For a sentimental junkie like me, The Last Day of School is right up there with The First Day of School, The First Day of Autumn, Huck’s Birthdays, and New Year’s Eve.  Thanks to about a million snow days last winter, today is the final day of third grade.  That boy of ours made it through an entire school year in a brand new town in a brand new state.  He made wonderful friends while learning about ancient civilizations & Greek mythology & cryptography & ecosystems & archery & sculpture & poetry & how to make working circuits & how to almost win a spelling bee & how to read many books at once & how to sing a solo & more math than I can begin to describe. And miraculously, his Perry the Platypus backpack survived not only second grade in NYC but third grade in Arkansas.  Huck crawled into bed with me this morning and expressed his excitement for summer and also how much he loved me and finally how humble I was.  There is something about me that breaks his heart many times a day and I’m starting to wonder what exactly he sees.  He will certainly see a lot of me this summer, as it will pretty much be The Huck & Mommy Show with Special Guest Appearances by Daddy. Troy’s running an arts camp at the Montessori School and leaves on his bike every morning at 6:30.  Right now he’s also rehearsing every evening at TheatreSquared causing him to be a celebrity in his own home.  All my usual busy stuff is done for the summer and so I will transcribe from home a bit and resume my familiar role of stay-at-home-mom.

I thought I’d be all done with that by now.  I’m secretly glad I’m not.

(Sunny will have a supporting role in our summer show.  Here she is in her new bed of choice.  Hours before this picture was taken, it was our lettuce garden.  Someone had a salad for breakfast.)

When I picked up Huck and all of his end of year accessories today, he greeted me with this: “You know how you feel like crying but you can’t?  That’s how I feel right now because I’m so sentimental.”  You and me both, Kid.  Happy Summer, Everyone!  (And for our New York friends, Happy 20 More Days Until Summer!!!)

“There are good days and there are bad days, and this is one of them.” -Lawrence Welk

I don’t know too much about Lawrence Welk, but the background soundtrack to a lot of my childhood was his show. We spent many happy Saturday evenings in my grandparents’ living room with delightful conversation and nerd-out music playing, sometimes from an organ, accordion and harmonica and sometimes from the TV set.  In fact, when I daydream about time travel the first place I’d go would be that living room in the late 1970s.

As I’m writing Troy is undergoing a major dental procedure that will set us back more dollars than I care to admit.  But it will also keep him alive by preventing an infection spreading to his brain, and I like him a lot more than money.  Right now there’s a break from the rain, we have new baby cardinals in a nest outside, and it’s nearly summer.

And Maya Angelou passed away this morning,  just a month and a half after she wrote this letter postponing her longed for appearance at our library …

Dear Fayetteville Public Library, Arkansas Family and Friends,

I am profoundly saddened that I am unable to be with you on Friday, April 11, 2014. I long to come to the state of Arkansas, in general, and I long to be in Fayetteville, in particular. I learned in Arkansas at a very young age from my grandmother who taught me, ‘when you learn, teach and when you get, give’.

In Arkansas I also learned not to complain. I was taught that there are people all over the world who have less than I have and who would give anything for a portion of my possessions. They went to sleep last night as I went to sleep and they never awakened. Their beds have become their cooling boards and their blankets have become their winding sheets and they would give anything and everything for what I was complaining about.

In Arkansas, I learned to trust love, not the romance of it, but the heart of it. In Arkansas I learned to have respect for friendship, to honor it, to trust it and to build it.

An unexpected ailment put me into the hospital. I will be getting better and the time will come when I can receive another invitation from my state and you will recognize me for I shall be the tall Black lady smiling.

I ask you to please keep me in your thoughts, in your conversation and in your prayers.

Love,

I am,

Maya Angelou

It’s a good day and it’s a bad day.

Time has passed.  I’ve finished my transcription for the day and my shoulders are a little achy.  Now as I write, Troy is sitting near me watching “Spiderman” while his mouth recovers from the procedure that went better than expected.  He plans to put his extracted tooth under his pillow tonight just in case the tooth fairy is real.  I’m off to pick Huck up from school.  He has asked me to stop laughing at him when he does something I perceive as cute because he’s worried it’s going to “slip out” and embarrass him in front of people.  I told him it’s my parental right to find delight in the things he says and does; he told me I better stop telling stories about him.  I wonder what the background soundtrack to his childhood will be? Where will his time travel machine bring him to?  Maybe right here, right now.

It’s about to start raining again.  It’s a good day and it’s a bad day.  But mostly good.

“I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way (s)he handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.” – Maya Angelou

Huck and his like-minded friend Ravi each made five bucks off their first business endeavor with the Butterfly Lemonade Company, we took a Mother’s Day hike at Devil’s Den, Troy and I celebrated our 22nd wedding anniversary with a day trip to Eureka Springs, Sunny started wagging her tail excitedly when she sees Huck, we celebrated our friend’s book release and another friend’s theatre company, we enjoyed Washington Elementary’s Tour of Homes, we went to the farmer’s market more than once, Huck got a special math award at school and completed the final Math Circle of the year at the public library, we saw almost everyone we know at the delightful Block Street Block Party, Troy got a new bike thus ending my taxi service, Sunny killed a bunny, the dead tree in our backyard that has been slowly trying to kill us finally came down for good, we eat outside more than we don’t, our neighborhood pool opened, our hanging fern on the porch has a nest in it with four adorable little blue eggs about to hatch any day, and everyone can get married in Arkansas!

Happy Spring!

Everything I’ve been working on lately became beautifully and fully realized over the last 36 amazing hours.  Thursday started and ended with performances of PETER PAN at The New School, consisting of 2nd and 3rd graders in ridiculously cute costumes singing catchy tunes and pretending to fly around the stage for their parents and loved ones. This is my new job as Assistant Director which means I get paid to play all day with new friends Amy, Andrea, Mary and Darcy.  Last week one of the pirates was sad because he kept missing recess due to the rehearsal schedule, and his complaint was met with these powerful words from Captain Hook: “It’s okay!  It all works out! Because we get to go to Braum’s after the show!” And it was right then and there that I decided the promise of ice cream with friends after a few weeks of hard work can solve any problem.

And if it means I must prepare to shoulder burdens with a worried air

I’ll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up!

A few hours later we had our “Stories from the Inside Out” performance at the Northwest Arkansas Community Correctional Center followed by the public performance Friday night at our church.  I began volunteering with the Prison Stories Project last fall, and this time around I’m serving as the Theatre Director with friends Kathy, Katie, Suzanne and Shannon. This means I spent every Monday evening for the last four months at the prison with the women, taking their beautiful writings and creating a staged reading with five phenomenal actors and friends Laura, Sabrina, Jules, Jocelyn and Whitney. Both the inside and outside performances are incredible experiences, but there’s nothing in the entire world like hearing beautiful, often painful stories sitting alongside the twelve women who wrote them.  And while these heartbreakers are missing every recess and ice cream celebration, there is this …

Broken hearts and broken dreams
Don’t question my words
One too many, too many never enough
To forgive is to forget
What’s forgotten is repeated
Memories are like songs
Notes flow in one ear and out the other
Can you see them?  Shh … listen.

I don’t think there could be any two experiences more different than a private school musical performance and a reading in a women’s prison, but I do know that I am thankful for both.  I’m also thankful for the I.M. Spa massage that happened in the middle of all of it. Thanks, babe.

Thanks to many elaborate and complicated lies, we were able to surprise Troy with the arrival of our old pal Dan all the way from Chicago to see HAMLET!  If you want to watch Troy laugh &  laugh & laugh for four days & nights straight, just stick him in a room or a car or a back yard with Dan.  Our visitor insisted on taking us out for every meal and only forgot his wallet a few times.  He gave Huck his old iPad and became my very own iPhone consultant, assuring me the built-in flashlight will change my life. He went nuts over our town, charmed our friends, kept us up extremely late every night with Johnny Cash singalongs, insisted on seeing HAMLET twice & leading the standing ovation both times (which is quite a lot for someone who usually can’t stand Shakespeare), and documented the Shaving of the Beard.

But best of all?  Today is his sister Colleen’s birthday!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY, COLLEEN!!!!!

(Those Nelsons are The Best.)

COLLEEN!  COLLEEN!  COLLEEN!  COLLEEN!

One year ago on this very date, I sat in our New York apartment and found our beloved Fayetteville house on Craigslist. There began a series of urgent phone calls and texts and favors from friends we hardly knew, and before we knew it we were signing a lease and making plans to make this sweetheart of a town our home.  (Right around the time when the above picture was taken!)

And while this place really feels like home, we’re still in the midst of the first year transition which means ours ups come with some downs.  Recently we got news that our unexpectedly huge New York state tax refund (an up!) was rejected due to our accountant’s error (a down). Equally unexpectedly, the accountant filed what’s called a Peace of Mind Claim, which if approved means they pay the difference since it was their mistake (potential UP!).  Remembering this time last year and all the peace of mind that would be required for a worrywart like me to say goodbye to dear friends, a nice salary and great benefits has me wishing all of life came with a Peace of Mind Claim. Alongside the tax return up & down news, Troy racked up some extremely high dental bills (booooo), but then got offered a real live teaching job at the Fayetteville Montessori School (YAY!).  You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and there you have the dizziness & excitement that only a really good roller coaster can provide.  To quote my lovely new doctor who looked me in the eyes, told me to stop worrying, and diagnosed my terrifying chest pains as pleurisy: “The older we get, the more we remember that somehow it all just works out.”

I’d like to go back in time and show us this Scrapbook from the Future of life these days …

Birthday Celebration!  Mexican!

Troy’s New Job Celebration!  Chinese!

These two Nelson sisters drove down from Kansas City to see HAMLET last weekend!

Huck & Troy ran/walked in the Susan G. Komen Ozark Race for the Cure 5K last Saturday morning while I slept in!

Here’s my feet taking a lovely break from “Peter Pan” with 2nd & 3rd graders at The New School!

Making our back yard beautiful, one cabbage at a time!

The world’s most humble dog!

What I’ve been working on in my spare time!  Coming to St. Paul’s next week right after “Peter Pan”!

Through an unusual chain of events, Troy & I just spent our birthdays with our mamas!  Most of my family gathered at my sister Lori’s house in Wichita for the Easter weekend, and since Troy was overly busy with Hamlet and other commitments here in Fayetteville, Huck and I decided to join them for a very quick visit.  And how nice to be able to jump in the car and drive 4.5 hours like that!  Along with all the usual fun family festivities, Troy had secretly arranged for me to get 44 pig cards from friends all across the country, and this made me smile for a really long time.  And all through the day I received delightful picture texts from our NYC friend Amy who happened to be in our new town for the day without us.  After saying a quick hello to Troy downtown where he was promoting the Fayetteville Montessori School’s summer arts camp, she and her brood broke into our house and left behind lots of notes and love (and a few less Oreos), making my face hurt from all the smiling.

Meanwhile …

A few days later it was Troy’s turn to catch up to my age with the arrival of Nana and David!  With their help & several trips to Home Depot, our backyard is suddenly filled with beautiful flowers. They also came to Wednesday night church with us at St. Paul’s, Huck’s school book fair, and of course got to see Troy play King Claudius.

The only thing that makes a person feel older than turning 44 is watching the look on their mother’s face at the thought of having a 44 year old child.  Thanks, Mamas (and all the rest of you wonderful family & friends) for the birthday love!

To make this very special weekend even more special, our dear friend Greg drove 8 hours from Texas to celebrate Troy’s opening of HAMLET!  And though I wasn’t the one up on stage acting my guts out, I had my share of wife-nerves and it was awfully nice to have one of the world’s best humans next to me.  There aren’t adequate words to express how proud I am of Troy’s performance as King Claudius (and the Ghost) alongside such amazing actors in such a beautiful production of Shakespeare’s finest.  It’s been a while since he acted professionally and he wasn’t 100 percent convinced he still had what it takes.

He does!!!!!!!!

With Greg at our side, we also enjoyed the farmer’s market and the art museum and walking trails and late nights in the back yard and the app for learning French and all our meals outside and Palm Sunday at St. Paul’s!  Now that he’s heading back home to the land of bluebonnets, we prepare ourselves for three more weeks of Hamlet, a couple birthdays, a Mommy/Huck trip to Kansas, the holiest of holidays and glorious wonderful magical spring.

Life, as they say, is good.

(The cutest Gertrude and Claudius there ever were.)

(The TheatreSquared Wives)

(Claudius!  Watch out behind you!)

These days it’s all Hamlet all the time around here.  Troy’s about to open the show as Claudius at TheatreSquared in his perfectly timed grey beard adding on the years to his usually youthful face, and I’ve been traipsing across this pretty state doing workshops for high school students, some whose Arkansas dialects are so strong I can hardly understand what they’re saying.  Or maybe that’s because they’re speaking Shakespeare-talk.

While we’ve been working on our iambic pentameter and typing addresses into our GPS systems, Huck has been nervously preparing for what he calls “The Benchmark,” which is what we’ve always called “The Very Evil State Tests.” He’s planning to go to bed a little earlier than usual tonight and eat tuna for breakfast, which is apparently good brain-food, in order to be completely ready for the big week. In another bit of good timing, Huck finally ended his strike against Harry Potter today (thanks to my introducing it to him at too young an age) and is obsessively reading book one.  There’s nothing like a story about an orphan wizard trying to save the world or an angry prince trying to avenge his father’s murder to take the mind off real-life stress.

Sunny, on the other hand, is doing nothing substantial with her life.  She just lays around in the sun ALL DAY LONG.          We’re planning to introduce “Macbeth” to her next week.

March has been the month of fun sister visits around here.  A few days after Aunt Jeni left, good ole Aunt Tina came to town and brought sweet Uncle Scott and adorbs galorbs 3 year olds Rylee and Jackson for a day of warm and sunny spring followed by a day of cold and snowy winter.  Along with the usual good times at home, the Nickels also got to join us for the second taping of “Song Time with Mr. Troy!”  We had a great group of friends come to the TV studio to help Troy sing, and it was awfully special to have the twins there.  Next Tina took us all to a winning Razorback softball game that found us awkwardly attempting to “call the hogs” for the first (and possibly last) time.  And to keep us from going stir crazy during the rainy day that became a weird snow day, we went to the ice skating rink where we were all instantly reminded why people don’t wear ice skates for more than 30 minutes.  At one point I fell and hit my head on the ice while trying to keep Huck from doing the same and spent the rest of the day pretty convinced I had little time left alive.

Other than that, ’twas a fun-filled Fayetteville weekend with the Nickels and we look forward to many more!

The 2 most uncomfortable fathers on earth.