A Trip to City Hall

Things are crrrrazy busy these days at The GreenHouse.  We're:

wrapping up our after-school programs with end-of-the year parties,

interviewing/hiring/registering/planning for summer programming, 

getting a new garden off the ground.  

(Even though I have absolutely no role, other than to cheer for our new garden, I still really, really like it! Thus, the new garden-y look for the blog).  

and planning our major fundraiser for the year, "Kids at Heart" 

all at the same time!  

In spite of all of the craziness, we've been blessed to experience some fantastic times with youth lately (and of course some hard incidents with youth mixed in too).  One highlight that tops the fantastic list was last week's trip to City Hall with our Leaders in Training Team to meet with Councilmember Ashby.     

Pretty darn exciting for them, considering most adults have never gone to City Hall for a meeting with their Councilmember!

Despite the pressure of it all - the fancy tables and chairs in the conference room, the elevator ride to the fifth floor (I got the sense that most of them had not had many elevator rides), and the suits on the people who they presented to - they did an AMAZING JOB!  They were well prepared and each one of them nailed the part they were supposed to talk about.  They shared the picture boards they had created as well as their ideas for improving a specific part of their community (more on that later in the post).  Our Councilmember was very attentive to them and really made each one of them feel heard and cared for.  And the most amazing part?!  At the end of the meeting, she asked if she could meet with us again in two weeks to follow-up with us on the information they were able to find out on our behalf!  What?  That never happens?!  Aren't we the ones who are supposed to beg for a follow-up meeting?  I believe that was the grace of God granting us favor in that meeting.  He is good!   

As we walked out, our Councilmember said to another person who was in there with us, "That was the best meeting I had all day.  And it was the most productive."

The kids were all smiles when we left.  What an amazing experience for them - so empowering, so encouraging, so gratifying.

This is an exciting journey that THEY are leading the way on.  Their dream?  To clean up this vacant, trash-filled, grattifi-riddled lot and turn it into a safe, landscaped, paved walkway that their entire community can use every day as they walk from their apartment complex to the 99 Cent Store.  Please pray with us that the owner of this lot will say yes to their proposal (that he'll grant an easement to the City so that the community can pave and landscape it).  I can see it!  Can you?

A New Friend

Friends have always been very important to Jonah.  They fuel his spirited soul.  When he finds a friend that he connects with, he loves him with all of his heart.

Jonah delights in figuring out what his friends enjoy and then finding ways to give them that thing.  For example, if he knows you love Spiderman, he'll pick out Spiderman stickers at the doctor's office just so he can give them to you the next time he sees you. When you come over, he'll give you one of his Spiderman toys as a gift for you to take home.  He'll even start watching Spectacular Spiderman just so he can know all the characters when you guys play "pretend Spiderman" together.  

If it were up to him, he'd have a friend over every single day (or he'd go to a friend's house everyday).  He is constantly begging us (and the parents of his friends) if he can have a play date.   He's content to play anything under the sun as long as he's with his buddies.

Recently, he started asking for play dates with some of the boys from his class - something that we hadn't done yet.  The first attempt failed.  We gave one of his friends our phone number and told his mom to call us over Spring Break if she wanted to get the boys together.  She never called (lost the number).  Bummer.  Poor Jonah waited for that phone to ring all week.

On his second attempt, Jonah set-up a play date at a park after-school with another boy named Omar.  His mom and I confirmed that the date worked for both of us and that time, the attempt resulted in success!  The boys had so much fun playing together and I had a terrific time getting to know Omar's mom.

About a week later, Omar and his mom came to Jonah's t-ball game to watch him play!  This was the t-ball highlight of the year for Jonah.

Last week, Omar came home from school with us to play for a few hours.  Jonah was beside himself as he prepared for the big day.  He cleaned his room (this never happens) and made "Welcome Omar" signs for our front door and for the door to his room.  He even picked out a Star Wars toy from the toy closet (Omar's fave), wrapped it up all by himself, and had it ready for Omar to open when he arrived.

Later this week, Jonah is going to Omar's house to play over there for the first time.  HE IS SO EXCITED.  And I'm so excited that he has a new friend at school.  This looks like the start of a special friendship!  

Jonah and his new buddy, Omar, at a school assembly (fittingly, right before Jonah received a Caring Award).    

Omar (second in line) and Jonah (last in line) playing in the Kickball Jamboree at school.   

Hope to See You There!

 

Have you bought your tickets yet?!

Juris Doctorate!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hip Hip Hooray!  

We are SO proud of you, Steve!  And we love you so much!  You did it!!

Cookin' Mac and Cheese Like I'm the Top Chef

Steve's not the only rock-star in our house.  (Thanks, Dad, for the super-fun Mother's Day e-card!)

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Davis State of Mind

A few weeks ago, Steve spent some time at his studio recording a song with a couple of friends. The idea was to make a funny parody about Davis for the Law School's Talent Show. His friend Alex wrote the lyrics to the song and rapped. Steve played the guitar, bass, and drums and did all the recording.  His friend Jenn (friend from church) did the vocals.

From there, Alex and another friend turned the song into a video and the rest is history.  Thanks to facebook, the video went viral and as of today the video has had over 33,000 views on youtube! Even the Mayor of Davis shared the video on facebook and the Dean of the Law School posted it on his law professor blog.  If you haven't seen the video yet, you can view it here. It's sure to give you a laugh.  

Steve's been pretty surprised by all the attention the song has gotten. He went to play basketball at the UCD Rec Hall last week and a fellow student asked him, "Hey, have you seen that law school video yet?!" Steve laughed. Um, ya, you mean the one with the song I recorded?

They've even gotten some media attention. This past weekend, Channel 13 ran a story about it. Steve's interview got cut out of the clip, but they still mention his name and you can see him briefly at the end of the story. To watch the news clip, click here.

Kind of fun - and a good diversion to break of some of the stress of finals.  Steve's got just 9 days to go until he's done with school!  He's very sick (from stress, lack of sleep) so it can't get here fast enough.