Christmas 2018

Greetings to all of our friends, old and new!  We hope you are enjoying a wonderful December!  This time of year we always reflect on the past year and God’s blessings to us.  We write this letter as a communication to our friends but also as a reminder to ourselves. 

We had some difficult times early in the year when my father, Don Schaefer, died of pancreatic cancer in February.  I am fortunate that I was able to clear my schedule and spend his last five weeks with him and my sisters in Arkansas.  I am glad that my Dad knew the Lord and that he is now with my Mom in glory, and I’m blessed to have a special bond with my sisters!  We spent countless hours together this year cleaning out our parents’ home, and we sold it last week.    So many memories! 

On a happier note, some awesome news is that our daughter, Rebecca, was married to Joseph Obenschain on May 26^th!  It was a beautiful day of celebration.

She and Joseph are living in Richmond, Virginia where Joseph is working as a helicopter pilot with the National Guard and Rebecca is working as an administrator at an engineering firm.  We are thrilled that they will be spending a whole week with us at Christmas! 

 Also this year, Noah graduated from high school!  This was not just an achievement for him but marked an end of an era for me.

I am now a retired homeschooling Mom! Noah headed off to Lee University (in Cleveland, Tennessee – just about 80 miles from here), where he has a full tuition scholarship and is double majoring in theatre and psychology (yes, he is the offspring of two engineers). He is loving Lee and the college life!

Our other boys are in Knoxville.  Nathan is finishing up his last year of Nursing School at the University of Tennessee and is hoping to work in critical care. 

Caleb is working full-time as the Sony expert at Best Buy.  

Terry is still flipping houses (see his work at H2HRenovations.com).  I worked a brief internship at an environmental engineering firm this fall.  It was fun, but I’m still not sure exactly what’s next for me – whether it’s career or ministry or a combo.  I was asked to lead a team of women to Lesvos, Greece this past summer to work with refugees (and Terry came along as our bodyguard, driver, and porter).  Looks like we will be going again next year – this time we’re planning to take both men and women to work directly in Camp Moria!  It is exciting to how God is working in the European refugee crisis.  And we’ve fallen in love with the tiny town of Panagouida on Lesvos, which is becoming a little home away from home.

One fun memory we had this year was when we took a brief vacation at Cedar Point, OH, and rode roller coasters for two days.  Rebecca was able to join us as she hadn’t started working yet, and we flew her to Columbus and surprised the boys by meeting her on the way up.  

I have concluded that this little trip really symbolized our lives together – ups, downs, twists, turns, fears, joys, yelling, waiting (lots), but most of all – SPEED!  We were reminded that life goes by fast.

“What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.”  

James 4:16

Our prayer for you this year is that wherever you are this season, you will trust God and enjoy the ride He has for you!                                

Oh Baby!' It's Grand!

It started with a boat . . .

The first year we were married, Terry was really wanting to buy a competition ski boat, I had about $10K in savings that I brought as a "dowry" when we got married, and I suggested that he just go ahead and buy the boat!  He agreed but said that surely there was something I wanted that I could get some day as a sort of payback.  I said, "Well, I've always wanted a Kawai baby grand piano."  He said when we got a place that was big enough for one, I'd get it.  Well, about nine years later we moved into a house that was plenty big enough for a baby grand, but I decided it just wasn't really the time.  I still played my upright, and I think secretly I was worried that my kids would destroy a nice piano.

Fast forward to 2019.  We are on our second competition ski boat.  We don't live on the lake anymore, but we haul our boat to Melton Hill Lake to ski.  Terry's brother, Scott, was itching for a new ski boat of his own, and he approached Terry with the idea of joint ownership.  They would buy the boat together and keep it at Scott's dock. Seemed like a great idea.

So, Terry brought up the grand piano.  How about now?  He mentioned how I had just gotten inheritance money from my Dad's estate, and wouldn't it be nice to do something special with some of it? 

So here it is.  My baby.  My Kawai baby grand.  I play it almost every day and think about my parents and the sacrifices they made to pay for lessons and listen to my endless practicing.  The piano is beautiful, and we did not have to sacrifice our dining room for it - only do a little rearranging.  I even had black furniture in there, so it all goes together.

Merry Christmas to me! 

Fall Hikes 2018

It seems that I never get to do as much hiking as I would like to do in the fall.  This year we only got out twice.

The first time was when Terry and I hiked to Angel Falls Overlook in the Big South Fork, Tennessee.

But we also got to hike with my sister and her husband to Hawksbill Craig, and iconic spot in Arkansas that I can’t believe I’ve never been to before.  Cross this one off the bucket list!

I’m sure I made Terry nervous by getting so close to the edge.  But that is honestly part of the fun for me.  At least I promised not to make a selfie at the edge!

Life After Homeschooling Internship

Now that my homeschooling days are over (see here), I have decided to embark on a sabbatical of sorts - hopefully taking this school year to reflect and think about what is next for me.

In my “past life” (pre full-time motherhood) I was a chemical engineer.  I’m not sure if it was the best fit for my strengths, but I did enjoy all my assignments.  My career started as an intern at Texas Eastman, and bless his heart, my Dad took some photos of me there and tried to make a chemical plant look good.  

I ended up spending my entire chemical engineering career at Eastman - working at Arkansas Eastman in Batesville, Texas Eastman in Longview, and Tennessee Eastman in Kingsport.  

Now, 30 years later, an environmental firm in Knoxville hired me as an intern!  This spot was supposed to go to a college student, but they agreed to give me a try.  It was fun being in a lab again and doing nerdy stuff. 

The building looked a little better than a chemical plant

Jacques and Andrea (my bosses)

I can’t talk about the actual research I was working on as I signed secrecy agreements, but it was interesting, and I learned a lot.  There was a lot of biology mixed in with the chemistry which took some getting used to.  I really did not like having to wear gloves all the time to keep from contaminating things!  I enjoyed the people I worked with, especially a PhD South African named Jacques who was forgiving of all my mistakes and laughed at all my jokes.  I thought I proved I still “had it” technically, but when my internship ended, I wasn’t offered a real job of any kind.  It was a bit disappointing and made me question my abilities.  But I also determined that I really didn’t want to work 40 hours a week anyway.  So whatever is next for me, it won’t be this, and that’s OK.

New Creations Reunion

There's nothing like seeing old friends, and music has a great power to bring back memories.   The New Creations was the college choir at University Baptist Church - my church home in Fayetteville, Arkansas.  After being a fan in the congregation for years, I got to be in the choir from 1979-1984, forming many lifelong friendships.  My sisters were also in New Creations, but none of us were in it the same years.

This November we had a 40 year reunion for everyone who had ever been in New Creations.  It was glorious!  And we didn't just get together and visit, we actually rehearsed and performed together. 

I got to rehearse right next to my best friend, Brenda.  It was just like old times.  Well, the notes were a little harder to hit.  Thankfully we were second sopranos instead of first sopranos.

My sisters were altos, so they got to sit together, but I scooted in for a photo.  Here's a photo of two pairs of three sisters that were all members of New Creations.

Here I am with my two closest friends in high school and college, Brenda and Teresa:

Our old youth and college leader was there, Robert Cupp:

And the Nathan I named my Nathan after:

Phil Goff (who made me happy by recognizing me right away):

And his brother, Matt:

And my buddy, Jeff, who worked with me at Arkansas Eastman, Texas Eastman, and Tennessee Eastman:

Jeff and Beth Presley with Tanner Riley (our director)

And a reminder that we weren't always so old.  Here's a photo of a skit the guys did on tour.  That's Jeff on the left:

So after rehearsing one evening and morning, we had an afternoon concert for some of our old fans.  We sang ten songs, but this was a favorite as it was written by a New Creations member:

                                    

Our name< New Creations, was based on the verse that says that "if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation." - 2 Cor. 5:17.  We all realize that we may never be together again in this life, so our theme for the weekend was based on the following verse of "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling:"

Finish, then, Thy new creation;

  Pure and spotless let us be;

Let us see Thy great salvation

  Perfectly restored in Thee;

Changed from glory into glory

  Till with Thee we take our place,

Till we cast our crowns before Thee,

  Lost in wonder, love and praise.  

Roller Coaster Vacation

Since Terry and I spent two weeks in Greece and the boys had various things they were involved with, we didn't have time for a big family vacation.  But I wanted to plan something fun and different.  So we decided to head to Cedar Point to ride roller coasters.  The kids didn't like any "scary rides" when they were younger, and Terry and I swore off taking them to an amusement park until they were old enough to really enjoy it.  Time got away from us, and we almost waited until we were too old to enjoy it!

Joseph couldn't get off of work, but we bought a plane ticket for Rebecca and picked her up on the way as a surprise to the boys!  This was our first time all together since her wedding, and it was so fun!  We camped at East Harbor State Park.

The campsite was nothing to brag about, but the kids enjoyed tossing a frisbee around in Lake Erie, and we drove down the road a ways and saw a cool lighthouse.

We spent two days at the park, riding roller coaster after roller coaster.  Rebecca doesn't like heights, but even she enjoyed them!  Terry and I had to take Benadryl and Ibuprofen in fairly large quantities. We gained a new appreciation for the phrase "more fun than people oughta have!" Terry, Nathan and Rebecca actually blacked out on some of the rides.  Caleb read that the trick is to tense your core like fighter pilots do.  

This is the first one we rode.  It was intense and very jerky.  I started worrying whether I had made a bad mistake planning this trip.

But then we discovered the GateKeeper - a wing coaster that we all enjoyed!

The most fun thing was just being together - we even managed to play games while standing in line:

I decided that our fun little trip sort of symbolized our lives together - ups, down, twists, turns, fears, joys, yelling, waiting (lots), but most of all speed.  Life goes by so fast.  There's nobody I'd rather spend it with than this bunch!