Friday, January 30th

I snapped this picture (with my cell phone) at tonight's basketball game against defending AAA State Champion Christ School (a team ranked in the top 10 teams in the USA... their star player is on the U-18 National Team & has signed to play for Duke in the fall)... we fought valiantly and went down 84-59, a respectable score, all things considered. The photo shows our players and students gathered for what has become a post-game tradition... the team asking their classmate-fans to join them in prayer! How cool is that?!

Thursday, January 29th

I hope they remember these "optional" 6:30AM workouts when the going gets tough in-season! L2R: Austin Smith, Tim, Matt Justice, Jared Robinson, Thomas George, Patrick James. Baseball season begins (officially) two weeks from Monday; coaches are allowed to work with up to 8 players at a time in these pre-season practices.

Wednesday, January 28th

Wednesday is "Chapel Day" @ACA and our upper school students are asked to dress up a little... here they are at the end of lunch (Tim in the gold tie).

Looks like our June 4-12 excursion to Nicaragua is quickly becoming a father-son mission trip; Tim and I asked a couple of his classmates what they thought of the idea and it has taken off...

Tuesday, January 27th

Tim and I were at school all day today... SAT Prep @7:00, weight training & a faculty meeting after school and three basketball games... got in just before 10:00. Sometimes I get to this point of the day and feel I have nothing to share, but this journal has become such a healthy habit that I hate to break it; next Thursday (February 5th) will mark the one year anniversary of my first on-line entry (on CaringBridge).

Why the picture of the "bat cave"? I took it when we were on the volcano in Masaya, Nicaragua two years ago... We now live near Bat Cave, North Carolina and there really is a cave with bats in it here, too; it is touted as "the largest granite fissure cave in North America"... guess we'll need to check that one out on a day with more hours in it.

Monday, January 26th

Tim (in hooded sweatshirt) and 19 of his classmates are taking a "zero-hour" (7:00AM M/Tu) SAT-Prep class taught by Linda Richardson (pictured) and James Foust (his Pre-Cal teacher).
We have a terrific student body (as a whole) and I am thrilled with the group that makes up the ACA Class of 2010 (my son's)!

Sunday, January 25th

It's my "Connect Group" teacher, Steve Cooper's birthday; here he is with his wife, Freda... they do a terrific job leading our class on Sunday mornings and all throughout the week.

I Thessalonians 5:16-18 has been the theme passage for my year. It reads, "Be joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." It goes well with the unit on prayer Steve has been teaching and this morning's sermon exhorting us to prioritize our families.

Saturday, January 24th

Tim, three of his teammates (Jared, Tom & Sammy), and a few of us parents spent the day at the Carolina Elite Soccer Academy "College Player Exposure Combine" in Greenville, SC. Tim is in the center of this picture awaiting a cross from the left wing (in orange); he just missed getting a head on this one, but did score later to help bring his team back from a two-goal halftime deficit. It was a good chance to see what the competition looks like for high school players hoping to play at the next level.

Friday, January 23rd

This distinguished group of men and women from all walks of life came together this morning for our monthly Athletic Staff Meeting. Most have jobs outside ACA, but coach one or more of our interscholastic sports teams... it is a talented and committed bunch. This session began at 6:45 and featured words of wisdom from Jack Brinkley (standing), director of Sports Outreach. What a blessing to have such a ministry-minded coaching staff!

Thursday, January 22nd

I love working with young people, and I think high school is my age group; that's not to say that I don't enjoy hanging out with younger or older kids, and one of my favorite things is tracking them all as they grow up! It's Sarah Reid's birthday... she's the young lady I introduced you to in the December 21st entry... here she is with some of the kids she's worked with in South America!

Tim and I got home just after 6:00 and I went right to work on my entry in tomorrow's Chili Cook-off (the contest Lana helped me win two years ago)... well, I've never made chili without her looking over my shoulder... should've paid closer attention to her instructions. It'll be edible.

Tim crashed! He had a baseball workout this morning at 6:30 and weight training with Carlos after school... good thing it's a short week!

Wednesday, January 21st

May be the only time this year, but I managed to get the best of Tim in tonight's 10-minute battle of foosball... he couldn't have let me win; that would be a clear violation of the most sacred rule in the "Kynast Code of Combat", which applies to all forms of competition. Tomorrow is a new day, but this one's in the record-books!

Inauguration Day

Is this an accident waiting to happen, or what? We got our "snow day", so Tim took the wheels off his skateboard and had fun riding the frozen railroad ties bordering our property.

We both spent a couple of hours in the middle of our day watching the Obama inauguration. The 16 years I spent outside the States have given me a keen appreciation for the unique blessing we enjoy as citizens of this great country...
The trials and frustrations inherent in life on this earth, help me treasure the citizenship I share with those of "every nation, tribe, people and language" who are my brothers and sisters in Christ.

Martin Luther King, Jr's Birthday

Kara got to stay through lunch, so we took her to Firehouse (our favorite sub-shop)... do they look excited? She was packing some of Ginny Pierson's home-made vegetable soup for dinner!

Tim and I got in a little soccer/baseball workout this afternoon as the snow began to fall... weather reports say that we could get as much as three inches by tomorrow morning... we'll see.

Sunday, January 18th

Today's political cartoon from Manuel Guillen of La Prensa... Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega is pictured (amidst the ruins of the constitutional framework of his country) saying: "and one more thing: we demand that you (the wealthy nations of the world) help us, but that your aid be unconditional."
We continue to pray for the dear, longsuffering people of the country that was our home-away-from-Home from 1996 to 2005 (and the international missionaries still in residence there).

It had been great to have Kara home, even as she continues to recover from her cold. Tim and I have Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday off tomorrow and will take her to brunch before she has to head back to Atlanta.

Saturday, January 17th

Tim's high school indoor team won its quarterfinal match, but bowed 8-7 to the top seed in the semis... Tim said it was a great game, the best we've played all season... good way to end it.

I stayed home with Kara; she needed the rest and seems to be doing somewhat better. The picture was taken at Shands Hospital in Gainesville, Florida where Lana was recovering from surgery in the summer of 2004... LOVE my girls!

Friday, January 16th

We earned a first round bye and won our semi-final match 13-2, but lost to Camp Woody 13-4 in the championship game of the indoor co-ed league... it wasn't for lack of fan support; we had about twice this many tonight!

Kara's home!! She picked up a head cold in Atlanta; I was a little worried about her making what ended up being a five-hour drive, but now that she's here, Tim and I have two-and-a-half days to nurse her back to health!

Thursday, January 15th

I neglected to mention one of the fun things Tim got to do over the Christmas break... here he is behind the wheel of a Plymouth Prowler! There were only 8,532 of them produced between 1997 and 2002. That's his sister, Kara, "riding shot-gun" and Gator Football Coach Urban Meyer's lake house in the background!

Wednesday, January 14th

We are blessed with a gorgeous gym... three full indoor basketball/volleyball courts! We don't play any other school that has that luxury, and boy do they get used. I snapped this picture of the varsity & JV teams yesterday afternoon (during finals week).

I've been dreading Round-2 with my cable-phone-internet provider (Charter); I called last week to ask why my bill had gone up $57/month; the phone attendant in India explained that the "deal" I had been getting was expired... 45 minutes, a transfer to an "account executive" and an offer for a $45/month adjustment later I told them I'd be shopping around.
As of today, we have a new 12-month "deal", are paying $27/month less than last year, and have added a few sports channels (Tim's been asking for FOXSoccer)... we did have to give up our land-line (seemed like a small sacrifice, since we all have cell phones).
Tim and I went to Martin's for a little pasta to celebrate!

Martes Trece

Tuesday, the 13th is the day considered "bad luck" by people who suffer from "trezidavomartiofobia" (somewhat common in Latin America); "Friday, the 13th" is just another day for them, unless they avoid the #13 altogether (like the designer of this elevator)... my thought is that anyone who is trying to avoid staying on the 13th floor is not going to "fall for this one" (and stay on the one being sold as the 14th)...

For what it is worth, Tim and I had a great day (semester finals notwithstanding)... my 7:00 p.m. committee meeting even got snowed out, giving me an extra evening at home with my son!

Monday, January 12th

It's not uncommon to find teachers working late at any school... This afternoon, I caught our Miss Solymosi (Chorus) and Miss Auten (Algebra & Geometry) still plugging away more than two hours after their workday had officially ended.
Semester finals begin in the morning; Tim is at a classmate's house studying for his Pre-Calculus exam...

Sunday, January 11th

Officially, our Sunday School class (also formerly known as a "BFG") is now a "Connect Group", and I am its assistant teacher; this is a snap-shot of tonight's training session for all those involved in leadership positions within the CGs. Tim spent the afternoon preparing for this week's semester finals, which begin Tuesday. Kara will be home next weekend... Tim and I miss that girl!!

Saturday, January 10th

A fun and productive day... Senior Parent Breakfast, homework and a take home test for Tim, laundry, shooting drills with dad, indoor soccer game (a 7-7 tie) and dinner with our good friends the Richardsons.

I found the $40 ball Tim is holding on-line for $13, so I bought eight of them; now we have enough to do a little training on our own... we'll see if we can't get this man ready to score an even greater bunch of goals next season.

Friday, January 9th

9 months to the day that Lana's been in Heaven... I wonder if there is any consciousness of time the way we know it, or if it is more like the isolated experiences we have on this earth where it literally flies by...

This was our family as we appeared in the 1988 Westside Baptist Church directory... Tim came on the scene three years later. Both he and Kara were born in Gainesville, home of the newly-crowned college football champion Florida Gators!

BCS Championship

At halftime of the National College Football Championship, Florida and Oklahoma are tied at 7... should be a great second half. No one expected such a low scoring game, and I feel confident that there will be alot more scoring in the second half.

I made pizza for the game... Tim usually eats a whole one by himself, so I make one to his specifications (pepperoni, pineapple and banana peppers) and the one pictured, which is half veggie/half his. When Kara is here, I make the other half of the second pizza to her specs (Tim's minus the peppers).

Wednesday, January 7th

When Tim has spare time, he can often be found tinkering thus in this corner of the "man cave"... as I type this entry, he has moved over to one of the couches and is plucking away on his guitar... there is no sweeter sound to me right now!

Tomorrow at this time, we'll both be settling in to watch the Gators try to win their third national football championship (all in the last 12 years).

Tuesday, January 6th

Most of my readers know I spent 9 years in Nicaragua, but how many knew I lived in South America (Buenos Aires, Argentina) as a kid (1963-1969)? My classmates at St. Andrews Scots School recognized Christmas as the celebration of the birth of Christ; January 6th (Epiphany) was called "Three Kings Day", and they all put their shoes on the back porch (no chimney issues to deal with) on this night each year for the Magi to fill with gifts...

Monday, January 5th

First day back at work for me... good to see my colleagues (brothers and sisters-in-the-Lord) again... men like Tim Barnett, veteran Chemistry & Physics professor (caught on film at this fall's upper school retreat).

Last day of the break for my Tim... he spent part of it doing a little homework; must've inherited some of his dad's procrastination genes...

Sunday, January 4th

You may have noticed, I often go back and edit entries once I have posted them; usually those are grammatical or form "enhancements". Today, I'd like to make a content correction on yesterday's entry. I went back and watched the video of the goal Tim scored a dozen times; I wrote "it wasn't the most exciting of his goals", but now I believe it had an element of greatness in that like all talented goal-scorers, Tim made that tally look easy... he positioned himself blind-side of the defender, timed his break for the ball perfectly, and struck it as well as anyone playing the game today (it goes without saying that the serve from his teammate, Garrett Huntley, was equally "sweet")!

There is nothing ordinary about our new pastor, Bruce Frank (photo). Both Tim and I have been challenged and entertained by the messages God speaks to us through him each week. This morning's text was John 4:20-24; Pastor Bruce exhorted us to be "authentic" and "accurate" in our relationships with God... to worship Him "in spirit and in truth." Live video recordings are available at http://archive.biltmorebaptist.org/bbcsermonvideo.xml

Saturday, January 3rd

I tried all fall to catch video of Tim scoring; since he led the team in that category, you'd think it wouldn't have been that hard... this was not the most exciting of his four goals in our 9-1 victory this afternoon, but I'm finally able to share one with you!

Friday, January 2nd

Tim and I bought our tickets today to be in Managua June 5th for the NCA Class of 2009 Graduation. Here's that group as 7th graders with their Spanish teacher, Sonia Dávila (Tim is in the light blue t-shirt). Some were Tim's classmates for the first 9 years he was in school... of course, they've all stayed in touch through Facebook/e-mail and our summer visits.

New Year's Day

Tim and I pulled in at 12:36 a.m. Twelve hours of driving and three stops (Bushnell, Gainesville & Atlanta):

1. G-Mom took us to the Florida National Cemetery, where dad's ashes are buried... a special time for the four of us;
2. Extended lunch and fun at Grandma's;
3. Kara reporting for duty (she has a meeting tomorrow morning at 9:00).

New Year's Eve

Here we are minutes before midnight on 2008, bubbly grape juice at hand. We spent the last day of the calendar year poolside, and Kara has been learning to play bridge this evening. Tomorrow we head home to Atlanta and Asheville...

We will always remember 2008 as the year my wife, their mother/daughter/sister-in-law went to Heaven... we miss her and look forward to seeing her again!