day 105: mental hodge-podge

Forgive me. But there is no focus to what's on here tonight. Some days, that's what you get. Today you got it.

1.) After Day 1 of zoo camp, McK told me two things she learned. "The tiger is the biggest cat in the world, and most fires start in the kitchen." I asked why she was learning about fires at zoo camp. "Oh, I wasn't. That was from preschool, but I thought I'd throw it in there for you."

2.) The week isn't over yet, and I've already racked up over 160 miles of driving. It's safe to say that I've earned my chauffeur's license.

3.) In an effort to knock my girls out by 8:00 tonight without medicating them (joking - relax!), we went to the park after I picked them up from camp. How is it that we tend to score park trips when there are just a handful of others there? And on top of that, beautiful weather. It was a nearly heavenly 45 minutes.

4.) Meanwhile, at the park, two of the fellow park-goers were a young boy and his grandmother. She walked into the fenced-in park first, and he stopped solid in the entrance. "Well, come on!" she said to him. "Go play!"

"But Grandma, I can't! My super powers aren't all charged up yet!"

I had to bite my tongue to keep from laughing aloud. His face was so serious, I didn't want to break the superhero concentration he had going on. I so love the hilarity of kids.

5.) Got texts from ASC and, to top it off, a card in the mail from him. Love that even more. And, he updated his blog today. Do you read it? You most certainly should. www.aaron-conger.blogspot.com Go ahead and go there now. You can always come back to me. I'll wait.

6.) I had lunch at La Hacienda today with a friend. Much fun. Then another friend called to invite us over this weekend, which is superb, because we have nothing fun planned. And what fun is a holiday weekend with nothing fun planned? Excited for that. :) thanks, friends

7.) Will you let me relish in a delightfully extravagant thought for a moment? Thank you. For a completely irresponsible moment last night, I had a contemplation. One that makes me giddy with its contemplation. Would it not just be a jolly thing to have a graphic designer come up with a unique design just for my blog? For just under $100!. Yet I am a penny-pincher by nature. So this grand thought will likely not come to fruition.....but I will soon get a check for my training days at school and that would more than cover it......alas. What's a girl to do? She knows that her blog, the way it is, pre-made template and all, will not mar your views of her. But a put-together, simply cute blog would make her feel so much better, even though it seems too frivolous to spend that much money on something not concrete, something only to be seen. Thoughts? Do I splurge?

8.) My classroom is coming together rather nicely. Cabinets are getting organized. Unneeded things purged. New things up, in new places. Desks rearranged. No theme, really, for this year. But a few colors I'm sticking to. Mostly black and white. And some fire engine red. And lime green. A couple spots of yellow. Okay, so maybe I'm not doing a good job of sticking to a focused color. But it looks good. And I like things that look good (see #7).

9.) Last thing, I promise. I've mentioned before how I'm the work-before-you-play type of girl. It's a curse, really. But last night, I showed some improvement. I was almost a tad bit juvenile. (and dare I say it was fun?) I played Angry Birds Rio for an entire wasted hour. And even though I'm not typically a video game person, I am an addict now. And when I'd get stuck on a level, I'd run to the computer to look up some pointers, and then it was back to my game. For a whole hour I carried on like that. 11:30 snuck up on me. So I hopped in the shower. And then I decided I wasn't quite ready to crash for the night. So for the next hour, I was frivolously irresponsible. I ate the cinnamon crunch Panera bagel with hazelnut cream cheese that I was saving for breakfast. AND I ate it on my bed. Horrors. AND I watched an old episode of Friends while snarfing down the bagel. Then I went to bed. Perhaps this is why I'd like the girls to go to bed by 8:00? (see #3)