Courtney Turns 11

I apologize to those of you who still look for updates on this site, but we have been extremely busy lately and I just have not found the time to logon and update. So here goes. :-)

We had a great time visiting with Jennifer's extended family on Sunday, May 4th. Everyone thought Courtney looked great and I gave an update on her progress and all the things going on in Kelsey's life these days. We are very proud of both of our girls. Kelsey was asked if she would provide some musical entertainment next year so that everyone can hear her beautiful voice.

We spent a lot of time the next week planning Courtney's 11th birthday party. It is hard to believe that she is now 11. We had her party at Hermitage Lanes and everyone had a great time. We got her a bowling ball so that we can start practicing more to get her ready for her Special Olympics events. She used bumpers this time, but didn't need them very much, and bowled her best game ever. She bowled a 99 with an 8 lb ball. We are going to help her work on strengthening her arm so that she can bowl more traditionally and without bumpers.

A couple of Courtney's teachers and Suzanne from school and a former teacher from church came with their kids, as well as, the Dodd family, our parents, my aunt Charlotte and niece Madison, Jenn's sister and her family, and Taylor. After bowling, the kids played in the arcade for awhile. Since it was Mother's Day and there were several mothers taking time away from their family to celebrate Courtney's birthday, we gave each Mother a single red rose to thank them and let them know how special they are also.

Courtney Goes on School Field Trip to LBL

Courtney took her first overnight field trip with the 4th grade class at her school. They left for Land Between the Lakes (Lake Barkley - Kentucky) on Wednesday morning by bus and returned Friday afternoon.

She did not have any family with her or a private nurse. Ms. Suzanne, her EA at school and Jessica's mom, went as her chaperone/aide. She had a great time fishing, roasting marshmallows, holding crawfish, seeing snakes, and playing with all her friends. Ms. Suzanne took pictures for us and I will post them once I get some of them.

We are headed to a family dinner tomorrow afternoon and then finish planning Courtney's 11th birthday party next weekend. She will celebrate her birthday again this year on Mother's Day (this year it actually is the same day again). We are having a High School Musical theme party at a local bowling alley. Courtney loves to bowl, in fact she has competed the last 2 years in a Special Olympics event for bowling. She got invited to the state competition last year, but her score didn't qualify because her lane had bumpers. We are going to work on bowling without the bumpers this year to see if we can get her qualified.

Continue to keep us in your prayers, as well as my friend Daniel and his family. I mentioned him in one of my previous blogs concerning his 4th child having complications at Vanderbilt. Well, Georgie passed away Wednesday morning and they had a memorial service for him today. They don't have a lot of family close by, so I am sure they would appreciate your prayers. Thank you.

Thoroughly Modern Millie was a big success

The DCA High School Spring Musical "Thoroughly Modern Millie" was wonderful. There were 50 cast members and 30 stage crew (@ 25% of the high school student body) who helped pull off this performance. It is amazing to see the amount of talent that is in such a small school and they keep doing it year after year.


DCA should be very proud of their Fine Arts students, teachers, and everyone else who participated in any way.

Kelsey really enjoyed the whole experience and did an excellent job (if I must say so myself). She is already looking forward to the next production she is involved with.

She has gotten numerous compliments on her performance and everyone really enjoyed the play. Now that the play is over, she will be able to get back to her voice lessons and start working on a duet with Carly (DCA Sr. who was also in the play) to sing at our church.

She has 2 more weeks of school before finals. This past week at the High School Awards Day, Kelsey received an All-Year Distinguished Scholar (President's List) award for making all A's her Freshman year. The Drama/Choir Banquet is Saturday night followed by a cast party at one of the seniors house. They are going to have a bonfire and watch a movie on a screen or sheet outside.

Kelsey also recently got an invitation to attend the Presidential Youth Inaugural Conference in Washington DC next January. She got the invitation due to being an alumnus of the National Young Leaders Conference that met here in Nashville last year. With the DCA trip to DC earlier this year and the trip to London, we had to really think about this, but decided this was a once in a lifetime opportunity. She will actually get to be at the inauguration, watch the parade, go to one of the balls, meet some of the candidates, & be part of some political debates. She has already started lining up babysitting jobs to help raise money for the trip.

She is growing up way too fast, but really is a mature young lady who I know will make a big impact someday in whatever she chooses to do.

Kelsey makes her debut in DCA Spring Musical

Kelsey is making her big debut tonight in the DCA Spring Musical "Thoroughly Modern Millie". They have a performance tonight at 7:00 and again tomorrow night at 7:00. We have a large group of family and friends coming for tomorrow night's performance (my Mom, Dad, Aunt Charlotte, my nephew JR, and niece Madison, Jennifer's parents, her sister & her family, and Kelsey's voice teacher).

She has been working hard for quite some time, but this week especially. It has been after 11:00 before they finished 3 nights this week. She is very excited and doesn't seem too nervous. I am sure she will do great. Courtney is still not very comfortable going to plays or anywhere when they turn off the lights, there is loud music, and she is unsure of what is going on, so she is not going to the play. However, Jennifer took her last night to a Dress Rehearsal and after she got past the first 10 minutes of lights going off, she really enjoyed it. They had to leave after the 1st act so Courtney could get ready for bed (school night) and she did not want to leave. :-) Kelsey was excited to hear that. Courtney is spending the night with Jessica again tonight.

In other news, Kelsey was selected by DCA to compete in a Math Olympics at Belmont University a few weeks ago.

Last weekend Jennifer's aunt Judy got us tickets to the Casting Crowns concert at the Sommet Center. We had a blast (me, Kelsey, Taylor, Christy & Tanner, and Caryn & Cayman (Jenn's cousin & her son)). It was a 3 hour praise and worship service that seemed like it was over in no time. Kelsey and I are still singing their songs in the car every chance we get. Here is a link to their website if you want to check out their music (http://www.castingcrowns.com/). There were also 2 other groups who sang (Leeland & John Waller). Kelsey liked Leeland so much, we bought one of their CDs.

Please keep my friend Daniel and his family in your prayers. He and his wife Mary have 4 children. The 4th child, who was just born this past week with complications, is having problems and is at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital now.

Courtney Competes in Nashville Special Olympics

On Thursday, April 10th, Courtney competed in her 3rd Nashville Special Olympics competition.

She competed in the same events this year as last year (50 meter run & standing long jump). She won both of her events last year, but had tougher competition this year and finished 3rd in both events.

Considering she had open heart surgery 4 months prior, we think she did remarkably well. Just seeing the smile on her face as she ran down the track and as she was jumping meant more to us than any 1st place ribbon ever could.

Jennifer's Mom & Dad were able to come again this year and we let Kelsey skip school to be there with her.

Courtney got to decide where we ate lunch and she chose Golden Corral. Kelsey tried to persuade her to pick O'Charley's, but Courtney had eaten at the Golden Corral with Ms. Suzanne & Jessica when she spent the night and she really liked it. Since it is a buffet, it is very good for Courtney because there are a lot of different options for her that she is able to eat.

Later that day, we (me, Kelsey, & Courtney) went to watch Taylor (Kelsey's boyfriend) play a JV baseball game at DCA against Goodpasture. Taylor pitched the first 3 or 4 innnings and had the lead when he came out. That was in part due to the grand slam he hit in the previous inning. Courtney was recording with her little Polaroid Pixie camcorder and actually filmed the home run. You can't see the ball go over the fence, but you can see the outfielder stop and see Taylor go into his homerun trot. She didn't follow him around the bases until I noticed where she had it pointed, but she got him as he got to the plate. At the time, we didn't have any idea how much of it she got or what it would look like. She did a very good job for a 10 year old with a low level camcorder and no tripod. We may have us a photographer in the making.

Thank you for reading and keep us in your prayers.

Losing a Loved One is Never Easy

On Friday, March 28th my Dad's brother Clyde passed away. He was 70 years old and had been in poor health for a while, but we are never quite ready to accept that he is no longer with us. He lived in Dalton, GA and ran a grocery store for the latter years of his life. His daughter, Aelana, has been working with him for many years and will now take over the store for him.

I didn't get to see him very much over the last 11 years or so due to Courtney's health conditions and our limited ability to travel. However, I would always get to see them around Christmas for the Queen family dinner and a few times over the 4th of July holiday. Kelsey still remembers the time we went down and she got to ride four wheelers in the back yard.

When I learned that his health was deteriorating quickly, I really started thinking about the fact that I didn't get to see him this year for Christmas. With Courtney being in the hospital for her surgery, we had scheduled the dinner for a different day and then it ended up being cancelled for the first time that I can remember due to illness in the family.

I also started thinking back to my childhood days and our visits. Clyde didn't say a whole lot, but when he did, it was something humorous or something you would remember. I will always remember the smile on his face and the fact that he would give you the shirt off his back if he thought you needed it. I remember many fun times at his house during the summer, at New Years' Eve get togethers and birthday parties. It really brought back a lot of memories looking at old pictures and being back in the house again.

Courtney spent the night with Jessica again on Saturday night so that Jennifer & Kelsey could go with me. We just weren't quite ready to have Courtney at a funeral just yet. In fact, this was Kelsey's first funeral. She has been to several visitations, but this was the first funeral. The service was real emotional for all of us. Since Clyde had been in the service, they presented Aileen with a flag that had been draped over his coffin and then they released several doves after the ceremony.

Please keep Aunt Aileen, Aelana, Kelly, Will and their families in your thoughts and prayers. Also remember my Dad and his 2 sisters (Barbara & Bernice) . They also lost a younger brother in 2006 and I know they would appreciate your prayers also.

While the cat's away......

Well, in my last blog I told you about Jenn & Kelsey's trip to London, so now I will tell you what Courtney and I did while they were gone. I took off Monday and Good Friday and worked the rest of the week. Since Courtney was out of school, we had to decide what to do with her while I worked.

So, Monday I spent the day with her - (Opry Mills for lunch, Glow Golf, & a carousel ride), errands, and playing Wii at home. Later that day, I drove her to McMinnville (ate supper with Glen & Peggy, worked on Peggy's laptop) and left Courtney there for the week. I expected some anxiety or apprehension when I left, but she kept asking me when I was leaving. :-( She is growing up and getting independent on me. That is the first time she has spent the night at Grandmama & Grandpapa's without one of us there (4 nights without us). I got back home around 10 PM and off to work the next morning.

Courtney actually spent the night with a friend from school (Jessica - who is in her class & her mother is Courtney's Educational Assistant) earlier in March and Jessica has spent a night with Courtney also.

Tuesday night I went to a Predators game. They lost 4 - 2 to the Washington Capitals (we kept Ovechkin in check from scoring until he got an empty net goal at the end, but he had assists on 2 of the other goals). Wednesday night my cousin Greg and his son Brad came over from Greenback TN and spent Wednesday and Thursday nights with me. Brad is going to be attending Austin Peay next year and he went for a visit on Thursday. They went with me to a Tennessee Tech MBA Alumni social Thursday night and then to the Predators - Red Wings game. We lost again 6 - 3 and it was beginning to look like we would miss the playoffs (lost 5 of the last 6 home games at that point). Greg and Brad left Friday morning and took a tour of The Hermitage before going home.

I left during the UT - American NCAA basketball tournament game and listened to it on the radio on my way back to McMinnville. I didn't think it would be much of a game, but it was close until the last few minutes and UT pulled away and won by 15. We had an Easter get together with some friends Friday night (the kids colored Easter eggs & played games).

Peggy's family came over Saturday afternoon for their annual Easter dinner and everyone had a good time. Phillip & me took Courtney, Tanner, & Trace to see Horton Hears a Who. Trace thought it was "amazing"and Courtney & Tanner kept repeating "a person is a person no matter how small". It was a cute movie. When we got back to the house, the Easter Bunny had come early and left baskets on the back porch for the kids. They were way excited.

We got up early Sunday morning and went to a Sunrise service at their church, ate breakfast in their fellowship hall, and then stayed for the early service. Since we were back early, we decided to pack up and we left early to get back home in time to watch the UT - Butler game. UT barely pulled that one also, but made it to the Sweet 16. Then we picked up Jenn & Kelsey at the airport (they got in about 5:10 or so). We were really glad to see them, but we didn't get to hear too many stories that day because they were so tired.

Well, that is a little bit more information for you, I will try to update more tomorrow. It is midnight and time for me to get in bed.