Sister Trip to Miami Beach!

Our parents loved to travel, and so my sisters and I decided to budget some of our inheritance money for traveling together.  We hope this is the first of many trips!

However, this trip almost didn't happen for me at all  as you can tell from this text I sent to Terry from the plane . . .

I had everything go wrong this morning. Got to the airport without my purse. At 5 am I drove back home to get it (after begging my way out of long term parking without paying) at speeds up to 110 mph. On the way back I ran out of gas in sight of the airport. Was resigned to my fate when I got a text that my flight was delayed 15 min. Caught an Uber and am now sitting in the plane!

My car needs to be picked up though. It is near the Sonic right by the airport. You can’t miss the Hoosier Slayer (by the way, you need to clean that off the window, it’s been two weeks since the Gator Bowl). It needs gas obviously. Sorry. At least we don’t have to pay for long term parking now.

I just can’t believe I made it! Alternative was probably to go tonight for big bucks or just skip the trip entirely. Thank the Lord my plane had a low tire which caused the delay!

I can tell you that experience was probably the biggest adrenaline rush of my life - and that includes my first solo flight when I was training for my pilot's license.  My sisters were pretty nervous, too.  But almost missing the trip entirely just made me appreciate the trip that much more.

Carol, who chose our destination of Miami Beach, planned our days pretty well.  We arrived on a Friday and toured a beautiful lighthouse at Key Biscayne.  It was quite windy!

On Saturday, we headed to the Everglades and took a guided tram tour through the park.  We saw gators and lots of birds, and of course had plenty of time for more conversation.  

If you think that tower looks like the one at Clingman's Dome, you are right!  I asked our tour guide, and he said this one was modeled after the one in the Smokies.

On our last day in Miami, we got up early to see the sunrise on the beach and then headed to Vizcaya Mansion.

Vizcaya was beautiful, and we enjoyed exploring the mansion and the grounds.   

We had not had much luck with restaurants on the trip in spite of our best efforts, but our lunch near Vizcaya was AWESOME!  We ate at a place called Monty's, and it had a great atmosphere and delicious food!

We ended our trip with a stroll around Miami Beach that evening.  I have a feeling we probably won't be back as Miami Beach is sort of a budget breaker.  But it won't be our last Sister Trip!

  

Happy Epiphany 2020 (aka 2019 "Christmas Letter")

Hello Friends!

We hope you had a wonderful holiday and are looking forward to the New Year.  I wanted to wait until after Christmas to send our letter this year as we have some news that I couldn’t report earlier!  I’ve also decided that it’s just going to be easier for me to do a New Year’s letter each year, anyway.  😊

After so many years of just reporting that all of us were one year older and doing most of the same things, the last few years have brought lots of changes. 

Rebecca and Joseph have a big change to report as they are expectant parents!  That means we are expectant grandparents!  Our first grandson is due in March, and we can’t wait to meet him!

Nathan graduated with a degree in Nursing in May.  We are so proud of him!  He is working at the UT Medical Center in the trauma ICU.  He really enjoys it.   

And Caleb has some news that we are now able to share.  He got engaged the day after Christmas to Meredith Hudson!  

Meredith is a UT nursing graduate who works as an ER nurse in Chattanooga.  They have set the date for July 18^th.  We love Meredith and think they are a great match!   They plan to live in Chattanooga after they    marry.  We’re glad it’s not too far away.   Right now Caleb is still working at Best Buy in Knoxville.

Noah is still a double major (theater and psychology) at Lee University.  He has enjoyed acting and stage managing in the theater department and is looking forward to doing a little directing soon.

He was in the musical “She Loves Me” with the Colonnade Players at Christmas time and is playing the part of Edward Ferrars (aka Hugh Grant’s part) in Lee’s upcoming play “Sense and Sensibility.”

When not studying, Noah has three different jobs at Lee.  He is a peer mentor at the Center for Student Success, a box office worker in the theater department, and a teacher’s assistant in Personality Theory.

He will be going on a study abroad theater experience in the UK in May.

Terry is still enjoying flipping houses and is now at the point where he has several properties in progress at once.  It’s exciting times!  

We are happy to report that his MS is under control and that he has had no new brain or spine lesions in several years. 

He has enjoyed waterskiing a lot more this year as he and his brother bought a new boat together. The lake is still Terry’s happy place. 

I am enjoying a new career as a dyslexia therapist.  With my engineering background, people think that I love math and science, but the truth is, I love reading and playing with words best!  I have really enjoyed my training and my practicum work in this field.  Right now I am doing part time contract work at Berean Christian School, which is the only school in Knoxville with a special program for dyslexic students. 

We had one family trip this year with all the kids – a simple camping trip at South Holston Lake (well, not so simple with all the schedules we had to juggle!).  Terry and I also spent two weeks in Greece working in Moria (the largest refugee camp in Greece) and then made a stopover trip to Italy on our way back.  The time in Moria was very intense and impactful and is hard to describe in a few lines of a Christmas letter.  If you’re interested, ask us about it – or maybe even consider coming with us this year.  It will change you!

Terry and I will celebrate our 30^th anniversary this March.  We rejoice in the life God has given us together and the family and friends he has blessed us with. 

May 2020 be your best year yet!

Susan & Terry Seaman

Thirty Years!

Thirty years ago we got engaged in Dallas just after midnight on January 1st.  Our teams were due to meet in the Cotton Bowl later that day.  Terry wore orange with an Arkansas button, and I wore red & white with a Tennessee button.

We thought this would be sort of a once-in-a-lifetime meeting of our two college teams only to have Arkansas join the SEC about a month after our wedding.

We now enjoy a friendly rivalry every year.  Or actually we both just have two teams to be for now, and lately that has meant two teams that were really struggling.

We've not been to a bowl game together since.  Once Terry went to the Cotton Bowl without me (on a miserably snowy day), and he went to the National Championship Fiesta Bowl without me because I had a little baby at home.


This year, we decided to start off our 30th anniversary year with a trip to another Bowl Game - this time the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville.  Terry made it extra special by inviting some of our friends, Bob and Laura, as a suprise to me.  About 90% of the game was quite boring - but the last 10% was simply epic!

My car said "Hoosier Slayer" for over a month when we got back.