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Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Merry (Belated) Christmas and Happy New Year!

From Dec. 2009 Snow


Though Christmas Day is past, we hope you are still enjoying a wonderful holiday season with your family and friends! We certainly are! Right now we are enjoying an extended holiday in Arkansas and more snow is falling outside as I type this letter. For Southerners, this is a real treat!

2009 has been an interesting year for our family. The biggest change is that Terry is no longer an engineer at Eastman, and he shares his perspective on that in a letter below.

Here's what's up with the rest of us this year:

As far as travels go, this year was much more tame. Instead of traveling to China on a free trip to the Olympics, we went camping at the lake a few times and took a trip to Williamsburg. We celebrated some family milestones - Terry's mom's 70th birthday and his parent's 50th anniversary. I chronicle most of the highlights of our family life in this blog, so if you're really interested you can read my old posts - otherwise I'll skip the details!

Rebecca (16) is driving now and is taking dual enrollment classes at the local college. She loves art, photography, theater, music and literature and is best friends with her Mom. She's recently become interested in sewing and costume design, and she got piles of vintage clothing patterns for Christmas. You might think that she would be headed for an artistic career, but right now her plans are to become a pediatric physical therapist.

Nathan (13) became a teen in June and enjoyed a "manhood initiation retreat" at the lake with his father, grandfather, uncles and a close friend. He is now taller than both his Mom and his older sister, and he has the biggest feet in the house! He also no longer gets mistaken for Mom when he answers the phone.

Caleb (12) recently performed in the local production of "A Christmas Story" and also took up trombone this year. He is not as tall as Nathan yet, but he is right on his heels and never lets him forget it!

Noah (10) enjoyed being in the local theater production of "Cheaper by the Dozen" with Rebecca and Nathan this summer. He has lots of fun playing with kids in the neighborhood - most of the ones his age are girls, so I'm not sure how long that will last.

Terry shares what's been going on with him in the letter below. Let me just say from my perspective that this has been the best year of our twenty-year marriage! Watching Terry follow the Lord during this tough season and witnessing God's faithfulness to us has been a huge blessing. We both look forward to 2010!

Terry's Letter

My family’s current adventure started in the Summer of ’07 when I finally told the Lord that I would go anywhere or do anything He wanted. Several things have transpired since then, but I will limit my sharing to the highlights of ’09.

God prepared me for the April 7th “down-sizing” at Eastman in a fabulous way. First, He put me in a situation where I told my brother, Scott, on 2/28/09 that it might be a blessing to be laid off. I even pondered the idea of trying to “volunteer”, but Susan discouraged that --- and I’m glad she did. He also motivated me to start meeting with local businesses in order to find ways to “create jobs and wealth for God’s glory” --- my new mission. And finally, He had me doing everything I could think of to help my coworkers prepare not knowing that He was really preparing me.

So on 4/7, He enabled me to hit the ground running ~ I actually had a 3 wk plan in hand. First, He motivated me to let the first hour of every day (well almost) be spent pursuing Him. Next, He led me to apply Psalm 127:2 by limiting my working hours to a reasonable amount and trusting His provision. I could not have survived the past nine months without Him or by working excessive hours.

I’ve started a business focused on helping businesses. God has put me in front of the right people at the right time all year. Literally, the main thing I can contribute this year’s success to is simply trusting in Him. Though I have still yet to receive my first income from this effort, God is providing. His timing is perfect but rarely early. I will begin to receive income from two sources in early January - just when my severance pay ends.

Though I have often professed that God is my provider, I am only now beginning to understand a lot of what that means. Though I am “the provider” in my family this really is simply a title. There is only one creator, one redeemer, one comforter, and only one true provider. He is my Lord and Savior Jesus. Praise God for this great adventure He has started in my life!

May the Lord bless you and your family in a very special way this Christmas!

Friday, December 11, 2009

You'll Shoot Your Eye Out!

From acs

"A Christmas Story" has been THE STORY of our lives the past few weeks - especially for Caleb and me --- Caleb because he's playing the part of "Schwartz," and me because I'm playing the part of chauffeur to and from practice and cast photographer. Yesterday was the first performance, and there will be five more performances at KTG over the next week and a half. Rebecca and I are putting together a Blurb book for the cast, and below are some of my favorite photos so far. Keep in mind that these photos are taken without flash in some very tricky lighting.

From acs

From acs

From acs

From acs

From acs

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Seamans Sweep 3rd Place in Lego Competition

All our boys were in a Lego competition this past Friday. Another mom and I planned the event for all the local homeschool Lego enthusiasts. Channel 11 News even came out and filmed it! Thank goodness my boys were all in different age groups. As it was, Caleb was mortified to be beaten by a girl (hey, she built a cool orthodontist office out of Lego!), but to be beaten by a brother would have been worse.

From 2009-12-04

Nathan built this cool model of a B-17. It had a nose gun, tail gun and top turret, but he couldn't figure out how to incorporate the ball turret gunner below. It opened up to reveal a cool cockpit. I think he was inspired by a book he's reading ("Behind Enemy Lines - A Young Pilot's Story") and also the B-17 we saw at our airport recently. By the way, here are some pics of Nathan from our airport field trip that I never got around to blogging about:

From 2009-12-04

From 2009-12-04

From 2009-12-04

Back to the Lego contest . . . Caleb built this giant mini-figure:

From 2009-12-04

His legs and arms could move, and Caleb named him "Bob." He was pretty cool. Good thing we got a photo because he was so upset at getting beat by the "orthodontist office" that he broke him up into thousands of pieces after we got home. Don't worry - Bob's parts will be recycled and put to good use.

Noah built a "Wookie" base with a spider droid clinging to the side:

From 2009-12-04


and this other base (I think it was a spy base of some kind, but I'm not sure):

From 2009-12-04

Interestingly, our kids don't have Lego on their Christmas list this year. They haven't outgrown it - they've just reached a point where they have most of what they need to create whatever they want.

I have one last Lego picture. This one won 1st place for the 3rd/4th grades. It is a Lego helmet, and you can actually wear it. I thought it was very clever.

From 2009-12-04

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Cousin Cookie Factory

From Thanksgiving 2009


On Black Friday, while everyone else was shopping, I had fun baking and decorating cookies with my kids and their cousins in Knoxville. Of course, it's always more fun when you get to mess up someone else's kitchen.

From Thanksgiving 2009

Sara and Rebecca were not too old for the fun!

From Thanksgiving 2009

All the girls were trying to be artistic,

From Thanksgiving 2009

But the boys just made creations like this one which they aptly named "Don't Eat Yellow Snow"

From Thanksgiving 2009

Rebecca called this one "Martha Stewart in Jail."

Speaking of Martha, I don't think she'll be calling us to feature our cookies on her show or in her magazine, but we had fun with our own photo shoot featured in the slide show below: