Friends & Music Brighten our Day

Yesterday we enjoyed having a couple teacher friends over for dinner, Karen and Staci. It was a simple meal (thanks to the CHIPs classes we're attending for four weeks) - baked potatoes with black beans and salsa, lima beans, corn, salad, fresh whole wheat bread (thank you Randy) and watermelon. At about 4:30 Carrie and Jaclyn came by for a visit. It was nice having Carrie back for a visit this weekend. It was then that I thought to get a couple pictures for the blog. I knew Ryan would enjoy "seeing" Carrie.

Stephanie dropped in for awhile too (below is a picture of her new wheels that Carrie's folks drove over for her on Sept. 9) . It was rainy outside yesterday, so we stayed in and really enjoyed having friends around. Ryan K. came over too after he got off work at the dorm. We're looking forward to a camping outing together in 3 weeks up to Cumberland Falls State Park on Ryan's home leave weekend. Our CA softball tournament started at 8:45 but was rained out in about an hour. Too bad. . .

Sept. 2 Potluck

Our Sabbath School class enjoyed a potluck at one of our member's lovely home on the 2nd. (These posts are getting all out of order since I haven't updated much lately - oh well.) Randy took the camera for some snapshots that ended up being in our quarterly newsletter that they distributed yesterday. Here's one of Susan, Gerald and Heather who some of you will recognize. Chris came too, but isn't in this picture.

I enjoyed visiting with Janita and Courtney quite awhile. He was in Amy's class and his sister was in Ryan's. So we've had lots of chances to attend CA functions as proud parents over the years we've been here.

Others in our class include the Gadds, who are even related. She's a Ford. They're on the left in this picture.

On Your Mark. . .

It was two weeks ago I last updated this - we haven't taken many pictures except of our school's SA picnic on Sept. 11 - so here are a couple pictures of that. We had a gorgeous day for it.

My students enjoyed seeing themselves in several of these shots I took that I showed that week in class. I thought you'd like seeing this one of David, Ryan. He's quite the runner! George, on his right, just moved to Atlanta with his family almost a year ago from Mbasa, Africa. Then his family moved to Collegedale this summer. Randy and I both teach him. His dad is still over in Africa and hopefully will get to join his family soon.

The short guy in this picture is, Chris, the freshman class president, and the VP is on the right in this picture, Nathan, who you recognize, Amy.

Yes, girls took part too, and here's a picture (on the left) of a really nice and very athletic freshman, Elizabeth, who I enjoy having in class. She was in the bike race, swimming events, and track too! Her dad is in an Iron Man race (longer than a triathalon) today she told me. Remember all these fun picnic events you both took part in while at CA, Amy and Ryan? It was lots more fun going to the picnic when you were participants than it is now. Same is true of the Softball Tournament last night - fortunately we got rained out after about an hour so they'll finish it hopefully sometime later.

The best action pictures we got were taken of the high jump competition in the gym. We couldn't help but remember how well you did in it a few years back, Amy. How high was it you cleared - 4' 8"??? This is Lacey who you jumped against a couple years ago and beat. Her top this year was 4'6" I think. I enjoy being the record keeper for this event every year.

Wedding Day for Danida

Danida and Chad were married Sabbath afternoon at the East Ridge Presbyterian Church. Here she is with her dad about to come down the aisle.

All three of her bridesmaids were CA graduates. The 3-year old flower girl ran out of flower petals about 3/4 of the way down the aisle. So she said "they're all gone" and turned and ran to the back of the church to get more. They had a hard time convincing her to go back down the aisle without any more petals, but finally did.

We enjoyed visiting at the reception with some of our former students from Ryan's class. It was a preview of what their 5-year reunion will be like this coming spring!

Picnic at Chickamauga

Sabbath we picnicked with Carrie's family, Jaclyn, Stephanie and Holly in a gazebo overlooking Lake Chickamauga, our favorite picnic spot around here.

Even though I left the two cans of Linketts at home that I'd heated up in the microwave (confession time), we still had enough - with the extra can I brought in case we ran out, and the two cans others brought.

Pastor Rilea even made some tasty cookies that he brought to share - he's Carrie's grandpa.

After dinner the kids played catch awhile. Later Saturday night we played some games together at our house - a perfect ending to a super day.

Wolftever Wakeboarding Wonders

It sure was great having Ryan and Carrie back in Collegedale and out on the boat with us again. Thursday and Friday after school were such fun. Friday Jaclyn and Stephanie and Carrie's brother, Grant, joined us too.

Carrie took her turn on the wakeboard and it looks like she had fun!

Don't you love Randy's expression!

I had warmed up enough after their turns Thursday to take the plunge too and enjoyed my turn on skis.

Ryan put on a show on two skis - what a hopper!

You have to go to Jaclyn's blog to see the series of pictures of graceful Stephanie! Here she is in a less stressful moment on the wakeboard.

And then there was Grant - Carrie caught this picture of his "final landing." He went all out!

Jaclyn rode like a pro again - too bad her Ryan couldn't be with us on the boat.

I hate to think this probably was our last time out with Ryan for this season - but it was fun while it lasted.

A Good Flight for Ryan

Ryan left school yesterday about 11:30 and amazingly caught his Delta flight out of Columbus two hours later - thank you Lord! There were some nerve-racking minutes in between there for him and me and Carrie when we didn't know if he'd make it.

I love pictures out the window of planes - so you get to enjoy them too that Ryan took on his way yesterday.


He met a 16-yr. old Korean at the Nashville airport while waiting for Carrie to pick him up. He's an exchange student who just arrived in our country for his first time ever. Ryan felt bad leaving him, since nobody had arrived to pick him up yet.

We cleaned and baked and cooked these last two evenings so all we have to do now is enjoy their company. For starters, we'll be going out on the boat as soon as we get home today from school. The forecast sounds perfect for it. Ditto for tomorrow after school. That's why I did so much school work last weekend - so I could walk out these two days after classes to play! Pictures to follow on coming posts.

Seniors Retreat to Cohutta

Last Monday morning we left with 91 seniors from the church parking lot, bound for Cohutta 45 minutes away. After everybody moved into the cabins, we had a short class meeting in the gym.

Then it was class picture time, just when a brief drizzle began, so the lighting isn't the greatest.



The double banana rides behind the boat attracted a lot of kids. The helmets make it look like it must be a wild ride!

I guess there were a few spills. . .



They rode on the pontoon boat to get over to the Conference Center side of the lake where the banana rides began. Alas, the banana got squished (as in no more air in one part of it), so no more double banana rides.



Some took to the more peaceful boating activities, even though it was up in the 90's and very humid.

Some enjoyed the paddleboats. Joel, on the right, is Dr. Kuhn's grandson, from Kingsway days.



After the storm passed thru mid-afternoon Monday, Randy and I walked over to the conference side to see the memorial garden, in memory of the 5 killed in the plane crash two years ago this December. There are five benches as well as the five waterfalls.

Their names are all etched in the rock.

Monday evening I enjoyed some Dutch Blitz until I gave my deck to Megan who proved to be a better challenge to Shawnda, who is a real Dutch Blitzer. She reminded me of Ruthie and Amy who I seldom can beat at the game.

Others enjoyed Risk for hours on end. What a long, drawn-out game! Oh well, to each his own. Unfortunately, I didn't take Clue along. . .

The remodeled gym is air conditioned, so kids enjoyed a lot of volleyball, basketball and rock wall climbing in there. The camp director's son is the 7 yr. old little guy in the picture on the right, and what an athlete. He ran and played non-stop, and never broke a sweat! Randy and Marty (the old guys :) in the picture) were sure sweating when they were finished knocking the volleyball around with Colton.

We ate our meals in the gym too - since they'd double booked the camp and the cafeteria on the camp side was in use by a cooking school going on at the conference side of the camp. It wasn't too bad, except for putting up tables and chairs in the gym before and after every meal. The cooks used the patio area out behind the gym to fix and serve meals from, which they'd done before at Pathfinder events. It was rather hot out there doing all the prep and clean-up. But they did a great job for us. I was glad I was assigned clean up after the sub meal, instead of the spaghetti or haystacks meals.


I was posted at the pool much of the time on supervision, so I took a couple pictures there. Joy is a gymnast, whether in the gym or in the pool!

The shade felt pretty good, which is where Randy hung out by the lake on supervision. Kelly & Nick enjoyed watching by the lake, while others. . .

took up body "painting" - the native look.

It was a nice break from the classroom routine for us. Give us 3-day workweeks any time!