmic show.

TUESDAY: This was our whirlwind day as we were sort of a slave to the schedule of show times. We spent most of the day at Hollywood Studios. Our table service meal was at the Sci-Fi Drive In. It was the only table service where the Cotters joined us. After supper we went to Epcot where we saw the Illuminations fireworks show.

WEDNESDAY: This was the only day we went to Animal Kingdom. Our big meal here was at the Tusker House restaurant. Animal Kingdom closes early (due to the animals) so we went back to the resort and let the kids swim. They were playing Toy Story as a pool side movie.

THURSDAY: By now we were trying to go back and catch attractions we had missed earlier in the week. We started at the Magic Kingdom and ended at Epcot. We scheduled our one character meal this day, dining with five Disney princesses at the Akershus rastaurant.

FRIDAY: This was the one day the Cotters didn’t meet us at a park. We went back to Epcot and the Magic Kingdom. We also had to check out of our resort so we spent the night with the Cotters.

SATURDAY: We started the day meeting Aunt Linda and Uncle Bob at Cracker Barrel for breakfast. Of course, no trip would be complete without van trouble. Our check engine light came on so Jim and I took the van to a Toyota dealership while Vicki and Dianna took the kids to Epcot. As justice would have it one of the rides they were on broke down while they were on it. By the way, Toyota estimated $865 to fix the van. We drove home with the problem unfixed (I’ve gotten cheaper estimates here). Jim and I had a good time visiting as we walked around Downtown Disney and waited for our families to leave Epcot. Then we parted company and headed home. We spent the night in Tifton, Georgia.

SUNDAY: We got home around 4:15.

By Thursday Nate was starting to get a little homesick and Ben and Jenna were starting to miss our cat, Lilly. By Friday we were all pretty tired. It was a really big trip for all of us. We got a good laugh as we were passing through Valdosta, Georgia, and Nate asked with weariness in his voice, “Are we on Disney property still?”

Joe

Our Disney Vacation, Part 2

As I said Sunday, our Disney vacation is something we started working on more than a year ago, so this is all about planning tips. Bear with me. The trip details come later.

RESEARCH. If you are planning a trip to Walt Disney World (WDW) you need to do some research. The Internet is the best place for that. Of course, it’s always best to go straight to the source and visit the Walt Disney World Resort web site. It is loaded with information. EVERYTHING is listed here. You can order the vacation planning package from here as well which includes a DVD. I had two problems with this site: I felt it could be organized better, and even with broadband it loads slowly due to all the Flash animation. A lot of times our research turned to a third party site or two. AllEars.net is really good. It has lots of info, is well organized, is updated frequently, and loads quickly.

BOOKING. We booked our trip with Sabrina Freeland. For those of you who don’t know Brent’s wife, she is a stay home mom who home-schools her kids (there is a link to their blog site from ours). In her other life she is a travel agent for Gulliver’s Travel. We booked the trip a year ago.

LODGING. We are fortunate to have relatives who live just minutes from WDW, and we could have stayed with them. However, we decided to stay on property and booked five nights at the All Star Music Resort (we did stay with Jim and Dianna a couple of nights though). The nice thing about this was that we parked the van and left it. The Disney transportation (bus, monorail, boat) took us everywhere we needed to go.

Our room was a two bedroom, two bathroom suite with kitchenette. It was basically a nice clean place to sleep which was all we needed. We got up early, ate our breakfast, and headed to the bus stop...not to return until late that night.

MEALS. After looking at meal prices we opted to get Disney’s basic meal plan. I would say this was one of the best things we did. We were stuffed the whole week and came out better than if we had paid for food as we went along. This also saved us from having to pack lunches, though you are free to do so.

The rule about the meal plan is that you have to purchase it based on the number of days you stay in a Disney resort. We stayed five nights so we had to purchase five days of meals. Your room key doubles as your meal card and is good almost anywhere whether it’s a restaurant in an amusement park or at a resort (I’m not sure about restaurants at Downtown Disney). Our plan gave us one table service meal, one counter service (fast food) meal, and one snack each day. You can spend these however you want. Eating at a really ritzy restaurant will cost you two table service credits.

You can begin to make reservations for table service meals 180 days before your trip which you really need to do. We were not on top of this back in the spring (life was happening too fast) so our choice in times were limited somewhat, but we still enjoyed everywhere we ate.

PARK TICKETS. Pricing admission tickets for a Disney park will give you sticker shock. The per day amount gets better the more days you purchase. We got seven day passes. Then there’s all the add ons. Want water parks? Cha-ching. Park hopper option? Cha-ching. No expiration date on unused days? Cha-ching. Fries? Cha-ching.

We did spring for the park hopper option. If we had only planned to be there for four days we would not have done this. Changing parks is nice, but be warned that it will take a 45-60 minute chunk out of your day, not good if you don’t have a lot of time. Moving between the Magic Kingdom and Epcot is by far the easiest due to the monorail.

Our room keys tripled as our park tickets. For Vicki, Jenna, and I this was also tied to our finger print.

Your ticket can also be used to Fastpass rides where this option is available. Fastpassing a ride holds your place in line so you can go do something else while waiting (see the Fastpass article on Wikipedia if you want to know more about how this works). This was where doing Disney with the Cotters was really nice. We would walk into a park and Jim or Dianna would grab all the tickets and Fastpass a really hot ride while we went to do something else. I don’t think our boys ever really knew what was going on behind the scenes for them with Fastpasses.

MEMORIES OF YOUNGER DAYS. One day Jim, Vicki, and I were reminiscing one day about Opryland in Nashville and how much we miss it. I found this web site where you can go and relive your Opryland memories. Of course, back then visiting an amusement park was a one day event (and it seems like we had to BEG the adults to take us).

Joe

Our Disney Vacation, Part 1

I can’t remember how long our school system has been scheduling a Fall Break into the school calendar, but it’s a great time to take a vacation. We’ve just gotten home from the best vacation ever!

Back in 2004 we went to Florida. While there we took the kids to the Magic Kingdom at Disney World. We said then that when Nate was old enough to really enjoy it (he was one at the time) we would come back and do Disney World right. Well, this was the year. We got seven day passes and stayed five nights at Disney’s All Star Music Resort. We’re worn out, but we’ve had a blast.

This trip has been in the works for over a year. As plans started to fall into place we’ve been getting more and more excited. I found a Disney Vacation countdown widget for the computer so the kids and I have been keeping track of the days until we were to leave since February or March. It was about that time that the Cotters bought season passes in preparation for our trip. They live roughly 20 minutes from Disney World, so they’ve been going to one of the parks most every weekend. Just as our kids were getting excited about going to Florida, Alex and Chris were getting excited about being able to show us all around Disney World.

The week leading up to Fall Break was packed full of activities. Of course, getting ready to leave on vacation adds a lot to the normal routine. On top of that, Jenna participated in her last class performance for the PTO at her school on Tuesday the 7th. And Friday the 10th, Nate’s class went on a field trip to the Nashville Zoo. That afternoon I was able to get off work a few hours early. We pulled the kids out of school at 2:00 and by 3:30 we were Florida bound. We got back home this afternoon. The grandmas and the cat were all happy to see us.

There is no way I am going to be able to tell all about our trip in one edition of our newsletter/blog, and having driven from Tifton, Georgia, today I’m a little too tired to write much more. As the title indicates, I am going to break the telling into several parts. You can look forward to the next installment tomorrow or Tuesday.

Joe

A Touch of Color

We are beginning to see hints of fall colors in the trees, though it will be a couple of weeks before the green fades to reveal the trees in all their glory. The mornings are crisp and cool and big brother Ben loves showing Nate how he can see is breath as we wait for the bus. All the farmers have been busy harvesting their corn.

EVENING WALKS. Vicki and I have been trying to find time to do some walking in the evenings. This has been hard to do with all the activities that fill our calendar. We’ve been up to Kilgore Park once where they have a really nice walking trail around the perimeter of the park, but since Bill Chatman (or maybe it was Jackie) ran the bush hog over all the farm roads we’ve enjoyed walking from our house to Mr. Bill’s and back (about a 1.7 mile trip).

DANIEL SMITH DAYS. Daniel Smith (1748-1818) was, among other things, a US Senator from Tennessee in the early days of our nation. His estate, Rock Castle in Hendersonville, exists today as an historical landmark (see the Rock Castle web site). Last weekend we went to Daniel Smith Days at Rock Castle where many people had set up a fair to commemorate the history of our nation as it was some 200 years ago. There was even a re-enactment of the Holston Treaty of 1791. We found many things of interest as we wandered around the grounds. We enjoyed food from the period as well as see how things were done back in that day (like making soap or pewter spoons). We were also introduced to an interesting board game of the time called Shut the Box. Read this article from the Tennessean to learn more about the event.

The really odd thing was that Ben didn’t go with us. He had been invited to Wil Swann’s birthday party last Friday night and the festivities went on for most of Saturday so we went without him. I say it was odd because we all commented several times about how much we missed Ben. I think his absence even hampered Jenna and Nate’s ability to fully enjoy themselves.

We told Ben about how much we missed him later. I think it really pleased him to know because he kept turning his head away so we couldn’t see his face. However, I though I saw a smile from the corner of his mouth.

DINNERTIME HIT. It’s always a struggle to get kids to enjoy healthy food. Heck, its a struggle to get me to eat fruit. But we had a meal the other night, salmon, that seemed to be a hit with Ben. Vicki noticed him shoveling the salmon in like he was starving to death and asked him if he thought it was good. His, “Well, I guess so,” let us know he hated to admit the fish was good but couldn’t deny it ether.

BWOC. Since Jenna is a fifth grader this year she has had several opportunities come her way. Nothing really big, but several things that have made her, and us, feel really good. For example, when the photographers came to take pictures they needed some student helpers. Jenna was one of the students the principal asked to help. She was also elected by her classmates to be the secretary of their class 4-H club. It makes me proud to know that both her peers and the adults at school think so highly of my daughter.

This also reminds me of a comment one of Jenna’s old teacher’s made to me a few weeks ago. All teachers keep a folder in their desk for a substitute teacher. This teacher kept a note in her sub folder that read, “When in doubt about what the class did the day before, ask Jenna Swann.”

A BIT OF A STRETCH. Jenna and Vicki were talking about birthdays today. Jenna said, “You know Nate’s birthday is on a holiday (Valentine’s Day). Well, mine and Benton’s birthdays are on holidays too.”

This got a silent stare from Vicki as April 18 (Jenna) and August 3 (Ben) are not on any holiday’s she could think of.

Jenna went on to explain herself, “My birthday is on the day of Paul Revere’s ride, and Benton’s is on the day Columbus set sail.”

A FORMER STUDENT. I only taught high school for four years, but even at that I am always happy to see a former student. I ran into Charlye Ramsey last fall. She had just returned from serving in the Peace Corps in Zambia and was doing some consulting work at one of our schools. Now she is serving with Volunteer Service Overseas in Papua New Guinea. This is not something I would have predicted Charlye doing when she was in high school. I have enjoyed reading of her adventures in the Robertson County Times, and I thought I share the link to her blog, Looking Through Another’s Eyes, in case you’re interested.

Joe

Camp-o-rama

Its hard to believe September is almost gone. Our weather has been warm, even hot on some days, but you can tell summer is just about spent.

CAMPING. I think the highlight of life these last couple of weeks has been camping. This is the first time we’ve ever been camping as a family. A few weeks ago Vicki found a deal on a tent. At 10’ x 16’ it’s large enough for all of us to sleep comfortably. It has two rooms and a porch.

We went camping down at the river in Milldale weekend before last (Friday the 12th), and it turned out to be a really fun event. Lori, Andrew, and Wil camped out as well (Kenny came, but does not camp). As we talked about it at church the Sunday and Wednesday before, three other families decided to come too, which made for a fun time. All the kids had a lot of fun playing in the river, and when the adults weren’t playing in the river with them we had a great time just visiting around the campfire. Mom and Aunt Mar even came down for supper and sat around the fire with us for quite a while.

When Mom and Aunt Mar left I loaded all the kids in the back of the truck to take them up to the barn where they could use an actual bathroom if they wanted. What was so neat was that they just started spontaneously singing in the back of the truck. They serenaded me with songs like Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star; BINGO; Jesus Loves Me; etc. Kenny, of course, treated everyone to a scary story. His rendition of the Carr’s Creek Critter (a local story) had several of the kids sort of worried about sleeping in a tent by the river. His next story was Samson and Delilah which calmed everyone down and got them giggling. He chose Nate to play Delilah (a role Ben passed up) and one of the little girls to play Samson (hence all the giggling). Both kids really hammed up their parts.

I had to laugh at Nate who seems to be turning into our little comedian, or trying to at least. He had taken his bear to school Friday for Show and Tell, claiming it was his bear’s birthday. That night he tried to organize a birthday party for his bear around the campfire. Sadly, none of the other kids seemed to want to join in. Not to be deterred I saw him trying his hand at comic relief several other times. Once I noticed him walking holding his lawn chair up to his bottom and saying, “Help! My chair is pushing me. Help!”

We didn’t get to bed until midnight.

The next morning we got up with the birds (because Ben and Nate were awake and kept sitting on their sleeping bags saying, “I’m bored.”) When the rest of the camp woke up all the play seemed to resume where it left off the previous evening. After breakfast we began packing up to go home.

You know, the only bad thing about camping is the amount of stuff you have to haul with you. The back of my truck was full just to go three miles down the road and stay one night.

CAMPING, PART 2. Ben and I went camping Friday night (the 19th). This event was a Baptist Associational RA camp out. It was held at Coldstream Christian Camp in Adams. There were about 100 men and boys there from across Robertson County, with ten of us representing Mt. Carmel.

Coldstream Camp has eight primitive cabins along with a field where people can set up tents. There’s hiking, basketball, an obstacle course, and a 14 acre lake. We didn’t bring our fishing poles but several people did and caught quite a few large mouth bass. The boys enjoyed paddling a boat on the lake. When they got back to shore they discovered a chicken snake had been riding in the boat with them the whole time. It’s a good thing the snake didn’t slide out from under the seat while there were out on the lake.

There’s also a zip line across one end of the lake. Ben rode this twice. The first time he traveled a good 100 feet out the line before falling into the water. The second time he didn’t realize the handle was tethered to the tower and barely got away from the tower before dropping about ten feet to the water. He came up grinning from ear to ear.

GROWING UP FAST. To understand this you need to know that East Robertson Elementary puts out a weekly newsletter which we stick to the fridge. This paper includes the lunch menu for the upcoming week. Jenna came in the kitchen one morning wondering aloud what was for lunch. Ben, who was eating breakfast, told her. This must have surprised Jenna a bit because she asked, “How’d you know that?”

“Well, I read it,” came his reply.

Taken aback, Jenna said, “Man, he’s just growing up too fast. I forgot he can read now!”

Joe

Five Years and Counting!

Can you believe it? I’ve kept this up for five whole years! My computer says I’ve written over 183,000 words. I didn’t know I had it in me! For those of you who have not discovered it yet, you can go to our Swann Family News blog site and find all of the editions of this newsletter archived there.

OFFERING PRAISE. We should all offer praise to God in our prayers. Every morning the kids and I pray together as we drive to the bus stop, and I really liked how Nate began his prayer. He said, “God, You are the awesomest God in the whole earth...no, the planet...maybe the whole universe!”

AMANDA STUBBLEFIELD is a native of Cross Plains who now works for NASA. She was home on vacation this week and spoke about her career Thursday night at Springfield High School. Jenna, Mom, and I went. She was very interesting.

Amanda is an astronaut trainer for crews going up to the International Space Station (ISS). She lives in Houston, Texas, but gets to travel to training facilities in other nations contributing to the ISS project. She is currently winding up an assignment as lead trainer for Expedition 18. (Each crew rotation is an expedition. Two members of the 18th expedition will launch from Russia next month, and the third will leave from Florida in November. They serve a six month tour aboard the ISS.)

Of all the things Amanda talked about I think the most interesting was the spinoff technology. These are all the things that have been invented as a result of the space program that benefit our everyday lives which includes everything from GPS navigation to lasik eye surgery to potato chip bags.

By the way, Amanda was one of eight people inducted into the first class of the Space Camp Hall of Fame. One of the other people inducted in this class was rocketry pioneer Werner von Braum.

FREE RICE. I stumbled across a neat web site the other day at www.freerice.com. On this site you will find a multiple choice question giving you a word and four possible definitions of that word. Guess the correct definition and you donate 20 grains of rice to the World Food Programme (paid for through banner advertising). Once you answer, right or wrong, you get a new word (you also see the correct answer to the previous question). Each correct answer is worth 20 grains of rice. As you play the words get harder. You can also change subjects to things like world capitals, vocabulary in other languages, famous works of art, and multiplication tables. It’s addictive. I’m guessing Jenna and I have already donated over 10,000 grains of rice playing the game.

MORE HOUSE HISTORY. I want to clarify something I wrote last time. I wrote: “I’ve heard stories of farm animals being in the house as well as tobacco stripped in here.” We cannot verify these details. Personally, I think the tobacco stripping is more likely than the farm animals. (Stripping tobacco is the process of pulling the leaves from the cured tobacco plant in preparation for selling the leaves.) At any rate, Mr. Oley Simmons was a very unique person, and I’ve heard many things from many people. (And when Mom and I discussed this our conversation drifted to other old houses as well.)

The following story goes back to the time before Mr. Simmons ever lived on this place. There’s a second old house that stands in our yard about 40 feet from our back door. We call it the Red House even though there’s only a hint of red paint that hasn’t faded away. As far as I know, the Red House was the original house on this place. I have been told what is still standing is only half of what used to be a dog trot (where two buildings were connected by a breezeway rather than an enclosed hall). This might explain why the exterior door to the second floor opens out into nothing. You can also see evidence of a chimney that used to stand at the rear wall.

It was in the Red House that my great grandfather, Jim Hancock (Aunt Margarette’s father), spent part of his childhood. This would have been around 1880. His father was Mr. John Hancock, whom I have written about before (search “Mr. John” on our blog site). The story Aunt Mar used to tell me was that as a boy her father (whom she him Papa) wanted a pair of roller skates. Mr. John wasn’t too keen on getting skates for his son before the boy knew how to skate, but promised he would buy skates if young Jim could show that he could use them. This presented a problem as it is hard to learn how to skate if you don’t have any skates to learn on. Being resourceful as boys are, Jim borrowed a pair of skates, and learned how to skate by practicing in secret in an upstairs room of the house. I have never seen them, but I’m guessing there should still be marks in the floor to prove this. The ending of the story is that Mr. John kept his word and buy his son some skates, though he wasn’t too happy about it because his son learned how to skate behind his back.

Another story about this time that has been handed down through our family is about a really big snow (I don’t know what year). There is a log smoke house that stands between our house and the Red House. Mom remembers Aunt Scrap (one of Jim Hancock’s sisters) saying the snow came up to the eaves of the smoke house roof. This is about 10 feet high. I can’t see us getting that much snow here, though it is possible that snow did form in a deep drift right there next to the building. By the way, there’s still one ham left hanging in the smoke house. It’s been there as long as I remember. Any takers on a well cured ham?

Joe