Yay for Rachel!

Yesterday was a good day for Rachel. She found out that she passed the third of three teacher certification tests for Oklahoma and is now eligible to apply for a teaching license, though she won't actually do that until she has done some student teaching next semester. We are so proud of her. Thanks to everyone who prayed for her, it has made a big difference.

She decided that she needed to have a new hairdo that would suit a teacher. No more hair falling down in her face and getting in her way. So last yesterday she got it cut. Here are the before and after photos.



And I think she finished her Christmas shopping, thanks to a friend who was willing to take her shopping.

Another thing we did today affects Rachel too--we gave away her bed. A friend of mine wanted a loft for her son, so we decided he needed it more than Rachel did. With our boys out of the house (except for the stuff they have packed up in boxes), we've got empty bedrooms galore, so Rachel will probably move to a different room with a different bed. In fact, she wants us to paint one of the empty bedrooms sometime during her Christmas break. We'll see if that happens.

I Hate Driving

But I love Rachel, and she couldn't find a ride home so I ended up driving up here today to get her. Well, she did find a freshman who lived near Longview and offered her a possible ride, but the girl couldn't even say for sure whether she drove through Dallas on her way home, nor did she know the names of any of the roads. That made me nervous enough to drive up here myself :-(

Rachel's last exam got over at 6pm and I've been helping her do laundry and clean and pack since then. I'm so proud of her finishing another semester--Way to go, girl!

My Boy, the Chef

Our older son, Andrew, worked in a genetics lab at Texas A&M, sequencing DNA the summer after his junior year of college. He called me one day that summer to ask what "simmer" meant.

Yesterday I got a call from the younger son, David, who works at the National Cancer Institute programming electron microscopes. He called last night to ask what "broil" meant.

Somehow, I have failed these boys! (But they both know how to scrub a toilet :-)

Wicked Sense of Humor

There were two funny things at church yesterday. I hope I can tell the story so it is funny, but it might turn out to be one of those cases where "you had to be there."

First, my husband went to get some coffee before Sunday School. The guy in line ahead of him was a cheerful black man who was stirring creamer into his coffee. He made the remark to Gary, "How do you take your coffee?" and Gary replied, "Don't you know Black is Beautiful?" At which point I was about to clobber him, but our friend just laughed and said, "Yes, but not for coffee."

Then in SS class we had another laugh. Bob, our leader, has a daughter who is soon to marry the son of Alan, a class member. Bob got up and said, "We thank the Lord that we are soon to become grandparents. Our son, David and his wife..." at which point Alan blurts out, "Whew!" After a few seconds we all got the joke and had a good laugh.

And on a different topic, if anyone wants to see a few photos of the visit last weekend of our older son's girlfriend, you can see them on my personal website. The son in the photos is our younger son who was home for the day (the older one being in Africa).

Christmas Gifts

It is that time of year to think about Christmas gifts. There are two primary schools of thought when it comes to gift giving. There is the "hand me your list" way of thinking and there is the "don't ask, don't tell" school of thought.

I grew up in a family that was very open about Christmas gifts. When asked the famous question: "What do you want for Christmas?" these are some typical answers you would hear:

• "I don't know. I don't really need anything."


• "About time you asked. Here's my list, written in my best handwriting."


• "Why don't you just give me money, then I can buy what I want."


• "Go in with your sister and brother and just buy me a vacuum."


• "I really need plastic shoe rack."


• "The same thing you got me last year--new underwear."

My husband's family, on the other hand, does not discuss gift giving. One should be able to think of a good gift. This doesn't always happen, but over the years there have been some nice surprises.

As for me, whenever I'm asked what I want for Christmas, these are the kinds of answers I give:

• "I don't know. I don't really need anything."


• "You can't afford what I want."


• "A gift of your time--clean your office. You can do it all at once, but I'm also willing to accept two hours per month on the installment plan."


• "The same thing you got me last year--new underwear."


• "All I want is good kids."