Visual Adventure on a Early Saturday Morning

This morning, Reed, Maren and I got up before 5 am and went to Lake Travis to watch the Central Texas Ballooning Association's Annual Flight. We wondered how many people would get up this early on a Saturday morning to witness this event, but we were surprised when we got there around 6 am with hundreds of other interested onlookers. It was really fascinating to see all the prep work and then to witness about 12 balloons inflated and lift-off. We had a good time and then we went to breakfast at Denny's. I highly recommend if you have something like this in your area to make the effort to go. It was a visual adventure.

Going to the River and What's Up

Maren and Reed at the Frio River

Cousins at the Frio River

Oh my gosh! Yes, we are still alive. June was very busy and now here we are into July already. I taught at the Museum and we went on our youth mission trip. Whew! Busy times.

July 4th saw us dividing and conquering. Now that Taco Boy is a working man, Lorna stayed home and Maren, Reed and I went to our annual family gathering at the Frio River. This was our 29th year of gathering on July 4th weekend in Concan, Texas. We began going each year when I was 13 years old. Now years later, there are 18 of us that gather for fajitas and fun. While tubing was AWESOME last year, the water this year was very low so we didn't even try to tube. Instead, we found a great spot to swim, sit in the water, talk, watch kids and swing off a tree and ride a tube repeatedly down one fast moving section. Reed won tuber of the year as his little six year-old legs walked up the rocky river bottom as he carried a innertube quite bigger than him up river and then rode down. He did this like a 100 times in one day, no joke! A GREAT time was had by all!

Now, we are back to teaching this week at the Museum, while Reed take a drawing class in the morning and a ceramics class in the afternoon. Maren is volunteering at The Art School and Lane has started taking a dual credit course at our local community college. What a guy! All in all, I hope July slows down a bit.

Mission Trip

Three of our number (Tim, Lane and Maren) leave in the morning at 6 am for Berryville, Arkansas on our youth mission trip. We will spend the next week with 50 other youth and adults working on homes in and around Berryville. Our youth will be blogging about the experience each day at our church blog. Check us out here.

Confirmation, Partings and Going Forth

This has been a full weekend for our clan. Lorna and I went to a costume / Dia de los Muertos wedding on Saturday night (she will tell about that as soon as her camera is charged again) and we had family in town for Maren's confirmation.

For the past nine weeks, Maren has been going each Wednesday night to confirmation class in preparation for this day. She has been preparing to be in full membership within our church and hopefully to have a better understanding about her faith and relationship to God. The confirmation class discussed baptism by a local lake, baked bread and discussed communion and this past week attended Catholic mass to see relationships that exist with Methodism. This whole process has been made all the more special by the fact that our pastors Fred and Sharon also retired today. This was their last confirmation class. To say this was a day of emotion and some tears has been an understatement.

I thought that I was good with the whole thing (Maren's confirmation and the retirement) until the moment of this picture when Fred laid his hands on my daughter's head and tried to say his prepared words. He had to pause for a long moment as he composed himself and in that moment, I came to realize what partings were truly happening today. I say partings because goodbyes are too final and complete. You see, Maren moves one more step confidently into adulthood and away from that sweet girl child I have known since birth. I have been luckily noticing more changes with her as I have spent the last few weeks with her in youth group, at the fall festival and back and forth driving to cross-country. There is no denying she is growing up. I now know how my parents have felt at key points in my life. Thanks Mom and Dad, Henry and Mary for being with us at this special moment in Maren's life.

Fred and Sharon also part ways with our family of faith and more specifically my children, my wife and myself as they begin retirement and we continue down the road of raising children. These are two people who we have met in their home, they have come to ours for church meetings, we have planned, disagreed and worked to create wonderful events together with others in the congregation. They baptized Reed, confirmed Lane and have sat in the hospital with us when we needed them the last five and three-quarter years. Fred and Sharon even called on my dad when he was in a local hospital with a stroke. Yes, in that moment of hand laying, I too got tears in my eyes and paused. Why had it taken me until now to see what was happening? Too busy in the details as Lorna tells me.

The rest of the service was meaningful and full of bidding farewell. We had a wonderful lunch and presented gifts to Fred and Sharon. In the end, several members and guests stood and spoke about Fred and Sharon. I was asked to say something on behalf of longtime members. What I said is a bit of a blur, but the essence is thank you. Thank you for being models for my kids, thank you for bringing my baby baptized into the faith, thank you for helping bring my two older ones through the confirmation process and helping Lorna and I shape them into godly people, and finally thank you for helping me grow in my faith. I have always known God in my life, but not as closely as these years I have served as a member of this church, in this place and in this moment. Now Lorna, Lane, Maren, Reed and I go forth with someone new next Sunday. Go forth in the way Fred has always bid the congregation to go forth and serve each week. Hopefully, we all go forth to continue to grow, love and serve. Thank you.

P.S. Sharon made a comment after I spoke about coming to visit us five and three-quarter years ago. They knocked on our door on a Monday evening not long after we had brought Reed home from neonatal ICU. We were VERY frazzeled to say the least. So, Lorna goes to the door, has a short conversation with Fred and Sharon on the doorstep. They probably thought us very rude. Fred and Sharon leave with Sharon evidently commenting to Fred that they will NEVER see us again. Then we showed up at the first church service at Good News and have been there ever since. Here's what Sharon didn't know. We had talked about going to Good News weeks before Reed was born, and probably would have invited them in on that Monday evening ----- however ------ I was on the coach in my boxers with a newborn who we trying to get to sleep. Just goes to show, you never know!

First Day!

Everybody had a great day at school! After taking the requisite first-day pictures of everyone (even Maren's best friend!), I walked Reed down the street to school. We unpacked his new Diego backpack, had a hug and a kiss and I was off. I then saw Maren off with her friend and Lane had already walked to the bus stop while I was with Reed.

This afternoon, I picked Reed up and he reported that it was a good day. He did say that "kindergarten took forever." They talked about teddy bears (the theme of the week), ate lunch, had snack, had a rest time and went to P.E. in the gym. He says he knows where his room is and can go there tomorrow all by himself. Allright, Reed!

Maren says she likes all of her teachers. She has a teacher that Lane had in 6th grade even though it's a different middle school AND a different subject. Maren's in Athletics this year and found out today that she has to be at school at 7:00 a.m. tomorrow morning for volleyball tryouts. She and her friend went to the park to work on their volleyball skills this evening. Good luck, Maren!

Lane only had four of his classes today and will have the other four tomorrow. He, too, likes all his teachers. He had study lab today, as well as English II, Ceramics and Biology.

Tim also reports that he had a good first day! No problems anywhere, so I guess he'll go back tomorrow, too.

I took the day off to ferry people to and from school and listen to all the reporting. Oh, and scale the mountain of laundry. Alas, it's back to work tomorrow.