THINK TANK Dinner

NAEYC. Thursday evening. The amazing conclusion to an amazing day included an amazing gathering with completely amazing people over fairly amazing food to talk about amazing possibilities and amazing history. No doubt the most amazing part of the whole evening, was that I was a participant!! I must be feeling better: AMAZING!!!! Here is the gathered brain trust from our Zaner-Bloser contingent combined with the brilliance of our friends from the parent company, Highlights for Children. A rare and delightful social gathering to celebrate all things "High Five" and to enjoy and appreciate each other's company.

The last time I was together with the majority of this group, we were in Vegas at 'I Teach K' and it was hot, July-Vegas-hot. At that point in my long term "recovery" process, I would go directly from the exhibit hall floor to my luxurious room and order room service and totally collapse for the remaining couple of hours before cranking it up all over again the next morning. Four months later, here I am presenting a workshop at 8:30 a.m., singing & dancing at the booth from 10 to 6:00 and still smiling at our dinner reservation at 6:45....well actually this looks more like we've just had 'chocolate in a bag' for dessert. I am pointing this out, primarily for my own benefit. I am, apparently, making progress. Long term, documentable progress. Whooooohooooooo!!!!

P.S. I just got an email today, confirming my participation for I Teach K 2011, Vegas!!! I will have two workshop presentations: Sing into Science and Get a Grip (handwriting.) Make your plans now. It will be a great marker to see how I'm 'managing' by next July.

Thurs: Back at the Booth

From the first picture, featuring Hedda Sharapan, Mr. Rogers' right-hand friend and producer to my buddies from across the countryside, get-me-to-Colorado, get-me-to-Pittsburg...... well you get the idea. I was on the look out for CO, FL, WI, DC and NY and other hot-spots that I'm especially motivated to make visits...... yup, I tracked me down some good possibilities.

NAEYC Sixty Minutes

No. Not the TV show..... the amount of time in our workshop presentation. We went in with a plan. Five songs per performer x 2 performers = 10 songs divided by 60 minutes = 6 minutes per song, intro, sing-a-long, AND outro. We did it. In a whirl. In a whizz. In a splash. What we forgot to do was set up someone to take pictures. (Sarah where are ya when we need ya??) At the very last possible minute, I grabbed my camera and we got these couple of shots..... none of us together, at least not on my camera.

Meet Zak Morgan, of Zakland. Here he is with the promise: put something on your head, and you are automatically, 100% guarenteed more eye contact from preschoolers, than without that something on your head. His chorus about Johnny Appleseed, "I like apples and I like being free!" necessitated that I loan him my star headband from my earlier "Red, White and Blue."

The very scant-i-est of documentation that we were there. We sang. We danced. And there was JOY!! (That was in the title.) Sixty minutes is not a lot of time. It was like a whole lot of appetizers on fast-forward. I was delighted to get to participate. This was my seventh consecutive NAEYC workshop -- due to the generosity of Connie Dow realizing she couldn't be in two places at the same time. Next year is Orlando. Note to self: assign camera personnel ahead of time.

Exhibit Hall Opens

Wednesday night. The Exhibit Hall opens for a sneak preview of the hundreds & hundreds of vendors and all of the latest that's available on behalf of children. What a joy to have one of the very first thru the doors hug me, BIG time. Mimi walks again at NAEYC!! This time last year she was just barely out of the ICU. Oh happy day!! She is squeezing that book that has her endorsement on the back cover.

Right after our gen-u-ine hug, along came a participant from England. She was literally squeeling over my outfit. She requested a picture to take back across the pond, to show her colleagues what Mary Poppins looks like in this day and age. I loved her enthusiasm. Her dialect was delightful. Mary Poppins, indeed!! The evening was filled with support from all across the country. A great kick-off.

AMAZING Anaheim!!

Dateline. Anaheim CA. 2010 NAEYC. Sunshine. Record-setting-high temperatures for November. Safe arrival. Just a hop, skip and a jump across the country to land in the glowing, celebration setting of all things fantasy-like. Palm trees basking at the airport. Turn left at the main entrance to Disneyland and go a few more blocks down to the Convention Center -- where dreams really do come true. This is my seventh NAEYC in a row to make a presentation. My very first time, seven years ago in the rotation, was also here in Anaheim. A lot can happen in a mere seven years.

The first time I flew out to Anaheim, I came for a heartbeat...... without a hotel reservation. YuLing Yee from Akron, had promised that I could bunk in with her (unofficially.) Her flight got incredibly delayed and while I was awaiting her arrival, just biding my time in the lobby -- Mary Wonderlick from Chicago, waltzed through and gave me the key to her room. Seriously. Thousands of people milling about and Mary offered me a spot in her life raft.

This return to Anaheim felt triumphant on so many levels. I had my own room reservation!!!! Big triumph number one, right at the top of the list. [Thank you Zaner-Bloser!!] In the time since I first presented at NAEYC I have released THREE picture books as author/illustrator and I've released three more albums of recordings as well. AND I have a new project looming on the horizon with Redleaf Press arriving to the world early 2011! That's not to mention that both daughters have gotten married, we've added 6 grand-children to our tribe, moved, built a little place in Florida, been diagnosed with Breast Cancer -- TWICE -- had mongo complications from the treatment to the BC, resulting in Lymphodema/compression garmentS et.al..... well you get the picture. A lot has happened since I was last in Anaheim. So arriving back to the blue skies and palms was a celebration, in and of itself!!! Yippeee-ki-o!!!

GROUP HUG!!!

You know you're with kindergartners by the sophistication of their response. As soon as we finished singing together and signed, "Thank you, for singing, today" a big brown eyed monster came directly up to me and gave me a big bear of a hug. Then he turned around toward his peers and much to his dismay, realized that he was caught in the act of hugging. So his response? In his biggest, most mature, grown up voice he shouted, "GROUP HUG!!" I seriously thought I might get bowled over from the response. This is me attempting to keep my balance in the face of unrequited love.

Here It Is!!!

After five years of working on these 16 quilts in the privacy of my own brain, my own imagination, my own storehouse of fabric, my own studio, my own blog, it is with absolute joy, absolute glee, absolute delight, absolute amazement -- that I am now able to take the quilts into schools, libraries and conferences and share them. There's a whole, beyond amazing, story about the journey of the quilts between the time the book was printed and this photo being snapped.... when they went off on their own rogue adventure. That's a story still too amazing for me to think about, cuz it gives me shivers. It's all too-happy an ending-to-imagine, is the type of conclusion that you'd catch on an episode of Kweezletown. Let me just say, at the moment this picture was taken -- (I chose this little smile from the front row, because his red t-shirt had a picture of the flag in silhouette of our country's map) -- this was truly one of the top-ten happiest moments of my professional career. I'm so grateful to have it captured for posterity. It makes me smile from the top of my hair to the tingles of my toes.

This school is very close to the Wright-Patterson Air Force base. As I was preparing for the kiddos to arrive, it was amazing to see several children being dropped off at school by a parent in their complete military uniform. Having a husband who served our country in the Navy and two sons-in-law who are currently sporting their branch's respective uniforms, and with SIL Scott at this very moment deployed, away from his family who love & miss him daily, I have an ever deeper respect for all that goes on to protect what we love about our country. It's mornings like this one that make me mindful and appreciative -- all at the same time.