My nephew invited us out to the lake after lunch for an afternoon on his family’s pontoon boat.

This is Eliana on the knee board. The girl isn’t afraid to try anything.

And she stayed up!

Leaving the house this morning to take Eliana and Karys to school, Karys asked me to come and eat lunch with her.

“Sometime”, I said and left it at that.

And then I decided to surprise her.

I mean, I better take advantage of the fact that she wants me or Carmi to come eat with her.

Since somebody else obviously decided that 2nd grade is the cutoff for parents having lunch at school.

So I went.

And speaking of Eliana… I was standing outside the school cafeteria doors waiting for Karys’ class to come when Eliana’s class lined up along a wall just down the hall.

And when Eliana saw me… oh. my.

If there had been a rock anywhere around, she most certainly would have crawled right under it.

Then… poor child… her class walked right by me on their way to the bathrooms. He.

She looked the other way.

Oh. I was so tempted to run up and give her a big hug.

But the humiliation would have been too great and she couldn’t have returned to school.

Karys, on the other hand, was very glad to see her daddy.

She sprinted from her place in line and ran straight for me but I waved her back.

Then I took her hand as she walked by. And we strolled in.

The little African-American girl behind us pointed to Karys and said, “She’s my friend.”

And Karys ran over to a girl waiting to pay for lunch who smiled really big as they chatted for a few seconds.

And another girl seated with a different class yelled, “K-a-a-a-r-y-s!”

The girl waved vigorously. So, of course, Karys bounded over to chat with her for a few seconds.

Yep. She’s our little social butterfly.

At Eliana’s request, I signed her up today for a character-building program called Girls on the Run at her school.

Starting next week, a group of 3rd-grade girls will meet together twice a week after school. Over a 12-week period, volunteer coaches and mentors will use running as a tool to teach the girls very specific and well-defined social and personal skills. The program culminates in a non-competitive 5K (3.1 mile) run event in early December.

We think it will be a good experience for her.

Today was “promotion” day in our church. Which means that all the kiddos moved up to a new Sunday School class.

Zane was promoted into the Youth department.

And I’m excited about that.

Our Youth Pastor is awesome. I consider him not just a Pastor but a friend. Oh… and he’s my running buddy too.

And there’s probably no one - apart from Carmi or myself - that I would trust any more with our son’s spiritual growth.

This is going to be a great time in Zane’s life.

Zane got a cell phone today.

Which is probably a big deal for most teenagers.

But not so much for him.

He didn’t ask for it.

Mom and dad just desired a little peace of mind.

I could probably count on two hands the number of times he’s talked on the phone - any phone - in the year and a half that he’s been home.

So hopefully the cell phone bill is safe.

OK.

So we had a r-e-a-l-l-y bizarre message on our answering machine this morning.

A lady from Zane’s school called to say… and I quote…

“Mrs. Henderson… my name is [blank] from [blank] Middle School. I was calling in regards to Zane. We’re in the first 3 days of school and we don’t believe we have seen him here at the Middle School. Just checking to see if perhaps maybe he had gone to a different school this year? If you could give me a call back, that would be great.”

This was a serious what the heck moment.

In fact, I said it out loud.

Then I quickly returned the lady’s call and introduced myself.

“I can assure you”, I continued, “that Zane has been at school. And the correct school. I’ve personally dropped him off every morning and my mother-in-law has picked him up in the afternoon.”

“Mr. Henderson, let me check on something and I’ll call you right back.”

Which she did. And here’s the lowdown…

Zane has not been to his ESL class which, according to my discussion with the principal on Open House night, is an elective that he’s required to take.

Even though I had talked to Zane about ESL, he apparently didn’t remember and had been going to a Life Skills class in cooking and sewing.

Yep. Cooking and sewing.

Now there’s nothing wrong with cooking and sewing. English is just more of a priority right now, you know?

But seriously… what kind of nitwit calls a parent and says their child is missing from school when he’s just missing from a single class?

Carmi and I took Karys to school this morning for her first day of kindergarten.

She’s in a staggered start which means that only 4 in her class go each day for the first week.

They started on Wednesday with the rest of our schools and will stagger through next Tuesday.

Her first “official” day is next Wednesday.

But for today, she was all set to go.

She put on her backpack probably 45 minutes before we needed to leave the house. Every 5 minutes or so, she would walk up to me and say, “I’m ready.”

When we finally reached the school, one of her buddies from preschool had also just arrived.

So the 2 girls started a new chapter in their young lives walking hand-in-hand.