Okay, so tomorrow is going to change my life!  Much like my life was changed over 27 years ago when Josh was born — tomorrow is the beginning of my life as a grandmother.  I can’t wait!!!  I loved being a mother — I loved it when my boys were small and to be honest, I never wanted them to really grow up.  I guess tomorrow is like starting over and getting to enjoy the baby stages again!!   I am going to do my best and not butt into Josh and Mindy’s business but I can promise that I am going to be the best grandmother I can be!  Lots of pictures to follow!!!!

After being gone for almost two months, Wes is coming home!  He has been backpacking around Europe.  He lived at home for almost a year after graduating college, working and saving his money for this trip.  I have to say I thought it was a great idea until he actually left—- no phone or computer– he is keeping us posted on where he is by posting updates on facebook.    He was able to call once while he was in Budapest–imagine finding someone he knows in Budapest — small world!  He says that he has bought lots of new shirts, mostly soccer jerseys, but he has just been mending his pants with a sewing kit he bought!  WOW!!!  I am sure his apparel teacher from high school will be proud.   The postcards and texts have been good but I am ready to see his sweet face.  He has been in some incredible places, I am just ready to hear about them first hand!

There is a lot of conversation at our house about names.  Mainly because Josh and Mindy are trying to decide what to name their baby — we don’t know if it’s a boy or girl, so they are discussing both.  The trend right now seems to be for older sounding names like George, Matilda and Lucille.  We used family names along with some Bible names to name our boys.  Joshua (Bible) Wray (his father); James (Bible) Wesley (my cousin); Jacob (Bible) Wayne (my grandfather).

In Africa, some children are named for things happening in their family.I had 2 girls named Misozi which means tears, so we changed their names to Joy!  It felt weird being able to change a name but it’s not that unusual there!  Here in America, you have to pay to change your name legally.

It’s also important to know what to be called as a grandmother!  Not really sure what I want to be called—although everyone keeps asking me!  Mindy’s aunt told me it’s important because that’s what I will be called from now on—hmmmm!  I guess I am going to have to figure it out since I’m going to be a grandmother very soon!!!

My friend Gloria beat me in the grandma race!!!  Her daughter was not due until November and her daughter gave birth to a little boy yesterday!  Leyton weighed 2 pounds 10 ounces and is doing very well under the circumstances.  Jackie, his mom, is still in the hospital trying to get her blood pressure down.  She’s doing well, but of course, is anxious to get out and see her baby (who they moved to another NICU unit).

Mindy walked over to my house last night, and though sometimes uncomfortable, is doing really well at 36 weeks.  Although I am very anxious to meet my first grandbaby, I am very grateful that Mindy’s pregnancy is going so well.  I am very willing to be patient and wait for God to decide it’s time!  Big prayers go out to Gloria’s family as they begin their life with Leyton in less than ideal circumstances!  The good news is that we are both going to be very proud grandmas— I can’t wait to see her pictures but she’ll have to wait a bit to see mine and that’s okay!

Tomorrow Ryan, Rylan and Riyanna will be leaving to go live with their “grammy”.  She is their paternal grandmother.  She is very excited for them to come, and we are really excited that they are going to such a great situation.  We spent 3 hours with the family at Ryan’s birthday and have come to love them all.  She, as well as the parents, say that they will keep in touch with us.  I certainly hope they do, because I love these guys!!  They are such sweet kids, and have been delightful to have in our home~~ we will truly miss them, especially their laughter!!!

One of my neighbors finally got a picture of the bobcat that has been roaming our neighborhood!  Wray saw it on the side of our house and two days later we saw it climbing up our retaining wall.He is a beautiful animal!!!  After talking to animal control, he is just looking for rodents and snakes to eat.  No danger to children or big dogs, so I just hope to get to catch another glimpse of him!!!

My little 5 year old foster child is in Kindergarten.  She is doing really good!  Last week her teacher told me that she had been  bragging in class about Wray and I making her dinner every night and that it was really good!  Her teacher thought that it was so sweet, but it kinda made me sad that her having dinner every night is something to brag about.  That should be a given…..having an adult cook you dinner every night, whether it’s good or not, should be an expectation for a 5 year old, not major news!

Okay—I know that you are not supposed to be happy when other people are having trouble, but I am!!!!  The Southlake Dragon football team has been dishonest for years and they have finally been caught!  Their quarterback this year is a young man who was ineligible to play in Oklahoma so his parents “moved” down to Southlake and lo and behold he is their starting quarterback!  Unfortunately Channel 8 news did an investigation and found out that the dad is still working in Oklahoma and their house there was only put on the market 2 weeks ago when the t.v. reporter started asking questions.  His dad was not very sweet to the reporter when he tried to ask questions.  And of course, the Southlake athletic director said everything was kosher—ha! ha! ha!  Now they are being investigated by the UIL!!!

I know I sound very tacky, but new jobs and cheap homes continually pop  up in Southlake for good athletes moving into the metroplex!  ODD!!!  It probably has everything to do with the Dragon club which is made up of prominent men in Southlake who strongly support the Southlake Carroll Dragons!!  Maybe now they will have to play by the same rules everyone else does!!!

I know I am being very judgemental—but even God has to smile at a great high school football game!!!

I am now a Mockingbird Elementary parent AGAIN!!!!  Today I dropped Ryan off at Ms. Taylor’s first grade class, and dropped Rylan off at Ms. Taylor’s kindergarten class!  I think they gave us the two Ms. Taylors so that I wouldn’t forget who my children had—alzheimers?  I wish I could post the pictures because they did look adorable!!  Ryan picked out a gray backpack and Transformers lunch box.  Rylan got a pink flower backpack and Tinkerbell lunchbox.  Riyanna, of course, had to have a backpack too—she got the princesses!

I didn’t sign up for any volunteer positions and wouldn’t sign up for the PTO newsletter — I wonder how good I am going to be at this!!!  I don’t think anybody is mistaking me for someone who really wants to be involved!!  Especially since I could have given birth to most of the parents there!!!!!!!!

The good news is that Mockingbird teachers stay a long time so I know a lot of them!  The bad news — I am back at looking at homework folders!

Just spent last night and today at the Women of Faith Conference.  It is great speakers and great music and a whole building full of women who love Jesus!  It’s a great time!  This year I had a better attitude—last year I was wishing I could stand up and get people to sponser one of my girls instead of the World Vision kids.  I realized the thing is that people need to sponser a child no matter which organization it’s through!!!  If they would give me a few minutes to talk about my awesome girls I bet those ladies would line up and beg to be their sponsers!!  I have 3 new girls that need sponsers—start praying about it!!!!