Thankful for Preschool and Diners And Other Stuff But Not Webworms

Nothing like waiting until nearly the Zero Hour to post my Ten Things of Thankful, but I'm having trouble getting them down. I have a cold, a little birthday gift from my daughter, and I feel crappy. Volleyball has not been a good experience, and when my child is hurt, especially by an adult, then it hurts me, too. The weekend has gone by too quickly, and I haven't gotten any good sleep. Whine, whine, whine. Sucking it up now and writing my thankfuls:

1. For a short week, it was reallllly long! It was the first week of preschool, which means two First Days of school, one for my Primary class (three year olds who will turn four over the course of the year) and one for my Pre-K class (fours turning five). The first week is exhausting, but it's so fun to see those excited little faces come to their first day of preschool! And all went well, meaning no one cried and no one wet their pants, so there's a thankful.

MY first day of school pic

2. It rained on Tuesday, the first day for Primary, which is a TRAGEDY, because not only do those kiddos WANT to go out and play on the playground, they NEED to go out. And their TEACHERS need them to go out, too! But you know how it sometimes says "scattered showers" on the weather forecast? I looked out the door of my classroom, where I could see out the glass entryway to the playground side of the building, and rain was falling like crazy. Looked out the windows in my room, which are on the opposite side of the building from the entryway, and not a drop was falling from the sky. That was pretty cool, and my kids thought so as well, when I showed them.

3. In spite of the scattered showers we received, the playground stayed reasonably dry, thanks to the two GINORMOUS sweet gum trees that grow there. The trees sheltered most of the playground from the rainfall, so we were still able to go outside and play. Thank you, sweet gum trees, even though you are currently harboring your share of the web worm infestation that has come to the area and it's really creepy to see those webby nests of what I know are nasty little caterpillars in your branches. (On Friday, at recess, one of those little fuckers fell out of his nest and was crawling on the back of my shirt, which is NOT a thankful, but one of the other teachers saw it and picked it off of me and I never had to deal with it.)

Ewwww - gross!

4. I haven't had a decent raincoat in years, especially for warm weather. I have one with a fuzzy lining that I wear when it's cold (and which is Barney purple and I HATE it - what was I THINKING when I picked that color?!), but I would perish in it when it's 90 degrees and raining, so a few weeks ago, I finally bought a thin one at Eddie Bauer that can be stuffed into its own pocket for travel convenience. Since I had to go to the grocery store after school (right about the time the rain went from "scattered" to "downpour"), I made good use of it, although I will tell you that, even though it is a wonderful convenience for traveling, it is a bad, BAD idea to STORE said raincoat in its own pocket, as it came out looking like a wadded up kleenex, but as long as it did its job (which it did), then I was able to overlook the wrinkles.

5. I had to renew my driver's license, and while there is more to this story that I will tell later, I got it done before the rain wreaked havoc on my hair. 

6. Wednesday was the first day of Pre-K. We had a birthday, and the birthday boy (whom I loved even before this happened) brought doughnuts for his birthday snack. And not just ANY doughnuts, but Dude's Doughnuts, a local delicacy.

7. I painted hands for a craft in my Primary class the first week of school and lived to tell about it.

The first of many painted hands this year.

It's a frog, okay? A FROG.

8. My daughter was officially asked to the homecoming dance this week by the boy she is currently Talking to. (This is the second step in teen relationships, the first one being texting and snap chatting, then Talking, then dating.) 

9. While relatively nothing volleyball related has been good lately, my husband and I did find a fabulous restaurant when we drove to Springfield to watch a volleyball tournament on Saturday. We went there for breakfast, before the tournament started, and if we had had time, we probably would have gone back for lunch and dinner as well. From the outside, it was a place most people would have glanced at and kept on driving, but thanks to the reviews on Trip Advisor, we went there ON PURPOSE, and were we ever glad! It's on a portion of old Route 66 that has not been renovated or made hip and trendy, and has been a diner in one incarnation or another since the 1920s. Come visit me and I'll take you there!

Almond encrusted French toast with raspberry drizzle,
homemade sausage, and biscuits and gravy.
In the background is my husband's omelette
(ick - I hate eggs and upgraded mine to the B&G)
and coffee (double ick)

10. After many hours of searching, we found a homecoming dress. That's a thankful in its own right, but here's the big one: it only cost $24.15. BAM!

It's the start of a new week; hopefully, the thankfuls will be so bountiful that I will have to pick only the highlights of the week!

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A Fly on our (Chicken Coop) Wall, Amycake and the Dude, Considerings, Finding Ninee, Getting Literal, I Want Backsies, The Meaning of Me, Thankful Me, Uncharted, The Wakefield Doctrine

Join the Ten Things of Thankful Facebook Group

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