The Roberts in Korea

44

I (Ryan) enjoyed a delicious birthday cake and a fun time with my girls last weekend as I celebrated my 44th birthday.  They made me a carrot cake!  Yet another year has passed by so quickly.  In my mind I am still 24, but I am quickly jolted back to reality when I look in the mirror.  Who is that balding guy with a graying beard? 

I thank God for another year of life. 

Keepin' On

We finished up the second week of school.  Homework, volleyball practices and all kinds of other stuff are filling up our lives and our calendars.  Last Saturday we had a fun time going to the wedding of Scott and Christine Poole (TCIS staff members).  It was a special time and while we were there I had someone take a picture of me (Ryan) with my three beautiful ladies.  I am trying to capture and savor every moment that I have with them.

This weekend Becca and Sarah have been away at the high school Praise-Team Retreat.  They are both a part of the high school praise team and will be involved in leading the music and worship portion of the high school chapels throughout the school year.

It is hard to believe, but it has been a month since we flew back to South Korea from our summer in the USA.  We have been busy, but not too busy to reflect on what a blessing a month can be.  We have enjoyed time together, time with friends, been involved in productive work, and have actively engaged in learning, growing and serving God.  We are just "keepin' on," and thankful.

Back to School

We are back at it.  Classes started on August 9th here at TCIS and we now all have a week of school behind us.  Becca started her Junior year and Sarah is a Freshman.  Two high schoolers...yipes!  Dina has a new group of cute, wide-eyed and wild-eyed Kindergartners and I (Ryan) am back in the office doing whatever it is that administrators do.  We are thankful for a new school year.

A Great Night of Baseball

Last Saturday night the Miller kids, the Zickefooses and the Roberts headed for the ballpark.  We went to watch the Hanwa Eagles play the Giants.  We had a blast.  The game was so exciting--filled with many home runs, lots of hits and scoring and a very wild and crazy crowd in the stands.

We were a big part of the wild and crazy crowd. We bought a bunch of the clapping sticks and made our contribution to the noisy fun in the ballpark.  At one point in the game, Sarah, Gentry, Alexandra, Becca and Brittney were shouting the name of the Giants' right fielder, (his name was Garcia) and he tossed a warm up ball to us in between innings.  He was nice.

During the sixth inning Becca and the crew decided that they would try to get a wave started in the massive stadium.  After a couple of tries they garnered some participants and at one point the wave that they started went a quarter of the way around the stadium.  It was fun.

We did a lot of laughing, eating and having fun at the game.  The sky threatened rain, but none fell.  Instead we were blessed with an amazing view of the clouds and the sunset.  It was a great night of baseball.

Back to Korea

After a great summer break in the U.S.A. we were all glad to get back "home" to South Korea.  I (Ryan) dove immediately back into work as we greeted and oriented 20+ new staff members to our school.  It was fun to assist the new teachers and their families as they begin this new adventure in their lives.

Dina, Becca and Sarah spent a few days getting over jetlag and unpacking our suitcases and then Becca and Sarah busied themselves with friends and helping to take care of the children of the new staff members while Dina worked on getting her Kindergarten classroom ready for another school year.

During our first days back to South Korea we accompanied the new staff out to our new school site.  Construction is happening and the plan is to start school at the new site in August 2011.

Becca and Sarah spent three days participating in a volleyball camp held by the womens' varsity volleyball team of Asbury College.  They came from Wilmore, Kentucky to host some volleyball camps, do some recruiting for their college and do some sight seeing in South Korea.  Becca and Sarah learned a lot and had a blast.  Becca was invited to play with the college girls during their after camp practice.

When the returning staff arrived in country we all (500+) people gathered at our sister school, GSIS, and enjoyed a time of fellowship, reflected upon our organization's purpose, we worshiped together, we played together and we honored one another.  It was fun to honor three TCIS employees who were retiring this year.  They were members of the Korean staff and their accumulated years of service to the 53 year old school of TCIS was 110 years.  Wow.  One lady had worked at TCIS for over 40 years!  It was a special time.  It is good to be back in Korea.

More Summer Memories

The summer blog posts are about to come to an end, but not without the mention of just a few more good memories.

Becca and Sarah enjoyed the opportunity to sit under the tutelage of the volleyball master, Rhonda Sprague.  Rhonda held a little 2 day mini-clinic for Becca, Sarah and some friends.  She encouraged their efforts, taught them new skills and even got them all shirts.  It was a great time and a great memory.  We love Rhonda.

As you know, Becca finished up driver's ed this summer.  As a culminating experience to her driver's ed course the company had the students and their parents attend the last class session at a local go-cart arena.  Becca and Ryan put on helmets and hit the track together.  It was fun!

It was a summer of wheels for Becca.  At one point in the summer she found herself on the back of her grandpa's three wheeled bicycle in Montana.  Becca and Mandie had a good time cruising the streets of Whitefish on that hog.

During a quick stopover in Coeur d' Alene, Becca and Brittney slipped away for a late night ice cream sundae at Gooey's.  Brittney is headed off to college this year.  We will all miss her.  Good times and good memories.

A Blessing

We cannot even begin to think about our great summer without thinking of the wonderful place that we lived in while we were in Boise.  We lived in the basement of Chris and Liz's beautiful home.  What a blessing it was for us to live in that great place and hang out with the fantastic people that live there.

Over the summer it seemed like we were always on the move going somewhere or visiting someone, but we did get to spend a little bit of time just hanging out with Chris and Liz, their grand kids and some of their friends.  It was great fun.

Over our time in Boise there was road construction on the road in front of the house where we lived.  They were installing a new sidewalk.  After the sidewalk was done they connected the driveway to the sidewalk with a new patch of concrete.  They installed one of these new patches of concrete at Chris's house.  We waited a few days for it to dry and then the first person got to drive over it.

Chris chose Becca to be the first person to drive over it.  Becca just completed Driver's Training and had her Driver's Permit in hand.  Becca was driving and she and Dina were coming home from shopping.  As they arrived at the house Chris and Liz held a tape across the new concrete and Becca drove through the tape and over the the new concrete.  It was a historic moment and a lot of silly fun--a specialty of Chris's.