MPT #6 4th grade: back to normal

here is my school picture from 4th grade. i was in mrs. lorenz' class...she was a sweet, gentle, kind woman who i always had great respect for and thought fondly of in my adult years. she always remembered me and would stop to chat. i couldn't come up with a theme for this year in my life...it was sort of the calm before the storm or peace after unrest so i just went with "back to normal" since i was relatively happy. this is sort of funny to me now that i'm back the next day thinking about it because i always had an issue with "normality"...i always either felt like i was special, different, destined for greatness or definitely crazy and had shameful secrets about myself and my family i should be hiding. so i suppose 4th grade was "normal" for me and not normal in the general sense.

i really had a hard time writing my 3rd grade post (still haven't finished it...perhaps because i'm still not happy with my present day "resolution"?)...i'm sorry i ran out of time and energy to write it and to visit your third grade years if you are joining me on this MPT journey...i intend to read all your 3rd grade posts next week...

anyway, cara (CJZ) was on and off my best friend as she would continue to be until she left for boarding school in 10th grade. i believe at this point julie (JCW) and i were best friends...all three of us wore jelly shoes...i remember i had light pink and light blue and wanted hot pink and red and a lot of other colors...rainbow shirts that went from one arm all the way to the other arm were in style:
and here is a photo of my social butterfly daughter sea with her kindergarten friends to characterize us all being friends at this age (haven't had time to dig up photos of myself from this age)...
this was the year we generally played well together without too much drama (future posts and future years will have plenty of that!)...i believe i also went off to camp that summer but i'll see if i can dig up camp photos to post next week...here is a photo of sea with her "best" friend since i also had one of those most years at this age...
i was gobbling down my daughter's halloween candy while i was typing this which reminded me of my crazy sweet tooth all through elementary school. i used to sneak off campus to buy "fun dip" or some other all sugary treat and eat it all day long...

i was reading through my baby book and found this entry i added myself at age 10...i had forgotten how i made "i's" with a circle instead of a dot..."s's" with a slant..."e's" with the same slant...
the story on breaking my arm is i was showing off on top of my swing set at home "look at me! look at me!" doing the "death drop" which is where you swing backwards and catch your legs and then swing off and release your legs (like the cherry drop only you start out sitting on top of the bar instead of just swinging)...only i was so desperate to show off and do the trick quickly that i forgot to hook my legs and went flying off onto my arm...it had a horrible "S" crook in it and i remember looking at my arm with a very grave face and saying in all seriousness "my arm can't stay like that...they are going to have to amputate" not even thinking about the pain or it being broken...yes, dramatic at a young age!

finally, i got chicken pox the end of the school year...
i may come back and add more but i have to publish this for MPT (join me in recording my youth one post per week...) due in 1/2 an hour...ahh...procrastination...