It's been an interesting year so far. We've been going strong all year so far. Back in the end of January/beginning of February one of Sylvia's colleges, whom I shall henceforth refer to as Darth Vader, tried to accuse her of assault & battery. I say tried because, even though Darth Vader did report this to the on sight Sheriff's Deputy, a witness statement proved that it didn't happen anything close to what Vader claimed. It did cause a lot of stress at work for Sylvia and as a result starting in the fall she will no longer be working at Brandon High School. She will be opening a new high school in Hillsborough County named Strawberry Crest High School. It's going to be an International Baccalaureate school. The best of the best! Funny how God works things out sometimes. In the midst of all of this Sylvia is also working on a Masters degree and she continues to train teachers. Crazy, I know.
The kids are doing well. Three of the four are in school somewhere... actually they are in three different schools. That's going to change next year for the sake of sanity if for no other reason. Tyler & Liam are in schools within a mile of our house. Rachel's school is 13 miles away. She & Sylvia get up at 5:30 am to get her to the bus stop for an hour ride to school and then an hour ride back in the afternoon. It's been very difficult for us (keep in mind we only own one vehicle) to keep up with her academics because of the distance. In the fall she will be going to the same middle school as Tyler. Hopefully that move will ease some stress for us.
Liam fell off of his bike a few weeks ago and gave himself a concussion along with some memory loss. That was a fun night to say the least. I thought he might have broken his elbow as well but that turned out to not be the case... thankfully!!! He's fine now and can even remember who he is. Piper is... well.... Piper. She's a mess. Just the way we like her. She was walking a 9 months and running at 10. Now, at 18 months she's climbing and doing pretty much what her brothers and sister do. Or at least she tries to. She absolutely adores Tyler and he her. Liam makes her laugh and she puts up with Rachel. It's a girl thing I guess!?! She really brightens up all of our lives!
Mom had her second knee replacement at the end of April and is doing phenomenal! She has recovered twice as fast as she did the last time. It's all about the rehab center! The first time around the rehab center didn't do very much physical therapy. This time we sent her to a different facility and they worked her hard. The difference... last time she left the rehab center in a wheelchair. This time she walked out on her own! With the help of a walker but on her own never the less.
I just finished recording a live worship CD with my church worship team. We did two nights of recording. The first night was sans the live audience. Everything was set up the same as it was for the night of the actual event. It was live only without the crowd. The second night was intense!!! The energy from the crowd was massive. We did 12 songs & 3 encores. They would've stayed for as long as we played! One of the encores was a song called Break Free. When I launched into it the audience erupted! It was very powerful and a lot of fun to be a part of the experience. Here are a few pics from that evening.
My area of the stage.
My view from the stage.
Ciao,
Mark.
