Meeting an Old Friend for the First Time

Yesterday was a long day, and by the end of it I was too lazy to set up my computer, so that’s why I was silent.

Walter and I were out the door right at 8:30 yesterday morning, which was what we had planned. We were ready sooner, and could have left earlier, but we didn’t think we needed to. We should have left earlier.

We made it to the airport without any trouble, and got my boarding passes printed out easily. But then we saw the length of the line to get through security, and realized I’d have to get in line immediately if I had any hope of making my flight.

So we said our goodbyes and I joined the long long line. By the time I made it to security, I was a little nervous about the time. Then, wouldn’t you know it, my carryon was flagged for a special inspection. And I had to have my glucose monitor swabbed, along with my hand, to prove . . . what? I don’t know.

Anyway, last year when we flew to Belize, my bag was flagged because of the presence of a 9-volt battery that was part of my flashlight. This time? Two bags of chai mix. The guy who flagged it apparently thought I was transporting two quart-sized bags of cocaine or something. The guy who actually opened my suitcase thought that was ridiculous.

All that delayed me even more, so by the time I made it to my gate, the very last few passengers were boarding. Which meant that the flight attendants had a major headache trying to find room for my carryon, and that I had to sit in a middle seat between two very taciturn gentlemen. It was a pretty miserable flight. The window seat guy kept the shade down all the time, so it was pretty dark. My knees were pressed up against the seat in front of me, and it was very warm. Yet I couldn’t take my sweater off without getting completely out of the seat and into the aisle.

Eventually we landed in Phoenix, and then the race was on to get to the other gate. I walked a very long way, and reached my gate just a few minutes before they started boarding. This time I could board in the first group, so I easily found room in the overhead bin and got an aisle seat. This plane was so much more comfortable. The seats were larger and farther apart. Whew! Much more enjoyable.

When I landed in Boise, my friend Carol was waiting for me! Carol and I have been friends for many years, but yesterday was the first time we ever met in person. What a delight! And the drive from Boise to her hometown of La Grande, Oregon was stunningly beautiful, with plenty of time to talk on the way.

When we arrived at her home, I got to meet her husband Curt and their son Collin. We spent the rest of the evening visiting. It’s so lovely and cool here! And I could sleep with an actual blanket on.

This morning was pretty leisurely. I took a shower before joining Carol for tea and conversation. Then she took me on a tour of my Aunt Glenda’s life in La Grange. I saw their house, the Youth for Christ center where they ministered, the kindergarten where my aunt taught, and the church my Uncle Dan pastored.

After that we drove over to Carol’s son’s farm, where I met her daughter-in-law and some of her grandchildren. The views were stunning!

And we got to see some two-day-old kittens.

On the way back to Carol’s house, we passed field full of blooming canola:

We had a late lunch of bacon and eggs and then spent most of the afternoon just visiting. Despite having only “met” yesterday, we haven’t yet run out of things to talk about! We also went on a walk where I enjoyed all the beautiful northern spring flowers—including lilacs! What a treat. Texas is too hot for lilacs.

We had a fabulous supper of elk meat cooked in bear fat (Curt is a hunter) with salad and fried eggplant. That meat was so good, y’all.

Meanwhile, we had heard that tonight the aurora borealis might be visible here, but of course we had to wait for it to get dark. I might have introduced Carol to Clarkson’s Farm while we waited.

Finally we decided to venture out. Curt picked a spot that is a high vantage point in this stunningly beautiful valley, and we arrived to find quite a few cars already lined up and people with camera gear ready. We waited in the car for a while, and then people started leaving. The crescent moon was low in the sky, but no sign of the northern lights. So we decided to join the general exodus and head farther north ourselves.

Not long afterward, just before 11:00, we saw a light patch near the moon. We stopped the car and pulled over, and soon the sky was full of green and whitish beams of light. Later some of them turned pink, streaming right over our heads.

This was a bucket-list item for me. I have always wanted to see the aurora borealis. It was a magical experience at the end of a beautiful day. And tomorrow, I get to see family.

Almost Ready

Today I had a long to-do list, so I just kind of worked my way down it. I started wrapping Ellie’s gifts, only to run out of tape. Well, I wanted to go to Hobby Lobby anyway, so I decided to get the tape there.

In all the years I’ve been shopping at Hobby Lobby, I have never encountered a grumpy or rude employee—until today. She must have been having a bad day. I needed a few beads, and one kind of beads that I wanted were crystal beads—not the super-fancy Swarovski ones, but still crystal. Last time I wanted that kind of bead, they were in a locked glass case and you had to find an employee to open it for you.

Today the crystal beads were out in the open, so to speak, but firmly attached to the backboard and in fact it was impossible to remove them. So I found an employee and explained that I wanted to buy some beads. “Go up front,” she said gruffly.

I was puzzled. “But the beads I want are back here,” I said. She rolled her eyes at me and spoke to me in the tone of voice we all reserve for speaking to people who are conspicuously stupid. “You have to go up front,” she repeated. I felt like an idiot, but I asked, “And the beads are up there?”

“Yes!” she snapped at me, and then scolded me for not knowing this obvious fact before striding away. There was no sign over the special beads saying you have to go up front to get them, so I’m not sure how I was supposed to know.

I walked to the front of the store and waited for a checkout clerk to be free. “Uh, I was told to come up here to buy some beads,” I said.

This lady was also a little put out. She called over another employee, the keeper of the keys, who led me to a sturdy metal door and unlocked it. I felt like I was entering a bank vault. It was actually a rather untidy storage room, but along one wall was a small display of crystal beads. “That’s all the inventory we have,” she said. “If you don’t see what you want, we don’t have it.”

Fortunately, they did have one strand of the beads I wanted. I picked them up to inspect them and make sure they were like the ones I saw in the back of the store. “Are those the ones you want?” the keeper asked.

“Yes.”

She snatched them out of my hand and stormed out of the room, leaving me to follow behind and close the metal door. I followed her to the register, where she gave the beads to the clerk, who then rang them up with the rest of my purchases. After that I was allowed to touch them. You would have thought I was buying priceless diamonds—but here’s the thing. Those beads weren’t terribly expensive—about $7. There were literally hundreds of bead strands in that price range arrayed back in the jewelry section and easily accessible. So why all the extra security? Is there a huge black market in crystal beads? I am so confused.

After that little adventure I topped off the gas tank and headed home. Over the course of the afternoon I got most of the things on my list done, including mailing the package and doing most of my packing. Then we headed out for the last church dinner until next fall. I will miss the fellowship and the break from cooking every Wednesday.

I apologize if I caused any confusion about my trip tomorrow. The Belize mission trip that Walter and I are going on leaves June 22. Tomorrow I am flying to attend my Aunt Glenda’s memorial service, thanks to the generosity of my friends Rachel and Marlan, and Carol, who will be meeting me at the airport. I am looking forward to spending time with extended family members whom I very rarely see. Can’t say I’m thrilled about the hours of travel, but it’ll be worth it. I’d appreciate prayers for safe travel.

Feeling Better

What a difference a day makes! I woke up this morning feeling like my “normal” self. Except that after a really rough day like yesterday, “normal” feels exceptional. I got back into my normal morning routine of devotions followed by sauna time, and also threw in a load of laundry first thing.

After having my tea, I headed out to run the errands that I was too dizzy to run yesterday, including going to Walmart and picking up a few things to ensure the guys don’t go hungry while I’m gone.

This afternoon I did some paperwork and then finished my little sewing project—a t-shirt dress for my granddaughter Ellie, who turns two next week. Now I can get her gifts wrapped and into a box that I will mail tomorrow.

I have started packing and will finish that tomorrow also. I am only taking a carryon as I have to change planes both ways.

Mystery Solved

Yesterday (Sunday) we had to get up an hour early because the first meeting for the Belize trip was an hour before church started. We drove to church in the pouring rain. Then we had trouble figuring out where the meeting was being held and ended up wandering all over our labyrinthine church before encountering someone else who was going to the meeting and knew where to go.

The meeting wasn’t terribly helpful, but we did glean a little information from it. Walter was assured he wouldn’t be painting all the time this year. That really is not his favorite chore. It looks like he and the others will get to do various repairs and maybe a little construction. It was hinted that I’d be working with one of the principal’s daughters, which gives me hope that maybe I’ll be able to help with their internet presence, which is what I’d really like to do. We don’t have any idea how many are on our team, but my guess is it’s quite a small team compared to the VBS/dental team that goes the week after us.

I was in dire need of a nap when we returned home after church and Sunday School, and felt better afterward, but poor Walter had to go burnish floors. We had an enjoyable Zoom with Flynn’s family and Spencer and Jade, and then a quiet evening as Jasper was away at a church event.

By yesterday evening, after several days with a continuous glucose monitor, I had the answers I’d been seeking. There is both good news and bad news. For the last three and a half years, I have really struggled with my blood sugar. No matter what I did, it seemed to be higher than it should be. It made no sense. I have been extremely low-carb for seven years now. My body responded beautifully to that and I overcame my type 2 diabetes and lost over a hundred pounds.

Then, after my heart disease diagnosis, I started having trouble, and steadily gaining weight. Nothing I did seemed to help. It wasn’t until a little over a year ago that I thought to research the meds I was on, and one of them popped up right away. Not only does it cause weight gain, but it can actually cause diabetes for some people. So about a year ago, I requested a replacement for that prescription. I stopped gaining weight (thank goodness) but was unable to lose all that extra weight I’d put on while taking Metoprolol.

Also a year ago, I tried a metabolic breathalyzer called Lumen, to see if I could pinpoint how I was messing up somehow. This device ended up being completely useless for me, because it didn’t give me any helpful information. Sometimes it said I was burning fat, and sometimes it said I was burning carbs, but the two days might be absolutely identical in food intake and exercise. My readings were so unpredictable there was no way to hack the system to create a plan that would lead to a fat-burning metabolism. So I cancelled my subscription after a few months.

That’s what led me to getting a CGM. I’ve just learned that it is a lot more expensive than I realized to keep up with it, but that’s okay, because I’ve learned what I needed to know already. I will cancel it after two months. Despite getting off of Metoprolol, it is once again my prescription medications that are the culprit. This shows up very clearly in my blood sugar readings. I had to dig a little deeper to find out which meds are messing me up.

My blood glucose goes down to normal levels during the night, but the minute I get up it rises considerably due to the dawn effect and also due to the meds. When I take my morning meds, I take them with a bite or two of a zero-carb food, but that doesn’t matter. My blood sugar shoots up as if I just ate a plateful of pancakes and syrup. Then the levels stay high for hours. And hours. It’s not until the meds are wearing off around supper time that I have a magic couple of hours when my blood glucose is totally normal. I can eat a large supper and my glucose may rise a little, but then immediately starts going back down to normal. Then I take my evening meds and again it shoots back up, even though I’ve ingested no carbs.

So, the good news is that I’m NOT doing anything “wrong,” and I haven’t for years. The bad news is that the two meds I’ve identified as the villains in this story are, I’m told, essential if I want to stay alive, and one of them is the replacement for Metoprolol! (If you’re curious, the meds in question are Carvedilol and Furosemide.) I spent part of today researching alternatives and I think I’ve found some good options I can request when I go to the cardiologist next month. Because if my blood glucose levels are being raised by my meds, that also raises insulin levels, and if insulin levels are high, it is impossible to lose weight. Believe me.

I’m feeling a certain amount of anger over this. Isn’t this something that my medical care professionals should have caught? I’ve explained at every single appointment that my blood sugar is running high and that I’ve gained weight for no reason. But not one nurse or doctor has been the slightest bit curious about it. For that matter, they’ve never once asked me about my diet or exercise. The only question they ever ask is whether I drink alcohol or smoke cigarettes!

This morning, I woke up feeling very poorly, with extreme nausea, dizziness, and racing heart. After portioning out all my meds for the week, I had to go back and lie down. All morning I debated whether or not to go to the emergency room. I decided against it as I figured I probably shouldn’t be driving if just walking to the bathroom made me dizzy. I regularly have these dizzy mornings, but usually the dizziness goes away by midmorning.

Today it lasted a lot longer. I lay in bed until I couldn’t stand it anymore, and then got up to do the research I’ve just mentioned. By late afternoon I finally began to see some improvement. Nothing on my list got done. My big achievement of the afternoon was taking a blender full of compost out to my compost tub. Which gave me the chance to see how beautifully our oak-leaf hydrangeas are coming along:

They are very fragrant also. The “regular” hydrangeas aren’t far behind:

This one really didn’t bloom at all last year, but it looks like it’ll be making up for lost time this year.

I made supper in shifts tonight. Jasper had his regular gaming night, so he ate first. Then I made Walter’s supper, then my own. I didn’t plan ahead very well on how many cast iron skillets I would need.

By suppertime the last of the dizziness was gone, but I’ve still been plagued with some nausea this evening. Hoping to wake up feeling much better tomorrow, as I only have two days now to get everything done that I want to do before my trip.

Still He Doth Love Me

Jesus Loves Even Me

Phillip P. Bliss

I am so glad that our Fa­ther in Heav’n
Tells of His love in the Book He has giv’n;
Wonderful things in the Bi­ble I see,
This is the dearest, that Je­sus loves me.

Refrain

I am so glad that Je­sus loves me,
Jesus loves me, Je­sus loves me.
I am so glad that Je­sus loves me,
Jesus loves even me.

Though I forget Him, and wander away,
Still He doth love me wherever I stray;
Back to His dear loving arms I do flee,
When I remember that Je­sus loves me.

Refrain

Oh, if there’s only one song I can sing,
When in His beauty I see the great King,
This shall my song through eternity be,
Oh, what a wonder that Je­sus loves me!

Refrain

Jesus loves me, and I know I love Him;
Love brought Him down my poor soul to redeem;
Yes, it was love made Him die on the tree;
Oh, I am certain that Je­sus loves me!

Refrain

If one should ask of me, how can I tell?
Glory to Je­sus, I know very well!
God’s Ho­ly Spi­rit with mine doth agree,
Constantly witnessing Je­sus loves me.

Refrain

In this assurance I find sweetest rest,
Trusting in Je­sus, I know I am blessed;
Satan, dismayed, from my soul now doth flee,
When I just tell him that Je­sus loves me.

Refrain

A Con, a Faire, and a Birthday

Happy Star Wars Day! I had two options of things that I could do today to celebrate the end of the school year. One of them was to go to the local Comic Con with Jasper. I had bought two tickets, one for him and one for me, as a birthday present to him. I had fully intended to go, until I learned that today would also be a special day at the faire, on the very last weekend.

What to do? I gave both Con tickets to Jasper so that he could take a friend. I gave up my chance to pay $40 to get a selfie with Kevin Sorbo. And I went to the faire, because I really wanted to see this guy:

Lary has been the piper at almost every faire I’ve gone to in the last 20 years—and I’ve gone to a lot. He once even offered to give Walter a bagpipe lesson for free—but Walter never followed up.

Last year, Lary was diagnosed with metastatic kidney cancer. The treatment he received began to shrink his tumors—but it was also killing him. So he asked to be put on hospice, where he would receive just palliative care. He was admitted to a hospice facility, and then a funny thing happened—he started getting better. As the months have gone by I have followed his journey on social media, as he went from a guy at death’s door to a guy that can play a few notes on the pipes again and is working on walking a little more each week. He’s a miracle man.

When I talked to him today, he told me he’s hoping to be released from hospice so he can go back to living in his camper and having some kind of more enjoyable life for however long he has left. His presence at the faire today brought out all kinds of people from the old days, and it warmed my heart to see them showing up to hang out with Lary. Here’s a photo of Lary performing ten years ago and wearing the same kilt!

That was the first thing I did—visit with Lary before a line formed. Then I listened to a couple of music acts and went to the birds of prey show. When this faire first opened, I really enjoyed the birds of prey show. They had a lot of great demonstrations of hawks going after lures and flying through people’s outstretched arms and so forth. But a few years ago, that all changed. I know for sure they had one very tragic mishap where a hawk was killed when it landed on a transformer.

Now all they do is parade various birds around while telling you information about them, and at the very end they have one bird fly from one handler to another, over the heads of a few audience volunteers. It’s not nearly as engaging.

While I was watching a different show, a man approached me as I stood up to leave. He had noticed our last name written in large letters on the back of my cumbersome folding chair, and wanted to know if I was related to Walter. Turns out he used to work for Walter many years ago, and remembered him as a good boss.

Along with Lary’s presence, another draw at the faire today specifically was a performance by the Rogues, a Celtic pipe and drum band, who also used to perform back in the day at the other faire.

While we waited for them to start, we as an audience were mesmerized by activity in the pond (the stage is right on the bank of a pond). There was a snake swimming across it, and it was heading toward rather than away from us. Around here, any snake you see swimming, you have to assume is a cottonmouth. I operated on the assumption that it would prefer to avoid large groups of noisy people.

Just as the Rogues performance was starting, my friends Carrie and Tim arrived with their whole family, so after the show I got a photo:

I can’t believe how much their grandkids have grown! I remember when the oldest was just a little baby at the faire! Carrie and Tim are rockstar grandparents. They do stuff with their grandkids all the time. I’m more than a little envious.

You may wonder why I make no mention of the joust. They do have one, but I have very limited tolerance for theatrical jousting after all those years of loving sport jousting. So I didn’t go. Instead, I listened to more music and spent a few minutes talking to Tim about his house building project.

Then I went into the one booth that kind of tempts me. Going to the faire has changed a lot for me over the years. When the kids were still at home, it was a major expedition. We bought advance tickets because they were cheaper. We packed enough food to feed an army, because any money we had after paying for tickets was spent on weapons, not food. Our house was very well armed in those days.

Now, I don’t really need any more weapons than I already have. I mean, if I have my handbag with me, I have at least three knives on me at all times. But this one booth has baskets and handmade pottery, and pottery is a huge weakness of mine. They also have snap jewelry, and I am always on the lookout for new snaps.

Since this was the last weekend of the faire, all pottery and baskets were the same low price, regardless of size. So . . . I found a pretty bowl I couldn’t live without, and a ceramic chicken roaster:

I’ve been wanting one of those forever, but couldn’t justify the price. Today’s price was perfect. And when I went to pay for my items (plus a couple of snap charms), she threw in a free basket!

By then my enjoyment was waning due to the heat. All week they were predicting that today would be cool and rainy. Instead it was hot, sunny and humid. I can take only so much heat before I lose my will to live. Yes, I know that 85 degrees is actually nice spring weather in East Texas, and that three months from now it will be considered a cold spell, but by the middle of this afternoon I was done. I saw everyone I wanted to see, heard some great music, and got a chicken roaster! So I absquatulated. I struggled back to Quicksilver hauling my chair, my pottery, and my basket, and cranked up the air conditioner.

I came home to an empty house. Jasper was still at the Con, and Walter had a yard job to do. I got out of my sweaty garb and put on some cooler clothes and sat down with a restorative cup of tea. And as I was sitting there enjoying my tea, I was thinking about how today is May 4^th, not in the context of it being Star Wars day, but in the context of it being the day before May 5^th. And May 5^th is Sammy’s birthday. Yikes! How could I forget?

I vacated my chair with alacrity. It was too late to change my lazy dinner plans, but I could at least make a cake. I managed to throw together a chocolate cake with cream cheese and coconut icing before Sammy arrived for supper. Walter showed up a few minutes later, after working graduation at the university this morning and then yardwork in the afternoon. And then Jasper showed up. Jasper had to wait for Walter to take his shower before he could take a shower, and then once he was clean, he left to spend the evening with friends.

So it was just Walter and me and the birthday boy for supper. After watching a video on it this afternoon, I tried poaching a couple of eggs to go with my supper, and although they tasted just fine they, uh, lost their structural integrity.

After supper we watched the eagerly-awaited first two episodes of the new season of Clarkson’s Farm, stopping between episodes for cake:

Tomorrow is Sammy’s 33^rd birthday. He is exactly two weeks younger than our daughter Mary.

Parting Shot:

Favorite t-shirt seen at the Faire today.

Free!

I really have enjoyed teaching the last couple of weeks, but I’m also very glad to be done! Now I can focus on preparing for two trips and hopefully working a lot on my curriculum. I would love to have it done before we go to Belize, but that will take a very high level of dedication, and right now all I want to do is drink tea and take naps.

The last class today went pretty well. I think the older kids got more out of it than the younger kids, but that was to be expected. And since then I have calculated all the grades for the whole course and sent out all the information emails so I am DONE. I do need to buy more printer paper, though. I went through a ream and a half of paper for this class.

Meanwhile, Jasper spent the morning doing a yard job in hopes of beating the rain . . . which never arrived.

Robin came over for tea this afternoon and we had a nice visit. I will be gone next weekend so I’m glad I got to see her today. And my new grounding pillow cover arrived today. My old one was falling apart due to years of daily use, and I do believe grounding is very helpful for me. So we’ll see if I notice an improvement in my sleep quality over the next few nights.

All three of us in this household will be very busy tomorrow, all doing different things. I am rewarding myself for making it through the school year. I had to choose between two very attractive activities but I’m content with my choice.

Update on my continuous glucose monitor: #2 is still in place and still working. I still have to figure out how to link it up with the second app. Meanwhile, I’m getting useful information. And I’ve discovered one huge drawback, which is that I am now chained to my phone. If I get more than 20 feet away from my phone, it panics. I’m not a phone-carrying kind of girl, especially not around the house. I have a place where I put it, and if I hear a notification, I go check it. I’m finding it very burdensome to have to have it with me all the time.

Tea Round Two

We woke up to a steady rain this morning, and Walter took the van to work. We are closing in on the end of this busy couple of weeks. I really do love teaching and I’ve had a great bunch of kids this time around, but I have limited mental bandwidth and it’s so hard for me to focus on other stuff I should be doing when I’m teaching every day. This class has quite a large age spread—from 10-16—and I do think the older kids have probably got more out of it than the younger ones, but I hope they all learned skills that will improve their writing going forward.

As soon as class ended, I finished working on my grocery list and headed to Aldi. Yes! On a Thursday! That’s because I won’t have time to go tomorrow. And the following Friday I’ll be far away, so I won’t be back to my normal routine until the 17^th.

While I worked on my list, Jasper decided to try the South American tea. After hearing my warnings, he decided to treat it like any loose tea, and make it in his mug with a strainer and just a teaspoon of leaves instead of half a cup. He didn’t think it was all that terrible, especially after adding honey. However, when I returned home from Aldi he informed me that the last couple of sips of the tea were really, really bad. How can something that’s supposed to be so good for you taste so awful?

Jasper helped put the food away before going across the street to mow the lawn, since the rain had stopped and we had sunshine.

Then after making supper for the guys I drove around the corner to pick up my neighbor Sylvia so we could go to our monthly ladies night out. Robin came for the first time in many months, and also our friend Susan, who has been out of town for most of our recent get-togethers. We had a nice visit over Mexican food.

Parting Shot:

My class. Aren’t they a great-looking bunch of kids?

Unpalatable Tea & Good News for Me

Welcome to May! This morning I called my aunt, whose birthday is today, and we talked for about forty-five minutes. It was so good to talk to her and I am looking forward to seeing her soon. Fortunately I was mostly ready for class because after we hung up I just had a few minutes before my students arrived.

Class went pretty well. Only two more days—which means only two more outfits to figure out. I normally re-wear clothes more than once but when I’m teaching every day I keep a log to make sure I don’t repeat anything. It’s silly and kind of OCD, but I don’t want my students to think I wear the same clothes all the time even though that’s mostly true. But coming up with twelve different outfits is a challenge.

After class I finally had time to replace my CGM. Yes, I killed it after only two days. I placed it on the back of my arm as instructed, but apparently I put too much weight on it last night while rolling over and it died. So instead of ten days I only got two out of it. Now I’m wearing it more on the inside of my arm where I don’t think it will be under much pressure despite all the tossing and turning I do at night. It’s a very steep learning curve, but I AM learning.

This afternoon my friend Darlene came over for a visit. This is the friend who went on a two-month cruise around South America at the end of last year, and I hadn’t seen her since. She let me know ahead of time that she’d be bringing some new tea to try, so I had the water boiling when she got here.

She had brought not only the tea (a big bag of it) but special cups to drink it from and special strainer spoons to sip it from:

So we followed the instructions, which were to put a massive amount of the leaves into the cups, add hot water, and then sip it through the fancy spoons. Not gonna lie—it was disgusting. It tasted like a blend of manure and despair.

We looked at each other in dismay. She hadn’t ever tried it before because she wanted to try it with me. She had heard it might be bitter (SO bitter!) so she brought some honey to stir in, which was no help to me as I can’t have honey. So she added some honey to hers and I dug out a packet of stevia and stirred it into my tea. It tasted just as disgusting as before, but with that stevia aftertaste.

Darlene picked up the still-full bag of tea leaves and dropped them into my kitchen trash can. Later, I told Jasper about it and he retrieved the bag of tea from the trash because he wants to try it. He’ll regret it.

Anyway, after that I made real tea and had a good visit with Darlene! And then we had our church dinner. Next Wednesday will be the last one until fall.

This afternoon I saw I had some voice mail and it was our pastor’s assistant asking me to call her, so I did. She wanted to let me know that there’s a scholarship fund, and whoever administers it wants to fund my trip to Belize so I can go with Walter. Frankly, I was quite taken aback. I was so glad that he was getting to go again, and quite accepting of the fact that I’d be holding the fort here in Texas. So it took a minute for it to sink in that we’re both going! What a special blessing. We’ll know a lot more about it (I hope) after we finally have a meeting on Sunday.

Good News for Walter

Well, here we are, staring May in the face. It may be six months before I get another restful night’s sleep. I try not to think about it too much, but this morning I actually fell asleep while grading papers.

I had all morning to prepare for class and get a few other things done, because today is the day class had to be moved to the afternoon to accommodate some student schedules.

My students were pretty rambunctious today. Several of them had just gotten out of their final co-op classes for the semester, and the last thing they wanted to do was sit through another class. We all suffered through it together! One girl was exhausted from staying up late to study for an exam.

I got started on a small sewing project this evening, made more tedious by the fact that I don’t feel I can use my serger right now. Nothing I have tried has resulted in correct tension. So I will have to do this project the old-fashioned way.

Finally, I wanted to give you an update on the Belize mission trip situation. It took a couple of days to sort it out, but as I had hoped we had enough money for Walter to go if I transferred everything over from my account to his. I am so relieved. They will finally have a meeting about it on Sunday morning, so we’ll know a lot more then. I am so glad he will get to go.