Grandma and her Granddaughters

Grandma and her granddaughters

My mom has been here visiting us since Rachel's graduation. We were happy to have my sister's daughter, April, also come visit us while grandma is here. April is on her way to be a counselor at
Camp Buckner, which is located somewhere near Austin. After tomorrow I should know better where it is located since all us girls are going to drive April down there tomorrow morning. It has been fun to have April visit. I'm sorry her twin brother, Alan, couldn't come along also--but he did visit us here a couple summers ago.

Home Cookin' and Episode III

Tonight, after eating the chili left over from Ma Hoyt's visit, I heard these words: "So nice not to be eating cafeteria food any more."

And speaking of college students, I just saw the neighbor boy, Jesse, who has just graduated from Texas A&M, carrying a load of games, blankets and chairs to his car.

"Where are you going?" I asked.
"Star Wars," he replied. "I'm going to go get in line with Caleb and Tim."
"Do you have tickets?"
"Oh, yes, we have tickets. We just are getting in line to get good seats."

Poor David, missing out on all this fun. How many years ago was it that Jesse's mom and I took these same boys--then too young to drive--and stood in line for Episode I?

Personal Space

My daughter has moved home. Do I need to rename this blog?

Rachel's Graduation

Rachel's graduation

Yay! She did it! We are so proud of Rachel for graduating from Southern Nazarene University yesterday.

We drove up to her school on Friday, arriving before 3pm, after sitting in traffic for a couple spells. Amazing but true, she had every last little thing pack up and cleaned up, so loading the cars went very smoothly and quickly. I say cars, plural, because her friend, Kenny, kindly drove up with us in his car to help bring her stuff home. Also attending: Grandma Dennis from south Texas and Auntie Carol from Pennsylvania. Rachel was happy for these visitors especially since her own brothers were unable to attend.

After packing the car we went to the hotel, changed our clothes, and then headed back to SNU for a dinner given in honor of the graduates. The dinner speaker gave a humorous talk, but it was a good talk since I actually remembered his three points:

1. Get a job.
2. Be happy--appreciate the humor in life.
3. Remember Jesus loves you.

After that it was back to the hotel to watch the Dallas Mavericks on cable TV--they lost. According to reports, the boys got a lot more sleep in their room than the girls did in theirs.

The next morning we ate breakfast at the hotel, then drove off to do some sightseeing at the Myriad Gardens, a lovely park and elaborate greenhouse with 2000 tropical plant species. Then back to the hotel, change our clothes again, and off to graduation.

The graduation was kind of long, but the did a quick job of actually reading off the names. When Rachel's name was read they pronounced the "Fitona" part right, but they messed up on the "Simons." For a short moment, we though she was going to run back and tell them to correct the pronunciation, but she decided instead to keep on walking across the stage. After the indoor ceremony we went over to the fountain for a ivy cutting ceremony, then some photos with professors and friends, then we were headed back home, arriving at nearly 10pm.

Grandma will be here several more days and my niece, April, is coming tomorrow for a few days, so that will be a nice time for Rachel to transition back to life here.