1 Day til Christmas Break!!!

The morning at Hardy in the fog on Tuesday, December 18, the 2nd day of our 3 day Intercession. I have been teaching soccer and hockey with Mr. Scott, one of the two Special Ed. Instructors.
Taylan and James are ready to kick the ball with Jabril and De 'Arrion looking on!
Mr. Scott poses with Abram, Joel, Desman, Jada, Isaiah, and Jadezah at the end of our 2nd period class. On Monday and Tuesday the classes were 1 hour 30 minutes long with 4 periods in the day and a 30 minute lunch. The class size has been smaller than the normal classes during the year and it has been fun to work with Mr. Scott instead of by myself. We have been teaching K-2 students.
Mr. Scott being interviewed by Jason this afternoon. JaSamuel decided to jump in the picture too!
A view of the teacher's parking lot during lunch today. It was a beautiful day, I just wasn't outside to enjoy it much.

A great hand-stand by Antwain.A beautiful sunset this evening after I got back from helping Jim A. move a freezer to his garage from a house near McDonald Rd.Another unbelievable shot of the sunset this evening.Tonight after I had gotten back from washing my car, fueling up at Wal-Mart and getting pictures Jaclyn came over and we watched "What About Bob?" It was a hilarious movie and is definitely worth a 2nd viewing. Then we had our early Christmas with my mom and dad! It was fun and it makes Break seem more realistic. Thanks for the awesome and sports book and shirts mom and dad!! Mom is opening a present here.Dad opening a present, notice the 3 juggling balls next to him by the tree! It was a fun evening and a busy day with the Intercession and everything else after that. Tomorrow we have a half day for our last school day of 2007 before our Christmas Break. I have to be back for meetings on Thursday, Jan. 3 and Friday, Jan. 4. I'll be heading to Winston-Salem tomorrow with Carrie and Grant for a week before heading down to Zephyrills, FL, for a few days and then the beach and then back up to Collegedale for a few days before the meetings. The break has been long-awaited and will be a fun break for sure!!

Frigid Blast of Winter!!

This weekend I was able to get away to Carrie's for some good times and freezing cold weather!! On Saturday night we joined Nickie in the gym during her supervision and played Settler's of Catan with Randy, Jiffer, and Nickie. It was fun with all the trading between myself and Randy. Carrie declared she will never play the game with me again!!
A nice self-portrait in the gym.
Real strategy going on here.
The students played basketball and volleyball.

Pictures by Carrie's tree on Sunday evening before I headed back for Collegedale. We also went shopping on Sunday afternoon. Saturday it rained all day and the high was about 39 with a 20 MPH+ wind. Then on Sunday the high was 32 with a 25 MPH sustained wind and gusts of over 40 MPH!! It was very cold but it felt a lot like Christmas finally after being in the 70s for 4 straight days in Collegedale early in the week.
Here I am infront of Carrie's tree waiting for her for a picture.One more picture infront of the tree. It was great fun and the weekend flew by. I'll see Carrie again for 2 weeks straight for Christmas and New Year's in Winston-Salem and Florida!! I will be going with Carrie and Grant home to the Iverson's in 2 days... I can't wait!!! Happy Holidays.

Raptors Roll in Atlanta

This has been a very busy week with volleyball officiating and going to Atlanta Tuesday night to see the Raptors play the Hawks. This picture is from Monday night at Taco Bell with Jason, Carson, Katherine, Diana and Luamie. After my three volleyball games tonight, I will have officiated 10 games this week in 3 nights.
Toronto won 100-88 vs. the Atlanta Hawks. We paid $10 and sat at the very front of the 200 level for good seats, there was no zoom used in this picture.
With 1 minute 32 seconds left in the 4th quarter and the Raptors leading by 11 points, Al Horford of the Hawks slammed Raptors starting point guard T.J. Ford into the floor on his back on a lay-up attempt. Ford's head bounced off the floor and he never moved as he was taken off the court on a stretcher after at least 10-15 minutes. Ford has missed an entire season because of a spinal injury and actually has 2 fused vertebrae in his neck. It was assessed a Flagrant 2 foul and Horford was ejected, fined, and suspended for a few games.
Chris Bosh shoots a jump shot on the right wing in the 2nd half Tuesday night.
At the end of the game after the injury, the entire Raptors team gathered in a huddle and prayed for Ford, and here they are looking to the end of the court where T.J. was laying. The win improved the Raptors record to 12-10. They also won Wednesday night back in Toronto vs. the visiting Dallas Mavericks, 92-76, for their 3rd straight win in a row. Ford arrived in Toronto late Wednesday afternoon and x-rays came back negative. Today was the last day of regular school at Hardy. We have meetings tomorrow for Professional Development before Intercession next Monday- Wednesday when I will be teaching soccer and hockey to grades K-2 with the Special Ed. teacher Mr. Scott. So the Christmas Break is almost here!!

Blast of Winter in Colorado

In honor of the major winter storm in Colorado, I decided to post some pictures from our trip to Copper in 2006 with Xavier. My dad and his snow scooter covered in some fresh powder.
I-70 between Silverthorne and Copper. Copper has received over 2 feet of snow in the past 3 days and are continuing to get hit with hard snow throughout the weekend. My cousin John called yesterday right before he was headed to Keystone to make some fresh tracks in all the powder!!
The Dinner Sleigh Ride that John directs, what a great meal they had cooked up for us!!
John and I about to head for the tree runs, our favorite adventures!!
The lift line at High Point lift, on the east side of Copper, which is naturally divided nicely with a lot of green runs over here, a lot of blue toward the middle by the American Eagle and Flyer, and more black runs toward the west near the high-speed 6 person Super Bee lift.

At the base of the American Eagle with the Super Pipe.Xavier and I riding the Rendezvous lift at the top of the moutain.The amazing and breathtaking view from the top of Rendezvous, and what feels like the top of the world. The only view better than this at Copper in my opinion is from the top of Tucker moutain by the Copper Bowl, where many huge cornices are waiting!!Dad carving down the moutain.One of my favorite pictures, at the top of the Rendezvous lift looking back toward the Copper Bowl, which is to the right of this picture. John and I once decided to hike Tucker Mountain after riding down Copper Bowl. We had to wait in line for a snow cat as there are no lifts up Tucker. Then we hiked for 1 hour over 3 mountain peeks at around 12,000 feet elevation. The powder was amazing but the hike was sure a workout!! I sure wish I was in Colorado right now to make some fresh tracks in all the sweet powder that continues to pound the slopes. Maybe at Spring Break!!

Attempt #2 at Weekend Post

This is my 2nd attempt to post this blog. I had it almost done on Sunday night, December 2, when the wireless went out and didn't come back until Wednesday night. A nice photo after church on Sabbath of mom and dad in front of the new house on Crestmont. We moved in now about 7 weeks ago on October 14.
Carrie was here for the weekend and we went to a Marriage Seminar at the Collegedale Church for 2 hours on Friday evening and 3 1/2 hours on Sabbath afternoon. Jaclyn, Ryan, Kelli and Jonathan were also there as well as a few other couples.
We managed to get a few self-portraits in on Sunday evening before Carrie headed back to Highland.
A nice picture infront of the Christmas tree. Carrie went and bought one on Monday evening and I'm anxious to see it next weekend, and Carrie too!!! This past week has been busy with work at Hardy and officiating volleyball at Southern. I also played tennis on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday evening, and the temperature was never above the upper 30s when we played. This afternoon it was time for some football at Southern. Snow Trails opened this afternoon for the season, the Ski Resort 30 minutes away from MVA. I sure would have loved to have made some fresh tracks there this afternoon. John called me today and they have had over 1 1/2 feet of fresh powder in Silverthorne, CO, since Wednesday night and it has been snowing continuously ever since! John was headed to Keystone to test out the sweet conditions today and he said it is supposed to keep on snowing straight through Sunday afternoon, what a great blast of winter. Here in the Sunny South it is supposed to be in the low to mid 70s next week, which is at least good for tennis. On December 19, Carrie and I both get out for Christmas Break and will be spending the whole break together, what a great break it will be!!

Hardy Adventures

On Thursday night on TNT one of the greatest blowouts in the history of the NBA occured in Boston, MA. The New York Knicks were playing at the Celtics. I had been at Southern officiating Volleyball and playing tennis for 3 hours and when I came home and turned on the game to check the score, I was shocked to see that it was 82-39 in favor of the Celtics!!

Here the score was 93-43 in the 4th quarter with 7:09 left to play!! The final score was 104-59, and thanks to a buzzer-beating half quart 3 point shot by the Knicks, they narrowly avoided their lowest point total ever, which remains at 58. The 59 points scored by the Knicks are good for the 2nd lowest point total in the shot clock era!! The lowest I believe was 56 put up by the Utah Jazz in Game 4 of the 1998 NBA Finals against Jordan, Pippen, Rodman and the Chicago Bulls.
The lead had now ballooned to 52 points for Boston!! In other sports new, Brett Favre injured his left arm in the 2nd quarter at Texas Stadium on Thursday night. Aaron Rodgers filled in and did a solid job, but the Dallas Cowboys fought out the 37-27 win. So now the Packers record is at 10-2 while the Cowboys improved to 11-1. With Favre playing this well this year at the age of 38, he has proved a lot of the doubters wrong.
On Friday, November 30, we took the entire student body of Hardy Elementary to the Tivoly to see the Singing Christmas Tree. It was an adventure for sure with 630+ students to watch. But the kids were amazingly well behaved. I rode the Kindergarten bus, where the noise level on the way there and back could best be described as the roar after the Toronto Blue Jays won the 1993 World Series in Sky Dome for about 25 total minutes!!
Hardy took the entire balcony and I snapped out my camera and started taking photos. I don't think flash photography was allowed, so I captured 3 video clips and got a few good pictures.
The large book on the left of the tree and Chattanooga Boys Choir would display the country that was being highlighted. The Choir sang songs in the native languages of various countries and continents and did a good job. The 4th grade boys I was supervising stayed awake for most of the show and so did I despite the comfortable chairs and warm temperature!

The finale was impressive with the entire crew on stage. There were 130 choir members and a few other impressive stats on the make up of the tree. I'll have to include those in a later blog. The field trip was a nice change but stressful and tiring making sure we didn't lose any students.

Thanksgiving Part II

Well, after officiating a volleyball game at Southern, playing 1 1/2 hours of volleyball, and 1 hour of tennis I am back to finish the Thanksgiving Post. Today at Hardy I got a great workout, with 4 classes of kickball, 2 workout classes with jumping jacks, push-ups, stretching, and suicides.
On Sabbath afternoon we went to Salem Lake for a hike with the dogs, the 3rd of the week. It was pretty and a high of 48 (much warmer than for my parents in Plymouth, MI, where they had snow and temps. in the 30s for highs). I can't wait for some snow!!
Gregg and Carrie by the water.
In the woods with the dogs.
A great picture of us with the sunlight and Oreo.
A beautiful sunset on the lake Sabbath evening.

On Black Friday I went into the Bass Pro Shop with Gregg. It is huge!!
Gregg taking target practice.
Another self-portrait in my new authentic Toronto Blue Jays jersey!
The after church photos.
Sabbath was beautiful and we couldn't stay inside after lunch. There are so many more pictures to post as I took 224 pictures over break!! There will be more good pictures over Christmas Break with a trip back to Winston-Salem and likely FL as well!