Biggest news is that Jeb’s company is being acquired once the Department of Justice says ok. Good thing Jeb embraces change because there will be some. Jeb’s other big(ger) news is that he will be substituting for Uncle Bill in the B.S.R.C. golf tournament. Dan Sr. has been giving Jeb lessons at the church and driving range. Verdict is still out.

Nicole moved from a shack down by the river to a nice house in Grant’s neighborhood. If Grant yelled “hey Nicole!” off his back deck, she would be able to hear him. Nicole has a new housemate who joined her for Mary Claire’s 12th birthday celebration in Snellville.

Danny is finishing out his sophomore year at Spring Hill and started with the baseball team. Kathy, Jeb, Kelly, Claire, and the two dogs all drove down to watch him pitch in purple.

DC on mound at Febuary 2nd season opener at Spring Hill. Kathy, Kelly, Claire huddled on top of ivy wall. 2/3/07.

Kelly continues her high school athletics running track this spring. (She ran cross country in the fall and lettered as a freshman!) She is doing well in school and in Life Teen at church.

Claire is doing great in middle school. She worked so hard to make straight A’s she was awarded an iPod nano. (Why is middle school so ridiculously hard?) She is playing at the top of her game in soccer. She is also attending The Edge (middle school pre-Life Teen) where Kathy and Jeb are helping lead 300 very loud and energetic middle schoolers. Only 4 more sessions to go… Amen.

We had a fun evening celebrating Claire’s 12th birthday. She wanted to go to Macaroni Grill. Nicole and her new housemate, Kristen, were coming in from Athens. Gramalie and Grandad also joined us. There was a little confusion because Kathy made reservations at the Snellville Macaroni Grill, but I had told everyone to go to the one near Gwinnette Place Mall. “No wonder you were worried about us being late,” she said, when we finally realized the miscommunication.

Dinner was good and a lot of fun. We covered the table with drawings. Nicole and Kristen headed back to Athens, and the rest of us headed to “The Singing Bean” in Lawrenceville, a karaoke coffee house in Lawrenceville. It is a very strange but Kathy and the girls think it is a lot of fun. Gramalie says she enjoyed it, although she had a look of concern on her face. Grandad and I sat outside of the karioke room most of the time, sipping our decaf coffee, but we enjoyed the odd experience, and we certainly enjoyed helping celebrate Claire’s birthday.

Happy Birthday Claire!

After going shopping for our 20th wedding anniversary, which meant some special gifts, the following message was waiting on our answering machine. Good thing I was able to intercept and delete it before Kathy could hear it.

Discover-Card-Security-Anniversary-2007.mp3

Unfortunately I had to be out of town on our anniversary, so I carefully hid four gifts in and around the house. As each girl got up, they handed an envelope to Kathy who went on a treasure hunt using clues. (Taking advantage of different start and stop times for middle school and high school.) It worked out great, because she was surprised to get the first one, and then surprised to get the second one, and then had no idea that as each girl came home from school, they would hand her another envelope each. And of course each present she found was… well… more reason for a security phone call than the one prior.

Kathy probably will never mind me leaving for our anniversary again.

Between church and dinner, we took advantage of being dressed up and snapped a family photo. Dogs included. This one came out pretty well. Only one of the 8 of us had to be brought in digitally. Can you tell which one?