TCS Golf Tournament

Saturday we got up at 4:45 AM so we could be at a golf course by 6:00 AM. We were volunteers at the annual Christ School golf tournament, held this year at the golf club in Celebration, Florida. Celebration is a Disney-planned community southeast of DisneyWorld just south of the Orange County line in Osceola County. The whole community is planned to look like an old style community -- houses have front porches, garages are entered from an alley, and even the strip mall looks like an old set of farm buildings with tin roofs.

We helped set up the golf carts in the dark; each cart got two goodie bags and two polo shirts in the correct size of the participants. There were 55 carts and 110 golfers! This is TCS's 11 year and the eleventh time it has held a golf tournament / fund raiser. The tournament is a best ball competition and had a shotgun start.

Gayle and I were tasked to sit at a table at the tee of the 5th hole, a par 3. The deal was that the golfer would give us $10, and if they landed on the green with their tee shot, the golfer has a pick of neat stuff worth way more than the $10 put down. We had a lot of fun talking with and taking money from the golfers. Many of the folks were parents and grandparents of current and former students. I had my camera along and took lots of pictures...and we will use a few of them to delight our students!

There was a luncheon in the clubhouse after the golfing was done. We raffled off various prizes -- awards for longest drive and longest put, lowest score and highest score. We got home around 3:00 PM. We were whupped puppies! The day was sunny and near 90 degrees so we were hot and sweaty. It was a good day -- lots of good fellowship, good food and prizes, and if the work at hole number 5 is an indication, a financial success for TCS. We took in $530, and were just one of many hole competitions!

Our goodie table at the 5th tee Light luncheon in the clubhouse

Team with the highest score...and youngest player! Tired, happy volunteers!

Jake, a 2nd grader at TCS, actually hits a pretty good driver! The driver head is almost as big as Jake's! Note the bobblehead high score prizes...

Ohhh, Crud!

The tropics were quiet for so long, we were hoping that it would be an uneventful year for the big winds and rain. And then, here comes Ernesto. In 24 hours, we've moved from feeling sorry for New Orleans - again! - to dismay as the Ernie track moved farther and farther east. It seems to have spared Jamaica but now will slam through the middle of Cuba. The latest prognostication on US landfall is Tampa, Wednesday, with a lead pipe...that would be a category 2...then cutting across the Florida peninsula and exiting north of Jacksonville on Friday morning.


My current favorite hurricane web site is http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/ because it has the 4 or 5 most used computer models that our Orlando weather stations talk about.

The thing I've learned in the 10+ years we've lived in Florida is that the projected track of the hurricane will change. Stay tuned! We will see what the week brings...

Back to School

It's been so long since I posted --school starting may have something to do with that. I'd better not chide the rest of you who haven't put anything new up for awhile (hint, hint.) The weather is hot, school is going well, we are fine except I've got a dandy cold (thank you little student who came the first day with a huge congestion!) Since then three other students and my classroom assistant and another teacher have caught it. Here are some pictures of the little darlings. The letter "C" was our new sound this week thus the canines and Clifford ears. The older students are dad's kids on the first day going through their supplies and getting organized.

Vacation Pictures

Nutria Canyon -- headwaters of the Zuni River-->

<--On the top of Pyramid -- we hiked up from Red Rock State Park.

Mmmm! If only we could bottle that smell! Douwe Yaalanie mesa east of Zuni...and that

incredible New Mexico blue sky.

Rocky Mt. National Park / Bosscher Reunion!

How We Spent Our Summer Vacation

The short course: We traveled over 6,500 miles on two separate trips to West Virginia / Berwyn Heights, MD and Zuni, NM / Denver, CO. We were in 18 states and the District of Columbia. We were gone from home for 4 ½ weeks, a nice respite from the humidity and heat. We spent over $530 on gas.

Slightly longer, in no particular order: West Virginia and the Appalachians are incredibly beautiful. PBS radio is everywhere in the USA. Some of the best coverage was on I-70 in Kansas. The worst coverage was in southern Oklahoma…just 2 radio stations with really bad (is there any other kind?) country music. It was 107 degrees in central Kansas when we drove through. According to a young man in a central Missouri, the humidity made the heat wave especially hard. Humidity? HA! He should come to Florida. We still don’t know the correct pronunciation of LaFayette, in Louisiana. LA fay ette; la FAY ette; la fay ette…who knows; maybe we’ll get it next time we go through. Billboards – both blessing & bane. They help when we’re looking for a gas station or restaurant, but what an eye sore! And some of the ads are like a kid with a one track mind. Ruby Falls on Lookout Mt. – could have built a house with the all the wood from those signs. The world’s largest prairie dog (in western Kansas), 59 signs for South of the Border (we counted) throughout Virginia, “Big Daddy” Don Garlits drag racing museum, Gatorland, a bazillion Mickey D’s, a place near the KS / CO border where you could climb a tower and see 6 states (one probably being Confusion), and Jim Walters Homes. We drove through a rain and hail storm in southern Oklahoma that had us wondering if we would find dents in the top surfaces of the car (we didn’t). The Bosscher West reunion at Estes Park with Rose, Dave, & Michelle Daining, Kathy B, Deb Rowenhorst, and Beth, GB, & RB was a certified riot! It was the 50th anniversary of the Interstate system and we rode over the first section of 8 miles to be completed – central Kansas. It had obviously been improved within the past 50 years. Albuquerque has some beautiful bridges over I-40; they’re really done some upgrading and the city has grown tremendously over the past 20 years. Sad things: pine bark beetles are killing many pinon pines; the amount of air pollution in Denver; our Iowa farmhouse was torn down to make way for a racetrack; changes at Rehoboth; watching Zuni dancers in a plaza of the pueblo and thinking that works righteousness is such a waste…all that effort and work for beautiful costumes and dancing, and it is worth absolutely nothing eternally. Some happy thoughts: 6,000 miles and the Camry ran like a top; no one seems to be worried about $3 per gallon gasoline; we saw no bad accidents on the roads; had great hikes on the Pyramid, in Nutria Canyon, Douwe Yalanie, Estes Park; Ponderosa bark still smells wonderfully like vanilla…if we could only bottle it! We walked barefoot across the headwaters of the Zuni River in Nutria Canyon; it was really slick clay but we didn’t fall! Kudzu really is taking over Georgia. New Mexico skies are amazing! We had great fun helping Mike & Lynda, Kathy, and Beth. It is good to be home again. I like not living out of a suit case.

Vacation Lull

So we're in between trips...June saw a mission trip to West Virginia and a Katie/Alec/Luke week-end. July is the out West New Mexico/Kathy B & Colorado/Beth jaunt. These last two weeks at home have been precious -- GB working on her fabrics and some getting ready for the next school year. Gayle put together a really amazing quilt top with an Escher type tessellation and another with a complicated quilt hanging that even had a si pa pu. I've done some yard maintenance, trimmed back the plant growth, replaced some boards on the side fence. I've also got the new scanner humming and have scanned over 1,200 slides (149 MG) with about 1,500 more to digitalize...and then I can attack all of the negatives! Converting to a new medium is not for the faint of heart, but by the end of summer I will have the B's pictorial history on CD. We've enjoyed afternoon thundershowers, had Matt & Jill & Isaiah over for brunch (they're leaving for Asia in a couple of weeks), done some reading, and stayed up late and got up later.

Here are a few pictures of the June trip:
Here's the Illinois crew putting together meals for Food for Children. They did 18 cases (3,888 meals) in 2 hours...all going to Nicaragua. On the right, the house we worked on - scraping, painting, new soffit & fascia, & some porch roof work.



We were in a supervisory, stand beside role for much of the week. The afternoon VBS had us encouraging the team and doing some crowd control...



And, of course, a couple of pictures of our favorite Berwyn Heights people! Luke loves books and talks (jabbers) about the pictures. What a delightful visit!

This afternoon we hope to stand on our driveway and see the space shuttle launch, weather permitting.

Food for Children

This coming Wedneday we're heading up to the Princeton, West Virginia area just as we did last year to spend 10 days with our cousins Mike & Lynda Gravier, home missionaries with Heaven Sent Ministries. Over the past year we've had the opportunity at both church and school to share our experiences. The result at The Christ School was two projects, one which was a bake sale initiated by two elementary age brothers, that took in about $500 for Food for Children. This is an arm of Heaven Sent Ministries that packages a rice based, nutritious meal for six people that costs $1.50 ($0.25 per meal) including shipping. These meals have been shipped all over the world to feed hungry children and were even sent South after Hurricane Katrina.

The fifth grade has a celebration at the end of the year that focuses on the end of the elementary years, a send-off to middle school, and is a fun we made it / end of the year reflection of God's goodness...and games and a picnic. My class of 22 students gave me an amazing gift. They sat me down on a picnic table, gave me a heavy duty paper bag, and each student put a roll of quarters in the bag -- for Food for Children! They said they knew that Food for Children was dear to my heart and wanted to do something that say thank you in a special way for a good year.

One of the students that I tutored in math this year was a fifth grader named Lauren. Lauren and her twin brother Steven were not in my home room but I did get to teach them for half the day. Their younger sister Erin is in 3rd grade. All three had birthdays and birthday parties in May. All three decided to ask the kids they invited not to bring presents but to contribute to worthy causes. Lauren chose a local project; Erin and Steven chose Food for Children! Through their parties these two kids collected $285 to feed hungry children. To top it off, when they handed me the money they had collected, each of the three kids gave me a $20 -- of their own -- for Food for Children. Several teachers at The Christ School also gave significant gifts for Food for Children, so we will bring over $850 with us. We can't wait to plunk all those quarters on the director's desk and tell him the story!

Gayle and I also have a "Moment for Missions" during the church service tomorrow to highlight what the mission is and what we will be doing. Our church, Conway Community Presbyterian Church is also supporting us with a monetary gift for the mission and travel expenses.

Please pray for us -- good health, travel mercies, safety while we're working in West Virginia. Pray for the teams that will be coming in from Georgia and Ohio. Pray for the local folks who will be touched by God's grace through these workers. Pray for Mike & Lynda, and their children; they have a busy summer ahead with teams coming in each week. Pray that God's Kingdom will grow.

...and another kind of growth...A pair of brown thrashers have made a nest in a hibiscus just outside our bathroom window. We hope the neighborhood cat stays away for a month. Mockingbirds tried that spot last year and the cat killed their young.

Maybe it can be my turn to post on the blog...haven't done it in so long that I'm not sure about the procedure anymore. Just have a few end of the year pictures to share from our Kindergarten Splish Splash party. The room moms treated the three teachers to a nice salad lunch while the kids had pizza! We had a hot day, but I guess that's what you want when the temperatures are in the 90's. Didn't have too many injuries, just one bumped head that bled a bit. We had the fire department there to spray the kids with the big pumper truck and the paramedic put a big bandage on the little guy and he looked like he'd been through the civil war. Of course then all the other boys decided they had some traumatic injuries too. The medic just gave them a band-aide and that put an end to their dreams of glory. I took one ride down the slide and my boys all cheered me on. One ride convinced me that there was not enough water in the pool at the bottom , but the kids thought it was great to see me all wet. I understand there are somemoms who captured the moment on video as well. Oh, well, that's why I don't teach middle school anymore.

8 Days

Eight school days left with the students. Every year it's hard to believe that we have just about come to the end of another cycle. All of the hopes, dreams, planning, tears, frustrations, and joys with this year's class are almost done. For some kids it's too soon, and for others -- way too late!

A week ago Saturday I spent five hours with two of my 5th grade students, Madisen & TR. Their moms had bought the woodworking project at the school auction back in March. They were wonderful, did a good job on their duck marionette, and learned a few things in the process about wood grain, sanding, cutting, staining, drilling. No cut fingers either!

Yesterday we had a full day...In the morning I went with 14 men and boys from church and we canoed the Wekiva River, swam in the 72 degree spring, had lunch, and then came home. We had a great time of fun and fellowship. The water was refreshing and clear, the day not too warm, and I saw a pair of green herons and a swallow tailed kite, among the usual river birds. Saw 2 gators basking in the sun and a soft shelled turtle the size of a garbage can cover. Lots of large yellow eared turtles also.

In the evening we went to a dinner with my disbanding Search Committee from TCS. It was nice to know that our job was finished and that we were the instrument that God used to bring His special choice to TCS. We had dinner at one of the committee members' houses and then went to our new school head's house for dessert. It was fun to reminisce about the events of the past 15 months. I became good friends with all eight of the committee members -- had to! We spent 2 to 3 hours together each week for months!

It's started to rain again once in a while. We had several showers Thursday, which gave us about 1.6 inches of rain. The down side is that we had a small water leak in our kitchen. I got some rubberized roof caulk and hit every likely spot on that corner of the roof. Hopefully, that will take care of things.

March in May in Orlando

Orlando had its immigration march this afternoon. TCS dismissed at 11 AM, so we had no conflicts with the car lines. The march took about a half hour to pass the campus, from 12:55 to 1:25 PM. Much of the downtown area was shut down by the estimated 20,000 marchers. First Pres had a tent at the corner of Jackson & Rosalind on the march route where they handed out free water and cups of ice. It was peaceful for the most part...couple of reports of counter-demonstrators getting into shouting contests which then went to name calling and hand gesturing. I saw several people wearing Mexican flags as drapes around their shoulders, which seemed to me to be rather in-your-face. One man had a 6 ft. pole with a US flag and another national flag attached on it side by side...tacky. The US flag should have been by itself and above any other flag.

I hope you read Senators Martinez & Hagel's proposal for immigration reform. It seems to be a reasonable and pragmatic solution to this quandry. I keep thinking of your great-grandma Holtrop standing in line as an 11 year old with her family at Ellis Island, and your great great grandparents Ver Hoef, Bosscher, and Schrotenboer who did the same thing. We need to honor the image of God in each person, pay people a decent wage. We also need people to enter legally, just like our forebears did. This is a marvelous country, truly a land of opportunity, with a great Constitution...which serves it citizens well. It's not a one way street -- get in line, earn citizenship, pay your dues, and enjoy the opportunities. Now, if we can just get the politicians in Washington to take a stand and do the right thing instead of looking at the polls and watching the wind blow...

Fundays

No school today -- we had a hurricane make-up day built into the calendar, and didn't need it, so it is a spring holiday. We went to the Florida Blood Center this morning and gave a pint each. One of the nice things about this is that we get a mini-physical. Note these impressive statistics: Mom - pulse: 64; blood pressure: 120/80. Dad - pulse: 60; blood pressure: 102/70. And yes, it was red. We get the news about our cholesterol in a couple of weeks.

I took a few pictures of the flowers behind the lattice on our deck. The yard side has a beautiful red honeysuckle in bloom and the back has a Rangoon Creeper, which is full of blooms. When these little lovelies open, they're white, turn pink, and then red. You can see one of our bougainvillea and a red rose at the bottom of the frame on the left. The close-up on the right shows the different colors of the Rangoon Creeper blossoms. Within a few days, the back will be awash with blooms!

Wednesday the assistant principal, Mark Lansing, and I took six students to a bowling alley for two games and lunch. A parent bought this for $400 at the school auction in March. So we took four 5th graders, a 3rd grader, and a 2nd grader out. During school, which made it better yet! We put the bumpers up so the games would be more interesting for young arms. Mark is a good bowler - had games of 173 & 200. He was a good influence on me - I bowled better than I ever had, with games of 145 & 173! Woohoo! The kids were great and we had lots of fun. Sorry, no picture of me bowling. The only picture of me is one that Duke, the 2nd grader, took of my backside. Definitely not blog material. And there you have it -- blood, blossoms, and bowling -- all in one week!

Spring Vacation

Camping with the Ippels at Tomoka State Park, just north of Ormond Beach.

Visiting St. Augustine, it's wonderful historic district, and of course, the lighthouse.





It's windy at the top of the lighthouse - 219 steps!



We did some hiking and geocaching in the Little Big Econ State Forest east of Orlando.

We also canoed on Bulow Creek - saw 4 swallow tailed kites! - and visited the beach at Ormond and St. Augustine. And we had great meals and fellowship together!

Class Trip

Thursday and Friday we took 42 of the 44 fifth graders to Tallahassee for their annual trip. We had almost as many parents along, which made it really fun. Honest! The kids were great, and we received many compliments on their behavior. I'd take them on a road trip again any time...

We ran through rain on the way down, but it had stopped by our first stop. Still overcast, but do-able. We went to Wakulla Springs State Park for a boat ride down - and back up - the river. Saw a few gators (why do 5th graders go ga-ga when they see a gator on a trip?), lots of vultures (they congregate along the river in the winter, sort of like black snow birds), the usual river birds, and a half dozen black crowned night herons. That was special! We also went to the Leon County Nature Center on Thursday. They have a good display of live Florida animals and birds, and great docents. I think the kids learned a great deal.

The high point for Thursday was the all-you-can-eat buffet and the trip to Governor's Square Mall in the evening. The kids got to wear their casual clothes, i.e., no uniforms. We stayed at the Cabot Lodge - nice, nothing fancy.

On Friday we had a tour of the Old Legislative Building. Lots of good stuff for kids to explore, including an interactive presentation where the 5th graders sat as representatives and "voted" on an education bill. We toured to 22 story new legislative building -- not a lot of character, but it gets the job done. The 4.5 hour trip home gave me a good opportunity to get to know some of the parents (and a granddad) that I did not know well.

Spring Break...and Then Some

Thursday, March 9: Took my elementary math team (13 3rd, 4th, & 5th graders) and a team from the middle school to The Cambridge School in Tampa for the annual Christian Schools of Florida math competition. We rented a 47 passenger coach and had 16 parents along also. Four schools attended - elementary got 3rd place and the middle school got 2nd place. Flew in to GR at 10 pm. Stayed at the Prince Center for two nights.

Friday, March 10: I had CSI board meetings from 8:30 am - 10 pm. GB spent some quality time with Uncle Paul. They had lunch with Aunt Julie, saw Aunt Cark, and also saw Paul's new condo. Mom also saw Bob at work in the art studio and they had supper together.

Saturday, March 11: I had CSI board meetings for a couple of hours and then we collected Bob and drove to Chicago. Had supper with Emily and then enjoyed a well-done The Secret Garden. Helped a bit with the set strike and stayed overnight at Emily's house. Drove back to W. Michigan; stayed in Hudsonville at Uncle Hank & Aunt Marideen's house.

The balance of the time in GR was spent visiting relatives & friends. We watched some snow fall and were glad to get back to Florida on Thursday. Friday was a catch-up day. Saturday GB had a women's retreat in Viera, just south of Cocoa on the Atlantic coast. I had a men's breakfast and then watched neice Kim, of the Calvin College women's tennis team, whup her Otterbein opponents in both doubles and singles. Sat with Uncle Tim & Aunt Pat and caught up on stuff. They're here for the week, watching the tennis team, and enjoying the sun and warmth of a Florida spring.

Let the Good Times Roll

Saturday night was the annual Christ School Mane Event and Auction. We had both silent and live auctions, and a great sit down dinner with filet mignon and shrimp. The silent auction went for over 2 hours; of course, the last 20 minutes was frantic with some parents camped in front of the item they wanted. The assistant principal and I offered Bowling with the Big Boys again: time off from school for the winner and 5 buds to bowl 2 lines and eat a hot dog with us. It went for $400, so that was good. I offered 4 hours of woodworking for 2 kids, and that went for double last year's price...$180 this year, and one of my parents bemoaned that she really wanted it but so many people were around the sign up sheet that she couldn't get to it...yadda yadda. I said it she really wanted it I'd offer another for her daughter and a friend at the same price. So I'm doing it twice. The moms of all the classes put together class baskets that sold for large prices. Both of our classes did well; the Born to be Wild (just like Mr. B) 5th grade basket sold for $300. And the parenthetical statement was really on the ticket!

The real deal of the evening was the live auction. There were 26 items and a great auctioneer with a flashy green vest. Your mom's class quilt was fifth on the list; she got up on stage and held it up while the bidding was going on. Top bid was $2,000! Your mom got teary eyed, the auctioneer pulled up the quilt and they talked behind it, and started bidding again for a second quilt. That one went for $1,400 so your mom has her work cut out for her. She's so pumped she's going to the Orange County Quilters' meeting tomorrow evening, and is bringing one of her quilts to talk about.

This had to be the most successful Mane Event ever for The Christ School. Joanne Fleming, our development director, did an outstanding job. (That's Joanne behind the mask with GB in the first picture.) The theme was Mardi Gras, TCS Style and it went over well. You can see from the pictures that some people really got into it. We were invited to sit at a table with four school board members right down in the front, and were honored to be included. Another fun thing about the evening was that our new school head was introduced - Dr. Jason Powell and wife Amy attended and were warmly welcomed. The staff had met Dr. Powell last Friday after school, and we introduce him to the students at our chapel on Monday. It is a relief to be finally done with the Search Committee work and see that it was worth all of the effort. Dr. Powell is a godly, humble, talented man who, for the first time in his life, feels called to his work. And he's just 33 years old. He's a keeper! Monday's chapel will be a bit longer so the kids and parents in attendance can learn a bit more about Dr. Powell. He will begin shadowing the interim principal after spring break and take the helm June 1.

Orchids & Passion Flowers

I was describing to Bob the orchid that I have blooming right now. Pictures are better, so here is a close up of the Dtps. I found a web site that gives great summaries of orchid abbreviations: www.odoms.com/main.cfm Dtps stands for Doritaenopsis; Doritis x Phaelenopsis. This plant is called Dtps. Mount Lip Chou. I think it deserves the grand name! This flower is one of six on an 18" long stem, and there are two stems. The other stem is shorter and has two buds.

Our passion vine is blooming after some winter time off. It's a red flower, so the fritillary butterflies don't bother it. I still like the purple passion flowers, but after last summer's debacle with vacation and then coming back to stripped vines crawling with hungry caterpillars, I think I'll stick with the red variety for now.

I finished my irrigation system/PVC pipe patch job yesterday. No leaks, good coverage from the two new heads, all the tree roots are gone, and my back isn't too sore! I think it looks pretty good, and when the grass grows back it will be even better. The trellis is where my passion vine hangs out. You can also see one of my next projects - the fence and gate to the side need attention badly.

Valentines and Landscaping

My theory is that fifth graders can get a sugar high just smelling the sweets on Valentine's Day morning. The kids were wired from the get-go on Tuesday and took an flying leap into their party in the afternoon. Party for them was trading Valentines, eating lots of frosting-covered confections, candies, and non-diet soda. And then going back for seconds. Twice! I had four moms who did a great job putting out the spread for the kids. One of the moms found some wax lips, which were a great hit! I put up with the goofiness for about 35 minutes and then we went outside for recess. The idea was that they would run off some of the sugar high, but there was just too much to overcome. That's why we do the party at the end of the day -- I sent them home!

We have a fund raiser / auction for the school coming up in two weeks. Each classroom is responsible for a themed basket that is bid on in the silent auction part of the evening. I had mentioned to one of the moms a while ago that I'd like to get a motorcycle again some day, so they came up with the theme of Born to be Wild for our basket. It has a Harley theme, including the Steppenwolf CD with Born to Be Wild on it! Lots of Harley memorabilia, etc. in the basket, which should make it really fun. The prime mover mom saw a unique gift in a store and "just had to get it" for me. The hog riders bob up and down to the tune of - you guessed it - Born to Be Wild, along with assorted motorcycle sounds. My fifth graders ask to turn it on at least twice a day...Sure beat the usual chocolate and coffee Valentine gifts from the kids!

Last Saturday I decided to re-do the path that goes from the driveway around the garage to the gate by the side of the house. There were 12 inch stepping stones that were covered over with grass and some stones had been rocking on tree roots. I pulled up the stones, all 20 of them, and then spent 3 hours cutting through tree roots, re-setting the stones, and adding more dirt to really landscape the whole business. Sunday morning when the sprinkler system came on, it was clear that I had cut more than tree roots. I had whacked the PVC of the sprinkler system badly with my axe. Water poured out, geysered dirt all over the place, and basically ruined my Saturday's work. So I re-set the sprinkler system, pulled up the stones, and started digging. I did the "find the silver lining" thing and put in a new sprinkler head since I had things apart anyway. Finished last evening just about dark and (smart guy that I am) tested the fittings before I filled in the trenches. Sure enough, two more holes blew dirt and water skyward. Sooo, tonight I dug out some more sections and found the offending holes. Tomorrow I'll repair these breaks and put in another new head. And then put the stepping stones back. Fortunately, PVC fittings are inexpensive and I have many feet of plastic pipe left by the former owners. Maybe he was a pipe whacker too!

Visitin'

Saturday evening we had a young couple from our church over for supper. Scott and Andi Mitchell have been married a little more than a year and we wanted to get to know them better. I grilled burgers and we enjoyed the company. Scott brought along a game they had - Settlers of Catan! Gayle and I acquitted ourselves well, but we were whomped by more experienced settlers.

We celebrated the Lord's Supper at church Sunday morning. We have this service on the first Sunday of every month and we often will get in a circle to pass the elements. We had a large circle Sunday - over 70 people! That was fun! After the service the pastor, three others from the congregation, and I went to visit a member of our congregation in the hospital. We served him communion and prayed with him. That brought back many memories of dad having communion on a Sunday afternoon in his room in our house, served by the pastor and a couple of elders. Dad died 31 years ago last Saturday...

Sunday afternoon we had two couples from our church over to watch the Super Bowl. We had a great time, and saw a decent game. The commercials - at least most of them - were great. Gayle made pizza and we enjoyed the company!