Week in Review

Sitting on my couch, with my latest episode of hiccups to keep me company, I finally have a moment to catch up with everyone.

I just got back from camping with Diana, Autumn, Steve, Owen, David, Beth, Lee, Kevin, Chow, Rose, and a few others...
We were "That" group... Meaning that between the fire dancing, the numerous attack dogs, drinks spilling onto the ground, loud music, and campers wielding baseball bats, most people were quick to pack up and move a safe distance away...
The trip was great... We laughed, sang, danced...
Autumn brought some delicious dishes of food, and I supplied the cake and beverages.
In the end, Steve lit one of the dogs on fire and tried to extinguish it with his foot, leaving everyone to wonder why Steve was suddenly kicking the poor dog...
All minor burns aside, all went well and no calls were made.

Recently I have been dealing with a few interesting and noteworthy thefts and returns, as well as the ongoing obsession that is lurking in my kitchen...

Thefts: Recently at our school, during a performance by our smallest children, a teacher laptop went missing... All clues pointed to a parent... since the room had been left open for the little ones to change into their costumes... and the machine in question was not the type that was seen throughout the building...
Calls were made, rewards were announced, and in the end, the children turned in one of their own.

I am continually impressed with the integrity of our little ones...
I know that rule number one is never blow anyone else's scam.
But it is a little refreshing to see that every now and again, someone does something simple that inspires the feeling that we did something right.

This example was made even more clear when one of my favorite students wandered into my room early in the morning... Standing with a group of large boys, he asks for my assistance with a new ipod that keeps going into diagnostic mode...
The kids are used to bringing me their toys, and I have been known to disassemble anything from a giga-pet to replacing the screen on video ipods...

So when one of my favorite kiddos wanted a little help getting his new toy up and running I said it was no trouble...

After running a few tests and resetting it a couple times, it seemed to be ready to go. But seeing as this student was well known for his taste in music, I wanted to take a peak and see what he had on it...

I was surprised upon plugging it in to see the full name of a kid that I had never heard of. I knew the student who had given it to him and found out that this little ipod by whatever chance had actually come from another school and that the child in question had been looking for it.

So I pulled my favorite little guy out of his class to give him the bad news... he stood there looking disappointed that his friend had tricked him and told me to return it.

I was really impressed with his honesty. He could have told me a list of stories to get it back, but just said that it needed to be returned.
It really made me happy to see one honest person, especially one so young, undoing just a small fraction of the wrongs that take place every day.

On the note of a child knowing the difference between right and wrong, I will tell you about a group of adults who lack the same level of morals.

About two weeks ago, a group of thieves broke into a local elementary school and absconded with over a hundred thousand dollars worth of equipment, directly from the hands of children who used them daily for everything from learning to count to learning to read.

The team came in over the weekend, and after kicking in one of the doors to the building, went room to room, taking everything that wasn't tied down, down to the kids' snacks and their Nintendo.

They hit around 5 buildings this month, and over the Summer most buildings will be unoccupied and waiting.


Summer has finally landed, with the average temperature being about 80 degrees... Bringing the chance of snow down to a solid 25%.
With my first burn of the year out of the way, I am just as ready to head out the door as my students.

In other news, Autumn has returned to the ranch for a brief stay while away from her cruise line duties... She has about two more weeks out of her month off, and will soon be rejoining her team mates and their mission to wind slowly up the Columbia river with a new cracker jack crew of seniors...