Family Thanksgiving

Our family is richly blessed and it was good to have everyone home for a few days. Micah and Rhyne haven't been home since Christmas and Bryan hasn't really been home from the college campus any to speak of this semester. He came home Thursday night and the other two got home Monday night about 9 o'clock. I had made a crock pot of chili so that we could eat and it would still be hot when the travelers arrived. All of a sudden, the house was once again full of talking, laughter, and activity. When we settled in for bed, I told Collin, "It doesn't get any better than this--everybody is home and it's like old times. I'm happy and blessed."

Although we had quite a bit of together time and celebration time, each had an agenda which provided a week of relaxation, down time, and fun stuff to do. Bryan left Friday morning for Little Rock. One of his closest friends was getting married and he was playing the drums in the wedding reception band. He got in early Sunday morning and had a great time. Monday morning, he was up early and went duck hunting. He had a great time and killed his limit on ducks. This resulted in cleaning them in the afternoon with friends along with some cooking and taste-testing. He went hunting two more times before the week was out.

Micah and I got to do some shopping at the mall and some of our other favorite stores. We were somewhat successful. We just have a good time talking and planning for Christmas. We did make a detour to Chick-Fil-A. If you haven't tried the Peppermint Chocolate Shake you do not know know what you are missing. Be sure to go for the additional whipped topping and cherry. I may want another one before the season ends. We also split a pretzel before leaving the mall. This has become a tradition, but we were still a little full from our shake so one between us was enough. After all, we wanted to save room for turkey.

We celebrate with the traditional dinner with my mom and dad on Wednesday night. Collin smokes the turkey breast and mom does the sides and desserts. Collin know what he is doing on the smoker. That turkey was soooooooo good; very moist, favorable, and tender. Here is the spread below before we grabbed plates and forks.

Thursday morning, Micah and Rhyne packed up to head out to the Putman house. Collin helped me and we put up our Christmas tree and began bringing in all the other boxes to begin putting away fall decorations and getting out all the Christmas stuff. Late in the afternoon, we went out to the Elder's house to celebrate with them. Bryan came along.

Friday morning around 9 o'clock, I went to town to shop for a few Christmas bargains I was interested in. I do NOT need anything so badly that I need to shop in the early hours of the morning. I found what I was looking for, came home, had a snack of lunch, and spent the rest of the day decorating. This was also my Saturday agenda--decorating the house. My house is almost complete ready to celebrate the next holiday.

There were also a few other activities and surprises during the week, but I'm waiting to tell about those on another post. Now it is just about back to routine. Our NO kids left to head home this morning. Bryan is making plans to head back to the campus for about two more weeks, and Collin and I are back to work in the morning. Another wonderful thing about Thanksgiving is that I know in about 3 or 4 weeks, we get to do all this over again. I have lots to do in those weeks. More shopping, parties, and activities.

Tis the season,

Marcia

RCS Homecoming

Although I'm about a week behind and lots of excitement is in the air with the approaching holidays, I wanted to share about Homecoming Week at RCS. This school is a wonderful place and this was a week of fantastic happenings. Every day was a spirit day with a themed dress-up. Even the elementary children took part in the building up to Friday with theme days. As Friday arrived, it was an all-day affair of celebration. The morning started out early at 8 o'clock with dodge ball in the gym. The classes played each other and then the winners took on the faculty. I wasn't party to this activity. I was in the main building taking care of some pressing issues, but sadly, the teachers didn't pull this one out. Maybe next year.I did make it to the talent competition. Every class has an act. In some cases, both the boys and the girls do acts separately. They make up skits or pantomime music. All the skits were really cute and lots of fun. Can you guess this one--the Blues Brothers.

After the skits, each class worked on their spirit banners to hang in the gym and soon it was lunch time. After the judging of the banners it was time for the parade. Each class, 7-12, builds a float on a trailer to be pulled by a truck. This year's theme was Destination Postcard so all of the floats said, "Greetings from . . . " All the floats were really cute. My favorite was the Wizard of Oz. We have a rather large parking lot. The floats go around twice. The Pk3-6 take to the sidewalks to watch the parade and fill their sacks with candy.

After the parade, everyone PK3-12 headed to the gym for the pep rally. After a couple of cheers, the festivities were stopped for a special guest. This is a really long story that I can't tell now, but Lt. Davis arrived from a year-long deployment in Afghanistan and we helped with a surprise reunion with his 3-year old daughter, Ava, who had no idea that her dad had arrived stateside, much less in Jonesboro. I wish my pictures were a little better, but when he walked through the door, she bounded off the bleachers and ran across the floor into his arms with tears in her eyes. I managed in less than an hour to get the newspaper and TV station there. It made both the paper and the evening news.

There wasn't a dry eye in the house. He had surprised his wife that morning.

After the excitement, the pep rally resumed and the games and activities continued.

The ballgames began at 5:30 and between the jr. and sr. high games, the royalty was announced. Unfortunately, the games didn't end in RCS' favor, but the kids had a great day and a great week.

Last week had some excitement as well that I'd like to share, but I'm still in catch up mode. Looking ahead to this very special week, more excitement awaits. Two days of school remain until Thanksgiving and our kiddos are headed home. I'll soon be decorating for Christmas.

Marcia

Veteran's Day Celebration

Thursday was a very special day in the life of RCS. Our social studies teacher organized a Veteran's Day assembly to pay tribute to our local heroes who have served in the military and those who are presently serving. At 9:30, our gym was packed out with students, 1st through 12 grades, as well as military honorees along with their spouses, and other guests in the community. Every grade level was asked to create patriotic banners and to hang them through the gym. This just happened to be one of them that was presented by the first graders. As you can see, there are four alumni actively serving at this time.

As the veterans begin to arrive and American anthems were playing, there was special seating for them on the floor. There were a number of men that had served in WW II some being in their 90s. The youngest were probably late 20s and early 30s. I was extremely pleased that my dad could come and be counted as part of that group. You can see both he and mom about mid-way of this photo. Each one was recognized by the branch of service and then by the war they served in. I thought it was very special.

This gentleman was the guest speaker. He was 93 and had been a POW for three years in the Philippines.

The school choir sang the National Anthem and at the end of the program this student sang a solo, a tribute of thanks to all soldiers.

At the close of the program, the children gave flags to the veterans that they had colored as an appreciation and there was a short reception to honor the vets. Again, I was delighted that my dad could come and share in the celebration of the day.

Marcia

PS. Sorry my pictures are out of order. After thinking I was finished, I found a CD I thought I left at school so I added several good ones at the top.

Fall Festivities

What a beautiful fall day. It started out a bit dreary and a little cool, but the sun broke through and the temperature climbed to about 65. It was a perfect day and it looks like fall. The trees are actually getting very pretty.

My day didn't begin until about 8:30. I've been sick all week; Thursday and yesterday were not too good. I came home, took medicine, and went to bed. This morning's extra rest really helped out a lot. Thankfully, I'm feeling much better. After a morning of leisure, I got dressed in comfortable clothes and headed to school for the annual Fall Festival.

This is the major fund raiser sponsored by our parent group, PACE, to help support the programs of the school. When you are private, there are no state or federal funds to help out, so this is an extremely important day in the life of RCS. In the pictures that follow, you can see some of the festivities.

The DARE cars were brought out for the kids.

There are games in every classroom for the kids to play, inflatables outside to play on, a bake sale inside, country kitchen outside with breakfast foods and then lunch foods, PACE school memorabilia inside to buy, and the major event.

The silent auction hosts the the most incredible themed baskets you've ever seen. These baskets were valued at several hundred dollars. This picture doesn't do justice to what was inside and the beauty of these baskets.

Last year, this day reaped about $30,000 for the school. New to the festival this year was a 2-mile Harvest Fun Run. Everyone seemed to have a great time. I know I enjoyed being out and about. I bid on a Christmas basket, but it wasn't enough to bring it home. I enjoyed lunch and visiting with the crowd.

After getting home, I walked in the yard a bit waiting on Collin. This pretty golden maple is in my yard.

He killed a 9-point deer last week and upon his return home from Brookland where he had done some odd jobs for his folks, we headed out to the processing plant to get the meat. We drove to the back side of nowhere so needless to say we were WAY out in the country and saw some beautiful scenery on our drive.

I made this one somewhat on the run. This view was beautiful, but the camera just can't quite capture that of the eye.

Happy Harvest,

Marcia