Christmas Letter 2007

Hello, Friends and Family!

If you're here, you probably got a card from us. If you didn't get a card, sorry. (Unless we don't know you -- in which case, go away.)

Life has been a whirlwind: We left Iowa and began a new adventure in Tennessee! Where are we? Click here.

There are a few details about us individually below, but our main vortex has been Summit ATA Martial Arts, our new Taekwondo school. We are all very excited to have our own school and be entrepreneurs in the fitness industry. The business is located in a mall, so we get lots of foot traffic with high visibility. God has really blessed us with this awesome location, and a manageable number of new students. We think that this will not only be a successful business venture for us, but it will also be a great opportunity to minister to individuals and families; we covet your prayers on our behalf in this endeavor.

Moving to Tennessee has been a pretty smooth transition, so we are thankful about that. The biggest challenge that we've faced is finding a comfortable church home. There are many different churches around here, and we've landed at First Presbyterian Church -- at least for now.

Here's what we've been up to individually:

Duncan is at Westview Middleschool. Known to many now as "Donut," (think Dunkin) he's made several friends; some are in band, but mostly they are banded together by Halo 3. They get together as often as they can and blow each other to smithereens -- great fun. He has impressed most of Morristown now with his skills on both acoustic and electric bass; his band teacher featured him quite prominently in their Christmas concert.

Savannah has really enjoyed band at West High School -- it has given her a good group of kids to hang with, and she has started making friends, too. In addition to band, she has really enjoyed being in a drama class and competing in forensics events such as interpretive reading and short skits.

Melynda has tried her hand at substitute teaching; she's had some mixed success there: enjoying some of the experiences, but not others. Mostly she's been stoking the fires of entrepreneurship around here with our business. She attended a business seminar in Little Rock, AR for our Taekwondo school, and she also completed her Level 2 teaching certification in Missouri. In addition to all of this, she still manages to keep things running smoothly here on the home front.

Sean has had his hands full teaching at his new school, Carson-Newman College. He successfully completed his ATA Level 1 teaching certification and has enjoyed learning and managing all the different aspects of entrepreneurship as well.

We wish you all a lovely Christmas and New Year's Season.

-Sean, Melynda, Savannah, and Duncan

Our New Business!!

In case you've been wondering why this blog has been so lame for so long, I have a very good reason. We've been in the major, life-altering process of starting our own business: Summit ATA Martial Arts!We officially opened for classes this week and it has been going very well. We are located inside the local mall - which has been great for getting people to just walk-in and talk. Our goal is to have 15-20 students by the beginning of January and we are well on our way there.
We feel like we have been able to put together a "dream" facility and have received some great feedback from our new members and other martial artists just walking by. It has been alot of fun! Check out our website www.summitata.com to see what we're doing and what we have to offer.
If you'd asked us 6 years ago if this was in our future I probably would've said, "No," and Sean would have said, "Sounds good!" However, about a year and a half ago I started thinking about getting certified as an instructor in the ATA. After it was obvious that our life in Orange City was going to change we both started exploring the idea of starting our own Taekwondo school or club. We have enjoyed doing Taekwondo so much as a family and since all of us are 2nd degree black belts, with the desire to continue that journey, and help others reach their goals, we decided that this was the step to take. Lord willing, someday this will be our full-time job!
So that's our news! We've had a lot of life changes this year, but God keeps opening doors and we keep walking through them!

A very busy week!

Finally, I've got time for a breather! The last 2 weeks have been a little hectic around here, but I think last Friday and Saturday were the craziest in a long time. Just a few of the activities: Duncan played in the Orchestra for a college production Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night, Savannah had the homecoming football game and parade Friday night, I had to drive to Knoxville Saturday morning and pick up my dad, and Savannah had a marching band competition (the opposite direction from Knoxville) late Saturday afternoon! I didn't know if I was coming or going Saturday!
Savannah's band did a great job Saturday afternoon, we were very impressed with their sound. And their uniforms are quite snazzy! Of course, we think she is the most talented marcher out there, but we are biased! Here she is on the left side of the outer group of 4 clarinets. It was fun to get to watch her again. This was the first competition they've been to this year. (She has another one today, so we'll be off again this afternoon.) This was my parent's first ever marching band competition, so they wanted to know as much information as I could relay, too bad we didn't get to stay longer, I think they would have enjoyed seeing some of the larger bands, too.
It was wonderful having mom and dad here for a few days. The weather was beautiful so I had a lot of fun showing them around East Tennessee and beyond. Monday we went to the Cumberland Gap National Historic Park, so they both got to add 2 more states to their list of ones they've traveled to! We went through the mile long tunnel and ended up in Kentucky and then drove up to a viewpoint and walked a very short ways down a trail and found out we were in Virginia! Three states in one short afternoon! This first picture is looking down into Tennessee (I think) at Fern Lake. We are in Virginia as we look down this way. This next picture is Mom and I at the Powell overlook, on our left is Tri-State Peak. Somewhere on this peak (I personally think they need a huge flag) Tennessee, Virginia and Kentucky all meet. Lastly, you can see Mom and Dad looking at a civil war era cannon. The Cumberland Gap was seen as a very strategic area during the civil war. No battles were actually fought here, but the gap changed hands 4 times during the war.

New Neighborhood Funny

I just have to share this! The day we closed on our new house we met the next door neighbor. He warned us about the people on the other side of him. It seems they have a very large tropical bird and he felt that he needed to share with us how very loud and annoying this bird is. Well, today I experienced the bird for the first time. It was HILARIOUS! The bird imitates the sounds of children playing (among other things). I was mowing the lawn and and heard the voices of small children, "Mommy, Mom" etc. I looked but couldn't locate anyone so kept mowing, of course. Then I heard someone crying and pitching a fit (sounded like a typical 2-3 year old to me). But I still couldn't locate the voice. He gave himself away when he started to say, "hello," after I started to call for one of the cats. Then he whistled like you would for a dog (he was trying to help me out)! A little later it sounded like small children fighting and a mother intervening, but it was just the bird (Huh, what do you think he hears a lot of?)! I got a good laugh out of it. I hope you will, too.

Our First Outdoor Adventure

Wow! What a beautiful Labor Day! We decided that we had lived in this beautiful place for too long without getting out and really seeing it, so yesterday we went down to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I think we spent a good portion of the day marveling about how we didn't have to drive an entire day to get to such a beautiful place (only an hour)! We went into the park at the Cosby entrance in the northeast corner, picked a trail and took off. I was amazed at how much of the park is only accessible on foot. We met several parties of backcountry campers returning home after the long weekend. The kids were pretty impressed that those people had hiked in 5 miles to their campground!
Our destination was Hen Wallow Falls less than 2.5 miles down the trail. It was a very pretty little waterfall. We ate our lunch and enjoyed the sound of the water hitting the rocks. And, of course, took the requisite picture with a little silliness from dad. Then everyone, except mom, decided that they needed to test the water and cool off their feet. Cool was definitely the operative word as you can tell by the look on Savannah's face! We were so amazed by the abundance of rhododendrons in the forest. We'll definitely have to go back in the spring!

Calling all knitters and crocheters!

Just in case you noticed the link on the right hand side of the blog under the profile and wondered what was up. . .
The organization Afghans for Afghans collects hand knitted and crocheted items to send to the people in Afghanistan. Every few months they request specific items and send over several cartons full. In October they'll be sending another shipment. I started knitting about a year and half ago, just really simple things, mind you. I found this hat pattern that is soooooo easy to make! But they are also looking for baby socks (not booties), blankets, vests and sweaters for children, socks, etc. The only thing is you have to use wool yarn - the winters are very cold over there so only wool is warm enough. They will not accept acrylic items. I have found some good deals on wool through a couple of websites: Elann and Knitpicks.
So, if you feel the spirit move. . . join the circular knitting revolution!!!

Band of the Week!

Friday night was a busy one for Savannah! We found out earlier in the week that the marching band plays at every football game, home and away. This last Friday they had their first game - away - in Knoxville, but they were chosen to be the band of the week by one of the local TV stations. Use the link below to see the video. They come on after the commercial for Pellissippi State. You won't see Savannah until the end of the 2nd segment and the beginning of the 3rd segment, but it is a pretty good video of the band.
Band of the Week

Happy Birthday (a week early)

Savannah got a few early birthday presents this week. Yesterday we went and bought her a "papasan" chair and today she and Sean put up her loft bed. It is pretty cool! Now we just need a ladder for her to get up and down!

We haven't dropped off the face of the earth, really!

Wow! It really has been quite a while since I posted something. Though Savannah was nice enough to give every one an update the other day.
We entered the whirlwind of packing after my last post, and though we paced ourselves well things still got pretty crazy that last week (July 15-20th). With the help of some very wonderful people we got the truck loaded (amazingly compactly, thanks Dave) on Wednesday of that week, cleaned on Thursday, and pulled out of town Friday morning. Homeless, and out of debt at least for the moment, we decided to mooch off of relatives (thanks Dave and Barb!). What else can you do when you don't have a place to live? They were very gracious to put up with our two cats for a few days. The felines were pretty confused. Friday was one looooooong trip to the vet (fortunately there wasn't a vet at the other end).
The visit with Dave and Barb was really nice, especially since we also got to see Ben and ShanShan. We really didn't think we would get to see them until maybe Christmas so it was a nice surprise. And it was wonderful to not have to pack anything!!!!
Tuesday the 24th we left Illinois and headed for Tennessee. It wasn't quite as peaceful of a trip with the felines, they both didn't really want to take the sedative and took quite a while to settle down. Quite a bit of the trip was spent with at least one cat (sometimes two) draped across the dashboard! And unfortunately, a vet was at the end of this trip. We had to board them for a couple of nights before we could close on the house.
We spent Wednesday running all over the place getting utilities changed over to our name. (You Orange City folk be thankful for the city run utilities!) And we also had to arrange for homeowners insurance and car insurance. At least the kids got to sleep in.
Thursday, July 26th, was the big day. We closed in the morning, went back to Jefferson City and picked up the kids and the cats and went to our new house! The truck was delivered just after lunch - with everything intact and we were no longer homeless!
The next week was a bit of a whirlwind. The Faculty Movers from Carson Newman came Friday morning and helped unload the truck. It was wonderful to have such good help. Saturday we got the kitchen up and running (that felt GOOD). Sunday we unpacked a bit more (hard to relax in the midst of such a mess). Monday Dave and Barb came and they helped us get so much done. Barb and I painted Savannah's room and she helped me get my sewing area arranged plus unpacked lots of other stuff! Dave and Sean put up new light fixtures took Sean's stuff to his office and got the garage operational. They were great help.
After they left on Wednesday Sean and I tackled Duncan's room. You can tell from the pictures that his idea was a little more extreme than his sister's, but it turned out really good. It actually took 2 days to get his done, but he was able to sleep in there Thursday night. And then Friday morning I picked up a rental car and headed for Rogers, AR. Actually, my final destination was Springfield, MO, but I stopped over at Kevin and Pam's (thanks guys) Friday night. Saturday morning I went up to Springfield for ATA Instructor Certification Camp and 12 hours (total) working out and proving I knew my stuff. I passed, HOOORAYYY! So now I can, after a bit more paperwork, get started opening our own Taekwondo club. I got back home late Monday and then we hit the ground running trying to get the kids ready to start school. Of course, that was not as easy as it sounded, but we managed to get everything done.
Savannah had a 1/2 day on Thursday, Duncan and I spent Thursday running around and jumping through bureaucratic hoops. And then school started for real this Monday. It feels so weird to have them in school already, but they were getting pretty bored without all of their friends so at least we have a routine now.
School has been a bit of an adjustment, it seems like every school district does things differently. However, we haven't had very many tears. Duncan is going to have to play the mellophone for the first month and a half but then his band teacher is going to let him play the stand up bass. Savannah was pleasantly surprised by how little the marching band had accomplished by this point, so she isn't as far behind as she had feared. She also only has 4 classes this semester, their block schedule is a little different. She is taking Band, Geography, English, and Theater Arts/Forensics. Next semester she will have Biology, Algebra II, US Government, and Band. It definitely helps with the homework load.
Well, here are a few pictures of the house now that we have some of our stuff up. I haven't put anything on the walls yet, but the piles of boxes are getting smaller. I need to make some more progress so we can get the van in the garage. We bought another car :-0 (the first time in our marriage that we've had more than one vehicle). It is a 1996 Subaru Legacy Wagon and looks quite a bit like our last Subaru.

Here's the Library/music room/sitting area.

Here's the living room.

Here's the colors in Savannah's room. Notice the things that appear to be sticking to the wall all by themselves - we used magnetic primer on that part of the wall!


And here is a sample of Duncan's room, the wall opposite this one also has the random zig-zag thing going on.

And here is part of the functional basement. ;-) I unpacked my scrapbooking stuff yesterday so I had to show off my new space! The sewing area is to the left in that same room and the sink and stovetop are to the right for the canning area.

Hello from Tennessee! In our last post we showed you some pictures of the house. We have been busy setting up the house, and painting Duncan and I's rooms. I personally like my room the best, but hey, that's why it's my room. Duncan's room is two different colors. On one wall, he has a dark, but bright blue, almost the same color as the tape we used to protect the woodwork. On the opposite wall, he has a very bright green. On the other two walls, which are opposite each other, there is a zig-zag line going from corner to corner. On the top of the line, the color is blue, and on the bottom of the line the color is green. My room is two different colors of green. Two walls right next to each other are a light green, but not bright. And the other two walls are a darker green, from the same color chart thingy as the other color. We're both going to have loft beds. They won't have any poles supporting them. Instead, the bed will be positioned in the corner, and the two sides next to the wall will be attached to the wall and the part hanging out in the middle of the room will be suspended from the ceiling by cables. It's going to be sooooooo cool! I'm really excited! I would send you pictures of our rooms, but alas, I don't know where the thing is that connects the camera to the computer. So you will just have to wait. Too bad. :)
~Savannah

We have a new house!!

Well, it has been quite a journey. . .literally. But, once again, God has taken our small faith and showed us just how BIG he really is! Our house here in Orange City sold June 8th. We spent a week looking online at houses in Tennessee and then traveled down there early Father's Day morning. Eleven hundred miles is quite a journey! We've gotten pretty good at doing it in one day, though!
We spent Monday looking at 12 houses, I think we did it in record time! Tuesday we explored around Sevierville & Pigeon Forge (only 40 minutes to Pigeon Forge from our place). Wednesday we went back to look at our top 3 choices, which God sought fit to make only our top 2 because one of them sold on Tuesday! We were able to visit with the owner of our top choice and I guess we made a good impression because she was very easy to deal with after we made our offer! By Wednesday night, around 10 o'clock we had reached an agreement. God is good! All the time!
So, here's some pictures of the new place. Just a few regular details: it has 3 bedrooms, two baths, an attached main floor garage, a shop, a canning kitchen in the basement, a three season room and a very nice backyard with a place for a garden! The perfect house for us! It also has a view of the Appalachian Mountains out the backyard.

The Front:The backyard:The sitting room off of the dining and kitchen:The three season room:

So, we now have two bathrooms and a well appointed basement! (Anyone who's been to our house in the last 5 years knows how important that is!) So come on down! We'll be moving in around July 26th and would love to show off our new geographic features!

Beautiful Smiles!!!

This happened a week ago, but. . .

One week ago, Thursday, June 7, Savannah started her day looking like this. . .

A few hours later she looked like this!!!!!


The metal you see now is just a retainer. Hooray!!!!

The Bathroom is DONE!!!!!

Well, the bathroom project is officially-nearly-finished! (I just thought of 2 more things we are going to do, but can't until they come in.) We started this mess at Christmas if you will recall and we finally finished it this last week! You wouldn't think that such a small space could take so long. I guess we underestimated it! Here's some photo's so you can enjoy the visual fruits of our labors. If you come visit you can enjoy the actual fruits!

Blizzard of '07

Well, we really did end up having a blizzard! They extended the Blizzard warning until Saturday, March 3rd at 6:00am. The college asked students not to leave on Spring Break until Sunday afternoon because the roads were so bad. So, here's some pictures to remember all the mayhem by.

We really do have some concrete under there don't we?

Just a physical reminder of exactly how much snow we had in the alley!

The drift around the back door. And that is after we shoved and pushed to get out!

The north side of the house. Even the barrel was completely covered!

In Like a Lion. . .

Well, it's been threatening for the last 18 hours, but it looks like March is going to begin with a roar! For the first time in our 12 years in the Midwest we are in a Blizzard Warning for the next 36 hours. Needless to say, the kids don't have school today. They probably won't have school tomorrow either, but the school district won't announce that until late tonight. Now we just get to hope that the electricity stays on!

Installing Husband

Dear Readers, Do not think I am this clever, I copied this off of Shalee's Diner and thought it was a scream! Enjoy and feel free to share.
-Melynda

Dear Tech Support,

Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed a distinct slow down in overall system performance -- particularly in the flower and jewelry applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0.

In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as Romance 9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5 and then installed undesirable programs such as NFL 5.0, NBA 3.0 and Golf Clubs 4.1. Conversation 8.0 no longer runs, and Housecleaning 2.6 simply crashes the system. I've tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail. What can I do?

Signed, Desperate

Dear Desperate:

First keep in mind, Boyfriend 5.0 is an Entertainment Package, while Husband 1.0 is an Operating System. Please enter the command: "http: I Thought You Loved Me.HTML" and try to download Tears 6.2 and don't forget to install the Guilt 3.0 update. If that application works as designed, Husband 1.0 should then automatically run the applications Jewelry 2.0 and Flowers 3.5. But remember, overuse of the above application can cause Husband 1.0 to default to Grumpy Silence 2.5, Happy Hour 7.0 or Beer 6.1. Beer 6.1 is a very bad program that will download the Snoring Loudly Beta.

Whatever you do, DO NOT install Mother-in-law 1.0 (it runs a virus in the background that will eventually seize control of all your system resources). Also, do not attempt to reinstall the Boyfriend 5.0 program. These are unsupported applications and will crash Husband 1.0.

In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does have limited memory and cannot learn new applications quickly. You might considerbuying additional software to improve memory and performance. We recommend Food 3.0 and Hot Lingerie 7.7.

Good Luck,

Tech Support

A New Adventure

We're off on a new adventure! We have accepted a job at Carson-Newman College in Jefferson City, Tennessee. (All this cold weather has finally driven us out of the north!) So, if you are ever in East Tennessee, look us up. Just don't try to visit before August because we won't be there yet!

It wasn't an easy decision to leave Northwest Iowa. We've made some wonderful friends and great memories, but God has opened a door that we needed to walk through at this time, so here we are. Sean will be able to teach actual Physics majors and have a 2 person department for the first time in his career. And, we'll get to live in a beautiful place with TREES and GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURES! (That's a pretty big plus in case you couldn't tell from the all caps.)
So, keep us in your prayers, and especially pray that our house will sell quickly! It was so easy last time we moved and we would like to have a repeat of that experience.

Short, But Sweet

Savannah has also participated in Large Group Speech this winter. She was a part of the JV Improv Troupe, (can you believe it?) She had a great time doing improv, I think she enjoyed not having to memorize any lines - and practices were a lot like playing games! Her group didn't make it to the state competition, but they had a good time and did a great job! It was definitely a fun experience.

Honor Orchestra

I'm a bit behind, obviously, but Duncan participated in the Northwest Iowa Honor Orchestra on January 25th. They spent the entire day rehearsing with the guest conductor, who is the conductor of the Sioux City Symphony. Then in the evening, they put on a beautiful concert. Duncan had the honor of being the first chair bassist! One of the songs they played was one of the movements from Carmina Burana. When Duncan got the music in December he felt pretty ripped off that the basses had such a boring part, but when we heard it all together the bass line really added alot to the piece. It was great fun to listen to them and see him up there playing.

All Grown Up

High School seems to be full of firsts and this last weekend we experienced another one. Savannah went to her first formal! Her friends Amy & Ranell decided that they were all going to go together and have a great time dressing up, which as you can see, they did! Finding a dress was an adventure, but we managed to do so within budget. Savannah had a wonderful time getting all "dolled up" and mom and dad survived the late night.

Funny Things People Say

Here are some funny things I have heard the last couple of days:
"What a heat wave, it's nearly freezing!"
"I can't believe how warm it is today, it must be about freezing."
Of course, these things are only heard during the winter time around here! But we've had a 53 degree warm-up since last Tuesday, so it really does feel warm!

Am I really out there?

Thanks a lot Jennifer!

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 0 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Well, if I take this at face value, I don't exist. But, I think I will defer to Descartes, because I know I think! And I know my cats think I exist, though the reason I exist at least in their view is quite selfish. :-)

Dreaming of wool

Days like today have me dreaming of wool: wool socks, wool mittens (double layered), wool hats, wool sweaters, woolen underwear. After nearly 2 months of above average temperatures, northwest Iowa has decided to be below normal! I don't think we made it above 0 degrees yesterday (and that is not celsius believe me). It was about -2 when I shoveled the drive yesterday afternoon, but at least the sun was shining!

Today on the way to school the kids and I played the "how low can it go" game with the thermometer in the van. The record lowest temperature this morning was -25! At least this blast of artic air isn't supposed to stick around very long!

We finally received a measureable amount of snow Sunday. I think we got around 6" maybe a little less. When the temperature is this cold the snow glistens like someone poured a bunch of glitter all over it! It will be quite a while before this snow is warm enough to try to make snowballs or a snowman out of it. Snow this dry doesn't pack unless you get it wet, and I wouldn't recommend spitting outside right now!

Maybe I will go and see if I have any wool yarn around!