Singing, Typing and Testing, Oh My!

We are officially back in the swing of things in the Gaunch household. It's show choir season and that means practices, fundraisers, costumes and competitions. This is Garrett's 3rd year in the ARTS All-Star Show choir and Hannah's 1st year participating. Instead of a high school show choir, it's a community-based show choir made up of kids from 6 area high schools. They practice all year and compete against high school show choirs.


Last Saturday was the first competition, in Ohio. It was a 3 hour bus ride and an all-day event. Out of 11 choirs, we made the finals, which meant the kids performed a second time for the judges. They placed 6th overall which was great considering they were much smaller than the other choirs. They also won a special award for best theme. Their theme this year is "Colors" and some of the songs they sing are "The Black Parade", "The Color Purple", "Red Dress", "Living In Color" and a medley of a lot of fun songs like "Blue" and "Yellow Submarine" and "Gold Digger". Here are a few pictures from a recent practice.



In addition to the show choir mania, I've been completing two assignments for my seminary class... books and commentaries spread across the table.


Meanwhile, Hannah and Garrett were completing projects for Latin II and Latin III. Covenant School is a classical Christian school and relies heavily on classical teaching methods, language and literature. So, they start teaching Latin in 4th grade. Needless to say, the annual Latin Convention is sort of a big deal. Last year, Hannah and Garrett both won multiple awards- I think it actually embarrassed Hannah. She was calling herself a Latin nerd. So she's been making a model of the Oracle of Appollo that was at Delphi. (aka, an old temple that's now in ruins) Garrett chose to write a modern day adaptation of a the myth of Asclepius (I never heard of him either). Hannah's project is 24x40 inches and is made of Styrofoam, clay, dowels... lots of them. It has like 26 columns, I think. I'm so glad to have my kitchen table back! Becca hasn't had any major projects due lately, but this has been a challenging school year. It seems like 5th grade is a real transition year from little kid work to big kid work. She has a lot of homework and studying that's requiring a lot more personal organization... but we're getting there.



Also, Louie has been walking around shaking his head all day. This morning, our first born son took a college entrance exam! The SAT. Together, we filled out paperwork and chose some colleges we thought should receive his scores. We are in some seriously uncharted territory here.
But it's also exciting.

PS Those of you who are local- the ARTS All-Star Show Choir is having a fundraising dinner/Premiere Show for the community Feb. 2 and 4. We would love, love, love for all of you to come. Louie is heading up the kitchen crew, and the kids will perform their show for you. We have twice the expense this year with both of them participating, so this fundraiser is what we've been looking forward to. Just call or email for the details!

A Snowy New Year

I had the privilege of sitting on the couch with Louie and all three kids as we watched the ball drop in New York's Time's Square on a new decade. 2010. I remember as I kid thinking how weird it would be to write "2000" as the date. Now I'm trying to get used to writing 2010. I could get all sentimental here and tell you how the last decade flashed before my eyes- the good, the bad and the ugly. The blessings and the challenges. But I'm be sitting at this computer all day! Instead, I found a picture I took in January, 8 or 9 years ago on my very first digital camera.

So this New Year, we had two things going on. Garrett sings with several other boys in a band called Torn In Two. They lead worship at a lock-in where there were 86 teens! He'd been struggling with a terrible cough that Hannah and Becca had also. Thankfully, he was well enough to sing that night and I think he did really well. The boys in the band with him are so talented. Here are a few pictures.

Then on January 4th, I left Louie in charge while I spent a week taking a seminary class at our state conference center. I'm enrolled in the Master of Divinity Program through Palmer Theological Seminary at Eastern University. Now don't get images in your head of me standing in the pulpit preaching a sermon... unless you want a good laugh. Nevertheless, I feel very strongly that we all have something to offer the Lord and I'm studying as I seek to find out exactly what that is for me. The class is called Teaching the Faith According to the Apostle Paul. We read Galatians, Romans and 1 and 2 Corinthians. We discussed how Paul communicated the gospel to those churches and the context in which he did it. I turned in a paper the first day of class, I'm writing a second paper on a passage in Romans, I'm writing my very first sermon, and then I have to write a paper on a topic from 1 Corinthians. All these assignments are due in the next 5 weeks! My almost 40- year-old brain is working really, really hard to make it all happen.

I was thoroughly blessed to stay the week with Louie's cousin Jeff, his wife and their twin girls who live down the road from the conference center. They treated me like a queen. But as I drove into town, so did a snowstorm. They live on top of a hill, about 1 1/2 miles out a country road. So... poor Jeff ended up having to drive me to class several days in his 4-wheel drive truck. Every day was a new adventure in the snow. But I have to say, it was absolutely beautiful. Here are a few pictures:

Friday morning, Jeff couldn't even get his 4-wheel drive truck up his driveway(2nd picture). I had left my car in town so I could get out of town when class was over that day. So, Jeff put my suitcase and laptop bag on his girls' sled and down the driveway we went! I will never forget my first seminary class- the snow, Louie's sweet family, getting used to typing my notes on a laptop instead of writing them on a legal pad.

Most of all, I'll remember just looking around at all the pastors and youth workers and wondering how in the world I got here. Ten years ago (even 5 years ago) no one would have thought I'd be enrolled in seminary- especially me! But I know exactly how I got here.

By the grace of God.