Hi! Wow...SEVEN months have gone by since the last update, and a lot has happened. I think I'll try to give it to you in outline form!

Thanksgiving 2013

• We went back to an old tradition (from before we had kids!) of inviting anyone we knew who needed a place to spend Thanksgiving with friends and "family."
• We filled the house! Dan's brother came down from North Carolina to be with us; we had a couple who are new friends, Larry and Lisa; and two single ladies from Gaye's His Angels group.
• Robin then stayed a couple of days, and came bowling and target shooting with us.

December 2013 at home

• Dan took Gaye on a dancing date! We went to the historic Macon Library Ballroom, met some other members of our Warner Robins dance association, and enjoyed dancing with a live jazz band!
• Our whole family – and many friends – went to see Robin Bullock and Steve Baughman in Macon for their Winter Solstice concert. It was their TENTH year of performing together in Macon! (Hey, Robin...we're getting older...)
• Because our family spent Christmas Day 2013 with Dan's parents, we celebrated our own at-home family traditions on "Virtual Christmas"...Dec 20th (Eve) and 21st (Day).

Holiday Travels

• We drove to Washington DC for Christmas Eve and Day, and spent the time with Dan's parents!
• We saw Dan's brother Robin again, and got to relive some family memories, being all together on Christmas Day.
• As we left town, we got to visit (briefly) a dear couple who put us up in their home when we were taking the Self-Confrontation II class in Fairfax (thanks, John & Peggy), and an old friend of Dan's – a fellow former USAF officer and guitar player (thanks, Paul)!
• Then we drove to Yellow Springs, Ohio, to spend the New Year with Gaye's mom Beverly and sister Pete.
• We went to a dinner theatre, did jigsaw puzzles, visited friends Ted & Marcy, played in some snow(!), and rang in the new year of 2014 with Beverly, Pete, Carol, Leigh (Gaye's brother), Miki, Anne, and Allen!

Winter 2014: January-March

• We had SNOW...right here in Warner Robins...a significant amount...in late January!
• In February, Dan and Gaye celebrated their 24th anniversary (and Dan's 52nd birthday) by staying at a nice hotel in Macon...but only after...
• We went to see Celtic Woman in concert in Macon! They put on a terrific show.
• In February, we also went to the Art of Chocolate Dance, where we danced to the live music of the Georgia Big Band, while sampling chocolate creations from local restaurants.
• And, in March, Anne AND Dan AND Gaye were asked to participate in the wedding of a friend of Anne's, named Jenny! So, we drove down to Florida, enjoyed the weather and the views, and had a great time helping with the wedding.

Spring 2014: April-June

• In April, we house-sat for some friends, and got to take care of their chickens! (Gaye likes to talk to them...)
• In May, Dan's parents came to Georgia to visit for a few days, and to celebrate Anne's 21st birthday!
• And in June, we took other people shooting a couple of times! First some folks from Dan's office, and then some of the His Angels group.
• Also in June, we had a car accident...our Pontiac Montana was totaled...but now we have a lovely, low-mileage Buick Terraza! (See Photos for more info.)

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Dan changed companies...but kept the same job. (Huh?) The company that DID have the contract for support of the program office for cargo loaders, Bering Straits Aerospace Services, wasn't eligible when the contract was recompeted in May 2014...so, the Air Force awarded the contract to Strategic Enterprise Solutions, Corp...on the condition that they hired all the same people! So they did, and Dan's contractor team is still in place. (Praise the Lord!)

The Christian men's 12-step group that Dan has been co-leading has finished! (Now he has his Monday evenings back, for the first time in 9 months...but it was worth it!) We may have set a record for graduation rate, too...eight guys finished, out of 12 who started! Congrats! (By comparison, when Dan took the same class, he was one of three that finished, out of 13...)

Dan got a new camera! It's another Pentax digital SLR, and it's MUCH faster and better all around than his previous one (which was 8 years old, which is a lifetime in computer years...and that's basically what the new cameras are...) If you have the time, he'll tell you all about it when you click here.

Dan is still enthusiastic about his target shooting. Since last update, he's gone to our regional outdoor range with other fellow shooters from his office, and with Gaye and her friends (for her birthday); to Eagle Gun Range in Macon with his brother; and to a friend's house in Fort Valley, with Gaye! Highlights in the "other-people's-guns" category since the last update are: Larry's guns – a Hi-Point C-9 9mm pistol, and a gold-plated NRA commemorative Colt M1911 .45 cal. pistol.

Dan is playing the bass guitar for worship services at church, and still finds time to get out and take photos of God's creation now and then (click the "Photos" link at the top of the page!).

Dan's a Moose! Well, it's like this...our little ballroom dance society needed a facility in which to hold its monthly dances. It turns out the local Moose Lodge has the best dance floor in Warner Robins, and in order to use it, all we had to do was all join the Lodge. So, now, in order to ballroom dance with Gaye, Dan has become a Moose! (or is one of the Meese...or something...)

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Gaye helped lead the worship time often at OUR church, but had fun opportunities at TWO different churches recently! She sang and played guitar at Christ Chapel Warner Robins one Wednesday, with her friends Jane and Susan; and then did the same with a much larger group of ladies (that used to be on our church's worship music team) at CentralPoint Chapel Byron.

She went (again this year) to the Radiant Women retreat, hosted by Christ Chapel Warner Robins.

Gaye has been keeping busy with her "His Angels" group. They had a Game Night in March; they have had Movie Night at our house; they have been out shooting with Gaye (and Dan) a couple of times (once was for Gaye's birthday!); and they still make time (at their weekly meetings) to send encouragement cards to various people. The group is growing! It now has younger and older ladies, married and single.

She's a Moose, too! And, she loves going dancing with Dan at the Dance Society monthly activities.

And she's been having a good time with Anne while Anne's been living at home – Gaye, for example, likes doing Zumba with Anne (see Anne's entry below for the explanation...).

Gaye Leigh's Rules For Getting Older:

While having teenagers, be thankful for doing things "all together":

While having a husband, be thankful for doing ALL things together:

While having relationships, be thankful for doing ANYTHING with anyone:

While relating to God, be thankful...

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Anne is now in the summer term at Middle Georgia State College, is living at home again, and when she finishes her one summer course (statistics...pray for her!), she'll have her associate's degree in art! Yay, Anne!

Her current plan for the future is to transfer to Columbus State University in Columbus Georgia, and get her bachleor's degree in art.

While she's been at home, she likes to go with Gaye to the Robins AFB gym on Fridays, when they hold Zumba class! (Zumba is like high-energy aerobics with upbeat Latin music.) Sometimes they'll also come work out with Dan, on stair-climbers or treadmills (Dan doesn't do Zumba!).

Anne enjoyed getting to be one of Jenny's bridesmaids, in her wedding ceremony in Florida in March 2014. She rode down with her boyfriend, Ben (who has a car!), and helped Jenny for a few days prior to the ceremony. Then Anne and Ben met up with Gaye and Dan, who came down separately, for the rehearsal.

Anne got to go to a cabin in Ohio for her birthday! In May, after her grandparents (on Dan's side) went home from visiting us in Georgia, she and Gaye met up with Gaye's mom and spent a few days in a nice cabin in the woods! (Oh, and they got to go out shopping, too!)

She's been sort of looking for work for the rest of the summer...but spends a lot of time with her boyfriend!

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Allen is doing well in college. He's in a two-year technical diploma program at Central Georgia Technical College, learning to be an air conditioning technician. His grades have been good so far - we've been praying he stays motivated to finish the program!

Because his daily schedule is somewhat wacky (his classes are evening classes, and then he often stays up through the night, and then sleeps in the day) we've been making a special point of having Dad come home for dinner early one day a week, so that we can all enjoy a home-cooked, sit-down meal together before Allen goes to class. He (and the rest of us) have been enjoying that!

Allen has been enjoying going bowling with Mom & Dad recently. None of us are very good...but it sure is fun!

And, in spite of his wacky schedule, he got invited to a friend's overnight birthday party, and graduation party for a couple of other good friends. Some of them actually came by the house one evening, and insisted on waking him up so they could drag him off to go see a movie!

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Please pray for our family, as we all continually work to become the authentic individuals God wants us to be.

And remember, no matter what's going on in our society, in our culture, in our government...that God is in control! He's still on the throne, none of what we do takes him by surprise, and he'll continue to be faithful to make sure that "all things work together for good, for those who love God and are called according to his purpose!" (Romans 8:28)

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Dan likes this web site format, and it seems to work o.k. It's based on a template we got free from someone else (hence the attribution at the bottom of the page), and modified to our liking, as permitted under his terms of use. Dan, as much as he likes hand-coding (yeah, right) couldn't do something this nice by himself.

The artistic photo pages, however, are still entirely Dan's design, for now at least, so maybe he hasn't totally abandoned the craft of manually writing web pages...

The "NIV" in our Scripture quotes stands for New International Version. The copyright requires that notation, as well as the following statement: "Scripture quoted from the Holy Bible, New International Version (R). Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of International Bible Society."

Similarly, "NKJV" stands for New King James Version, and its use requires acknowledgment as follows: "Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved."

KJV, of course, means King James Version, which, having been written in 1611, is public domain.

(Hey, I thought of putting in a FAQ section -- you know, Frequently Asked Questions -- but no one ever asks any questions about the site!)

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