4 posts tagged “friends”

We had a nice week off with George last week after he finished his grueling 60+hrs./7day per week 2 month proposal schedule. He and the boys finished our water-softener drainage system, and we went for a couple of walks, ran errands, and mostly relaxed.

Jordan is taking his last college final today for his Freshman year! He thinks he did well.

Jared and Ben are finished with their community college calculus class. Jared got the outstanding student award for calculus (out of 12 students:) and Ben got second! They still have their senior year of homeschool to finish hopefully by the end of this month. They also have accepted their scholarships to UD and UTA respectively. Ben has some upcoming math placement testing and orientation. Jared just has paperwork until his orientation in September.

Jeremy and Rachel are finishing 8th grade and will be in high-school next year!

Rebecca is finishing 2nd grade.

Everyone is looking forward to their friends, James, John and Anna coming over to screen Prince Caspian weekend after next. Wish our Pharr friends could make it for that too!

Alas, the girls are leaving today. Let's see, what did I love most about their visit.

Hearing animated, unguarded laughter
Hearing a beautifully directed youth choir
Hearing and seeing Josh Groban sing February song on Youtube synced with my copy (that they gave me) on the stereo speakers
Driving under the multilayered canopy of gray and white puffy, Bronte sisters' post-rain clouds
Reconnecting with the St. Seraphim's Cathedral crowd
Eating each pair of kids' researched, shopped for, and carefully prepared special dish. I'm glad I don't have to decide which one was best! The girls' Caribbean meat sauce over rice with Greek salad and tostones, Rachel helping prepare Ben's award winning chili, or Jared and Jordan's tortellini casserole with basil and tomato cream sauce, sausage, and Parmesan cheese. It was all to die for.

Thanks girls for gracing our home with your presence!

And speaking of to die for, here's the February Song,

 

I've been neglecting my blogs this week as we have company (see my comment in Ben's Emma post). Part of the reason for the visit, in addition to their coming up for Orthodox Youth Camp last week which was held at nearby Possum Kingdom lake, is that one of the girls and their friend who has just joined them, is attending the All State Choir Camp at UTArlington with Ben and Jared. When I dropped them off yesterday I was thrilled to find that among their mostly Christian selections (!) they will be singing a Russian language Psalm. I recognized the word Ghospodi (Lord). Hopefully the boys will provide more specifics. It is an intense 3 day camp that will culminate in a concert on Saturday afternoon. I'm sure this experience will enhance their participation in our Church choir. 

Fyi, I like talking to my long time friend, Carol, whose birthday it is tomorrow. We met in 11th grade in French class and share the same birth month and year. She'd just moved back to Texas, though a different part than she'd previously lived at or in. She was born in Beaumont, near Houston and moved to Ohio then Tennessee when she was 12 - 16. She moved to the DFW area when her dad was transferred. She needs to start a blog and tell it like she wants! Not that she hasn't been invited to...

Anyway we both shared missionary aspirations - me a nurse and she a teacher to Africa. I was supposed to meet a Dr. in Africa with a New Zealand accent. She wasn't in such a hurry.

But we both loved Keith Green's No Compromise album.  While I worked on my Licensed Vocational Nurse training, I was in a hurry to get that overwith too, she went to UTAustin. Visiting her was where I got my University experience. It was fun playing games with her friends in the dorms, going to BSU meetings, and sitting in on some of her or her friends' classes. I loved visiting Austin's beautiful lakes, hills and parks. We also enjoyed going to Chuy's infamous, eclectic, fish be-decked, Mexican restaurant where the President's daughter engaged in underage drinking 15 years later. 

I ended up going to the local community college to get my RN license as the hospital was phasing out LV(P)N's. I worked for Carol's mother who was the head of a Day Surgery Center while I spent the next 2 years learning more about my vocation. Carol ended up switching majors to journalism. I wish I'd studied Liberal Arts, but better late than never on that, and who knows all the purposes nursing played in my life.

She was in my wedding to a man I met at the hospital when I was working in Neonatal Intensive Care. She was at all the births of my children, except Isaac, my second wedding, and always there when I went through stuff. She's the sister I never had, and we pretty much know all of each others' stories. She's right and left brained like I am which apparently is an unusual combination, so we talk about and enjoy just about everything, even though we don't always agree. She's more methodical, detail oriented, and calm. I'm pretty impulsive, big picture oriented, and have peaks and valleys of volume.

Neither of us became formal missionaries. She is now a magazine editor and as I've said, I'm a stay at homeschool mom.

I'm 5 foot 8 and had a very nice time at lunch with her yesterday.
Happy Birthday Carol!