Events at our House

[Guest guest]

I haven't posted in a while but wanted to share a few things with everyone.

Last weekend Grace went to her first slumber party. She is almost nine. It

was scheduled for the weekend before, but Hurricane Floyd came through here

and knocked all the power out. Oh the disappointment! I thought she would

never calm down. But she finally did and the next weekend came.

It was a nice group of girls. The hostess was turning nine and was also in

the third grade. She suffers from Crohn's Disease, so her mother and I often

share G/I doctor stories as Grace is wheat/milk allergic. They are in

Brownies together and many of the third grade Brownies were there. Grace was

very happy to be there and knew everyone by name. They did a piñata in the

driveway attached to the basketball net and let Grace's younger sister have a

swing or two before we took her home.

We picked her up the next morning and she didn't say much. I've learned to

let her be when she is like this. The mother of the hostess said they went

to bed around midnight (not unusual for Grace who never sleeps, but they all

got up very early, which is unusual for Grace. So needless to say, she was

very, VERY grumpy all day. By 2:00 PM I had to force her to take a nap in

tears. She woke up around 4:30 PM and was much happier and was able to tell

me she really had a good time at the party.

On another note, this week I started teaching CCD (Catholic Religion class)

to my second grader. I am teaching seven kids in my dining room (no room at

the church). We were discussing basic things like the name of our church,

which no one seemed to fully know. Grace happily volunteered to be my

assistant and wanted to go around the room and ask questions just like a

teacher would! But when we were discussing the name of our church, she was

in the bathroom, around the corner from the dining room. I could hear she

was getting frustrated with their lack of correct answers. They were saying

things like Holy Spirit, Holy Trinity, Holy Water, etc. So she whipped open

the door, with her shorts around her ankles and yelled out, " Holy Family, its

Holy Family! " I am laughing now, but I was so horrified at the time!

So we had a little talk about not opening the door when you are in the

bathroom, even if they are only second graders!

Joan Welch