Tuesday, February 22

George Washington's birthday. Both Abraham Lincoln's birthday and George Washington's birthdays were "big" when I was in school. I remember vividly coloring pictures of both great presidents. In 1st or 2nd grade we sang the song, "Who chopped a cherry tree at play? Little George Washington."

Spent much of the day working on my 2 pages for the camp staff book. Updated and revised the Registration page and fixed the nurse page. I've basically got my staff "talks" in order for the summer as well. (Ken is trying to finish up the staff book.)

We picked the boys up at school today since Melody was waiting for the dishwasher repairman. (Turned out that the thermostat was bad, a wire was loose, and then the front panel wouldn't go back on. All as a result of the recall repair. So, there's no charge.) Andrew opened his new reader to read his homework to us and found another "homework sticky tab." I recognized Linda Benjamin's handwriting and wrote the following note to her:
Linda,

We picked the boys up from school today. Andrew was pretty excited because he had a new reader. He was going to read to us while we waited for Joshua to get out of school. He opened the book and exclaimed, "What?" His sticky note with his assignment was on the inside cover. Another sticky note was on the title page with Allison's reading assignments and signatures from "Mrs. D." I recognized your handwriting right away! :-) Must be a book that has been in storage for awhile.

Miss you! You were a great 1st grade teacher!!!

(I'll never forget when you were introduced as "our oldest teacher" - probably in the elementary since there were others that were there longer. Can't remember who did it (Jerry?), but they sure had a lot of back pedaling to do to try to explain that you had been in the position longer than anyone else.)

Enjoy your evening-
Patti 

About 40 minutes later she wrote back:
Hi Patti, Thank you so much! Yes, that must have been a well hidden book. I'm sitting here with tears running down my cheeks. There were many years spent there and many, many children. I hope and pray I was a good teacher and that I had a positive impact on lives. I don't think anyone but you and a few students remember that I was there. I think many people were glad when I moved on. Thank you so much for the sweet words. Hope all is well with you and your great family. 
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I decided to sell the Lego Primo and Duplo. Checked them on eBay and decided to (probably) take them to Once Upon a Child. Also checked prices on my ''baby toys" - a lot of Fisher price toys. Some are selling, some aren't. So, I might try them on eBay and see what happens.

Around noon the guy from Rosati came by with new plans for the kitchen. I think I like them a lot. So, he'll do some pricing and we'll see. I'm anxious to show them to Melody and Mark.

Melody's blender for her birthday (eBay purchase) came in the mail today. I had to wait for it to warm up before I could try it. Seems to work fine.

It was really, really cold out today. I'm not sure why temps in the 20's seemed so cold. Perhaps it's because we had a breath of spring last week.

Sold 10 sets of Suzanne Griffin's BJU textbooks on eBay tonight! Now to get them in the mail after the people pay. They'll all go out media mail. Perhaps I'll schedule a pick-up for Thursday.

Ken ordered Cascade with phosphates from eBay tonight. I'm tired of my dishes not getting clean.