Heading to Camp

Tomorrow I head up north to Ohio for summer camp.

This is what I call my "paid vacation"....I get to go back up to where I used to live, hang out with my friends, teach a bit, and get paid. How cool is that?

The camp itself is a ton of fun (I've taught there 8 years now) as it is a day camp for gifted children. The classes are small, and you get time to actually do all that fun, hand's on stuff that I enjoy and the kids love. This year I'm teaching math art, kites, and a new one on pioneers. I always ask to teach the last two weeks because, one, it's the younger kids (going into 3rd and 4th grade) and two, the camp directors often have a lot of leftover school supplies they don't have the space to store every year and I gladly take them off their hands. Believe me, I'm the one teacher at The School who has a nearly unending supply of markers, colored pencils, crayons and glue. I enjoy teaching the younger kids for a few weeks because it's a nice change from what I'm used to, and it also, believe it or not, makes me appreciate my seventh graders a lot more!

I'll be staying, as usual, with one of my very best friends in the World, Mrs. Cardinal, along with her husband and her four kids. We went to school together and got our teaching licenses at the same time and she was one of the few who actually got a teaching job up in Ohio. Believe it or not, we still have classmates who graduated with us in 2001 who are still not in full-time teaching positions. I had to move South to get a job and every day I'm glad I did. Still, I miss my friends, especially Mrs. Cardinal, so it's always nice to get up there to visit.

Mrs. Cardinal has already set up our annual reunion dinner with the group of us that hung out and studied together during college, plus we'll be going to see the new Harry Potter movie when it comes out. That was always one of our traditions when I still lived up there. I'm looking forward to it all, except for the homesickness I always get when I'm away from Mr. Bluebird and The Four Kitties for any length of time.

So, I'm running around making sure the bills are paid, everything I need is packed (don't forget the electric pencil sharpener!) and getting ready to go. I have a zillion things to do but hopefully it will all get done before I have to head out to Mrs. Eagle's daughter's wedding this evening. I plan to leave early tomorrow morning as it's quite a long drive.

Don't know if I'll be blogging much, but I'll try...no guarantees however!