Around the District

I kicked the week of by preaching at Grace UMC in Venice with Daryl and our boys along with Sarah. I enjoyed being able to be at both worship services with everyone. 

In the afternoon, Parker and I drove all of his stuff back to Lakeland and got him set up in his apartment. Then I stuck around in Lakeland for a week of extended cabinet meetings. The district AAs were there too for training and Sandy and I got to sit in a couple of sessions together. 

And I got to play delivery driver on my way home. A conference staff member is donating a TV to one of our Disaster Recovery clients in Lee County. Right now its in Sarasota with me until I drive to Fort Myers for a meeting on Tuesday next week. 

 

A First Apartment

 For the last couple of months we have been storing some extra furniture at the house which was a gift from Tom and Ellen Davis for Parker's school apartment this year. 

And Grandmommy had been storing a lot of Parker's other things from the dorm in the apartment at her house. 

We finally gathered everything up and Parker and I moved it back to Lakeland on Sunday. Bella tried to sneak into the car to go with Parker too!  

Parker is in a school apartment just west of the main campus, Lake Hollingsworth Apartments. He's with two of his friends Jake and Eddie (they were in a suite in Jenkins last year). Eddie and Parker are sharing one room with a bathroom and Jake has a single with his own bathroom. Then they have a large living room/dining room combination, a kitchen and a small back porch. They were lucky and are right next to the laundry building in the complex. 

He's all set up and ready to go for the year. His roommates are great and they already made up a dinner plan and went shopping to cook food at night. 

Last First Day of High School

Wesley had his last first day of high school as he started at IMG Academy in Bradenton for his senior year on Monday of this week. We're so excited for this opportunity for him. 

 

Beach Waves

Saturday Parker and I took one last beach walk before he moved back to Lakeland. It was stormy with big waves. And then we went to Olaf's for ice cream. 

 

Track Orientation

Saturday night we went back to IMG for the Track and Field Orientation. We met in the ballroom of the Legacy Hotel on campus. This is Iryna Pimenov - Wesley's jumps coach. 

This was the track uniform for the New Balance Nationals last season. 

We took a few minutes to walk around the campus some more and check out the academic center. 

This is where all the classrooms are - 3 stories in the center of campus. 

This is the athletic training center. 

And we ventured over to the track to take a look again. 

Monday is getting close. 

New Student Check-In Day

 We spent time at IMG Academy on Friday for Wesley for new student checkin. We met his jumps coach and advisors. We shopped in the team store to finish getting his school uniforms. And we got to tour the athletic center. They also did a foot scan for Wesley to make sure to get him the right size Under Armour shoes (Under Armour is the athletic sponsor). Gatorade is the other huge sponsor and there were free Gatorade stations all around campus too. He got his ID (and we got our parent IDs). Plus he got his parking pass for getting through the gate security each day. We're super excited for him and this amazing opportunity! 

Around the District This Week

  Sunday I started out by preaching at Harvest in Lakewood Ranch and talking about Zoe Empowers and our summer trip to Kenya. Harvest is one of the churches helping to support our Zoe group. 

 

Monday I drove to Orlando to hang out with the new Pulpit Project cohort at the Orlando Science Center. Four of our district pastors were a part of the group. 

Tuesday and Wednesday were spent in the district office and then I spent all day Thursday in the conference office on Lake Mirror in Lakeland. 

 

It's been a good and busy week.