Well, Heather has been here two weeks and hasn't decided to leave yet.  She spent the first week applying to all the eye care offices around, got hired right away, and for the past week has been working at her new job!!  She got hired at Texas State Optical.  She will get 40 hours a week and gets to wear scrubs.  She is very happy!  There are several girls who work there with one main doctor and two part time doctors.  They all do everything and since Heather has so much experience she is already valuable to them.  She can do most everything they need.  The one glitch is that some of their patients are Hispanic and since she doesn't speak Spanish the doctor gives them to the other girls.  She is on salary plus commission so that's not what she would like. She may have to learn Spanish.  It's a good language to know here in Texas anyway.
                                                 She fixed up her room so prettily!

                                                       I love her in these black scrubs!

Sasha is adjusting well.  She loves going out to smell the footprints of squirrels and cats that wander through the yard.  She threw up a couple days in a row so the vet has her on several small meals instead of two regular ones so now she thinks that she should eat anytime.  She will get back to normal next week if she continues to be okay.

We have been attending Sarah's volleyball games every Saturday and yesterday was a benchmark day!! They lost their first game and then won the second and third with Sarah serving the winning balls both times!  She was really really happy.  She said it pays to not get discouraged when things don't work out the way you want the first time.  I could do well to remember that.

Dad and I have been talking about things that we would like to do with the free time we have now.  We have been sort of bored sometimes with nothing really good to do.  Dad has been reading some books by Clive Cussler that are fun for him, and working in the yard when the weather permits.  He cleared up that pile of wood shavings, dug out the long root, and filled the hole with soil so that the grass can take over in the spring.  Then yesterday we sat out in the front yard in our white chairs while he watered the grass.  Dad and I were sitting there and a car came by, stopped, rolled down the window and the man said, Now that's the way to do it!!

His bucket list includes touring the Tabasco factory in Louisiana near New Orleans.  We meant to do that on our way to see Evanses last month and the timing didn't work out right, so now we plan to visit there in two weeks.  It's nice to have an actual date instead of just "some time."  It's at
http://www.tabasco.com/avery-island/visitor-information/ if you are interested in seeing what we will see.  :o)

I said to the man maybe we should buy a little boat to buzz around in on the lake.  He said no, he had no more desire for a boat, but he thought about what he would like to do instead, and he decided that he has always been interested in remote control airplanes.  And they don't cost nearly as much as a boat.  He made several when he was young and had fun making them and trying to fly them.  Now he has more experience and a little more money so he can actually build and fly a real little airplane.  He looked up the websites and learned that you have to be cleared by the FCC and maybe get a license to fly one.  It's sort of a big legal deal since you would be using radio frequencies.  So he will look further into that.  I'm glad he settled on something that will actually be fun for him.  He loves to build things, and loves flying.  He is still working at the peanut butter factory.  That isn't so much fun since it's a lot of work, but when that mission is over next year we may apply to help out in the storehouse.  He loves to visit with people and help them with what they need.  We could help people fill their orders and stock shelves.

And I decided that I have always had a little talent for drawing so I want to pursue that soon.  Have to look up classes and see what's available nearby.  I think we could find anything we could think of here in Houston.

My little Myanmar reading student's husband is an attorney for an oil company and he has been asked to go to Oman for two years so the first of the year she will be leaving.  I don't mind because for some reason it has been really stressful for me to do that twice a week.  Why?  It's only two hours a week.  What is my problem?  She is a great young woman and tries very hard. Somehow I really don't like to do it.  She says when she comes back she wants to continue.  We will see.

I was released from YW last month and still haven't gotten another calling.  It's hard waiting for the shoe to drop.

And that's pretty much what's been going on here.  We think of you and pray for you and love you with all our hearts.  You are the most important part of our lives.

Our front yard is missing some trees tonight.  We had to have the two pine trees cut down.  They totally died and were a hazard.  We got lots of bids starting at $1200 and finally settled on the cheapest at $850.  Dad said the boss said they would accept any tips we wanted to give too, so he told them if they could take out the two pines and not damage the one next to them he would tip them $50.  They worked so hard and so steadily that they deserved that and more.  What workers!!  We were really impressed.  We sat out there and watched the whole show, beginning to end.  Took them from about 930 to 1230.

  Here is the view of the dead trees.  Poor old trees.  And the squirrels are going to miss the pine cones.

You can see the guy up in the top through the other one.

They let every branch down carefully and when they did the top of the first tree it went directly in the street.  Perfect aim!  The top of the second tree wanted to tilt into the tree we wanted to save, so they had to work hard to keep it away.  They were pulling for all they were worth and it wasn't enough, so they finally got the truck tied to it and pulled it right.  They were very conscientious. I can't say enough about how efficient and careful they were.   And strong!  They lifted those logs and threw them in the truck.  And their shredder took great big branches and ate them down to dust.

They took them both down and ground the stumps.  Now it's just a nice little circle of wood shavings.

So here is the way it looks now.  No trees, just a circle of mulch.  

It was worth every penny.  Can you imagine us doing that with rented equipment?  Not likely.  We are so very grateful for all that they did and were happy to pay for it.  And would recommend them to anyone.