November Memories

It has been a good week.....long, busy, tiring.....but good. And I am happy to report that while I have not been totally pain free, the pain has been the kind that is more like background noise than a big brass band! Background noise I can tolerate.  A big brass band kind of demands one's attention if you know what I mean.

Being able to walk into work and enjoy those spontaneous hugs children love to bestow was wonderful. Many days I have to avoid them or end up in tears. Most of the students I work with on a daily basis know about my fibromyalgia...or at least they know I have a condition where some days it hurts to be touched.  So they generally ask if a real hug is OK or not. If not, we share "finger hugs." A finger hug consists of both of us crossing our fingers and waving them at one another while smiling.

In case you may have forgotten......I love my job!! And I work with an amazing group of people!!

Autumn really is my favorite time of year. Every thing is changing. The weather....the color of the leaves on the trees....even the color of the sunshine seems different.  And there are so many activities taking place at school. For Halloween we always have a Trick or Treat Costume parade for our First, Second, and Third graders. They happily wear their costumes and go from classroom to classroom "Trick or Treating." This year after our school parade, the students rode school buses to our local community college where they were honored guests at a Halloween Concert.  Of course the children loved it!

Now it is November which has always been my favorite month.  I think it's because when I was growing up, November meant a special trip to see my Grandmama and Grandaddy in Barnesville, Georgia. We'd load up the car and make the four hour drive the day before Thanksgiving. Of course there was lots of bickering between my sister and myself about who got how much of the backseat. She usually stretched out and fell 'asleep' guaranteeing that I sat on the edge of the seat facing forward.

This was actually my preferred seat. From here I had a grand view of the road ahead and was privy to the conversation between Mama and Daddy. And sometimes Daddy would ask me brain teaser questions like, "if a rooster laid an egg on the pinnacle of a roof, which way would it roll?" Yeah I know....roosters don't lay eggs....but at 7 years of age I fell for it every time and racked my brain trying to figure out the correct answer with which to astound my Daddy!

I remember that Daddy would also irritate my Mama by honking the horn when we were in the middle of nowhere for no reason usually startling her out of her reverie. Or sometimes if we passed a house with a porchful of people he'd honk and wave. Mama would ask who they were and he would reply, "I have no idea....but I bet they're trying to figure out who we are right about now." And Mama would 'humph' and tell him he was crazy.

But the best part of the journey was always arriving at my Grandparents' house. We'd pull up in the yard...I'd look up and there was Grandmama.....holding the door open, waiting with a smile on her face for that first precious hug.....and I knew how loved we were.