The Way it Happened

Today is the second anniversary of the earthquake in Haiti, and also Adam's 17th birthday. We are both "lucky" in that I get to forever share my (legal) first name with a very damaging hurricane, and he gets to share his birthday with the anniversary of the earthquake. On the bright side, it brought our twins home after already waiting three years.
Because Rick leaves right after work to get Tyler, who is our pet sitter this weekend, and Jessica has tumbling and Explorers this afternoon and evening, we celebrated with Krispy Kreme donuts at 5:45 a.m.

17 candles in a donut!

We got him two pairs of South Pole shorts and three shirts, a clip on lamp for his bed and money toward track and soccer cleats. We put together money from other relatives too for those because they are going to be well over $100 combined. Tyler and Jessica got him Hoodwinked too (they are both very broke from college!), Kaleb got him a bag of chips and Jasmine got him three long sticks of laffy taffy.

This above picture doesn't go with the birthday photos, this changes the subject to Jasmine. I found out a couple of days ago that she was getting a Bobcat Pride award. (Before I was very careful not to say exactly where we live but that's increasingly harder because of more involvement in school activities, college majors etc.) Each letter stand for something and one child from each grade level is chosen by all the teachers together to get the award for that level.

This is kept secret from the students of course so they don't know who will be getting awards. I like this better than student of the quarter because 11 students instead of just 1 get awards and it is for character traits as well as achievement.

Jasmine's uniform pants were short on her and I wanted to get her new ones. Decided this was the time since she'd be up front, I bought them while she was at dance, and she didn't think anything about it because I've said for weeks she needed a longer pair. (They have to come from a certain store which is quite a ways from our house but not so far from dance.)

Then things got tricky. I mentioned to another mother who'd been at the charter school for a long time that Jasmine was getting a Bobcat Pride award in the morning. Since we're new to the school she told me the parents typically bring flowers or some little gift.

I am hearing this the night before the award ceremony, and the only child I have with me, of course, is Jasmine. As I'm driving her to the mall to eat and work on homework (more fun while you're eating), I'm trying to decide how to get flowers in the morning and realize the awards are too early for that. So I decide to get her something at the little mall store that has the chocolate covered strawberries and things like that.

I get Jasmine supper and tell her I need to get something for Jessica at the store which is just yards away. That was believable and since Jessica was at college for a night class, I'd just tell her about it later in case Jasmine mentioned it. Um, then Jessica walks in the mall!!! Uh huh. The same child who is suppose to be at college at that very moment. She walks over and I know she's going to ask why I have a bag from the candy store. I try to give her the "play along" look and tell her I picked up the stuff she wanted for her friend, but she was out of it and didn't catch it. So I discreetly nod at Jasmine, who picks that moment to look up!

Jasmine thinks it's for her for A/B honor roll, but I tell her it's not (it wasn't), report cards are not for two more weeks and besides she has 3 C's. She looks disappointed so I tell her "but you can go pick one thing from the store for yourself." I make up a story about how the other stuff is for a friend of Jessica's at college who helped her out. (Is there such a thing as an excusable lie? I mean, after all, undercover cops lie for a good cause everyday or they'd be dead).

Anyway, after Jasmine left for school today, I put the goodies together in box to take to the school. Our children's minister saw on my face book wall that Jasmine was getting an award and showed up for it with only a half hour notice! I'd meant to face book her a couple days ago and forgot.

This is Jasmine's teacher.

I thought Jasmine was going to get "b" for break through (finally catching on to something), C for compassion (because she'd befriended a child who was getting teased a few weeks ago) or P for persistence. But she got I for integrity because her teacher likes that she can always trust Jasmine.

All the winners got a certificate, ribbon and water bottle.

back with her class

Mrs. Ginger with Jasmine and a friend from her class who also goes to our church.

Jasmine loves her treats. I bet she was very popular at lunch today!

She's wearing her new pants and a new belt.