Fourth of July: Tennessee Style

In the fall of 1982 I walked into a physics class at the University of Tennessee.  The professor introduced himself and I’m pretty sure that was the last thing that came out of his mouth that I truly understood.

This may explain my eventual switch to a nursing major.

I remember little of what I learned in that class.  I do remember the prof using a slinky to illustrate many of his points.  Something about wave forms and blah, blah, blah………

I do remember a curly dark headed guy who sat on the upper left hand side.  He was part of a group of guys I had met the previous spring in a basic programming class in which I learned many things about computers.  And which I promptly forgot the minute the final exam was over.

28 years ago I met this guy....

Scott was (and continues to be) one of the smartest people I know.  He breezed through that physics class without even breaking a sweat and continued that stellar performance right on through both undergrad and graduate degrees.  We hung out a lot.  With our group of friends, we spent a lot of time on the lake perfecting our skiing technique and wearing no sunscreen.  We were good friends.  The kind of friends that you can sit outside in their yellow convertible listening to James Taylor and talk about everything under the sun.

The kind of friends that last a lifetime.

Especially if they end up marrying your sister.

My baby sister

Ann met Scott one weekend when she came to visit me at college.  She was 16 and we were all about to graduate.  She went home and told my mom she had met the man she was going to marry.

A few years later she did just that.

And now I not only get to spend holidays with my baby sister, but one of my oldest and dearest friends is always by her side.

Thanks to their hospitality and superior boat driving skills, we had a whale of a weekend.  As JD so aptly put it,

“That was the perfect 4th of July.”

Yes, indeed it was.  Take a look for yourself.

Fresh blueberries picked by our own little hands. Well, not mine. Someone had to make the pictures.

No one was having fun, can you tell?

Olivia meets her cousins (with big brother Clay supervising)

Ben catching some air.

The little peanut herself.

Most of the family. We missed our absent Morgan, Michael and Sara

Daddy and his Baby Girl