Engaged!!!

Yep, Natalie is engaged! All of this happened last week, and I'm just now taking time to blog about it. Ready for the details???

Nat and Brandon met during band rehearsals before the first week of school at ETBU last year. I remember her calling me to tell me that she had a date with a great guy one of the first weekends she was in school. She was incredibly excited about it...more excited than she had been about anything in a while. They continued to date, and spent time with us and with his family in Baytown through their first year at school. It was pretty obvious from the start that Brandon and Natalie had a special relationship, so we weren't at all surprised when Brandon asked for time to talk to Chris and me a couple of months ago. He was incredibly nervous and very sweet when he asked our permission to marry Natalie. It was obvious that he put a lot of prayer and thought into his decision to marry her. The hardest part was keeping it a secret for two months!

Natalie flew to Houston to spend some time with Brandon the week before Christmas. Brandon's plan was to take her to Galveston to spend some time on the beach and then to dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. Nothing about that was unusual or surprising for Nat. What she didn't know was that he was going to propose on the beach around sunset. How romantic!!! He asked and of course she said yes. I don't think the smile has left her face since Wednesday!

Here's the cool part for us - Not only were Nat and Brandon having dinner at the Rainforest Cafe, but his parents, his sister and her husband, and Chris and I met them at the restaurant. Nat and Brandon got to the restaurant just before we did (our flight was over an hour late), and they were at the door getting ready to go in when we arrived. Nat saw the truck drive up, but she had no idea we were with Brandon's parents. She couldn't believe we were there. It was a great surprise for her, and we were thrilled to be with her on this special night. Dinner was great, and we spent time on the beach taking pictures as Nat and Brandon recreated the whole proposal. It was a wonderful night.

Merry Christmas!

What a great Christmas morning! Chris and I slept late (Nat is STILL in bed!) and I made us a really good breakfast. We're watching the Disney Christmas parade while Chris is reading the paper and I'm updating blogs. Our plans for the day include going to the movies later today and maybe even taking in a double-feature. I'm making taco soup later and that's about it. What a great way to spend the day!

We went to Christmas Eve candlelight service at church last night. It was a very nice service with lots of wonderful music, scripture, and the traditional lighting of the Advent wreath. I always enjoy Christmas Eve services to focus my mind on the true reason for celebrating Christmas. It's not all about the presents...it's all about the ultimate present - the birth of Jesus Christ.

We're looking forward to Thursday when we'll entertain my family for Christmas. We usually try to get together before Christmas Day, but we just couldn't do it this year. We'll probably have 20 people or so including 5 boys under 10 years old. Ethan will be so excited to see his cousins and to run and play with them all afternoon. What fun! We're not planning anything elaborate at all; we're just looking forward to time to spend together.

We were in El Dorado with Chris's mom for his birthday. Nick, Angela, and Ethan got to join us, and we had a great time. Ethan entertained us the whole time, and Boo Boo really enjoyed playing with him. It was lots of fun. Here's a pic of Ethan with Nick and Boo Boo.

Enjoy your day, and I hope you get to spend it with family and friends. Merry Christmas everyone!

Back to Work

My "vacation" officially ends tomorrow morning. I've been resting and taking care of myself since surgery on the 16th, so it's time to go back to work. According to the doctor, everything is healing well, but I'm still to take it easy especially at work. No lifting or moving books or carts for a long time. I still tire very easily and I'm having some discomfort when I'm out and about, so I'll really have to watch it. My brain is SO ready to be out of the house!

So...what did I do for two weeks? I don't remember the first week (Thanksgiving week) very well. My sister brought me home from the hospital on Sunday, and Nat and Brandon stopped by on their way back to Marshall. Mother came over on Monday and took care of things while lots of friends stopped by with food and to visit. I was home alone most of the day on Tuesday with a few friends stopping by. Nat and Brandon came in Tuesday night although he had to leave Wednesday to go to Plano to spend Thanksgiving with his family. Nick, Angela, and Ethan got here in the wee hours of Wednesday morning and stayed until Thursday night. Brandon was back Saturday night before he and Natalie went back to Marshall Sunday evening. WHEW! Busy week! The girls took care of cooking for Thanksgiving, we worked a couple of jigsaw puzzles, and we had a blast watching Ethan perform. I took a nap every day and tried to focus on getting the plumbing working again.

Last week was much quieter. I got up when I wanted to, I read two books, I tried to work on School Law stuff, I went to lunch with Frances, and I went to class in Mt. Pleasant on Wednesday. I ventured out on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to do a little Christmas shopping, get my hair done, and to go to church. I didn't do anything for very long...I get tired and uncomfortable really quickly.

But all that changes tomorrow. I'll be back in the library taking care of all the library business that awaits me. There are reports to do, bills to pay, websites to update, and books to process. I'm planning to take my time and find the most comfortable chair in the library. I'll have my pillow which I hope will help. I'll probably take a long lunch and come home to rest for a little while. We'll see. I just know that I'm ready to get back into the swing of things for a couple of weeks until Christmas break when I can rest some more.

Be sure to check my reading blog to see what I've been reading. I hope to get it updated tonight.

I'm Thankful for

Family
Friends
Chris's love and patience

And for our Thanksgiving meal today, I'm thankful for...

Mark's Cornbread Dressing and Gravy
Angela's Sweet Potato Casserole, Green Bean Casserole, and Cranberry "fluff"
Natalie's Mac and Cheese, Corn, and pink Jello "fluff"
Evelyn's pies
(notice that Denise wasn't responsible for anything!!)

God is good, and we're thankful for all of His blessings. Happy Thanksgiving to you!

Surgery is no fun

Last Friday morning, I spent quality time with two of Paris's finest doctors. I don't remember a second of it. That's the good news. The bad news is that I know that they were doing their jobs, and I can still feel it.

I went into this thinking...no big deal. Get some things fixed, spend a couple of days in the hospital and a couple of weeks recovering. It has been 14 years since my last surgery, so I must have suppressed all the pain and yuck involved with surgery. I know that I'll feel better once I recover completely, but I'm not there yet.

My friends have been amazing. I have three beautiful floral arrangements and plenty of really good food. I've had cards and emails and phone calls and visits from many friends as well. My mom was quite impressed with the love that has been shown. I'm not surprised because the people I work with and attend church with are the best people in town. There's no contest.

We're looking forward to a quiet Thanksgiving here. Natalie and Brandon came in tonight, although Brandon will leave for Plano tomorrow. Nick, Angela, and Ethan will be here after midnight, and they'll go back Thursday evening. Nick has to work at 5 AM Friday morning. Nat will be here until Sunday. My brother-in-law is making dressing with chicken and gravy, so Chris will meet him in De Kalb tomorrow to pick it up. Natalie and Angela get to make all of the side dishes, and I get to play with Ethan on the couch. Sounds great, doesn't it?

I'll be a new woman once I recover from surgery in a few weeks, and I'll have the pleasure of watching my daughter and daughter-in-law take care of Thanksgiving dinner. Life is good.

Mom to the rescue

Frances has a great post about being connected to her young adult kids even when she was half-way around the world from them. Lucky me...I had some mom moments myself today.

First, I got an email from Angela. She's applying for a teaching position for the spring, and she needed my advice on some questions on her application. It's pretty cool when my daughter-in-law is asking for help.

Next, Natalie called. She and Brandon were on their way to Marshall from Longview when she ran over something and had a flat tire. (I didn't ask why they were in Longview in the middle of the afternoon...but I will!) Thank the Lord that Brandon was with her and helped her change the tire. She wasn't sure what to do about the tire, so she called dear old Mom for me to tell her to go to Wally World and use the credit card to get a new tire.

Then, Nick called. He was frustrated about not being cleared to take the next portion of the TeXes test for certification. I checked online to verify the registration deadlines and assured him that he'd have plenty of time to get everything worked out. Also, he told me about his good experience directing the high school bands today as part of his student teaching. He said it went well.

I talked to Nat early this evening to make sure everything went as expected. I told her about talking to both Nick and Angela today and helping them with their problems. She told me that she's thankful that she can call me and ask for advice or help whenever she needs to.

She has no idea how much a comment like that means. Only the parent of young adult children can really appreciate it. When they're in high school they can hardly wait to get out of the house and on their own. But, when the chips (or the application or the tire or the test) are down, I'm thrilled that they call dear old Mom to talk it over. I guess that old adage is right: A mother's work is never done. I hope mine never is.

My how time flies!

I can't believe it's been almost two months since my last post. Yes, we did indeed survive the first week of school and now we've made it through the first six weeks. Let's see if I can get caught up.

The library has been busy. We've had classes almost every day of every week since school started. Not that it's a bad thing, but we haven't had time to get our library work done. Does that make sense to anyone who isn't a librarian? Our main focus, of course, is helping kids and teachers with research assignments and projects. But, we still have to order and process materials as well as perform maintenance on the collection. I'm behind on budget stuff and just about everything else I can think of. This week is TAKS retesting for juniors and seniors, and unfortunately there are enough students retesting that we need to use the library. The good news is that Mary and I should be able to get some of our work caught up during the down time. Don't get me wrong...we won't be twiddling our thumbs looking for something to do. It should be a productive week that will help us feel much more in control of our environment.

My other school work has been challenging. We've had a busy semester in Data Analysis and School Law and Internship. I've finished my major project for School Law, but I still have two group projects to do for Data Analysis. Also, the Internship has been pretty time-consuming as well. I have to log 150 hours this semester in a variety of principal-type activities. I've been working a lot on School Safety training and other stuff to get ready for our safety audit next week. I'm not going to have any trouble getting in the hours.

Chris is busy with school and band and quintet and South Arkansas Symphony. He's in Arkansas this weekend for SAS and two quintet jobs. They're playing in Hot Springs today...I think. All I know is that he had three things going on this weekend in El Dorado, Arkadelphia, and Hot Springs. The Paris band didn't advance to Area competition for this weekend, so he's not happy about that.

We've seen Nick, Angela, and Ethan a couple of times recently. We babysat for a while one Saturday while Nick was busy with a marching contest and Angela was working. We saw them again when we went to Nick's orchestra concert at UTA. Ethan and Angela didn't go to the concert, but we spent some time with them afterwards. Ethan will be 2 in December, so he's at that age when grandparents think the kids are adorable and fun but when parents think they're a handful. I do know that I don't think I have the energy to keep up with him full time, but we certainly enjoy the time we get with him.

Nick and Angela are working hard on getting certified to teach. Angela graduated from UTA in May, but she decided that she wanted to try teaching. She's finishing an alternative certification program this fall and should be certified and ready to teach by January. Nick is finishing his last semester at UTA and doing his internship for his certification. He'll graduate in May. WOOHOO!!! I'm really proud of him for working as hard as he has to get finished. Hopefully, they'll both land good teaching jobs in the Bedford/Ft. Worth area next year.

Natalie and Brandon were home this weekend for part of their fall break. They got in Friday night in time for the Paris-NL football game (not our best game of the year). We also went to a friend's wedding last night which was a lot of fun. They're on their way to Baytown to spend the rest of the break with Brandon's family. It was fun having them here, although I'm sorry that Chris didn't get to see them.

I'm going to take a nap and enjoy my afternoon home alone. Have a great week, and I hope to catch up sooner next time.