a beautiful woman

today my mimi celebrated her 80th birthday! she is one of the specialist (is that a word?) people in my life. she and my papa "practically raised" me (as she has been known to say), since my brother and i spent a ton of time with them when we were younger, while my parents were working. mimi is very near and dear to my heart. she has been such a precious encouragement with our move, too. she sends us notes every week with a little money to help us get by... i go to the mailbox every day as soon as i get home from work to check to see if there's a letter from her. it's always so fun to read about what's going on with her! and she's so encouraging to us. i mentioned the other day the wisdom of the elderly-well my mimi fits right into what i'm talking about. she has been through so much and knows in such a real way the faithfulness of God. i love hearing her stories! she's not a techno-saavy lady, so i know she won't be reading this, but i just thought i'd share with you a little celebration of her! =) (just in case you wondered, she's not smiling in the picture because she's legally blind and so she couldn't really tell where the camera was or when it was going off)

in another world of celebration-ryan got an "a" in his first semester of hebrew! he worked so so hard and i'm so so so proud! he's all into the second semester now, studying even as i write for a quiz tomorrow (where his professor will pick a random verse out of the first chapter of ruth for them to translate on their own AND he has to recite or write the Shema in hebrew)!! any kudos to ryan for doing so well!!!

until next time...
yours truly