Becca's 5th Grade Graduation

Becca graduated from 5th Grade today.

Grandpa Etsinger was here with us to see here graduate. That was special for all of us.

Veteran's Park is a special school. As we all gathered together, the violins and cellos played classical music. Of the various clubs that are available, the chess club was the most popular with 135 members out of the 3rd, 4th and 5th grade.

Becca was recognized as a President's scholar and part of the production team which put on "The Morning Show" for the school at the beginning of each day.

Walking out of the school was bittersweet.

The students can not take the facility or the staff with them as they go off to middle school, but they certainly can be grateful for the excellence that they have witnessed during elementary school.

Locks of Love

At the last minute, just before bedtime on the eve of her graduation, Becca decided that she wanted to cut her hair.

Jackie has been trying to get her to cut it for nearly all of this school year, but Becca wanted to wait long enough so that her hair could be used for "locks of love".

"Locks of love" is a program that gives human hairpieces to financially qualified children that have lost their hair due to any medical reason.

For layered hair like Becca's, the longest layer must be 10 inches in order for it to be usable.

Southern Middle School Orchestra

Adam's band concert was interesting this year for a couple of reasons.

The first reason was that 7th grade bands are much better than 6th grade bands. A year of experience makes a lot of difference.

The second reason was that we backed over two of Adam's toms with the Jeep about a week before the concert and he didn't tune them ( and verify that they would work ) until the night before.

An 8th grade drummer used the worst tom for a feature for the Jazz Band so it seems to be alright.

Tates Creek All-School Awards

At the Tates Creek High School "All-School" awards, Carmen received two awards.

The first award was for geometry. This was quite an accomplishment considering the path that Carmen took toward this award. Since math was not her favorite subject in elementary school, Carmen decided to take the basic math courses in 6th grade.

To reverse the downward spiral of being in a class were discipline is the largest issue, Carmen spent the summer between her 6th and 7th grade year catching up with the more advanced math students.

7th and 8th grade were difficult for her in math for various reasons including the bull headed tutor / father that she had to deal with.

Fortunately for Carmen and I both, she rarely consults me in High School math.

Carmen also received an award for Spanish, but I think that her mother and I were large contributors to this award for giving her a Spanish name.

Her teacher even pronounced her last name "ebby" since that is phonetically correct in Spanish. Obviously, Carmen never corrected her in class, demonstrating that she likely doesn't speak in Spanish any more than she does in English.

Bob Warren teaching

Bob Warren joined us at Tatesbrook this weekend to teach us a thing or two. I love the lessons of life that he brings to us.

Having pursued excellence throughout his life and desiring the most excellent for those around him, I can see the passion in his heart as he pleads for us to understand the world from God's perspective year after year.

When I have a chance to sit down with Jesus one day, I'm sure that one of us will start a conversation with the question, "How about that Bob Warren fella, he's a piece of work, isn't he?"

Bob' s main topic was from Philemon 1:6 and convicted us all of the state of the church today. It's really a simple concept that intimacy with Christ is infinitely more important than our interaction with each other but we seem to get tangled up to the point that we are tripping over each other telling each other how we need to be intimate with Christ. ( not just a church thing, I do it at work, we do it at school, etc )

Bob always has a simple way of saying things that make me want to reflect on the depth of his understanding of the phrase. Here are the two that stuck with me from the weekend.

"I don't fear failure as much as I fear being successful at something that doesn't matter"

"If I don't know what I know, then I don't know"

Happy Birthday Becca

Becca turned 11 today. It was a busy day with a morning study with Bob Warren, a meal at the church and a short afternoon session that we squeezed in right before Adam's game.


Jackie always makes birthdays exciting with multiple parties, lots of decorations, lots of gifts and generally making a big deal.


This year was no different.


While Jackie and I were watching Adam's baseball game, Becca went with Robin to the dog park to spend one afternoon as close to heaven as she can describe. Just hanging out with Robin and the dogs.



When everyone returned from their separate ways in the late afternoon, Adam grilled steaks and Jackie fixed a cake for the party later.



We finished the day by playing a game of Phase 10.

Fun Day

Jackie has been doing "Fun Days" at Veteran's Park Elementary for seven years. As Becca finishes her fifth grade year there, Jackie and Becca will be doing a lot things there for the last time.

It was a hot day, so the teachers approved some water games. In the picture, Eli passes a leaky water bucket to Becca in a relay race.

Jackie was there to snap this picture.