Wishing You a Happy New Year

As you know 2015 has almost come to an end. As I look back I am astounded by all the changes that occurred in this latest trip around the sun. None of us would have guessed Vicki and I would have new jobs and the boys would be in a different school. I don’t think Jenna feels left out because she knows she gets her turn in the upcoming year.

As I wind up my thoughts for 2015 I need to say a little about our Christmas activities. An early Christmas event for us was hosting a Sunday School class lunch after church the Sunday before last (the 20th). We’ll need to do this again as several had family events at that time (understandably) but we had a great time with those who were able to come.

We did our share of shopping and gift wrapping in the days leading up to Christmas. By Christmas Eve we were headed to church for the Christmas Eve service. Of note here was that Keaton Raglin sang Silent Night as a solo and really nailed it.

Christmas morning began for us with our traditional gifting. We kept it pretty small this year. The boys are into video games so they got several accessories there. Also in the mix of the gifts were books, clothes, and candy. By 10:00 we were over at Mrs. Connie’s for brunch. We decided this year our gift exchange would be limited to gift cards and a game of Dirty Santa.

Kenny deserves a little grief here. Lori had sent Kenny to Walmart to get their gift cards with the instructions to get several different cards. What she really meant was for him to get an assortment of gift cards for different businesses to make things interesting. Somewhere there was a breakdown in communication because Kenny came home with a stack of gift cards, all for Walmart, but each with a different picture on it.

Kenny, I’m with you. I think you just earned a selective listening power-up on your man card. Women, here’s a suggestion for a new year’s resolution: s-p-e-l-l i-t o-u-t f-o-r y-o-u-r m-e-n. We’d really appreciate that.

Later that day I went over the the Freeland’s house as Brent, Sabrina, and their family were in. We spent over an hour catching up which I thoroughly enjoyed. Then we took supper over to Mom’s and wound up our gift giving with her.

This past Sunday was another full day. We had a lunch to recognize Kelly Raglin’s departure as our Worship Leader and Administrator. He’s had a tough job to do in the last couple of years and performed it well. His leaving marks the last of a complete turnover in paid staff in the last 18 months.

That evening we gathered at Kenny and Lori’s house for their annual Christmas party (which had been rescheduled from Wednesday). Again, another great time to reconnect with friends, some of whom I had not seen in years.

I had driven to the party separately so I could pick Mom up and the rest of the family beat me home afterwards. When I got in I learned that a possum made the poor choice of waddling out into the road right at the last minute. Ben was driving and there simply was no way he could avoid hitting it.

After the initial shock of hitting the critter and all the screaming, Nate, who was cleaning his glasses, frantically asked, “What happened?!? I always miss out on all the fun!” At least it wasn’t a skunk.

Joe

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! It’s a wet Christmas for us and will be all day long.

We have had a wonderful Christmas today and I hope you have. I won’t spend much time on our Christmas activities at this writing but focus more on what’s happened all month with us.

STORMS
Is winter really here? It’s warm--short sleeve shirt weather, even shorts. Oh, we’ve had a few cold days, but for the most part warm weather prevails. This December is the second warmest on record for Nashville. Again I ask, is winter really here?

We had a storm packing high winds to hit the weekend before last (back on the 13th, I think), and Wednesday evening we had a band of storms move through Middle Tennessee. We were under the gun here at our house, but that storm cell lost strength before it got here. Other communities south of here were not so lucky. We had enough advance warning that Kenny and Lori decided to postpone their annual Christmas Eve Eve party to this coming Sunday night which was a good idea even though the weather didn’t turn out to be as rough as the forecasters feared.

WINDING UP THE SEMESTER
We all wound up the fall semester last week. I didn’t have to give exams for my classes which made the final week extra nice for me. Jenna was glad to get her dual enrollment English behind her as it has proven to be one of the most demanding courses she’s taken so far. It was two classes crammed into one semester which gave her six hours of credit.

It won’t be too long before we’re thinking about her graduation. East Robertson’s commencement is set for Friday, May 20 at 6:00 and that’ll be here before we know it.

HOOP ACTION
Ben’s team has enjoyed several victories since I last wrote. The boys junior varsity team is having a better season than the boys varsity team so it’s fun to watch them play. (I should note here that DA’s girls are undefeated so far.)

Ben has gotten some pretty good game time which is good because there are several sophomores on his squad. He doesn’t have a lot of points to his credit, but he is still proving to be an asset to the team. Watching him play at this point is like watching a knife get sharpened. He’s getting better all the time and his day is coming.

They were scheduled to play East Robertson a couple of weekends ago. Ben was looking forward to playing against his old teammates. Unfortunately the JV game fell through. We did get Mom to a home game at DA which she enjoyed.

NATORIOUS
I have found out that Nate has a new nickname among his friends at school--Natorious. It seems he’s become a little notorious among his friends for getting into their Minecraft worlds and pulling little pranks which amounted to minor vandalism. He says he didn’t do too much of this because he decided it wasn’t the best way to win friends and influence people, but he’s earned the nickname for himself never the less.

I PASSED!
I took my CDL driving test Tuesday and passed! I will begin driving my bus route when school resumes next month. I’m a little bummed because both of the big buses that I should have tested in were down for maintenance so I had to test in a small bus. This means I’ll need to go back next month and retest in a big bus to get the license and endorsement I’m supposed to have. However, this won’t prevent me from running my route in a small bus. Now, at least, I’ll get paid for my commute and have my vehicle and fuel to and from work provided. That’s a good deal!

(If you’re searching your head here, I’m going for a Class B license but could only earn the Class C at this point because I had to test in a bus that was less than 26,000 lbs. I’ll need to retest in a larger bus with air brakes to get the Class B.)

ENJOYING THE MOVIES
We decided we’d treat ourselves to some movie outings for Christmas and to that end our Christmas has come a bit early. Friday we went to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens which was very good. It was a lot of fun to go on opening night as several folks had come in costume. Vicki took a groupie picture of us and posted on Facebook that she was glad to be out with her geeky family to see Star Wars. We were amazed to learn of a couple of our friends who had never seen a Star Wars film.

Tuesday we went to see Mockingjay, Part 2 which is the last installment of the Hunger Games series. Again, another fun flick and a fitting end to that story line.

HARRY POTTER IS DEAD?
Sometimes Vicki hears me get up in the morning and will wake up enough to fill me in on some bit of news or community happening before drifting back off to sleep. One recent morning Vicki woke up to tell me that Harry Potter had died.

We got a good laugh later when Vicki was fully awake. We’ve been in a bit of a show hole in that we are watching the entire series of M*A*S*H on Netflix. I think we’re in season 8 right now. Harry Morgan, who played Col. Sherman T. Potter on the show, passed away on December 7, 2011. Vicki had seen something online about Morgan’s death and in her groggy state gotten more than one wire crossed when she passed along the news to me.

FULLY FUNDED
My daughter is one industrious girl. As you know, she is signed up to return to Haiti in February. She knew she wanted to go back when she got home from the last trip so she’s been working hard to save her money. I mentioned last month that she would be selling pies and other treats as a fund raiser. Now some 20 pies and 1500 (yes, fifteen hundred) peanut butter balls later (in addition to all the prepackaged items she resold) she is fully funded and ready to go! I am very proud of her.

Joe

Ready for the Holidays

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas
Everywhere I turn;
In the corner of the room I see our beautiful Christmas tree
With ornaments and pretty lights all aglow...

THANKSGIVING
We enjoyed a nice, quiet Thanksgiving here, which is exactly what was needed before diving into the Christmas season. Vicki and Jenna did most of the cooking last Wednesday. They still had some prep work to do Thursday morning but could afford to sleep in. We took everything over to Mom’s for a late lunch. We ate, napped, ate dessert that evening, and then played Spades. It was a most enjoyable day. Such a simple day. It’s one of my favorites.

Another pleasant part of our Thanksgiving happened Saturday when we met Ann Beth and Daryle for brunch at Cracker Barrel on Saturday. They stopped on their way home from their own family Thanksgiving activities.

LEAVES
I’m glad to say that we got all the leaf chopping done before winter this year. Well, I should say that given oaks don’t drop all their leaves at once we got Mom’s yard in as good of shape as possible.

The boys finished up our yard Wednesday. I need to brag on them a bit. It was a pleasure to be able to give them a job like that before going to town with Jenna to run errands and find that they were almost done when I came home. What’s more, they were working together nicely and doing it to my standard. I grabbed a rake to help finish up when I got back. At that point Ben came over and told me what he was planning to do next with the mower as if to ask my approval. I started to give my opinion but quickly said, “Ben, you’ve got this. I’m just out here to run a rake.”

All three of us worked on Mom’s yard Thursday and Friday. We could have pushed to get it all done Thursday but we got tired of eating dust. Nate and I came home sneezing and with red eyes. At least the deep leaves are out of the way and what’s left to fall won’t carpet the yard too badly.

BASKETBALL
The JV basketball season has gotten off to a good start with a 3-1 record. They’ve looked really good on the court except for the game the lost where they looked like they had forgotten everything they knew.

Ben has gotten a decent amount of playing time in. He’s not one of the high scorers, but he does make his presence felt on the court.

A SAD ANNIVERSARY
My father passed away 48 years ago today. I bring this up because a few weeks ago Mom ran across a short paper she wrote on the 22nd anniversary this day in 1989. In that paper she recalls my father’s passing and then coming home to find the 15 month old me blissfully asleep in bed. Her paper concludes with the following statements.

This Christmas thank God that Jesus left his father in heaven and came as a baby sleeping in a manger. Came to help us all. Enjoy your Christmas! Enjoy your family and friends! Thank God for them, for your health, homes, good food, clothes, and your many, many blessings. Thank God especially that when our opportunities on earth are over we will be reunited in heaven.

Given how the world has changed since then these words are a wonderful reminder to me of how to approach this Christmas season.

Joe

Back in the Groove

Most of our leaves are on the ground now. I feel like we missed the peak of the fall colors while we were away, although this hasn’t been the most spectacular year. I know winter is still a month away, but when we chop leaves and I see the farmers cutting soybeans I feel like fall is over.

BASKETBALL
Basketball season is about to get under way. Ben made the team at school so we’ve got to get him to practice or a game six days a week. Sometimes practice starts at 6:30 am. Other times he doesn’t get out of practice until 6:00 pm. Fortunately he can catch a ride with someone who lives close by some of the time. Stay tuned for updates as the season wears on.

GETTING READY FOR HAITI
Jenna has signed up for her third trip to Haiti. She’s going in February. She’s already been putting a lot of the money she has earned from various jobs toward this trip and is planning to bake and sell pies and such during the holidays to raise the rest of the money she needs. If you need an order form just let me know.

TRUNK OR TREAT
We had trunk or treat at church again this year. I showed up for a hot dog. Everyone else stayed for the whole thing. I must say that it was quite a different experience this year. It sure was nice not to have to get there early to get ready for the event.

Vicki said it was a good night, but the whole thing was cut short by about fifteen minutes. Law enforcement officials were in pursuit of three fugitives who got off the interstate in White House. They asked us to send everyone home to avoid unnecessary risk in case the manhunt came our way. Two of the fugitives were apprehended before morning and the third lost his life in a shoot out when cornered by law enforcement officials in Kentucky the next day.

ENJOYING THE PERFORMING ARTS
Since getting back from vacation we have enjoyed performance on both stage and screen. Vicki and I have been to the movies twice and the kids once. The first film we saw was The Martian, which we enjoyed. Given that there is always some artistic license I thought they stayed pretty true to the science and current technology, however, as good as the film is I felt they could have humanized the main character, Mark Watney, a bit more. The kids watched Pan while we were watching our movie. I don’t think they enjoyed it as much as they expected. Last weekend Vicki and I caught a matinee showing of the latest 007 flick, Spectre. We enjoyed this as well.

Nate is the only one of us to see all three of the live theatre performances I’ll mention here. I served as a chaperone for a 7th grade field trip to see I own the sky at TPAC. This is a one act play with no dialogue performed by a French Canadian troupe from Quebec. The play was about an immigrant forced to flee from her homeland due to war. Her only possessions were what she could put in a small suitcase. The play was about how she was accepted (or not) in the strange new city where she found herself. I didn’t know the back story before I saw the play so it didn’t make one shred of sense to me. I enjoyed it because the performance was good, but I was scratching my head over the story the whole time.

We all went to Adams the night before Halloween to see Spirit, which is the story of the Bell Witch. Vicki and I had seen this with friends back in 2003 and had wanted to take the kids back to see it at some point since Old Kate is a Robertson County legend. We enjoyed it, but Vicki and I both felt this director’s interpretation drifted a bit too far from the original story.

Finally, Vicki and Nate went to see DA’s performance of Still Life with Iris. This is the fantastical adventure of a little girl’s search for home. Vicki and Nate both came home talking about how good the play was. Vicki even said she wants to make sure she sees everything DA puts on from here on.

FACING REALITY
I’ve been offered a bus route at work. This means I will get to drive a bus to school rather than my personal vehicle, making stops in Cross Plains, White House, and Goodlettsville to pick up students. This means I have to get a commercial drivers license so I can drive the bus. I took the written test the other day so I now have my learner’s permit. That’s a story in and of itself because they gave the wrong test first which completely rattled my confidence. They mistakenly gave me the test for the combination trailer endorsement first which I had no need to study for. That got me so stirred up that by the time I got to the general knowledge test I couldn’t think clearly, but I did pass!

The funny thing was that in filling out the application I decided should get help on one particular question. So I said to the guy at the counter, “I really want to mark ‘red’ for my hair color, but something tells me ‘gray’ is more accurate.” He politely said, “You should go with gray.” I’ll just read Proverbs 16:31 and move on.

Joe

Our Enchanted Cruise, Part 4

We enjoyed two ports of call on our cruise, and if the strong winds had persisted we would have missed out on one of those. Fortunately things worked out and I credit our captain for making that happen. One of my students from DA took a similar cruise on another cruise line and things didn’t work out so well for her family so I feel we were fortunate here.

NASSAU
Our first port of call turned out to be Nassau. It was supposed to be second. As I mentioned in the first part of this series, the winds and a medical emergency changed that. We wound up docking in Nassau about 3:00 pm Tuesday and didn’t leave until almost midnight the next day.

Vicki got the chance to visit Nassau in 2013 when she went on a Carnival cruise with several friends from church. She said the snorkeling there was terrific so we were all looking forward to booking a snorkeling trip while there. The winds made the water too choppy for this to happen so we started the day with a taxi tour of the city instead.

Our tour took us to Fort Fincastle, Fort Montagu, around the wharf where all the fishing boats dock, through the residential and business areas of the city, and over to Paradise Island where we got a chance to look around the Atlantis resort.

Upon returning to the dock we decided to do some shopping along Bay Street and headed toward the straw market. That’s where we ran into my student from DA (I had noticed that her ship was docked along side ours when I came out on deck that morning). Our shopping excursion included a late lunch at Señor Frogs and ice cream at a little shop nearby. By this time the boys were itching to play ping pong back on the ship so we left Vicki and Jenna to do a little more shopping. They weren’t too long behind us in returning to the ship.

COCO CAY
We dropped anchor off Coco Cay Thursday morning and spent the day there with a final boarding call of 4:30.

Coco Cay is a small island about 55 miles north of Nassau that is leased by Royal Caribbean as their own private island. Its actual name is Little Stirrup Cay. Our visit here was, for me, the best part of the trip.

If you’ve not done something like this before, a private island like this is essentially an extension of the ship. Your fare covers a lot of things, food for example. Of course, there are extras you can purchase as well. We decided to rent a cabana which included snorkeling equipment and floating mats. The cabana was a nice touch given that I really didn’t want to be reapplying sunscreen every hour (okay, I’m exaggerating a little here, but not much).

Another thing that was nice was that the place didn’t seem crowded even with all of the people coming off the ship. Of course, Royal Caribbean has much larger ships than the Enchantment so I’m sure this would be a different story if we had been sailing on the Oasis or the Allure which can carry almost 6,300 passengers (compare to the 2,400 passengers the Enchantment can carry).

Ben and I started the day by snorkeling. The winds had calmed quite a bit by Thursday, but the water was still choppy and a little cloudy when looking down through the mask. Ben took to this pretty easily, but it was choppy enough for me that I swallowed a lot of seawater. I was also having to stop about every 30-60 seconds to tread water and really blow out my snorkel tube.

Vicki went out with Ben next and they had a great time, even explored a ship wreck and plane wreck. When they were done Vicki grabbed a float and spent a long time out in the water.

Ben made a third trip out with Nate. Nate found the flippers too uncomfortable and wouldn’t wear them. Ben wound up having to drag Nate along the whole time so this didn’t end well.

Jenna never snorkeled. She played in the water for a while and then retired to the cabana to read and nap. I caught up with her after snorkeling and walking the beach and we ate lunch. The cabana being our center of operations we drifted in and out as we pleased. The island was too small to get lost on so it proved to be a most relaxing day. By 2:30 we were all there either reading or sleeping. Shortly before time to leave Vicki and I took a stroll around the island and poked through the little straw market there. Then it was time to head back to the ship. I could have stayed another day.

FUTURE PLANS
On the way home we were talking about future vacation plans. Ben wants to do another Disney cruise for his senior trip. Vicki wants to go to Alaska. I simply said, “I’m ready to see the mountains again, but whatever we do between now and our 30th anniversary is fine with me. I do want all of us, whoever is part of the family by then, to take a nice cruise for our 30th anniversary.”

At this Jenna and Ben figured up how old they’ll be by then. When Nate didn’t give his projected age Vicki asked, “Nate, how old will you be in nine years?”

From the back of the van we heard, “I’m still on vacation and I don’t wanna do math!”

I don’t know where we’ll go next or when we’ll go there, but whatever it turns out to be it’s going to be good because I’ll be with the people I love. Until then there’s a lot of living to do here at home and that’s a lot of fun too.

Joe

Our Enchanted Cruise, Part 3

According to the ship’s navigational channel on the ship’s TV we traveled 572 nautical miles in our adventures (we put about three times that distance on our van). The neat thing about cruising is that your hotel travels with you. I’m going to focus on life aboard the ship now and write about our shore excursions next time.

SOME COMPARISONS
I am going to make two comparisons between this cruise and our last. It should be noted that both points here are weather related and beyond anyone’s ability to control.

First, our boarding experience was so much better this time than it was for our last cruise. When we arrived in Galveston to board the Magic she had not been given clearance to enter the port due to a heavy sea fog. When she finally docked they had to rush all the returning passengers off before they could board us. The whole thing was very rushed. This time the weather was clear and we were aboard the ship and relaxing in time for lunch. This made all the difference for the start of our cruise.

Second, once we got out to sea we encountered strong winds (40 knots) which made the seas rough. We had rough seas in the Gulf of Mexico the last time we sailed, but I think this trip was worse. The winds certainly altered the travel plans and kept the upper deck and some of the outside activities on the ship closed. Fortunately this got better each day.

Nate was the one most affected by seasickness. His stomach got the better of him Monday evening. We were enjoying the show after dinner when it happened. Nate got up and ran for the theater exit with Vicki right on his tail. He almost made it out the door when his supper made it reappearance. Jenna, Ben, and I were glad to be sitting down front in a dark theater when we heard it happen. They still had a fan out drying the carpet Wednesday morning.

The winds are what changed the original itinerary, causing us to have our day at sea earlier than planned. I will come back to this next time when I tell about our shore excursions.

STATEROOMS
We had two, connecting staterooms this time. I think I like this better than having all of us in one room, though I missed the verandah. Vicki and I shared one room while the kids bunked next door. Funny how Jenna and Ben both volunteered to take the top bunks after Nate’s bout of seasickness the first night.

DINNER COMPANIONS
We enjoyed our evening meals in the My Fair Lady dining room. The food was wonderful, but what really made the meals a pleasure was the family who was assigned to our table. They consisted of a couple, Jeff and Debi, and Jeff’s mother, Mariella. Jeff and Debi have two grown daughters.

I think we were paired up with the nicest passengers on board. We had more fun laughing, cutting up, sharing our day, and getting to know each other. They are the kind of folks you want to have as neighbors. As nice as this cruise was--and it was nice--they made it extra special. Truly delightful people. I am glad we got to know them.

OTHER SHIPBOARD FUN
I think the boys’ favorite thing to do while on board was ping pong. If we ever lost them it was a safe bet we would find them at one of the two ping pong tables. I think they also went swimming and to the arcade, but table tennis was the thing for them this time.

We went to the show in the theater each night. Their singers, dancers, and band were really good. They did a broadway show one night and a tribute to the movies another. They also had a juggler and a comedian aboard that we enjoyed, and their cruise director was pretty entertaining in his own right.

Other activities that some or all of us took in were movies (Jurassic World and Inside Out), game shows, karaoke, and disco dancing. Vicki and Jenna were more fun than me and the boys when it came to some of these things. Other times it was simply nice to sit on deck and watch the sea slide by.

Joe

Our Enchanted Cruise, Part 2

The nice part about sailing from Port Canaveral is that it afforded us the opportunity to spend a little time with the Cotters, and it just so happened that we hit one of the few dead weekends in their busy schedule.

DRIVING
Before I get to that part I should mention that we took advantage of our new driver in the family. Ben drove a significant portion of the trip down to Florida, and he did very well. He was looking forward to that since he only gets to drive on the interstate during rush hour. Our van has a very slight shimmy as you get to 80 MPH so I always knew without looking when he was setting the cruise control a little too fast.

Unfortunately Ben didn’t get too much time behind the wheel on the way home. He drove a short leg in northern Florida but that was all. By the time his turn came up again we were in rush hour traffic for Atlanta. After that it was getting a bit late for him to drive.

Jenna, on the other hand, didn’t drive at all. She chuckles as if she’s gotten away with something.

FAMILY TIME
The Cotter clan is all doing well. As I hinted before, we enjoyed visiting and catching up with each other. We also played a game of Jeopardy that Jim and Chris came up with. The boys also spent a lot of time playing video games together. We knew when something big was going down when they all started yelling from the library in Jim and Dianna’s house.

It was also good to see Aunt Linda and Uncle Bob. They are both doing well. The boys went swimming in their pool while we were at their house but got out quickly because the water was chilly. Even though we have been to Florida several times over the years Nate did not remember Aunt Linda and Uncle Bob’s house as he was an infant the last time he was there.

I don’t think the kids had ever been to First Baptist Orlando as we usually go to church with Jim and Dianna when we visit. They have just finished renovating their sanctuary so it looked a bit different from what I remember. The renovations took a little space away from the sanctuary, but it still has seats for about 4,000.

After church we went to lunch at Johnny’s Fillin’ Station which has excellent hamburgers. It was a pretty day so we ate outside.

Monday morning came and this part of the trip was over all too quickly. Shortly after Jim left for work we headed over to the coast to board our ship, but I’ll save that for the next time. I’m not sure when we will get down there next, but hopefully it will be pretty soon. We’ve been to Disney World twice since visiting Universal Studios.

Joe

Our Enchanted Cruise, Part 1

We have just returned from a much needed vacation where we have had the most wonderful time! We enjoyed a quick visit with family followed by a four night cruise on Royal Caribbean’s Enchantment of the Seas. This trip has been something we’ve been looking forward to for months and it lived up to all expectations.

In reality this was Jenna’s senior trip, if a bit early. We knew after our cruise on the Disney Magic back in 2013 that we would want to go again, and we decided to try Royal Caribbean this time. Jenna really lucked up on this trip because it stretched her fall break into two weeks. We originally booked the cruise for Robertson County’s fall break (October 12-16). Then the job with Davidson Academy became available for me which changed the picture because DA’s fall break was the following week (October 19-23). We decided to move our trip forward a week so that the boys and I wouldn’t miss school.

I’m going to do like I’ve done before and tell about our vacation in several parts, though the tone may be different because we were all new to the experience last time (and because our last cruise was two and a half years ago). To that end I will forgo a lengthy description of the ship and say was basically what we were used to last time. Both ships are very similar in age, size, tonnage, and passenger capacity. They also offer similar amenities, though the difference in the customer focus between the two cruise lines is apparent (e.g. the Enchantment has a small casino aboard where on the Magic a few games of Bingo in a forward lounge is as wild as the gambling got). We enjoyed this trip and this ship as much as the last. Here’s a summary of our itinerary.

Friday, the 16th - This was the last day of school for me and the boys. Vicki and Jenna spent the day running errands and packing. Their goal was to be completely ready for us to go as soon as we got home, which they were. After we got home, changed clothes, and packed the few things they didn’t pack for us we said our goodbyes to Mom and hit the road. We spent the night south of Atlanta, in Locust Grove.

Saturday, the 17th - We got up early and drove down to Orlando. We made excellent time and had plenty of time to relax and visit with Jim, Dianna, Alex, and Chris.

Sunday, the 18th - We spent a lot of time with Aunt Linda and Uncle Bob today. The activities started by going to church at First Baptist Orlando, then going out to eat, followed by time to visit before stopping for some ice cream and then heading home.

Monday, the 19th - Our sailing day! We drove to Port Canaveral that morning, boarded the ship, and relaxed as this leg of the journey began.

Tuesday, the 20th - This was originally supposed to be a day of fun in the sun at Royal Caribbean’s private island, Coco Cay, but 40 knot winds prevented our landing there so it became a day at sea as we sailed on to Nassau. A medical emergency with one of the passengers brought us there by mid afternoon.

Wednesday, the 21st - We enjoyed Nassau.

Thursday, the 22nd - This was supposed to be our day at sea, but the winds settled down enough that we could land at Coco Cay. We spent almost the entire day ashore playing in the water and sand.

Friday, the 23rd - Our trip is over all too soon. We returned to Port Canaveral got in the van and headed home, getting here a little before midnight.

Saturday, the 24th - Even though we are home we decided to extend our vacation just a bit by going out to a matinee movie. Vicki and I went to see The Martian while the kids watched Pan.

That brings us up to the present where it is time to plug back in to life. I’m not so sure I’m ready to do that after a week off, but that’s all part of it. My goal is to write up the rest of the trip in two or three more editions and get those out throughout the upcoming week. Until I write again I will sign off as our cruise director, Marc Walker, always did.

Bing bong...

Joe

Growing Up

Our leaves are starting to turn, and a few are already falling. We’ve been having the most beautiful weather, aside from it being cold and rainy weekend before last (October 2-3). The farmers are gathering in the soybeans and the kids have probably picked the last of the pumpkins of the season. What a wonderful time of year!

THE FALL BALL
So the big news for us has been the Fall Ball at school. It was a couple of Saturdays ago (the 3rd). This was supposed to be the Homecoming Dance, but due to the way the schedule worked out DA’s homecoming was early and they had no time to put together a dance that week. Hence, the Fall Ball.

The news that had been cooking around our house was that Ben had asked one of his classmates if she’d go to the game with him as well as the dance. She said yes to both. They did sit together at the game which was of extreme interest to Vicki and Jenna. Vicki was too polite to watch, but Jenna had no such qualms and would keep us updated.

As the dance approached the lady coordinating the event put out a call for chaperones. Ben was okay with me and Vicki volunteering so we signed up. That evening we headed out to DA.

I need to start out by saying this was my first high school dance. I was too shy or backward to go to any when I was a student. Before the dance Vicki coached Ben on a lot of things, from how to treat his date to how to do the YMCA motions. I helped him tie his tie.

DA’s Fall Ball was a very nice affair. Almost all of the boys wore ties and the girls wore dresses. Vicki and I worked the checkin table and only watched the goings on in the gym where the dance was for about five minutes. In over three hours of music Vicki and I knew about four songs (YMCA wasn’t one of them).

What’s sort of funny and sad at the same time is that most of the girls and boys didn’t dance together. The boys all hung out together and the girls all hung out together. Ben never danced with his date. Several of Ben’s friends had also asked girls to come to the dance and they never danced with their dates either.

Now I realize I’m not the best one to give advice when it comes to a dance. I don’t have the best credentials in this area as you may have noted. But it seems to me that if you ask a girl to go with you to a dance and even pay for her ticket you ought to dance with her. Just sayin’.

COLLEGE VISIT
I think Vicki and Jenna have gone on their last college visit. Tuesday they drove to Cleveland, Tennessee to visit Lee University. This is the same college where our youth group went to camp back in July.

They had a good trip and enjoyed visiting the college, but came home having crossed it off the list. I think it is safe to say now that Jenna has her sights set on Trevecca University in Nashville. Of all the colleges she’s looked at that’s the one that feels like the right fit. Jenna submitted her application process today. Now it’s just a matter of the scholarship process goes.

As excited as I am for my daughter, I keep thinking that my little girl is about to step out into the world. Where has the time gone?

DRIVING WITH THE STUDENT DRIVER
I must say Ben’s driving is coming along very nicely. I don’t feel the need to correct him much at all. Most of the time I’m just co-piloting when he needs to change lanes or navigating when he’s driving somewhere he’s never been before.

One day he told me I need to drive to school so that he could study. All the way to school I heard comments like, “Rolling stop,” “You’re doing 80,” “Don’t ride their tail,” and “Gee, Dad, don’t you know how to drive?”

I finally looked at my son in the passenger seat next to me and said, “You aren’t getting much studying done.”

He muttered something about being too scared.

Joe

It's Fall Y'all!

It's always a startling transformation to the landscape for me when the corn is harvested. There's something about a cornfield that I like, I guess because the plant is so tall. Then when it's cut you can see all your neighbors again, as well as all the smoking tobacco barns.

Speaking of Corn
I kept wondering why I was seeing a few corn leaves at the base of some of the trees in Mom's yard. It would just be two or three, but every day those leaves would be there. Then it dawned on me what was happening. The squirrels were going out in the field and picking an ear or two of corn and bringing them back to the trees where they would shuck them and have a little party on field corn. I guess that party is over now.

Homecoming
Last week was homecoming at East Robertson. This being Jenna's senior year makes it big. She was involved in decorating the senior float and hallway. Their hallway theme was Whac-a-Warrior and they really went all out with their decor. Vicki, Jenna, and I went to the big parade last Thursday. It took all of five minutes and nine seconds for the whole thing to pass by. East wound up losing their big game (they played the McEwen Warriors). To add insult to injury there was a light rain the whole time. It was a good night for Vicki to volunteer in the concession stand with other Mt. Carmel folks. Jenna had a fun week. I am so glad she has the group of friends that she does.

College Shopping
Vicki and Jenna have made another college visit. A few of weeks ago they visited Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville. The boys and I met them for dinner after our school day was over and they both practically glowed about the visit. Jenna still has a couple more colleges she wants to visit--which they plan to do in a couple of weeks--but if I were a betting man right now I think Trevecca is it.

It's Pumpkin Pickin' Time!
The arrival of autumn brings the pumpkin picking job for the kids. They've been helping Steve Freeland several times over the last few weeks and pocketed a little spending money to boot. Homework has been more of an issue this year. Ben has stayed home to hit the books a couple of times when Nate has worked, and Jenna has only had time to work twice. I think Steve has been glad to have whoever can come. He told me the wholesalers have been really steady this year.

Joe

Special 500th Edition!

I am pleased to announce this milestone of the Swann Family News! Not only is this the 500th edition or posting of this little venture, but yesterday also marked the 12th anniversary of when this all started. The software I use estimates that I’ve typed almost 400,000 words to share stories of what goes on in our family with you. I never dreamed it would last this long.

To briefly recount the history, I began a journal of sorts in the form of letters to my father when I was in college at UT. The idea for the format was inspired by the “Dear Dad” letters Hawkeye Pierce would write to his father in the early seasons of M*A*S*H. I continued this until some time after Vicki and I married when I switched over to writing a daily log of our lives. That lasted for a number of years, but by the time Ben came along I couldn’t get to my notebook every evening. I quickly fell behind and then dropped the log completely. I regretted this, but life was so busy that I could never make that format work again.

I credit Bill Chatman for inspiring me to restart some sort of written record of our family life. I was returning a tractor and field mower I had borrowed when we got into a conversation and he mentioned the diary he had kept for years and how much he and his family enjoyed looking back through it when they had evenings at home.

That conversation stayed in the back of my mind for some time. I was really pondering it as I mowed the strawberry patch in Aunt Mar’s yard on September 6, 2003. That’s when I hit upon the idea of doing an email newsletter. The original idea was to try to send it out weekly, but not to be tied to any set schedule. I figured that if I were writing to an audience–even if I simply imagined that they enjoyed hearing from me–it would create some accountability to keep it up. Honestly, I thought I’d be doing good to last a couple of years or make it to 100 editions. I thought about getting to 500 editions while riding the mower that day, but laughed and told myself I’d never last that long. Today I laugh with the joy of exceeding my expectations.

All of you receiving this newsletter are people we love and treasure. Some of you we see or hear from frequently. Whether that’s the case with you or not–and it’s okay either way–know that you are a special part of our lives and we value you. Thank you for your indulgence with my writings. You have helped me stay true to my task.

Over the years I have become more aware of the fact that the people on my address list aren’t the only audience for this newsletter. I am also writing to people who will be special to me but aren’t yet part of my life. Any grandchildren our kids may bless us with are the first to come to mind. I look forward to the day that I can say to one of them, “Let me tell you a story of when your mom or dad was your age,” while opening a book, however I have that stored, and read some of these stories to them.

There have been very few changes to the Swann Family News over the years. I created a blog site at http://swannfamilynews.blogspot.com back in 2007 and have kept it current ever since in addition to sending the latest edition by email. You can go there and find every issue ever written.

With this milestone you will notice changes with the formatting or look of the newsletter. I’ve made the first four years of our newsletter into books for my family. They turned out nicely, but the process it took to put them into book form could have been a lot easier, and that only lent itself to printed books. I want to streamline this operation so that I can easily create both print and digital books for them. It will be a lot easier for my kids to duplicate digital copies of these books to pass along to their children when the time comes. And who knows, I might grow a wild hair and start including pictures!

So here we are at number 500. A lot has changed with our family. Jenna was starting kindergarten then and is in her senior year now. Ben was in Mom’s Day Out at church and is a lanky freshmen who towers above me and Vicki. And Nate, who was just six months old the, is a seventh grader with a big growth spurt just ahead. The years have brought lots of laughs and some tears. Pauline, who had just moved in to her new house behind us, passed away in 2010 and Aunt Mar will have been gone three years as of the end of this month. The little kids who drove the battery powered Gator across the field to Pauline’s are now driving real cars on public roads.

I’m not going to sell myself short and say this won’t be around for 500 more editions. I’ll keep writing until the project has run its course, though I’m not going to worry so much about writing weekly as I used to. I’ll simply publish when I can. There’s no telling what our family will look like by then. I’m simply thankful to my Creator who gifts each day for us to enjoy. More than anything else the Swann Family News is a testimony to our God who has been so good to me and my family. If I ever doubt that all I need to do is come back here and read.

Joe

Dry, Brittle Summer Days

This summer may have started off wet, but we could use some rain now. The grass is so dry it crunches underfoot. Vicki and I played a game of horseshoes the other day. Every time a horseshoe landed it kicked up a little cloud of dust, quite unlike what happened two months ago when the horseshoes dislodged small dirt clods.

GETTING SETTLED IN. I haven’t written in a while simply because the change of pace in jobs has been a bigger adjustment for me than I anticipated. I’ve received a lot of encouragement--most notably Dr. Chaney, the founding headmaster at DA, said, “It’ll be like riding a bicycle all over again.” Truth be told, my lessons have wobbled quite a bit the first three weeks. Hopefully my bike ride is starting to even out. Vicki commented a few nights ago that I seem more relaxed than I have since beginning at DA.

It’s been quite interesting being part of school life once again. It’s been homecoming week at DA this week so all the halls have been decorated and the students have been dressing to the daily theme. On top of all the classes we’ve other activities like a school volleyball tournament, a trivia game, a dodgeball tournament, and a powderpuff football game. And then to have your own sons in class really makes the experience more personal.

Speaking of my boys, I want to say here how much I appreciate both of them. As I mentioned above, getting back into the classroom has been shaky, and both boys have been there to see it. Both of them have been honest and told me when things have gone well and when they haven’t. What I will treasure most about this time is that both of them have proven to be my biggest source of encouragement. Every father should have sons who have their back like I have in Ben and Nate.

DRIVING. Ben sure is getting the experience behind the wheel. A 30 mile commute to school allows for that. Early on I started letting Ben drive up 31W from Millersville on our way home. We gradually added a bit more over time. One day last week I noticed I-65 was practically deserted when we crossed it at Millersville and I gave Ben the option of getting on if he wanted.

“Are you sure?” he asked.

“Yes, get over in the left lane.”

“So, you want me to get on now?”

“I want you to decide if you are ready. If you think you are, turn left.”

About half way up the entrance ramp he said, “I guess it’s too late to turn around now.”

He did just fine.

He’s been getting a lot more interstate practice since then, and I think we’ve only had two people blow their horns so that isn’t so bad for a beginning driver. I am proud of him not only for how well he’s picking up the skill, but also for how well he takes instruction and criticism. I’ve even found that if I hold my tongue for a moment he usually critiques himself out loud saying the very things that were on my mind. I think he’s coming along nicely. The true test is when he can take Vicki for a ride and not set off the “mom alarm.”

HOME SWEET HOME. I neglected to write about this last time, but we’ve been calling our house “home” for 20 years now. Mom had began renting the house some time around 1975. We took possession of it the summer after we got married (after having lived in an apartment in Springfield for a year). We spent the whole summer doing a lot of work to the house and moved in at the beginning of August of that year (1995). There were still several things left to be done because I remember having to wash dishes in the bathroom sink for about a week. Fortunately, we’ve been able to continue to add improvements (like insulation) over the years and it has been a wonderful home to raise a family in.

I feel sorry for Mr. Oley Simmons. He built the house in 1908 for his fiancée only to have her break up with him. He never married so he never got to enjoy his house the way we and other families have. To his credit, he had it built well. It truly is “home sweet home.”

SOME FAMILY NEWS. Since it has been three weeks since I last wrote I will catch up on our social calendar a bit.

Morgan is engaged! Next May Kenny will be walking his daughter down the aisle. Her financé, Jimmy Ring, is a great fellow and a wonderful match for her.

On the other end of the spectrum, Sue Hancock passed away. She and her husband, Elbert, were a special part of my life growing up. They would stop in to visit about once a month and Uncle Elbert would always spend time with me. We were always delighted to see them any time they dropped in. We were able to go to the visitation but not the funeral.

Speaking of the Hancock family, we went to a family reunion today. There weren’t as many folks there as usual, but it was fun to catch up with cousins you don’t see too often.

Finally, Vicki and I went to see the movie War Room. This was produced by the same people who made Facing the Giants, Fireproof, and Courageous. Once again, they knocked it out of the park. This film will make you rethink how seriously you take prayer.

WELL SAID. On the subject of faith, Jenna showed us an essay she wrote for her Dual Enrollment English class a few days ago, and with her permission I am sharing it here.

On Keeping Faith

Throughout my 17 years, I have come to notice that I conduct myself differently from the way others act. Being different does not bother me; rather, it has just been a fact of my life. However, it was never more apparent until a few days ago when some fellow students were recounting what happened at a party over the weekend. As they were telling their story of other teenagers participating in underage drinking and casual sex, I found in myself that there was absolutely no desire to want to partake in activities such as this kind of party. Some might say that parties are a rite of passage as a teenager and call me a bore, but I say that even attending this type of party can tempt a person into sin. Sin is when we fall short of obeying the commandments of God, who is the Creator of everything, and follow our own will instead. The idea of there being absolute right and wrong may sound daunting, but through God’s teachings, I have learned that sins’ consequences are much harder to bear than if a person stayed away from it in the first place. The reason I believe in this way is because I am a follower of Christ and use God’s Holy Word, the Bible, as my guidance.

Believing in God and having faith in a Being that you cannot see is not an easy journey; some even call it crazy. My faith and belief in God, however, grows stronger with each passing day because I know He loves me unconditionally, and I want to show Him my love in return. Even when life gets tough, I am able to feel God’s presence pointing me in the right direction, and I suddenly feel unexplainable joy because I know He will always take care of me. The hope I receive from God is also reassuring. God sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross for EVERYONE’s sins so that we could live eternally with God in Heaven. Yet God does not want only me to experience His beauty, He wishes for all of His creation to come to know Him through Jesus Christ.

One way in which I share God’s love and message of hope is through the mission field. Back in March of 2013, I felt God prompting me to go to Haiti, one of the poorest countries of the world. I had only one dilemma; it cost almost two thousand dollars to go. The church I attend had just begun to offer trips, and I was struggling to figure out how I would raise enough money. However, with God, there is always a way. It took quite a bit of dedication, but in a little more than a year, I was headed to Haiti to share my love with the community of Jeremie. It was while I was there that God taught me to be grateful for each relationship I have, the provisions that He supplies for me, and to praise Him whenever possible because life is so very precious.

All in all, my faith simply boils down to the fact that God gives me hope and life. I understand that there will always be non-believers in this world; I have come to accept this fact, but I feel that God has commissioned me, as His follower, to change this for at least a few of His lost people. With all my heart, I will serve and love God and do whatever I can to help point others in His direction.

Joe

New Routines

August has gotten off to a roaring start for us. With school back in session and new jobs for me and Vicki we’ve all hit the ground running.

BIRTHDAYS. We’ve celebrated two birthdays in the family since I last wrote. Ben’s 15th birthday was a couple of Monday’s ago (the 3rd), though we actually celebrated the Saturday before. We picked up Ben’s friend, Jake, and ran a few errands in West Nashville before driving over to the Holder Family Fun Center in Gallatin where the boys spent about three hours in laser tag heaven. All three were hot and sweaty when we headed home.

My birthday, number 49, was Thursday. I was happy to let it slip quietly by and save any celebrating for this weekend which amounted to dinner over at Mom's house. Vicki and I also went out on a date Wednesday night.

A NEW DRIVER. Ben got his learner’s permit a week ago yesterday and has already gotten quite a bit of experience behind the wheel. He certainly has the opportunity with us commuting 30 miles to school every day. I haven’t let Ben tackle I-65 yet because it’s always rush hour when we’d be on it, but he has made the trip home via Highways 41 and 31W several times. All in all his first week of driving he’s dealt with busy streets, emergency vehicles that seemed to appear out of no where, and a hard rain. Overall he’s doing really well. There’s been a couple of scary moments, but I haven’t had to change my underwear yet.

Ben and I were discussing hydroplaning while he was driving in the rain yesterday and I was pointing out the standing water he needed to look out for in the road. I was reflecting on this and realized that I had an experience as I was learning how to drive that has served me well that my kids will probably never have; that is driving on a gravel road. Thirty years ago many of the back roads around here were gravel and I quickly learned how not to panic and overcorrect when a vehicle begins to slide unexpectedly. Maybe it was because as a teenage driver I was going too fast, but it happened enough that I don’t even think about how to react when I slip a bit on a wet road.

BACK TO SCHOOL. It’s hard to believe that my little girl is beginning her senior year this year. This fall she is taking Dual Enrollment English in place of the standard English IV. She will earn 6 hours of credit for these courses and satisfy the requirement for the freshman English class when she is in college. Fortunately for her this is her first class of the day, and since it follows the college schedule meeting only three days a week she has the opportunity to be part of the yearbook staff the other two days. Next she has Anatomy & Physiology with Mrs. Marcia (Krisle) Lyons. Mrs. Lyons was going to retire in the spring but decided to stick around for one more semester because of Jenna and her classmates. I am tickled because she is an awesome teacher. Also her schedule this semester are PE and Personal Finance. And she ends her day with Service Learning where she get to go to church and help in the office four afternoons a week.

The boys seem to have enjoyed their first week at Davidson Academy. Ben went with the majority of the high school students to the DA retreat this week. They left on Tuesday and returned Thursday. The retreat was held at the Ocoee Retreat Center which is somewhat near Chattanooga. He was full of stories about swimming, muddy obstacle courses, and other fun tales. I think he made a lot of new friends there. Nate had a full week at school since he’s a seventh grader, but he sounded like he has enjoyed every day as we talked on the way home. One thing that really impressed Nate was that when the entire Upper School was assembled in the gym for chapel. In his words, “When [Mr. Sorrell] told everyone to be quiet they did.” He was truly amazed at this.

DA is not on the block schedule like East Robertson is so most of Ben’s classes last the entire year. This year he has English I, Algebra I, World History, Biology, Spanish I, Exploring Computer Science, and a study hall. That last class is actually a semester long elective he has with me so I get an honest critique of my lesson when I ask for it. (I rambled too much yesterday.)

Nate has an interesting course load: Geography, Science, English, Pre-Algbra, Theater, and STEM lab. His Geography class is with Mac Swann whose classroom is next door to mine and the STEM Lab is a semester class with me. STEM, in case you are wondering, is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. We are doing a typing unit this first couple of weeks, but after that we will dive into several projects where we think about how to solve problems with technology. I’m thinking that when the keyboarding unit is over the first project we tackle will be about wind power, but I’m in the early planning stages of this right now.

I’m enjoying my new job. The people there are so very supportive. I actually teach three periods of the day, but only have two subjects (I teach Exploring Computer Science twice). The rest of the time I have a lot of tech support duties. All DA students from the fifth grade up have iPads and most teachers really depend on digital resources. (The fourth grade normally has iPads too, but they are piloting Microsoft Surfaces.) This week has been especially busy getting software and textbooks loaded onto iPads.

One adjustment for me coming from Robertson County has been using different software packages, many of which I’ve never seen before. I’ll admit it’s been a challenge to get up to speed as much as I have in two weeks. Hopefully I’ve been an asset to the technology team there.

INVESTING. If you have money that needs to be put to work the team at Silver Spring Capital are ready to serve you! That’s my pitch for Vicki’s new job.

Vicki is thoroughly enjoying working for Ralph. She has been using words like fun, interesting, and refreshing when I’ve asked her about it. We already had accounts with Ralph for the kids before Vicki signed on, and now Ralph has trained her enough that she is going to move some of our accounts we have elsewhere to him. I think she’s excited about this new direction in her life.

AN UPDATE ON MOM. Overall Mom is doing pretty well. She’s healing, though not nearly as quickly as she’d like. We still have people staying with her almost constantly, though we aren’t worrying too much if there’s an hour or two during the day where she’s alone because of scheduling issues.

The thing to remember here is that it’s been almost five weeks since she fell. Hopefully her shoulder injuries will completely heal in the next three or four weeks, but the compression fracture will probably take longer. We’re hoping she can regain the functionality she had over the next few months. Please keep Mom in your prayers.

Joe

Goodbyes Are Hard

July is gone and we are staring a new school year in the face. What happened to the summer?

AN UPDATE ON MOM. Mom is having a rough time. Last Saturday morning she called asking if I could take her to the ER. Her back was giving her a considerable amount of pain. To make a long story short we discovered that she has a compression fracture in her lower back to add to her list of ailments. There’s nothing to do for that but take it easy and stay on pain medication. She’s doing that and has people helping her around the clock. Some days are good days, others aren’t. Overall she’s doing pretty well, but she’s in for a long recovery.

COUSINS AND COLLEGES. My family has done a lot of traveling lately. They were actually driving to Georgia a week ago Wednesday (the 22nd) for some cousin time when I was writing the last edition. They stayed there until Sunday. They enjoyed the trip, though Vicki had some pretty severe muscle spasms in her back that laid her out the first couple of days. I do know they ventured out to see the Minions movie that’s out now.

Vicki and Jenna hit the road again this Wednesday (the 29th) for college visits. They headed west to Union University in Jackson, Tennessee, where they had a tour scheduled for that afternoon. They stopped in Camden on the way there. It was the first time anyone from our family has been back there since Pauline passed away. After the tour at Union, they headed to Birmingham, Alabama, where they had a tour of Samford University scheduled for Thursday morning. When that was over they headed home, stopping in Nashville for a little shopping.

Jenna was impressed with both universities. I think it would be premature to say more at this point as she still has a couple more schools she wants to visit. She is also reevaluating her desire to go into nursing after her internship experience this summer. She simply feels she doesn’t have the passion she needs to have to go into that field.

ENDING A CHAPTER. Monday will be the start of new employment adventures for me and Vicki, though I think it all feels very surreal for both of us. Vicki has spent a lot of time at church (when she’s been home) cleaning out her office and closets she has used for the children’s ministry over the years to leave things in good shape for her successor. This is something she usually does after VBS anyway, but leaving has made her take a deeper look at things.

I’ve been doing a lot of the same things at my job with Robertson County: cleaning my office, documenting how I do things that only I do, making sure people can log in to systems I have maintained, etc. I’ve also been saying goodbye to a lot of folks. It hasn’t been easy, but the nice thing has been the affirmation I have received. I know I’m leaving a lot of valued friends behind.

My supervisor treated our department to lunch at a local restaurant in Springfield Wednesday. We’ve had our share of people come and go in our little group in my time there. It was odd looking around the table at the friends I’ve grown close to knowing that I am the one who is changing the group this time. They sent me away with a drill press for my shop and a plaque that reads:

In Appreciation
All of us at the Technology Department
wish to express out gratitude for sharing your
experience, knowledge, gifts, and friendship with us.
We appreciate your humble and dedicated service
to the students, parents, and staff of
Robertson County Schools.
Joe Swann
21 Years of Service
July 29, 2015

As much as I care about my former coworkers the relationships will stop growing simply because we won’t be seeing each other every day. Goodbyes are hard.

Joe

Summers Do Fly

Somewhere I have a Peanuts comic book titled “Summers Fly, Winters Walk.” There’s a lot of truth to that. This summer sure is flying by.

THE SEARCH IS OVER! We have a new pastor. Dr. Thomas “TJ” Francis will begin his pastorate with our church on August 2. He and his wife, Jamie, and their seven (yes, I said 7) children will be moving here as soon as they can.

For those of you not familiar with the way a Southern Baptist church does things you have to understand that ultimately the local church is autonomous. We are members of a local association of churches, a state convention, as well as the Southern Baptist Convention, but this is a cooperative relationship and ultimately those bodies have no say in how our church operates. To that end it becomes our responsibility to hire our own ministry staff. Last year we formed a pastor search team of five people who have prayerfully and diligently reviewed candidates and brought the man they felt led was the best fit for our church. We had a meet and greet dinner Saturday night and heard him preach Sunday morning. This was followed by a vote that was nearly unanimous.

EVEREST. Once again is has been Vacation Bible School time at Mt. Carmel. Our theme this year was “Everest: Conquering Challenges with God’s Mighty Power.” Vicki didn’t know an exact average attendance when I asked her, but said we ran between 130 and 145 (kids and adults) which was a little down from last year. We certainly didn’t lack for energy.

It’s been odd watching this VBS go by knowing it is Vicki’s last one as Children’s Minister. We will volunteer in the future, but her role will be a lot smaller and our family life won’t revolve around it for three weeks as it has for the last several summers. Since VBS Vicki has been working to clean out her office and leave things in good shape for her replacement. When the boys realized that Vicki will no longer have an office at church they lamented the fact that they will no longer have a place to hang out when they aren’t in Sunday School or a worship service.

EYE PROBLEMS. One thing that was incredibly bad timing for Vicki was a case of preseptal cellulitis in her right eye. It all started when she was brushing her teeth late Thursday night a week ago (the 9th). She had taken her contacts out and was not wearing her glasses which meant she had to hold the toothbrush and toothpaste within inches of her eyes to see to get the paste on the brush. In doing this some of the bristles flicked some toothpaste in her eye. She flushed out her eyes, but infection set in anyway. By Saturday her eye was swollen shut and she headed to the eye doctor. After a round of antibiotics and eye gel she got the okay to wear her contacts again last Thursday. We’re so thankful everything has turned out okay, but it sure was a bad week for this to happen.

WAKEUP CALL. Mom took a little tumble last Tuesday evening (the 14th). I had taken her to church for the first part of VBS and was dropping her off at home when it happened. She was at the back door and had turned to go to the kitchen when she lost her balance and fell face forward into the couch. I was out in the driveway and unaware of the fall until I hear her holler.

We’ve been back and forth to a clinic, the hospital, and the orthopedic surgeon over the last week. Ultimately she hurt her right shoulder in two ways: she’s torn her rotator cuff and she broke her collar bone near the joint with the breastbone. Given her age the only treatment is eight weeks with her arm in a sling. This has made us call in some help as she now needs some assistance throughout the day. Please keep her in your prayers as she deals with these challenges.

Joe

Big Changes

Our family is about to have some big changes. These are changes that will directly affect everyone except Jenna. These changes have been cooking for weeks and now it’s time to share.

I will start with Vicki since you already know she will be resigning from her position at church. Shortly after she had submitted her resignation Ralph Illges, a friend of ours from church who owns and operates Silver Spring Capital, approached Vicki about a part time position at his office. Ralph’s business is a financial planning and investment service in Springfield. He had been considering the idea of some extra help in his office for some time. When he heard Vicki was resigning at church he felt she would be a good fit. (Vicki and Ralph’s wife, Mary Phil, also work together at church.) Vicki and Ralph met a couple of times about the job and she accepted. Vicki will begin her new employment on August 3.

I am the next big piece to the changes in our family. I have accepted a position with Davidson Academy (DA), a private school in Madison. There have been several kids from our church attend there over the years, most notably for the sake of this newsletter is that all four of Kenny and Lori’s kids are either alumni or still enrolled (that would be Wilson). Their oldest son, Mac, even returned a few years ago as a teacher and coach.

I was alerted to a position at DA near the end of May by a former colleague of mine who left the Technology Department two years ago for a job there. I will have some part time classroom responsibilities teaching a 7th grade Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) class as well as a couple of high school level Exploring Computer Science electives which will focus on HTML programming. My non-classroom responsibilities will include providing tech support to teachers and students for their iPads, renovating DA’s website, and helping to develop a way to archive and present documents and files for student portfolios.

I will confess this has been a heart wrenching decision and the entire month of June has proven to be a wild emotional roller coaster ride for me. I have worked for Robertson County Schools for 21 years. I was originally hired as a math and science teacher at Jo Byrns School (a K-12 school at that time), but have spent the last 18 years with the Technology Department. In that capacity, I have worked on computers and servers, trained teachers, and maintained the website just to mention a few things. If it has to do with technology in a school I’ve probably touched it. I may not know everything about it, but I’ve probably worked with it none the less.

My job changed dramatically in 2006 when I took over responsibilities for the student data and sate reporting. Over the last few years these responsibilities brought a lot of frustrations because they made me feel like I was playing a game I could not win. At this point I began praying about what to do about my job. For a long time I had felt God was saying, “Not yet.” Over the last few weeks--since Vicki resigned and without any warning--things just started falling into place. In that time I felt that God’s answer to my prayer had changed to: “The door of opportunity is now open for you, but only for a short time. I will be with you in whatever you decide to do.” So, I felt it was time to take the opportunity before me.

I will leave behind a school system full of valued friends. As I leave I am secure in the fact that I have done my very best to do the job right. I have received a lot of affirmation from the people I work with as the news of my departure has spread which means a lot to me.

One part of my decision to move to DA is the opportunity to move the boys there as well. Jenna will stay at East Robertson since she is a senior, but the boys will be coming with me. I have been assured that Ben will have the opportunity to try out for the basketball team this fall. If he lands a spot it will be odd at first to see him in a Bears jersey rather than an Indians jersey even though the school colors are the same. I know changing schools will be big for Ben and Nate, but they have been positive about it so far. At least I can say the three of us are in this together.

So there you have it. Big changes for our family. Vicki made the comment that we are the most consistent people we know, but this summer sure has blown that notion out of the water. The irony here is that Vicki will begin her new job just a block away from my old office on the very day I begin my new job at Davidson Academy.

Joe

Catching Up

I didn’t realize when I sat down to update our news that I had so much catching up to do. I think the change in routine, or maybe the lack of routine, has thrown me off. Whatever it was, June is spent. Here’s my attempt to catch up for the last three weeks.

If you’re driving in Robertson County right now chances are good you’ll catch up to some farm equipment that is moving from field to field. The farmers have been cutting wheat and hay. Pretty soon they’ll be planting beans. I got a laugh when I came home one day last week. The neighbor who cuts the hay next to our house must have a tractor down because he was pulling the hay rake with his truck. It looked like half the family was riding in the truck with him because when I waved about five hands shot up to return the wave.

After the Cotters left, Ben’s basketball practice schedule picked up a bit. One day we all went out to Springfield High School where several teams in the area had gotten together to play games all day long. Ben got to play in two games. They won one and lost one. A few days later he did the same thing in Gallatin. We didn’t go to that, but I think he played in three games there. Right now we are in a dead period in the practice schedule so players can do other things like family vacations or church camps. Practice will resume next week.

I’ve mentioned before how much Ben is growing. He is enjoying the fact that he is two inches taller than me now. That’s okay. For now I can still take him down. The other day he got a little too big for his britches so I had to pin him until he cried “uncle.” It’s getting harder to do that. I think my only advantage is about 50 lbs. Anyway, we got another reminder of how much Ben is growing when we bought size 15 shoes last week. I should clarify and say the Nikes run a bit small. He only needed size 14 in another brand. Ben also learned the hard way that 6’ 2” kids should not go happily bouncing through a 6’ 3” doorway (our pantry door). And then there was the shopping trip to Wal-Mart when I was returning to Vicki and Ben from picking up an item across the store and thought, “Gee, Ben sure makes Vicki look small now.”

One thing that is so neat about Ben is that he is good with young children, and they, in turn, really enjoy him. A couple of weeks ago Jenna was working in the nursery at church. She was playing “Hide from the Monster” with a few of the kids when Ben walked by to say hi. Jenna asked the kids if Ben was the monster and one little girl said, “No, he’s the prince!”

“Are you sure?” asked Jenna. “He’s my brother and I think he’s the monster and not a prince.”

The girl stuck to her guns and matter-of-factly replied, “No, he’s the prince.” This embarrassed him to no end.

Nate is doing well. One evening I heard him singing upstairs so I grabbed my phone and set the camera app to record video and snuck up the steps. I wound up standing behind the boy as he was playing a video game getting over a minute of the silliest video before he turned around and noticed me there. It’s funny how he used to always want us to submit a clip to America’s Funniest Home Videos and now he doesn’t.

I mentioned before that the kids had pooled their money to buy a Wii U. This has brought all three kids together to some degree as they now have a game that Jenna is interested in playing so she invades their space far more than she used to. It’s sort of odd to call for her and hear her answer from upstairs. Ben has complained that she stays up there too late when he wants to go to bed.

Jenna is doing an internship at NorthCrest Medical Center. She goes in a couple of days a week and has gotten to observe a lot about how a hospital functions. She seems to be enjoying it. She’s also been trying to get some babysitting jobs in as well.

Vicki, Jenna, and Nate all went to Centri-Kid camp last week. They returned to the camp held at Campbellsville University. They left last Sunday and got home Thursday and from the pictures I’ve seen it was another big year. Nate had tracks in Outdoor Games, Splish-Splash, and Build It which he enjoyed. Jenna tagged along because she was finally old enough to return as a junior chaperone. This was Nate’s last year to be able to go to Centri-Kid as a kid. Of course, this is the last time Vicki heads it up as our Children’s Minister. Now that they are back home Vicki is focusing on getting ready for VBS which starts in two weeks.

Ben and I were on our own last week. We didn’t have it too bad as we took mom out to eat at Cracker Barrel and the Catfish House two different nights. We also had a M*A*S*H marathon a couple of evenings where we watched about half of the fourth season on Netflix.

Speaking of camp, Ben left with our church youth group this morning for Student Life camp. They will be at Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee, until Saturday.

Congratulations to Kenny and Lori who celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary today. I remember the day well. Kenny asked me to be his best man which was an honor I did not expect. Nine years later he was my best man when Vicki and I got married.

Vicki and I got a chance to celebrate our anniversary on “the” day for the first time in quite a while. She has been away at camp with kids from church for the last several years but this year it worked differently. We enjoyed a meal at Jimmy Kelly’s Steakhouse in Nashville.

My shop is a bit more organized. A couple of friends gave me their old counters when they remodeled their kitchens and I finally put it all to good use. I built shelves around the freezer and air compressor that sit in one corner. Now I can get a lot of stuff off the floor that had nowhere to go. The real battle though, as with anything, is to keep the building from collecting more junk.

On the subject of “junk,” Trash and Treasures was last weekend. We worked a shift at the concession stand for the Heritage Commission on Friday morning. By the time our shift was over we didn’t care to walk around too much. The only treasure I came home with was a game of horseshoes for $14. I’ve already got the stakes set up in the backyard if anyone wants to play.

Joe

Cousins

We have had unseasonably cool, wet weather for the last few weeks. Jenna went to the elementary school a couple of days during the last week of school to help out with their field day and said everyone was cold because the temperature stayed in the 50s all day. We wound up turning the heat back on for a couple of nights. Now the last couple of days the temperature has bounced back up to the 80s.

FAMILY FUN. Vicki and the kids headed out to visit the Jones family the Sunday before Memorial Day (the 24th), returning last Thursday (the 28th). I didn’t get to make this trip with them. They sounded like they had a great time. The enjoyed tennis, shopping, playing games, swimming, watching movies, and, of course, eating.

Jim, Dianna, and their boys arrived at our house Tuesday afternoon. We were the last stop on a two week vacation for them. As soon as they got settled in we noticed Nerf projectiles flying all around the house, which was a frequent occurrence for the duration of their visit.

When they weren't having a Nerf battle the boys were playing video games. Our kids recently pooled their money and bought a Wii U so they're still in the novelty period of their new game. One evening the sound track from one of their games was getting a bit loud so one of the adults good naturally hollered upstairs, “Could that be a little louder?" Ben answered, "Yeah, I've already taken my shower."

We also made the rounds to several local restaurants, meeting Jim and Judy at the Catfish House as well as enjoying a lunch at Thomas Drugs and supper at True’s Barbecue. Thursday evening we brought pizza over to Mom's house and ate at the picnic table. It was a very pleasant evening. We also enjoyed a game of Jeopardy! that Jim and Chris had created using PowerPoint. The boys dominated, even though Nate called the Periodic Table the “Patriotic Table.”

ARCHIVAL. Speaking of memories, we all have pictures and home movies from holidays, family visits, and every day living. A few months ago I wrote that I had digitized all of our home movies from VHS and miniDV tape and have those files backed up on several hard drives.

Since that time I have been working to sort through all our digital pictures. We got our first digital camera in December 2003 and have never missed film. The nice thing is that a digital camera timestamps all pictures without placing a date on the picture like some old film cameras did. Organizing these has been pretty easy assuming the clock on the camera was correct when the picture was taken.

I am organizing these along with our videos. That way when I look up an event on a given day (e.g. Christmas on a given year) I have all the snapshots and videos in one place. I am also keeping track of events in a text file. You may be wondering why I don't use any photo management software. I did for several years, but changes in software with updates would periodically make me have to go back and reorganize everything. Eliminating the management software eliminated this problem and made things more future proof.

I am now sorting through pictures from last year. At present my archive has well over 37,000 files and takes over 227 GB of space. When I get caught up to the present I'll start seriously scanning and organizing our old film photos.

I've noticed some interesting trends. First, we tend to take more digital pictures than we did with film. We do this knowing we can delete bad shots which is really handy when trying to pose the family for an important shot. Turns out this is something we don't do like we should. And since Vicki and I got smart phones a couple of years ago the number of pictures we snap has increased again.

GARDEN. We’re a little late getting our garden out seeing how we we didn’t get it done until today. We have a small plot of ground behind the shop where there’s a few tomatoes, peppers, squash, zucchini, cantaloupe, and watermelon.

The strawberries Jenna set out last year have done well. She plans to return to Haiti next February and has sold about $200 worth of strawberries toward her trip. I have to admire the industrious streak that girl has.

Joe

The End Is Near

The end is in sight. Thursday is the last full day of classes and then summer break begins! Here’s all the things that have been going on to wrap up the school year.

AWARDS. I am proud of all three of my kids, but Jenna has distinguished herself particularly well this year. Last week she was among 18 students from across all five high schools in the county who were recognized at the school board meeting for having made a 30 or above on the ACT. She scored 31 on it back in the fall. The ACT is the popular college entrance test for this region of the country. According to ACT’s website a 31 is roughly equivalent to a score of 1380 on the SAT. Jenna was further honored at the East Robertson award ceremony for earning the highest average in each of her classes. Rest up over the summer, girl. Your senior year is coming.

Ben was also honored the East Robertson award ceremony. He was one of eight students in the eighth grade who scored high on the PLAN test. This is a middle school precursor to the ACT.

Speaking of Ben, he tried out for the high school basketball team last week and was one of five rising freshmen to make the cut. Now we have summer practice to build in to our schedule.

It is not my intention to ignore Nate here. He simply hasn’t had the opportunities for recognition come his way this year. He is doing well and excited that school is just about out.

CONGRATULATIONS. East Robertson held its graduation exercises Friday evening. Among the 70 seniors receiving their diplomas was Bonnie Jones, our cousin and neighbor. Bonnie recently signed on to play volleyball for Brescia University in Owensboro, Kentucky. Way to go, Bonnie, we’re proud of you!

ROBERTSON COUNTY YOUTH LEADERSHIP. Jenna is also wrapping up her involvement with the Robertson County Youth Leadership program which is sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce. She was one of two students from East Robertson chosen to participate in the program back in the fall. (A total of 12 students were in the group.) I may be simplifying this too much but essentially this experience has amounted to monthly field trips from school where the group got to see various aspects of leadership in our county. Each month focused on something different including agriculture, county history, health care, government, law enforcement, and manufacturing. They also took part in a project to give back to the community, in this case, raising money for books for elementary age children. Given all the things Jenna has talked about she’s had some neat exposure to things high school students don’t normally see in our county. We went to a dinner last night celebrating the end of this adventure. I enjoyed hearing the impressions of all the participants, many of whom did not realize how much Robertson County has going on.

A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION. A week ago Friday (the 8th) a friend of ours called and said they had two extra tickets to see Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion the next evening at the Ryman Auditorium and asked if we would want to go. Well of course!

Saturday afternoon found us driving to downtown Nashville to take in the show from the Confederate Gallery. Guest stars were Ricky Skaggs with his wife, Sharon White, and band, Kentucky Thunder. Also there was Blues singer Keb’ Mo’, Stuart Duncan, and Christine DiGillanardo. If you are familiar with the show then you know we enjoyed the regular things like the Guy Noir sketch and The News from Lake Wobegon. It was all good, but the highlight was Keb’ Mo’ and Ricky Skaggs doing a song titled Infinite Eyes.

If you are interested show is archived here for your listening and viewing pleasure. The evening was certainly a pleasant surprise for us and a memory we will treasure.

Joe

The End Is In Sight

The April showers are making way for May flowers and all the farmers are trying to make up for lost time planting their corn.

RESIGNATION. Vicki was hired as the children’s minister at church back in 2008. She submitted her letter of resignation to the church last week. She decided to do this after a lot of prayer and soul searching. She simply feels it is time for her to step down. Vicki will continue work until the conclusion VBS in July. We are praying her replacement will be onboard a few weeks before VBS to allow time for a smooth transition. The future is unknown but we are confident that God will continue to lead and provide for us as He has been faithful to do all these years.

END OF THE SCHOOL YEAR. We have three weeks of school left and Jenna is already breathing a big sigh of relief. Last week she turned in a research paper and delivered a speech, two big projects that have been hanging over her head for weeks. By Tuesday both of her dual enrollment classes will be over. Then she’ll only have a couple of finals left before what has proven to be one of the hardest semesters of her high school career comes to a close.

We recognized our graduating seniors at church this morning. Seeing several of the kids that Jenna has grown up with stand there on stage in their caps and gowns made it really hit home for me that next year is it for Jenna.

SWING SET. Speaking of growing up, it doesn’t seem like all that long ago when I was putting up the swing set behind the house for the kids. I completed it a few days after Jenna’s birthday in 2001. The kids quit playing on it several years ago so it sits as a monument to days gone by. Since no one is swinging on it I have hung two “Topsy Turvy” planters from the swing arm that I picked up from a benefit sale last year. One of the planters has a tomato plant and the other has strawberries. If my mini-garden doesn’t work out I think I’ve only sunk about $25 into the deal so it won’t be a huge loss.

THE CAT/DOG. I’ve mentioned before that we have a cat. It turns out that the cat belongs to our tenants and has adopted us as a second family. This cat, who we haven’t named, thinks she is a dog. She still has a lot of feline characteristics like purring and rubbing your legs, but she scampers around the yard like a dog and will even flop down in front of you and expose her belly expecting to be rubbed just like a dog. Yesterday I was about to open the back door when I looked down and found her curled up asleep on the mat in front of the door just like a dog. Her mannerisms really remind us of Faith, our dog we had 20 years ago. Hopefully she will not share Faith’s fate on the highway.

MEMORIES. Back in March I wrote that I had transcribed an interview with David and Betty Jo Thompson. I ran across another story that David tells on the tape that I wanted to share here.

Well, I guess the biggest excitement, a tragedy that ever happened, and I never will forget, I was…I couldn't have been, aw, five or six years old, and they had been baling hay, lespedeza hay, and they filled up the barn down there at Paul's, where he's living now, the old Cook Place, and they put so much hay in there the loft fell in. And they had filled up the barn up there at the home place. And of course, it was green, lespedeza hay.

And they had two old mules there. And I remember Joe Caner use to carry me riding on Old Nell. I don't know why. It was Nell and Queen. But I thought Queen was a light looking old mule and Nell was dark. But Joe Caner would always take me and go riding on that old mule and I thought that was the grandest old mule I ever seen in my life. Old Nell was great.

Well, all of the sudden Bonnie Swann went out the back door—I can remember it just like it was yesterday—said, “Lord, the barn's on fire.”

Well, this green hay created a spontaneous combustion and caught afire, you know, and started blazing. It all started burning. Well, Mama Swann, she run out there and it was an old sow, and the mules—Nell and Queen were in the barn—and all the harness[es], and some calves. She went out there and of course none of the men-folks were there, they were down at the Cook Place, where Paul lives now, trying to get the loft straightened where the loft had fell in. Well, she got the cows out, Nell and Queen, the other two mules—and said she liked to not never got the old sow out because they had a big hump in the barn where you have to get the old sow to go over the hump getting out the door—hauled out all this harness.

And of course, Bonnie was out there, I never will forget it, was ringing that dinner bell. Of course, back then every house had a dinner bell. And at twelve o' clock, when they wanted people to come in for dinner, they'd ring the dinner bell. But if an emergency happened you'd ring the dinner bell. Well boy, people started coming. You've never seen as many people. It was about…it was in the summertime, of course, and it was about sundown, I'd say six o' clock, and people came from everywhere.

And of course, I was running around there screaming—I never will forget it—I was eating a peanut butter and cracker. And I was worried about Old Nell and Queen, especially Old Nell. And I remember Jewel Freeland said, “Doc, don't be crying. Old Nell's alright.” Says, “Aunt Joella got her out of the barn.” And I can remember that just like it happened yesterday.

But that was probably the biggest excitement that happened up there when the barn burned. And of course, the neighbors all came in. Wasn't nothing [they could] do, just stand there and look at the old barn burn. And I forget how many bales of hay was in it, but it was all destroyed. But Mamma Swann got everything out. Boy, she was something. Got all the harness out. Livestock out. Of course, the barn was destroyed.

If you’ve never heard of the spontaneous combustion of hay here’s the simplified version of what happens. This is something that happens due to microbial growth in hay that was put up when it was too wet. As these bacteria colonies grow they generate heat. If the hay bales are very wet when they are stacked the process can run away until the temperature reaches the flashpoint and the hay ignites. This is why curing time out in the field between cutting and baling hay is important.

David was born in 1930 so this fire took place around 1935 or 1936. My grandfather had a sawmill at that time and cut all the lumber for the barn that was built to replace the one that burned. It was rebuilt on the same spot and still stands at the corner of Highway 25 and Simmons Road.

Joe

The Prom

This is proving to be a very wet spring for us. All the farmers are just waiting for the fields to dry up enough to plant corn. I know there are folks in other areas of the country who would love to have our rain. As much as I love a rainy day, slogging through the mud in the yard to get to my truck is wearing thin.

THE PROM. Last night was the big night, and it just so happened to fall on Jenna’s 17th birthday. Fortunately it didn’t rain.

Friday evening we were worried that Jenna would not feel like going to the prom. She started feeling sick around lunchtime. When she came home from school she went straight to bed. When I got home from work and checked on her, I found her with a fever and with a bucket beside her. She looked like death warmed over. Later that afternoon she got up to use the bathroom and was so weak on the way back to bed she laid down in the back hall and used some of the shoes there for a pillow. I had gone to bed thinking the title of this newsletter would be “Disappointment” and that I would simply write the following as the content:

Seventeenth birthday
Prom night
Sick girl
Saving dress

Thankfully the story turned out differently.

A little after I went to bed Jenna was starting to feel a touch better so she had Vicki paint her toenails in hopes that she would be showing them off the next night. Vicki checked on her again at 2:00 am and she wanted to shower so her hair would be prepped for her 8:30 am hair appointment. Jenna got up to get her hair done but came home and went back to bed until it was time to get dressed.

Vicki was Jenna’s makeup artist. Ben came through to see what was going on and seemed a bit taken aback with the transformation. Vicki then told him about the old saying that every barn looks better with a little paint on it. Once he got it he really enjoyed the joke.

Jenna wasn’t feeling 100%, but we were all glad she felt well enough to go. I know my opinion is biased, but she looked stunning.

We went up to the park for pictures and met up with her friends. All four girls--Katie, Maegan, Mackenzie, and Jenna--were beautiful.

Katie and Mackenzie and their dates left the photo shoot for dinner reservations in Nashville. Jenna and Maegan and their two guy friends, who they regularly eat lunch with at school, had dinner reservations at Montana Grill in Bowling Green.

The prom was held at the Arling at Kenny Perry’s Golf Course in Franklin, Kentucky. Everyone had a great time, but by 10:00, the day was taking a toll on Jenna. They left about 15 minutes later with plans to go bowling. Jenna, not fully recovered from the bug she had, was so worn out she excused herself and was home by 11:00.

I wish Jenna hadn’t gotten sick, but I am thankful it didn’t completely ruin her evening. She had a good time in spite of still feeling puny.

NO MORE SCOUTS. I figure that when Ben decided to end his time as a Boy Scout that Nate wouldn’t be too far behind. Once Ben was out Nate never seemed interested. To be fair, both boys’ interest had waned since crossing over from Cub Scouts. I think the two big things that contributed to this was that neither one felt particularly connected to any friends in the troop and because all the extracurricular merit badge work felt too much like school homework.

Back to Nate, I knew something was up when he said he definitely did not want to go to summer camp. Both boys had enjoyed this before. After several weeks of discussing this as we drove to and from the meetings, Nate decided to cut his ties with the troop last Tuesday.

I have mixed feelings about this. Ultimately, as I told both boys, not every good opportunity life presents you is right for you. Sometimes you have to say no to good things that come along because they aren’t a good fit. Those decisions are difficult and need a lot of prayer. For now this frees up our Tuesday nights, and Nate seems happier.

A FINE SUNDAY AFTERNOON DRIVE. Last Sunday was a beautiful day. Mom and I enjoyed the afternoon with a drive down memory lane. We got in the car and headed to Orlinda. As I drove around the town she reminisced about growing up there. This wasn’t the first time I’d heard the stories she recalled, nor was it the first time I had heard them from her in Orlinda. This just happened to be the first time I recall that it was just me and her in the car doing this, making it a much more intimate conversation. Thank you, Mom, for spending that time with me.

GOT MILK? I’ve intended to write about this since the snow that closed school for two weeks back in February. One thing I’ve noticed of late is how much milk my family consumes. All three kids love milk and drink it at most meals, but with two teens in the house milk consumption has gone through the roof around here. We’re getting to where we buy three gallons at a time just so we don’t have to go to the store daily. I certainly understand why one of our friends who has seven kids bought her own cow.

Joe