Noah's Birthday

Noah turned 11 on September 21st. It was a pretty low-key birthday. He started out with breakfast in bed (his request). Then after a short morning of school, we took our bikes and headed to the Greenbelt Trail in Kingsport.

From Sep. 2010 - Birthday

We turned it into a field trip that fit pretty nicely into our history studies lately.

We saw the site of the Battle of Kingsport - a Civil War battle that the Confederates lost in 1864:

From Sep. 2010 - Birthday

From Sep. 2010 - Birthday

We also saw this interesting monument that was created to honor the Indians. The land that the monument is on was given back to the Indians about 200 years after the white men first took it from them. It seemed like a fairly empty gift as there was nothing but a monument in a vacant field. I guess it's the thought that counts?

From Sep. 2010 - Birthday

Anyway, it was a beautiful day, and it was fun to get outside and enjoy it. Noah had a sleepover a few days later to complete his birthday celebration.

Into Each Life a Little Rain Must Fall

From Sep. 2010 - Damage to House

We woke up Saturday moment to a "shower" in our basement. A pipe had burst in the half-bath on the main floor while we slept and was flooding the floor below. There was about an inch of water on the basement carpet and the ceiling had collapsed in several places:

From Sep. 2010 - Damage to House

From Sep. 2010 - Damage to House

I started to cry when I saw the damage, but then somehow I just started to laugh. "When it rains, it pours" was all I could think of. Terry and I woke up the kids, and we had the basement room emptied in about an hour and started trying to ShopVac the carpet. Now, five days later, the old ceiling has been removed, the carpet pad has been pulled up and discarded, the carpet is dry, and best of all - the mildew smell is gone! Terry is a great do-it-yourselfer, so we may even come out ahead when the insurance pays up!

This is just another opportunity to ponder Matthew 6:19-21:

"Do not store up for yourselves treasure on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

This is the verse that kept coming to mind when I accidentally erased my computer hard drive in June and then dropped my external hard drive (with all the back-up data) just a few weeks later. I realized that so much of the treasures of my life are stored in photos, video, and documents of various kinds. These things are important, but I realized that I had too much of my time and effort stored in something that was not eternal. It was a good reality check.

The College Search

Rebecca has started looking for colleges, or rather they have started looking for her. She is getting phone calls, letters, and emails every day. Our favorite has been the solicitation she got from the University of Oregon. They mailed her an "O" decal and encouraged her to take a picture of herself at a Tennessee landmark with the Oregon "O". I thought it was a pretty clever attention getter and was even funnier because it came just a few days before Tennessee was to play Oregon (and after the game, it really wasn't funny anymore).

Anyway, right now Rebecca is mostly interested in Milligan College because it's a good, Christian, liberal arts school that is only twenty minutes from our house. They also give great scholarships so that it won't cost much more than a state school.

But another school in Tennessee, Bryan College, has already offered her a full scholarship - tuition, room and board, the works! We went to visit it on Labor Day.

Bryan is in Dayton, Tennessee. It's a very small town which is famous for the Scopes Monkey Trial that was held at the courthouse.

From Bryan College

William Jennings Bryan tried that case and died just five days after it ended. The college was his vision and was named after him. They had quotes from Bryan all over the campus, and I liked the one in the library that said "The incomparable benefit of the valuable experience of others."

From Bryan College

From Bryan College

From Bryan College

From Camping on South Holston

We recently spent a week at one of our favorite spots - Little Oak Campground on S. Holston Lake. We had clear skies, a full moon at night, and absolutely no rain - a rarity when we go camping, it seems.

From Camping on South Holston

One of the highlights of this trip is that Noah finally joined the "slalom club" - ahead of his older brother, Caleb, which was part of the fun of it for him!

From Camping 2010

From Camping on South Holston

From Camping 2010

From Camping 2010

Another fun thing was Rebecca getting up on skis while wearing the 1920's bathing suit from the play she was recently in:

From Camping on South Holston

More photos:

Appalachian Fair

From Desktop

Rebecca and Noah both recently entered some items in the Appalachian Fair. Today they went to pick up their ribbons and prize money! Rebecca won a blue ribbon for her pencil drawing and several blue ribbons in photography. She had a very limited amount of photos to work with as I recently lost our hard drive with lots of her photos on it.

Noah won several ribbons in photograhy as well and also won an award for his bar cookies - made with no help from anyone!

Pretend Parade

While the other three kids have been rehearsing for their show, Caleb did a little acting in a music video that is premiering tonight at the J4 concert. First, he was in a scene pretending to be a high school student clowning around in the hallway (not too much acting ability required here). This past week, he was in some small-town America parade scenes shot in Bluff City ("city" is just a name here - it's definitely just a town, but "Bluff Town" just doesn't sound the same). He had to wear a band uniform and alternate between carrying his trombone in some scenes and a clarinet in others. Noah and I came along to take some photos and be "part of the crowd."

From August 2010

From August 2010

From August 2010

How Does My Garden Grow?

From August 2010

Not too well these days. For the first time, I decided to try growing a tomato plant on our backyard patio. It was not lack of water that killed it but Terry getting a little too aggressive with the fertilizer. Once we realized the problem, it was too far gone.

They're Back!

From Belles

Rebecca, Nathan and Noah return to the stage tonight for the sequel to "Cheaper by the Dozen" which they performed in last summer. They're a little older (and the boys are taller). Rebecca designed the artwork for the cast t-shirts both years.

From Cheaper by the Dozen

This year's show is "Belles on Their Toes" and features Rebecca wearing a two-piece bathing suit on stage:

From Belles

Yes, those are their two-piece suits because one-piece suits were simply scandalous in the 1920s. Since you can't really buy these off the rack anymore, Rebecca sewed them herself without a pattern. After the play is over, we hope to get some photos of her water-skiing in this get-up!

Rebecca also gets to dance in this play:

From Belles

And go through a break-up:

From Belles

Nathan and Noah have more minor roles (since they aren't one of the "Belles"), but they are doing great. Noah is just so darn cute in his knickers, and Nathan loves it that he gets to drink root beer every night on stage.

Here's a link to the write-up in the local paper, and below is a slide show with a few more photos from the play:

Class Reunion

From July 2010

Last week our family traveled to Arkansas to attend my 30th High School reunion. Can it possibly have been 30 years? Here are me and my BFF from the FHS Class of 1980 today:

From July 2010

And here we are almost 30 years ago:

From July 2010

I guess it's true that growing old beats the alternative!

I really enjoyed the reunion this year - though it would have been even better if more of our classmates had been able to make it. It's so strange to go from seeing folks every day to seeing them at 10-year intervals. I have no idea what this whole concept will be like for my homeschooled children. They do have a group of friends their age, but I doubt there will be any organized reunion effort.

Anyway, it was refreshing to see that after 30 years, it didn't seem to matter who was in band or choir, who was a cheerleader, who was an honor student, etc. The only thing we really needed to have in common for conversation was that we were still around.


My favorite part of the reunion was a conversation with a classmate whose life had been totally changed by trusting in the Lord. He was far from God in high school, and I used to pray for him. I got to hear the story of how the Lord pursued him for over ten years and brought him to Himself. What a change! I needed that reminder of how God's grace changes lives . . .

A bittersweet event of the weekend was also the funeral of Don Wright, our high school choir director. Many of us were privileged to sing at his funeral the morning of our reunion. And all of us gathered around to sing "Sweet, Sweet Spirit" at the reunion as well.

From July 2010

Father's Day Follies

I could also call this "Frisbee Golf Follies."

Terry decided that what he wanted to do to celebrate on Sunday was to take the family to Warrior's Path State Park for some frisbee golf.

From Father's Day 2010

We broke up into three teams (Terry/Noah, me/Nathan, and Rebecca/Caleb) and things were going pretty well up until Hole #15. The score was very close between my team and Terry's, and competition was getting pretty intense. My frisbee ended up in the creek, though. Rather than taking a one-stroke penalty, I decided to go in and putt from the creek. After all, I had on my Keene's!

From Father's Day 2010

Well, as you can see, it didn't turn out so well. I had no idea the mud was knee-deep! Rebecca rushed over to get the Panasonic camera from around my neck (to protect it from the mud and make incriminating photos). When I went to pull my foot out, one of my sandals came off. In spite of twenty minutes of digging through the mud, we never found it!

From Father's Day 2010

From Father's Day 2010

I finished the course with just one shoe. And yes, my team lost. Terry says it served me right for not being willing to take the penalty.

Terry, Our Hero

For Father's Day, we made a "Hero Survival Kit" for Terry, including breath mints "guaranteed by four out of five damsels in distress," a secret-identity bar, etc.

From Father's Day 2010

Terry was a hero to Noah last week when he took some time to do a building project with him. Noah designed a "house" for his stuffed dogs, and he and Terry built it from scrap lumber we had in the basement.

From Father's Day 2010

From Father's Day 2010

Noah's Baptism

This was a special day for the Seaman family. Our church, Redeemer Community Church, had a baptism service on June 13th, and Noah was baptized along with five others. Terry got to do the honors, and we were glad that his cousins were on hand to be witnesses.

From Noah's Baptism June 2010

From Noah's Baptism June 2010

From Noah's Baptism June 2010

From Noah's Baptism June 2010

"We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may have a new life." ~ Romans 6:4

Cousin Camp 2010

We had so much fun with Cousin Camp back in 2008 that we decided we just had to make this happen again this year - even though everybody's schedules are a bit crazy. All our kids spent the first half of the week in Knoxville with Uncle Scott and Aunt Ann, and the kids came to Johnson City for the second half of the week. The kids spent time swimming in the pool, swimming in the lake, tubing, jumping on the trampoline, playing Apples to Apples, tie-dyeing shirts and watching a Star Wars marathon. A good time was had by all.

Jennings Family Reunion in Tullahoma

We spent this past weekend at Terry's Mom's family reunion in Tullahoma, Tennessee. Terry's grandfather (Conway Jennings) was one of a family of thirteen, and these siblings and their descendents have been getting together annually for over 50 years. The traditional spot for the reunion is Rutledge Falls which is still owned by family but open to the public. It is a beautiful falls and great for swimming on a hot day.

From Reunion 2010

Here is everyone digging into the traditional spread - way too many calories!

From Reunion 2010

Here are Rebecca and Sara (first cousins):

From Reunion 2010

And here is a younger generation of cousins (both are children of Terry's cousins).They are both named Maya and they look to have mixed feelings about the event:

From Reunion 2010

There are always puppies at the reunion somehow, and this year was no exception. Notice the resemblance to Smoky, the Tennessee mascot:

From Reunion 2010

From Reunion 2010

Here are some of my other favorite photos from the reunion:

From Reunion 2010

From Reunion 2010

From Reunion 2010

From Reunion 2010

Not pictured is Aunt Jennifer - who said she would personally break my camera if I took a photo of her, and I believe it!