Issue #11

Today’s story is "Don't leave me hangin'"

After considerable time wasting and a large number of errors on my part your list manager has now caught up to the current century, or at least the current week. After a recent phone conversation with Miss Epps There have been a few changes to the web site. It does have the current and up to date e-mail newsletters posted and a few visuals have been added. Well, ok, two visuals. We needed a map anyway. If you care to take a look the address is the same:
http://www.possumranch.net/ica/

Thanks for your time and patience.
charley.

Tuesday, February 23, 1999
Dear Friends and Family,

I have one word to describe myself right now - Tired! We have just finished the busiest weekend of the entire year. There are many people on campus who are feeling the same way, but it was a great weekend and well worth all of the effort put in to it. The week was also busy. Everyone was busy getting ready for Penny Fair and the elementary musical. Also the Bantams (1st - 3rd Grade) were having a soccer tournament after school.

Penny Fair is a tremendous event. The lower part of campus went through a transformation this week. A big water slide was built going off the soccer field. A sky ride went across the soccer field. There was a dunk tank. The racquetball court was made into a maze. There were also lots of little booths with different games to play. The plaza became a huge food court with all kinds of food. There was a lot of American stuff, which thrilled lots of people. There were hot dogs, hamburgers, tacos, nachos, pizza, calzone, ice cream, milkshakes, french fries, and we can't forget the Mountain Dew, Dr. Pepper, and Root Beer. (Of course they did limit how much you could buy of those.) There was also a big supply of American candy. It was fun to watch how excited everyone got over the food. Some of the parents comes from really rural areas were getting American type foods is not a possibility. Most of the stuff was shipped on in containers. I was pretty excited to get Gobstoppers and Jolly Ranchers. Of course the nachos and Root Beer were quite yummy, too. I did have an interesting incident on one of the rides. I was going down the sky ride when the rope that they used to return the chair to the top got hung in the scaffolding. I was left hanging out in space quite a way off the ground. Finally between on of the parents and the guy working the ride I was freed and able to continue on the ride. I also spent my time in the dunk tank. Not only did I have my class wanting to dunk me this year, but I had the whole elementary since I have them all in music this year.

Sunday night was the elementary musical. We did "Nic and Night." This was my first try at putting on a musical so I wasn't sure how it would turn out. I knew that with only a week left we had a lot of work that still needed to be done. The kids worked super hard last week, and they did a great job! And now that it is over I have to catch up on all of the things I got behind on in my classroom.

Everyone is spending this week trying to recover from the weekend. The sophomores are busy trying to take down everything that the built. I had two wonderful high school guys who took care of setting up and taking down the stage for me. There is also a Beaver (4th-5th Grade) Soccer Tournament going on this week. Thursday the staff women play the high school girls’ basketball team, so I'll get another try at basketball. This weekend is Free Weekend so we get out at noon on Friday. We don't have any days off once school starts. We don't get out for any holidays, so about half way through the trimester we get off half a day on Friday, and no activities are scheduled for the weekend. This is a time when many of the parents come. Although this time most parents were here last weekend for Penny Fair and the musical but a lot will stay the entire week.

Sunday morning in Sunday school with the 4th graders, one of the boys was praying. He prayed, "Dear Lord, please help me not to miss McDonald's and Burger King since I can't go there for four years."

My puppy is growing quite big already. He goes with my most everywhere I go. So far he continues to go to school with me everyday. He sleeps in the back of the classroom so he is not a distraction. The kids love it. Of course before long there isn't going to be room for me behind the desk because he is going to take all the room.

Thanks for all of your prayers and support. I appreciate it especially with weeks like last week. I wish some of you could come out here and get a chance to meet the kids. They are a wonderful group!

In Christ,
Traci