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!

howdy y'all - not in my vocabulary

Can you tell I've moved a lot? At least I'm keeping the "Dixie" down in low percentages. So, is upper midwestern more the Scandinavian speech? What's the difference between upper and just plain midwestern?

Your Linguistic Profile:

65% General American English

15% Yankee

10% Upper Midwestern

5% Dixie

0% Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

birds of summer

The birds are really enjoying the three feeders I put out in the front yard. There are more goldfinches on campus than you can count. At almost any time of the day, you can hear them chirping while they fly over. I like watching them hang onto the sock to pull thistle seeds out of the holes. Nikie and Chadd have a feeder that the goldfinches have to hang upside down from. That way none of the other birds can eat there.

The birds are always out on the feeders when I wake up in the morning. They've been emptying the feeder in this picture in about 2 days!

Besides goldfinches, I have seen a white-breasted nuthatch, tufted titmice, mourning doves (on the ground), house sparrows, a carolina wren, house finches, and cardinals.

I put up a hummingbird feeder too, but don't have any pictures of them yet. I have only had females come to it so far.

In other news, I got a new cell phone and accompanying plan today. So I'm now a Verizon AND Cingular customer :) I can talk for "free" to pretty much everyone now! Call me! Here's a picture of the phone, Jaclyn, so you can see what it looks like.