Not Again!

If you go here, you can see a picture I don't like.  For those of you too lazy to click on the link, the picture is from the National Hurricane Center.  It shows a red circle of low pressure which is heading for the Caribbean, and has a high chance of becoming a tropical depression or more in the next day or so.  The second largest island in the picture, the one with a line down the middle, is the island of Hispaniola. The left half is Haiti, and the right half is the Dominican Republic.  The red circle, which is moving west-northwest, is heading towards the DR.  I don't like that.  I really want Brian to come home on Wednesday, and not get stuck in the DR riding out a tropical storm.   

Last One!

I just sent my last e-mail to Brian on his mission!  And tomorrow I will get my last e-mail from him!  Then two days later he will be home!!

Woo hoo!!!!!

(In case you couldn't tell, I'm pretty excited about this.)

August 29, 2007

Two years ago today, we dropped Brian off at the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah.  Here I am putting his official missionary name tag on him:

That was quite a bittersweet moment for me.  I was excited that Brian would be serving a mission for our Church and for the Lord.  But I was also sad that I wouldn't be seeing him for another two years.  That seemed like such a LOOOOONG time.

But now, here we are, two years later.  Brian will be home in four days (for those of you who haven't kept up with my updates).  He will have faithfully completed his service in the Dominican Republic Santo Domingo West Mission.  I can't wait to see him, and hug him, and talk to him, and feed him whatever he wants!  I can't wait to see how much he has grown and changed on his mission.  

I just can't wait!  

Happy two year anniversary, Brian!

7 - 2 =

5!

5 more days until Brian comes home from his mission!

I can't wait to see him again!

Now That's Service!

This morning I had to go through the Chase drive-thru to make a deposit for Jeffrey.  I had our dog, Bailey, with me because I had just driven a carload of kids from Seminary to school, and Bailey LOVES to ride in the car.  When the nice lady at the drive-thru sent my canister back to me, here's what I discovered in it: my deposit slip and a dog biscuit for Bailey!  How's that for customer service?

The only problem?  Bailey is not a big fan of hard dog biscuits - she's old and her teeth aren't the greatest anymore, so she took the dog biscuit to the rear seat of the van, and buried it there!  I will have to make Scott go find it this afternoon, or someone is in for a surprise tomorrow morning on the ride to school!

**Update**Update**Update**

Brian will be home from his mission in one week!!!

That's just 7 days!!

Woo Hoo!!!!!!!!

He's Off!

Our house is emptier now.  Today we took Jeffrey up to Texas A&M.  Here he is, sitting on his unmade bed in his dorm room:

Note how even the mattresses are maroon!  He brought a surprisingly small amount of stuff with him. He seems to feel that he has everything he needs.  He will be home in two weeks to see Brian, so we shall see if he decides there is much more he needs to bring back with him!

It's funny, as much as I will miss him, it wasn't as hard to leave him as it was the first two.  Maybe it's because he's the third child and it's getting easier.  Or maybe it's because once you've sent a son off on a mission, knowing you won't see him for two years, sending a kid to college doesn't seem quite so traumatic.

And I know he's going to have a great time at A&M.  Gig 'em, Aggies!

A Letter to My Parents

Dear Mom and Dad,

Today, August 21st, is the anniversary of the day that both of you died - Mom, you on August 21, 1999, and Dad, you on August 21, 2005.  I still miss you both very much.

Mom, you have been gone for 10 years.  In some ways, it seems inconceivable that you have been gone that long.  But, it also seems like you have been gone so long that you are only a distant memory.  That makes me sad.  I do remember your frequent phone calls.  Back then I sometimes thought you called too frequently, but how I wish I could hear your voice one more time.  I remember going out to dinner with you at JoJos.  Chris and you and I would bravely take the eight grandkids over there to eat.  At the time, seven of them were under the age of 8.  We were always amazed at just how quickly our food made it to the table!  I remember how you loved to watch your grandkids play.  Your physical problems made it hard for you to play with them, but you were always happy when you could just watch them play together.

Dad, you have been gone for 4 years.  My memories of you are fresher, but they are also fading.  I remember your infrequent phone calls.  I would answer the phone, and you would say, “Laura.  This is your father speaking.”  Like I wouldn’t have recognized your voice.  I remember going to eat with you at your favorite restaurant - The Stables.  They made great steaks, and, more important as far as you were concerned, they made an excellent extra dry martini!  I remember how proud you were of your grandkids.  You enjoyed them when they were small, but you truly enjoyed them as they got older and could really talk to you.  You lived long enough to see Kimberly graduate from Texas A&M, and I know that thrilled you.  Your grandkids have all inherited your love for education.  They are making you proud!

Mom and Dad, I miss you.  But I take great joy in knowing that two years ago we did your work for you in the temple.  Chris and I were able to be sealed to you.  I hope that you have accepted that work so that we can be an eternal family.

I will be thinking about you today.   

Love,

Laura  

Attention!

This is your reminder that Brian will return from his mission two weeks from today!  

That is all.  You may now resume your normal lives.

28 Years

Robert and I were married in the Manti Temple 28 years ago.  Man, that's a long time!  We were young and probably a little foolish, but we knew we were in love, and we knew we could make our marriage work.  And we have. It hasn't always been easy.  We've had ups and downs. We've been poor and well, not rich, but not poor.  We've had fights and we've had great times.  But through it all we knew we could count on each other.  We were in this together!  

I'm so grateful to have Robert in my life.  I'm grateful for the home we've built together.  I'm grateful for the four wonderful children we've raised or are still raising.  I'm grateful that we will be growing old(er) together.  

Happy Anniversary, Robert!  I love you! 

Nice People

Jeffrey and I had to go to Memorial City Mall tonight.  We were on a quest for an aqua polo shirt (which is another story in and of itself).  On the way back we stopped at a little pizza place (Napoli's on Memorial near Dairy Ashford) and got a slice of pizza.  When we came out, my Odyssey wouldn't start.  I didn't have any jumper cables and I wasn't relishing the idea of calling Robert and making him drive 25 minutes to help us.  I went in to the pizza place and asked one of the men working if any of them had jumper cables. He found one guy who did, so that guy and another employee came out and hooked up my car.  Which still wouldn't start.  But they didn't give up!  They tried some more, and then decided the posts were corroded.  So they worked to clean those off.  By this time we had been joined by another employee and some friends of theirs.  They kept trying, but were still unsuccessful.  I was ready to give up, but they kept cleaning.  And then, lo and behold, my car started! And Jeffrey and I made it home!

Thank goodness for nice people who are still willing to help out strangers! 

Tropical Storm Ana

Today two named tropical storms formed in the Atlantic. Ana and Bill.  Bill looks like it's headed for the east coast. But Ana's projected path takes it right over the Dominican Republic sometime Monday or Tuesday.  The Dominican Republic.  Where Brian is finishing out the last 2-1/2 weeks of his mission!  Why couldn't Ana have waited until after he left!  Now I have to worry about that stupid storm!

**Update**  Ana has now been downgraded to a tropical depression.  I hope she stays that way (or fades even more).

A Cheer

Jeffrey had a great time at Fish Camp.  He is now a fully indoctrinated (brainwashed) Aggie!  Whoop!

They were split into 6 different groups at Fish Camp.  Each group was assigned a color.  His group's color was aqua. This was one of their cheers:

We're not blue, we're not green,

We're the color in between!

We're aqua!  What!  What!

We're aqua!

I think that is one high class, quality cheer!

Great Card

I just saw the funniest anniversary card ever!  Here's what it said on the front:

She looked at him.

He looked at her.

And everyone who saw that look 

wanted to throw up a little.

That cracks me up.  

Things Aren't Always As You Remember

I had a favorite teacher in high school.  All of the students loved him - he really knew how to make his subject interesting.  Recently I discovered he's on FaceBook, so I sent him a friend request.  In it I asked if this was the same teacher who taught at Rich East in 1978.  It was him, but in his reply he said that he was only 28 at the time, so he really couldn't have taught anyone anything.

What ?!?!  28?!?!  I was so surprised by that.  I had always thought him to be older than that.  Probably because I had that 18-year-old mentality that says that teachers are old. It made me wonder how many of my other teachers were actually much younger than I thought they were.  

Oh, and what's really strange?  His youngest child is 30 - only a little more than 3 years older than Kimberly.  That seems really odd. 

Countdown Update!

Brian will come home from his mission three weeks from today!!

Woo hoo!!

I can't wait!!

Don't Move to This Place

I never knew Navasota was full of danger, but it must be. Today on the drive to College Station we drove by Schulte Roofing in Navasota.  They have a sign on the side of their building which reads:

Home of the Bulletproof Roof

I kid you not.  If I have to have a bulletproof roof to be safe in a town, I don't want to live there!  Of course, in Navasota it's probably confused hunters and not criminals you have to worry about.  But still....

Too Soon!!

Bright and early (well, early anyway) tomorrow morning, I will be driving Jeffrey up to Texas A&M so he can attend his four day Fish Camp.  Here's their fancy logo: 

Fish Camps are held throughout August, and are a way for new freshman to get to know other new freshman and learn more about being an Aggie.  I'll drop him off in College Station, and then all of the kids will be bused to a camp in Palestine, TX.  He'll have four days full of fun (hopefully), and I'll pick him up Friday afternoon.  I'm sure we'll have a nice conversation for 15 minutes or so, until he falls asleep for the rest of the trip!  

Then we will have 9 days at home before we drive him back up to Texas A&M.  This time to move him into this lovely place:
Appelt Hall.  Which will be his home until next May.

Which leads me to say:  Too Soon!!

Where did the summer go?  It just started yesterday didn't it?  How can my 3rd child be going off to college already!

I'm really going to miss that kid.  And not just because he drives Scott places!  Jeffrey is a lot of fun to have around the house (when he's home), and he will be missed!

But I know he's ready for this.  So I'll let him go and keep reminding myself of that!

Line Etiquette

Today Robert and I went to Pappas Barbecue for lunch.  For those of you who have never been there, everyone gets in one line which moves along until it's your turn to order. They are pretty quick there, so the wait isn't long.  Today we got in line behind about a dozen people, including the man in front of us who was alone.  After a few minutes there was probably another 8 people in line behind us. Suddenly, 3 people came in the door and walked up and joined the man in line in front of us.  I wasn't upset - we weren't in a hurry.  But that made me think about line etiquette.

How many people is it okay to hold a place in line for?  If it had been 3 people in line and one joined them, I think that's fine.  I think one person being joined by 3 others is kind of pushing it.  I think the 3 should have just waited their turn.  

What do you think?  

Summer's Over

"What?" you say.  "Summer's not over - school doesn't start for 3 more weeks."  Well, that's only if you're not in Marching Band.  If you are Marching Band in most of the schools in the area, Summer Band Camp starts tomorrow. And it doesn't just start.  Oh, no.  It takes over our lives. In the next 9 out of 11 days, Scott will be at Band for 81 hours. Yes, that's right, 81 hours!!  9 hours a day.  And it's not just the 9 hours a day I object to, it's the schedule.  First I drop him off at 8:00a.m., then I pick him up at 3:00p.m., then I drop him off at 6:30p.m., then I pick him up at 8:30p.m. Do they think I have nothing better to do with my day than take Scott to and from and to and from the school?  Apparently they do.  Thank heavens the teachers have meetings the week before school - they can only have Band from 4:30 to 8:30 those days.  Only 20 hours that week - how lucky we are.  Scott is looking forward to school starting on the 24th, just so Summer Band Camp will be over.  I think that's a sad end to summer.

I think I'll do a poll.  In the comments section tell me if you think 101 hours of Marching Band in 3 weeks is too much, and if my tirade above is justified.        

One Month!

Brian will come home from his mission one month from today!  I can't wait to see him!

Missions are funny.  In some ways it seems like he has been gone forever.  But this two years also seems to have sped by.  

I'm so glad he chose to serve the Lord.  But I'm ready to see him again, and I'm starting my countdown!