From the Southwest to the South

Seeing family is sometimes more rejuvenating than getting enough sleep could ever be.  My trip to the San Diego area was wonderful.  My sister played her inaugural tournament of beer pong with my cousins (the dog

 liked the balls), I gave relatives temporary tattoos, my dad paraphrased his latest readings on the toxicity of various insect bites... we all drank.  My hungover flights home were fantastic, and I was met in New Orleans by two of my local favorites:  Ashlee, my roomate/coworker/coinstigator-of-fun, and Chip, our new friend who, in between quarters at college, serves fancy drinks at a bar that literally spins around like a carousel.  Good times all around.  (Muah-ha-ha.)

Back at Truman, it is exciting to think of what we can do with the awesome $4,000 donation my rockstar-cousin Kelly wrangled up through her senior project.  There's a lot we could use: doors for those stalls in the girls' bathroom that presently have none; books and binders, a few classroom computers the students could use; a sound-system for the gym so we could have assemblies and guest speakers; some specialized curricula designed for violence-prevention with low-income youth... the list goes on of course.  We know we can't fix everything, but this is an amazing start.  Thank you so much to everyone who donated to the cause!!!! 

The summer enrichment camp I'm working at now is fantastic.  Tomorrow we're going to the Insectarium.  Today we did tie-dye.  Yesterday one boy was sculpting a house out of clay.

N: Ms. Craven look- I'm making a Pablo house!

me: A pueblo house.

N: Oh yeah.  That.

One last thing: on language: My kids- instead of saying "really" or using another specific adverb... often instead just repeat the word in question.  For instance, "I used to help my mamma with that when I was small small small."   I like it.  

Outside it was hot hot hot.