I Am My Son's Banana Opener

Nate was six months old when I started this newsletter/blog. There’s been a lot of growing to happen since then. I still celebrate the fact that diapers are behind us, and I am looking forward to kicking the last booster seats out of the van and truck. For now I am still Nate’s banana opener and I will enjoy that role until he figures out how to peel a banana for himself.

I think it’s sort of funny how Nate asked me to “open” his banana as if it were in a can. Of course, Ben made the comment the other day about a candle being “turned off.”

CLEANING OUT. The main focus of the previous edition to the Swann Family News was a spring break getaway to the Smokey Mountains. Even with staying an extra day it was too short -- at least it seems so now that we are back in the swing of things.

Will, Darice, and their kids drove up late that Thursday night (the 18th). The purpose of this trip was to begin cleaning out Pauline’s house. Will and Vicki had an appointment with our attorney Friday morning which left Darice and I to begin cleaning out. We had a productive morning doing what we could, but the enormity of the task was overwhelming. When Vicki got back I said to her, “When we get this house done we are going to pretend you and I have died and clean out our own house.” She agreed to this within thirty minutes.

I can’t speak for Darice, but I know I felt like such a fifth wheel in this process. Being an in-law and not a child makes it hard for me to know how to proceed. I have no idea what may be important to Vicki and Will so I feel awkward going through things. Then again I don’t want to be sitting around doing nothing, but sometimes I feel like I’m rushing everyone along faster than they want to go. And always, in the back of my mind, I know I have more houses to clean out ahead of me.

I think one of the biggest tragedies of all this are the pictures which include a number of people, obviously special to Jessie and Pauline, whom we cannot identify. Oh if we could just ask Pauline who these people are and what was special about their relationship with her!

I don’t know about everyone else, but the hardest part for me in Pauline’s passing is coming to terms that our relationship, which was once dynamic, is now static. She will always live in my memory, but she’s frozen there for now. Last year I could speak of Pauline using my choice of past, present, or future tense as the conversation required. And while I know with confidence we will be reunited when my time here is over, for now she’s always going to be in the past tense. I think this is the hardest part of grieving for me.

To get back to the house, we had a productive weekend but still have a lot to do. The Jones family went home last Sunday and we’ve only had a little time to straighten up over there since then.

AUNT MAR’S BIRTHDAY. Aunt Mar celebrated her 95th birthday last Sunday. We (including the Jones family) took her out to eat at the Catfish house the Friday before her birthday. Bro. Bill also recognized her at church Sunday which included our singing Happy Birthday to her. That afternoon the Bradley/Dee family drove over from Ashland City with cake and ice cream.

ROAD HOGS GALORE. Yesterday our church parking lot was a motorcycle enthusiast’s dream. Our Faith Riders chapter hosted a spring ride as a fund raiser for Ethan. Some 120 bikes of all makes and models filled the half of the parking lot behind the church building and about $3800 was raised for the Bibb family.

About 10:30 Ethan gave the command for everyone to start their engines. It was quite impressive -- and moving -- when all those bikes thundered to life (except for the one Suzuki which sounded very out of place next to all those Harleys).

For those that wanted to stick to the route they had a nice 120 mile trip to Lake Malone, Kentucky, laid out for them. The funny thing was that Rick Robinson, who organized the ride, took a wrong turn leading a small group off course. Rick is now known as “Wrong Way Robinson.”

When Bro. Bill recounted the event in church today he mentioned that Mom and Aunt Mar were there to take part in the send off. He dubbed them our biker chicks which got quite a laugh.

Joe

At the Smokies

It has been cool and dreary the last several days. I love wintertime, but if we’re done with the snow I’m ready for spring to be here. It’s got to be right around the corner since the crocus and buttercups are in bloom and the tree frogs are starting to wake up. Today’s weather lived up to all springtime expectations.

A MUCH NEEDED BREAK. We ended our third nine weeks of school on Friday and started spring break. This last week of school was pretty uneventful. About the only big thing to happen was that Vicki went along as a chaperone on a 6th grade field trip to the Adventure Science Center. From the sound of it everyone had a lot of fun.

Saturday morning we all piled in the van for a short trip to the Smoky Mountains. As we were packing Ben came downstairs with his bag and said, “I need more stuff. All I have is a belt, a comb, and a $50 bill in here.” (I think my kids have more money than I do.)

A MUCH NEEDED GET AWAY. I think we were all quite ready to leave town. We had reserved a condo for three nights but wound up staying four. We stopped at McKay’s in Knoxville and loaded up on used books Saturday afternoon on our way there.

Sunday morning we tried the Wood Grill Buffet for brunch. From there we went to WonderWorks (http://www.wonderworkstn.com/) which is something like a science museum. The kids had been wanting to do the upside down building for several trips. After a couple of hours of this we returned to the condo for swimming. We went back out for supper that night. We wanted to try something new, but since the restaurant where Vicki wanted to eat was closed we went to the Smoky Mountain Brewery (http://www.calhouns.com/smbSite.shtml).

The next morning we drove to Gatlinburg for breakfast at the Log Cabin Pancake House (http://www.logcabinpancakehouse.com/). This has become a treasured family tradition. Afterwards we went shopping around town. When we had finished shopping we decided to go for a quick hike in the mountains, but someone told us there was snow at Newfound Gap so we drove up there to see it.

The drive up to Newfound Gap was simply amazing. It’s about 12-13 miles from the Sugarland Welcome Center just outside Gatlinburg to Newfound Gap, and you climb about 3500 feet along the way. The trip up the mountains was sort of like doing winter in reverse (our perspective since spring is just days away). About halfway up snow began to appear. Once we got to this point it was only a couple more miles before we were driving in a winter wonder land. Everything was beautifully white and I wound up putting my sunglasses on in spite of the overcast day. When we got to the top there was six inches of snow still on the ground. It was cold and windy so we only stayed long enough to get pictures and have a brief snowball fight.

Back down at the bottom of the mountains we returned to WonderWorks (our tickets were good for two days) where we also enjoyed the Hoot ’n Holler dinner show and a game of laser tag.

We stayed around the condo most of the day Tuesday. Vicki went shopping while I took the kids swimming. That evening we went to Mel’s Diner for supper and found an ice cream shop for dessert.

We came home yesterday, making three stops along the way. The first was to drop in for a visit at the Baptist Collegiate Ministry at UT where we saw Betsy Ingle, one of the directors there. We had a great visit with her and she took us on a tour of the newly renovated building. (I should note here that this was where Vicki and I met and Betsy was on staff when we were students at UT.) A bit further down the road we stopped at the Appalachian Center for Craft (http://www.tntech.edu/craftcenter/home/) which is where I went for a workshop on building a table a couple of years ago. Our final stop was to meet Mom and Aunt Mar for supper at Cracker Barrel in White House.

There were also two favorite memories that happened throughout the entire trip. First was Ben’s spirit hair cap. Our cousin, Judy, gave him this for Christmas and he sported it the whole trip. It was funny to see how people reacted to his hat. The other favorite memory was each night the boys wanted to take a bubble bath in the jacuzzi. Those boys were hilarious. One night Ben decided to add extra bubbles. We wound up scooping them out of the tub to carry them to the shower by the armload. Of course, I’m still trying to figure out why you’d put bubbles in a jacuzzi.

I’M SO CONFUSED. Whenever we go on vacation, whether it’s to visit relatives or go to the mountains, we seem to always go to the Eastern Time Zone. Whenever I leave the house on a trip I simply set my watch forward an hour because I find it easier to operate in local time, unlike some relatives (you know who you are) who visit me and leave their watches set on Eastern Time. (I can understand a TV network giving showtimes in Eastern and Central, but I could never live my vacation that way.)

This trip, however, came on the weekend when we “spring forward” to daylight saving time, and I’ve been confused ever since we left the house. To make matters worse, when we got to Pigeon Forge Saturday night we found some of the electronic signs had been advanced to daylight saving time to be ready for the next day while others had not. I don’t think I was ever sure of the time without looking at my cell phone.

This was great for Vicki as it was one of the few times that she, being the night owl, was in sync with me, the early bird. I’m pretty sure I have managed to get a case of jet lag without boarding a plane or leaving the State for Tennessee.

To top it all off, on the way home everyone in the van went to sleep while I was driving from Knoxville. When we crossed back into the Central Time Zone I reset the van’s clock. Some time later everyone began to wake up and Nate asked if we were close to home yet. When I told him we weren’t he said, “This is the longest trip ever. We’ve been on the road for twelve hours! Last time I saw the clock it was 1:15. Now it’s 1:02!” The poor boy was as confused as I had been the whole trip.

LIT2GO. Last week I got an email at work telling me about a new site on iTunesU. You can find a lot of neat things on iTunesU where many educational institutions publish content -- all for free. The University of South Florida is now producing audio books that you can download and play on your computer or music player. There are over 200 classic book titles available (at my favorite price). If you don’t have iTunes installed on your computer you can still find everything at their web site (http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/), you’ll just have to download each audio file manually that way (each book chapter is its own file). I have been enjoying Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne this week.

Joe

Whew! What a Week

The common weather joke here in Tennessee is, “If you don’t like the weather just wait a few days. It will change.” I’m sure locals of most places in the world say that about their homes, but this is especially true for us right now. We’ve had a cold week. We even had snow flurries all day Tuesday and sleet on Wednesday. This weekend has warmed up to be beautiful with temperatures approaching the 60s. However, it looks like rain will move in and park over our area most of the coming week.

HOME. WHAT’S THAT? I think we’ve had something going on every night this past week. Monday night Nate had his final basketball game of the season (it was a make-up game). He played very well. Ben (and Nate) was supposed to go to Cub Scouts, but he decided he wanted to see his brother play ball.

Tuesday night Ben had his final game of the season (also a make-up). They played a really good team and the game was a nail biter from start to finish. Ben’s team won by 6 points (28-22), but it was never clear until the last few moments of the game that they would come out on top. Vicki was acting so crazy I am considering not sitting with her at ball games in the future.

Wednesday night was our Awana Grand Prix, and I’ll have to say this was the smoothest race we’ve ever held. Jeff Garst built our four lane track (I was helping him until Pauline went in the hospital), and we purchased an electronic finish line and race management software as well. We raced 62 cars (with each car racing once on each lane of the track) in a little over an hour. The whole evening was very festive and it was standing room only in our fellowship hall.

Thursday night brings us to Ben’s first baseball practice. He is starting in Little League this year and is very excited to be playing. (Actually, Kenny and Kelly Raglin invited Ben to share some time with their sons in a batting cage Monday afternoon which he really appreciated.) Ben’s coach was really complimentary of him as a first time ball player.

Friday was reading day at the boys’ school. Parents were given the opportunity to help out with this and the boys wanted Vicki to come. Vicki got the chance to help with both their classes as they went from room to room to listen to various stories. I think they all enjoyed the day.

That evening was the Upward Basketball end of season party. Vicki and the kids went (by this time I was sick) and had a great time. They gave out awards, ate pizza, and were entertained by magician Doug King.

This brings us to yesterday where the boys and I went to Flewellyn Baptist Church for the county RA Race (they raced the same cars used in the Awana Grand Prix). This race is not run with any management software and has traditionally been double elimination (each heat is best two out of three and you have to lose two heats to be eliminated). Darn the luck if it did not happen again that Ben and Nate were pitted against each other somewhere around their third heat of the race (somewhere around round six of the losers bracket). Nate’s car eliminated Ben’s for the third time in their racing history. At least Ben took it well.

MEAL IN A RUSH. Jenna is becoming quite a cook. Her peanut butter cookies have won me over. Vicki taught her how to make these and she takes the extra step of putting a Hershey’s Kiss on top of each cookie and putting them back in the oven for a couple of minutes. She won second place in a 4-H contest with them this week. Yesterday afternoon Jenna made another batch (I think she wanted more because I ate more than my share of the last batch). Grandma Jones would be pleased with her, as we are, though we don’t need to have cookies on hand too much.

While Jenna was cleaning up from the cookies Vicki decided to make hamburger quiche for summer. By this time we didn’t have a lot of time to eat and for me to get Ben to the baseball field for practice. Because of this the meal sort of devolved into say your own blessing quietly to yourself and start eating. Ben neglected to do this when he sat down to eat. After putting a bite of quiche in his mouth Jenna reminded him to pray. At this point he says, “Oh!” Then he spits his food back out on his plate, prays, and shovels it back in.

IT WOULD HAVE BEEN SEVEN YEARS THIS WEEKEND. Seven years ago this weekend we moved Pauline here from Camden. We had mentioned to Pauline several times that she should consider moving here, but she never considered it until her brother, Joe, passed away in 2001. The next year things fell into place and construction began in September 2002, as soon as the tobacco in the field was cut.

All this was happening during the time Vicki was pregnant with Nate and I was trying to finish The Call of the Whistle. Somehow we got all this done and around the time Nate was born Pauline’s house was ready for her to move in. The move happened when Nate was three weeks old. Will, Darice, and their boys came in to help. I rented a truck and drove to Camden. One of our kids was sick so Vicki stayed home. I got there early and we spent the whole day packing and loading the truck. Pauline had been a door greeter at the Camden Wal-Mart for many years and that was her last day. She also had lunch with several of her high school classmates.

It was well after supper when I pulled out of her driveway with the truck and started the two and a half hour drive home. When I got on the interstate I called Vicki. Because it was so late I suggested she call some people to help us unload the truck when I got there. She didn’t want to do this. I think this has been the only time in our marriage I have given Vicki an ultimatum, but I told her there were five tired, cranky people about thirty minutes behind me who would appreciate beds to sleep in, and that she would be calling people to help unload the truck. She did and we had a wonderful crew of neighbors who had the truck unloaded (most of the stuff went to the garage) by the time the rest of the family got here. Once Pauline settled in it felt like she’d lived here all my life.

Joe