I believe there are miracles every where you just have to be open to them. I believe the flowers below have been helped out by my grandma who passed this year...let me explain. I have lived in this house for four years and I have done everything she taught me about Iris's to get them to bloom, remove some to make room, weed, fertilize everything..... and yet one or two and nothing more. This year almost everyone bloomed.....
so thanks Grandma!!!
The tunnel into the dance 
The fake waterfall
Travis and Allissa
Travis and Allissa
Jacob and Allissa
25 days left until school is out for the summer. Ask me and I might be able to tell you hours, minutes and seconds until we are released. The last couple weeks have not been great as school, we get to the end of the year and the teachers are out of energy but the kids are not out of problems. I don't know if this is why the issues seem worse of if they really are worse this time of year. Soooo to say that I am ready for school to be out is an understatement.....I AM ready.
We are almost done with all the baby lambs at our house, most have been sold except for a few little ones and the sold ones are almost all delivered, soon all the ewes will be out to grass, that in itself is a nice break, fewer chores. We add a couple show goats and 3 pigs to the mix but all in all not much to do.
We are gearing up for prom in our house, dress, tux, flowers, hair, where to eat, what time they are going all that stuff. Allissa and Jacob are both going to prom this year and it is really fun to listen to them talk with Jake telling Allissa what to expect.
I take a step
You take two,
I hurry to catch up with you
Do you know that I am falling behind?
Does it matter? Have you lost your mind?
Lost in thought you don’t see,
The person I clearly need to be.
I take a step
You take two
I hurry to catch up with you.
I have no strength to keep this pace
I am clearly locked in second place
Running a race that can never be
Then……………….
You stop and wait for me!
The teacher that I talked about on here before about the inappropriate items posted in the hall has now had two books removed from his classroom and even though I haven't agreed with some of the teaching strategies I do NOT support censorship so I wrote the following letter to the administration: (I did remove the teachers name because if you know who I am talking about fine but otherwise that is their business)
I would like to express my frustration with the removal of the books from Mr. ??? classroom. The author of Flight is an award winning author with repeated publication that has won numerous awards. Caged Bird was nominated for a National Book Award in 1970 and it has been used in educational settings from high schools to universities, the book has been celebrated for creating new literary avenues for the American memoir and it was on the schools approved reading list.
Mr. ??? and I have not seen eye to eye on every subject area but he has pushed my two children to grow in their thoughts and feelings on different subjects. Mr. ??? has created an environment that allows them to think outside the box and feel that they have valued opinions. He encourages them to believe in their thoughts and not to allow others to sway them from what they believe in. I understand that some of the material that he teaches pushes the envelope but isn’t that what we want our educators to do? We want them to push the envelope and we want them to make our children aware of the world around them and we want this to be done in a safe environment that allows for open honest discussion, discussion with leadership. Potter Stewart said “Censorship reflects a society’s lack of confidence in itself. It is the hallmark of an authoritarian regime” Do we lack confidence in our students at Riley County High School? I for one believe that we have raised great kids here at Riley County but if we only allow them to see what is inside the box we create for them and never introduce different subjects and criteria then we are stifling the possible creativity and their ability to grow. I am concerned that if we continue to approve material and then not support the teachers when people make it uncomfortable then we will lose teachers that could make a difference in our children’s lives and education. The books that had been chosen contained material that is relevant to students within the walls of Riley County High School, it contained material that would allow students to discuss topics like discrimination, poverty, achievement, foster care, and history. In approving the material and then pulling it because of complaints we are allowing the general public to control our children’s education instead the school board that we elected to make those decisions.
I would like to thank you for you listening to my concerns and I would encourage you to take a stand that will allow our children to grow and learn. This cannot be done if we allow fear to rule our actions.
Sincerely
Angela Toews
OK this is for all the times I share things about my family, this ones on me!!
I let the dogs out this morning, it is pitch black dark, 5 a.m. I have my head light on that allows me to see fairly well for things that are close, to far away and I can see a little but not great.
The dogs are doing their business I holler at them to come back the husky comes back I let her inside the wiener dog does not come back so I walk out to look for him. I yell and yell and here he comes waddling along taking his own sweet time, I yell again and walk closer towards him. We get within 15 feet of each other and I realize Holy Crap that is not my dog but a opossum. This sends me into a fit of laughter I can hardly stand up from laughing because all I can think of is that commercial with the lady and the raccoon and the fact that maybe I need glasses.
My dog picks this moment to show-up from wherever he has been and decides he is going to protect me from the opossum, I scream the opossum runs and my dog looks like I just whipped him, this starts the laughing all over again.
Yes it really happened!!
