Carnival Weekend

Ahh, the carnival. It's been the entire focus for the past week, ever since the kids saw in the paper that it would be in Hilo this weekend. Every day Charlie would ask "Is this the fair day?" We went yesterday evening, which was perfect. The afternoon crowd had thinned out and the evening crowd hadn't arrived so the kids didn't have to wait in line but went from one ride to the next. Within an hour we were done with rides. We looked at the few displays, rode the Ferris Wheel at dusk, and headed home. Perfect. The carnival has to be the fastest way to burn money that I know of, but it's sure fun to watch the kids' expressions! It was funny when Emi and Charlie got on the bumper cars. Emi couldn't figure the thing out and Charlie had to explain how to drive. We heard him saying, "Press the pedal, Emi!" I've read those articles of five year old kids taking the family car for a drive and I used to wonder how a kid could figure out how to do something like that. Now that I have Charlie I don't have to wonder. I keep my keys in my purse and tell him that he can't drive until he has a driver's license.

The week went quickly. Aaron's truck was fixed, which was good. One car, two jobs, and rural living isn't exactly practical. I had my first on-line meeting for my education class, which was interesting. The students in the class are mostly in the Hawaiian Islands, but one woman is teaching English in South Korea. It makes the world seem awfully small to show up for 'class' and end up conversing with someone in Korea.

It has been a busy couple of weeks for me. My computer class takes me in to Hilo twice a week, which ends up taking the entire day once we do the commute, have lunch, do an errand or two, and then hurry home in time to pick Emi up from school. I also have discovered that I don't much care for computer science 101. It'll be handy to know the software I'll be using, but all the labs have me analysis sales data and creating memos and charts. Not something I like to do! There is a reason that I wasn't a business major. I am really enjoying my education class, though. It's about childhood development and education, and I'm focusing more on adolescents since I am working towards a teaching certification in secondary ed. It's amazing how many high school teachers I had that could have used this course!

As for the kids, Emi got sent home from school last Friday and was sick for a day and a half, and Charlie caught the same thing yesterday. He's better now but unfortunately woke up at the crack of dawn. It's a trade-off we make: either he wakes up at two or three a.m. and crawls into bed with us and then "sleeps in" until six thirty or seven, or else he sleeps in his own bed and wakes up at first light. I mean that gray, not-time-to-wake-up first light. Frankly, I like it better when he crawls into bed with us. Not just because of the extra hour of sleep but because I like being up before the kids for at least fifteen minutes. A nice, quiet cup of black tea and a few minutes to read the paper makes me pretty happy in the mornings. Funny how kids make you appreciate those things.

Yesterday Emi had to come with me while I worked with Jericho. Aaron's truck is in the shop with a bad clutch, and Aaron stayed home with Charlie. Jericho had Special Olympics and three hours in a bowling alley got a bit long, but afterwards we went to Border's and it just happened that we made it for their story-hour. It was perfect. Jericho and I sat and read magazines and Emi got to make butterfly wings, have some face paint, get a strawberry smoothie from the coffee shop, and she even found a book to spend her allowance on. It's one that she could read with a huge amount of effort so I told her I would read it aloud to her. I think I'll survive, but it's one of the books that's written in a hurry for undiscriminating children but it certainly has a pretty cover of a mermaid horse all done with airbrush and sparkles. We had been reading the Wizard of Oz books, after Jericho passed on his collection to Emi.

Today we will be having a picnic at Emi's school. One of her classmate's parents are helping throw a social event just for the kids in her class and their families. We'll have to hope that the clouds clear up! This week when I went into volunteer in her class I had one student talk to me about how his best friend died this past summer. His friend was killed in a horrible motorcycle/auto accident that killed a young boy and his father. The father was a client of Aaron's. Last week a little girl in Hilo was killed by her mom's boyfriend, and Emi told me it was her desk-mate's cousin that was killed. The community here is small enough and families are big enough that these sorts of events really have a huge impact. It's hard for me to hear about this sort of violence, especially as I see my own kids grow up and watch the kids in Emi's class. They are all so interesting and great and full of energy. Teachers have a lot put upon them, and we're lucky that Emi ended up with such a great teacher.

Before I finish up I wanted to say that the new pictures (top four on the side and the one above) are from a hike we did a couple of weekends ago. It's a family favorite, a two mile hike in to a small beach. The beach fronts an estate, so it isn't exactly a private little spot when you get there, but it's very pretty and the kids love it. There is a marsh on the estate and the entire area is a Nene goose sanctuary, so we always end up seeing a couple of geese flying overhead or wandering in the grass. The marsh is formed from a cold-spring that flows into the ocean in a couple of places and it goes under the sand in spots and forms these little bubbling areas of quick sand. It isn't dangerous, as the sand is only about a foot deep, and there is solid lava underneath. The kids love it. Charlie is enamoured with quick sand and loves to just go and sink in and then use the wet sand to paint his entire body. He likes to pretend he is stuck and then emerging as some sort of monster. He loves monsters, especially alien monsters, and wet sand is a perfect medium for the imagination.