Favorite Sports Team Day

Well this has been a crazy day... mostly due to the Young Writers and Artists Conference...

It started when I got to school and saw a text from a chaperone that said she was sick, but she'd still drive today. She would bring kids to Mankato, then turn around and come home, then come back and pick them up at 1:30 when we finished.  Wow, way too much driving and messing around for someone, let along a sick someone.  Last night we had some last minute switcheroos: two kids who live in Mankato were going to get dropped off/picked up by a relative, so they wouldn't need seats in cars.  There were a few random empty spaces in cars, plus no one was scheduled to ride with Mr. E so we had getting them there covered for sure.  Getting them home? That was going to be more complicated.

There's a boy who gets dropped off at school at 7:30am sometimes.  He was here this morning and said maybe his mom could get off work early and bring kids back.  So we called her, she said she'd talk to her boss... a few minutes later she called back and said she lined someone else up to drive kids back.  Whew! I was able to call the sick mom and tell her she had the day off!  ...Then came telling everyone else the change in plans.

I had to get to BLC early to pick up our registration packets, so I took off shortly after 8:00. Mr. E packed up the art for the Fine Arts Fair and grabbed the leftover kiddos and took off once all the other chaperones had loaded up.  Everyone made it there and back just fine; it was a lot more complicated than I had anticipated!  (Another boy met us there; his mom forgot he had an appointment in the morning before school so she dropped him off after).

The conference was good, as usual.  I didn't get to any classes I really wanted to see... the first session I chased after a chaperone who didn't get a folder and ended up in a room jam-packed with kids creating dragons.  The 7-8th grade girls had asked me if I wanted to come with them to their canvas painting session, but they left without me while I tracked down folders for chaperones.

The second session I hoped to go to a pastel class, but one of the 7th grade boys who registered late snagged me and asked if I'd come with him.  Since he registered late, he got stuck with the 'not cool' classes.  This one was by a Lincoln impersonator who talked about the Battle of Gettysburg and the Gettysburg address.  I've heard this guy speak before and sometimes it's interesting, sometimes it gets a little dry.  Thankfully, this time was pretty interesting.  I learned things I didn't know before, which is always a good thing!

The third session was after lunch and the 6th grade girls convinced me to come to origami class with them.  That was pretty neat; I've done some origami before, so I could follow along pretty easily.  I was the only chaperone in the room; the rest were kids (about half from my school and half from other schools).  The speaker thought I was one of the kids!  We made cranes that flap their wings. Some of the folds were tricky, so I helped the kids around me figure out if they were folding correctly.  One boy had made some folds upside down.  I wanted to help him, but I didn't know his name.  He was wearing a sweatshirt with a galaxy pattern on it, so I said, "Outerspace Boy, I think you have your folds upside down."  Everyone laughed that I called him 'outerspace' and he turned super red. I felt so bad! I didn't mean to embarrass him!  A few minutes later I saw him joking about it, so hopefully I didn't forever ruin that sweatshirt for him...

Once we got back to school, we were supposed to write letters to wounded soldiers for our NLSW service event.  The 5-8th graders were having none of it.  Mr. E was still at his principal's meeting, and no one had told them what to do once they got back. Since it was 2:00, recess time, they thought they could just shoot baskets in the gym while all the other kids worked on these cards.  Umm, no.  They gave me so much attitude about it! It was terrible!  So then I was grouchy and had to scold and prod them into doing it.  Grr... I hate when I have to be that guy.

After school some dads helped set up tables/chairs for the meal tomorrow. Centerpieces/table decorations never crossed my mind, so the tables just have tablecloths on them!  It will be what it will be.

Tomorrow is going to be another full day... so I better go home and get some R&R!