Coming Up for Air

Whew! What a week it has been for me in the world of third grade! After a week of chaos, school suspensions, bus suspensions, and detentions, I am beginning to rethink this "Teach Forever" mentality that I had begun to develop. I'm thinking that I need a few more moments to come up to the surface for air!

My in-laws left some funny comments last week, and I had to share the stories behind them. Brad's brother, Tyler, is in the eighth grade, and I have known him since he was about five years old. He is much younger than Brad and Megan, so I completely relate, as my family is very much the same. Brad and Megan really pick on Tyler, so on family trips, he gets the short end of the stick. A few summers ago, we were all packed into the mini van, driving what felt like millions of miles. Everybody was yelling across the van talking to each other, the video games were going on the TV, and my nerves were shot! Brad started messing with Tyler about something, and before we knew it, Tyler had somehow managed to stick his toes in the cheesy end of a snack pack. (You remember, the packs with the crackers/breadsticks, fake cheese, and the little red spreading stick.) During the scuffle, Tyler had been flailing about, so the cheese was smeared all over the backs of the seats and everywhere else within a two foot radius. Well, of course, Brad started ragging him all over again about this, and you couldn't help but laugh at his cheesy toes! Poor, Tyler! We really do love you, cheesy toes!

Tyler eating HOT chile peppers off a tree in Honduras

Then there's Megan, Brad's sister. She is such a polar opposite from Brad, that we wonder how they came from the same mother. Megan is so laid back, laughs at everything, and has never met an enemy. Everybody loves her. She is a huge animal lover and has two dogs that are spoiled rotten. Last summer in Honduras, she found a lady with this ferret-like animal on the side of the road. I immediately backed off, fearing rabies or worse. Megan, however, rushed right in and held the thing! She is a much better nature lover than me! Anyway, the animal looked like a cross between an opossum and a raccoon. Not knowing what it was, we named it a "possoon." Later that week, we were playing a card game similar to Memory with some of the kids. Get this-- right there on their animal cards was a picture of this "possoon" that we had found. It turns out that it was called a pisote (in English, a coatis) and is common in their area near the mountain forests. They acted just like it was a dog or cat...no big deal. You learn something new every day.

Megan and the pisote

There are so many funny stories about Brad's family. They are great in-laws, and I feel very blessed to have been taken in as another daughter and sister. Thanks, guys! We love and miss you!