Bullet-Proof

On my first day of my new job I had arrived early and decided to fill up my gas tank since I had some extra time. I went to get my receipt from the cashier I saw the bullet-proof plastic covering the window and the turnstile system of passing money or chips or receipts back and forth without ever exposing the cashier. "Welcome back" were the words in my head. As I waited for my receipt to circle around to me in its cubby, I remembered that this was part of my regular routine of working, living and shopping 5 years ago. Thoughts started to dart through my head: this must be a dangerous place. is he afraid of me? should I be afraid of him? this system takes longer. i shouldn't stay here too long. After being away from bullet-proof glass for a while, seeing it again brought a flood of thoughts and emotions... and I think it should. What messages have my students internalized about themselves, their community and the world if this is the only kind of cashier booths they've ever seen?

Gone Fishin'

Mechanics at work

Now that Nils is happily working on his "new" truck, we have quite a few mechanics in the family.

Waterballoons!

Robot

A little robot......who needs some help getting up.

Happy Father's Day!

Hair Twirling

Bea's hair is still taking its time sprouting on top, but she it's getting quite long in the back. Her favorite habit has become hair twirling. She twirls all the time! In fact, she has twirled so vigorously that she has made several large tangles. The first few I tried to untangle and eventually cut off. Then one really large one became a dred lock. I let it evolve because I knew that if I snipped it off it would either form again or Bea would be very sad that she had nothing to twirl. Then one day, she handed me the dread lock and said, "here." It had fallen out on its own from repeated twirling. What do you do with your child's first dread lock? I decide to save it since I didn't really get a baby lock of hair from Bea yet... but it fell out of my pocket before we made it home. The first dread will have to live on in our memory...