A scary message

Here's a graduation message from Irene to all high school seniors:

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My Job as an Assistant

I still love my job even though:

• I had to confiscate a young boy's bike for a day because he constantly rides it in the busy breezeways
• boys and girls both enjoy running in the hallways, even after I tell them not to
• some kids love to whistle in the classroom and it's hard to catch them doing it
• kids often forget to bring a pencil to class

This is why I will always love my job:

• I've seen two years worth of academic growth in one year as students go through our remedial program
• some children are amazed to realize they finished at least five books through the year, when previously they'd finished NONE
• I no longer have to remind my 8th graders to properly punctuate their sentences
• junior high students can be extremely funny, they crack me up daily

If God hadn't prodded me into accepting this job, I'd never know these highs and lows. I'm thankful for summer vacation though!

giraffupine

As a teaching assistant, sometimes I like to practice doing the same assingments my teacher gives out to our students. Our current project is to morph two different animals together, draw it and write about it. The giraffupine is my creation. As you can see, a giraffe with porcupine quills.

As an amateur biologist, I discovered this specimen in the desert surrounding Bumblebee, AZ. It's 1 1/2 stories high and six feet long. It eats acacia tree leaves and uses it's quills as a defense to protect itself when lieing down.

Have you ever created your own animal? I'd be curious to hear about it.

California at 4000 feet

There's nothing quite as sad as a lifeless form alongside a lonely stretch of California highway.


Stopping to survey the situation seemed like the prudent thing to do. Hubby and I poked, prodded, and pushed the miniture creature until it was able to stand upright. We coaxed and coddled the sad figure all the while sensing the end was very near. Persuaded that nothing else could be done, we left him there resigned to his fate.


With one final effort, Hubby perched him up onto a roadside post, where he promptly fell off and ceased to exist.











Goodbye, sweet snowman!

Sunday School Lesson

Grace Place may be geared to the K-2 crowd, but I find I need it as well.

Yesterday at the after-school girl's basketball game, a cocky 8th grader, really pushed my buttons. Since he realized he was bigger and stronger than me, he chose to ignore my directive to leave the game.

What could I do? The vice principal was unavailable at that time, so I had to overlook the offense. Aarrgh!

I came home still licking my wounds. This morning when I woke up, I was still ruminating about it. I decided to have a heart-to-heart with myself. My unforgiveness was threatening to ruin this day as well.

Now on to Grace Place, last Sunday's theme was forgiveness. We did a Biblical skit on Matthew 18:21-35. A king wished to settle accounts with his slaves. The first slave was forgiven, but he did not, in turn, forgive the second.

As that message rolled around in my head, I knew what I had to do. By the time I got to school, I was able to pray blessings on that particular student, (a good indication for me that I had truly forgiven him.) Whew! What a relief. I can only imagine how miserable my day would've been without the assurance that I love because He first loved me. Or in this case-I forgive because He first forgave me.

It Was A Great Day

Yesterday was my birthday and my boss at school wrote that fact on the board for all four of our classes to see. All the students were very kind, two classes even sang to me. I left work feeling very blessed.

I can attest that being firm but kind in your actions is really what all kids (teens included) want. My sometimes extra firm stand on the student's work ethic, talkativeness, etc. makes me wonder if I am being too harsh, too pushy, too everything. But their response to me was heartwarming.

I really feel called to be there for them, to guide them as they transition into high school. It's a great job for my and my gifts.

Then came my after school job as door monitor for the basketball game. I had to ask one child to leave the game; he was not so happy with me. He even said I broke his digital camera. He then proclaimed that misinformation to all his friends standing nearby. I started to feel that I was again acting too harsh and too pushy. But I think I just need to let it go, remembering that firmness is also fairness.

When I got home, I had some very special cards waiting for me in the mail. Then Larry took me to a fancy Chinese restaurant, where we had a fabulous dinner. Great egg rolls! Finally, I got a foot massage from my hubby.

Like I said, it was a great day.

Bacon Cake (click here)

This photo is of Shannon and several of her friends from ODF. From left to right: Andrew, Shannon, Anna, Abbie, Sara, Tim, Winsky, Ari, Todd, Jessica, Dave, and Dan.

Apparently, Winsky (center) is in love with bacon. He has a bacon air freshener, bacon wallet and eats bacon as often as possible. For his birthday, he wanted Jessica to make him a bacon cake.

WHAT? A bacon cake? I'm still so intrigued by this unusual birthday party that I had to blog about it.

Follow the link above if you want to try a cupcake version of this cake for yourself. Personally, I'm not quite there yet.