I Get To Write Thankfuls

What, it's the last minute and I'm just now getting my Ten Things of Thankful written? No way!

1. There is a possibility we have finally seen the end of summer. We had temps in the 90s the last half of the week, and I am OVER it. Possibility of a freeze this week and normal temps mean we can finally pull out some fall clothes from storage!

2. I'm thankful for October skies. The sky is never bluer than it is in October in the Ozarks.

3. I enjoyed a visit from my ice cream date from last week. We have some pretty interesting conversations on the couch in our lobby at work, anything from what's new in kindergarten to things that are troubling him to absolute goofiness. I love being a safe place for him!

4. After nearly overdosing on candy corn the first week of October, I allowed myself to purchase my biggest October weakness - candy pumpkins. I am pleased to announce that I have yet to finish my first bag, purchased a week ago. In fairness, I stuck them in the console of my car and maybe forgot they were there, but even after I found them this weekend, I still have a quarter of the bag left!

5. My husband and I are participating in Walktober through his job. I am 2/3 of the way to my goal AND IT'S ONLY OCTOBER 13! I am ON IT. You get $100 in your flex spending account if you complete the challenge and mama needs new glasses!

6. My preschoolers all brought a bear to school on Thursday, and we went on a teddy bear picnic to celebrate "B" week. We took our bears on a long walk to look for food, then we found tables outside with a breakfast of biscuits and bananas for us and our bears! They were so delighted and surprised, and I'm thankful they are still young enough to believe that a picnic for them and their bears would just appear!

7. Friday, we took an even LONGER walk and went over hill, over dale to the performing arts center on our campus to see a production of "School House Rocks." They loved the singing and dancing and colorful set even if they didn't understand the content, they behaved like angels (mostly, anyway!), and handled the 20+ minute walk (and we HUSTLED) each way like champs. In fact, they enjoyed the walk so much, we are planning a return trip to the campus soon to watch construction on a new building.

8. After over two months of TOTAL FRUSTRATION with the new Smart Board in my classroom, and what seemed like the 100th time AT LEAST of it not responding to anything I was trying to get it to do, I turned to my class and said, "I'm going to push this and see what happens." "This" was what I thought was just a logo below the screen. Guess what? I pushed it AND IT TOOK ME TO A HOME SCREEN, where I could then navigate to other sites with ease. I'm not going to go into the fact that the IT department who installed it should have given me some guidance on the thing instead of just hanging it on my wall and plugging it in, but the two months of navigation aggravation are OVER. Yee haw!

9. My husband and I drove to Kansas City this weekend to cat sit our grandcat, Calvin, while our daughter spent the weekend at the Austin City Limits music festival. Does he really need to be babysat? Contrary to what my daughter thinks, no, he would be fine to spend a weekend by himself, especially given we left our three cats home alone to stay with him, but what a great excuse to spend a weekend in Kansas City! We hit our favorite thrift stores, scoring some great deals, including a recliner that is disguised as a gorgeous upholstered chair and a brand new J Jill dress for me for $11.00 that retailed for $108. We also tried out a bakery that had utterly amazing pastries. I also got to attend church in person, and we followed that up by going back to the bakery and eating more utterly amazing pastries. My cup is full, as is my belly!

See? Total score!

Pecan sticky bun, almond croissant,
chocolate mochi donut hole. Not
pictured is the garlic asiago cheese bagel.
And yes, the picture is sideways.

Pecan sticky bun, almond croissant,
cream cheese danish. Sigh.

He LOOKS innocent, but...

...this is what he did to his water fountain

10. Sometimes, I get caught up in the "I have to" and forget the "I get to". I get to go to work tomorrow and spend the week with 20 of the sweetest, smartest, preschoolers in the world. I get to hang out with my work family. I get to work with college students. I get to. Life is good.

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Sunday Night Scaries Anyone?

How, how, HOW can it be Sunday night already? It's Sunday Night Scaries time, my least favorite time of the week. Maybe my Ten Things of Thankful list will help distract me...?

My husband and I found out we are REALLY AND TRULY empty nesters. We got our taxes done (extension, not delinquent) and discovered we can no longer claim our daughter as a dependent. It would have been nice to have known that a year or so ago, so adjustments could have been made on our withholding, and it's too late to remedy it for our 2024 taxes, but by golly, we'll be ready for 2025!  On a side note, I would like to make a suggestion to the health insurance people and the IRS people that the kick 'em off the parents' payroll age SHOULD BE THE SAME FOR BOTH, because we can't be the only parents to have assumed that it was.

Our daughter will no longer be on our health insurance after this year, so a small off-set to the whole can't-claim-her-as-a-dependent-anymore fiasco.

Further to the empty nesters status, our son passed his Internal Medicine Boards and is now a Board-certified physician! He's bona fide!*

*if you don't get this reference, then you'd best head to your nearest streaming service and look for "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" and watch it immediately

Summer came back this week, but it was bearable, because it was temporary. Besides, 90 degrees in October just isn't as hot as 90 degrees in August and I can't explain how but it is.

Former President Jimmy Carter turned 100 this week. I wish we could keep him another 100 years.

I was invited to a soccer game by one of my former preschoolers. Rex is a big kindergartener now, and I was honored that he wanted me to watch him play. I love him and his sweet family, and it was wonderful to catch up with them. I also received a beautiful piece of artwork by the artist/soccer player that I hung on the wall in my classroom.

When I pulled into my driveway after the soccer game, my headlights shone onto a very fat tree frog stuck to the side of our other car as it sat in the driveway. Tree frogs like to jump onto my legs and cling to me with those suction cup feet while I leap around and scream, so I'm thankful I saw this one before he had a chance to attach himself to me.

I had an ice cream date this week with another former preschooler and his mama. He, as well, is a big kindergartener. I got to hear about All Things Kindergarten, and it was pure delight.

It was homecoming at the university where I work, and our school had an entry in the homecoming parade on Saturday morning. I keep saying I'm not going to be in charge of the float this year, and every year, I'm in charge of the float again, but I tremendous amount of good help this time, and it turned out much better than I could have ever hoped for!

I've taken myself right up to bedtime, so good night to you, and good night to the Scaries!

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Comeback Kid, Take Two

So much for being the Comeback Kid. Last week, I forgot to write a TToT post, and this week, umm, same, BUT I HAVE AN EXCUSE and it's my first thankful:

I had Friday off and I also have Monday off, so nothing makes sense. It doesn't feel like Sunday, because I don't have the Sunday Scaries, and I therefore wasn't triggered to remember to write my list of Ten Things of Thankful. But two days off? Much needed and welcome!

Last week, my Conscious Discipline coach visited my classroom. Amy is a master instructor and makes me a better teacher. Not enough thankfuls in the world for that!

I ate one and a half bags of candy corn last week, but I think I have the candy corn-loading mostly out of my system now. 

It may not be FALL cool, but it was cool enough last week that I was able to wear long pants and not melt. 

I cleaned out my sewing/craft room. Correction: I STARTED cleaning out my sewing/craft room. It's been kind of messy for awhile.

I was putting fabric away and found a whole stack of masks that I made four years ago, and I am SO THANKFUL that they are residing in drawers and not in my purse, car, pocket, computer bag, etc. May it remain that way!

I drove up to Jefferson City Thursday night and met my daughter there for her final step in becoming an attorney: the swearing-in ceremony at the Missouri Supreme Court. My husband couldn't be there due to the hurricane (more on that further down), so I represented for both of us. She is officially Emma Kate Dillon, Esq.

On her way out of Kansas City and headed to Jeff City, in heavy traffic on I-70, my daughter was rear-ended while driving in the far left lane. She was talking to me at the time, so I heard a noise, then heard her say something not printable here, and she hung up (yes, she was hands-free the whole time she was talking to me). She and the other driver managed to exchange information and take a few pictures without being killed, and once we got a chance to look it over the next morning, we were both thankful to find no damage! A real miracle!

My son and daughter in law flew back from Washington, DC, for my son's best friend's wedding in Fayetteville, and my husband and I were able to drive down there Saturday morning and have breakfast with them. Looking forward to a future trip to visit them in DC.

After our breakfast, my husband had to do some work, so I dropped him off at a McDonalds (to use their wifi) and visited two of my favorite places in Fayetteville: Fayetteville's Funky Flea Market, where I picked up a few little Christmas gifts, and Rick's Bakery, where I bought (and then consumed) way too many cookies. Totally worth it, but between the cookies and the candy corn earlier in the week, I'm thinking I have used up my sugar quota for the rest of the year and possibly most of next year as well.

My heart goes out to the people affected by Hurricane Helene. The damage is beyond comprehension. Monetary donations are desperately needed to help with the immediate needs of sheltering and feeding the victims of the storm. If you feel led, I recommend donating to the American Red Cross. Visit redcross.org or call 1-800-RED CROSS (800-733-2767) to make a financial donation. People can also text the word HELENE to 90999 to make a donation. You might also consider donating blood through the American Red Cross as another way to help during this relief response.

The Comeback Kid

So it seems I took an unintentional sabbatical from blogging for the summer. I kept telling myself "I'll do it soon, I'll do it later, I'll do it tomorrow, I'll do it next weekend, I'll do it when I'm not so exhausted, I'll do it some day, just not now."

I AM exhausted. We drive to my dad's every weekend, two hours each way, to run errands, cook, clean, and keep him company. My school goes year round, so no summers off. And I have 20 VERY LIVELY four and five year olds every day and that requires lots of planning. And patience (testing it lately, I admit). It's a lot. I let the ball drop on blogging and especially on the Ten Things of Thankful and I feel as though I failed everyone involved with it.

Through much self-regulation, however, I am trying again to write. And thus begins my first TToT post in a coon's age:

1. I'm thankful for Clark for stepping up and offering to take over hosting the TToT when I just couldn't any longer. And additional thanks to Mimi, Kristi, and Lisa for being so kind about all of it.

2. Summer is pretty much over, and I'm okay with that. 

3. I got a special invitation from a special former (as in he graduated in May) preschooler to attend a community theater production that he was in along with several other members of his family. He totally stole the show, and I was honored to be invited to witness it! It also gave me the bug to audition, then I remembered Life and resigned myself to singing showtunes in the car instead.

4. The addition of a garage and workshop to the lake house has nearly come to fruition, and the best part of the whole thing is that the tiny screened porch has more than doubled in size and is a delightful place to relax. We still don't have real furniture for it, but the old plastic stuff is working just fine for now, and anyway, who cares when you can sit in it at night and work on a blog post while dock lights twinkle on the water and crickets and frogs sing in the background?

5. Football season has started again!

6. This is a big one: my daughter graduated from law school in May magna cum laude. She spent the next two months studying at least 10-12 hours a day, took the Bar exam in July and got the results this week...SHE PASSED WITH FLYING COLORS! My baby girl is an ATTORNEY!

7. Friday, lucky me had a colonoscopy. Super fun. 5 out of 5 stars. JK only the propofol gets 5 out of 5 stars. But it's over for another 10 years, so yay!

8. While summer hasn't completely left us (it's coming back later this week with temps in the 90s again - ugh), today, fall poked it's face through the door and gave us a delightful day of cooler temps and bright blue skies. My husband and I took advantage of this gift by going to Silver Dollar City and listening to some bluegrass. 

9. We've had a critter of some kind in our attic this spring and summer, and in spite of having repairs done on the wooden part of our house (it's a Tudor, so mostly stucco) and closing up holes, the little shit has found a way in again. My husband finally had enough and put a live trap in the attic on Wednesday afternoon. He checked it Thursday - nothing. Friday morning, as I was sleeping off my anesthesia, I woke up to him standing over me and saying there was something in the trap. How did he know, when he hadn't opened the hatch to see? I found out shortly, because it sounded like the varmint was doing barrel rolls with the cage across the attic floor. While my husband was retrieving his wildlife removal gear (oven mitts, a beach towel, bungees, and the ladder), the cats and I were following the progress of the cage as it seemed to rocket across the attic floor. It had to be a racoon or possum to make that kind of racket, but when my husband climbed up the ladder and moved the hatch aside, it was...a squirrel. A very athletic squirrel. He brought the cage down to the bedroom wrapped in the beach towel, then secured the towel with the bungees. We read that the squirrel needed to be relocated at least 2-4 miles away, but we did better than that - we took him on a 2 hour car ride to the lake house and released him (with much difficulty; it's a well-made cage) at the park down the street. He shot out of the cage and bounded off. Hopefully, he will text all his squirrel friends and family back in Joplin and warn them away from the house with the crazy man with the oven mitts or we can hope so, anyway.

10. And I did it! I got a post written. I can do hard things!

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Whoa!

It's been a month since I wrote a Ten Things of Thankful post?!

I've been thankful, really, I have been. But exhaustion, both physical and mental, won out. Here's to getting back on the ol' horse (hopefully not one headed to the glue factory).

I'm thankful we had a beautiful spring and hope to remember it when I am melting in these ridiculous temps.

My dad is busting out of rehab this week after needing four weeks of daily IV antibiotics for an infection in his hip. 

I'm thankful for Nikki, who has made sure I had time off to help my dad throughout this latest adventure.

I'm thankful for the many people who filled in for me at work when I have needed to be gone.

My husband gets the biggest thanks during this time, as he has spent as much, if not more, time helping with my dad than I have this past month #worksremotely

I was able to get away for Kansas City Pride festivities, working at the Community Christian Church booth one evening and enjoying the TWO HOUR parade. 

I got to visit with my dear friend Esther when I was in Kansas City. I feel a post about the two of us is in my future. Stay tuned.

We also ran down to Little Rock for two days to see our son and daughter in law before they move to Washington DC this week. They have completed their medical residencies, and now it's off to a new chapter!

I attended a week-long training on play-based learning, and I'm now in the process of converting my classroom to accommodate this. It's going to be a tremendous amount of work to get it going, but once I have an arsenal of lesson plans, it will get easier. And my kids helped me move shelves, toys, and rugs around the room and were very excited to be tasked with helping!

My husband had a tick on him last week. So far, he hasn't turned into a tick, nor has he shown any symptoms of some icky tick-borne disease.

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But It's Going To Get Better

I keep telling myself, "If I can just get through this week, everything will be great."

It's been about, oh, 32 weeks now, and I can assure you that everything is NOT great. But if I make it through this upcoming week, a few things will be easier. I think.

Quick Ten Things of Thankful:

No severe storms this week for us!

I had a four day work week, thanks to my daughter's law school graduation being on Sunday evening. 

We had beautiful weather most of the week and got lots of much needed outside time at school.

One of my kids brushed a bug off his head during circle time. Something made me look for it, and I'm SOOOO glad I did, because that niggling feeling was right - it was a tick. Ick. I stuck it to a piece of tape so the kids could all see it.

We had a fun talk about checking for ticks after this little incident.

I cleaned my closet and found a set of Erimish bracelets in a bag that I had completely forgotten I had even bought. It was like a mini Christmas, especially since they were Christmas bracelets! I think I ordered them when they were on sale after Christmas. Maybe. Who knows?

Black Cherry Propel water has been my go-to (after my morning Diet Dr Pepper) recently. It feels like summer.

One of my favorite student workers made the best homemade chocolate chip cookies I have  ever eaten and brought them to school as a thank you for being flexible with her schedule (she is incredibly dependable and fantastic in the classroom and I should be making HER chocolate chip cookies) AND she shared the recipe with me!

My husband and I ran out to Silver Dollar City on Saturday to listen to a little bluegrass music. It was a gorgeous day for it!

My dad's Tahoe needed a new battery, so we drove it to O'Reilly Auto Parts, because we had just gotten a new battery for our car there and they install the battery for you on the spot. Well. They don't do it with newer cars that have all the electronics, but I didn't know this until I had already bought the battery and the guy asked me if I wanted him to put it in the back of my car and I said I was hoping he'd put it under the hood. We didn't have time to find a place to install it that weekend, so I made an appointment THIS weekend to get it done. I made the appointment for 8 am on Saturday, because I wanted to get it over with, but when we tried to start it, of course it was dead. I had already missed the appointment to get the battery installed, and they were really nice about it and said I could bring the car in whenever we got it started and they would fit me in. We called AAA to jump the car, and the NICEST man came, and instead of jumping it, HE INSTALLED THE BATTERY FOR US. What a thankful!

I spoke too soon about those severe storms. There are storms in Oklahoma and Kansas, and we may or may not be affected. It's been a rough spring on a lot of folks, and hopefully, we are nearing the end of the worst of tornado season.

There's still a whole hour to join the hop!

I didn't take a picture of the tick. Or the battery.
Or the cookies. But I always take pictures
of my sweet girl Nora Pearl

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Spring Weather Is Not For The Weak

I slept through the deadline for last week's Ten Things of Thankful. I seem to be perpetually worn out and I can't get enough sleep. I'm in an exhausting season of my life. I think it's more mental than physical, but since the only way to give rest to the mental part of me is physical sleep, then that's what I've got to do until someone gives me a better idea (totally open to any and all suggestions, so bring 'em on). Now I've got some making up to do with a couple of weeks' worth of thankfuls:

I finished the A to Z Challenge! I had a lot of fun poring through memorabilia from my childhood for the Challenge. I teared up over some of it, but by and large, it was delightful to revisit my past. 

My husband and I spent the last weekend in April working on my parents' house, continuing to sort through items and box them up for either moving or donating or selling. We've had a ridiculous amount of thunderstorms and rain this spring, and that weekend, it seemed to rain non-stop. Not that it would have really mattered, but I didn't think to check the basement until Sunday afternoon when my dad called to ask if it had leaked. 

You know what's coming next, right? There was an inch and a half of water all over the basement. I know this exact measurement, because I stood on the bottom step and stuck a ruler in the water. And as I stood there, surveying the ruined boxes and other items, I would hear "blurrrrrrPPPP" coming from different places around the perimeter of the basement, followed by rippling water. The water was still entering the basement (I read that this happens when the ground is so very saturated that the pressure of the water in the ground causes it to push into basements and foundations). There was nothing I could do at the time, so we left and hoped for the best. We returned on Thursday, and all the water had receded (yay!) but there's a crap ton of stuff that will need to be thrown away (see introductory paragraph about my current state of exhaustion). It could have been a LOT worse, so there's that.

Now, back up a few hours on Thursday to about 1:30 in the afternoon. All almost all of the children at our school were sound asleep. I, myself, was trying NOT to fall asleep as I waited for my last little hold out to drop off to la la land when a shrill tone came over the intercom system, followed by an announcement that we were under a tornado warning. I jumped up, stuck my head out in the hallway, and yelled, "Is this for REAL?!" Because if it was a malfunction of the system, I was going to be ticked, really ticked.

Not a malfunction. I flipped on the lights, told my kiddos that they were getting their wish to go visit the room in the basement where we keep all the extra toys and equipment and where they have asked to go ever since the last time we had a tornado drill some six months earlier. They all popped up from their cots, got an Exit Buddy, and out the door, down the hall, and into the basement we went, along with all the other children (around 70 in all, ages 1-5 years old). We all made it safely to the basement and our safe place in two minutes (woot! woot!), the kids found it exciting rather than scary, and we sang every. single. song. I could come up with before we got the all clear some 40 minutes later. There was some wind damage, some possible tornado sightings (and definite radar detected rotations in the clouds), but nothing came closer to us than four or five miles. Huge thankful!

The first weekend in May was relatively quiet. We should have enjoyed it more.

As early as the day we had the tornado warnings, meteorologists were predicting big storms for Monday night. How do they know these things, anyway? They were correct, and our favorite meteorologist was amped for the event. We watched as he tracked tornadoes on the ground from Oklahoma on across to southwest Missouri. The storm was nearing us, and my husband decided he needed to pack a small bag to take to the basement (I only had plans for grabbing Finn [the other two cats will follow out of curiosity] and my purse and go to the basement). I asked my husband what he packed in his little bag, and he said, "Four pairs of underpants, an extra tshirt, and a pair of socks." "Why four pairs of underpants?" I queried, and his answer was, "Because if this tornado really happens, I'm going to shit my pants!"

About that time, there was a crash on our roof. I grabbed Finn and Nora and ran to the basement. The sirens were blowing and the wind was terrible. It was fast moving, however, and I didn't have to stay down there more than ten minutes. Our house seemed to be intact (found out the next day a tree branch did break off and hit our roof). A small tornado did skip through town, however, and it touched down on a portion of the path from the devastating and deadly 2011 Joplin tornado, so that was scary. No one got much sleep that night.

Wednesday afternoon. Same scenario as the previous Thursday. Kids asleep. All quiet (or so we thought). Announcement comes over intercom that we were in a tornado warning, and it was same song, second verse. We woke up children all over the building, hustled to the basement, and spent an hour waiting for the all clear. Again, there were small tornados touching down in the area, but we were safe. I think I'm ready for spring to be over.

And this weekend? Oh, nothing much. We're in Kansas City. The weather has been lovely. Oh, yeah, and MY DAUGHTER GRADUATED FROM LAW SCHOOL!!! YEEEEEEHAWWWWW!!!

Dodging tornadoes and graduating attorneys. They both have been wild rides!

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