Goodness this has been an interesting week. Here are some highlights:
-Please be praying for Alex's work situation. He is basically doing a two person job but getting paid for one. The situation is affecting his performance- not because he's doing a worse job but there's so much to do that he can't get to it all- and that affects his bonus and raise. Frito Lay is not being very fair to their employees right now. He almost had to work Thanksgiving which launched a major hissy fit from me. He has been applying elsewhere and it's still slightly possible that he could move up to Frito lay headquarters in January.
-My job is going good. We're discussing goal setting this week, which in my opinion is the most important. We're trying to instill in these girls that the decisions and choices they make now are going to affect them in the future. Last week, we had a dance party and I fell doing the Cha Cha Slide but don't worry- I'm okay; only my pride was bruised (just kidding!). It's been interesting but this six weeks has been a welcome break from the more difficult schools.
-Alex and I had the opportunity to attend the First Annual Victorian Ball in Waxahachie, Texas. Our neigbor, Susan, with the help of her husband, Richard (see below) put it on. It was SO fun! Many of our neighbors showed up and Susan taught us different Victorian dances. I led the parlour game of the night and it went over really well (despite being a little nervous). We took my grandmother from Fort Worth to the ball. She's in the picture below with the young ballroom dancer. When Grandmother and I walked in, we immediately thought that she was going to have to take the stairs. Then a guy came up behind us and said we could take the elevator. This building is about 100 years old so I was feeling dubious about the elevator. He opened these closet doors and Grandmother and I peered into this dark shaft that didn't have walls. It was basically a platform with wires attached. Grandmother looked at me and said, "We can take stairs." But the guy pressured us to try it and we did and we're still alive, so that was an experience.
-Tonight we took our Iraqi family to North Park mall to see Santa. It was wonderful. They are familiar with Santa (AKA Baba Noel in Iraq) but they had never seen him before. The five year old was SO SO SO excited. She stood at the little fence and yelled his name and said that she loved him and blew him kisses. I wish I could put pictures up. It made her night! He gave her a book with coloring sheets and she carried it like it was the most important thing she owned. What a blessing to be able to share that moment with them. Next week, we are thinking about taking some movies and kids' Christmas books so we might be able to explain the story behind Christmas. We might make a gingerbread house, too!
That's about all our exciting news for now. Please let us know what's been going on witchu. I'll leave you with a conversation I had yesterday with one of my girls.
Girl: You're married?
Beth: Yeah.
Girl: You don't act like you're married.
Beth: Um, how do married people act?
Girl: Happy and joyful
Beth: Errr, okay....
She then began to back pedal while I chuckled under my breath. I also had a conversation with a girl this week who asked me if I had ever considered dying my hair and then cowered in disgust when she noticed I had a nose piercing. Much love from the junior high ladies...
Which berings me to our next fun activity. Today, Alex and I hosted a White Elephant Gift Exchange party for our neighbors. It was lots and lots of fun. We ate good food, had a trivia game, did the gift exchange, and then Alex did a toast where we shared with them how big of a blessing they are. Honestly, God has blessed us BIG TIME this year with amazing friendships with very cool and very sweet people. 
THEN, Sarah wanted to go Christmas caroling, so a couple of us went caroled around the complex. Here's a video of us doing 'O Holy Night' which is Susan and Sarah's favorite.
