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