Thursday, October 30th

We had a half-day of classes today, five hours of parent/teacher conferences in the afternoon, and more tomorrow... Tim took advantage of the time off to take his first college campus visit. In a couple of years, I may have to drive 8 hours north to Ohio to see him play on this field at Cedarville University!

Wednesday, October 29th (second entry)

It may be a "small world", but the fact that Guillermo, Mayra and Andrea Aguilar showed up in Asheville this week is proof that we serve a BIG God. I took this picture at the end of the evening service at Trinity Baptist Church. The Aguilars are Costa Rican missionaries serving in Managua; their daughters Andrea and Valeria are students at the Nejapa campus of NCA. Their praise of the ministry of the school was such a blessing to me as one who was privileged to be a part of getting it started my last year in Nicaragua.

Wednesday, October 29th

Heather Day (one of Tim's classmates) gave her testimony in our high school chapel of God's deliverance after years of more suffering than a person should see in a lifetime... The sparkle in her eye now is evidence of her awareness of who she is in Christ... I can only imagine the things He will accomplish through her now that she is so open to whatever He plans for her to do with her life.

Tuesday, October 28th

Snow in October! We got a nice little "dusting" this morning (the picture was taken from my office window at around 9:00); by noon, most of it had melted, but it did add a little excitement to the normal routine...

Monday, October 27th

I couldn't resist posting another picture of the leaves... forgive me, they are just so full of color right now.
This was the first day of the second quarter of classes, and the teachers are still working hard to enter grades and meet our report card deadlines; Tim is taking advantage of the short week (parent/teacher conferences Thursday afternoon and all day Friday) to go for his first college campus visit! He'll be traveling to Ohio with a senior friend to look at Cedarville University.

Sunday, October 26th

At the risk of making a couple of you jealous, this is the view of the sky from our backyard right now... the 20-minute drive to church this morning was absolutely gorgeous, especially the 8-mile stretch on the Blue Ridge Parkway.
We do have a guestroom...

Saturday, October 25th

I couldn't be prouder of the girls if they had managed to upset the #1 team... they always "leave it all on the court"! Here's a shot of the seniors (L2R Sarah Richardson, Rebekah Stinehour, Jamie Martin & Taylor Pierce) with their medals and state runner-up trophy... They still have more NC state championship trophies than any other players from the Class of 2009.

Friday, October 24th

What a day for our girls! The cross country team won state by 38 points behind all-state performances by sophomores Whitney Thornburg and Sarah Baker. The volleyball team dispatched their state quarterfinal opponent and faced the only 2-A team that beat them this year... High Point Christian (yes, the same school that eliminated our soccer team on Tuesday). Our "nemesis" took the first and fourth games, forcing a deciding fifth game... which we won 15-6. Tim and I are staying overnight in Charlotte and plan to be there for the girls' 11:00 AM attempt at an unprecedented 10th-straight State Championship in volleyball!

Speaking of our girls... Kara went to her cousin (my sister, Susie's daughter), Jennifer's wedding in Tampa this afternoon...

Thursday, October 23rd

It's Lana's birthday, but I know that if they recognize those in Heaven, she'll be spending her wishes on her kids. We hosted this party for Kara in the backyard of our first house in Gainesville 20 years ago...

P.S. Kara is still a little short on support for her mission trip to Spain next month. Contributions (tax-deductible if made out to: "GTCCF") can be sent to her at:
Kara Kynast, Intern
Georgia Tech CCF House
763 Techwood Drive
Atlanta, GA 30313

Wednesday, October 22nd

This was a Wednesday that started out feeling like it should've been a Saturday... ever have one of those? In this instance, it most likely has to do with having ended something (soccer season) on a Tuesday. It ended up being a great day nonetheless!

Tomorrow is the 54th anniversary of Lana's arrival as the first-born of Harry and Mary Wright of Ellettsville, Indiana (pictured with Lana and her brother, Mitch). I met her shortly after the photo was taken (at her church in Bloomington).

Tuesday, October 21st

As advertised, it was a great game of soccer... the teams prayed together before and after the match, and played their hearts out, honoring God and their schools with their tenacious play and sportsmanship.
The scoreless tie was broken at the 30th minute by their star senior striker, SungJin Song (#18). ACA answered two minutes later on a 25-yard blast by junior midfielder, Jared Robinson, making the half-time score 1-1. ACA seemed to control play for the majority of the second half but was unable to take the lead; just when it looked like overtime might be in the works, SungJin struck again, ending our season.
We certainly gave them all they could handle, and only asked in return that they go and win it all, so that we'll know we were beaten by the best.

Monday, October 20th

It's interesting that tomorrow's state quarterfinal pits us against High Point Christian, a team that we know and respect as well as any outside our conference. We were at the Charlotte Eagles' Soccer Camp with them July 27-29 (pictured in action behind Tim), then lost to them 6-1 (August 23rd) and 3-1 (September 6th). If we were to play them ten times, they would probably beat us eight; they are a skilled, classy and well-coached team... a Final Four team from last year that is composed largely of players who concentrate on soccer year-round (none of them was on the #1 ranked baseball team that an ACA team that included five of our varsity soccer players knocked off earlier this year on the way to our state championship; they were all playing club soccer).
Just for the record, I'm really proud of our boys for the way they have come together, for the brand of soccer they are playing... One thing is for sure: win or lose tomorrow, the fans are going to get a show! (4:00 p.m. @HPCA)

Sunday, October 19th

I pulled this picture off Kara's Facebook account... I just love that girl; there she is hanging out with five guys watching TV on the beach! She was home last night and just had to watch the finale of "Project Runway"... now that is a show that I wouldn't have any interest in watching on my own, but it was fun watching it with her... maybe it was just the "hanging out with my daughter" that was so much fun!

That girl is leaving for Spain in four weeks to investigate the possibility of working in the ministry house at the University of Salamanca next year. She flies out of Atlanta on her 22nd birthday (November 15th).

Saturday, October 18th

Our girls got off to a great start in this afternoon's conference cross country meet (far left in the navy uniforms) with the first seven setting PR's (personal records) at the Christ School course for top team honors. The girls volleyball team is working on a tenth straight state championship, so the bar is pretty high for the boys at ACA...

Friday, October 17th

We won! The boys played like champions and were rewarded with a 4-2 victory over a team that had beaten us 3-1 earlier this season. We are now in the State Quarterfinals and face the #2 team in the state, High Point Christian, a team that has beaten us twice this season (6-1 & 3-1); they say "it is tough to beat a good team three times", and we are playing much better than we were in September!

Thursday, October 16th

We stopped to eat at Luigi's in Winston-Salem, and are staying @Hampton Inn in Sanford (about 45 minutes from the site of tomorrow's state play-off game against Village Christian). It's lights-out at 11:00, breakfast in the hotel @8:00, a light workout at a local school, showers, lunch, and preparation for the 4:00 showdown... this is fun!

Wednesday, October 15th

I took this picture (left-clicking on it should enlarge it) just prior to the kick-off of our second game of the year. Our opponent was Village Christian (in white); we lost the game 3-1 ("Tyson" #11 gave us all sorts of problems defensively), and it was definitely the most physical team we played this year; at game's end, I told the team that I hoped we would get another shot at them... well, we do! They will be hosting us on Friday @4:00 as the #7 seed; we are seeded #10. Should we win that game, we would play another familiar foe (that beat us 3-1 the last time we met... September 6th), High Point Christian (the #2 seed), and a win there (next Tuesday) would put us in the Final Four one week from tomorrow.

Tuesday, October 14th

This was the scene on stage at last night's National Honor Society induction ceremony, with this year's President (Sarah Richardson) at the podium.

Monday, October 13th

The boys came to play today, besting Mountain Heritage (a team that beat us 4-1 last year) by a score of 7-1. As the last regular-season game, this was also "senior day", and a chance to honor the 3 team members in the class of 2009 and their parents...
Pictured L2R: Steven Forester, TJ Stump, Joe Barker, Harrison McGinnis, Tim Kynast, Jonathan Jonas, Sammy Feinberg, Austin Pelle, Garrett Huntley, Andrew Johnson, William Brown, Matthew Moore, (Senior) Adam Johnson, (Senior) Blake Wright (with roses for their mothers), Thomas George, Jared Robinson, Alan Johnson, Philip Richardson (Not pictured: Senior, Stephen Brown).

Sunday, October 12th

I spent two hours on the mountain-to-sea this afternoon... it was so beautiful. The leaves are starting to turn, which always brings a flock of tourists from "down south"; I didn't really notice except on the two occasions that I had to cross the Parkway to get to-and-from my house to the trail.

Saturday, October 11th

We lost 3-2 to Christ School, even though we led 1-0 at intermission, and Tim scored a gorgeous header with ten minutes to go (to tie the game at two)... we lacked the fire that we need to have to win games in the post-season... hopefully, we'll fan the coals on Monday against Mountain Heritage (4:30 @ACA) and be ready for round one next Friday.

The Gator football team did take care of business in beating #3 LSU 51-21. This is an old picture of Kara, Tim and 7 of their 11 cousins, with Jason (a senior @Florida) doing "the chomp" at my sister (Betsy)'s old house in Orlando.

Seated L2R: Caitlyn Kynast, Jordan Kynast, Tim, Jennifer Rahimitabar, Kara, Jason Rahimitabar.
Standing: Kailey Kynast, Nicole Montague, Ryan Montague.

Friday, October 10th

This is not a very clear picture, but I am proud of it nonetheless. I forgot my camera, and took this one with my cell phone and then sent it to my e-mail... moving up in the techno-savvy world! The man in the photo is Liam Starkenburg, the current director of Nicaragua Christian Academy (my old school)... he was at the ACSI Convention recruiting teachers for next fall. Openings are posted at www.nca.edu.ni

The soccer team found out after practice today that it has made the playoffs. We have two more regular-season games (tomorrow and Monday), and then play Friday or Saturday(depending on our seeding) in round one of the single-elimination tournament, with a spot in the state quarterfinals on the line.

Thursday, October 9th

It was 6 months ago today that Lana took her last breath on this earth...
I was privileged to know her for roughly half of the 53 years she spent here; I snapped this picture of her on our first date in the fall of '82 (in front of the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse at Disney World)... seems like it was yesterday!

Wednesday, October 8th

This entry is being written from room 1561 at the ACSI (Association of Christian Schools International) Convention Center in Greensboro, NC. The entire faculty of Asheville Christian Academy www.acacademy.org will be here for three days growing in fellowship with each other and in our abilities as professional educators. The students have a 5-day weekend!

Tim is staying at a friend's house, and I haven't heard from him, so I know he's having a great time.

Tuesday, October 7th

Carolina Day was unable to do what we did Friday and Monday (beat two teams they had beaten before), and even though we lost a 2-1 heart-breaker in the waning minutes of today's game against the top team in our conference, we are all but in the state playoffs.

It's complicated, but basically our conference is composed of 3-3A and 4-2A (smaller) schools; to get an automatic spot in the playoffs, we have to finish ahead of the other three in our classification. at 7-3-1, we are now 1/2 game ahead of our nearest competitor (Carolina Day 7-4-0) and each of us have a game to play. We will know by Friday evening (when we receive the results of their game with Rabun Gap) what we have to do on Saturday (against Christ School, the team we tied earlier this year) to make the playoffs... stay tuned.

Monday, October 6th

It is always hard to play an opponent you are supposed to beat the day before you play the game, but the boys took care of business this afternoon, beating Shannon Forest 2-0 on goals by Jared Robinson and Blake Wright, and stellar defensive play by Philip Richardson, Adam Johnson & Co.

Tomorrow's game is against the top team in our conference, Rabun Gap. Should we beat them, we would still have hope of earning a spot in the state playoffs, with a Carolina Day loss (or tie) to the same team. Game time 5:00 @ACA. Hope to see you there!

Sunday, October 5th

Here's a picture of the same three at the "tailgate party" hosted by CCF. Christian Campus Fellowship http://www.gtccf.org/ is where Kara lives and works this year as a graduate intern.

Saturday, October 4th

Parent Day @Georgia Tech was a lot of fun... the "tailgate party" @CCF, going to the Duke game with the three pictured (watching the Yellow Jackets send the Blue Devils back to Durham with their tails between their legs, after a 27-0 drubbing) & dinner with four of Kara's closest friends... all-in-all a great day! Mom drove south from Atlanta, is staying overnight just outside of Macon and will visit with her daughter (Betsy)'s in-laws (the Montague's) in Albany, before driving home to Orlando. Tim and I got back to Asheville just before 11:00... a full day!

Friday, October 3rd

We bounced back enough to shut out Spartanburg Day at their place this afternoon. Tim headed in a cross from Thomas George to give us the margin of victory.

He, Mom and I have a room in Commerce, Georgia. Kara has invited us all to a tailgate party at the CCF house and tomorrow's football game (Georgia Tech is hosting Duke)... should be a good game; Duke has a decent team this year.

Thursday, October 2nd

We took 34 shots to Carolina Day's 14... problem is two of theirs went in and none of ours... ouch! This video is a look at one of those shots (by Jonathan Jonas). We are now in a must-win situation for the next four games, and even winning all of them, we will have to hope that Carolina Day loses one of their last two, in order to be assured of a spot in the state playoffs. I know, "it's only soccer", but it hurts right now.

Wednesday, October 1st

Mom offered to cook dinner, so I thought I should invite my office staff and their families to join us... pork roast, mashed potatoes, red cabbage, salad, fresh rolls, chocolate pie (Laura), apple cobbler (Jeri) & ice cream... mmm! L2R: Joel & Laura Benzing, Jeri & Bruce Watson, Rebekah Watson, Tim Watson, Mom.

Tomorrow is the day for the BIG game. We play Carolina Day at ACA (5:30 p.m.) A win all but assures us a place in the play-offs, and keeps us in the driver's seat for the conference championship... come on out if you are in the area!

Tuesday, September 30th

This picture was snapped after dinner during a rousing game of cribbage between "G-mom" and her grandson... it was his first game against the seasoned veteran and "beginner's luck" must've been in effect, because he "skunked" her.