Homecomings and Harvest Festivals

Wow, I've got some catching up to do. Where in the world have I been? We have been so busy and days seem to go by faster and faster. But you know what they say ... "Time flies when you're having fun!" Check out this picture. Sometimes Lily Grace looks like the baby that she is and sometimes, she looks like a little lady. Here, she looks like a young model in this year's latest fashionable fall outerwear.

OK, so what shall we talk about? Harvest festivals, homecomings, and one of my all time favorite topics ... Upward Basketball and Cheerleading. We'll save Halloween for this weekend, but just as a preview, Lily Grace went trunk or treating as Minnie Mouse, squeaky shoes and all. More about that in our next post.


One reason that I haven't been able to post as much lately is that I am the Director of the Upward Ministry at Isom's Chapel and we are deep into planning for our upcoming Basketball and Cheerleading season. Advertising, conducting signups, and establishing the parameters of the league takes an incredible amount of time to get it right.

But we are closing in on the beginning of practice. Maybe things will slow down a bit after that. Ha! We have completed registration and have 94 kids signed up to either play or cheer. Arranging those kids into teams of equitable talent and skills takes time and care. Then there's the task of identifying and recruiting coaches, adjusting rosters, evaluating late signups, conducting coaches training, ... Anyway, you get the picture. I am so excited about beginning the season. I get to coach a little girl's team with six girls between kindergarten and the 2nd grade. This will be different after coaching the rough and tumble boys for 7 years. I'll still help with Austin's team, but my primary focus will be to ensure that the littlest girls have a great time and hear about Jesus! Please pray for our Upward Ministry, that we might present the love of Jesus Christ in a way that plants seeds, waters seeds already planted, or stands ready for the harvest from seeds planted and watered before. I'll have more to say about the Upward Ministry in a future post. But now, some catching up.


Betcha didn't know that Lily Grace had her second trip to the beach in October. We kept it on the down low. Connie had promised Austin that we'd go back to the beach before the end of the year and with fall break, it was a good opportunity. Or so we thought... Can you say red tide? And I'm not talking about the kind that plays football on fall Saturday afternoons. This red tide is an explosion of algae from the ocean that causes extreme upper respiratory conditions, not unlike a cold or sinus infection.
Austin and I knew immediately when we hit the beach what was going on, because we had seen it in Jacksonville, FL in September. We lasted all of 30 minutes or so. Just long enough to build Alltel Stadium, the scaled-down, sand version of course.
The red tide was in effect for the entire fall break week, so every time we'd go out to the beach, we only lasted a half hour or so. And if that wasn't enough, tropical storm type weather invaded mid week and left the area flooded. A tornado even hit in Pensacola the day we were leaving. Oh well, so much for the beach weather. At least the dining and shopping were good and Austin did manage to get in two afternoons of golfing.

More recently, we were blessed to have Amanda come home for the weekend from her graduate studies in Chicago. Not only is she going to school there, but she's working for one of the Broadway type shows with costumes and such. I think she's really enjoying Chicago and she's actually only two hours away from her parents. She is doing well and we were all very glad to see her. Will was especially glad to see her (Will is her boyfriend and is in school himself at UAH). Amanda made it in Friday afternoon and was able to come to East Limestone's homecoming football game Friday night. We'd hoped that she would get to see Austin's band performance, but since it was homecoming, the band didn't do much except play My Girl, as the homecoming attendants marched out. Oh well, sorry Amanda. The football team did their part by claiming a big win and everyone went home happy. Lily Grace is always excited to see her big sisters, Emily and Amanda. So she was especially excited since she hadn't seen Amanda in quite a while. On her birthday, Lily got two dolls, one a boy and the other a girl. She missed Amanda so much that she immediately named them Will and Amanda. As a matter of record, Will and Amanda went to the beach with us. No, no, not the live Will and Amanda, the dolls! I'm pretty sure they had a great time. In fact, they were speechless! Check out the pictures of Lily Grace, Amanda, and Will below.

Speaking of homecoming, East Limestone did have their annual homecoming game this week. After four straight, grueling road games, they finally had a chance to play at home. This was truly a homecoming. I was beginning to wonder why we bought those season tickets. Lily hadn't been going to many of the games because the away games were very long trips. So she finally got to go again and had her usual good time. At one point in the game, she yelled "Go, go, go!!" and then turned to me and said rather disappointedly "They're not going?" It was as if she thought just by yelling and encouraging, she could make them respond in the way she wanted. Come to think of it, I think the same way. With her feisty attitude, I better try to keep that one in check!

Oh, nearly forgot the Creekside Harvest Festival. When Lily Grace gets old enough to attend school, she will go to Creekside Elementary School in East Limestone. So we thought we'd take her over to their annual Harvest festival to check things out. You know, see the teachers, begin butterin' them up, introduce their future star student, .... You can't start too early on that you know. Our neighbor and good friend Regina was in charge of the whole thing and did an awesome job! Of course, Lily Grace thought the whole thing had been put together for her.
She walked in and immediately seized control of the place. Cake walks, frog jumps, picture sessions, and clowns who make funny balloons were the order of the day. Lily Grace also got her first taste of cotton candy. She really liked the candy, but couldn't figure out where it was going when she tried to chew it!
(Mental note: This cotton candy stuff is not good for strengthening the chewing ability.) Of all the events and games at the festival, the train ride was what excited Lily Grace the most! She squealed with delight when she saw "Paw Paw's Express!" What's with this squealing anyway, Austin never did that?

And finally, to completely catch up, Connie, Austin, and I were blessed to be able to see Casting Crowns at the VBC. This is my favorite music group ever, period. If you're not familiar with their songs, they are the contemporary Christian artists who brought us "If We Are the Body", "Who Am I?", "Let My Lifesong Sing", and "Does Anybody Hear Her?" Stop now and go immediately to the nearest music store and purchase every Casting Crowns CD that you can find. They are awesome.


Love Green, Party of Four ...
Jerry, Connie, Austin, Lily Grace, and ...