Expert

Well, the first day was great, until-----one of my little girls stayed back after class to talk to me. She started to tear up and then took a deep breath and continued to explain. She was far behind with her summer reading assignments. She said that she suffers from depression and is on medication for it. I said "OK just keep working and I will grade whatever you can finish and turn in to me." I was so very sad. There is NO counselor, so I am IT. I called her mother to try and get a handle on the situation and the mother told me that what she told me was true. Her mother also told me that she was sad because her two older brothers were in boarding school, away from the rest of the family.CRAP! I thought I was finished with that stuff. Well, apparently God decided that I wasn't. Her parents are doing the right things by sending her to a psychologist and having her on medicine. She is really worried about anyone else knowing this about her. I assured her that what she told me was confident. I am going to watch over her and hopefully give her some kind of help. The fact that she trusts me is really big. Needless to say, I am praying daily that I have the right words to help her and the other kids that I am discovering who need special education help--from autism to emotional disturbances. Yikes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Mental suffering crosses all the economic barriers--from the Bario to The Dominion. It seems that people are people no matter their economic status. I keep praying that God watches over us all.

Off to classes!!!

Well, it has been a whirl-wind last week and a half. I was hired Wednesday was a week ago, and had to start on Thursday at St. Luke's Episcopol Schoo. Whew!!!!!!! All last week I had workshops and time in the classroom to get things ready for tomorrow. I am ready and I am not stressing over it now. I did a week ago, but I decided that I would just go with the flow. I met parents on Friday, and believe me, they told me what they were expecting from the school year. I just smiled and told them the plans I had for the year's lessons and they seemed pleased. Diplomacy doesn't belong just in the United Nations. I have mapped out what the curriculum will look like for the entire year, now I just have to plug it into the literature and grammar units I am doing. NO PROBLEM!!!!!!!! It seems to have calmed down a bit, considering how I started. I hope I can keep ya'll up to speed on things after I get into the teaching mode. Later

Appearance Matters

I just read where a little girl was given the opportunity to sing for the Olympics but they(whoever they are) decided that she was to fat, skinny, had crooked teeth, too tall, too short, or
WHATEVER, to appear on international television. She had the fabulous voice, but, not the looks!!!! What a crock of Shit@!! There comes a time when we humans MUST accept each others talents no matter what package it comes in.

Can you say competitive swimming??!!

Here she is swimming to the steps. She would stand up and get ready to jump right back into the water. Gwen had to remind her to stop and take a breath for a minute. She would and go right back into the water.

Big Floats and Swimming

Camaryn is showing us her big float. She has learned this in her swimming classes. She flips over and swims to the steps. She is really good at this and the more we praise her the better and longer she goes. We had a terrible time getting her out of the pool for supper.

This is the view from Patsy's patio toward the old Pony Express route, which is now Highway 36 toward Troy, Kansas.
It is so lush and green because they have had so much rain this spring and summer. Everything looks like this. The corn is "as high as an elephant's eye" to quote that Broadway tune.

Mama's birthday

We celebrated Mama's 89th birthday last Wednesday. I made the cake (box) but the frosting was made from scratch!!!! Lordy, it was so good. Patsy and I made ourselves sick eating it. Finally, the day we left she dumped the remains into the garbage. We had a really great visit--worked in Patsy's yard--she and I transplanted 6 Forsythia bushed (small ones) so they will grow and shade the garden room windows in the summer. Kirk really didn't know how to act--having flown instead of driving. He did not have any tools(chain saw) to cut down shrub stumps, so he just mowed. He loves Patsy's riding lawn mower. All in all it was a good trip.