20,000th Tree & Kid Update

Click on the link to go to the Tennessean Article.

Gib finally got his Media Moment! We got the word that the article was in the newspaper today. The 20,000 tree milestone was reached right after Thanksgiving. Look at Gib hauling that Christmas tree in like the cool Senior Patrol Leader Scout that he is! And quoted too! Gotta love it! Guess I need to go out a get a copy of the newspaper today.

Tonight is Mariah's school Christmas choir concert/play. She has a small speaking part and is very excited about it.

Taryn & Gib have had mid-terms this week and they report they are going well. Indy is excused from taking them because she is a Senior and met the GPA and fewer than 5 absences in each class required to get the Free Pass.

Hey everyone! Taryn went out on a double date this weekend. They went to Laser Chase. The boy from church committed a Cardinal Sin, and let me tell you....it was AWKWARD!!! He phoned from the curb to tell Taryn to come on out. I don't think Taryn anticipated the result of agreeing to that. I said "ah-ah-ah" and took the phone and tried to advert disaster by telling him to come to the door, but he had hung up. It was dark and I couldn't see him, but apparently maybe his parents had told him to pick her up at the door and he finally remembered and was on his way. Meanwhile, back at the office, Mike gets wind of it....oh yeah, F3, possibly could have gone higher except poor double date guy arrives right in the middle of Mike's tirade to poor Taryn about how unacceptable it is, how not right it is, how she does not go out the door, the guy comes in, etc., etc., etc., Poor, clueless, double date guy, on his first date too, I'd imagine, gets the rest of the lecture while shaking Mike's hand. Man, I bet he never forgets that one!! Not that Mike was wrong, but Poor Taryn! I tried, really tried, to come up with something to ease the awkwardness, but that F3 had sucked all the mojo right outta me and for once I was completely speechless. Taryn just kept looking at me like I Can't Believe These Are My Parents. Well, at least everyone had fun at Laser Chase and afterwards they all returned to our house and had ice cream sundaes. My mojo had returned by then and I visited with the group for awhile and we talked about funny things.

So, this was exciting too: Indy had her first college interview last night with an alum from Vanderbilt. She knocked it out of the park!! It lasted about an hour and she made all the key points she wanted and if you're a person who doesn't believe in coincidences, you're going to love this! Her volunteer service at WAVES really impressed him because he has a Down's Syndrome child who went there for 3 years and they love, love, love WAVES. And, he went skydiving once too! He thought it was great that she had done that and they shared their moments of glory. They had a great interview. She feels her chances of getting in just got alot better. She's done all she can do. Now we sit back, well, actually, we write more essays for scholarships and honors colleges (ugh) and put the rest in God's hands.