A sad day around here

Jim's high school football coach was shot and killed this morning while supervising students in the high school weightroom. Coach Thomas was a very respected member of the Parkersburg community, coming to the aid of many shortly after the tornado, the same one in which he also lost his own home. From what Jim has said, he was a humble man, strong faith in God, strong desire to help young people become strong, upstanding individuals. It's a shock to everyone in this area, including me, and I've never even met the man! Hard to understand what drove the suspect to do such an act, and perhaps we'll never really know. I guess the one silver lining in this whole thing is that we'll get to see the strength and resolve of Parkersburg once again....although I joke about how I could never live in such a small town, it's a small town that I admire greatly.

He gets it

Owen can, at times, be a strong-willed little guy. At times, I can feel my hair becoming more and more gray! But, there are also those times when he just makes me smile and proud to be his mom.

Today, we were driving down Hudson Road here in town. On the outskirts of town, there is a large open area with a pond in the middle. Owen says something like "Mom, there's a big area over there with the grass cut short and nice calm water in the middle. It's really peaceful water. I think that one guy who died would have really liked it." I asked him who he was talking about, having absolutely no clue what was going on in his head. He replied, "That King Jr. guy, you know, the one who got shot because he wanted peace." Light bulb moment....I said, "Do you mean Martin Luther King, Jr.?" He said "Yeah, that's him. He would have liked the calm, peaceful waters....", then he added, "...if he was still alive now or maybe he'd just be really old by now."

So, even in those times when he is having a not-so-fine moment, I've got this to hold on to....:)