Breaking the Silence

I've had many mentions that the Zookeeper has been strangely quiet for the past few months.  Several have voiced concerns that nothing was happening at the Zoo.

Have no fears, the chaos continues.  I have a free morning and will attempt to fill in some of the holes since before Thanksgiving!

Every Student's Dream Come True

This past weekend I was incredibly ill on Friday night.  By 3 am on Saturday morning, I woke up the Asst. Zookeeper for him to drive me down to the hospital.  Due to being so sick, I didn't even bother with putting on my glasses.  I simply didn't care.

Upon arrival at the hospital, I went through the typical triage area and then was taken back to be seen.  Amazingly, this all went very rapidly and everyone was very nice!  I saw the doctor and he decides what he is going to do.  Part of his plan was an IV for fluids because I was so terribly dehydrated.  Doctor say that the nurse will be right in to get it started.

In walks the nurse.  I opened my eyes enough to verify if the shape was male or female.  Male.  Definitely my age or younger.  He was very polite as he moved around the room.  Then he asked if I still taught at McCort.

Huh?  I haven't been at McCort since spring of 2004.  And I'm not wearing my glasses, so I can't even see who this guy is.  He casually says that I was his math teacher. 

And now it's time for my IV!  Kudos to Travis (who's name I remembered shortly thereafter) for not spending an hour or more digging for my nonexistent veins.  He actually was very good at his job.

When he finished taping down the tubing and had everything situated, I told him he was now the envy of every high school student in the world.  What student wouldn't LOVE to stab their math teacher with a needle!?!?

What teacher doesn't dread the day that a past student is part of the "real world."  We remember you as a teenager or younger.  It's always a frightening thought!  And my old student was my nurse!

PS - Travis, you were a great nurse.  The IV was well done.  Congratulations on turning into who you are!  Welcome out into the real world.  :)

Say "Cheese!"

This past week, Heathen #3 came home from kindergarten with an interesting assignment.  He received a paper turkey, and he was to make a disguise for it.  It was a parent/child project (a.k.a. - you're allowed to help).  The assignment even gave a few hints for possible disguises.  I assumed the littlest Heathen would pick one of the suggestions.  I was SO wrong.

He wanted to put his turkey in a bikini because it was going to a "bikinishoot" - which translates into "bikini shoot," like a model.  It took a little bit to figure out what the correct translation was because he was getting VERY impatient with the Momma.

I'm figuring he won't have thought this through very clearly, and it shouldn't take much time.  I'll give the Heathen some crayons, he'll draw a swimming suit, and we're good!  NOPE!

After much work translating, I discovered that this turkey wasn't just to wear a regular bikini, it was to be a STRING bikini (Heathen translation: a bikini with those "things" and lots of hand motions).  And he wanted it to be sparkly.

Bless Grandma and her glitter glue!  She saved me (again).  After more than an hour of coloring, cutting, pasting, gluing, leaning in the glitter with our elbows, and REDOING everything on the above list, here is what the Heathen created for his disguise:

Don't miss the nail polish and the lipstick.  And the sandals have "those things on them" that he wanted as well!  I think I should have gone into fashion!

A New Era Begins

For the first time in twelve and a half years, I do not have a little Heathen at home.  Heathen #3 became an "offical kindergartener" last Monday.  He was more than ready to go.

He fought with some nervousness the day or so before he boarded the big yellow bus.  But on that morning, he was too busy running around with the other kids at the bus stop.  The photo below shows my youger two Heathens and my neighbor's three (her youngest also started kindergarten).

Heathen #3 managed to snag his foot running over a backpack and fell on the sidewalk.  He smacked his head on the concrete and brush burned his knee.  As soon as he hit the concrete, I heard the school bus start up the street - go figure!

I stood him up and checked for blood - there wasn't any.  He was still sniveling when Heathen #2 herded him onto the bus with the other kids.  He didn't have time to be scared.  He was still rubbing his knee and his forehead from falling.

I'll admit to a few sniffles and tears of my own after the bus left.  It was a very long, quiet day at the zoo by myself.  Turns out, I really do like the Heathens after all!

Later that afternoon...

Around 3:45, the school bus returned to Shady Lane with the Heathens aboard.  Our neighborhood children don't walk off the bus, they swarm off the bus.  The littlest Heathen came running up the front steps yelling, "Momma, it was AWESOME!!!" 

My Heathens came inside and immediately began handing me papers and talking at the same time.  I finally got to ask Heathen #3 what was his favorite part of his "awesome" day.  (I'm listing the possibilities in my head: art, recess, gym, etc.)

With his arms spread wide, a huge smile on his face and sparkling eyes, Heathen #3 announces, "They give you all your food at once, even your dessert!  And you get to pick what you put on your tray!"

Only my Heathen's favorite part of the day would be the cafeteria.

The Last Huzzah

My Heathens never sleep well the night before school starts.  They are awake for ever, all worked up about the next day.  This year, I decided that we weren't staying home and we were NOT going to bed at 8 pm.

Instead, we drove almost three hours to attend the Renaissance Faire near Mount Hope!  August 28 and 29 was one of the themed weekends: Pyrate Invasion!  So the Heathens and I went to the local thrift store and put together pirate costumes to wear.

We invited the Grandma to go along with us.  She didn't go in costume, but she did make and take a pirate flag.

We arrived around 11:30 am and we didn't leave until after 8 pm.  We saw singers, musicians, sword swallowers, jousting, knights, pirates, queens, peasants and SO much more.  The Heathens decided that they would like to go back again.  The only bad part of the day was when my camera broke.

The younger two Heathens attended pirate school and learned how to fight with the blow-up swords they were given.  We all did a pirate treasure hunt to search for the secret word that opened the treasure chest.  All three Heathens went to sword school with the actors who taught them how to do mock sword fights for spectators.  We had an amazing day!

Motor Homes and Canoes (the canoe part)

After the trip to the water park, and two days at the beach, we headed home.  It was time to trade in the mode of transportation!

For the past three years, we have gathered the camping gear and the canoes and headed for Kinzua Reservoir.  It is one the Heathens favorite places.  Every year, we load the canoes with all the gear and paddle to a "boat only" camp ground.  It is so peaceful and quiet and we simply turn the Heathens loose into the woods and water.

We had a new member of the paddling team this year:

We took the Travelocity Gnome with us.  He was a huge hit with everyone we saw.  We had wanted to take him to Assateague with us, but he didn't arrive in time.  The Gnome spent the trip as a hood ornament on Heathen #1's kayak.

Since we were able to spend an extra day on the lake, we took a day trip with the Heathens and paddled across the state line and into New York.  We went to the Onoville Marina for ice cream (it's only 5 miles each way...)  Onoville does have a really cool feature - they have a bald eagle that makes it's nest at the marina every year.  We saw it flying, but never low enough to get a picture.  The nest area was posted around on the shore side, and there were buoys around the water side.

This year, we had a really cool neighbor named Mike.  Mike built his own house boat and lives at the lake for weeks at a time.  He goes home for breakfast and supper, and his wife comes out for the night about once a week and gathers up his dirty clothes.  He was quite a hoot!  In this photo, Mike is showing the Asst. Zookeeper his $7 map of the lake that was supposed to show him the good fishing spots.

The Heathens are already making plans for what they want to do at the lake next year.  I can't wait to see what they come up with!

Motor Homes and Canoes (the motor home part)

We made it home from vacation just over a week ago - and that week was the whirlwind of getting ready for school to start.  But many of you have asked about the trips that we took and looked at the photos.  Time to share the stories:

Water Country USA
We left on a Friday afternoon around 3pm and took "Rover" (our motor home) to Williamsburg, VA were we found a WalMart to park at for the night.  You must try it, we found the perfect WalMart.  We were one of approximately 30 campers in the back corner of the lot.  We were about 50 yards from an IHOP (where we ate breakfast) and in the same parking lot with a Starbuck's.

We finished the drive to Water Country USA.  Upon arrival, the Heathens changed into swim trunks and we smeared everyone with sun screen.  Since we are not a family that tends to burn on average, I had purchased a bottle of sunscreen to take to the park.  And since the activity was "water park," I purchased water-proof sunscreen.

The Heathens and the Asst. Zookeeper looked like I had coated them with plastic.  The sunscreen was terrible.  It was really sticky.  And then further into the day, it started to FLAKE.  But no one got burned!

The boys had a really great time.  And so did the Asst. Zookeeper.  :)

After leaving the water park, we headed further south in Virginia so that we could cross the bay into Eastern Virginia.  The Heathens thought the bridges that changed to tunnels were really cool.  On our way, we found this lady:

Make sure to read the license plate.  And I can answer the questions you have running through your minds:

1.  Yes, we passed her.

2.  Of course we looked.

3.  And YES, she was.

Assateague Island

Despite the enjoyable traffic, we made it to Assateague Island without trouble.  The Heathens have a mixed beach history.  Heathen #1 was at the beach last at age 5, loved it and remembers it clearly.  Heathen #2 was at the beach at age 1, loved it and has vague memories.  Heathen #3 had never been.

The boys loved camping on the island with the wild horses.  We saw quite a few.  The Heathens also read the handout about not getting too close because the horses can bite - and spent the rest of the time pointing out the "stupid" people and wanting to wait to see if they were bitten!

For those of you never lucky enough to meet Rover in person, here he is!  The Heathens just love him and already plotting trips for next summer.  We even have the vintage owl lights that my father-in-law unearthed from his basement!