It's JUNE.

I'm shivering in my PolarFleece, but I'm not complaining (much.) We had 95 degrees one weekend last month, and I really do prefer the 52 that is happening right now, but it does feel more like March (when the picture of Audrey in the hat--no, I didn't make it-- was taken) than June.

Audrey has a Mini Relay for Life today in the cold and rain, to benefit the American Cancer Society. The seventh grade at their school started raising money for the Cancer Society last year, when one of their former classmates and his father were diagnosed with cancer within a few weeks of each other. I have mixed feelings about this---the Cancer Society has a pretty high administrative/fundraising overhead (40%) and I'd rather they raised money that would be used locally. But there's no doubt that the kids work really hard at it, last year they raised over $7,000, and this year they are hoping for $5,500. All the first period classes come up with their own fundraisers: a car wash, a video game tournament, etc.. Audrey's class painted and sold cedar birdhouses, I would run out and photograph hers now, but it's raining and the light is abysmal. As an entire grade they do a carnival (which happened last week in sun and a comfortable 72 degrees,) and the relay.

Audrey will be walking in the relay. She's not using a cane this week, but she's still too delicate to run. She jumped rope in PE earlier this week and came home with swelling in one of her feet. The school wants to know what we are DOING for her to FIX the problem. They want her to not be absent, and to be able to do PE like the other kids. The whole "she has an auto-immune condition that would be diagnosed as Lupus if it were a little worse, but since it's not we don't want to start her on a life-long course of steroids with all the side effects they bring, so we are trying to watch her diet and not stress her" just doesn't fit into their definition of special needs. John wrote her an excuse for PE one day when she was hurting and called it "non-specific tenonitis," and someone at school asked me if she was going to have surgery to fix it. For all it's flaws, we've had the kids in public school with good results so far, and I'd like to continue that way. Why is it so hard to say "She's going to be absent more than other kids, she's not going to be able to be held to the same standards in PE," doesn't that happen to other people, too?

School gets out for summer vacation next week. We're looking forward to it, brief as it will be.