Everything I Need to Know...

Everything I need to know I learned (or was reminded of) on summer home leave. My husband is a generous, loving and incredible guy. There is nothing like a weekend at the beach with my boys. Or like a weekend in Salado with my Stluka Sistas. I love my Sugar Land house. Rocky is the cutest and best Bogle on the planet. How to fix the flapper on a toilet is important info to have. It is a huge source of pride to see your son get up and go off to work everyday. It is totally worth it to wait in line for a few hours in the afternoon heat to get the autographs of the Houston Texans. The second year of college is easier than the first. Nothing like a pedicure and hot rock leg massage to celebrate a birthday. I LOVE Amici's. (could have to do with the company and the biscotti) The Fourth of July is one of my favorite holidays. San Francisco is COLD in the summer. Anyone who would come to your house and fold 100 pairs of socks is amazing. Riding your bike across town to share a hug means major friendship. I love to tell Bible stories to kids. My family is awesome. Wine in the driveway is the best. Birds love to nest outside of Jake's bathroom window. College friends will always be close friends...they know too much about you. Yo-yo's rock. As do American Girl movies. And Astros games. Friendships transfer from one side of the planet to the other.

As I attempt to get over jetlag and settle back in for our second and final year in Doha, I am reminded that life is one big lesson. It is up to us to learn.

P.S. I also wanted to include the photo below. I told some of you about it over the summer. The quality is not so great because it is a picture of a slide. The slide was part of a power point presentation shared during the 8th grade promotion ceremony at the American School this past spring. You see Sam's hand and the hand of a small Malaysian village boy, taken during their day spent playing together on the 8th grade Week Without Walls trip. My heart tells me that there is some dancing going on in that Malaysian village!