Do the Puyallup!

Well, we did the Puyallup -- one of the country's largest state fairs. It was a lot of fun!

(Click on the title to see the website!)

AHHHH. The foot massage!

The spinning room.

Mike and Jeremy on the hammer-head!

Jeremy's first big roller coaster ride

Be careful....be very careful!

What a city kid!!!

We are NOT happy!!!!!!!

We (that is the royal “we”) are not happy with the public school system. In the past week:

1. The school district has decided that recess is detrimental to education and has banned all planned recess.
2. Joshua’s class brought home the results to the standardized tests the kids took last year. The teacher was kind enough to hand them out in class. Oh, and she didn’t put them in envelopes. The kids go to see each other’s scores. I’m glad Joshua wasn’t the poor kid that the whole calss knows didn’t pass any of the sections.
3. At Open House last night I brought up the test result situation with the Principal. He acted like I was from outer space. He then informed me that each child’s test results could be found online. I was gobsmacked!! (I looked for it for a couple of hours but didn't find it.)
4. Today Joshua came home from school and told me that one of his friends (hereafter known as Kid 1) was kicked out of school. I asked him why and he told me that one of his other friends (I'll be uncreative and call him Kid 2) lost his balance in a basketball game and knocked the first one down. Kid 1 hit Kid 2. When Kid 2 told the duty, Kid 1 denied it. The duty apparently turned her back to deal with something else and Kid 1 started calling Kid 2 and Joshua all sorts of names. He then “demonstrated” on Joshua what he did to Kid 2 and choked him for quite some time. Joshua was about to use his Tae Kwon Do on him when Kid 1 stopped. Now, wouldn’t you think the school would have called and let us know about this????????????

So, what did I learn this week from school?

1. Test results (leading to all work and no play) are more important than the needs of kids.
2. Children’s feelings don’t matter.
3. Parents’ opinions are of very little consequence.
4. My kids are not well supervised at lunch break. (This is not the first instance of lack of proper supervision.)
   

What did I learn from Joshua?

1. My rough and tumble guy has a big heart. He had been trying to talk to Kid 1 to help him with his problems.
2. Forgiveness. Joshua hopes to see Kid 1 at school next week when he picks up his stuff to tell him good-bye. (Would I feel that way? Doubtful.)
3. Joshua has a streak of an evangelist in him. He may not wear his faith on his sleeve (or his t-shirt) any more, but he is not ashamed to tell kids about being a Christian. I am really proud of him.

Hurray!!!

I got up this morning and found a basement sink full of gunk. Yuck! It looked sawdust. Nasty nasty. So we called Roto Roter. The Roto Roter man came out and away went my troubles down the drain! Yee Haw!

(Did I mention that at times like these I am SO glad that I live in a parsonage and the church has to foot the $500 bill?)

One of Those Days...Weeks??

On Sunday night when I had a horribly sore throat and was just feeling lousy, I ran the dishwasher. Then I noticed (at midnight) nasty water coming up both sides of my double kitchen sink. The only way I could get it down was to put the garbage disposal on intermittently for about ½ hour. Yesterday, I dumped the boys off at school (I mean, I cheerfully saw Joshua off at the door and drove Jeremy to school) and headed to the store to buy some drain cleaner. I poured it in and left to meet Charlee at the church to prepare for school this week. When I came home, the drain was clear! I followed the directions on the drain cleaner bottle and poured hot water down the sink. It was fine for about ½ hour. Then it was clogged again! AARRGG!

I then decided to head off to Home Depot for some heavy duty drain cleaner. One of the workers saw me waiting for advise while he chatted away with a friend (AARRGG!!) and then when he finished helped someone who just walked up to him. I was not happy. Being the passive-aggressive shopper that I am I went across the street to Lowe’s. Home Depot gave me two choices of drain cleaners; Lowe’s had at least a dozen. So I got some advice and went home.

The same thing happened as before, with a little better result. I decided to give it one more try before calling the Head of the Trustees who is out of town (naturally!). Same results, of course. Or was it??? I went down to the basement to throw some clothes in the dryer and my basement drain had over-flown! AARRGG!!! We now have a call in to the Head of the Trustees!

I Survived!

We started school yesterday and things went pretty well. Only one girl cried and she stopped as soon as I talked to her and she remembered me from last year! The only thing we forgot was to do the calendar with the kids, so all in all it was a success.

Today the mom of one of the new boys said it was harder to get him to go today than yesterday. He is a very quiet and shy boy, so it will be hard for him until he gets used to preschool. Poor little tyke cried after he was there a while. Charlie was able to spend some time with him today and actually got him interested in some activities.
Things went much more smoothly today. Tomorrow is Thursday – my Friday. Yea!

They say stress is good for people....

Ok. I must admit I’m just the tiniest bit stressed about teaching preschool. When I agreed to do it, I was going to be teaching with one of the ladies who has taught there for years. Then life happened. Heidi found out that her husband was being transferred to Vancouver, WA and they would be moving. (Picture me as the model for the painting The Scream.) So the hunt was on for a new teacher. The retiring teachers and I decided that if we didn’t find a teacher by the end of June, we would have to tell the presents so they could look for a new school. We found a new teacher, Charlee, on the last day of June. Whew!

In some ways teaching with some one else that is new is advantageous. We get to start fresh, -- to put our stamp on the preschool. And the retiring teachers left us all their lesson plans and materials, making it a plug and play if we wanted. They also assured us that we could make any changes we deemed necessary and it would not offend them in the least. (Whew! That could have led to some sticky situations!) Then to make things even better, I found my lesson plans from Dallas I thought I’d thrown out before we moved here! Yea! As you can see, God is providing! He is also stretching me. I have had a feeling since we moved here that I would be leaving my comfort zone!

My first big stretch has came last week during Open House. All but four children and their families attended. That means there were about 32 adults there. Guess who got to give the group talk to the parents during Open House? Yep - me. It made sense as I had met the returning children’s parents last year when I substituted and I was the one who is most familiar with how the school is run. I survived! Not only did I survive (ok – I lost my voice yelling over the kids!) but the parents were all great.

After that night, I though it would be smooth sailing. Then I started having nightmares! :^0 The one I remember was taking the kids on a field trip to an old fashioned zoo where monkeys were kept in cages. One of the little cherubs – a cute little blond boy – decided to jump in a canal that ran right next to the monkey cage. I had to jump in and haul him out. After rescuing him (we were both dry as a bone, naturally!) I shook my finger at him and scolded him, saying, “You cannot go swimming in the canal!!!!” He looked me straight in the eye and replied, “Oh, yes I can!!!” and immediately jumped back in. Like any loving teacher, I turned my back on him in disgust.

Oh, yeah. Then there were the nights I woke up and thought my first week’s plans were just horrible and I would have to start all over! (Did I mention that I also have to lead the class for the first week since I am familiar with how it is run?) Alas, school starts tomorrow, so it’s too late to make changes!

Tune in again to see if I survive or will be drowned in some imaginary canal!

There is gross...then there is GROSS!!

Before we were appointed to Fircrest, the church had a pastor who lived with her mother – no children, no pets. As a result when the church redecorated the house, they painted the walls a lovely white and put in a cream colored carpet throughout the house. When Mike and I saw the house, it was just beautiful.

Fast-forward a year. The walls are covered with black handprints and footprints. (Yes, I said footprints. Only yesterday Jeremy was showing me how he could literally climb the walls.) I have lost count of how many times I’ve had to wash down the walls.

And the carpets – oh those beautiful carpets! They used to have such a nice pile. Kids and dogs running through the house have long since beaten that down! Then there is the damage done by Caleb. He is a purebred Sheltie. Ok. We got him at a shelter, so I can’t be 100% sure he is a purebred. His delicate tummy tells me he is, though. If he eats something that disagrees with him, he vomits the loveliest shade of red-orange right next to my bed. Always after midnight. Today I cleaned the carpets. We won’t even talk about the stuff that was in the bottom of the dirty water tank! That was GROSS!

The First Day of School!

Well, for the second year I have packed the boys off to public school. It was a little bit easier this year. Yesterday we took the boys up to meet their teachers, and I think they will be very good for the boys. Joshua and his best friend are in the same class, but Jeremy and his buddy (who are attached at the hip) are in different rooms. We saw the teacher Jeremy had last year and she told Jeremy the two were purposely separated because they were both so smart and they needed one of them in each class. Now, this is not something that should be said to Jeremy. After we left he told me he was going to get bad grades this year so that next year they could be in the same class. I squashed that idea right away!

I have also found out that sending the boys to public school is more expensive than homeschooling. Go figure. There are all the supplies, school lunches, and clothes to buy. That packed a punch to the checking account. Buying shoes was in interesting experience. BPS (before public school) I took the boys to a shoe store and easily guided the boys to buy what I wanted them to. Now Joshua has to consider each shoe in order to decide if they will cause the “bullies” in the class to give him a hard time. I guess this is the benefit of socialization I have heard so much about! ;^)

This is Joshua’s last year in elementary school. Next year he goes to middle school, which goes from sixth through eighth grade. I would love to know what educational “professional” or politician decided that it would be a good idea to put sixth graders in with seventh and eighth graders. To me it seems ill-advised to introduce such young children to the actions and attitudes they will encounter in middle school. Well, if it comes down to it, there is always homeschooling again!

Jeremy's ready to go!

Jeremy off to the first day of 3rd grade 

Joshua, now in 5th grade! (The last year of elementary school here.) 

Joshua on crossing guard duty