We always try to lead with the top story, and since we traveled quite a bit in 2009, we used a Dr. Seuss title for our headline that reflected those journeys. We started our travels with a trip to Branson—Minneapolis. We sacrificed and suffered through a timeshare spiel to get reduced rates on our stay at Branson, but it was worth it as we saw a great rodeo show at the Dixie Stampede and had a great time in their restored downtown area on the river.
We drove to Minneapolis from there and met up with the Zeiger family (Jeff is an OSU buddy) and spent two days exploring the Mall of America as well as dining at one of Guy Fieri’s true dives, the Wienery. It rained on us the entire way home, making proposed stops at the Field of Dreams in Dyersville, IA and Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Burr Oak, Iowa home a wash, but we were able to enjoy a stop at the Science Museum in St. Louis.
We spent about a week in Nashville in August just for the heck of it.
While we were there we rode horses, went to the Children’s Museum, spent some time on Music Row, and maybe caught a glimpse of tomorrow’s stars at the Bluebird Café. On the way home we stopped at Loretta Lynn’s home in Hurricane Mills, TN.
We also went to OKC in October for the wedding of Adam Butkus and Jesse Lucas. It was a beautiful, outdoor, sunset service and it enabled us meet the Lucas family, spend a lot of time with most 
of the Finnicum family and to reconnect with the Butkus family after too many years without seeing them.
Additional Travel Tales
I traveled solo to Tampa in the spring for a national conference. I was only there a couple of days, but one of the rewards was spending time with my graduate school mentor and friend, Betty Edgley. She is one remarkable woman.
I followed that trip up with a once-in-a-lifetime trip to a practice round at the Master’s. 
I went with two ASU colleagues, Gary Albright and Mitch Mathis, and one homeboy, C.D. Castelein. It was chilly but the course was magnificent, and there were plenty of star sightings—Tiger, Arnie, Phil, Padraig, Tom Watson, Greg Norman, Vijay—plus all of the 2009 major winners except Lucas Glover. The food was inexpensive and good, and the company was priceless. One bad part about the trip was that Mitch got sick the night before and stayed in the van all day—just a wedge away from the gates. As some of you have heard me say, it says something about the kind of guy Mitch is to suffer for the rest of us, and it says something about the rest of us that we would let him.
For my last somewhat solo trip (I dropped the family off to stay with Tawnya’s matron of honor), I got together with a bunch of Prophetstownians as we celebrated Festivus 2009 in Springfield, MO. Rod, Jeff, Clair, Tom, Doug, Bruce, and I along with one OKC maverick, Eric, got together for two days of golf, poker and catching up. Ever since 2006, when many of us hit age 50, we have celebrated Festivus annually and I hope the tradition continues.
Garrett & Mikah
Garrett was seven in September and Mikah will turn twelve in January. They continue to participate in a wide range of activities, such as, basketball, soccer, bible school, AWANAS, dog obedience classes, going to the library and nature center, attending plays and so forth.
But there have been some changes too, Garrett has been taking drum lessons for about a year and he has shown some ability to read the music and 
keep the beat. How he keeps both arms and feet in rhythm has escaped me as I’ve banged on his drums with little success except to make some noise. We’re hoping he continues to improve and becomes the next Ringo. And surprisingly it isn’t that bad having a drum set in the house. We keep it in our exercise room and he often comes back there while we’re exercising, plays us some of his lessons and heads back to whatever else he has going on.
He continues to advance at a normal rate with his school work, but I think it’s safe to say he’s more action oriented than Mikah was, as he would rather play with his cars or characters or fight imaginary clones.
Mikah is almost 12 and the teen years beckon, although at present, she is still our little girl most of the time. She likes listening to songs on her iPod, reading, writing a little, baking when the urge strikes her, going to the humane society, and playing with her friends.
She has been taking guitar lessons and while it is more painful than learning the drums (holding down the strings is hard on your fingers), she shows some ability as well. She’s been helping me learn how to pluck Jingle Bells and hopefully I’ll be able to play a passable version before the holiday season ends.
We have also continued to introduce the kids to community service as we assisted with a city park project for the United Way Day of Caring, walked/washed dogs and raised money for the Humane Society, and put together a Secret Santa gift bag for an elderly woman here in Jonesboro (appropriately named Ruth).
Sports Highlights
Mikah has participated in soccer for a number of years now, and this year went back to playing on an all-girls team, which allowed her to be a bit more of a force on the field. In the first round of our post-season tourney, in the first half, while playing forward, she dribbled around the defense and put in a goal to tie the score at 1-1, which was how the game ended. After a 5:00 overtime period it was still 1-1 and we went to a shootout. I picked my best five kickers with the most difficult decision being who to pick as the best of my least. Well, wouldn’t you know it, the best of my least kicked first and scored. The other team’s first kicker scored as well. They missed the next three and we missed the next two setting up Mikah, as our fourth kicker. I did my best coaching ever by telling her to make sure she hit it on goal, but go for a corner, which since this is “Sports Highlights,” that’s exactly what she did. Even though she was happy, I don’t think it could match her parents’ elation.
Although I don’t really consider myself a coach (I’m just a Dad), Mikah does demonstrate a coach’s kid mentality by displaying a better understanding for the game than most others on the field or court with her. Even though she’s usually the smallest girl on the team, we’d win a lot of games with a whole team just like her.
Garrett plays soccer too, and in his second season he caught on and although I don’t want to be one of “those” parents, he was probably the best player on our team. And while he had some highlights in soccer, my favorite sports highlight of his comes from basketball. Actually I’ve already posted this story in a previous blog, but it deserves mention in the annual newsletter as well. He was playing at the top of a 1-2-2 zone I was employing, and he made a steal, dribbled the length of the court, shot and missed, rebounded the miss, and put it back in for his first score—and Tawnya got it on tape (or is it more accurate to say digital recording now?).
Again it was hard to determine who was more elated, Garrett or his rooting section—besides Tawnya and Mikah—Grandma and Granddad were in the stands too. Then he made another steal on the next possession, dribbled the length of the court, missed the shot, rebounded, and passed off to a teammate for a shot. Two possessions full of stats.
Meanwhile, Tawnya and I have pretty much retired from competitive sports, unless you count the hackfests on the golf course with my buddies as competition. Oh, we continue to exercise, but we’ve stopped playing on basketball and softball teams. However, I do have a perfect game in Wii bowling to my credit in 2009, so anytime you folks wanna stop in and bowl a frame or two, I’ll be ready.
Tawnya turned 40 this year, but on her it looks like the new 20. She continues to maintain her PTA license, but spends the bulk of her time as a home school teacher, wife and Mom—a triple threat if ever there was one. 
The kids continue to thrive academically and are testing well, so we (she) will continue to home school the kids. As wife she takes better care of me than I deserve, and is the kind of Mom you see on TV—too good to be true.
I have been in Jonesboro and at ASU since 1988, and it’s now a close second to Prophetstown as the most time I’ve spent in one place. Aside from the heat, humidity and mosquitoes, it’s a pretty good place to live and I suspect I will retire from here God-willing.
My job is what it is, and I am truly grateful for the paycheck and the good fortune to work with some fine folks. But I find I derive my greatest pleasure from community service, particularly coaching youth sports. It gives me an opportunity to be on the fields/courts with our kids, but it also gives me a chance to be around some other pretty good kids and establish relationships that offer little bits of joy when they see me out and about and shout, “Hi Coach!” It also reminds me of the many coaches I’ve had in my lifetime, and I can only hope I’m half as good as most of them.
Parish family news…
Tawnya’s grandmother, Rosa, turned 98 this year. She’s still in her home and doing well thanks to the round-the-clock care provided by her family. If I’m lucky enough to live to 98 I hope I’m also lucky enough to receive the kind of loving care she is getting.
Tawnya’s folks have nearly completed construction on their cabin on the Li’l Red River. It will be a great getaway spot for all of us—and any of you who like to fish.
Other family members
Mikah won Nemo, a goldfish, in a church fall festival about seven years ago. We’re gonna have to rename it Methuselah, as it continues to thrive.
Sophie, our Pinny-Poo mix turned two this year and continues to be a source of love and entertainment for the wife and kids.
We hope you all had a Merry Christmas and wish you a Happy New Year.
Come see us or drop us a line…
Paul, Tawnya, Mikah, Garrett
5209 Friendly Hope Road
Jonesboro, AR 72404
