braindead at 11:30

These are just some random pics to show more of what we've been doing . . .

Highland Academy staff walking in to worship from where we left the vehicles parked at Opry Mills Mall. (r to l: Jifer Proctor, Becky Patrick, Don Mathis, Michael Smith, others in background)
I know that I am truly braindead because I posted this as r to l and it should be l to r!

The Delta Island, where food, music, and shows happen every day. They've been having a Chinese acrobat show in the evenings that you technically have to pay to watch.

Delta Ballroom, the main place where General Sessions and worships are held. I think they said there are around 6,500 people attending.

Dad & me at the buffet yesterday taking millions of self-portraits

Poor, poor Wendy. Mark being an idiot at the buffet thing. He kept calling John Nafie's cell phone to annoy him. It was pretty funny.

Click pic at your own risk! I don't advise it . . .
Does this remind anyone else of high school? Mark used to take whoever's camera was laying around and take pictures of himself like this. I know of at least one time I got one of these lovely momentos as a surprise!

my address: opryland hotel

Dad and I started out the day by donating blood downstairs at the Red Cross cardboard camp. They're really not as efficient at taking blood and getting the whole process done as Blood Assurance is. I've donated lots of times, so I should know. (I just do it for the Little Debbies . . . j/k)

We skipped the afternoon General Session to hit the booths I hadn't seen yet. My favorite thing from today is one of those stupid little fans with plastic soft blades from LaSierra. The nice people at the Andrews University booth gave me a sticker when I signed up for an iPod, so I stuck it on Dr. Swafford's back while he was talking to someone. My dad stuck this one on my bag, so I wrote an "S" on it and it's still stuck there. =)

The afternoon breakout session I went to was by William Glasser, who developed Choice Theory. I went to a session by Jim Roy yesterday about the correlation between Glasser's writings and what Ellen White said a LONG time before Glasser. They're very similar. Glasser is an agnostic, but says if SDAs would follow EGW writings, we'd be fine. Anyway, for you non-education people, it was a good meeting. He just talks really s l o w.

After the Southern Union math teachers' meeting that dad and I had to go to, we met up with Ryan and toured the gardens and took pictures. The Garden Conservatory has lots of little statues of kids all around that are kinda cool.

Thank goodness there are escalators in some places, or my feet/legs would hurt even worse than they already do. I think I may have to visit the chiropractor after carrying my super heavy bag around all week too! Ryan was talking to his parents on the phone trying to line up some supper. Ours was provided by the Southern Union during the math meeting, so he got left out and didn't get to go to the Hunts' =(

I really like watching the water jump in the Cascades atrium fountains. After taking about 20 pictures playing around with exposure length, I didn't even post any ; )

This is me reaching into the giant waterfall from behind. It's in the same Cascades area at the main hotel entrance. The problem with all of these really nice water displays, fountains, waterfalls, fake rivers, pools, etc. is that you have to pee all the time if you stay in there! It's no good at all!

The only time I have felt comfortable outside since this convention started was this evening on the west (I think) side of the hotel. It's on the side where the main lobby for hotel registration is. I guess you have to stay at this place for quite a while to know what you're actually paying all that money for. . .

After walking for quite a while, we happened upon the spa/indoor pool/fitness place. They have two more outdoor pools right next door. The petunias made the air smell wonderful and the sunset (even in the southern sky in this pic) was really pretty.

I decided to use the "surreal" setting on my camera (also known as "sunset mode") to take a picture of the jacuzzi that was closed and then me in the foreground.

my fwiend

Yay, Blogger is letting me post pictures again! I would have had these up last night, but it wasn't working.

Those of you who were around Pisgah know how awesome Wendy Witas's voice is. She sang for the 2:30 General Session yesterday and talked about Megan, the girl who died trying to save other girls in the river out in Washington. It was great not only to see her, but to hear her sing again!

When Mark called during one of my breakout sessions, I got up and left because I knew it meant that I would get to see Cole, finally! I went to their hotel room and Cole answered the door and gave me a big hug. I met his babysitter and talked to them for a little bit before they headed off to one of the many pools. Cole was excited about a new toy rifle he got at Dollywood.

Notice that he still has the teddy bear blanket from when he was little. He told me that the stuffed animal he's holding in the picture is a "sorry about Megan present."

The evening meal was a ($30/person!!!) buffet of vegetable lasagna and salad (I'm shaking my head as I write this). It wasn't very special or tasty. Food is food, I guess.

The meeting afterward was really full. We had to sit on the floor in the back left corner of the ballroom. Grandpa stayed to listen to the quartet called FRED.

Ryan and I opted out of the meeting (after we foolishly sat through all fo the boring awards...) to go walk around and take some pictures of the place all lit up at night. His room is off of the Garden Conservatory, one of 3 large gardens in the hotel. This is the view from his 5th floor balcony. There are two little chairs and a table to sit at up there. It was nice to sit without having to be in a meeting and be able to talk for a while.

A nice lady took this picture of us down beside the gazebo that you can see lit up in the last picture. It has a fountain inside and flowers all over the top, but unfortunately, you can't see any of that. At least she got us in the picture! That's what counts, anyway.

teachers!

This weekend has been soooo interesting. We had a faculty potluck at Don & JP's Sabbath after church. It was fun having everyone around to sit and talk to. The people in this picture are L to R Michael Littell doctor in community/wife is on staff, Kyle Littell alumnus/currently @ SAU, J.P. Mathis guidance counselor, Janelle Baughman Steve's wife/teacher @ grade school, and Carlyle Ingersoll boys' dean/Gymnix coach.

I like watching all of the animals, especially birds, that visit Mathis's yard. Hummingbirds are frequent visitors to their feeder and I caught one in silhouette. I think the trees look funny inverted.


Ryan came in late Friday night, so he got to come with me to lunch. We stayed over there until about 4:15, then came back here and watched Narnia.

We went to the Old Spaghetti Factory with about 19 other people (including babies?) today. Phil & Connie Hunt were there with their daughters and grandchildren. The baby in the picture is Ryan & Laura Ashlock's youngest, Madeline. There were lots of other people there and I can't remember all of their names or how they're related!

The convention at the Opryland Hotel started tonight. It's a lot of fun to see all of the people who you know from around the country. I think people are surprised to see me with an actual name badge and not tagging along with my dad this time! I know my 7th grade teacher Shellie was a little surprised! This picture is of my dad talking to Richard Knapp, my 4th & 5th grade teacher at Eastern Shore Academy in MD. He teaches in Cocoa, FL now. I'm so glad dad wore his "I Make Stuff Up" shirt!

I'm putting this picture up for Jaclyn, my resident hymn aficionado (it's spelled correctly - I checked). This is Wayne Hooper. He wrote a hymn/theme song for the convention called "Journey to Excellence" (NAD education theme) that we sang tonight at the opening meeting. George Knight was the speaker. He was very good, but went about 30 minutes long and my back was already killing me from carrying around about 20 lbs. of convention stuff. The meeting was a solid 3 hours long!