Robinson Chronicles

Lambuth in the Snow

2009-01-28T21:37:00.001-06:00

Hi there - Brandon had his first snow day as a college student. I got these fabulous pictures from a friend of his. I thought they were great!

Brandon & Emily

2009-01-26T17:31:00.001-06:00

Brandon enjoyed some time on the lake this summer with girlfriend Emily. I think that she is beautiful and smart, and wonder sometimes what she's doing with Brandon!! (Ha!)

Thought everyone would enjoy meeting Emily...

This photo is my favorite...

2009-01-26T17:26:00.000-06:00

Mr. Parsons 6th Grade class at Meigs Magnet Middle School. You can just *barely* see John, in the middle, 1/2 of his face is peeking out behind a taller blonde student. Thought ya'll would like this. They are wearing special Mr. Parsons Class shirts.

NEWS: John competed with other 4-H students at Meigs in a poster contest and won 1st place today! When the poster comes home, we will post a picture...

Graduation Festivities

2008-06-06T23:18:00.006-05:00

We were all happy to finally celebrate graduation with Brandon. Each family was issued 12 tickets - Brandon brought the tickets home, handed them to me. I still haven't found them. TPAC gave us a hard time about not having them, even though I had spoken to Brandon's guidance counselor the day before, and she had our name on a list.

They coralled us to the second floor and tried to put us up on the very top row. It took some convincing, but Eric's dad and I were able to convince the TPAC fellow that was "assisting" us that we would take up the same number of seats, no matter where they put us. So he finally caved, and let us sit closer to the front of the TPAC mezzanine, where we ended up. They were fairly decent seats.

As we were leaving, we ran into Ken Stein, Brandon's choir director. He was able to sneak in after the ceremony started - he told them he was his "teacher". This was apparently some sort of secret code word to get in, so Ken was ushered in and did not get hassled like we did.

After graduation, we met Brandon for some photo ops. Then Brandon went out with his peeps, Mom & Dad headed home, and John and I ate at Cracker Barrell with Eric's mom, dad, sister, and neice. On the way, we dropped Eric off at a work dinner @ Merchants (NICE!) We had a great time at CB. For me it was the end of a very long couple of weeks and I was glad to be able to relax. Happy ending to a very good day.

2008 Middle School Science Fair

2008-03-18T23:48:00.001-05:00

John was required to submit an entry to the school science fair this year. He missed the first couple of deadlines for different things that were due, like Problem Statement, draft of research, etc. After locating a copy of the assignment from a friend - he had lost his - he set out to complete his project.

Imagine our surprise when John came home with a 2nd Place ribbon for his project!! He got 2nd in the Environmental and Earth Science category out of all the entries from 5th and 6th graders at his school.

This qualified his project for the city science fair. Which was held at MLK. He got a blue ribbon at the city fair. (all the entries got ribbons, blue, red, or white - then they awarded a true 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place trophy from among the blue ribbons in each category. )

John was recognized on stage with the rest of the kids who earned blue ribbons in his grade and category.

His t-shirt says Video Game Instructor (no standard school attire required - it was a Saturday)

Snow in March

2008-03-18T23:29:00.000-05:00

FINALLY - the kids (and the adults) got the snow they were wanting. It started snowing on Friday night, March 7. Early predictions from the local weather folks were conseratively estimating snow at 3-5". By Saturday morning, we had over 6" in places. This is Ginger sitting out on the deck Friday night.

This is Ginger on Saturday morning. Look how much more snow there is!! She wasn't too sure about the snow, but finally decided that it would be OK to pee in the snow. On the deck. Beware the yellow snow!!

John went out Saturday morning and took this picture of the house for me before everyone tracked through it. As you can tell, it was still snowing.

Accident in Bellevue

2008-02-11T22:21:00.000-06:00

Today, while we were all at work or at school, a van lost control, and skidded into the pond across the street from us. One man drowned.

Here is the link to News Channel 4's coverage of the story:

http://www.wsmv.com/news/15271646/detail.html

Robinson Christmas 2007

2008-02-08T23:19:00.000-06:00

On Christmas Day we had the whole family together, all the children and grandchildren. So "adopted" sis Kari and Mark's girlfriend took family photos. This one is great, except that Gayle has her eyes closed.

I can't remember what made us laugh so hard. And John is making a face - so typical...

YellowJacket Invitational - December 2007

2008-02-08T22:58:00.000-06:00

The MLK Wrestling Team travelled to Chattanooga for a tournament - and they took home the first place trophy for the team. Out of 14 wrestlers, MLK had 3 that finished in 1st place, 1 2nd place, 2 3rd place, and 2 in 4th place. Here are the seniors with the team trophy.

Here is Brandon, in an early match...

Get that Pin!!!

Fun in the Sun, Prom, and the case of the missing homework...

2007-05-01T20:46:00.000-05:00

Eric and I just spent the weekend in Florida, at our favorite place - Innisbrook. We have the Framptons to thank for turning us on to Innisbrook several years ago, Lynlee's mom & dad to thank for letting us use their condo, and our parents to thank for taking care of the boys so we could get away.

Eric planned a Sales Managers Meeting for Monday, and arranged for an entire weekend of events that were enjoyed by the managers and their spouses/significant others. More details and pictures to follow...

Brandon went to his Jr. Prom on Saturday night with a group of friends rather than a date. This is apparently the trend with highschoolers now. He appears to have had a great time, but has not (for some reason) been forthcoming with details. I do have a picture of him in his tuxedo - but Brandon outright REFUSED to take a camera with him. He has promised to obtain pictures from one of the girls in the group - so if I can get those, I'll post some of them here.

John came home with a less-than-stellar" report card last week. Eric and I were of the misguided notion that he had been doing his homework in class; John would "forget" to bring home his assignment book. We arranged to meet with his teacher this afternoon, where we found completed assignments in his desk that should have been turned in, and several worksheets that were partially completed that should have been turned in already. In his desk we also found his assignment book, which had LENGTHY notes from Ms. Myers every day last week, when John was "forgetting" to bring it home.

Except for dinner and a couple of quick breaks, John completed all of the missing work, which took him from 4:00 until 8:30 tonight.

Check out the new link to the right - Dave Barry's favorites. Brandon has discovered David Barry, a writer and humorist. Some of his work is hilarious...

Goodbye to the Framptons...

2007-02-21T14:13:00.000-06:00

The Framptons moved in with us last summer for what was probably the most fun that I have had in a long time...Brandon moved into the bonus room, Lynlee and Mary moved into Brandon's room and Noah moved into John's room. It was kind of like college having that many people living under one roof going 7 different directions every day.

They sold their house, packed up their belongings and sent all of their furniture on a slow boat to England back in June. Ken left about a week later b/c he had to report to work on July 1 at Southampton University.

Lynlee and I spent a lot of time on our deck in the evenings - fortunately we did not run out of wine.

Lynlee cooked, and tried to convert all of us to healthier eating habits, but to no avail...She actually tried to serve salad to the Robinson clan at dinner (Yeah right!) Lynlee did manage to get John and Brandon to expand their fruit selections to include grapes.

Here are pictures from their last night in the house...just when we were getting used to everyone, they had to leave!

Even Ginger wanted to say "goodbye"

Let it snow!

2007-02-21T13:49:00.000-06:00

It had been freaksihly cold in Nashville, w/ highs in the 20's, and lows in the teens for several days. It snowed and iced over the roads on Thursday, Feb 15, so schools were out, but in typical Nashville fashion, all had melted off by 10:00 that morning. We had more snow on Friday night, and then again on Saturday afternoon.

Saturday was different - We started getting these HUGE beautiful flakes of snow - these pictures just don't do it justice. It was so nice not having anything to do on Saturday - so we were lazy and just watched the snow come down.

Brandon as a blonde

2007-02-21T10:38:00.000-06:00

The MLK Wrestling team decided to bleach their hair a couple of weeks ago in preparation for the Regional and State wrestling meets. The wrestling captain got his sister (a hair stylist) to come to practice. When it came time for Brandon, she took one look at him and said his hair was too long. So before they bleached it, he got buzzed. Trust me when I say this was NOT a good look for him!

The whole team, including the coach, bleached their hair in a show of team spirit and dedication.

When Brandon was eliminated at Regionals, we immediately dyed his hair back to a somewhat natural color. I picked up a hair color kit that was actually darker than my hair, but because of the bleach, his hair was very resistant to the color. We left it on for the maximum time, and here is how it turned out:

Love and laughter, and a few tears

2007-02-05T22:32:00.000-06:00

Okay, okay...I've been admonished for not putting anything new out since we got back from England, but I have been WORKING, people! Jeesh!

Since we returned to the real world, with work and school and church, we hardly had a chance to catch our breath. I've had to put in some extra long hours the last couple of weeks, but hopefully I have a break for a little while. Eric is traveling - he left on the Monday after we got back for Dallas, and he is now on his 3rd trip to Texas in the last month.

Yippee - John made the lottery for Meigs AND Head. Many kids applied and did not get either school. Head is just down the road from MLK. Even so, we ended up choosing Meigs, after talking to several parents, and reviewing the information about the schools. Thank you, Susan!

Tears...A girl at Brandon's school was killed in a single car accident a couple of weeks ago. She swerved to avoid hitting an animal that crossed the road in front of her, and hit a tree. She was apparently an outgoing, well-liked kid. He did not know her that well, but everyone at school, including teachers, were pretty shook up. I still say a little prayer each time Brandon pull out of the driveway.

Last Saturday my sister-in-law and our friend Kari painted John's room and Brandon's room. John's room is the official light Titans blue, and Brandon picked a nice deep red color, which looks fabulous. Kudos to Rebecca and Kari!! They had to return this last Saturday to put another coat on Brandon's walls.

Since last Saturday was also my birthday, and John's was coming up, we rounded up some of John's friends and went bowling. Which was a lot of fun, and we even saw the Landers while we were there.

From the bowling alley, we went to Mom & Dad's house, where they agreed to host the entire Robinson clan (Eric's parents, his brother and his brother's new "friend" Karen, Eric's sister and neices, Kari, all four of us, and John's friend). We had a fabulous time, and I especially enjoyed not having to cook or clean up on my birthday!

For John's actual birthday, we went over to Pizza Perfect and gave them most of our money in order to eat and make the boys disappear for an hour.

On a sad note...our friends Randy and Karen's daughter lost her fight with cystic fibrosis last week. I was so touched by the service...and I am truly taken aback at the love and dedication demonstrated by Randy and Karen, and their two other children, Ryan and Tiffany. Theirs was a ministry of love, and Karen is an inspiration to mothers everywhere. She cared for Kamie every day, and did it with such joy. Eric set up a fund at work (Randy is also his boss) and many of the employees have made contributions totalling over $500. Eric is making arrangements to plant a flowering tree and make a small garden memorial at Randy & Karen's home in her memory.

Good news...I'm happy to report that Katherine "KJ" got to go home after a 2+ week hospital stay. They are trying to get her stronger...she has started a 50-day round of chemo. I got to meet Uncle Connie and Noni Grace when I took them breakfast on Saturday. Noni is too cute...sometimes I do miss not having a daughter. But two was plenty, and two boys were a handful!

We, of course, had our annual Superbowl Party last night. And as has been the case in years past, this is the only way that any of our planned home improvements get done. This year, in addition to painting half of the house interiors, we had new carpet put down in the bonus room - looks GREAT!! AND we got a big television with several initials, HD LDP, but "not plasma" as Eric is happy to point out. Don't ask me any details...I have no idea! I do know that it is smaller than the FCC regulations for the Superbowl licensing BS, but there is another rule about having the game on more than one TV... so that's enough about that. At the party, fun was had by all, I think! We missed a few regulars, and gained a few first-timers. It was really, really cold, so we just put all the beverages out on the deck. It is still very very cold here!

Interesting news...Brandon is heading into the last couple of weeks of wrestling, and today, he brought home a note from the coach saying that the ENTIRE wrestling team is dyeing their hair blonde tomorrow at practice as a show of unity and spirit. Should be interesting! They go to "regionals" this Friday and Saturday. The top 3 or 4 individuals in each weight class will go to the State Tournament in Chattanooga the following weekend. Go Brandon!!

I promise to get pictures up from the birthday festivities, and links to more England pictures posted soon!!

Hapyy Valentines Month - tell someone you love them!

An English Holiday

2006-12-26T06:42:00.000-06:00

Hello from England! It is Wednesday morning in the UK. We are in Chandlers Ford at the Frampton's home. Ken and Eric have left to play golf. Noah and Mary have been out of school and will go back tomorrow (Thursday), so we are going to cram 2 adults and 4 children into Lynlee's 1/2 of a car and drive up the road to Winchester to visit the cathedral there.

We have been to the Tower of London, the Natural History Museum, changing of the guard, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Covent Garden, and the London Eye. One day, I took Brandon and Mary to the British Museum, while the guys took Noah and John to the HMS Belfast, heralded as the ship that fired the first shot at Normandy on D-Day.

We did not make it to Oxford on this trip - the boys chose Greenwich instead. New Years Eve was a blast - we were able to walk a 1/2 block from our hotel to see the fireworks over the London Eye - they were fabulous. On New Years Day, the Robinson clan went to see Phantom of the Opera. It was the first broadway performance for John, and he absolutely LOVED it. We had great seats in a very small, intimate theatre.

Happenings...

2006-11-14T19:11:00.000-06:00

Just a quick hello to friends and family... First of all THANK YOU to everyone who came to the Chili Cook-off a couple of weeks ago. We raised $130 for Second Harvest and collected t-shirts and socks for RITI. This is sure to become an annual event in the fall.

I won't go into detail here, but we were alerted recently by MLK that Brandon's grades were slipping. Suffice it to say that he is now suffering through the consequences of not being organized and not studying or doing homework. I think that we have his attention now. Hopefully we have constructively altered his study habits so that his semester grades will not be in the basement.

The next few weeks are going to be crazy as we kick off wrestling season with Brandon, and head full-tilt into the Christmas holidays. Wrestling takes up at least 2 nights during the week, and most Fridays and Saturdays. I'm trying to get my "life" organized and do things like get the Christmas Card list updated (it would help if you people would quit moving!) and get calendars up to date so we know which way we are going...

We leave for England on Dec 27 and return on Jan 5 - we're spending New Years in London with the Framptons. We can't wait to see them and are excited and blessed to have the opportunity to take this trip. It has taken some sacrifice, but will be well worth the trip.

Eric & Lee's weekend getaway

2006-11-02T19:39:00.000-06:00

On another note, Eric and I sent John to Grandma & Grandpop's and Brandon on a youth retreat back in October and headed to New Braunfels & Austin, TX.

Friday
We started the weekend off at a great local restaurant, Jaime's (pronounced Hy-meez) with our friends Laurie and Mike. From there we went to see Carlos Mencia, the comedian, live in concert at the Universty of Texas. It was AWESOME!! Laurie and Mike put us up for the weekend.

Saturday
Laurie is a fantastic cook, and treated us to a wonderful breakfast Saturday morning. Later on, Laurie and I hit Market Days at Gruene TX, while Eric and Mike watched football. Saturday night we accompanied M & L to a neighborhood Halloween party. Mike was the Devil in a Blue Dress, Laurie was Devil wears Prada, Eric and I were the priest and the school girl. Needless to say, we had a BLAST!!! Kid Rock and Pamela Anderson met us at M&L's and we all drove to the party together. The party had a "Hollywood" theme - our hosts were Nicole Richie and Paris Hilton (HA HA) I know that there were pictures, but as they say... "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas" - not sure if I will be able to post any pix without incriminating myself!!

Prayer Request

2006-09-24T12:56:00.000-05:00

Update on Katherine: Katherine, daughter of Eric's co-worker, David, was diagnosed with lukemia in September. She was hospitalized for almost a month, but Katherine (and mom) were allowed to come home last month. She will continue to travel to Vanderbilt, sometimes every day, for treatments, but gets to come home and sleep with her new puppy, Lucy at night. Yeah for Katherine. Check her blog at right. (KJ's Blog)

John at the Frist (and other news)

2006-09-18T12:53:00.000-05:00

Mom and I made plans to visit the Egyptian exhibit at the Frist Center last Saturday. John overheard me on the phone making plans and BEGGED to go. We had a great time, but John made sure that we saw EVERYTHING in the Egyptian exhibit, as well as the rest of the museum, which included two more exhibits, one with jewelry and a hands-on section for kids. Then, of course, there was the gift shop. He spent 20 minutes (so it seemed) picking out 25 rocks (ROCKS!) to fit in a bag. This is the same thing they have at every Stuckeys and Cracker Barrel all over the country, but these somehow, were special.

I never thought I would find myself in a cultural arts museum, asking my nine year old son "Can we leave now?". We really had fun, and completed our day with a stop at Bobby's Dairy Dip.

You have to visit Ken & Lynlee's blog! She should write a book about moving to the UK. The latest post is hilarious regarding driving over there. Also look for an older one about grocery shopping...

http://www.framptonblog.blogspot.com/

Lynlee's Birthday Bash

2006-08-08T09:45:00.000-05:00

On August 5, 2006, a conspiracy was brewing in Nashville. Friends and family of Lynlee B. were plotting and planning a surprise party to celebrate 40 great years.

However, Lynlee was MOST UNCOOPERATIVE!! (If you know Lynlee, you probably don't find this surprising!!) Her mom managed to finally get her back to the house, with just a few minutes left to say hello to Ken via the web-cam before he had to log out.

This napkin set the theme for the party...

Lori Miller called from California...

Aunt Jenny brought the kids over to enjoy the fun!

Rick and Penny came by to celebrate.

Well, it turns out that Lynlee has work friends, too. Here she is with a special friend from Icon, Alyssa.

Our Ginger

2006-07-28T18:05:00.000-05:00

This is the only "daughter" that we will ever have, at least until one of the boys gets married. She is beautiful and smart - what more could a mom ask for!?!

Ginger has quite a collection of bandanas. Every week or so she will choose a new one.

At Christmas, Ginger has her own stocking. How did Santa know exactly what she likes??

We keep her favorite blanket in near the couch. Here she is, in repose, snuggled up with John.

News about George

2006-07-25T23:22:00.000-05:00

We became concerned about George over this last weekend - he had stopped eating and was not making his regular morning outing in the terrarium. After 3 days, I called our local reptile store and described our problem.

Turns out that this is a normal phase in male skinks referred to as a "breeding fast". Basically, George is conserving his energy and preparing his body for..."mating". Yes, ladies and gentlemen, George is on the prowl for a female. (The guy at the pet store said that at most this will last 2 weeks, after which George will give up until next year.)

This is a photo from Dec 2004 when Santa delivered him to our house.

Firetrucks in Bell Buckle

2006-07-10T07:17:00.000-05:00

Noah F. visited the new firestation during a recent trip with the Robinsons to Bell Buckle TN. He decided he needed to wear his "fire shirt". (The words on the T-shirt have flames)

Eric's Aunt Mary, the Bell Buckle Fire Chief, gave us a VIP tour of their brand new Fire Station. What a treat! Especially when you are four years old!!

Where's the fire?!?!

The tires on this firetruck are almost the same size as Noah.

Noah chillin' with Brandon and cousin Emily.

Cookout with Friends...

2006-07-03T10:06:00.000-05:00

Harold and Judy invited us over to enjoy their marvelous pool over the 4th of July holiday weekend. Rob & Andrea E. also joined us with their kids. We brought Mary F. with us (along with John). John found Harold's Vandy-Fan stash, and donned a yellow wig and feet. I thought he looked like a Dr. Seuss character!
This is Cameron, Drew, Kevin and Mary.