Starfish 5

Sunday, November 02, 2008

Asheville, North Carolina

We recently returned from a short get-away to Asheville, North Carolina. While the fall colors weren't as close to peak as we were led to believe; the leaves, the mountains and the scenery was beautiful none-the-less! The blog just doesn't do the pictures justice. You will just have to take my word for it!

On the first day we were there we picked apples and went horseback riding!

Although it rained and was cold, the next day we went to see the Biltmore Estate. Wow! You can hardly imagine it without seeing it for yourself. Unfortunately, because of the rain we were not able to fully enjoy the grounds, gardens and barns. Maybe next time!

After touring the Biltmore all day, we did meet up with Julie. She let the kids spend the night so Zena and I could go (back out in the rain) out for dinner! We had a great dinner at a lobster resturant in Asheville. They have their lobster flown in fresh from Maine every morning. Delicious!

http://www.thelobstertrap.biz/about.htm

Saturday morning we all went to Chimney Rock State Park (Julie, too)! We climbed all 450-something steps to the top. What a view! And quite windy too.

There was some color there as well...

Then we traveled over to the next county and took in the scenery and some waterfalls at Pisgah National Forest...http://www.ncwaterfalls.com/pisgah1.htm

Finally, we went to the one place Zena talked about the whole trip...Dolly's Dairy Bar. This place was really good. They had about 16 special made ice cream flavors, all with names related to the area. I don't remember the name of mine, but it had strawberries and a touch of red pepper. Yes, red pepper. It gave it a little kick at the end;-)

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Proud Gator

It all started when I went to Walgreens to pick up some pictures I was having printed. I took Zachary along with me to give Zena a break. When we got there we met Terrence at the photo center. He noticed Zachary was wearing a Gator shirt and asked if he was a big Gator fan. Zachary sheepishly nodded yes. Terrence then asked Zachary what would he say if he told him he had a class at UF with Tim Tebow! Zachary replied, Really?

Terrence then offered to take anything like a football, shirt, hat, etc. in to class and have it signed by Tebow. Of course, that really got Zachary's attention. So, relentless as Zachary is, we soon went to Sports Authority and bought a football. We took it back to Terrence and he wrote our name and phone number on the football box and said he would call when he had it signed.

About a week later, when we hadn't heard from Terrence, I was beginning to worry that the whole deal had fallen through and I was going to be out a football and have one very disappointed boy on my hands! I took Zachary with me to Walgreens to inquire of Terrence where things stood. He assured us that it was still in the works, it was just taking longer because Tebow kept the ball to pass around to some of the other players on the team! Of course I told Terrence no problem, let him take as much time as he wants/needs!

I then let a couple of weeks pass, before I made contact with Terrence again. When I did make contact, Terrence was really relieved because the football came back to him without the box and hence without our name and phone number! Soon Zachary and I went to retrive the football from Terrence. Was that one proud Gator! I don't think he has stopped smiling since then.

From the time all this started, I have insisted that Zachary must do something to thank both Terrence and Tebow. So we decided Zachary would write a note to both Terrence and Tebow and include some pictures of Zachary with the signed football. Zachary and I went yesterday to take those pictures at the stadium. As we were leaving Zachary asked where the Gators practiced, so I took him over to show him but we were shuffled along because it was a closed practice. I saw that they were huddling up and the practice was ending, so we went back to the car and grabbed the camera and waited for Tebow to walk by. When we saw him, Zachary started toward him, but then turned back quickly when he saw he had to walk in front of some hugh linemen. But with encouragement he dashed out again and asked if he could get a picture with him and he graciously complied.

Zachary beamed and beamed all the way home. He said he didn't know why, but the whole time he was waiting for Tebow to come by, that he was shivering!

Talk about excited!

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Ashton - Five Year Picture

Today Ashton went for her five year picture. She spent the whole day with Mom. First they got her nails done, then they went to get her hair done, then it was off to the photographer. Later in the day Zachary asked if we had to pay the photographer to take her picture. Zena answered, Yes, we have to pay for pictures. Zachary responded that he didn't know why we would want to do that. Then Zena asked him didn't he like to look at pictures and he said yes, but he didn't think we should have to pay for them. Zena then said that she enjoy looking at pictures of her beautiful children and Ashton chimed in..."and handsome children"! Zachary then said, "That would be ME!"

At any rate, when I came home from work, Ashton still had her hair done for the most part. So I decided to take a few pictures...83 in all! I thought this one turned out the best. We will see what the real photographer came away with soon!

Sunday, September 14, 2008

1st Day of School

Okay, because of Tropical Storm Fay we really seemed to have had two first days of school! But we got a few pictures somewhere around the start of school. The kids are all doing well with adjusting to school. Ashton did wake the first day and looked around in her darkened room and say "It doesn't look a thing like morning out there!" What a start!

Within the first week Ashton had picked up a book on her own and proceeded to sound out the words she saw and began to read! We are off to an awesome start!

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Wow! Has it been a year already???

Oh my! I can't believe it has been nearly a year since I last posted to the blog! What a year it has been. I don't think I can possibly recap the past year, but I plan on trying to fill in some of the blanks.

We celebrated Christmas here, then on Zachary's birthday we left for Arkansas and stayed through New Years. It was a great trip, other than a couple of nights spent in the hospital by Mema Margaret. It all turned out fine, she
just needed some adjustment to her medications.

Following our return from Arkansas, the boys started basketball. Both did very well and enjoyed the season. As basketball ended, baseball started. This was Zachary's first year playing baseball and he loved it! He really got into playing catcher. John Tyson was placed on a very experienced team and had some trouble fitting in with this team, however he made the adjustment and the team finished in first place.

School ended in June. Ashton graduated from Pre-School and immediately began looking forward to Kindergarten. Zachary ended first grade and found out over the summer that his whole class will move up to second grade together with their teacher. John Tyson graduated from Elementary school, finishing 5th grade with flying colors. It was very bittersweet, finishing a great gifted program but leaving many great friends and teachers. He is looking forward to middle school and the challenges it will bring.

This brings us to the summer months. As soon as school was out John Tyson and I went on the safety patrol trip to Washington DC. Then 24 hours after returning he and Zena left to go on a mission trip with our church to Honduras. The highlight of the trip was in the beginning when John Tyson decided to give his life to Christ and was baptized. I hope to have a link to another blog soon that will give more details of their trip.

Over July 4th weekend we went to Jupiter (Florida, that is!). We visited Brad and Allison and got to finally meet Cate. What a fun weekend it was! We are looking forward to them coming up to visit with us this football season...Go Gators!

In July I was scheduled for arthroscopic surgery to repair a 90% torn rotator cuff. Once the doctor got in there, he discovered that I also had a SLAP tear (basically a tear of the biceps tendon). He felt that the SLAP tear was what was causing most of my pain so he repaired that and put a stich in my rotator cuff. I am 4 weeks out of surgery now and am gaining more mobilty each day, however sleeping is still a pain. I am still in a sling and will be at least until the first of September! Next to Zena, ice and Percocet are my best friends! Speaking of Zena...she has tirelessly cared for me and nursed me through a lot. I am so thankful for her! I could not have gone through all this without her.

Also, this summer Zena, John Tyson and I went to the Spiritual Growth Workshop (http://www.spiritualgrowthworkshop.com/) in Orlando. It was quite uplifting and we are already looking forward to attending in 2010. John Tyson and I will be attending Sonquest ( http://www.sonquest.com/kop1) in a couple of weeks.

This past Friday on 08-08-08 we celebrated John Tyson's birthday. The theme of the party was "Crazy Eights". We had swimming, relays, shaving cream fight, water baloons and more! It was a great party!

Well, that covers a good bit of what has been happening over the last year. I know I have left a lot out, but check out the posts below to hopefully fill in some of the blanks with pictures!