The Day the Comb Binder Gods Smiled

I froze like a deer in the headlights. I had offered to help the student teacher with anything she might need done and of course it had to be the one thing I hadn't done for five years. Every school has one. The dreaded comb binder machine. Any PTA volunteer will tell you a good story of their first time around with a comb binder machine. It all starts innocently enough with young children making some super-cute artwork. Then, a teacher or parent decides that all the cute artwork needs to be saved for posterity in the form of a book. My first time binding was as a room mother in Nancy Bacon's kindergarten class. She wanted the best classwork and art work for each child for the entire year compiled into an over-sized comb bound book. Unfortunately for me, little kids are oftentimes overgenerous with their finger-paint, which makes the paper bubble and warp as it dries. So, I punched all the tiny rectangular holes into the crazily wavy thick papers with the comb binder and nervously started the covers. Then, the fateful moment came. Would the covers fit over the warped pages? Would the binding machine work? Beads of sweat popped out on my brow as I fitted all the papers onto the tiny metal teeth. I finished the first book. It was fine. No masterpiece of binding, but not terrible either. I released my breath and finished the books. After the first book, I was a comb binding machine and really got in a groove and enjoyed it. Somewhere in my attic, inside a plastic box with a tight-fitting lid, is that book of Troy's from 2000, nestled under years of subsequent work. He graduates from high school this year and his box will be waiting for him to buy a home and then it will finally be moved and looked at for the first time since that fateful day when the Comb Binder Gods Smiled.

9/1/2011 The First Day of School for Troy and Teddy

Hi Mr. Blog,
Everyone got up and out for the first day of school.
I still can't believe Troy is a senior in high school.
Seems like I just cranked him out a minute ago!
And Teddy.
Oh my God that little rascal towers over me
at six feet tall.
He is in ninth grade at Kenmore Junior High
but they moved the foreign language program
to the high school so they go up there for
their first period classes and then bussed down
to the junior high.
Probably fun for the kids.
Sound tiring to me!
So, Troy DROVE his baby brother to school!
That cutes me out something fierce
to have them driving to school together.
Seems like two seconds ago they were in
kindergarten and second grade
standing on our front porch for their
first day of school pictures.
They were so tiny that our 7801 house number was
a foot over their dear little heads.
Now it is at their waist level.
Funny funny as Brenda would say.
I haven't seen Troy yet to find out if he
likes his schedule for his last year
at high school.
I just hope he has all the required classes taken.
When I picked up Teddy to drive the football pool
from Kenmore Junior High the parking lot scene
was a big fiasco.
More construction up there as usual.
He was busy putting his pads in his football pants
and didn't want to talk about
his first day of school anyway.
It was one of those end of summer sunny days
with the nip skippy air that makes you
see your breath.
Michelle Moyes came out for lunch and said
it was down to forty-seven degrees this morning.
Brrr.
So, Troy is finishing high school this year.
And on to bigger and better things.
Hopefully including moving out
since he is so darn contrary.
Little rascal was born
marching to the beat of his own drummer
that's for sure!

8/31/2011 The Little Girl That Got Locked Out

Hi Mr. Blog,
The black hole of jobless depression
has swallowed me whole.
So, I'm thinking about a little girl
that I ran into at the football luau.
Only she is not so little anymore.
Almost tall as me.
They moved away last year to
a different part of Kenmore.
So, how do I know her?
She is the little sister of a football player
that Teddy is playing football with.
For five years,
when she got locked out,
she came to my house.
She knew me because I had been
her substitute teacher.
She was just a little scrap of a thing
the first time she got locked out.
Thin little blond with
a frightened look on her face
with no where to go.
I called her mom and told her where she was.
Single working mom, like what I had.
Then I gave her a snack
and had her get out her
homework
and sit at my dining room table
and tell me whatever was
on her little mind.
I pretended she was my daughter
because you know what Mr. Blog?
Little girls ARE sugar and spice
and everything nice.
So, after she finished her homework
we'd sit on the couch and watch TV.
Those young people shows
like "The Suite Life of Josh and Zack"
or "Hannah Montana."
Then around six her mom would get home
and she'd go home.

8/27/2011 The Inglemoor High School Football Team Luau

Hi Mr. Blog,
Boy am I tired.
Big day yesterday.
First I face painted for the delightful
Stacy Denuski at Kenmore Fun Day
and then I worked the Luau up at the high school.
I love being a follower and not a leader sometimes!
Working at the Inglemoor High School Luau last night was so fun!
I mostly made punch by the vat with a 3' wire whip.
I can't believe Dianna Tupou and Traci Edlin MADE food for 650 people!
They are like the dynamic duo of Kenmore for sure!
They even trained some of the football players to dance the hula.
Teddy nearly had eye-strain seeing the hula dancing IHS cheerleaders.
The football players had to serve the food and they kept coming to the kitchen for carts of food to serve. Turns out lots of the juniors were in Jake Comb's fifth grade class when I was her long term sub six years ago and I knew them all. Only now they are all six feet tall! They were the food delivery team and I let them eat the broken pieces of cake and they were so happy. The team had to eat last so when the cook and I wheeled out the last giant cake cart, we nearly got mobbed trying to roll through the team to the food tables! Those football players sure put down the chow! I was glad Troy came up with Terry since he was in kindergarten with Niko Tupou and Quinn Edlin and knows most of the team. I'm so happy it was a sunny day and about the most gorgeous evening that God ever made.

6/16/2011 Football Mom or The Motherhood Payscale Stinks

Hi Mr. Blog,
I woke up thinking that
the pay-scale for motherhood stinks.
I have shopping, cooking and then
Teddy's first football game.
Something called a scrimmage.
I'm guessing it is like scrabble
only on your feet with a ball.
I've never been a football fan
because it is too violent for me,
but I'd better get over that by five
since I'm taking him up to Pop Keeney
field to get possibly
maimed for life or
killed.
Just gotta do what a mom's gotta do.

6/11/2011 When an Orange is a Homemade Taco

Hi Mr. Blog,
Boy was that ever tough.
Pretending my orange was a homemade taco.
Yikes!
Nothing like roaming around
a house hungry and lonely
to pack it on.
So I'm back to calorie counting
and eating dinner at lunchtime.
That means my orange for dinner
has to be: pizza, tacos, lasagna, grilled cheese sandwiches
and anything else Terry and the kids have to eat.
Thank God I have
a
really
really
really good
imagination!

6/9/2011 The Best Sub Day Ever

Hi Mr. Blog,
I had such a terrific day.
The best sub day ever.
The fourth graders in my class were just adorable.
And they worked so hard for me!
We just clicked.
You know what I mean?
I led a writing assignment
to both classes
then lunch.
Next they built circuits together
to test different materials for conductivity.
We celebrated a birthday with home made cupcakes
and I put on the radio
and filled cups with water
and we had a right little party.
To top it off
we ended the day with an assembly
and the fifth and six graders
played all kinds of classical
and pop music
including a White Stripes song
and Louie Louie.
And there he was.
My young friend Shane.
I hadn't seen him since he was in third grade
and there he was,
a tall, healthy sixth grader.
I was so proud of him I could have burst.
He was the best violinist in the group!
I would have paid them
to work there that day.
It was just that good.