The motto I live my life by is hard work pays off. Going into college, I knew I wanted to be in the medical field, but I did not know what role that I wanted to be within the field itself.
My cousin Jennifer Manaker was the first person to introduce me to the Physician Assistant (PA) profession. She brought up the profession when she and I were talking about my plans after college.

“Yummy, yummy, yummy, I’ve got love in my tummy” is the first line of the 1968 pop single by the bubble gum band Ohio Express. Time magazine included the song in its 2011 list of songs with “silly lyrics.” I often use various memory devices to aid my recall of scripture concepts. One of the memory devices I use is association. Since silly song lines are easy to remember, one can use something silly to help recall something serious.

I think there’s one thing we all have in common: We’ve all prayed for something that we wanted. Something wasn’t what we needed. Recently, the Lord answered a prayer like that in a way that only He can do. Actually, somebody else also prayed for the same thing too.
A week before my daughter Sara’s wedding, I began to check the weather forecast every day, since the ceremony was to be held outside. At first, that Saturday was predicted to be nice and pleasant. But as it drew closer, the forecast changed to not only rain, but a chance of storms as well.

We are now in high school and it’s Wednesday, October 14, 1959. The Wednesday morning chapel has begun and there’s two boys, one freshman and one sophomore on stage ready to perform.
I know the sophomore. He is Don Kiser, with whom I attended Rose Hill grammar school. The other young man with the electric guitar was L. J. Beeler. After high school he became a professional musician backing lots of big stars from Nashville.

Over the past several months I have had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of a fine gentleman, Mr. Ted Green. He came to the Union County Board of Education offices to find information on Plainview School. He and I have examined the registers from teachers who taught at that school from 1932 until the school’s closing in 1970.
I am including below the body of an email Mr. Green sent to me regarding a planned gathering for anyone connected with Plainview School. This email is intact (with minor editing) as sent to me.

Cupcakes are so popular nowadays. And why not? They are individual portions that can be eaten out of hand. I remember when heavily frosted cakes were the norm. They needed to be eaten quickly before they dried out. Cupcakes stay soft inside their icing and paper wrappers.

When appreciating the natural world, getting out and seeing it is mostly how it’s done. We go on vacations or road trips to see beautiful things like forests, mountains, rivers, oceans and canyons.
This makes sense, since we are wired to perceive the world mostly through the sense of sight. Thirty percent of the neurons in our brain’s cortex is devoted to vision. For comparison, eight percent is used for smell, and only two percent is used for hearing.

A great deal of childhood early learning occurs through the eyes. Healthy vision is important for children’s early development. Lions Club KidSight’s screenings detect vision problems early. The program helps parents get their children treatment before it’s too late to avoid the permanent vision loss that can result from some eye conditions.

4-H Youth Development Agent Ann Ramsey represented Union County in Middle Tennessee earlier this month when she attended the Agent Showcase and Small Farm Expo on the main campus of Tennessee State University (TSU).

The Union County Senior Outdoor Meat Cookery Team strutted their stuff at the Eastern Region 4-H Grill Master Challenge held on Tuesday, September 19, in Maryville, Tennessee. Sporting new team shirts and armed with aprons and tongs, they fired up their charcoal grills as the competition kicked off midday at the Blount County 4-H office. Teams from counties all across East Tennessee crowded the grounds with their tents and grills and entourages of coaches and sponsors, vying to earn bragging rights as the best grillers in four categories: beef, pork, chicken, and lamb.