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.  

Engagement!

Caleb told us last summer that he was sure he wanted to marry Meredith Hudson (at the time, they'd been dating about two months, and we weren't quite sure if we should take him seriously).  But he never wavered from that decision and started getting his finances in order and saving for a ring!

We helped him plan a "surprise" engagement party at our house (surprise is in quotes as it was really NOT a big surprise to anybody - even Meredith).  He had told me that he planned to pop the question on our front porch where they first met.  He asked if I could step up my decor a little to make for better photos, which I did.  I was so happy to find a vintage sled as I loaned mine out years ago and never got it back.  :(

Then he informed me that they wanted to make it private, so no photos of the actual moment!

Immediate family (ours and Meredith's) and a few of Meredith's close friends were waiting inside to greet them.

a staged photo under the mistletoe

The date is set for July 18th at the Standard in Knoxville.  Much excitement around here!

Visits to Richmond

 

Rebecca and Joseph bought a new home in April, and we went to visit them in early June to help them work on the kitchen cabinets.  Actually, Terry and Joseph did most of the work, while Rebecca provided some assistance and I took photos! 

Right now the main updating going on is in the kitchen.  This is what the rest of the house looks like.

upstairs living area - now open to the kitchen

Art room - future baby room

a home for my parent's roll-top desk

Master bedroom

I got to take another visit to Richmond during the fall to just hang out with Rebecca.  We sat by the fire, visited Joseph at work, did some thrift store shopping, and took walks at the park and at the Hollywood Cemetery, where many famous people are buried.

the baby bump!

Hollywood Cemetery

Clinton Library

We are three sisters that did NOT vote for Bill Clinton.  But we had a great time at the Clinton Museum when Carol went down there for a meeting with her fellow GT teachers.

I'm someone who hates to admit that I often finds museums boring, but I found this museum fascinating as a review of the history, and now I aspire to visit all the presidential libraries.

They had a special exhibit called "Washed Ashore" with art created from plastic collected from the seashore in the Pacific Northwest.  I cannot imagine the diligence, talent and skill required to collect the pieces, organize them and then envision these wonderful creations.  

We ate lunch at "42" with a high school friend of one of Carol's colleagues who was actually the scheduler for Bill Clinton when he was in the White House.  I really enjoyed hearing her stories.  And the food was fantastic!

At first we didn't want to pay to have our photo taken in the Oval Office Replica, but then we decided we couldn't pass up the opportunity to use it for future memes!  The whole day made a great memory!

And yes, I sat in the middle in the "president" spot.  This is just the way we normally arrange ourselves for photos (though we messed up when climbing into the shark).  It may have also been a slight "power move" on my part.  The world will never know!

I'm Gonna Be a Grandma!

The following poem is one that Rebecca and I memorized when she was in kindergarten.  This was also the year that I found out that Noah was on the way.  It's a sweet little poem and one that I remember my mother quoting when I was a little girl.  

The Secret
by Anonymous

We have a secret, just we three, 
The robin, and I, and the sweet cherry-tree;
The bird told the tree, and the tree told me,
And nobody knows it but just us three

But of course the robin knows it best
Because she built the - I shan't tell the rest;
And laid the four little - something in it --
I'm afraid I'll tell it every minute.

But if the tree and the robin don't peep,
I'll try my best the secret to keep;
Though I know when the little birds fly about
Then the whole secret will be out.

So I thought it was so sweet and creative that Rebecca gave me the knews of her pregnancy by showing me some poems she had re-written in the style of her favorites (including some decoy poems to throw me off), and then including this as her last re-write.

The only problem was that if she was expecting a loud reaction, she didn't get it.  Her poem said it was a secret, so I just kept my excitement to a stage whisper!  I'm glad she told the rest of the family within minutes, because just like the little kid in the poem, I'm not so good at keeping exciting secrets!