Field Trip

I forgot to mention, I got to go on a field trip with Glee's class to the California Science Center and Imax theatre. Lots of fun. In her class there are 8 kids, four boys and four girls. They are called the GATE cluster, higher achieving kids. The other 12 kids in her class are 2nd grade (she's 3rd). Those kids really are a different level than the other third graders. Very strange. They stick together too. One of the boys in her class, named Kevin, plays an online game called Maplestory. He told Glee about and now her, Thomas and I all have characters. She was playing the other day when a character came up to her and called her by her real name. It freaked me out a little. Here is my 8 year old playing an online game with a boy from her school, all virtually... and it was an amazing thing to me. Our technology is a major thing, it has really evolved. Computers barely existed when I was 8 and it wasn't until I was 16 that you could "go online." Here she is communicating with a school friend in the virtual world. It blows my mind. Just think what her life will be like if she is doing this at 8!

The Turtle

My whole family is visiting right now, they have been here almost a week and will be here through the weekend. It's been interesting. I wouldn't say fun (although there have been fun moments) and I wouldn't say good (although there have been some good moments), but I realized a lot about my family that I hadn't realized before and I am grateful for the lessons. I need to learn the lessons.

We went to the Aquarium of the Pacific and for a bunch of people from Colorado they sure weren't as impressed with ocean stuff and I think I would have been. I guess they are all just fish, but still. We stopped at one exhibit and they had a monitor above it showing what happens when sea life gets caught in fishing nets, sort of a promo for eating fish caught in a safe manner I guess. I got nervous, glancing over at Glee when they showed the dolphins stuck in the nets, but she didn't seem to notice. There were other animals trapped as well, and suddenly I felt a thump against my legs and waist and it was Thomas. My poor Thomas. He was weeping, because he saw a sea turtle stuck by the neck in the fishing net. He said he never wanted to see anything that horrible again in his whole life and he was crying, seriously. So I hugged him, a lot, and told him we had a responsibility as humans to take care of the animals in the world and maybe someday something he does will help save the sea turtles. He felt a little better, but still sad. So, when it came time to go he checked out the animals in the gift shop and got himself a little gray sea turtle he brought home to live with his turtle entourage. He named the little guy OJ (his name and Jr... you all know what I mean). It was really sweet, and OJ is now friends with Turtle, Little Hawaii, Little Sewy, Bill, Ben, Thomas, and Torbadice (he made that last one up all on his own...), along with a few others I don't know there names.

My sweet boy, my sweet sweet boy. This Friday is his turn to lead the craft at cub scouts. He wants to do leaf rubbings, so we will.