By the time you get your paper I will be wandering around Frankfurt. I can tell you in advance I will be very tired, because by then I will have been up about 40 hours. Scott is making sure we don’t suffer from too much jet lag, so he is going to take us to a local castle, and we will tromp around and absorb a little German history. The we, I’m talking about will be my two sisters, Bev and Dee, and my brother-in-law Dave. They are arriving from Canada about an hour before I touch ground from Atlanta. I’m going to try to send an article in from Europe, but I can’t make any guarantees. Maybe I’ll get lucky and be able to forward some pictures.

I lay awake last night listening to the howling wind wondering if perhaps I shouldn’t just get a kite and let the wind take me over there! It just seems to be nonstop wind. My wind chimes are clanging away as if hundreds of little hands are beating on them. I haven’t bothered to put the trampoline back up since it blew down in the last rain. It seems pointless. Russ wants to get rid of it, so there is a strong possibility that it will have disappeared before I get back. Isn’t it funny how things disappear, when you’re away? The good that we received from the last rain has been offset by the relentless wind. It is sucking the life out of the land. We definitely need a good rain. I expect we’re going to have another bountiful crop of grasshoppers this year. I have seen quite a few toddlers. I hate to sound negative, but that means they will eat all the leaves off every plant in the yard. I may have to put screen up around the tomatoes before I leave.

Graduation was on the football field this year. That self same wind was blowing a million miles an hour. The seniors had to hold onto their gowns and caps to prevent them from blowing away! I’m not sure why the ceremony was held there, but we had a great turnout. The sound system worked just fine and the presentations were at times humorous at times tearful. You can guess that the boys, Stephen Fowler, Brennen McGinty and Neill McMillan, were humorous while the girls, Emily Smith, Mrs. Starr and Mrs. Hall were tearful. There were quite a few scholarships given out, and I’m sure they will be appreciated. We, the community of Richland Springs, wish all our seniors the very best of good luck in the future.

Thanks to our improved scores, the School Board and Mr. Fowler, the students were treated to a field trip of their choice. One group went to a Rangers baseball game, one group went to the bowling alley, another group went to Fiesta Texas in San Antonio and my group went to Schlitterbahn in San Marcos. We had a marvelous time. Every last one of us came home with a little sun damage. Quite a few of us came home with foot damage from the pavement. I hate to admit I got a little cranky on the way home after pit stop number two. We managed to crawl home around 10:30pm. I was proud to see all my students in class Friday morning! We received excellent reports from the staff at the Taco Bell restaurant, not only for our smooth ordering process, but our clean area when we left. We were all proud of them, even if we adults did get a little gripey on the way home! Mr. Fowler thanked the students, the teachers and the parents for the hard work that won us that success.

For all my students, especially 5

I’m sure Marshall is glad to have Elaine home again. I had several name issues last week; one of them was Marshall Slayton. It seems I spelt his name wrong. Pete Seay was in town visiting last week, but I blooperd on his name also. I have a feeling I’m not going to do well when I add Lessie Nobles to the prayer list. Kathy Brockman will be going in for gall bladder surgery very shortly. Please pray for a quick healing for her. Joey Hardman is also doing much better after his surgery. Elisa asked for prayer for her son Josh Draper’s family in Australia. We had a great crowd for our 5

I hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. Thank God for all those brave men and women who sacrificed their lives for our freedoms. I liked the article last week that gave us a little more insight into this holiday. I hope everyone paused to remember our soldiers past and present. Please pray for our country, our President and our government. We need a strong dose of common sense. Perhaps we can get the Founding Fathers to drop in and give our legislators and judges a taste of what they really meant back in 1776. Please pray for some rain, for our wonderful troops and their families. May God continue to bless America.

th grade, don’t forget to work in your workbooks this summer. The library will be open on Tuesdays. Mrs. Gossett has volunteered to come in over the summer. There are supply lists in the office for the next school year. We tried to scale it down to help parents. One thing I would like to see happen is for the kids to bring only some of their supplies to school. I’ve found that when they bring everything; they waste far too much. Some students will have to attend a head start program once I get back from Europe. There are just a few students who will have to do summer school to make up for absenteeism during the school year. Parents, I know some of your children are extremely smart, and don’t need to go to school every day to pass, but the state says they have to attend a required number of days. If they do not meet that number they can be retained unless they make the time up. Absent children mean less instruction time, less state funds for the school and the reinforcement of bad working habits that will haunt them later in life. Please be sure to get your child to school next year. It’s good training for now and for a future job. My stepdaughter found that out the hard way. She lost her first job because she didn’t feel like going to work. She called to say she was upset and couldn’t work. They told her to come by and pick up her last paycheck. She has been prompt ever since. Life’s lesson can be learned the easy way or the hard way. Help your child make the right decisions; get them to school every day, unless they have a fever. When school starts, please fill out all the paperwork sent to you by the school. Every year parents do not send back the assisted lunch form. Unlike some bigger schools, we feed our children no matter what, but that puts the cafeteria in a financial bind. With the economy and job situation the way it is more and more families need financial assistance. Please fill out and sign your paperwork in the fall.th Sunday luncheon. I would be remiss, if I missed thanking all the wonderful cooks at the First Baptist Church for the scrumptious meal they prepared for the teachers on Friday. This has become an annual treat for the last day of school. Had it not been for the ladies I might have passed this by since I am leaving, but they made it possible. Barry Fikes outdid himself on the brisket! Thank you Kay, Bev, Bonnie,Ginger, Panzi, Thurman, Carol, Debbie, Lara, Louise, Vera and Barry for making this end of year treat possible.( I probably spelt Panzi’s name wrong.)