All's Well that Ends Well!

Check out these lovely pictures! Some of you students know that I told you that I had lost my camera, but as you can see, I have these great pictures up here. Wait until you hear THIS story...

As you know, I posted my blog for the week, but I did so with a bit of melancholy, because...

Last night, I went to the 5th Annual Lonnie Jackson Benefit. I'm also serving as the Chair of the Executive Board of CCSC, Inc., a community service organization that was founded by the late Lonnie Jackson. I had been working on getting this benefit together for some time now, and now that the big moment had arrived, I was very excited! I grabbed my digital camera and my lovely wife, and off we went to the big ceremony! It was a great evening, and I grabbed a few pictures to commemorate the event. Then we began to head home. I got my wife into the car, took off my suit coat so I could drive comfortably, put the car in gear and proceeded safely home...

...and forgot that I had left my digital camera sitting on the top of my car! (AGGH!!!)

Needless to say, I was very upset! I had been taking pictures of the kids since the beginning of the year! I had been taking pictures just this week to include in my blog! I had a lot of great images that I was going to save for my end-of-the-year video yearbook! Now the camera was gone! What was I to do?

Well, I first called down to the Convention & Trade Center, to see if anyone there had found my camera. They called me back a few minutes later to tell me that no one HAD found it (Bummer!). So I resolved to leave as soon as I could after school today to try and retrace my steps and see if I could find it. It was still in my camera case, so I was confident that it may not have been badly damaged, but if it fell off in the street, and some car ran over it, not even my case could have protected it. I bet you can imagine the images that thought generated in my mind! (UGH!) At any rate, I said a quick prayer, asking for the grace to find the camera, and went back to teaching my great and wonderful children. I was REALLY bummed, though, because the thought of having to start all over really disturbed me.

So the school day ends, we get all the kids off campus, and it's after 4 PM, so I'm free to go. I gathered all my paperwork together for the weekend, packed my bag into the car, and got ready to pull out of the parking lot. All of a sudden, my cell phone rang. On the other end was a nice lady who had also attended the benefit yesterday evening. She told me that she had tried to call the other members of our organization's leadership, and was also trying to get to me, because she had found a camera in the parking lot, and wondered if someone was out there trying to find it!

(HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY HAPPY HAPPY JOY!!!) Whoo Hoo! You talk about a HAPPY Mr. Armstrong! IwasampedIwasstokedIwasgeekedIwaspumped! O Boy O boy O boy O boy!!! (Can you tell I was happy? LOL)

So the lady tells me where to meet her, and I drive to that location. When she arrived, she gave me my camera (and I gave her a big thankful hug!). And guess what? The camera was undamaged! All the pictures were safely on the memory card! I got my camera back!!!

So, I am now able to do what I wanted to do with my earlier entry this evening. As you know, this week, we studied tree diagrams. As the children learned how to do the diagrams and how they work, I gave them the opportunity to come to the SmartBoard and show me what they were learning. Please enjoy the attached pictures of my children working at the SmartBoard! All is truly well that ends well! See you Sunday night!