Kids: they dance before they learn there is anything that isn't music. ~William Stafford

From Past to Present

This picture turned up on facebook a few days ago.


It is of my sixth grade class. Aren't we a styling, good looking bunch? Everyone left funny comments about our clothes, hair and good times together. Amazing the power of a picture! My favorite comment was left by Craig Smith, he said, " I can't remember the names of people from a week ago but, I can name everybody in this picture." He is sooo right! Seventeen years later and I can tell you who broke their leg, who was good at dodge ball, who sat on the heater after eating lunch and how bad I felt when I hid Amy Walker's pencil box. I can also tell you who was good at sneaking over to Leon's Market w/out getting caught (For the record, the one time I snuck over there I got caught, and was suspended from recess for a whole week), who was good at jump rope, who liked to play four square and that Michelle Melle could type the faster than anyone in our grade, even though she had mono for half of the year. I can smell the mildewy, humid air of the hallways, hear the sound of the playground at recess and the chatter of students as they wait for food in the lunch line. I am struck by how I treasure those common experiences we all shared at school. At the time I took it all for granted! If I could go back I would live it up to the fullest (especially the part where I have realized that adults REALLY don't know anything.......ha!ha!) There are people in this picture I haven't thought about for years, but when I saw their faces I felt a bond with them that only a valley childhood can bring. There is so much potential sitting in this picture and what a gift it was to get to grow up with such a fun, crazy and wild bunch of kids! I would love to know every one's story, where their road of life has taken them and how different the world is........for them now, compared to how it looked, to each of us, on the day this picture was taken.

*I am sitting on the front row, second from the right.
.....

Dear Spring,

Here is the thing, You and me go back a long ways, we have always been friends. I have the best memories of you and me together; Spring soccer, the end of the school year, running outside along the road and trails (after being couped up on the treadmill for the winter), eating artichokes, Easter egg hunts, the smell after a spring rainstorm, the crocuses and tulips......etc. Is that why you are mad, because I forgot to plant tulips last fall? Is this what this is all about? Well whatever the reason, please come back, it has been too long since we have seen each other, and we both know it takes a long time to grow an old friend.....and my friend it has been far too long since we have seen each other. I don't mind Snow..............we are friends. We like each other................but, just between me and you............snow has always come across a little cold.............................he is not nearly as warm and friendly as yourself. And never once in all the time that we have known each other has Snow ever brought me flowers.

YOU HAVE A SPIDER ON YOUR HEAD....................................................................April fools!!!

YOUR HAIR IS ON FIRE........................................................April fools!

******These have been some of the classic April fools jokes played by the bros. Chad got the boys good this morning when he brought them a doughnut bag from the Valley Market. Nanner loves doughnuts more than life. He was over the moon at the sight of the bag. Then, he was madder than a pit bull, when he looked in the bag and found oranges instead of doughnuts. I wished we had the boys faces on video when they discovered that they had been fooled. BUT, like a good Dad the doughnuts showed up eventually....................................right after Nanner apologized to Chad for calling him an idiot.