It has been a long time inbetween posts so I thought I would share a little glimpse of the beauty of the world at 90 feet below sea level. I took these pictures on my first ocean dive while at Grand Cayman during our Disney Cruise. Stay tuned for more.

Soccer




Lady Vol Soccer






Kortney's Volleyball Pics

Rylee is 8 now. She is in the 3rd grade. She goes to Freedom Christian Acadamy. She is a very good student. She strives to make straight A's. Actually, she had a melt down last year durning a family night when they called her for the RED honor which was A/B honor roll and not the BLUE honor roll which is all A's. (She had a 92.something% B in handwritng) She places high expitations on herself. She likes things to be her way. When a project comes home from school, she wants to get her poster board that night even if it is not due until next month. She reminds us all the time to do things that are coming up. I guess she does'nt trust that we can do things without her. Not that we have ever forgot. She doesn't like to break the rules or for anyone around her to break rules. Her cousins like to mess with her and put their toes across a line at Disney that says stand behind the yellow line. Just to watch her panic. Todd and I have always called her "Special" Because we didn't know what else to call her. When she was an infant & toddler -98% of the time she is perfect but that 2% that she wasn't everyone knew it. She can push her daddy's buttons more that anyone. (I think they are alot alike) However, she can melt hearts just as fast. She is very tender hearted. She always thinks of people that are less fortunate. She loves all babies. She trys to take care of them all. She says she wants to be a first grade teacher when she grows up. For the ones of you that don't truely know her I wanted to paint you a picture. She normally will over react. I made up a term and said she had hyperconderosis & sympithtis. Which means she turns any small element into a disease & she can catch a cold from over the phone, kinda like her granddaddy. ha ha ha So when Mrs Fussaro her 3rd grade teacher asked us if Rylee told us that she said she could'nt see the board. We said No Rylee has never said she could'nt see before.... but my first thought was is this her hyperconderosis & sympithtis kicking in. Did she say that because a friend said it. We decided to piggy back Rylee on Kortney sports physical and have the peditrician check her eyes. Just in case. Well he said she was definatly struggling to see. He thought it was 20/140 & to go to an eye doctor immediatley. Her appointment was today. She only reminded us 4 hundred 72 thousand times. The doctor checked her out and told us that her vision was 20/200 and exaplained that she was living in her own world. We felt so bad, but the doctor said she doesn't know any better. I asked how we did'nt know and he said that she has been compensating for her poor vision. I explained that she was a good student and reader. He said that was because her best vision was at about 50 cm. Which is about the distance to her desk. We picked out glasses. The ladies that sale the glasses were going on about they could'nt beleive she has'nt ever had glasses before & they hope they are here when we picks her glasses up. They want to see her when she see for the first time. They also went on about how pretty her eyes are. She was so funny....she had the frames on without special lenses and she said "I can see way over there now" After laughing alittle,we explained that they were not her real glasses. That we would get them next week. Well we shared the news with some friends and family. We were still in shock that she could'nt see well. We posted a picture of Rylee in the frames she pick out on facebook and received great comments about how cute she was. One of our comments was from a family friend who said "Poor Rylee is leagally blind" I thought it was an expression until I remember that my friend used to work for an Optometrist & that she went on mission trip to give out glasses. I immediatly googled 20/200 and the words were there. Legally Blind- my heart broke and my eyes swelled up because I did'nt want this for her. I would take it for her if I could. I am blown away right now because the doctor did'nt use those words. I feel like I should have known that she could'nt see. I just have to give those beautiful eyes over to the Lord. Rylee is excited about her cool new glasses. Now, we really can't wait for the real glasses to get here. So she can see the beauty that our Lord created.

We were traveling across the ocean on June 5, to Korea. We sat on the plane and enjoyed a few moments of quiet. We were taking a small break from our fast pace life trying to prepare for our upcoming week abroad. When Todd says..."You know our summer is over!" Boy was he right. Our summer has flown bye. Between Korea, VBS, PCB camp, mission trip to Asheville, and trying to move we have hardly had time to unpack our suitcase. It has been incrediable and amazing but it doesn't seem possible that it is the first day of school. Normally we are on the ball at the beginning of the school year and we slack off a bit by late spring. I don't know why but I guess it is because of the craziness of our life style. This new school year I believe we have started off feeling slugish. We did'nt get our school supplies until yesterday. We had these grand plans of a perfect night at home, good home cooked meal, baths, haircuts, and early to bed. But a Dahl got thrown in our plans...yes, you heard it. Dahl and Chris (2 of our students) stopped by for a visit. We enjoyed our visit but it put our perfect timing off. We managed to salvage the night, we got the kids to bed at 9:00, which is normal not early. We laid out the kids clothes but we didn't pack their lunches or back backs. Do you know how long that takes if you don't do it the night before? We woke up and raced around to get everyone dressed. We frantically packed their backpacks with the items from their forever long school supply list. We snapped a quick photo for the scrapbook and made it to school with 5 minutes to spare. That is not how we would wish for the first day of school. I would love for a calm easy morning but I feel like we are still in our spring slack off mode. I guess our bodies have not felt a summer break. I hope we can get our act together because I would hate to see what next spring will look like if we slack off from here. Oh where did our summer break go?? Speaking of summer break, when I was a child the Olympics was a summer event. I mean, I remember watching it on my summer break. But my kids are having to go to bed because they have school tomorrow. The Halliburton's have been all about the Olympics. We watch it all. We have been pulling for our American team however we smile when the Koreans do well. We left a small part of our hearts in Korea. We have new friends in our Calvary family. We are going to post some pitures of our first day of school and pictures of our kids dressed in the shirts Lee and Sue (our Korea homestay family) bought for them. The girls are wearing a hairbow from Yeon Hee.
Tonight has been a little more productive. Maybe we realy realize summer is over and school has started. Lunches are packed, backpacks ready, clothes laid out, good supper and normal bedtime. The USA even won the Gold in the mens swimming relay. If only our USA ladies could of held on to the floor exercise. Silver is good too but I like the gold. By the way, how old are the girls on the China gymnastic team. They are still missing their baby teeth. Well anyway, we are looking for an easier second morning of school. Because summer is over and school has started whether we are ready or not.

Here is a link to our Asheville Mission Trip.. Go watch it I hope you enjoy it!!!

http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=40012335

What a summer it has been. We have taken the students to Korea, Panama City Beach and Asheville. Plenty has already been written about Korea (except that we are going back next year, did you hear that Lee and Sue) And the trip to PCB was amazing, so much impact in so many students lives. The last trip of the summer was our mission trip to Asheville. This is a trip we do each summer to work with Western Carolina Rescue Ministries. While it may have been last it certainly was not least, even though it was only four days long. Our students were incredible! They built three bus stops, worked at the thift store, organized the event closet, coat closet and learning center with all its books, fixed lunch and dinner on Wednesday while serving lunch and did a chapel and a cookout on Friday where we feed around 110 people while doing an hour and a half block party for the homeless of Asheville with live music, dance, cookie give-a-ways and hotdogs with all the fixins'. They did all of this without a complaint or argument. I have been blessed by God with a great group of students and they showed themselves to be just that with their selflessness and interaction with the men of Western Carolina Rescue Ministries. I thought I would take a moment and brag. Stay tuned for more as the new school year gets started and a whole new calendar year of ministry events gets underway