Reality, Summer Dreams, and More 26.2 Love.

You know you're having a rough week back when you have to write a referral for a student exactly 20 minutes into the school day.  (And it took you 10 minutes to deal with the situation and track down the referral form.)  It's enough to make any teacher dream of June 20.

Oh, Summer Vacation, please hurry!  You are more fun than reality, especially reality involving suspension meetings.  Also, lately on my cooldown walk after Ellie and I run, we've spotted the crew working to ready our community pool for summer.  Growing up in California, I never understood the excitement of a "pool opening," as many people just had a pool in the backyard, and the pool was "open" on warm days.  Now, I understand that Memorial Day to Labor Day is the timeframe for all things summer. I'd prefer New Year's Day through New Year's Eve, but I'll take what I can get.

We had a mini summer preview this weekend with Ellie's first trip to the zoo.  We love the zoo, and we even have a zoo membership.  Ellie was unimpressed.  She didn't look at the prairie dogs, but did seem jealous that they were eating lunch, and began crying for food.  She also did not care about elephants, an anteater, the alligator, sloth bears, giant pandas, lion cubs, or any other animal.  She did care about her new toy, "El Tigre," which is a little tiger that hangs from her stroller.  Maybe in a few months Ellie will be able to enjoy the animals along with us.

(Little Miss Unimpressed.)

(Beware of Boris and Elroy.)

(Watching him eat made Ellie hungry.)

(Look closely.  Can you find the lemur? )

(Line of turtles.)

(Daddy shows an unimpressed Ellie the lemurs.)

At least the zoo gave us a taste of summer, including some pink on my shoulders.  I have big summer plans:  Hanging out by the pool while the munchkin naps in the shade, visiting the zoo so Ellie can visit the elephants, reading up on photography and some teaching stuff, grilling, Screen on the Green, Jazz in the Garden, walks with friends.  These are all simple things, but the kinds of things that make summer great are always simple.   I also plan to get in shape for my own marathon in October.  While Matt and I will be taking on Marine Corps Marathon again, the real excitement is occurring a few weeks earlier in Chicago.

You should know that no one has ever run a marathon in my honor.  People have run marathons because I've talked them into it, and I'm fairly certain all those people said mean things about me.  Some of them have even said mean things during a race.  (If you are one of those people, I'm sorry for talking you into the marathon.)  Lucky little Ellie has two different people running the Chicago Marathon in her honor, and saying nice things about her. 

I've written about Eleanor for Eleanor.  You should check it out.  Then, you should check out Uncle Mark's Fundraising Page. I hope that both Eleanor and Mark far exceed their fundraising goals in order to help provide a better world for not only Ellie, but all people with Down syndrome.  The difference in opportunities even within the past twenty years is encouraging, and I can't wait to see what the world will offer our Little Miss Stubborn when she is a young adult.