Balloon Rally!

     School this week was okay. I started keeping the kids 30 seconds after class if it took a lengthy amount of time to get their attention. One class was up to four and a half minutes, and so I told them that if they could be quiet and working for the last five minutes they wouldn't have to stay. Thankfully it worked, and we had peace and quiet for the end of class!
     I met with Linda, who is the organizational leader of the Horse Heaven Ridge Riders 4-H club, centered here in Prosser. The club has over 40 members, and she is now the lone organizational leader, as the other stepped down this year. She heard I wanted to get involved in 4-H in Prosser, so sent an email. We just each talked about our clubs and how things were. Her main thing was trying to find a way to make it easier on her. I told her about our club and our leadership program. Linda was excited about the leadership aspect, the only problem being that most high schoolers in Prosser go to the FFA program for livestock because it is so incredible (nicely done Ms. Trump), and in the TnT club we rely on our high school members to lead our younger kids. So, Linda asked me to begin building a leadership program here, working with mostly 7th and 8th graders, and then also asked about being photography leader, because it sounds like most of the kids do photography on their own. I'm meeting with her again this week to iron some more things out, and then I get to face the group's parents at the parent meeting next week. When asked if I'm okay with facing a group of parents who I don't know, I promptly replied with I would survive :)
     Most exciting news for this week? The Prosser Balloon Rally!! All weekend long there have been hot air balloons around somewhere. Each morning there is a sunrise flight where the balloons all take off and then dip into the river and then keep flying. Yesterday the wind was strong enough the balloons didn't linger too much and were carried quite a ways before they could land. Today though, it was fantastic! I got there early again, and this time was at the bridge to get awesome pictures. It was funny because all the professional photographers with their big huge cameras and lenses started on one side of the bridge (the side I was on) and then went to the other side because they thought the balloons would be dipping into the river on that side more than the side I was on. Then, the wind picked up and only a couple dipped on the side where all the pros were at, and the majority of the balloons came to dip on the side where I stayed. I was laughing inside pretty good for a while because I outsmarted the pros, hehehehe! I had to get up early two days in a row when I desperately needed to sleep in, but the photographer in me insisted, and it definitely paid off!