Last Trumpet Article, May 2008

I learned everything I needed to know at Holy Angels

Being a parent is hard. The only thing harder is being a teacher.

The only thing worse than dropping your child off at Holy Angels for Pre-K is watching them leave Holy Angels for high school.

The shortest distance between two points quite often leads to the principal’s office.

The 11th Commandment: thou shalt fundraise!

Science projects are the pre-teen equivalent to labor. Necessary, but unpleasant. And usually too long.

If your kid won’t tell you what’s going on in school, expand your carpool until you get a chatty kid (take it from me: 6th grade girls, that don’t belong to you, fulfill this role admirably).

The parking lot is the worst (but most entertaining) source of information of what’s going on at Holy Angels.

No matter how early you check out the summer reading books, the book report will be done in a panic the night before school starts.

Time spent helping with homework in the lower grades should be enjoyed! I look back fondly on the math years, pre-algebra, when my self-righteous indignation about homework not-yet-done could be followed up with help.

Time is liquid. Before your children go to school, the day seems endless. Once they start school, the day flies by. And the years …

I have enjoyed working on the Trumpet all these years and thank you for sharing my trials and tribulations. The Trumpet is ending at the perfect time; all four of my children are teenagers and it’s getting harder and harder to find comedy in such tragedy.

Congratulations Elle and Alix!

Elle graduates from Alverno on June 7, Alix graduates from Torrance High on June 18.

Graduation party is at the Leightons' on June 15, where we will also be celebrating Fathers Day.

Jonathon recovering from knee surgery

Above is Jonathon with some fellow mids; Mike (Doughboy), Jonathon's roommate from NMMI, is on the far right.

Here's Jonathon on crutches making his way through downtown Annapolis to see Herndon at USNA. The apartment we rented was in the Historic District and just perfect ... for everyone except Jonathon, who had to negotiate a flight of stairs everytime we had to leave.

This was my view for 2-1/2 hours + as the Plebes attempted to scale Herndon. Which they finally did, largely thanks to the rugby team (sans Jonathon), which was the bottom layer of the pyramid. We were out to dinner with some of the team after the event and were regaled with stories of feet and toenails in the face. There is a nice YouTube movie which a parent put together of the event here; the event was dedicated to a Plebe who died just a week before Herndon.

Quote from Winston Churchill

"If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a small chance of survival. There may even be a worse case: you may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves."