Luke and Tractors

The other night, one of my former students, Luke Watt, came over for supper. He's home from Fort Hood, TX. Actually, he's home from Iraq - for good! Yea! He gets out of the Army in November, then he's going to go to Concordia. Luke is an awesome kid (always one of my favorites:). He got out his armor to show Allen and Cael. (I've seen it before when he came to school to show us at chapel.) Today was our long class day in Kearney for sessions 4,5,and 6 of Foster Parenting Instruction. Cael went to Kassidy and Brent's house, then Kassidy took him to Lora and Craig Harder's farm to ride the tractor. Cael was pumped! He rode for a while with Keith (our assistant wrestling coach). Then he rode with Gary for a while in the "big tractor."

Second Class

Our second class of Foster Parenting went well on Monday night. We learned a lot about the court system and how long everything takes. We also learned that we're thought of as "team members" with the birth parents to get to reunification if at all possible. That part scares me though, because I've heard a lot of stories about druggie parents who shouldn't be able to get their kids back, but the state gives them back anyway. I was feeling not-so-confident, but Allen reminded me that working with birth-parents would be a good chance to witness to people. I agreed. Onward and upward!

Easter

Saturday, we went to the golf course to hunt Easter eggs. Of course, I took one picture and the camera died! We hosted Easter dinner for my mom and sister's family. It was a good day, and Cael found more Easter eggs!

Attic Space

Last week, Allen had Keith come over so they could put in some attic storage that was desperately needed. This is the original opening. It was in the closet in the upstairs bedroom. Only a few people could get into it. Luckily Keith is a stringbean. I know it doesn't look like much, but this is our new pull-down stairs going up to the attic. We still need to trim it, but it's not necessary to be functional. :)

A relaxing weekend and lots of paperwork

Since I take my Freshmen to Omaha to the Symphony every year, I get several sets of free tickets. Friday after school, Allen and I headed to Omaha. We ate at the Indian Oven. It was really good! Spicy, but good. We got to see Edgar Meyer who is a composer and musician and is extremely talented, to say the least. Saturday morning, we ate brunch at Dixie Quicks. If anyone watches Food Network, Guy Ferreri stopped there and featured it on his show, Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. It is a dive, but dang, is the food good! When we got home on Saturday, a large packet of paperwork was waiting for us in the mail from Foster Care. Our brains are fried! 157 questions and 60 pages later, we're done filling things out. Now we have to go to the doctor to have blood, urine, sugar, and blood pressure tests. We also have to get fingerprinted. They do all this stuff, and foster kids are still abused. Crazy. In English, we've been reading Tuesdays with Morrie. If you haven't read it, you should - great book. Anyway, Morrie has ALS, and does his best to teach people about what it's like to die. I had a Hospice Nurse come in and talk to the kids about what Morrie and his family were going through. The kids were really receptive and did well. The nurse enjoyed her visit as well, and I hope the kids learned a lot.