Surviving the Start of School

I am happy to report that we have survived the start of school. August is one of the busiest times in my job and I am happy school is underway and we're still standing.

AWANA KICK OFF. With school comes another year of Awana on Wednesday evenings at church. Last week we had a party over at the Graves' house, and this week we had our first club meeting. We had about 50 kids our first night judging by the number of popsicles eaten. I guess once Scouts starts up we'll be in full swing again.

PARTINGS. I've never really reported on my job much here on the Swann Family News. For one thing, that's not what this journal is about. Also, I am really good about being totally and completely disengaged from my work when I'm not there. In spite of that, some of the people I enjoy most in my life are my colleagues at work, so it is fitting that I talk about some partings from my office.

In order of departure, the first to leave us is Nicole Presley. Nicole has been part of out team for three years and left us to become the Assistant Principal at Westside Elementary. Nicole brought a tremendous amount of energy and creativity to her job, but most of all I appreciated her being a true sister in Christ.

The next to go is Casey Landis. He is leaving us to be the Systems Analyst with Noranda Aluminum in Franklin. Casey came to us nine years ago. Very few people realize or possibly even understand what Casey has done for our school system in building our Windows Domain. I have always respected his ability when it comes to making our network work.

Also leaving us is Stephen Hudak. Stephen is our student intern who started with us when he was in high school. He is returning for his second year at Texas A&M and will come back when he has breaks from school.

Nicole and Casey have been replaced (respectively) by Pam Sanders and Bobby Edmunds. Both are very capable people and have jumped right in. The problem is that our jobs are complex enough that would take anyone a full year to get the hang of their responsibilities.

MADE YOU JUMP! Let's face it, when you live in an old farm house, in spite of your best efforts, you going to have the occasional mouse. I heard one in the walls the other morning so I got some fresh poison and set out a couple of traps. One of these traps is near the garbage can in the kitchen.

One morning Jenna opened a Pop Tart. When she threw away the wrapper it fluttered off course and landed right on top of the mousetrap. I happened to be in the kitchen so she asked me if it would be okay to pick up the wrapper. I told her it would be as long as she was careful. Naturally, I couldn't resist clapping my hands just as soon as she touched the wrapper to pick it up. The poor girl just about jumped out of her skin.

THE LITERALIST. Vicki and Jenna went to a wedding shower at church today. There was a wedding at church last night and the decorations from the reception were just kept up for the shower. There was no family connection between these two events which made Vicki comment to Jenna that the reuse of the decorations was "killing two birds with one stone." Jenna pondered this expression for a moment and then replied, "Well, you could do that … eventually."

A QUIET BIRTHDAY. Last Friday I celebrated my forty-fourth birthday. It was a very low key day which suited me just fine. I met Vicki, Mom, and Aunt Mar for lunch at D Squared in Springfield (this is a new restaurant which is a sister to the Depot a few blocks down the street).

That evening we ate barbecue over at Aunt Mar's house. Mom, Aunt Mar, and Jenna also made "the cake" which I think was one of the best of that recipe I've had in a long time.

Joe