Things from the bus...

"You say 'Hi"...A LOT!!!"
That remark came from one of the second graders on my bus the other day, as she was standing beside me while the high school students boarded  for the ride home.
I wish there was some way to type in it her tone of voice, because just the way she said it reminded me of that certain excitement and innocence that kids that age still have.

"Secret Admida-er"
On Valentine's day the elementary kids on my bus, of course, had a valentine exchange at school. One of the little girls was talking about one in particular that she received, that wasn't signed. To which another little girl replied "That means you have a secret admida-er... and pretty soon he's going to tell you he loves you and you'll get married!" (she has a slight speech impediment, but that just made it sound that much cuter!)

"Accents"
According to another little girl on my bus, only FOREIGNERS have accents... and you will NEVER hear an accent coming from an American.

"He's being a real jerk today!"
 There are an elementary aged (kindergarten and second grade, respectively) brother and sister that ride my bus and you can just tell that this little guy can be a real handful at times. He recently missed a week of school to have his tonsils removed, so the day he returned, I of course made a big deal out of greeting him when he got on the bus that morning... to which he just kind of scowled and went and sat down. Almost immediately, his older  sister says "He's being a real jerk today, he bit mom this morning!" On ther afternoon run, as he was having a little "trouble" listening, she informed that " at home, he curses." To which I replied "Oh no, I hope that's not true!" Her response... "Oh yes he does! He says the bad 'A' word and puts 'hole' at the end of it... ALL THE TIME!"

"It must have fallen out of my book bag"

I found something very similar to this on the bus floor the other day, as I was doing my "post trip" walk through. Being the curious sort, I smoothed it out and discovered a "Progress Report" stating a "lack of completed homework... and failure to catch it up will result in detention". Hmmm... so, of course being the ex-child care worker that I am, I set it by my seat to give to the student the next day. As I handed it to him, I said "I found this CRUMPLED UP on the floor last night, it doesn't matter to me if you give it to your mom or not, but don't crumple it up and leave it on the bus, for me to clean up." To which he replied "Ohhh, it must have fallen out of my book bag." No, I didn't press the issue of it's "crumpled" condition.


Stay tuned, I'm sure this is just the beginning of "Things from the bus"

talk about a loaded topic...

i have recently started going to church...
i know, right?!?!

oh, i suppose i should say this next - i am not particularly a fan of church... or even religion itself.

-told ya it was a loaded topic -

so anyways... i'm not real sure why i started going again, it just seemed like what i should do - at the time.
i should also say this, i have nothing against people who are religious or enjoy going to church... i'm just not a fan.
and i know why i'm not... there's more than one reason - two... to be specific:

the first...
a bad experience when i was younger (20's... nothing like a molesting priest or anything like that) - we'll just call it hypocrisy.
and B... there are way too many contradictions in the "instruction manual" aka: the bible

let's start with the first...
i was very involved in the church i was attending at the time (youth group, sunday school, bible school - you get the idea) and when i made what could definitely be considered a sketchy decision... the whole congregation (per the asst. pastor anyways) thought it would be best if i didn't attend anymore, so i quit going.
funny thing though, as the years went by, (as they tend to do)... i would run into various people (members of the aforementioned congregation) who were so saddened and upset that i stopped attending said church. oh, did i mention that some of these same people were specifically mentioned by name as being some of those that preferred i stop attending.
like i said... hypocrisy, plain and simple.

now, onto B... the contradictions -
look up almost any topic and you will find a number of verses that are in favor of it AND ones that prohibit said topic. now i'm not a "gray area" kind of guy... my world is very black or white, right or wrong, do or don't etc,etc,etc.
at this point i probably shouldn't even get into my thoughts on it's historical accuracy, as it wasn't written in "real time" but years and years after the actual events occurred, as told in story form throughout generations.


so there you have it, my most current internal quandary/debate/whatever you want to call it. as always, i am open to opinions, opposing views, questions, concerns or comments.