First Day of School

ME: It's school time again!

C: I know. But there aren't a lot of kids I know in my new class.

ME: You're probably feeling excited and maybe a little sad that summer is over too. Lot sof kids feel nervous or a little scared on the first day of school because of all the new things: new teachers, new friends, and some kids are even in a new school.

Advice for The First Day
Most teachers kick off the school year by introducing themselves and talking about all the stuff you'll be doing that year. Some teachers give students a chance to tell something about themselves to the rest of the class.

When teachers do the talking on the first day, they often go over classroom rules so you'll know what's allowed and what's not. Pay close attention so you'll know if you need to raise your hand to ask a question and what the rules are about visiting the restroom.

You might already know a lot of people in your classes on the first day. But it's a great day to make a new friend, so try to say hello to kids you know and new ones that you don't. Make the first move and you'll be glad you did and so will your new friend!

Freecycle

I was told about freecycle by a freind at the univeristy. Her daughter had gotten some neat things and had some freecycled some of their gently use baby things. Come to find out the Freecycle Network™ is made up of 4,780 groups with 7,127,000 members across the globe. It's a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns.

It's all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills. Each local group is moderated by a local volunteer (them's good people). Membership is free. To sign up, go to freecycle.org, find your community by entering it into the search box ...the rest is green

Have fun!

G-Force

Yes, it has cute little guinea pigs who are actually tough special agent wannabes for the FBI. Yes, it has cool, high-tech spy gear. Yes, it has the requisite butt jokes all kids’ movies apparently must have. Yes, it has car chases and robots and every cliche from the secret-agent-super-spy genre. And yes, it has cute animals and cool gadgets, and what mom of small children could pass that opportunity up?

I will say this for G-Force: it stays firmly within family-friendly territory. Aside from the butt jokes and some very mild playful innuendo among the guinea pigs (as weird as that sounds), this might as well have been a Saturday morning cartoon.

G-Force is silly, innocent fluff that even delivers a wholesome message to kids about believing in self and understanding that no matter who you are, you are special. It’s easy to understand why the guinea pigs learn this lesson because after all they can talk, use computers, drive, know kung-fu, and they save the world. But what about the rest of us? What makes us special?

Take time to think about what makes you special, your family special, our town special...

G -Force Cookies
Stars and Stripes Drive in

History

according to wikipedia.org, Shallowater is on State Highway 84 and the Santa Fe line, twelve miles northwest of Lubbock in Lubbock County. As early as 1909 J. C. (Jim) Bowles, whose ranch was adjacent to the site of what is now Shallowater, persuaded Bob Crump, a member of a ranching family, to help form a townsite company and attract a railroad to go through the area.

Land was purchased for the townsite on May 18, 1909. A school was built at that time. After Santa Fe railroad officials received a bonus from rancher George W. Littlefieldqv of the Yellow House Ranch,qv negotiations were finally completed. The originators of the plan, and other interested individuals, formed the Ripley Townsite Company, which was named after a Santa Fe railroad official and was incorporated on May 22, 1909.

The company decided to name the new town Shallowater to attract settlers. On June 26, 1913, a celebration was held to note the founding of the town and completion of the railroad. By the time the town was established, the ranching industry in the area was waning and many of the large ranches were being divided into smaller lots for farmers. Cotton became an important cash crop. During the 1920s Shallowater grew rapidly, and the town had a hotel, a lumberyard, and various filling stations, grocery stores, cotton gins, drugstores, barbershops, garages, blacksmith shops, and other businesses. Several churches and schools were also built.

A county park with a clubhouse was established, a public well was constructed, and a real depot building was built to replace the boxcar the town had been using for years. From 1920 to 1922 the railroad station was known as Pacita. In 1928 the town had an estimated population of 250. In 1955 Shallowater was incorporated with a mayor-council form of city government,qv and during the 1960s the town had five churches, a school, a bank, a library, and a newspaper. The community in 1970 had thirty businesses, including one of the largest hatcheries in the county. The population of Shallowater was 1,001 in 1960 and 1,339 in 1970.

In the late 1980s Shallowater had a post office, seventeen businesses, and a population of 2,107. It was a farm marketing center with processing and storing facilities. In 1990 its population was 1,708. [4]