baby Carson!, softball buddies, & Highland farewells

Carson's really starting to reach for things now, and if you're holding a cup, you'd better watch out! He likes to grab them and lick the condensation off the sides! This is the view from the cup's perspective.



Carson blowing out his diaper gave me the chance to be there when he took a bath and got cleaned up before Chadd's softball game Monday. I took a bunch of pictures of Carson laying on his towel after he got out.

There's a family that drives an hour and a half to come to the Monday night guys' softball games. They have two kids, Maddy and Easton (yes, like the bat!) and another on the way we just found out Monday! When we got out of the car, Easton walked up to Nikie and hugged her legs. She said, "Nice hat." His reply, very matter of factly: "It's a Cubbies hat."

Wednesday night, we had a going-away party for Don, J.P., Luane, Carlyle, and Rachel. After eating potluck- style, we sat around and told funny stories about the staff who are leaving.

Some hilarious stories surfaced, especially about Don driving the bus. It was really fun to see how all of the staff had been impacted by the five people leaving. Some, including Jifer and Nikie, had the others as staff, and it was fun hearing stories from them.

Carson, Gabby, and Olivia (who thinks Carson is her brother)

Don & J.P. are going to Southern next year. Don will be the facility manager for the new wellness center and J.P. will be girls' dean for Southern Village.

Carlyle is taking a PE, intramurals, & gymnastics coach position at Blue Mountain Academy. He said at the party that he's going to be a gymnastics missionary.

Luane's retiring after 43 years teaching, 30 at Highland. She's still going to teach Bell Choir next year, we hope!

Rachel is leaving after her year of task force deaning to go back to Southern to finish her communications major.

Needless to say, the Personnel Committee was very glad to hear today that I AM staying! Ryan took a job at Millersville Elem. School as their PE teacher. You can read his blog to see pictures.

wild things

the trumpet vine on my front porch - a favorite of the borer bees that are slowly destroying the porch!

my perennials are back with a vengeance - makes me want to plant more!

yep, they're wild too!

pomp and circumstance, round 2

Ryan came up for the weekend and got to go to all the festivities with me. It was our graduation weekend, which means Consecration, Sabbath School, Baccalaureate, Tribute Vespers, Class Night, and Commencement. Basically, we sat a lot!







My student worker, Candace, graduated. She's going to Tennessee Tech. next year to start a nursing degree.











Me with the usual suspects after Commencement. The weather cleared up and got pretty warm out on Sunday afternoon. Perfect shopping weather.

Ryan and I needed to get a bed, so we went mattress shopping. We got a good deal on a really comfortable bed. I've only slept on it one night, but I really like it!












We finished off the evening with supper at Red Robin. I hadn't ever eaten there. It was pretty good! Someday, I want to go back and get their onion ring tower!

How can you not like a restaurant with a bird as its mascot?

what'd you do at work today?

Michael Patrick had his physics class out flying an R/C airplane for class today and they wanted pictures. After the four kids had flown it, Don and I got a chance. Do I look worried? The control I had was a trainer, which means it's hooked to Michael's so the plane doesn't crash. I only got to do one turn before it ran out of fuel and he had to bring it down. Btw, you think it's expensive to fill your gas tank? Fuel for this plane is $15/gallon!

more like Sabbath

Something about a nature walk just makes it feel more like Sabbath. I drove to Radnor Lake on the south side of Nashville to go birding with John, Anita, Big "D" and whoever else showed up.

Most of birding doesn't involve watching birds . . . it involves the art of explaining which twig in the immense forest the ____ warbler is sitting on. Mostly it looks like this picture.

Here's a list from today:
american goldfinch
american redstart (m/f)
american robin
bald eagle
barn swallow
blackburnian warbler
blackpoll warbler
black-throated green warbler
blue-gray gnatcatcher (also in nest)
canada goose
chestnut-sided warbler
downy woodpecker
eastern bluebird
eastern wood-pewee
eastern phoebe
gray catbird
indigo bunting
magnolia warbler
northern cardinal
prothonotary warbler
red-eyed vireo
rough-winged swallow
ruby-throated hummingbird
summer tanager
swainson's thrush
white-eyed vireo
wood duck (m/f)

I'm really mad that I didn't realize the ISO had gotten bumped to 1600 somehow. Oh well. No picture of this bird with my camera would have been that clear. This prothonotary warbler is nesting in a box behind one of their buildings.

Joined by a phoebe

Three rough-winged swallows rested before embarking on flying maneuvers the Blue Angels couldn't touch.

Turtle

Jaclyn, don't these flowers look exactly (minus the color) like the flowers we bought for the arbor?

Can anyone ID this flower?

can't go wrong with tea kettles

Thanks to Asti, Hollie, Jaclyn, Renee, Mary Jane (& Connie, Kelli, and everyone else who helped) for a fun shower!