Christmas 2006
As we settle in for our first Tennessee Christmas, we ponder whether it will be “tender”. While we’ve managed to pull out all the Christmas decorations, there are still some other items we have yet to locate and the fact that neither one of cars has been parked in the garage is testimony to the fact that we’re not quite settled in. But despite a long list of still yet-to-be-done items around the house, it’s definitely starting to feel like home.
I’m getting ahead of myself though. When we realized last year that we were moving but that the timing on the house sale was going to go into this year, we decided to attempt to just continue our regular schedule in Georgia as much as possible. We were so thankful to be able to stick around for just a little longer to spend the time with our friends there. Grayson played Spring Soccer and we stayed involved in our church small group. But anyone who has been in a similar situation would tell you that you can’t help but be affected by upcoming move. First, we were really worried about the timing on the sale of the house. Last December we committed to building a house in a subdivision in Spring Hill, Tennessee. We were told the house would be ready around the end of May. We worried that our house in Georgia would either not sell, or that we would sell it too fast and we’d have to figure out some other sort of living arrangements while we waited for the house to be built.
Our worry was pointless as God took care of us. For the second time in a row, we’ve sold a home to someone involved in ministry work. A new staff member and his family at our church in Georgia decided on our house and while the cascading of home sales was chaotic, it really worked out well and we were so happy that our old neighbors in Bentwater would have such an awesome family come in to take our place there. We ended up with three days of overlap with the two houses.
So at the end of May, we finally found ourselves as official Tennessee residents. Our new family doctor (who also just moved here from Georgia) told a story about his young daughter. She’d been going to school here for a couple of months, had made some friends and was getting settled into the routine. So she asks her dad, “Dad, are we Tennesseans now?” He replied, “No Honey, we’re just Georgians who happen to live here.” And having spent so many years in Georgia, we really can appreciate that sentiment.
There are definitely some differences in Tennessee. The first thing we noticed when we were looking at houses was that very few houses in the Nashville area had basements (thanks to a hard layer of rock under the surface), and nearly as bad is the fact that many areas in Nashville Metro sport aggregate driveways (essentially small river rock mixed with cement). If you’ve never tried to walk barefoot across an aggregate driveway you just haven’t lived. Personally, my feet are so much tougher now I think I could do that walking on hot coals trick. The other problem with aggregate is the maintenance. You’re supposed to pressure wash all the surfaces down and then apply this overpriced sealant stuff (once or twice a year) to make it look better and to “protect it” (although from what I am not sure). Personally, I think it’s a scheme that the river pebble and sealant people have going.
In June, we went to Pensacola for the UWF and PJC BSU/BCM reunion. It was just so awesome to see so many old friends that for many years we’d only communicated with once a year through our Christmas cards and letters. It certainly stands out as a real highlight, especially closing down the Chick-fil-A that night. After the reunion, I had to leave for a business trip so Becky and Grayson stayed on for another couple of weeks. They spent quite a bit of time at Dauphin Island with Becky’s parents. Dee taught Grayson how to fish and once again, Grayson has already excelled beyond me by not only catching several fish but also a small shark.
In August, it was time for Grayson to start kindergarten. One of the reasons we felt drawn to this county (Williamson) was that every elementary school in the county has at least one nurse. And while Grayson has had to deal with a change in the staff already, both nurses he’s had have been absolutely great. As if that isn’t good enough, his teacher, Mrs. Buckles, is incredible. She’s really on the ball, and it’s amazing to see how well Grayson is learning from her. And it’s his love of school, his teacher and the other kids that make us feel so blessed in this area.
Unbelievable as it may seem, this is our first house (house number four for us) where we have neighbors that actually live directly behind us. This was nearly inevitable based on the small lots of most of the neighborhoods around here. It was so strange for us to look out back and see the two houses right there seemingly in our backyard. My first reaction was that I wanted a fence and bunch of huge trees. But with only finite time and money plus the unyielding laws of nature, we realized
we’d have to embark on the uncomfortable task of actually meeting our “backyard” neighbors. The few times we’d seen someone out behind their houses, it just felt weird to even consider walking out on the back deck and talking to them. It felt so unnatural, like we were supposed to pretend that we didn’t see them because talking to them might shatter some type of dream-like illusion that there were no houses backing up to each other.
Just trying to think back now on the time before we met the families behind our house, I can’t believe it was ever like that. Finally, the barriers were broken, but not by walking across the backyard but by meeting out in the neutral zone (the main side street of the neighborhood). As it has turned out, both families have kids that ended up in Grayson’s class and all of our kids are the best of friends. Now I can honestly say that our neighbors, both those behind us and all around us, have turned out to be the highlight of our move. And while we still grieve over the move because we still terribly miss folks back in Georgia, we again, feel so amazingly close with so many of our new friends. It was definitely a serious prayer request going into the move and now we’re just beginning to see how God has answered that prayer.
To help in our acclimation to the area we signed Grayson up for soccer with the YMCA in Franklin. At first we were very concerned about the fact that this league was completely different from what he had played in back in Georgia. But as it turned out, he had a great time and once again accomplished something I never did by being on a winning soccer team and by scoring so many goals that we’ve lost count. Wanting him to finally play a real sport (read: non-communist sport), he’s now playing in a local basketball league. I’ve never seen him work so hard at anything before in his life. He absolutely loves it and he clearly is trying harder than anyone else out there. We definitely have to take his insulin pump off for basketball because he’s constantly diving for the ball on the court. We really hope he continues to enjoy sports because we’ve seen a definite improvement in his blood sugar numbers since his activity level has increased.
Work has been good. I have been discouraged at what I feel has been a lack of contribution to LifeWay in very many tangible ways so far, but I’ve learned more in the last year than I have in the past 9 or 10 years. My hope is that in the next year I’ll have produced a lot more results. The 32 mile commute (each way) has been painful in terms of the gasoline cost but compared to Atlanta, the traffic is much better here. I’ve also enjoyed working in a true downtown environment and walking to the Chick-fil-A in the BellSouth Tower (a.k.a. The Bat Building) is one of the highlights of my day.
Another cool thing this year was that while traveling for work, I got to spend some time with Brandon Corfman (best man from our wedding) and Bob Cargill (my best friend through elementary and middle school). It was especially nice finally getting to meet Bob’s wife and his son. When you combine a conference with some of the top minds in software, some of my best friends and the natural beauty around Portland, Oregon, it’s a pretty amazing thing.
Becky has joined a women’s group Bible study from The People’s Church (essentially, First Baptist of Franklin) and of course, she spends a great deal of time with some of the wives here in the neighborhood both in fun and also in pitching in to help each other out when problems crop up. Speaking of crops, our neighborhood borders a farm. The farm then provides us all with a seemingly endless supply of mice. As everyone here has been trying desperately to establish a lawn out of the unforgiving soil, the mice seem very pleased that we all have bags of grass seed in garages. We’re fortunate, however, that unlike one of our fellow neighbors, the mice haven’t felt the need to actually spend time with us inside the rest of the house.
One of our bigger adventures this year was our recent Thanksgiving Trip to see my family in Gainesville, FL. Becky, being the thrifty shopper that she is, found a great deal on airline tickets to Jacksonville and we found ourselves flying for an extended trip over the holiday. Grayson was extremely excited to be doing something besides riding in the car, but his weeks of anticipation and enthusiasm were temporarily dashed when he got airsick on the second leg of our journey from Atlanta to Jacksonville. We were just glad that he made it to the terminal bathroom in Jacksonville and that the sickness was relatively short-lived. We definitely decided on Dramamine for the return trip.
While in Gainesville, it seemed that everyone was battling sickness. Nearly everyday of the trip someone was sick and it definitely had an impact on our Thanksgiving traditions. But despite all health issues, the highpoints of the trip will always stand out as one of the best times we’ve had. And there was a theme for some of the highlights – basketball! My dad got to take us to a Gator basketball game. My mom and I got to take Grayson to practice basketball on the same school playground I used to practice on after school. My grandfather and Grayson worked on some basketball passing skills. Even though very few things went as planned, it was a restful time and I am just so thankful to have spent some time with my family.
We certainly hope to see some of you this coming year whether you’re driving through or just want to come up for a visit. Just don’t expect us to introduce you to a bunch a famous people because so far my plan to become a major force in Country Music has yet to get off the ground.