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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