Kathryn, what a thrill to hear from you.

Kathryn is one of my dearest friends in Houston. She is the first person I met when I brecame the principal at Lowery elementary. We hit it off immediately. She is a jewel of a person and she is so honest and straight forward. A pleasure to have for a friend. She is my confidant. She is also retired from teaching first grade. She is the best teacher I ever worked with. She can teach anyone how to read. She retired the year I retired. We are sort of soul mates and we continue to grow closer with the passing of time. We are a lot alike and we understand each other' idiosyncracies so well. I love you, Kathryn.

Well, Michael sr. is having his surgery tomorrow morning. The plan is for me to drop him off at 6:15a.m. and then take the boys to school. Right now the boys are in bed and Michael sr. is at work. Can you believe it? He is at work. Anyway. I will return to the hopital after delivering the boys to school. They wanted to stay with their dad, but Brendan has a program he is in at school tomorrow and Michael jr. has a test (and the school cafeteria is serving spaghetti and meatballs for lunch) and Aidan decided to stay at school because his brothers are going to be there. I think this is best. This way I do not worry about them while I am waiting for their daddy to get out of surgery. I will go to pick them up at 2 and return to the hospital aruond 3 or 3:30p.m.

I know I dont need to ask you to pray for this situation, but I am asking you to pray. Michael has not returned to God. He has not fully returned to the level of arogance he had prior to the incident in July, but he is getting a bit more arrogant reagarding God as the days pass.

Please be patient with him, Heavenly Father. I pray for the Holy Spirit to be quickened in him, if It is still in Michael sr. Oh, dear Lord, I dont know the words to say. Please hear me. Put people in his life that can help him se the error of his ways and the might of our Father.

I fixed grilled pork steaks for dinner with rice and asparagas. The boys all said I had promised to never fix asparagas again. So I did not make them eat it. Brendan requested another plate because he was unable to get all of the green from the asparagas off of his plate. So the only way to enjoy the rest of the dinner was to get another clean plate. They drank their milk out of one of the Christmans mugs I brought back from my Thanksgiving visit to Houston. I brought back four migs. One for each of them and one for me. They do enjoy drinking out of the mugs.

I was a bit harsh with them this evening. I think they might have been wound up because they know their daddy is having surgery tomorrow. Either that or I just was bothered by their constant activity/noise tonight. I started their showers at 6:30 and we were in bed at 7:30. Of course, the "sleep" actually comes a bit after that because of the song each of them sings and the prayer Brendan prays. That child can pray a long, long, long prayer and it is difficult for me to not tell him to cut the prayer short. I want him to want to talk to the Lord, but my mercy, he can go on. Then I pray and they all go to sleep. I stay in the room with them until I feel they are all asleep and then I leave. Tonight, as often happens, Brendan is still awake when I leave. He puts his hand out of the bed (he is in the top bunk) and I kiss it and he leans over the bed rail and kisses me and says good night. It is sweet, just between the two of us. They really are so sweet. Brendan is the one that I mostly am griping to and yet he is always so penitent sand loving afterward. Of course, he shoud be penitent...usually.

Well, i am calling it a post and will hit the hay. I have an early start tomorrow. I plan to get up at 4:30 to begin my getting ready process. I will get the boys up at 5:30 (Brendan) and 5:50(Michael jr and Aidan).

May God richly bless you, my loved ones. jk