New Year's Eve

Grace and I had a quiet evening together; took in a movie and welcomed a year that promises to be special for both of us... for all the same reasons!

The picture was sent from Montana by my brother Steve... things were obviously a lot more festive celebrating grandbaby Lydia's first New Year!
(pictured with her mom/my niece Chelsea Craw)

Tuesday, December 28th

...the gathering at my sister Susie's on Christmas Day:

Christmas Day Activity

Christmas morning at Grace's...

Christmas Eve

Our first Kynast-Baxley tree complete with ornaments from both of our families; next Christmas we'll be one!
The photos on the left are from Kara's cell phone with the message:
"Dinner at Olive Garden :-)" (with Grandma and Gumpa Laurie)

Kara's with us!

...and she was for a day; this was taken Thursday morning (in Grace's driveway) as she and her brother loaded up to spend a couple of days with their Gainesville grands...

Tuesday, December 21st

Grace, Tim and I got to have lunch with my dear friends Francisco and Marysol Zamora from Nicaragua... the oldest two of their three sons now live in Jax; she has been the Guidance Counselor at NCA since the day I started there in '96!

Monday, December 20th

Tim made the 7-hour drive without incident...
A couple more pictures from last weekend:The original "Five Guys"...... with Mary Kate Jagoda...

Jordan & Taylor Bell's Wedding

Tim and some of his closest friends from ACA had this picture taken at yesterday's wedding of two of their Class of 2009 classmates:L2R:Seth Barker, TK, Philip Richardson, Mary Kate Jagoda, Eric Shuman, David Denton, Harrison Best. Plans are for Tim to drive to Florida Monday morning...

Dinner with the Price's

We've been looking for an opportunity to go to dinner with Chris and Christy... He's the missions pastor at our church, and the one we've asked to perform our wedding ceremony June 19th here in Jax!The foursome after a couple of hours of fellowship and a delicious meal at Cantina Laredo...

Christmas Break!!

Made it through the first semester! Grace and I celebrated by trying the grilled triggerfish (see image) at The Fish Company on Atlantic Beach... not much to look at, but absolutely delicious the way it was prepared tonight!

Will's One-Act

The man has talent! Will played the lead in I Am Herbert ...Stanton's entry in our district's Thespian competition... here's a peek at the star in action:

Sunday, December 5th

Gorgeous day in Northeast Florida... may be the last for a while; weather forecasts call for freezing temperatures overnight for the rest of this week!

Saturday, December 4th

Grace's old A/C unit finally gave up the ghost... after looking at a bunch of options, we went with Cool-R-Us, a business owned and operated by Albanians!

A Birthday and an Anniversary

Big day at "the Rah's"... sister Susie celebrates another year of wedded bliss, while her son Jason catches back up to his cousin Kara! (birthdays are 16 days apart)

Sunday, November 28th

Drew leads worship at
Calvary Chapel Boca Raton...
This photo shows the man in action at the Saturday night service; there are three more Sunday morning and another Wednesday evening!The view from the stairwell on Drew and Bonnie's 3rd story apartment in Pompano Beach... the last thing we saw before making the five-hour drive north; back to work tomorrow!

Saturday, November 27th

Eating again? Yup, this time @Uncle Julio's...
(not a relative... a restaurant in Boca Raton ;-)

Thanksgiving - Part 3

Round 3 at Loren and Nellie Strickland (Drew's parents)' in Davie...

Thanksgiving - Part 2

Nephew Jason did a phenomenal job with the turkeys (one roasted, one deep-fried) and a great time was had by all!We topped things off with a bubbly grape juice toast of thanksgiving to God for our extended family..Tim and Kara are headed back to Atlanta as I make this entry...

Thanksgiving - Part 1

We're scheduled for three Thanksgiving meals... here's the gang for round one in Gainesville:Tim surprised us all by coming down with Kara after telling the adults he was staying in Asheville... he couldn't exactly skip the chance to meet his new cousin Harley Cooper Wright!

First Day of Thanksgiving Break

Grace and I had lunch @The Landing with these four:
Scott Grogan (pictured with his wife Rachel) was a Journeyman Missionary in '97 when I hired him to teach at the Nicaragua Christian Academy; he now teaches Computer Science at a Middle School three miles from Grace's house... Frank Zamora (pictured at his wedding with wife Chelsea) was one of the first students to graduate from NCA (Class of '99)... they also now reside in Jacksonville... lots of fun "catching up" and meeting wives & fiancee's!

Long Weekend

Grace and I had Veterans' Day off; I had class on Friday, gave tests in all my classes, then spent a big chunk of the weekend grading them with football games in the background... oh, and we did get in what the two of us decided is the last garage sale of our lives... I think we may have covered our expenses; boxed what was left for a variety of charities...Kara had a great time and is back from NY; Tim's soccer season ended with a 2-0 loss to High Point College... he is optimistic that they'll have a stronger team next fall.

College LG

Grace took the lead in our "life group" on the fifth in our sermon series on "Life's Healing Choices" (based on the Beatitudes)...

Steve's Birthday

My "little" bro turned 52 today... here he is hanging out with one of his nieces near his home in "Big Sky Country"

Friday, November 5th

Yay, made it to the weekend!
My daughter sent this while I was explaining stem-changing verbs to my 5th period Spanish I class... she's in "The Big Apple" through next Wednesday and took it at the entrance to New York University, where her grandfather Frank Kynast earned his BS in Civil Engineering some 55 years ago...

Thursday, November 4th

UNCA ended it's 5-game losing streak yesterday with a 1-0 victory over Winthrop... Linda Richardson captured this portion of the celebration of Bryan George's game-winner:

Last Day in October

Tim got to play the last seven minutes of yesterday's game against Wofford... by then they were down 2-0 to their coach's old team... they're going to have to figure out a way to start putting the ball in the net soon; just two games left in the regular season and then the conference tournament...Linda Richardson sent this picture showing TK between three defenders breaking toward goal...

Tuesday, October 26th

One of the advantages of a large school is that it's easier to offer a wider range of electives... a sample of work from one of our student's photography class... "splash art"

The VMI Game

There was a long line at IHOP, so we ended up at Waffle House for Tim's pre-game brunch...Here he is entering the game in the first half... thigh injury or not, he looked good out there... UNCA is still finding it tough to get the results it's looking for on the scoreboard, and dropped this one 2-1...

Friday, October 22nd

Our football team (currently 8-0) has been demolishing opponents this season... the photo shows one of my Spanish II students (Frantz Caudio) moving the chains against Oakleaf last night...Grace and I will be headed to Asheville this afternoon to be there for Tim's Saturday 2:00 home game against VMI... tomorrow would've been his mom's 56th birthday! We hear the leaves are GORGEOUS in the Carolina mountains right now... nothing, of course, on the scale of what Lana is experiencing!We rolled into Asheville at 11:15... Tim's been nursing a thigh injury for a week, so it's uncertain whether he'll get to play tomorrow, but maybe...

Homecoming Photo

Living near a US Navy base has its advantages... this from the stands at our high school Homecoming game last Friday!!

Homecoming Parade

I marched with the Spanish Club in this afternoon's parade..."Gold Rush" is quite an event complete with skits, awards...

...and then the obligatory lopsided (62-0) Homecoming victory!

Saturday, October 9th

Got to watch today's game on-line... UNCA was on the losing end of this one, dropping a 4-1 decision to Radford. Pictured is the direct-kick that resulted in the home team's lone goal. TK looks to be in good position to run onto a low cross; Colton Paschall bent this one around the right side of the wall, however, scoring unassisted...

OT Victory!

TK sent me the following text after his away game against Presbyterian College: "another overtime... but this time we scored on a free kick (to win) 2-1 and i played 15 minutes of the first half and the ENTIRE second half and overtime! up top (target man) the whole 67 minutes!!" Pretty exciting, huh?
The guy pictured (Colton Paschall) scored both goals... he's a graduate of the high school I attended in grades 8-10 (NW Guilford High in Greensboro, NC) http://www.uncabulldogs.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=19200&ATCLID=205007132

Friday, October 1st

Friday evenings are fun... a chance to unwind after a taxing week in the classroom for both of us; we generally go out for dinner... tonight it was Christopher Seafood......then a stroll on the Jacksonville Beach!

TK's first PT!

Tim texted me the following report following yesterday's match against Gardner-Webb: "lost 3-0... played the last 10-min! and had 1 shot (blocked) and almost had a 1-on-1 with the keeper but the last defender broke it up... soo much fun though!" The game was videotaped and is available on the UNCA website at http://www.uncabulldogs.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=92306&SPID=11164&ATCLID=205003500&DB_OEM_ID=19200TK is #24 (pictured on the sidelines of last Saturday's game...

UNCA Family Weekend

Tim led this foursome on a personalized tour of campus (pictured in the main library)We traveled to Johnson City, TN; Tim's first chance to suit up for an away game... no PT however in UNCA's 2-1 double-overtime loss to ETSU...After church, it was brunch with the Richardson's and Ginny Pierson!...then the 7 hour drive; only difference is this year it's with you-know-who ;-)