A New School Year Begins at a New School

As all schools work to balance money with classroom resources, it is finally becoming clear that many Texas public schools are not a good choice for all children.  Devin has done quite well in public school and has truly enjoyed his time at De Leon Elementary.  But as Texas continues to require "teach to the test" as the chosen method of educating children, it has become apparent it is time to make a move.  Last year the "reading" teachers at many schools were dismissed.  Struggling young readers and advanced readers alike had received special attention from these teachers.  But they were victims of the cuts.  This year it was explained at enrollment that there was no staff to handle any type of gifted learning.  Devin finished second grade with a reading level nearing a sixth grade level, elevated skills in math and science, wonder how he will occupy himself if he is not given challenging work?  Like any bored child, I bet he can find a way to fill in the extra time he has available. It makes me smile to think of all the things he could get into trouble doing.

Looks like making a move to a new school might be a better plan.  It is really late to be trying to get into a private school, but it is time to try.  I had always hoped that Devin would attend Trinity Episcopal Church, let's see if we can make it happen!  The whole family jumped into action.  They had a space available...yes!  Oh, wait....will the kid wear a uniform everyday and a dress shirt and tie every Wednesday for Chapel?  Will he wear a belt and keep his shirt tucked in all day?  Well, let's ask him.  His Mom talked to him about the possibility of changing schools and all the good stuff, then she explained the dress code, etc.  And what was his response?  "That is not a deal breaker"!  He is one cool little dude!  So next is the educational assessment and he met or exceeded their criteria.  So now for the last hurdle, we have very little time to get ready for school.  Trinity starts about a week and a half earlier than public school, so shift into high speed!  His Mom went to work, getting an original record of his shots from the pediatrician, found and bought school supplies, got enough of the required uniform pieces, dress shirt, belt, tie, etc. to get him started.

Now to add a few events to Mom's calendar...

1. Monday before school starts the parents have a "Back to School" night.  The grandparents get to keep Devin while she is gone!  Yea!  Add that to my calendar.
2. Tuesday before school starts is the Ice Cream Social and Meet the Teacher. 
3. Wednesday, FIRST DAY of SCHOOL!  Wear your dress uniform!

 

 


















After 8 days of school, how is it going?  Everyone loves Trinity Episcopal School!  Devin has made the transition without a single problem.  I swear he sits up straighter, smiles more and does his homework without being asked!  This is crazy, but I love it!

Tuesday evening Devin came to our house for dinner.  We sat down at the dinner table, Devin said the prayer.  Then we placed our napkins in our laps.  And next began the following dinner converstion with an eight-year old:

Devin looks up and says, "I really like impasto".
Larry and I look at each other, several rapid thoughts are flying through my brain:  Is he talking about a pasta dish?  He can't be talking about the painting technique of applying thick, lumpy paint giving a painting texture?
Finally I manage to say something like, "Do you mean the painting technique"?
He said, "Yes.  Vincent Van Gogh is my favorite artist".
I say, " I really like his paintings, too".
Devin says, "Have you seen "A Starry Night"?
"Yes, I love it".
Devin asks, "Have you seen the real painting"?
"No, just a photo of it".
Devin continues, "I like "Sunflowers", too.  Have you seen it"?
I said, "Yes and I like it too".

Devin tells us his art class is working on a flower painting, but right now they are refining the drawing before they apply paint.  The write-up for his new school says all children take Spanish, Art and Music.  They were very specific that this an actual "art" class, not "arts and crafts".  Well, I think that point has been proven.

Well, in an effort to keep the kid "well balanced", we will follow this high-brow dinner conversation with an equal portion of a Texas redneck activity.  We are going to Devin's third guitar lesson.  This is not a "classical" guitar lesson, this is Texas, western guitar.  His teacher is Wade Stockton, even the name sounds Texas western...and he is!  Devin's first song is:  Tom Dooley.  You know, Hang down your head Tom Dooley, hang down your head and cry, etc.  An old country and western song that played on the radio every morning in the early 1960's while my family was getting ready to go off to work and school.  So in an effort to keep the kid well balanced, we are off to guitar lessons!

The Last Day of Playing Cowboys!

I have had a hard time getting started writing the final post for this vacation.  I know why.  There was an accident on the last day that marred our perfect trip a bit.  In order to NOT be overly dramatic, I will say now:  All is well that ends well!  Sasha was thrown from her horse, luckily it was in a flat pasture rather than on the side of a mountain with trees and rocks!  Yikes!  It was terrifying to watch a large horse go nuts trying to throw your only child.  She did all the right things, but eventually they parted company rather violently.  And there was nothing I could do but watch.  Since we were in a pasture, the staff was able to bring a car down.  We slowly let her sit up and then with help, she got in the car.  She did not want to go to the hospital...who does that sound like?  We rode back and when we arrived at the lodge she was taking Advil and had an ice pack.  She put on a brave front and assured everyone she was just a little sore.  But to cut to the end of this portion of the story, the next day we had a 3 hour car ride to the airport, a 2 hour flight and a 2 hour car ride home...she was not in good shape.  A trip to the doctor and physical therapy for a number of weeks, she is back to normal.  Neck, back and hip pain gone!!  She is back to attacking spin class and Zumba!

Now back to our last day.  After yet another delicious breakfast, the Cowpokes met on the front porch to plan their morning.  The adults went down to the corral for one final morning ride...one final, fateful ride.  We rode with Beth today, she is really nice and a very good wrangler.  We rode along the river, crossing a few times.  It was beautiful to watch the fly fishermen in the river.  It seems so peaceful to watch, but we are told casting sometimes spooks the horses.  That seems so weird that something so small could be so disturbing to a horse.

The dog, Hubcap, showed up before our final crossing of the Conejos River.  He managed to scare up a baby deer hiding in the bushes.  Boy, did that baby squeal!  Our final brush with nature.  Let's see this week Sasha's group saw a bear, Nancy Jane's group had  serious encounter with a wolf, I saw an elk and we saw a momma pheasant crossing the trail with babies following!

What is on tap for this afternoon?  Should be having a rodeo at 2 pm, but we have a rain shower.  So we pushed back the rodeo and 30 minutes later, it was time to RODEO.  Larry and I decided not to ride in the Rodeo.  We wanted to make sure we could help Sasha if she needed.  The rodeo was fun!  Paula, the Cowpoke Wrangler, sang the National Anthem...what can't that girl do.  She rides, she wrangles horses and kids, speaks fluent Italian and she can sing!  All of the staff was equally talented!

First up was Barrels.  Time was not the big factor, the use of good horsemanship skills was the important item.



Mike, the tallest wrangler, riding The Boss.  This is Devin's horse with
Devin's saddle, which explains why Mike's long legs are bent almost
double!  That would make my knees hurt!

Everyone had a chance to ride Poles.  We had not practiced this before, but you just need to zig zag your horse through the poles.

 

The wranglers divided up into 2 groups and then they competed in a relay event called The Pony Express.  Followed by the wranglers doing a little bit of roping.

The draft team showed up pulling the "fancy" wagon.  You will notice in the pictures of the wagon and the team is a 3-legged dog.  That is Mudflap!  He is a great dog!  And why is Mudflap a 3-legged dog?  Well, after watching him run around the arena, weaving in and out around the big hooves of the team and the wheels of the wagon...I understand how it happened.  It was a different team of horses, but he got stepped on.  They tried to save the leg, but finally it had to go if Mudflap was going to make it  Let me tell you, that dog is fine with only 3 legs.  He does most everything that Hubcap, the 4-legged dog does.  With the possible exception of going high in the mountains with riders, but maybe he never did that anyway.

After the rodeo, we had a little time to meet up with James and fly fish in the rain.  We knew it was too windy to catch anything.  Did have a bite or two and we had a good time.

Dinner was to have been down at the picnic grounds, but with the light rain and high winds it was moved to the Lodge.  One more chance to pile on more pounds before we go home!  I guess you know it is back to diet food on Monday!

After dinner it was time for an old-fashion sing-along.  We sang old cowboys songs...I think I sang some of these in grade school!  You know, back in the olden days!  Then it was time for the Talent Show and the presentation of the Awards.  Devin's awards included a golden horseshoe!  The farrier came to check and re-shoe the horses as needed  The Boss needed a shoe replaced, so they painted the shoe gold and gave it to Devin.  It hangs on his bedroom wall!

I never had any desire to go to a Dude Ranch.  But I should have tried this a long time ago.  I am so glad Devin said he would like to ride horses on vacation.  Rainbow Trout Ranch is not just a Dude Ranch.  It is three generations of a family, running a family-owned business with a hand-picked staff of 30 young people.  The family is actively participating in every facet of the Ranch to make sure everything is perfect.  I am not able to count the number of little things they did for each guest.  Mostly they were present!  The staff sits with guests and eats meals family-style.  What a wonderful, diverse groups of young people!  The owners and their children ate meals with all of us, too.  I hope we can find a time to come back again!  I never knew how much fun it would be to play "cowboy" for a week!  Until we return, a hardy, "Hey Howdy Hey" to Rainbow Trout Lodge!  We loved our time with you!

The City Girl Learns to Pen Cows

We had a big announcement at breakfast, we had a new colt born last night!  Now we get to name the little guy.  The guests and staff will submit names and we will vote Saturday evening.  It was suggested something with a "latin" flavor would be good since his mom is Layla and her mom had a latin name.  Our family entered Lorenzo, which is Larry's nickname.  Here is the newest addition:

For Friday's horse related activity instead of going for a ride, we are learning to pen cows and ride barrels.  We decided to just hang around the corral until time to go to the arena to start the penning.

The horses are really stirred up today.  The old horses have been brought in from their pasture, which is not normally done.  I found out the wranglers are going to be tested today on the names of all the horses, so all of the horses are in the corral.  Not sure why that causes an issue, but they are nipping and snorting!

Anyone who knows much about me knows I am a CITY GIRL.  This cowboy and horse stuff is all new to me, so penning cows seems like a BIG challenge!  Lucky me, it was "team" penning and Mary Anne, the owner's teenage daughter, was on my Team and she was using her roping horse!  It was really fun!  I liked having a goal instead of just riding around looking at the trees, mountains, the river, blah, blah.  One cow would almost walk into the pen if you just rode up behind him...I penned him!  But they also threw in one "ringer", none of us were able to pen that ornery cow!

Then we started on barrels, I had seen that at rodeos but never tried it.  We were not timed, we were just required to use our riding skills to ride the correct pattern without knocking over the barrel.  That was lots of fun!

After lunch Larry, Devin and Sasha went to shoot clay pigeons.  When they got back it was time to get cleaned up...tonight is "fancy" dinner!  The chefs and the baker did a spectacular job!!  I had Mahi Mahi with a sesame seed crust. We had salad, fresh bread, vegetables and wine.  It was delicious!  Now to finish off a perfect dinner, coffee and crème brulee!  The best I have ever tasted! 

While the adults enjoyed their dress-up evening, the kids had pizza or hot dogs and played games.  They played a game called "Sardines"...this is a reverse Hide and Go Seek game.  When you find the person who is hiding, you have to join him in the hiding place until you are packed in like "Sardines"!

Well, tomorrow is our last day!  Good night.