"As You Walk on By....Will You Call My Name? Or Will you Walk Away?"

After a few days of no new updates to post, I was getting the "Blogger Blues". You know I anxiously await the arrival of your updates. So after a few days of zero emails for the blog, you know I was getting a little disappointed. I almost did not turn on the computer today for the fear of more disappointment, but you know I could not resist. And boy, am I happy I did!......... as you will be happy I did too because there in the mailbox was an update from Renee Gilley McKnight.

Renee writes:

Well Susan has been able to muscle one more into writing. If you look at the picture and recognize my husband and are confused about the last name don’t be. Yes that is Ted (Clites) McKnight NHS class of 1986 and friend of my brother Henry. Ted and I met up at SLU during lunch and we’ve been together ever since, we will be married 16 years this December. We have a daughter Olivia who just turned 13 and a son Wade who will be 10 this November. We never made it to the 10 year reunion; I believe we were in either California or Alaska then. Here is the flashback:

After high school I worked for a while then attended Southeastern Louisiana majoring in elementary education. Ted joined the Air Force in 1990; we got married and left Louisiana. We were living in Denver, Co. while he attended Mark IVB training at Lowery AFB for about 8 months. His first assignment was Onizuka AFB in Sunnyvale, California, we lived there for about a year and I worked as an assistant manager at Karl’s Toys and Hobbies. That was the hardest job I ever had: 10 hours of playing with toys! I was 3 months pregnant when we found out our next move was to McClellan AFB in Sacramento, California. We lived there for about 5 years and I worked for some really great people as an accounts receivable for Sacramento TBA. Olivia was 3 ½ when I had Wade, then when Wade was about 9 months old Ted received his orders yet again and we were off to Elmendorf AFB in Anchorage, Alaska. This is the city that we wanted to stay in; we found the place we wanted to retire to! We lived in Anchorage for 4 years, that’s when I decided to stay home with the kids. I didn’t want to have to quit another job that I enjoyed, well that was 9 years ago and I’m still enjoying being a stay at home mom. I have had small part time jobs here and there just to get out of the house a little, but I haven’t held a full time position in a while, until the storm. This brings us back to today.

Ted and I decided we missed our families and he didn’t want to continue with the military. We moved back to Slidell September 11, 2001. Ted was on terminal leave and we were moving home when we heard about the terrorists. We thought for sure he was going to be called back, but the Lord must have had other plans for us. He wasn’t called back and he has been working for a company, Institute for Technology Development, on Stennis Space Center in Mississippi as the IT Director. Since returning home we have been very active in the church, Ted is the 4th – 6th grade Sunday school teacher and my assistant. I have been the Youth Ministry Director at Peace Ev. Lutheran going on 4 years now. After the storm I worked as the volunteer coordinator and helped change our church into a mission center for Lutheran Disaster Response. I have also recently been the site coordinator for 2 of the Camp Noah day camps held here in Slidell. We were even on CNN, ok so you only saw the back of my head, but they were there filming and it was on Fox news. :o) We just recently returned from our second mission trip to Bethel Lutheran in Portville, New York. I enjoy doing what I do and even though my position at the church is done voluntarily, it is a full time position and I love every minute of it.

Enough about me and on to the kids: Olivia is 13 and has only one more year of Jr. High before heading on to Slidell High. I can’t believe I have a child that is almost in High School and will be driving soon. She has made at least the A/B honor roll each semester in school since the 3rd grade. She has been playing cello since the fourth grade and has participated in the honor strings program for the last 3 years, unfortunately she broke her arm last year and couldn’t play. She also has been playing piano for 3 years and French horn for 2 years. Olivia also sings in the adult choir at church and loves it. She definitely got our musical background; she is so smart and talented and has just enough of her mother’s smart mouth to make her a well rounded person. :o)

Wade is 9 right now and will turn 10 in November this year. He is another smart cookie, makes me wonder if these kids are mine. Like his sister, Wade also plays more than one instrument, he plays violin and has for about 4 years and has played piano for about 2 years. He was also Santa in the Christmas play at his school recently. He has been taking Songahm Taekwondo for a year and is currently a camo working on his green belt. He is skinny as a rail and all boy! He has had 2 CAT scans and 3 stitches to his lip before he turned 7 (not all of that at the same time). To look at him you wouldn’t think him to be the dare devil he is, that must come from Ted. He will snuggle up to you and hug you one minute then be off climbing or digging the next. At one point our New Years resolution was no more trips to the ER for at least one year. I am happy to say he has kept that resolution going on 2 year now.

I still can’t believe it’s been 20 years! It just seems like yesterday we were heading out on a day trip to Florida (remember that Susan?) and now we are the ones worried about our kids and the stupid things they will do. Thanks for getting this going, we plan on attending the reunion and look forward to seeing some old friends.

Renee Gilley McKnight

Thanks, Renee! You were a great cure for my "Blogger Blues".

It is funny because I very seldom see classmates around Slidell. I often think that there aren't any. Then every once in a while I think I see one or two. I never say anthing for the fear of embarrassment of not being recognized or even remembered. My whole reason for this explaination is that I thought I passed Renee and Ted in the Wal-Mart/Sam's parking lot one day. I had forgotten about that passing until I saw their picture and read the great update of how they are in Slidell raising their family. I should not have let them walk on by without calling their name. I am not going to let that happen anymore. So if someone you don't remember comes up to you, look at them closely, it may just be me or someone else you knew 20 + years ago.