My Wee Wittle Wobblers

Look at these sweet faces. Even the little teeny pips are beginning to 'trust' me and bounce along as I strum. The big kids pictured here are rockin' out to my recorded ditties. A fun time was had by all.

Go Piggy! Go Piggy!!

Go, go, go, piggy: Go, go, go piggy! Go PIGGGGGY: GO PIGGGGGY!!! The ultimate in call & response language play......plus a whole bunch of fun on top of the 'rap' beat and sound effects. A big hit with the kiddos as well as the teachers. Camp it up, campers!!

That last picture, on the back porch of the training building has the three of us in high spirits on a gorgous day after it has concluded, the evaluations have been written and the place cleaned up. Yes we are each smiling ear-to-ear.

The ZB Large Muscle Fun

We're singing. We're dancing. We're marching along to our all-time favorite song about directionality, "Top to Bottom." Can you tell? We're having a good time. One of my long time blog readers made an observation about those pictured in my various photos. She mentioned that it seems like everyone looks like they're having fun. My response? A picture's worth a thousand words.

We do indeed have fun together. I told you recently about how I work very hard to make people laugh -- when I'm wearing my professional hat. I said the word 'swimmingly' in the midst of this presentation & everyone literally laughed-out-loud. Now I need to remember when I said it & why. LOL. At the time it was apparently a hoot..... it certainly doesn't come across that way as I sit here typing, now does it.

In any case, I am going to double my efforts to create humor & analyze it when it occurs. In the mean time enjoy the happy people pictures.

Prowl Thru the Jungle

A barrel of monkeys?
No. It's a pride of LIONS!!
Everybody. All Together Now!

Cleveland Diocese Inservice

Do you know who has the largest school district in the entire state of Ohio?? Not Columbus, or Cincinnati not even Cleveland. I've just learned the answer. The Cleveland Catholic Diocese is the largest. They have over 120 elementary schools in their district!! Wow. That's a lot. I also learned that they are the largest Catholic school system in the entire country. Double WOW-WOW.

I had the great good fortune of being invited by Joan Marttala, the northern OH Zaner-Bloser sales rep to present a full day of fun & games and all sorts of brain research on singing & moving to the PreK & K teachers of the district. It was a gloriously beautiful day & we were able to enjoy a delightful picnic out on the back deck, appreciating the incredible fall colors.

Tall Giraffe Proofs!!!!!

The Parable of Perseverance. Chapter 43. Lookie-lookie-lookie!! Look what was awaiting my arrival home last night!! Super huge exciting development! SURPRISE!!! The signatures, proof sheets, and my very own "f&g" (fold & gathered demo proof) for my upcoming book, "Tall Giraffe" had arrived in an oversized package -- all awaiting my eagle eye, fine tooth comb and magnifying glass.

In the top picture I'm holding the proof of the back & front covers -- from left to right. It's got a real, live 13 digit ISBN number AND it's own unique barcode. The second picture includes the signature of eight pages from the book and is a representation of the paper weight and the color dynamic, in actual size.

We spent the day today pouring over every detail to ascertain if everything we could do had indeed been done to make certain this project is in it's best possible form. I found a couple of 'bugs.' So there are still some remaining tweeks. We're not all of the way out of the woods just yet.

BUT I got to hold it!! We're making progress. Definite progress.

Last night just as soon as I had turned the pages one complete rotation I called my sister Rebecca -- whose name shares the front cover with mine so that we could squeal and celebrate together. This whole project has been a true collaboration, in every sense of the word from the very beginning. After I had my squeal-a-thon with my sister I called my mom. Our parents have been just as eager to see this project come to fruition as the two of us. They are ready to launch the balloons. They may be even more excited than we are! Believe me, I'll keep you posted. We'll see how many back & forths there are before the presses can start rolling. Progress. MAJOR progress. Oh happy day.

P.S. I've been waiting years to wear this vest!! Seemed appropriate today.

Fan Club Gathers

It's so much fun to meet the individual teachers within the crowd scene. Some good hugs from these participants will leave an impression on me for some time to come. A good time was had by all.