That's Me On The Left

                  

Ya, that's me on the left with the red coat and blue Mariner hat.  Rather strange title for a blog.  I mean, it's not like me to say look at me.  But it seemed so appropriate for what I want to write.
I'm thankful (I know, I know, you're thinking, here he goes again, the great sentimentalist) I'm in that picture.
I'm thankful for that trip that reminded me why I teach.
I'm thankful for the other adults in the picture that tolerated me barking out orders throughout the day.
I'm thankful for a high school student body whose strength and influence can't be measured by enrollment.
I'm thankful for a school where the teachers care about each student and desire for them to be successful.
I'm thankful for a school where the students, because of a small student count, learn to live and love together.
I'm thankful that it's alright to pray at OCS.
I'm thankful when it appears our prayers aren't answered, someone is there to lift us up as we keep going.
I'm thankful that we can struggle with spiritual concepts and agree to disagree.
I'm thankful that I'm part of a group that makes it possible for me to ask for forgiveness.

Look again at the picture.  It's the people.  Life is always about the people in a picture.  Sadness, love, and happiness come from the people in a picture.  You're part of a picture, somewhere, anywhere.  Find yourself in the picture and relish the experience.

htbh

IT JUST CONTINUES



I should have known.  How could I even entertain such a thought?  I mean, I study history.  History speaks to us and says, "learn from the past, trust the wisdom that I share."  Yet whenever a teacher leaves OCS, I wonder to myself, so, who could possible replace...?  From the OCS beginnings this question always lingers with the personnel committee: "Oh, who can we find, who can replace, who will want to come, what will happen now?"  And every time God sends just the right person.  You know, a person that the kids will always remember.  A person with energy, spiritual commitment, well trained, and eager to make a difference.

I'm no longer on the personnel committee.   

Yet again, at the end of last school year a teacher left.  Yet again, my mind wandered and asked the same old questions.  Silly me.  Have I forgotten all that history stuff?  No, but you still wonder.  You still ask.

More than once I've made the trip up to the room with the new teacher.  Every time I'm greeted with all those things mentioned above.  I once thought: If only I had a smile like her!  Did I ever have that energy and enthusiasm?  I think so. 

There are lots of questions about the new year.  However, one question has been answered.

As always, God sent just the right person to OCS.  In fact she's been here for three years.  Already Rachel Fox has made an impression.  Already she reminds me that God knows what's best.  The tradition of hiring  energetic, spiritually committed persons, ones who are well trained and qualified, continues.  Rachel proves again that OCS has great teachers that change the normal atmosphere of a classroom into a place where  kids will thrive and grow.  Go up to Mrs. Fox's room and you'll see again it's the people that make the difference at OCS.  IT JUST CONTINUES, again, and again, and again.  Those lucky 4th, 5th, and 6th graders!

htbh

A Loyal Friend

 

By Scott Stump

TODAY.com contributor

Navy SEAL Jon Tumilson lay in a coffin, draped in an American flag, in front of a tearful audience mourning his death in Afghanistan. Soon an old friend appeared, and like a fellow soldier on a battlefield, his loyal dog refused to leave him behind.

Tumilson’s Labrador retriever, Hawkeye, was photographed lying by Tumilson’s casket in a heart-wrenching image taken at the funeral service in Tumilson’s hometown of Rockford, Iowa, earlier this week. Hawkeye walked up to the casket at the beginning of the service and then dropped down with a heaving sigh as about 1,500 mourners witnessed a dog accompanying his master until the end, reported CBS.

AP

Petty Officer 1st Class Jon T. Tumilson was killed along with other SEALs on Aug. 6 in Afghanistan.

The photo was snapped by Tumilson’s cousin, Lisa Pembleton, and posted on her Facebook page in memory of the San Diego resident. Tumilson, 35, was one of 30 American troops, including 22 Navy SEALs, who were killed when a Taliban insurgent shot down a Chinook helicopter with a rocket-propelled grenade on Aug. 6.

“I felt compelled to take one photo to share with family members that couldn't make it or couldn't see what I could from the aisle,” Pembleton wrote on her Facebook page. “To say that he was an amazing man doesn't do him justice. The loss of Jon to his family, military family and friends is immeasurable.’’

Hawkeye was such a huge part of Tumilson’s life that Tumilson’s family followed the dog down the aisle as they entered the service in front of a capacity crowd in the gymnasium at the Rudd-Rockford-Marble Rock Community School. Hawkeye then followed Tumilson’s good friend, Scott Nichols, as Nichols approached the stage to give a speech. As Nichols prepared to memorialize his friend, Hawkeye dutifully laid down near the casket.

The youngest of three children, Tumilson had wanted to be a Navy SEAL since he was a teenager. Friends and his two older sisters remembered a fearless soldier, and a Power Point presentation was shown that illustrated Tumilson’s active life outside of the military, which included scuba diving, martial arts, and triathlons.

Any Questions

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It's Happening

ELEMENTARY

                                                                         

                                                                         CHAPEL

     

                                            JR HIGH                                               

                               

                                                                                                                    

RECOGNIZE THESE BUILDINGS

IT ALL STARTS THIS COMING TUESDAY

AUGUST 30, 2011

someone help me center the word chapel over the picture!

Oh No!

"Oh No!  John Q average student isn't returning to OCS.  Will I be able to go on with my life?"  That's what I've been hearing lately.  "No one is coming back that I want to socialize with."  I guess that means that the rest of us aren't creating "cool" enough at OCS.  Think about it.  There are many of us remaining at OCS, but the comments make us insignificant.  I mean if I was cool enough "average student" might return and attend our school.

I wonder what it would be like if several said, "hey the right fielder isn't coming back, then I won't either!"  That would be so cool to be cool enough for someone to change schools.  How sick on the other hand can it get?  I guess the nobodies are the only ones left.  That means you and me.

What to do?  Judge not right fielder!  I have been.  I won't do that anymore in this blog.  This is what I will say:  I'm going to change lives this year.  I'm going to have a great year and enjoy all the unique people who enter my life.  To those of us who remain, remember this:  You are significant, you are important.  And it's up to you to make this an outstanding year at OCS.  And it's up to me to make this an exciting year at OCS.  I'm setting that as one of my goals, how about you?

This is America and people should get to do what they want to do.  Whatever the reasons why people aren't returning, I must see that they are good reasons and people should be respected.  I respect them.  And I'll miss them.  They've been a part of my life and they still are a part of my life.  Thank you and may you have a terrific year wherever you attend school-I know you will.
"The Lord watch between you and me while we are absent one from another." Laban to Jacob Gen. 31.49.

HTBH

I Want To Journal

I really want to Journal.  Really, I want to journal!  It's so cool.  I'll give you one reason.  Not close to being a reason enough to journal, but one worth mentioning.

Usually when you journal you date your entry.  Today, when this is posted it will give the exact time of the entry and the date.  Seeing that date is reason enough to journal.  Here is what happens when I see that date on past entries:
1) "Wow!  Was it that long ago that I wrote something in my journal?"  A simple recognition of time fleeting.
2) "What's happened in the intervening moments that I've forgotten since I last wrote?"  Introspection of events lost or forgotten.
3) "Did I write that way back then?"  Thoughtfulness concerning when a past event took place.
The Blog forces me to journal and reflect on what I once thought important enough to tell the one other reader of the blog.  The Blog reminds me of the importance of life events and how easily I forget or misplace them.

Turtle Backs

                          

One time I was riding the ferry from Orcas to Friday Harbor.  We were going the long way-Shaw, Lopez, Friday Harbor-and it seemed like we would never arrive.  Suddenly, someone sitting near us exclaimed, "look, you can see why they call it turtleback."  I looked.  Uh?  I looked again.  There it was.  From a distance it looked like the back of a turtle.  If you didn't know before this blog where the 'turtleback' thing came from-consider yourself enlightened.
Oh, I should mention that Judy and I did the entire 'turtleback hike' yesterday.  It was 4.7 miles long and we went from the south entrance to the north trailhead.  We had hiked the north side to the Waldron lookout several times, but the views from the south side of the mountain were spectacular.  It was like you were riding on the back of a turtle.  (Get It?)

trf                                                          

Challenges

It's taken me a while to adjust to the tourists.  Each summer they come, they spend, they walk in front of our cars, they stare at the sky, and they love to look in the windows of real estate offices.  They're funny.  They're interesting.  We need them.  I've grown to understand them.  My next challenge is the ferry workers.  How sad I let them irritate me.

the last great ocs360 blogger

The Sting

Thought you should know that I was stung by some bees.  I required lots of sympathy.  All I did was
pull a branch from their nest-which I did not know was a nest.  It hurt.

bees for life