Foamy Feel Goods

I had an absolutely fantastic time with some of the family the past couple of days. Greg was on vacation, but busy with remodeling the kitchen, I had a dermatologist appointment in Lubbock and Kayla had a ballet workshop in Lubbock this week and stayed with Gary and Karen in Brownfield. I stayed yesterday and today to get Kayla back and forth to Lubbock and then home. Although Karen had to work, she still managed to stay up half the night for fun, sometimes serious, girl talk with me and Kayla. It was good for the soul.

Gary was off and working hard on his yard, edging the huge and beautiful thing, but still finding time to visit with us girls. Today he went swimming with me and Kayla and I sat out there looking around at the backyard I’ve spent plenty of time in. I stayed with Gary and Karen the first three semesters I was at Texas Tech so I spent a great deal of time out by the pool when I used to have to read a million pages of literature a week. (I was up at the kitchen bar for Algebra, with plenty of pencils sharpened by me and intermittingly by my brother. I remember once he even brought home these little foamy things for my pencils so my fingers wouldn’t get sore, I guess from all the erasures!). Gary was raised around women, so he’s spoiled, but he also gets it. He thinks nothing of a woman reading all hours of the night and he’s quick to spoil us with foamy erasers and small garnishes on the plate of food he’s fixed especially for you.

Lisa, Karen, Jess and I have always been open for discussion about Aaron. Everybody else, not so much so. But I still manage to force it on them sometimes. Hey, you don’t have to answer, but I’m going to talk! They all love me, so I get by with it. But anyway, everything in the world was discussed between us three, from scented lotions to cemetery plots, it got discussed and resolved. Doesn’t everybody out there feel better now?

Out at the pool, I also thought of Aaron and Dad. We miss them both out there. Dad hasn’t been able to sit out at his favorite place in the world due to health problems, but I didn’t feel real sad about it. I kind of felt like Aaron was there, that sometimes nothing much seems to happen, but really all along, some little part of the present dies into the past at that very second. Aaron stood there once. Kayla was a young child once. I felt Aaron looking at her with pride.

I look forward to the future. The changes. Even the bad isn’t so bad, though it rattles me lately; it doesn’t really touch me. It’s kind of like we are moving forward with purpose. It may not look like it, but we are. The enemy is the most vicious before he is defeated, and he fights hard now, both physically and spiritually, but no matter what, for me, the very best is yet to come. I have everything to look forward to and it truly happens fast. I watched it out at the pool today. It was rather remarkable. Not a vision, just a knowledge.

But more than anything, I want to say how proud I am of my niece. She was fun, helpful and she exhibited the kind of fortitude that exemplifies another sort of hero (oine). Kayla joined in with girls two years older than her, girls that had danced at workshops in NYC, of course she was nervous, but she met the challenge. Little Pretty made it every day, and I know with each challenge she meets in life, she will only grow more confident with the dynamic young lady that we all know, one we’ve been blessed with for fourteen years and one who seems quite serious about things in her future, and they seem to have little to do with ballet.

At first I thought I was being used as sort of a sounding board or as a shock treatment when Kayla first started talking about NMMI, but now, I don’t think so. And for our readers that don’t know, New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell, New Mexico is the NMMI (nimmee) that Kayla is referring to in her last post.

Something is different this time, Lisa. She never quit asking me questions and I guess has already spent an entire day checking them out on the Internet and seems to understand the process. And your daughter is talking 10th grade, so I don’t know. It would be a wonderful opportunity with academic challenge. And I’m certainly not trying to add to it, but Little Sister, for once in our lives, you may need my advice on child rearing!! LOL!!

But to Kayla, whatever God designed you to be, He will plant the desire of His Spirit within you, and that will be done, so try Baby Girl, to rest in that. And while I say that, I say it with knowledge. I know you are going to rest about as well as Aaron did or Auntie too, for that matter. But as you see, it happened for both of us.

What I saw. I saw a young lady who can dance, who loves to dance and has spent years at it, and I listened to a bent curiosity, a total reversal of the Kayla I knew just weeks ago, with a look in her brow I’ve looked at before. It’s one and the same. So I just want to say, Lisa, I’m as shocked as I can be, but I don’t doubt it one bit.

Get ready, sister dear, for the ride of your life! :0

And sweet dreams!