News

We have been sick for almost 2 weeks now. This is the second Sunday in a row that we've missed church. I hate that. Paige M. and I had a conversation that even when you miss one Sunday, you are completely out of the loop. It started on halloween with Steven coughing and throwing up. ( I knew they must have called it the devil's holiday for some reason). Then Frankie got a fever, then it spread to Frank and then to me. I guess I could be thankful that we weren't all sick at the same time and I was at least able to take care of my boys. My sickness is the tail end of it I think, with a bad cough, sore throat and post-nasal drippy mess.

On another note, the Church Christmas Bazaar was yesterday. I had a jewelry booth and did pretty well--so for the past couple of months, my life has not been my own. It has belonged to this crazed woman who is up at all hours of the night trying to put together jewelry sets to sell at the bazaar. I haven't added up my costs, but I came home with $140 more than what I started with. Yippee! I notice that more of the less expensive necklace/earring sets sold, and lots of the earrings sold. Which doesn't surprise me: most people are like me--they like to spend 10 dollars or less at a booth at a craft show. That's totally fine with me. I am good with bringing home 140 bucks. I will just use the sets I didn't sell as gifts. Oh, I also got about $50 worth of orders; that helps too.

Sometimes I am missing California. My friend Deannah had given me a bunch of cute clothes before we left, and most of them were winter clothes, so I've been wearing them every day. It makes me miss her so much. Thanks Deannah! I think of you every day when I put on your clothes.
The other day I got an email from Sandra, Alison, and Amy. They were goofing off in the office and were dressed in halloween clothes. It looked like so much fun! I miss you guys! I remember Dave loves to play practical jokes and last halloween, I got to work that morning and there was a huge (fake) tarantula on my cup of pens. I did do a double take (Dave I know you are laughing right now!). Then it took us all day to try to figure out who left the tarantula. For the longest time I thought it was Martin, who is notorious for having a laugh on other co-workers...then I though it was Albert, James, or Dan, who are all deceptively quiet but have evil senses of humor. I knew it couldn't have been Robert, who is just too nice with his Texas charm. But, eventually someone (I think it was Karin) spilled the beans that it was really Dave. Haha. Thanks for the laugh!
The other day I was making one of my necklaces and I thought of Jackie too, as I made one very similar for her right before we left. Jackie, hope you and Marc and Max and Noelle are doing ok--keep in touch!

A little birdie told me Alison is on a trip to Hawaii with her husband for their 30th anniversary...Congratulations Alison and Mike!!! Hope you have had a blast!

Abraham is back in India. Sangeetha should be giving birth any day now...Frank talks to him about once a month. I think Abraham is glad to have put school on hold for awhile and be back in India with his wife. I will let you know about the baby as soon as we hear anything.

Frank is immersed in his job as a Biology/Science/Bible teacher at a Christian school. The stories he comes home to tell me!! Nothing like a first year of teaching. Makes me so glad to be teaching music lessons where I get ONE kid at a time, for ONLY 30 minutes at a time! Whew! I couldn't have any of this 50 minutes at a time with 30 kids cooped up in one room! And he does this all day. I pray for him daily: that he won't get burned out, and that he won't fall asleep in the car driving to or from work. It is a 1.25 hour drive, as the school is 55 miles away. He generally drives 55-60 mph only, as you can get up to 50 miles more to a tank of gas. Pretty cool. But he is learning a lot about teaching, kids, and himself. Needless to say, he may be looking for something a little closer to home next year.
Frank's class at BTS is going really great though, from what he's told me. I think he's even ok with it being from 6-8am on Mondays, because his students actually WANT to be there. (Not so with the high school kids). And he has a lot of fun teaching something he truly loves: Apologetics. His students are all adults and like to make him think.

My parents are planning to go see my brother for Christmas in Monterey, CA (northern). I don't know if I'd told you already, but Jacob is in the Air Force, learning Chinese at a language school out there. He will either get a job in Intelligence, or go on for Officer Training School. He and Tansy and Ashlyn will be out there for another year and then will be deployed to Maryland, Hawaii, or Japan. Their wish is Hawaii of course! I wish we could go back out there for a visit, but it will be a while, as it is expeeeeeeensive! Email and phone will have to suffice.

Steven tells me every day: "Mama, I need to tell you something." And I'll say, "What?" His reply: "I love you!". Now we all say it to each other. Each child has his own way of showing affection, it is so funny to see their personalities come out.

ok, I think that's mostly everything....