Eighth birthday

Finally the day came: April 16 and Veeka was finally 8. I brought homemade cupcakes to school (none of that ultra-sugared stuff from Kroger for us) and a lot of her little friends wrote her nice notes. After school I dressed her in her soccer clothes and took her to her last soccer game of the season. Her team, called the Foxes, won, as they have all spring, so we celebrated the close of the season and Veeka's birthday at Snappy's, a local pizza place. There a kind parent brought in cupcakes for Veeka and a present and all the girls got soccer trophies. It was a fun, instant party for a little girl who does not have many friends as we're so new to the area.Spring has truly sprung and so far we've only dodged on real tornado scare. Usually there's a lot more than we've gotten so far. "The season" lasts into June, so I am not breathing easily yet. The sirens went off a week ago when some twisters roared across the Mississippi, so I was able to go to test which radio stations work during tornadoes and which do not. I only found two local ones that performed well. Fortunately the local ABC affiliate: WBBJ, did fabulously so - note to self - turn that on the next time the winds start to blow.Classes are starting to wind up at Union and next week is our last full week. Tomorrow I head to Nashville with some students to pick up awards for our student newspaper whose web site just got beautifully revamped. Then I'll go to a 'homecoming' at one of the serpent handler churches that I made famous a year ago through the Wall Street Journal piece.