pikinik

I put a few pictures up on Facebook of our school picnic at Indian Creek Camp today. We had a great time and I can't wait to see everyone take their sunburned school pictures this week.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=137873&id=760788168&l=57b24361e3

campus

no more lazy hazy days this week - the humidity cleared out and left beautiful blue skies

Steve's English class outside studying

Becky's LifeSkills class having TAG (time alone with God) time

campus

Tessa

Yesterday Tessa's babysitter and I went outside to take some pictures on front campus. Tessa had fun trying to roll off the blanket and eat grass. She belongs to Andy (who works here) & Bekki (who cleans my teeth). Tessa will be 6 mo. old next week.

today

pretty sunset tonight

kitchen tennis with Carson - the hats were his idea

waiting for his "pitch"and I finished my puzzle while watching Project Runway

yard birds

the goldfinches are happy to take my seeds

it's getting increasingly necessary to provide water for the birds - they loved this dish

house finch with conjunctivitis - it gets spread through infected birds eating at feeders
this female could hardly see and I was able to walk very close to her

preamble to the school year

Last Wednesday, the night before pre-session meetings began, a hummer got stuck in the garage. I finally caught him by slipping my hand over him while he was perched in the dark.

1st day of Pre-Session: praying over new staff members

Tessa and Olivia at the Watkins' so we could work on the class schedule

they've been practicing

hooked up from the PC to TV with our new class schedule

Thursday afternoon was CPR class with Brett Snow. They're assembling the dummies.

ready for resuscitation

Friday afternoon we went swimming with Nikie and Carson.

After Carson was dry and changed, he had fun throwing his shoes at Ryan in the pool.

He got quite a kick out of himself. This was fun until he reached for a shoe in the water that was too far out and fell in headfirst, requiring another shower and change of clothes. :( Good thing Ryan was there to snatch him out quickly!

Chadd and Nikie decided to take on the chapel in the guys' dorm and give it a minor facelift. I have been helping them paint and watch Carson. We let him help paint this wall.

I'll post some "after" shots later, but it's almost done!

Sunday and Monday our teaching staff met at Indian Creek Camp for a presentation on Kids in Discipleship (K.I.D.) with the other conference teachers and pastors. This is the A-frame chapel with very uncomfortable chairs.

Waking up at 5:30a (!) Monday gave me the opportunity to walk down to the lake and take a few pictures before breakfast. Some of the staff were coming in from slalom skiing.

Laura (Ashlock) Wensell and two friends led song services for the group.

Today's 95-ish degree temp led to this evening's thunderstorms. Look familiar? We had clouds like these roll through earlier this summer.

In 2 days we'll have the first group registered and be headed way too quickly to classes starting on Monday! AAHhhhhhahahAAAhHH!

zoorific

Ryan and I hit the Nashville Zoo on our last weekend of freedom before school starts again (last weekend).

something like a gibbon - I like the framing of the branches

It was Ice Day at the zoo. This is the meerkat ice sculpture.

The 1:30 show was all about birds. This is an eagle owl.

red panda

favorite - clouded leopard

I like the "fuzzy" background behind the lorikeets

hoping to not get pooped on

I would come to the zoo for this exhibit alone :D

the end . . . of the zoo

Then we took our picnic to the nearby Percy Warner Park and listened to barred owls and summer tanagers in the woods while we ate.