Miser Family Update, Love notes edition

Life continues to be rich and full in the Miser Mom household.  We kicked off the week with a one-day-early birthday dinner for J-son, who turned 19 on Monday.  Aside from the fact that he crashed his bike (a family tradition), he seems to be doing well.  The bike, with a bit of TLC and $400 worth of repairs, is likewise on the mend now.  It was good to celebrate a birthday with this kid young man.

Prewash has become somewhat of a celebrity on my campus, and early in the week she got her own kind of love and attention, when the entire Quidditch team mobbed her, paparazzi style.  She manages to deal with the attention just fine -- if you look carefully, you can see her belly up in the middle of the huddle, gratefully receiving love and belly scratches from her adoring fans.

What else?  K-daughter signed a lease on a new apartment, and she's now in the process of moving out of our house.  The apartment is all of half a mile from my home, and only a block from I-daughter's home, so I will still get to see her and my granddaughter A-child regularly.  K-daughter also took (and passed) a CPR course earlier this week.  I'm so proud of all that she's doing.

My husband skipped his newly-usual yoga class to go to a lecture on the history of the Antifa movement, given by a rather reserved, thin, bookish historian.  So much for stereotypes.

N-son and I went together to a huge banquet for supporters of our local rescue mission, where the very very large room was full and yet I knew basically no one.  Usually when I'm in big banquets like this, it's full of mathematicians and I know gazillions of people -- it's odd knowing more people in a city on the other side of the country than in the city I've lived the last quarter century.   But we had a great time getting to meet new people, too.

Speaking of people far away, we heard this past week from X-son, a young man from Haiti we'd attempted unsuccessfully to adopt when he was still a boy.  A missionary we knew had just been down to Haiti, where she helped us sign him up for school for the upcoming year.  I so much admire this missionary.  As she was returning, she wrote,

"We were very fortunate. The hurricane went north of Haiti so we only experienced wind and rain overnight. But about 2 days later we had a huge thunderstorm and left some houses in our area flooded. There was water up to my knees in the street and the creek rose about 8 feet. Went down as fast as it came up. 

We were suppose to come home on Friday the 15th but our flight was canceled and we could not leave until Monday. They said there were just not enough planes in Haiti. It was really good to be home. The night before we left the taxi driver called us and said there was to be riots in Port au Prince so we should come to the city, close to the airport that night so we could be at the airport to leave. So that is what we did. We got out Monday without any problem. There were reports of widespread rioting.  

Always an adventure."

Later she wrote, "X-son face booked me his photo . . . "

He asked me to forward it to you. Said to tell you he loves you and misses you and will work hard in school this year. Said also that he is still living with his mother. He thanked you very much for all you do for him.

He sure is adorable. 

Toward the end of the week, my husband and I celebrated our 21st anniversary (of the day that I agreed to marry him, which to us is even more meaningful then the actual day we married).  I wrote him 21 small notes and left them in the bedroom when I went to work.  When I came back, he'd arranged them on his dresser.  Yet another awww moment for me.  

And the last love letter of the week appeared somehow on my chalkboard, the day that N-son had a half-day of school and spent the second half hanging out with me.  

A lot of love happened this week!  That's the news from the Miser household, where we continue to be rich in adventures.  May you and yours be similarly prosperous.