West Forsyth

Last week I had the privilege of speaking to Mrs. Sarah Garcia's 10th graders at West Forsyth High School. They were a great audience: attentive, appreciative, and cooperative.

I will not assume to talk for them, but as for me, I had a blast. Mrs. Garcia even allowed me to teach a little bit! (She doesn't know me that well.)

So I taught some point of view. I defined it the way Atticus does to Scout: "'you never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view - ' ... ' - until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.'" So I had the class go into their backpacks or purses and pull out an item. Then, we wrote about life from the item's point of view. In the picture above I am giving the example I wrote the night before about life as my pen. After that, I let them go for it. Here is me checking out Tina's.

From my perusing I read a bunch of great starts. Some wrote as their pens, their gum, their calculators, one guy wrote as his running shoe, another as his skeleton key. It was great. Sarah sent me Paige Ehlers as her umbrella. It was fantasitc! Here is a photo of it. Click on it to read it.

Family Camp at Windy Gap

I thought I'd tell the story of this year's trip to Windy Gap Family Camp through photos. This first one was taken while waiting in line for the annual horsey ride. It was A-Ro's highlight from last year, and it has served as a good bribery tool ever since. This picture I think captures the moment well. Lia, hanging on but happy; Ned, baggy eyes, funked out hair; Anna Rose, tongue out in a nannie nannie boo boo I'm about to ride a horsey and no one's gonna stop me...

I love this shot. It was one of the 50 I took during Anna Rose's single loop around the corral. Several photos could have made the blog cut. She wore a smile the whole time. This one shows the simultaneous joy and full-on concentration though. That was what, for me, was most fun to watch.

Here's the perspective shot. A-Ro was on Gulliver: a cross between a Clydesdale and Woolly Mammoth. Anna's not the biggest of girls to begin with, but on the back of this mastodon, she was a shrimp!

This weekend wasn't all fun. I had a couple serious responsibilities...like leading music in an ice cream sundae outfit. Ha! Good times. Here's a photo of the band: Adam Sheppard (red M&M), Nate Allman (candy corn (off picture)), Jennifer Steele (green M&M and owner of the red, candy corn, sundae, and borrower of the banana), Jeff Hwang (in the banana), and me (owner of the green M&M). Got it?

This was my final photo of the weekend, taken seconds before slamming the tailgate shut and heading for home. I gave David one responsibility: to protect my cookie booty. Here he is, caught red handed. From his expression, I'm not sure, but by the look of it, neither the cookie nor the crime appeared to sit well.

See you next year, Gulliver!

Potty Time Excellent

You know your life has a hit a new low when the best thing going on is that you are potty training. Especially when you want to argue the point. Which is what I'd like to do. Because potty training has been awesome!

After 34 years...just kidding. I'm talking about Anna Rose. Last week was Potty Boot Camp. Booty Camp you could say. Our friends Tim and Lindsay took the plunge with us as well. See photo. That's Daisy. She rocks, I might add. And her parents have already stopped saving for her college tuition because she is a lock down NCAA Div 1 Scholarship Athlete.

Not so for A-Ro.

But she did master the potty. She's close. And as soon as I learn to upload video on this thing, I'll post her doing the potty dance. If you have not seen the video, please check it out.

http://www.dothepottydance.com/index.tbapp

my sister actually cut and pasted not so flattering photos of us and inserted them into this:

http://www.msn.americangreetings.com/ecards/view.pd?i=428037834&m=9826&rr=y&source=msne999

Pretty hilarious.

But back to Anna Rose. She went all week with only one accident! Unbelievable. She had two over the weekend at Windy Gap. Both were our (my) fault. Today she had the...well, let's just say, we had a messy morning. But, generally, the girl is rocking it. I never thought I'd enjoy so much the sound of liquid on plastic. Ha!