Times have changed!

Well..last night I spent the night with 15 6th grade girls and another wonderful mom at camp...and survived!!!
I kid, it wasn't that bad.  In fact our cabin was quite good and after a few giggle fits and some flashlight "spot-lighting" they were mostly quiet..I only had to go over and stand and frown for a minute before they all really settled in and I heard peaceful breathing by 10:20..which I thought was pretty good!  We stayed at a State Park group area that I actually stayed at when I was a fifth grader for a science type thingy!  It was somewhat surreal as I stepped into the cabin that I could totally remember and yet the mess hall seemed so small...weird huh?  Ok, not so much as all of the girls pointed out to me at breakfast, I was, afterall, smaller back then!  But they seemed to be having fun and that was the important thing.  It was strange though....they only stay two days and one night!  Perhaps I was just very lucky with the district and program and money available that we actually stayed for a week!  Left Monday am and returned Friday after lunch.  It was a long week but fun and we did really cool stuff and had awesome high school counselors and I suppose that was the true reason it worked so well.  Anyway I am still glad they get to do it for however long the program is as I think it is good for the kids to experience things like that and for some bonding to go on..plus...it seemed to level any petty competition as everyone was dirty :)

Then today I read a story about an elementary school in our district that had a "Walk/Bike to School Day" which I thought was very cool and then I thought too bad that it would never happen here!  Not because there isn't the desire or willingness...it's merely the obstacles of terrain!  The way our elementary is districted is very insane to be frank and quite spread out and there has been a ton of new construction somewhat far flung and there is no safe way those kids could ever walk to school unless they first hiked a cliff!  I honestly wouldn't be thrilled about B walking to school either and we live less than a mile away!  I feel like such a wuss saying that...I used to cross 270 on Big Bend to get to my house.....270......BIG BEND!!!!!  But then again the actual speed limit there is STILL lower than the speed limit on the street she would have to walk along on the way where people are insane in the morning and then then next third doesn't have sidewalks and has a blind corner.....only in the last block...ok, actually honestly there are precisely 2 houses...2!!!! that have sidewalks in front of them before the school and there is a street in between them......it's just not a walking route really.  The middle school route is totally fine the other way though...go figure!

It makes me wonder about how things have changed and how we have as a society and how that is influncing how we raise our children and the adults and parents they will become......and I then I just close my eyes and really, really, really, really, really hope that I'm doing ok :)

Anyhoo...hope you had a nice start to the first full week of fall:)

Blog ya later-
K