Thursday, April 23, 2009

CONGRATS, DAVE!

We are very excited about Dave's upcoming graduation, but there is more great news!

Dave was offered a job across the lake teaching 5th grade at a brand new school!

YAY! We are so excited! He accepted the job this morning, and we are both just freaking out with how awesome it is! Thanks to everyone for your kind thoughts and words of encouragement to Dave! We both appreciate you all.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Park and Lake at Sunset

This weekend, Dave and I went on an adventure to our favorite park and then on to the lake. The sun was just going down by the time we reached the water.

I know that a lot of people take sunset pictures and that they are really "overdone" as far as photography is concerned. But being there at the lake to experience this sunset was just amazing. It was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. I hope you can at least get an idea of the beauty we were able to experience.

Duck pond at the park.


The sky and water were the same pink and blue colors. It felt like there were two skies.


Love of my life.

I hope that the spring weather sticks at last and Dave and I can get outside more often!

At the lake, Dave and I took a calm walk down by the water. Many people were out fishing, and one guy even offered us the fish he'd caught. Although I've been fishing before, I don't exactly know how to gut or fillet a fish, so we kindly refused. Nice of him to offer, though.

We walked out a little further and more and more people were fishing. As we reached a certain area, we heard music playing. After a few moments, we realized that one of the cars was playing really, really loud music, and the lyrics were really, really racist. I turned to Dave and was like, "Uh, wow. Are these people serious?" I was a little surprised that no one else around us seemed to care. Instead of getting closer to some anti-black rally or whatever, we headed off in the other direction.

Maybe I'm naive, but...I guess I thought that kind of racism was dead, that people were all generally accepting of others. It's the person that matters, right? Not the stereotype that is given to them by others. Race, class, gender, religion, education level, outward appearance...so many things will cause others to pass judgment that is not necessarily fair. People are meant to be unique. What if we were all exactly the same?

Enough of my emotional vomit. Well, at least the lake was really pretty :)

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

April 1st Ethics

When I was a young, bright-eyed school girl (oh, about 2nd grade) a very memorable April Fool's Day event happened to me.

During school that day, my teacher told the class that we would be allowed to leave early. You can imagine the excitement that swept over the group of children. An unplanned early-out day? It was a miracle!

I held the excitement in me all day, and around the scheduled early departure time I started packing up my backback.

Then the teacher got the attention of the class and made the devastating announcement: "April Fools! You don't get to go home early. Let's get back to work."

So my question is this: is it okay to lie to a bunch of little kids (or anyone) just because April Fool's day is designated for pranks and jokes?

I'd say an actual PRANK takes a lot more thought than just lying to someone and saying "April Fools!" to make it okay.

I could get into the ethics and questions of lying to kids/people for various festive reasons (Santa, Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, etc.) but that's a whole other subject that I really haven't come to a conclusion about yet.

It just doesn't seem right to use a certain day of the year as an excuse to lie.

Or maybe I'm just bitter that I didn't get to go home early from school that fateful 2nd grade day.

Discuss.