Christmas 2010

We had a very nice Christmas weekend; Mom was with us from PA. For Christmas Eve, we participated with our church at Room in the Inn, a ministry to the homeless. On Christmas morning we woke up to a dusting of snow. We opened gifts and had a quiet morning. We went to Sharon and Brad's late morning to spend the rest of the day at their house. We had been instructed to come up with an activity for Christmas afternoon, so Steve suggested a sugar cookie decorating competition. We baked two large sugar cookies and the guys had one to decorate and the ladies had the other one to decorate. You can see the fruits of our labors below. Since we didn't have a non-biased judge, we were all winners! We had a very fine snow all day and what is usually a 50 minute trip home, turned into a 2-1/2 hour trip home, but we arrived safely so that's what mattered. We had more snow during the night and throughout the day on Sunday.

Jenna models her new Steelers snuggy.

The cookie on the left was done by the ladies; the one on the right by the guys.

Birthday Celebration

We spent Saturday celebrating my birthday. We first met Sharon and Brad at City Limits cafe for lunch. Afterwards we headed out to Opryland Hotel; I wanted to see what changes were made since they re-opened after the May flood. It's a gorgeous hotel and they did an amazing job on renovations and reopening just five months after the flood. Of course it didn't have the same atmosphere as it would if we were there at night, but it was pretty nonetheless. After being at Opryland we went to downton Nashville and had dinner at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville restaurant that's only been open a few months. The atmosphere was fun and the food delicious! We topped off the evening by getting ice cream.

Seth's 16th Birthday

Seth had several parties for his 16th birthday. On Saturday, October 16th, he had a combined party with his marching band section mate, Emily. Emily turned 16 on the 19th and since they have many of the same friends from band, they planned a combined party at Emily's house. There were about 28 kids who came to Emily's house to celebrate and have fun. In lieu of gifts, Seth and Emily asked the attendees to bring donations to Hope House, a battered womens and children's shelter. We were overwhelmed by the response of the kids to this request as were the folks at Hope House when Emily and her mom delivered the donations on Tuesday morning. They were so impressed that the kids did this for their 16th birthday that they're going to write an article for the local newspaper.

On Sunday, October 17th, we went to Aunt Sharon and Uncle Brad's house to have a family celebration. Grammy was in town from PA for this celebration. This year Seth requested that Uncle Brad make beef tacos and chicken enchiladas for his birthday dinner. Mom and Grammy made apple pie for dessert.

On Monday, October 18th, Seth celebrated his birthday with his friends from church at their Core meeting that evening.

By the way, Seth did get a car for his birthday - a [matchbox] BMW.

First Band Competition of 2010 Season

The marching band had their first competition of the season this past Saturday in Waverly, TN. The theme of this year's show is "Pandora's Box". It's a great show with a lot of intricate footwork and lots moving around the field. Our band placed 2nd in class and 3rd overall. They also had the highest music scores of all the bands that competed that day.

Steve, Jenna and I went along as pit crew members. We're responsible for loading and unloading all pit equipment on and off of the semi truck as well as getting it onto and off of the field during the time our band is competing.

It was "all hands on deck". Jenna went along as a pit crew member.

Cross Country Update

I took Jenna to the doctor on Tuesday and he gave her clearance to run. She ran in the cross country meet this past Thursday and said her knee did not bother her. She's still doing home exercises and goes back to the doctor again this coming Tuesday. She was so glad to be able to run again. Tuesday was a half day of school, so after getting clearance from the doctor in the early part of the afternoon she went to school for a 2:45 practice and started running as soon as she could.

Another Cross Country Update

I took Jenna back to the doctor yesterday and he is very pleased with the progress for her knee. He said the inflammation is down so she no longer has to ice it. He took away one home exercise and added another one. She doesn't have to go back to see him again this week, so we'll go back again next Tuesday, September 14th. He may release her to run next week which was music to her ears. Please pray that one more week is all she needs to rehab the knee and she can run in the last two meets of the season.

Cross Country Update

After finishing in the top five for her school at the first two meets, Jenna now has to stop running for two weeks. She's devastated. Her right knee has been bothering her since almost the start of cross country. On Monday of this week I took her to an orthopedic doctor. He took x-rays of the knee, said he didn't see anything wrong, she could continue to run to tolerance and sent us for an MRI. Before we had the MRI the lady at registration told us that our out-of-pocket expense would be $1900. I about fell off my chair! Thankfully she told me that BEFORE the MRI was done. I told her thanks, but no thanks. We then came home and I called a place called In Motion here in Spring Hill that several people from our church go to. They specialize in chiropractic and deep tissue massage for sports injuries. We went there Wednesday morning and the doctor said Jenna has patellofemoral pain syndrome. This is where the knee cap has shifted and is grinding against the femur. Also, her right hip is too loose and her quad is too tight. He told Jenna not to run for two weeks which is hard for her - especially with cross country being a short season. The doctor gave us home exercises to do as well as ice the knee twice a day. She also has to go for therapy three times a week. So pray for Jenna - she's not one to sit still. The doctor did say she can bike and swim so that's some good news. We're trying to help Jenna see the big picture and help her understand that by getting this taken care of now, she'll feel better in the future and will be ready for spring track.

Marching Band

This year for marching band Seth switched from trumpet to contra (marching tuba). Here are some pics from practice last night. I'll get better pics later in the season when he's in uniform, but this gives you an idea of the instrument he's playing.

Cross Country

Jenna is running cross country for her middle school, Spring Station Middle School. They had their first meet yesterday and she did great - placing 27th (not sure out of how many) with a time of 14.06 for 1-1/2 miles. This was her first experience ever running an event like this in 90° weather with about 90% humidity at 4:00 in the afternoon. She was the first sixth grader from her school to finish. (Sixth, seventh and eighth grade girls all run at the same time.)

First day of school 2010

Seth's first day of his sophomore year at Independence High School (8-12-10).

Jenna's first day of sxith grade at the brand new Spring Station Middle School. (8-12-10)

Jenna's Bedroom Makeover

For her birthday this year, Jenna wanted to re-do her room. With the help of a friend from church, her room was transformed from a pink little girl room to a sophisticated pre-teen room. Jenna chose a pretty combination of green, blue and chocolate brown. The painting was done last week and we spent this week looking for bedding and accessories. I forgot to take a picture of the wall with the window. Jenna chose plain green curtains for the window.

Jenna's Birthday

Jenna stretched her 11th birthday out into a weekend-long celebration. On Saturday night we went to Otters for dinner followed by dessert at Cold Stone Creamery. On Sunday, Uncle Brad and Aunt Sharon came down and went to church with us and then we went to Olive Garden for lunch. (Aunt Sharon has a birthday one week before Jenna, so Jenna likes to celebrate with her.) After lunch, Sharon and Brad came to our house where we had a chocolate chip cookie/Cool Whip dessert that Jenna requested. I also made cupcakes for our small group that night for Jenna's birthday. Jenna wanted peanutbutter pie for her "actual" birthday. We had that Monday night after she opened her gifts. Tuesday was her actual birthday. I took her out for breakfast to the Donut Palace and she chose meal in foil for her birthday dinner.

Vacation at Hilton Head Island, SC

Here are some random pictures from our vacation last week to Hilton Head, SC. (I have way too many pictures to choose from.) We left TN on Friday, July 9, and spent the night in Macon, GA. On Saturday when we got to the island we met Sallie and Carl who came down from Aiken to spend the weekend with us. After a quick lunch we found the Hilton Head Tennis Resort which is where we stayed for the week. Our condo was much smaller and older than we had expected, but we adapted. We spent the afternoon on the beach with Sallie and Carl then had an opportunity to visit with Seth's 5K teacher from SC who was in Hilton Head for the weekend with her family. She was surprised to see that her former 5K student is now almost 6 feet tall!. We had dinner with Sallie and Carl at The Crazy Crab. We spent all day Sunday on the beach and had dinner with Sallie and Carl before they had to leave to go back to Aiken. :(

On Monday morning we decided to go to the area known as Harbor Town. This is where The Heritage pro golf tournament is played each year and you can see the 18th hole from the top of the lighthouse. We had lunch at the legendary Salty Dog Cafe (and the food lived up to its billing!). Wednesday morning we went on a dolphin cruise. It was fun to see the dolphin so close to the boat and it was a nice morning to be out on Calibogue Sound. We had a week of great beach weather. On Thursday and Friday the waves were incredible - some were 8-10 feet and it was great for riding the waves on our boogie boards. We topped our week off by a delicious seafood dinner at Kingfisher.

We left Hilton Head early Saturday morning and drove one hour to Savannah, GA. Steve and I had been to Savannah before and we figured since we were so close that the kids would enjoy seeing the city. It was hot but we walked around the different squares in Savannah to give the kids a taste of what the city is like. Seth liked reading about the history of Savannah. We walked by Paula Deen's restaurant, The Lady and Sons, but one hour before opening the line was already 3/4 of the way around the block. We drove as far as Marietta, GA and spent the night. We had dinner at the Marietta Diner, a place we found out about a few years ago by watching Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. We had been there before and it's always good!

Deer Run Day Camp

Jenna had the opportunity to attend Deer Run day camp this week along with five other kids from our church. This was her first year to attend a day camp and she had a blast. While at camp she had Bible study time and singing, crafts, an opportunity to do archery, bb guns, creek walking, hiking, swimming in the lake, zip line over and into the lake and tower climbing.

Memorial Day weekend

We went to South Carolina for a long Memorial Day weekend. We had fun visiting with Sallie and Carl in Aiken (and with Grammy once she got there from spending a night in the Atlanta airport) and visiting with the Martins and Wilburns in Lexington. (A lot has changed in Lexington since we moved six years ago.) The kids enjoyed playing with Sallie and Carl's dog, Allie, and fishing on the pond behind their house. We met Joe and Jennifer and the kids in Columbia - we hadn't see them in 4 years and it was nice to finally meet Carter. We had fun catching up, eating at D's Wings and walking around the new Carolina Stadium (where the USC Gamecocks play). The new stadium is state of the art! (And we're wishing we were there this weekend to watch the regionals.)

Uncle Carl and Jenna with one of the fish she caught.

Jenna had two "firsts" while in South Carolina. Uncle Carl took her for her first ride in a covertible.

Jenna also had her first ride on a motorcycle (and it was on a Harley Davidson).

On Saturday night, Seth and Uncle Carl made dinner for us. We had fried pickles, hushpuppies and fried shrimp.

One of Seth's catches.

Awards Day

Fifth grade awards day was held on Tuesday, May 18th. We are very proud of Jenna and her many accomplishments. She received six awards along with her promotion certificate. She received the Presidental Fitness Challenge award, a certificate for chorus participation, an Award of Merit for Safety Patrol, Certficiate of Excellence for A/B Honor Roll, Certificate of Excellence for Perfect Attendance this year. and the President's Education Award along with a letter from President O'Bama. This is an award for students who maintain an A average throughout fourth grade, the first semester of fifth grade and have "excellent" scores in either math or reading on their TCAP test (state-wide test). In the one picture below, Jenna is accepting her promotion award from her teacher, Ms. Tow.

FIELD DAY

Jenna's fifth grade field day was today and I was able to get over to the school for a few of the events. Field day brings out Jenna's competitive nature!

Mother's day

I had a very nice Mother's Day. The kids gave me my gifts on Saturday evening - a Beverly Lewis book, a gift certificate to Bath & Body Works and flowers. Jenna made me a new mousepad for the computer. They also got some death by chocolate ice cream that we all enjoyed. On Sunday we went to O'Charley's for lunch after church. After we came home I sat outside to enjoy the warm sunshine and read.

May 2010 Floods

April showers didn't bring May flowers this year....it brought more showers....more like May floods. It started raining early Saturday morning and at times it came down in buckets. Steve and Jenna were at church, I took Seth to the high school for band and then went grocery shopping and came home to unload groceries and clean. Because I was busy cleaning, I wasn't paying much attention to what was going on outside. About 11:00 a.m., my neighbor Kim, who lives across the street from me called and said, "I know now why we have flood insurance." I looked out my front window and was shocked by what I saw. Her back yard backs up to a common area and there is a creek that runs behind the common area. It had flooded over and water was covering the entire common area and into the back yards of all the houses on the opposite side of the street from us. The water was rushing water and we were amazed at the speed it was traveling. The weather played havoc all day. When I went back to the school at 1:00 to get Seth, I drove through another deluge of rain. We got soaked running from the school to the van. (I only had one umbrella and we had to use that to keep the trumpet dry!) We had one tornado warning in the afternoon. Jenna was across the street playing with Kim's kids, so she stayed there and was in the closet with the kids for protection. Seth and I were in our mud room (our only "safe" place) with our bicycle helmets on (only we forgot to put our shoes on). We decided since we were in the laundry room we may as well fold the two baskets of towels that had just been washed! (Steve braved it and didn't get into the mud room with us.) Thankfully no tornado touched down near us. Our church was supposed to have a dinner at night but cancelled it because roads all over town were flooded and closed. Thankfully we live close enough to the church that Steve was able to drive over and get us some to go boxes for dinner! Church this morning was cancelled too. We woke up at 5:30 to the tornado siren going off but so far no bad weather has come our way and we haven't even seen any rain yet (but I think that is fixin' to change by the looks of the skies). Now we're waiting to hear if school is cancelled for tomorrow. If they cancel for two flakes of snow, I'm sure they'll cancel for flooding. There are some parts of our county that are in bad shape this morning. Thankfully for our neighbors the water in the common area receded overnight, but if more rain hits today, I'm sure the water will be in their backyards again.

Kids' Music City Marathon

Jenna completed her third Kids' Music City Marathon on April 23, 2010. Kids grade K-5 thru 6th have an opportunity to participate in this event. They have six weeks to run 25.2 miles on their own then they go to LP Field the day before the Music City Marathon to run the last mile together with kids in their grade. This year Jenna ran with fifth and sixth grade girls. There were only about six girls from her school in fifth grade who ran this year and Jenna finished second among those girls. She ran with her friend Lindsay and Lindsay finished first from their school. Jenna enjoys running and is looking forward to trying out for the track team when she gets to middle school next year.






Allison, Jenna and Lindsay get ready for the race.


















Jenna and Lindsay head to the finish line.

















Jenna shows off her medal.

Last Weekend of Spring Break

It's been a great spring break with lots of gorgeous spring weather and the kids are enjoying their last weekend of spring break. The South Carolina Gamecock baseball team is in town for a weekend series at Vanderbilt. Last night we went to the game and the Gamecocks won 3-2. We are going back for game #2 today at 2:00. It's supposed to be a gorgeous, sunny afternoon with temps in the 70's....just perfect for sitting outside and cheering on our Gamecocks! After the game today Seth is going to head to a youth group bonfire. The rest of us will head home to help get Steve ready for his trip to IN on Sunday. He'll be leaving Sunday afternoon and will be gone for a week for work.

Spring Break

So far we have had an absolutely gorgeous week of weather for spring break. On Monday we took advantage of the nice weather and met my sister for lunch at one of our favorite cafes - City Limits. We enjoyed sitting outside on their patio for lunch. After lunch we went to Edwin Warner Park to go hiking. We chose to do the 2.5 mile hike through the woods. It got a lot hotter than we had expected and a lot hotter than what had been forecasted. Thankfully we all had our water with us. We all enjoyed the hike and the scenery. After the hike we went to my sister's house to hang out for the rest of the day. We enjoyed the first grilled out burgers of the season along with good homemade macaroni and cheese for dinner. (Steve came up after work to have dinner with us.)

On Tuesday, Jenna had a hair cut appointment at 11:00 so we packed lunches beforehand, went to her appointment and then met friends at the park for lunch and to play. Thankfully there was a nice breeze so it didn't seem quite as hot as it did on Monday.

Both kids will be working some the rest of the week. Seth will be kid sitting this afternoon and Jenna will be working for a friend from small group for 2 hours this morning and again Thursday morning. Seth will work for her on Friday morning. I'm so thankful that the kids have opportunities to earn some extra money and get into the habit of tithing, saving, etc.

We are all looking forward to the South Carolina Gamecocks being in town this weekend for a baseball series at Vanderbilt. We are planning on going to the Friday night and Saturday afternoon games. We were planning to go to the Sunday afternoon game as well, but Steve has to leave that afternoon to go out of town for work.

Easter Weekend

We had a wonderful Easter weekend. The kids were off school for Good Friday, so we went out to lunch to celebrate the beginning of spring break and then we did some errands. Friday night, our small group met at 6:30 at a Civil War battlefield sight here in Spring Hill to remember Good Friday. It was a very special hour remembering what God did for us so many years ago. The hour ended by each family taking communion at the top of the hill right before sunset.

Saturday started out as a rainy day but by noon we had blue, clear sunny skies. The kids worked on cleaning their rooms in the morning while I did grocery shopping and then we all just hung out the rest of the day. It was a gorgeous day, so I did as much as possible outside.

Easter Sunday was another gorgeous spring day. We went to church and had a wonderful service. I'm so thankful for the talented singers and musicians who make up our worship team. After church some friends from small group came over for lunch. In the evening our small group got together for a dessert and game night.

And Down the Stretch They Come

The kids have entered the home stretch - the last nine weeks of school! Didn't they just start yesterday?! Seth will be wrapping up his first year in high school (at least 5" taller - or so it seems - and with his learner's permit in hand) and Jenna will be wrapping up her last year at the elementary school. Steve and I went to a parent meeting for the new middle school and we're excited that Jenna will be opening a brand new, state-of-the art middle school when her class enters in August.

The kids will be on spring break starting on April 2 through the following week. Right now we don't have a lot of plans. We are planning to meet Sharon on Monday to go hiking, but other than that there is nothing on our calendar for that week - which is nice. I hope the weather is nice so we can be outside a lot.

I'm actually looking forward to summer break this year since we've had such a busy school year. It will be nice not having to keep up with schedules, homework, band, fundraisers, etc. Steve will have to travel some for work this summer - going to Michigan, Wisconsin and maybe Maine. We're going to try to get back to South Carolina at some point this summer. Jenna is planning to go to a Christian day camp the last week in June with some other kids from church. Seth was planning to go back to Fargo but unfortunately we think that trip is going to be cancelled due to low numbers. He will have band practices throughout the summer and is planning to go to Centrifuge at Union University in Jackson, TN with the youth group. I am looking forward to our family vacation in July - we're going back to Perdido Key on the panhandle in Florida.

Steve Turns 50!

We have had a fun weekend celebrating Steve's 50th birthday. The celebration began for Steve when he walked into his office Friday morning to find a sea of black balloons, black streamers, black decorations, etc. His co-workers took him out for lunch at Jonathan's. Friday night Steve wanted to use his birthday coupon for a free burger from Red Robin so we went there for dinner and stopped at Cold Stone Creamery on our way home for ice cream.

When we got home Friday night, the kids gave Steve his birthday present from us - his very own personalized Steeler jersey (notice the number on the jersey). We told him he had to wear it and be dressed and ready to go on Saturday at 1:30.

On Saturday, the kids and I hosted a drop-in for Steve from 2:00 - 5:00. About a month ago, I had a flash of creativity (which doesn't happen very often) and I came up with the theme "Counting the Years" since Steve is an accountant. His high school and college colors are the same (red, white and black) so those are the colors we used for decorations. The tables were simply decorated with bunches of red, white and black balloons and bowls of M&M's and peanuts and we had a marble cake and punch. Many friends from church, work and neighbors came. It was a fun afternoon. Some people brought "50 of something" for Steve - he received 50 M&M's, 50 jelly beans, 50 pennies, 50 prunes, a 50 foot electrical cord, 50 puzzle pieces, etc.

After the drop-in, Steve to go to Bucca di Beppo for his birthday dinner. My sister, Sharon and her husband, Brad joined us. After an hour wait, we had a great Italian meal. My sister and brother-in-law even presented Steve with a trophy for turning 50!

When we got home Saturday evening, Steve opened all his cards. I had been confiscating the cards that came in the mail.....so he had a lot to open!




Steve reading some of the memories family and friends sent in.

A neighbor helped me and Jenna make a tri-fold display. We listed places Steve has lived, schools, college, special places, etc. and put pictures on it.

Also on that table were special pictures from throughout the years, starting with his baby pictures.