Check out that icing!

This week was particularly fun and busy at Urban Compass.  On Thursday, we celebrated St. Patrick’s day with some cookie decorating, which is always a hit. Most of the kids were wearing green, which surprised me given that exactly 0% of them are Irish!

They were all about the pinching, too, so the few kids without green on got attacked.  On Friday afternoon, with the Verbum Dei staff on a retreat, we had the campus to ourselves and had a scavenger hunt.  Since we don’t do homework on Fridays and we weren’t in anyone’s way, it was a perfect day. Our regular volunteers from LMU were team captains; they lead the kids in search of ladybugs, four leaf clovers, leprechaun puzzles, Christmas stockings, flowers, and popsicle sticks that I had scattered around campus. They had a blast, and it was so much fun to watch.  On Saturday, we took the older kids to a Clipper’s game! We watched them beat the Cavaliers at the Staples Center downtown. It was SO much fun. Everyone had a blast and the kids were awesome!

Despite the fun and games at the end of the week, the start of the week was tough. One of my newer first graders has serious ADHD. He’s a wonderful kid: he loves me, he loves Urban Compass, and he loves hugs, but he does not love doing homework. He can sometimes be a loose cannon on the playground, which is fine, but in the classroom it is overwhelming: easily distracted, constantly moving, and impossible to focus.  I don’t know what was going on early this week but something in the air or water or stars made him extra hyperactive.  I found myself constantly praying for patience with him, and with the other kids that he kept distracting. 

LA JV's & Jesuits!

The week with DK was also particularly busy and fun! We kicked off the week with a gourmet meal at the East LA Jesuit Residence, where Fr. Scott Santarosa of Dolores Mission Parish and Fr. Greg Boyle of Homeboy Industries hosted the LA JVs for dinner.   They were so generous to open their home to us for the evening!  We gathered with the LA JVs again on Wednesday evening for dinner with an immersion group from University of San Francisco. Funnily enough, one of the girls on the trip went to Mater Dei High School, a partner of Urban Compass, and knew all about my organization! It was great to talk to them and again made me recognize just how much we’ve all learned and grown in the past seven months.

On Thursday, Casa DK went to our fabulous FJV friend’s house for dinner in Eagle Rock. This is a ritzy neighborhood north of downtown where Marisol and her roommates rent an amazing house.  Marisol and Rose were in the same community as JVs in Atlanta and now have careers as lawyers that cross paths in downtown LA.  Dinner was amazing…we had tapas and vino and so much fun.  I feel blessed that we’ve been connected with so many interesting people through the JVC network; it’s amazing how people who don’t even know us want to take care of us just because we’re JVs!

On Saturday evening, I got to spend time with Aunt Beth and Uncle Tom! They were in town for Thomas’s spring break games and picked me and Cara up for dinner at LA Live (the downtown entertainment/restaurant hub) before their flight home. It was so good to see them and spend time with family. Thanks again for dinner!!

Shannon and Colleen in the rain

And finally, the weekend ended on a very wet note today. We went to watch the end of the LA Marathon in Santa Monica, with hopes of spotting our JV friends crossing the finish line at the pier.  Unfortunately, it has been pouring rain all day so it was a rather chilly and damp day, but we made it fun nonetheless. Although we didn’t actually get to see the JVs at the finish line, we were cheering for them loud and proud for a few solid hours. 

And now one more picture from last weekend's trip to Laguna Beach...