The Placard

Today my poor parents had a morning of hard labor.  If my sibs saw how my parents worked in and around my home today they'd probably disown me.  I kept saying to my parents, "Please stop working. If you die from heart attacks everyone's going to be so ticked off at me." Luckily, my sibs rarely to never read this awesome blog, so I'm in the free and clear.

After the morning of hard toil, we drove in to Brown County for lunch at the Hob Nob. Then we had a relaxing drive through BC State Park.  We spotted a placard so we pulled over to read it since my mom and I love placards.  The placard described BCSP as "The Little Smokies."  I've never heard BCSP described as such.  But it kind of fits.  When we were kids we camped in the Smokies a lot.  Good times.  Now we're all resting and I'm hoping to ramp up the fun and tamp down the toil.  My parents would be great subjects for some type of social science research on age and toil.  They're 84 and 83 and they can kick my butt at the hard labor. They're awesome in a ton of other ways too.  I love having them here.  PROPS to the PARENTS!

The Beginning

AP's cool Harry Potter tattoo.  I may copycat this tattoo.

After I left Artful School, I came home and turned on the nap big time. And thus begins what I like to call "summer vacation."  My parents arrive in the morning and I'm trying to think of some fun things for us to do.  20 something comes home on Friday and is bringing some of her good pals.  This is going to be epic, peeps.  Fun with fam and friends, coming right up.  Right now, I'm focusing on the Pacers.  They're ahead of the Heat and I think they're going to win.  The Pacers stay active, strong, determined. They don't let a few setbacks get them off track. They are my role models. Go Pacers!

The Push

Husbandman just dropped me off here at school.  I've been here all weekend packing up stuff.  When he came in today, he wasn't super impressed with my progress.  "You've really gotta push today.  Like you've never pushed before."  I know he's right, but I decided to blog first, before the push.  I am so sick of doing this stupid packing and throwing stuff away.

Okay, the blogging's done.  I'll now add some fascinating links.  Then on to the push. Please wish me luck.

The Immortality

Popcorn Man, immortalized on the B-Line Trail.  I'm happy to say that I now have created visual art for  all to enjoy for generations to come.

The kinders and sixers collaborated with a cool local artist to make this artwork.  Popcorn Man stands out as arguably the best part of this installation.  

You should see this art installation if you want.  It's on the B-Line for the rest of eternity.  And I'm not trying to brag, but I made a big part of it.

The Holiday

Last day with the peeps.  Mission today:  Woman up at the ice cream station.  Scooping ice cream for 400 kids, along with Vander.

Penultimate Day was awesome.  I taught the cafeteria kids about the day and I asked them to help me make Penultimate Day a National Holiday.  "Nod if you'll help me," I told them.  100 kids nodded.  Then one kid yelled out, "What will we do on the Penultimate Day holiday?"  This comment gave me pause.  Really haven't thought this whole thing out.

In the afternoon, Parmy the Firstie Teacher invited me up.  They've been having theme days all week.  Yesterday was Birthday Party Day and the kids jumped up out at me and yelled Surprise! when I entered the room.  They all had birthday hats on and then I got one too.  I read them a cool birthday book.  We ate Toy Story cupcakes.  I got a Woody ring.  I opened a present, this book they made for me.  Then they made a tunnel with their arms and I ran through it.  OMG! The greatness!

I love their comments in my book:

Thank you Dr. H. for helping us with reading and letting us see the puppets. Thank you for calling us "The Men of Table Ten."  It's pretty funny!

I like Dr. Heffernan because she helps me read my books, poems, and sight words.  She also helps me solve problems.

Thank you for helping us in the cafeteria.  You're funny, Dr. H.  I hope I see you again.  Maybe I will see you forever.

And today is our Field Day.  I'm wearing my WILDCAT tshirt with pride.  Today will be an awesome ending to a beautiful 6 years at Artful School. I want to give every kid in the school some ice cream and some loving kindness as we all move on to our next adventures.

The Waffles

Today we started our school day with a meeting.  But listen to the good part.  New fun teacher and firstie teacher hosted us to a waffle bar.  We had waffles, spreads, fruits, toppings. How fun is that?  We ate waffles, talked about how great our kiddos have done this year and chatted about the crazed end of the school year.

Then I went to car duty.  There's a kinder that I love so much I sometimes refer to him as "my son."  He's not really my son, but I just love that child.  Every day he pops out of his car, screams out "DR. H.!" and then runs at top speed to hug me.  Then as he walks up the ramp to the door he says, "See you in the lunchroom, Dr. H."  I'm crazy about this kid, for obvious reasons.  Today I gave him a hug.  Then Vander hugged him and he went on his merry way.  As we watched him go, I said, "After this week, I'll probably never see him again."  Then I burst into tears.  Vander rubbed my shoulder and stood near me as I tried to stop the waterworks. I finally did, and the rest of the day went just fine.
We had a highlight in the afternoon: K-2 Talent Show:  jokes, gangnum style dancing, hula hooping and IU cheers.  Blastorama!

2 more days.
We're on short time, pals.

The Gatsby

I've been trying to decide if I want to see the new Gatsby movie.  I have read the novel but I was struggling today to remember the plot.  So I spent considerable time reading synopses and reviewing biographical information about F. Scott.  Here's what's a little sad.  F. Scott wanted Gatsby to sell more than it did.  It was never out of print, but it didn't get the huge sales that he craved.  Then, right after he died, the book started zipping up in popularity.  This reminds me a little of something that happened to me the other night.  A pal I don't see very often came up to me and said something about a recent blog entry I wrote.  She said she was going to comment but didn't want me to think she was stalking me.  I have a feeling this is happening a lot because very few people are commenting on the blog lately, but I know in my heart of hearts that many are reading and enjoying the posts so much.  This isn't exactly like what happened with F. Scott, but a little bit it is.
Anyway, back to the movie.  I may go see it but I'm not sure if I want to yet.

The Graduate

20 Something just graduated from college. WELL DONE, 20 SOMETHING!  Husbandman's there since his job is done and mine is a living hell (see previous post), but so many good friends from our California days are out there too, checking in, sending fotos, and being as fabulous as they ever were.
Am I sad I'm not there?  Well sure, a little, but when she gets back here soon, my work will be DONE and it will be time for the party of the summer.  Get your personhoods over here.  Deets to follow.

Congratulations 20 Something.  We're very happy for you, and about you.

The Artfuls

I've been in my office for about 7 days in a row getting summer school reports ready.  Our school probably has the highest percentage of kids who are being "invited" to summer school, cheerfully renamed summer reading camp.  The reports take a long time.  I've been doing the reports and lunch duty all week.  Lunch duty's getting pretty loud, I"m not going to lie.  Somehow the peeps have figured out that school's ending any second now, and they're pretty jazzed.  The end of the year is crazy, but I like all the field trips and picnic lunches and scrapbook making and artful learning inquiry centers.  I wish every week could be so active.

Preschool invited me in to watch kiddos making their original creations.  Their concept is PATTERNS and each kid designed a pattern and then they were putting various stones into plaster of paris to make a pattern tile.  I was doing great, staying plaster free, until I decided to walk a kid over to the sink to wash up.  He accidentally used my shirt as a paper towel and I had plaster all over my shirt and stylish black pants.  It was fun telling people that I got plastered at school. (I only said this to the adults, though).  To the kiddos I explained about plaster of paris. Later I heard a firstie tell her dad, "Dr. H. got pooped on by some parrots."   I straightened that all out, so that's good. Come on kid, get with the program. Some vocab instruction may be needed, not sure.

The basic point of this story is that the end of the year is miserable in many ways and absolutely delightful in other ways.  I'm done with reading camp reports, so I'm ready to go back to data entry.  Heading in.

The Cats

I need 5,000 dollars for this cat.

At 1,000 $, this cat would be a bargain.

There are basically two cats I'm obsessed with right now.  The Savannah cat (pictured above on the office chair) and the Maine coon cat (to the right, hoisted by a proud young woman, possible cat owner).

Work's been kind of whack lately, so I find myself at the end of the day watching videos of these fab felines.  When I get back from Israel, I'll probably get one.  Leaning toward the Savannah.

Husbandman is annoyed with the constant cat talk and video watching and does not want a cat, but I told him, "One day you'll come home from work and there will be a big ol' cat walking around the house.  You'll come to love him."

The high point

Preschoolers are amazing.  They design their pattern and then they create their pattern.  It's fun to watch.