Ira's BlackOut PepRally

 Ira's Blackout PepRally was today.... I got some fun pix of the happenings!  You gotta love ISO 6400!

 Emily dressed up as Pat Sterling, 4th grade teacher!

Raven won the 6th grade costume prize.  She was a table......

Cold Autumn Day

I have been trying to figure out how to FEEL my images.  I was thinking about the weather today, cold, wet, wintery, and I had absolutely no desire to outside....so I invited the cold inside a little, then I remedied the cold with some hot Russian tea with Raven & Emily.....niiiice!

Ira School Board, 2011

If unity is present in a school board you might not take mental note of it.
If unity is missing it becomes painfully obvious.
It has literally been too long since that unity was actually present in Ira on the school board.  But finally, by the grace of God unity as been restored.
That doesn't mean that each member totally agrees with every other board members on an issue.  They still differ, but they respect those differences.
Each member has things he desires to see happen and has things he desires to protect but no other member hinders that, they enlighten, they give perspectives that were lacking, they vote for, they vote against.  They move forward.
They one thing they agree on unanimously is the opportunity for each student of Ira I.S.D. to receive the best education possible.
Meet the Ira School Board.  They are:  Shawn McCowen, secretary; Jason Spradlin; Chuck Barbee; Dennis Taylor, president; Dirk Dunn; J.J. Caswell, vice-president; William Cotton.
In a couple of the pictures we added administration members Dale Jones, Principal; Morgan Preston, Financial Officer; Jay Waller, Superintendent.
These people are local, they are here.  They are present and they are family oriented and they are completely approachable.  Issues, problems and victories are what they are here for.  As voters and residents of the Ira School District they care.
This is a good team.

Family: Cave

The Cave family is turning to babies!  Envitro and five on the ground!  Babies everywhere!  They are sweet people with sweet babies!  They were fun and I really enjoyed working with all of them!  Cave Family, I am glad you invited me! Thank you!

Ira's S.A.V.E. Group

These kids are a select group of students from Ira High School.  They are in the S.A.V.E. group which is:  Students Against Violence Everywhere. 

The Gonzales Family

 

The only wings they really need....

 

 I love watching men with their little girls.  Ruben is the classic Gentle Giant.  He was so completely aware of the fact that he could snap his little girl in two but he held and touched her with so much respect and tenderness that I stood in awe!  He is the perfect husband for Teri and perfect Daddy for Madalyn.  I loved working with the Gonzales' on the Tech Campus (another favorite)!  Madalyn is another one of the sweet little girls I am getting to watch grow up!  Thank you Gonzales family for calling me!

Welcome to my porch...

BackPacks and Prayer

 

They are gonna make mistakes...there are gonna be inconsistencies between their testimonies and their actions....but if we can just point them to the cross, maybe we can give them The Power they need to succeed, maybe we can give them grace, maybe we can make them understand that there are somethings that they have absolutely no power over.  Their lives aren't easy, they have already seen things that some adults haven't even seen and we have to help them.
So....some of the kids prayed for their school, some of the kids prayed for their peers, some prayed for themselves.  And all of the adults prayed for all of those things. 
Lord, hang on to them.  Help us help them find you.... give us and them the wisdom to know when we have hit a wall in our efforts and wisdom.  Give us sympathetic consciousness of their problems with a desire to alleviate those problems.  In other words, WAKE US UP!   and MOVE US!