Thursday, December 17th

We are packing for our trip to Vanderbilt Children's Hospital. We will be leaving around 9:45 AM CST since we have to be there by 10:45. The surgery is scheduled for 12:45, so I will not update anything until after they have taken her down to prepare for the surgery.




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April 2009

We spent Easter in McMinnville with Jennifer's family. Lots of fun for the kids and Kelsey sang a couple of solos (Redeemer and By His Wounds) at church Sunday morning.

Kelsey also went to Atlanta with the DCA Choirs for a competiton at Six Flags. They won their division and they ate a meal at the Medieval Times restaurant, spent some time in the park, at the Atlanta Aquarium, and at the Coca Cola Museum.

During Awards Day at school, Kelsey received the Drama I Award, got recognition for being in the National Honor Society, made the All Year Honor Roll, and Top 10 % in her class. Then her class finished 2nd in the Field Day activities.

March 2009

Courtney was chosen as one of the Students of the Week at Dupont Hadley Middle School and went to her first Predators game. We got free tickets from the school and Jason went with his Dad also.

The DCA Spring Musical was "Hello Dolly" and Kelsey was part of the ensemble and played several parts, which required multiple costume changes.

National Performing Arts Festival - Disney World

Kelsey went to Disney World in late January with the DCA Thespian Troupe for the National Performing Arts Festival. They got to perform some acts from their upcoming Spring Musical (Hello Dolly) and also had the opportunity to perform individually or in duets in front of judges for the competition.

Kelsey and Heather Runyon performed a duet from the musical "Wicked" and received an Excellent placement for vocal duets.

The group placed first and were chosen to perform on the Dockstage in Downtown Disney. Several other individuals were given Superior ratings and placed first in their categories.

Courtney Plays in Upward Basketball League

After missing last year due to her hospital stay, Courtney once again played basketball in the Upward league at Tulip Grove Baptist Church.





I was an assistant coach again this year. We didn't have a lot of heighth and thought it was going to be a rough year after our first practice. We had the lowest combined scores on our evaluations before the season began, but the girls learned fast and won most of their games. They loved coming up with new names for our plays, like Pizza (for our pick play) and Dr. Pepper (for our double pick play). By the end of the year, Courtney was even running point and calling her play. She didn't score much, but had a great time. The crowd went wild one day when she went around her pick and pulled up and hit a jumper along the baseline (proud Dad). We made a point of letting all the girls play point guard sometime during the year and everyone scored.

Kelsey goes to Presidential Inauguration

January 2009 - Christy & Phillip have a new house and we help move them in and visit for the weekend.

Kelsey is selected to participate in the 2009 Presidential Youth Inaugural Conference in Washington, DC. She attended the Inauguration, a Youth Gala afterwards, and heard many speakers at her conference including Desmond Tutu, Gen. Colin Powell, Erik Weihenmayer (blind man that climbed Mt. Everest), and former Vice-President Al Gore (very boring and least favorite speaker). She only knew one person before going (she met her a short time before going - Sr. at Goodpasture whose mom played tennis with Jennifer). She was supposed to room with her new friend, but there were problems once they got there and they were not even in the same hotel. After some brief excitement about how to get their dresses to the right place and finding the right buses, she made many new friends from other states and had a great time.

She was amazed at the security presence and the number of port-a-potties that were all over DC. LOL I can't imagine why they needed all those - just look at how many people there are there. Regardless of political affiliations, this was a once in a lifetime event that she will never forget.

So much to update, so little time

Okay, so I haven't edited my blog since August and that was just covering through June. I will try to give a very short update for each month through the end of the year.

July - We visited my parents in Sweetwater to celebrate July 4th and went to their friend's house to watch fireworks. Courtney was able to watch them, but had to use some ear muffs since she doesn't like the loud noises. We celebrated Jennifer's birthday and I started working on our house renovations (painting 2 bedrooms, bathroom, & office, new bed and furniture for Kelsey's bedroom, new bed and redecorate Courtney's room, new carpet upstairs, and tile floors in the bathrooms).

August - Courtney and I went back to Sweetwater to celebrate birthdays (mine, my sister's, and my nephew's) and also attended my sister's wedding. I continued working on our house renovations (finished painting, had carpet & tile installed, and built a entertainment center for our bedroom). Courtney started 5th grade at her new middle school and Kelsey started her Sophomore year at DCA.

September - Jennifer and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary at a local bed & breakfast and then went to the Titans opening home game. Kelsey and Courtney walked with me in the Nashville Heart Walk - this is my 11th year walking (Kelsey has walked with me for 7 years & Courtney has walked for the last 4 or 5) and our team raised $20,000 last year.

October - Kelsey turned 16 in October and we went camping while it was still warm for her birthday. On her birthday, we went to the Titans - Colts Monday Night Football game. She also got her driver's license that day and started driving to school the next day. She played goalie on the high school soccer team and was selected to the All-District team. They had a very young team that didn't win a lot of games, but got much better as the year went along. We will be playing in a new division next year and hope to do better.

November - Kelsey was selected as a member of the Mid-State High School Choir and performed at David Lipscomb University. Jennifer, Christy, Judy, & Peggy went to Gatlinburg for Peggy's birthday and to do Christmas shopping.

December - Kelsey is in the Concert Choir and the Show Choir at DCA and we went to their Christmas concert (they did a great job). We went to Sweetwater for our Christmas weekend with my family. Courtney, Madison, & Brandon played at an indoor jumping place. We went to McMinnville for Christmas and had our usual parties with family and friends, our famly day (including bowling and flashlight tag at the old Carrier building), and opening gifts from each other and Santa for the kids.

Well that catches me up for 2008. I will work on 2009 in future blogs.