But I Did It On Purpose, Why Are You Punishing Me?

I was substituting in the preschool today and we were on the playground with the 3 year old class. A little boy hit one of the girls who, of course, started to cry immediately. It seemed to be an accident but required more investigating since it involved being hit. So one of the teachers asks him, "did you hit her on purpose?" He does not hesitate to say, "yes." This is an open/shut case, he admitted to hitting her on purpose and he will now receive his sentence...time out and a talk about not hitting our friends. He walks over to us and is very upset (sad not mad). He starts to cry as if he is being wrongly punished. He then says, "But I did it on purpose!!" He can't seem to understand why he is having to sit in time out for doing something on purpose. Then it occurs to us...he's gotten his words mixed up! What he means to say is that it was an accident! What seemed to be an honest criminal was really a mixed up little kid!

Favorite Quotes from Colorado Trip

Here are some of my favorite high schooler quotes from the recent trip to Colorado:

On the way, a teacher and I were listening to what we thought was a novel but turned out to be a documentary type book about Mormonism. When I got on the bus we were telling the kids that we now knew more about Mormonism than we ever needed to know. One girl says, "good thing we're going to Colorado then!" Last time I checked, there weren't a lot of Mormons in Colorado. Ha!

We are driving out of Raton, NM and are about to enter Colorado. I see the sign that says "leaving New Mexico" sign and I say, "we're leaving New Mexico!" And one of my girls gets real excited and says, "YES, we're in...Colorado??" Good job! Where else would we be?

So we're rafting down the Arkansas River and we see a deer standing by the river. I point it out and one of my girls says, "look at that! Is it real?" No...people put fake deer on the side of the river because we don't have real deer in Colorado!

A Birthday Party for Miss Stephens

So my birthday was June 3. This was the last day of our Colorado trip. I was not all that excited about spending my 24th birthday with a bunch of high schoolers but I also knew it wasn't the worst thing that could happen on my birthday so I didn't worry too much about it. Well, we were waiting for the bus to arrive at 1 p.m....and we waited...and waited. Turns out our bus driver was completely incompotent. She was having bus trouble and needed a funnel to put more collant in. Rather than going to the local grocery store, she drove 40 minutes past our campsite to buy a funnel! Well, she can't drive in a straight line, so she got lost coming back. To make a long story short...we left 6 hours late! Needless to say, I was not a happy camper. Not only were we running way late but I had to cancel dinner plans with a good friend from high school I haven't seen in two years. When I finally walked onto the bus, I found that the students had hung a "Happy Birthday" banner with balloons above my seat. They were all so sweet and apologized that my birthday was a total bust. What they don't know is that they made the whole day worthwhile!

The CHS Adventure Seekers

Here's our Colorado Adventure group! These high schoolers are so amazing! I am blessed to have the opportunity to teach them. In just five days we rafted, rock climbed, repelled, played games, prayed together, laughed together, and cried together. What an awesome experience.

This is our guide, John. He was awesome and so much fun to be around! The kids absolutely loved him. He was an awesome Christian guy and was such a good influence on one student in particular. One of the kids got scared halfway up the rock climb. He was literally scared stiff. He was stuck on the rock. John talked him down very patiently, it was amazinng! Well for the rest of the week John hung out with this kid and made the biggest impression in this students' life. Thanks John!

I have to start this blog by saying that I am terrified of water. I've never liked it and I will avoid splashing water at all costs. This week I took 18 high schoolers to Colorado. We rafted 30 miles in two days! The first day I rode on an oar boat (this is where the guide does most the work and you are basically along for the ride). The second day I was on a paddle boat (where the entire raft is responsible for making it through the rapids). It was the most terrifying, amazing experience ever! I've never felt such a rush from something before! I loved it! I think I overcame my fear of water this week! There are six classes of rapids, Class 6 is pretty much suicide and Class 1 is still water. I went on several Class 4 rapids and it was amazing! Right before a big one, I saw two people get thrown out of their rafts and two kayakers get thrown all over the place! Next thing I hear is my guide saying, "alright it's our turn. Hold on!" We made it!

That's Right, April is Climbing a Giant Rock!

This is me rock climbing. I made it all the way to the top!!! I surprised even myself! I never in my life thought I would have the guts to do something like this! My students were so proud of me!