A Text Message Memory #SOL20

For the past two days, I have watched the Penny Kittle and Kelly Galagher videos that they are making and sharing with educators. It's a conversation that I know I will be looking forward to each day. They saw the need for teachers to build a community in this time of uncertainty just like the ones we are trying to build for our students. They make a point to do a book talk and share notebook pages - how cool is that!

Penny showed a page that was a "hand map" of birthdays. I created the same page in my own notebook, only she had ten, and I am doing well to remember five!

But I do remember one very clearly. When I was nine or ten, we found a mouse in our house. My mom squealed, and my dad said that she just "had a piece of hair hanging in her eyes." Well, there really was a mouse. 

Tonight, I texted my brother and two sisters and asked them if they remembered this birthday.

Me: Do any of you remember my birthday when there was a mouse in the house?

Older Sister: In the bar? Dad said it was mom's hair in her eyes?

Brother: Was that the day I was looking for it under the couch and it ran out in front of my face and I started crying?

Me: Yes! That's it!

Little Sister:  I don't remember anything.

Brother:  Scared the crap out of me. It ran all the way to my nose.

Big Sister:  I'm laughing!

Me: Little Sister, you may not have even been born yet.

Brother:  Poor Little Sister, she missed out on all the fun stuff!

What followed was about an hour of text message memories from Little Sister breaking scissors off in the trunk while looking for Christmas presents to Brother hitting a pretend homerun and knocking Little Sister out and Big Sister dry heaving while cleaning out a freezer full of spoiled meat.

We laughed, we remembered, we were together...even while we were apart.

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