Cactus Flower

Back in March Byron and I were able to tag along with Greyson and a friend for a college weekend at Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina.  I must admit as a graduate of another Christian college I wasn't too sure how I would like BJU.  But I left very impressed.  And Greyson began the admissions application process. Somehow the boy managed to get accepted!  And this past weekend we went back to Bob Jones for Summer Orientation.  Greyson took a music aptitude test and completed his music auditions while there.  We had a lovely weekend and enjoyed meeting with faculty and staff.  Greyson registered for his classes and participated in various seminars about college life. We had a great time.  On the way home I asked our soon to be college boy if he was confident of his decision.  He quickly replied, Yes, I am!   I'm really glad we got to go and see the school for ourselves and to have these special moments to...

Have you ever heard the story of when Aunt Michele ran away from school?  It was all a big mistake actually but let me tell you how it came about....  When I was in the first grade, I went to a neighborhood school called Bear Creek Elementary.  Grandma and Grandaddy were still living in Baltimore, Maryland where your father and I were born.  When I was in kindergarten I walked to school with my mother every morning and she had to come and get me before lunch since it was a half-day class.  When I started going to school for first grade, Grandma figured she had taught me how to get there and it was time for me to walk to school by myself.  It wasn't a long walk and it was a straight-shot from our house with no turns at all. One morning Grandma told me that she would be coming with Daddy to pick me up early for a doctor's appointment.  She gave me a signed note to give to my teacher.  Now, you have to understand that I was very afraid of my teacher ...

Stuff on the moving truck, 2004 This was written in 2003 before a furlough... I have an old barrel in the shed behind my house.  It was packed in the summer of 1992 or maybe 1993, I can’t remember which.  I had resigned from my teaching position at a Christian school.  I taught fourth grade and loved it.  The barrel is filled with all the books from my personal lending library.  My fourth graders could check out a book from our classroom library and return it within a reasonable amount of time.  I bought most of the books from those Scholastic papers and received many from bonus points.  Some I bought from clearance tables at my favorite book shops.  Some I had from when I was an avid fourth grade reader. A friend’s daughter helped me write the name of each book in a notebook, so each one could be carefully accounted.  I made detailed lists of what went into all the barrels I prepared to be shipped to Brazil.  Little did I know that...