Happy the Clown Visits Christian's School

(Novemeber 25th, 2008) Dad, better known as Happy the Clown, would visit Christian's school on the last day before the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Dad, who had performed his magic for Kyle's school while growing up was now beginning his new career of entertaining Christian and his classmates. Christian was excited at the prospect of having his Pap Pap entertain his classmates. Dad had rehearsed some of his tricks with Christian, even putting on the costume, and Christian had already said that he and his friend Maya would be Happy's assistants. Christian would be excited about it up until the time Happy and Mrs Happy (Mom) would show up at his school. Christian is very self-conscious now that he is in school, and is embarrassed easily. Having his grandma and Pap Pap at his school proved to be quite overwhelming for him. All the kids were led to the Beltram Room, where the Happy the Clown show would take place. As soon as Happy arrived, Christian would pretend to sleep, and do so for the entire show! He would peek every so often to see what was going on, and even cracked a smile when Happy would trick one of his classmates with the surprise peanut can trick. Happy would put on an excellent show, and all the kids (ages 18 months-5 years) would be highly entertained.

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Reunion with Friends From High School

(November 22, 2008) I would reunite with old friends from the Southwest Dekalb Class of 84 I found through Classmates.com and then ultimately on Facebook, Scott Scroggy and Ruan Rochester, at The Glenwood Restaurant owned by another member of the C/O 84, David Simpson. Unfortunately David wouldn't be in, but it was great to hang out, reminisce, and catch up over beers with Scott and Ruan. Now that the internet has made the world a much smaller place, we decided we would stay in contact and get together more frequently.

Family Trip to Helen, GA

(November 9th, 2008) Our family along with Rhian's mom took a trip to the beautiful Alpine village, Helen, in the north Georgia mountains. Most consider Helen a tourist trap, but it provides a great opportunity to view the scenery along with having a place to do a little shopping and grab a bite to eat. Helen is also very near the headwaters of the Chattahoochee River. Main Street in crosses over it and there is a footbridge for pedestrians to cross. Christian threw 4 pennies into the water and made a wish before every one. He wanted to say them out loud, but we told him that they wouldn't come true if he did. It was cute watching him think about it. I'm sure candy and trains were involved! :o) Unfortunately the leaves had passed their peak, though there was still some nice color. We would spend a couple of hours in Helen and then head a little north "to see what we could see" and found a scenic lake to take some pictures. It was starting to get cold and windy, so we decided to traverse back home.

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End of My First Season as Head Coach

(November 8th, 2008) Today ended my first season as a head coach, having coached our U-14 girls recreation team to a 1-8-1 record. My first season was a learning experience to say the least, but fortunately I had lots of help from the team mother/assistant coach/(and all other caps that one can wear helping out the team) Heather Shaver. Having coached U-19 girls as an assistant prepared me somewhat for coaching U-14, but I wasn't prepared for how much 12 and 13 year old girls can talk! Needless to say I spent much time trying to get their attention. Fortunately the girls I had selected as captains usually did well to help out. Despite our record, our girls accomplished a lot, having learned new skills, making new friends, and most of all, having lots of fun. We showed tremendous improvement as the season progressed, and knowing that most of the girls will be back in the spring, I am excited about our prospects.

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Halloween 2008

(October 31, 2007) This year, we were really looking forward to dressing the kids up in their costumes. Last year, we got Christian a Thomas the Tank Engine costume since he really loved trains, and Thomas in particular. We took him to the trunk-or-treat at our church. He wouldn't put the costume on because he said it didn't have any wheels. It didn't even matter that we told him that he wouldn't be able to get candy unless he wore his costume. He refused to wear it. Being that the costume was pretty much a one size fits all costume for kids, I told Rhian "Maybe next year". This year, Christian's school had a little Halloween party where the kids could wear their costumes to school. Christian was all excited about it, even when getting into the car. But once he got to the school, he got upset and complained that it was too tight, even though it was draped over him and there was nothing tight about it. His teacher, Ms. Tamika, even complimented him about his costume, and even loosed the strings on it so it wouldn't be "too tight". Even his best friend Maya, who was real cute dressed as a princess, put her arm around Christian and asked him what was wrong to no avail. All the other kids were in costume as well but it didn't matter to Christian, the costume was still too tight and he didn't want to wear it, so we took it off. Once again, I thought "maybe next year". Now Reagan on the other hand, was cute as could be as Hershey's Kiss. I was worried, because the costume had a hat with the Hershey's Kiss tassel hanging from it, and Reagan hates wearing hats; but not today, because Reagan knew she was cute and kept it on.

CLICK HERE to see all the pictures of Reagan, Christian, and his friends