Tropical Island Get-A-Way

I've just got to brag on my 1st grade teaching team ... we just gave our first graders the end-all, beat-all end-of-the-year party! Going with a tropical island theme, we had 11 different stations of fun and learning for the kids to travel to, and BOY did they travel, complements of Northwest Airlines (get it?), an itinerary, and congrats letter to the children and parents for a job well done this year.

The kids were divided evenly among 11 Tour Groups, which were led by Tour Guides (parents). These groups (all of which had tropical island names - Fiji, Bahamas, Cancun, etc.) visited each station which was called an "excursion".



Here were some of our excursions: learning a real hula dance, making a message in a bottle, the limbo, learning and eating poi (applesauce folks, but the kiddos had to eat it with their fingers ... so right up their alley), the list goes on and on.



Each Tour Group stayed at their excursion for 15 minutes, at which time they rotated to the next excursion.



We were blessed to have some VERY clever parents who turned our school's gazebo into a Snack Shack, complete with a GINORMOUS grill that was put to good use for our hamburgers and hot dogs at lunch.



Our festivities began at 8:30 that morning and did not conclude until 1:00 that afternoon. We could not have asked for better weather, cuter kids, or tastier food.



I still shake my head over how well everything turned out ... THANK YOU JESUS!

Stormy Weather

So last night I receive a phone call from my sister, Kara, who was traveling home from Jackson and noticed the weather turning a bit nasty. I told her that the sky over our way was looking darker but that nothing had come across the T.V. about bad weather and they should be fine to make it home. As soon as those words leave my mouth, our T.V. show is interrupted with a Severe Storm Warning for our county. GREAT! I tell Kara that I need to amend my advice and that they should be very cautious coming home. Kara tells me that the wind is knocking against their car to the point that they had pulled over

and taken shelter at a gas station.

Not the safest place in my imagination, but whatever.

Now, I'm not afeered of storms, but tornado's just get beside me. As long as there's not a tornado warning out there, I'm fine.

Well, what do you know, Kara calls back a few minutes later for an update and once again, as soon as I tell her that it's just a storm warning and they should be fine to get home, the sirens (which, by the way, are right outside of our subdivision and very LOUD!) go off and a tornado warning is plastered on our T.V. screen. So once again I have to amend my advice to Kara and her family to be very careful and get the heck away from a gas station ... no way did I want my family sitting on explosives in the middle of a potentially dangerous storm!

So here I am on the phone with my sister trying to keep her updated and alive while at the same time I'm yelling at the kids to grab their shoes and the dog and get in my closet AND I'm grabbing my purse-Bible-Brian's phone and keys and wallet-and anything else we might need. WHEW!

I pause now, in the midst of our life-threatening dash, to tell you how my husband was handling it all at this point. As I am praying for the safety of my family, Brian asked me to put a pizza in the oven for his supper. I know the look that I aimed at him was one of stupidity, but what the bleep! You want me to cook you a pizza?!?!? HELLO! That black swirling mass of clouds outside doesn't ring a bell that maybe we should seek shelter? And guess what I did? I cooked the boy a pizza! Don't ask me WHY I dropped everything and took care of his meal (in my mind it was his last supper), but I did.

Thankfully, the weather passed over us, Kara and her family made it home, no one was injured, but darn it - I burnt the pizza! Wouldn't you know it!