Ringgold Middle School Football

This year Nathan is on his school's football team, the Ringgold Middle School Tigers. He plays on both the offense as a Wingback and on the defense as a Linebacker. Nathan's number is #24 (until this year he was always #2 but it was changed this year). It isn't easy to capture football action with just our camera. This game was played against Trion Middle School (Trion, GA - about 35 miles south of us) and they won the game 22-6.



This below is a picture of him hunched over--that means they are waiting, ready to make their move!



At this game, Nathan played mostly defense, but he was out playing his Linebacker position the whole game. He is also ONE FAST RUNNER! Maybe some day he will make some $$ with his skills in this area!


This is a picture of Nathan on the ground after he made a tackle.

Weekend in Knoxville, Tennessee

Over the weekend, starting Friday Aug. 28, I went to Knoxville to spend the weekend with Stefanie. I got there Thursday night so that I could go with her Friday to spend the afternoon with her and her class of 2-year olds. This age is such a handful with all of these kids (12-14 in her class)! However, I was so impressed with Stefanie and the great job she did working with them. This is a job I could not take on, but she does an incredible job with these kids! I am again so impressed with Stefanie!

On Saturday Stefanie had a birthday party for Sophie at a "water park" with a whole bunch of kids. (I have no pictures of this, but it was quite an event!) She had a cake for Sophie that was Cinderella. We all had fun, and fortunately we had a plastic cover above us so we could keep up our fun through LOTS of rain. Everyone brought gifts for the birthday girl!

While at church we went outside for some snapshots of the Pohlsanders. Aren't they a good looking family

Great pictures of Jordan and Sophie!

I had a great time with Stefanie and a weekend in Knoxville, Tennessee! I just love it when we can get together!

I haven't blogged in a really long time--SORRY! Right now my obsession is with my flower garden. It gets so HOT and humid here in the south, so it is sure to my advantage to get out and take care of my flowers in the morning.


Flowers beside and behind our house get so much sun all day and so there are certain flowers that are planted out back (above), while others planted in the front of our house are in the shade most all of the day. (below)

I am so loving the Black Eyed Susans. They are my favorite and need lots of sun, so they are in the back and on the side of our house. They are perennials and will increase when they come back next year. I mix my annuals in with my perennials so that my garden will be different next year with some flowers the same and some different.

Like these perennials sitting next to annuals in the sun out back.

Next to these are some daisies that are not looking as attractive right now.

This is Clair and Alison at the Duke University Hospital in North Carolina, which is a 7 hour drive away from home. This room has SO MANY people recieving chemo into their arm and a nurse told us that there are about 150 patients each day that recieve this. The chemo wasn't bad, but the long drive works out to be a REALLY long drive! We left for Duke Monday, April 20th at about 2:00 PM, spent the night not far from the hospital and then came home Tuesday night.

It's Prom time in Ringgold, GA. Evan's date's name is Lauren. They are with his good friend Shawn and his date Mallory. Mallory just lives down the street from us.

It seems that the tradition her in the South or Chattanooga is that the couple's outfits match. There were other couples going to the same prom that were having their pictures as well and it seemed that everyone's outfits coordinated. (There were a lot of guys in white tuxedoes with either a turqoise or variation or pink or variation vest and ties). Yes, Evan's tie and vest are pink - he wanted to get pink shoelaces and we were happy that he didn't.

Overlooking the Tennessee River in the Bluff View Art district.

This is the restaurant where they had dinner in an old Antebellum mansion converted into a restaurant in the Bluff View Art District in Chattanooga, TN called the Back Inn Cafe. There are views of the Tennessee river from the dining areas.

Last weekend we went to the Atlanta Temple and all went together. It was the youth temple trip and the boys did Baptisms for the dead with the other youth from the ward. Clair and I went and did an endowment session while Evan and Nathan did the baptisms. This was Nathan's first visit to a Temple. Afterwards we went and had lunch and did some shopping in the Atlanta area at stores that we don't have in the Chattanooga area.

On March 8, last Sunday, Nathan turned 12 years old. He was ordained a Deacon on his birthday. Clair ordained him and Evan was able to participate and help ordain him as well.

This past Friday night for his birthday, Nathan had a sleepover and he had invited 6 other boys to spend the night-- to play video games, watch movies and make a lot of noise. It was raining that night so there was no way to kick them out of the house and let them run around outside. After many attempts to get them to calm down we finally had to put our foot down when a big wrestling match started at 5 AM.

Today, March 15, is Evan's 17th birthday. He lives quite the life and he has his own car to drive around in. Mainly, he is supposed to be available to take Alison on any errand that she needs to run or send him to the store. Another blessing of having Evan driving is that Clair doesn't have to get up super early to take him to Seminary - he won't wake himself up and we have to set our alarm and get him out of bed. He also takes for ever in the shower and we are always constantly banging on his bathroom door to get him out of the shower. We think that he goes back to sleep when he is in the shower. He enjoys going to Ringgold High School and is very popular with a lot of friends. It is hard to believe that in 2 years he will be ready to go on a mission.

Today Nathan was able to pass the Sacrament for the first time. Evan was one of the Priests to bless the Sacrament and our Ward has a tradition that the Father of the new Deacon can pass it alongside the new Deacon. So, Clair passed the Sacrament with Nathan. They are both growing up so fast.