From School Work to Deck/House Work for Randy

He cleaned up the deck and railing a year ago, and it's that time again already. Happy summer. . .

Gutters and siding too - what a difference a little scrubbin' with Awesome Orange made!

And the wisteria vines out over the garage got a serious hair cut too.

After holding the little chain saw out for a long while trimming limbs he had some sore muscles Fri. night.

He won the battle with the vine, as you can see.  It looks pretty bad, but it will grow out again too fast.

The railing is all nicely scrubbed and painted again, and the deck scrubbed, waiting for further attention after our camping trip.

It's easy to see where he had scrubbed and where he hadn't here.  We have 128 feet of deck around our house to maintain.  He's thinking of buying new wood to replace it and not painting the new wood but coating it with a weather sealer, or getting composite that doesn't require coating.  You can see some of the wood's deterioration.  What a job to look forward to.  House maintenance is never ending.

CA Graduates 55 Seniors

CA's graduation was this morning in our church.  It was the smallest graduating class in our 19 years here.  I really miss having their class banners up front.  Now they're just computer generated graphics up in the hall - no real banners anymore.

The class knew how to choose a great teacher to have the Commencement Address - Gary Pennell, their Socials teacher, who has taught here for 27 years.

Our favorite graduate, Emily Austin, getting her diploma.

What a nice surprise it was seeing Doug and Carolyn Towles from my graduating class in academy, here for his granddaughter's graduation!  

Mariah Clark, Doug's granddaughter.  I never taught her, but Randy really appreciated her in class.

Emily and Kelsey - great friends and students

Emily worked for me her first two years and for Randy these last two.  She's going on to SAU next year.

Melanie Wilhelm was such a sweetie to have in class - she's going to SAU for PT.

Courtney & Kinsey

These are our girls from SAU who we enjoyed having over yesterday - Courtney and Kinsey Calvert.  They just finished their freshman or sophomore year.  They go with us to Morning Pointe every month for Sunshine Bands.  They attended Fountain View Academy in BC so love music.  Their parents are missionaries in PNG now and so they are at SAU in the dorm, working all summer to help cover expenses.  Time passes by so quickly when we have them over - it's just fun chatting away the day.  Hopefully you'll see pictures of them with us out on the boat sometime this summer.

The Willis Clan Storms Dollywood!

Sunday we went to Dollywood with Ruthie & Milton and met Connie and Roger Smith there who used our "bring a friend" free passes. The Willis Clan performed to a packed house 3 times.  They were the big draw for us since we've enjoyed them there before.  Our picture didn't turn out so well in their concert so I found these images online so you can actually see the kids.  What a great looking group - all 12 of them.

It's hard to pick out the mom and dad, eh?  They live near Nashville and home school entirely!

You can see what I mean about our Willis Clan picture in concert. Another group we heard that was excellent we didn't get a good picture of either - Rhonda Vincent & the Rage.  

 This group was Heavens Mountain Band and they weren't too exciting.  They were pastors for the most part - don't take that wrong!  The guy singing in the Superman jacket struggled.

Sorry that we forgot to get the camera out when Connie and Roger were still there.

This doesn't show the color of all the pansies planted there very well.  It was really nice.

Camping & Biking with Amy n Jeremy in Virginia

We camped at Claytor Lake State Park in Dublin, VA last weekend with Amy n Jeremy n AJ.

An inside shot of their lovely trailer.

On the Hiawasee Bridge on the New River Bike trail.  It follows an abandoned railroad bed for 57 miles.  Don't get excited - we only did about 13 miles of it Sabbath morning.

The weather couldn't have been more perfect for our ride. 

Yep - there they go, just a wee bit ahead of us. . .

I love the scenery and trestle bridges along the New River.

Sabbath evening we watched a parade of high school kids dressed for their prom coming to the gazebo area of the park for pictures.

Our campsites were so spacious - we only had somebody on one side of us.

Jeremy played his lap harp dulcimer Sabbath evening.  He plays hymns by ear so well!

(these old scanned pictures aren't so sharp but still are fun) Back in the summer of 1995 the four of us biked this same trail.  We covered all 57 miles of it in a few segments, down and back.  So Amy says she biked it twice that summer.  She still has her t-shirt (that still fits her she said) that says "I did it all" and it has a map of the trail.  Too bad she forgot to bring it and wear it this weekend.  They bought gray t-shirts in Draper where we got on the bike trail, and got us each one too!

on the same Hiawasee Bridge over the river we boated on many times 

Somebody was a little bit tired I think. . .

Yep - very tired!  Mind you, she was only 8.

Now that Ryan and family are moving to SVA, maybe we can get him back on the trail with his family and us eventually.

This is how we spent our summers when we lived at SVA.  Loved every minute of those Claytor Lake lazy summer days. . . Sleep, eat, ski, swim, bike, eat and let the cycle start over!

Dave and Linda Curtis (from Oshawa) and their boys came to join us for a few days that summer.

Fords came too, but didn't bring bikes.  We enjoyed lots of time together on the boat.

Mt. Vernon Academy Alumni Weekend Trip

The church at nearby Kenyon College just about 15 min. from the academy.  I love visiting this campus as I did often during my academy years, for swimming with the girls' club or for someplace to go when Mom and Dad came to visit.  So we went early Sabbath morning before Sabbath School and church since we were up at 5:45.

I wish somebody had been there playing the organ.

It feels like visiting a church in Europe!

Then on to Mt. Vernon Academy's campus that goes up for auction on June 22 - all the buildings and land may be under new ownership next time I'm there.

The girls' dorm. Linden Hall, where I lived for four years.  What a great experience and I have so many good friends and memories from those years.

Where we played and had PE class part of my years.  Ryan taught here his first year out of college too, 2006-07.

Hiawatha Hall was new my freshman year.  We ate upstairs, and had biology and home ec on the lower level.

The church on the hill is where the alumni weekend events happened.  It's where it always was when I was in academy and I looked at the alumni as having one foot in the grave back then.  Now it's me, but there aren't any students anymore to size us up and wonder if they'd ever look THAT old.

The Mount Vernonnaires sang several numbers this weekend and an Alumni Choir.  I loved the music but wasn't willing to join them since it meant  rehearsing so much during my short visit.

I got to hang out with this good company.  We held down the back row of the church during the Sabbath afternoon concert since we found lots of friends there to visit with when we came in.

Sharon and Eileen and Linda - what fun they are.

Sabbath vespers was all Mount Vernonnaires - a smaller group of them, but wonderful music.

This sign is out in front of the school showing the tracts that will be auctioned off in June.

It's how we feel

I sure hope the buyers don't bulldoze it all.  Wish I could pay off the debt to the conference and have it back up and running next fall.