My Plan for the Next Five Years

The smart money's on the kid with a plan! And I'm that kid!

Hiya, Big People!  Happy Wednesday to you!

Hey, so anyways, yesterday I talked about how I've pretty much just hit a home-run with my very first Five-Year plan that I put together for myself back when I arrived at Jones Memorial Hospital five years ago.  It got me to thinkin' that maybe I should put together a Five-Year Plan for the next five years.

The smart money's always on the kid with a plan, after all!  And I'm gonna be that kid!

I won't tell ya everything that's in my Five Year Plan, Friends, because that could get tedious for you, but since I'll be Ten when my next FYP expires, how'sabout I give ya my top ten things that are on my Five-Year Plan?  Does that sound great?

Okay.  Here goes:

My Second Five-Year Plan, Top Ten List Edition

1.  Become a super-duper super-hero of School
2.  Make some really great friends
3.  Master tying my shoes
4.  Learn to tell time on an analog clock
5.  Become a rockstar reader
6.  Be the type of kid who puts a smile on people's faces as I arrive, not as I'm leaving
7.  Meet Scoop and Cookie at the dang ol' Sweet Frog sometime in the next five years
8.  Learn to read and write fancy, joined-up, cursive handwriting.  Big People Code Busted!
9.  Learn to ride a real bike, but not off the couch or off the porch steps
10.  Be unafraid of fractions, decimals, or playin' kickball at recess.

Friends, I think I'm gonna rock my Second Five-Year Plan! I'll be seein' ya tomorrow, Big People!  I love ya lots!  Muah!

Thoughts on my First Five-Year Plan

I think I've done pretty well for myself, these last five years!

Hiya, Big People!  Happy Tuesday to you! Didja have a great Labor Day weekend?  I did!

Well, now that I've had a chance to settle down from my busy weekend, I've gotta tell ya, Friends, that this is my last week of bein' Four, so you might be in for some Very Reflective Zoe-ness. 

I hope ya don't mind.

You see, while I have been Not Four before, it's been a whole entire year, so as you can imagine, I've gotten pretty used to bein' Four.  Also, the last time I was Not Four, I was Three, which was kind of an event unto itself, Big People.

This time around, when I'm Not Four, I'll be turning Five, and this is a biggun, as far as birthdays go.  Five.  Halfa decade.  Standin' on the doorstep of bein' a Kindergartener.  Just a mere eleven years away from bein' able to drive cars on the road with a real license and everything.

It boggles the mind to think about, Friends, because only five years ago, I wasn't even born yet, and then once I was, it was pretty much a giant accomplishment that I could lift my head up and look around and see things.  I know we take it for granted, but basically everything I've done since then has been this great big, huge deal.  It's all been pretty unprecedented, actually, for me.

Never once did I ever imagine that there'd be such a thing as The Daily Zoe Blog or The Daily Zoe Facebook Picture Show.  It wasn't in my five-year plan when I was Brand New.  I distinctly remember what WAS in my five-year plan back then, though, and that was:

1.  Get to eat real food
2.  Speak for myself
3.  Make friends with that big white dog that lives in my house
4.  Accomplish facing forward in the car, because ridin' backwards is the PITS
5.  Disrupt at least one dinner out with my parents
6.  Develop a killer fashion sense
7.  Learn to use pens and paper
8.  Become a Play Doh master

There were other things, too, Friends, but I think you get my drift.  In the last five years, I have nailed my Five Year Plan, and then some.  And I've made friends with all of you.  I wouldn't trade it for the world, Big People!  Being friends with you is DEFINITELY a high-point of the last five years!

Anyways, Friends, this week is bound to be a Doozy.  Stick with me.  I love ya lots, and I'll be seein' ya tomorrow!  Muah!

Happy Labor Day, Big People!

I'm on-call at St. Laffalotatus- Mercy-Mercy Hospital, but I'm thinkin' of the Lake!

Hiya, Friends!  Happy Labor Day to you!

Well, ya know, I hope you had lotsa fun this Labor Day weekend adn that you're takin' a much-deserved break today.

As for me, I'm doin' Spirit Lifts at St. Laffalotatus-Mercy-Mercy hospital, on an emergency-on-call basis for today, but it's okay.  I love makin' people happy and liftin' spirits.  So it's okay with me that I'm on call on this holiday.  It's really okay!

Although I'm on-call, I'm keepin' my own spirits lifted by lookin' in on you, Big People, and also by thinkin' of my wonderful time at the Lake. 

Hey.  I've gotta go, Friends!  My pager's goin' off.  Those spirits in the Pits aren't gonna lift themselves.  You keep on havin' fun this weekend.  I love ya lots, and I'll come in and see ya tomorrow!  Muah!

If I Were Near the Water...

If I were near the water right now, Friends, this is what I'd look like!

Hiya, Big People!  Happy Sunday to you!

Well, ya know, it's Labor Day weekend, which seems like a good time to be near some water.  I am not currently near some water, unless you count Llake Lloyd, which I do not, because I cannot see it from my house, nor can I go dip my toes in whenever I want, but I DID spend half a month near Seneca Lake, so that's what I'm focusing my memories on today.

What I think is so great about bein' near the water is that no matter how hot it is on land, it's cool in the water.  Sometimes it's quite cool, in fact. 

Besides that, when you're in the water, you get to splash.  Now, I splash sometimes when I'm in the tub, but it isn't the same as splashin' in a lake, since the water in the tub is warm, and the lake water is cool, as we've already been over.  But also, when I'm in the tub and I splash, I get in trouble, because then it makes a mess on the bathroom floor.

Another reason it's great to be near the lake, especially on Labor Day Weekend is that it's so much fun just to float around on a floatie in the water.  It's really difficult to do that in the tub, on account of there not bein' much room in the tub.  You try gettin' a floatie in your tub, Friends.  It's a cramped fit, at best.  So I send my rubber duckies around in a derby in the tub, pretendin' they're floatie-size, and that the tub is lake-size, and I'm some kinda giant.  Which, ya never know.  I could be.  In some other dimension, I could maybe be the Seneca Lake Monster people talk about but aren't sure really exists.  Other dimensions are funny like that.

Anyways, Friends, if I were near the water right now, on this Labor Day Weekend, you bet I'd be pretty darn happy. I'm pretty darn happy anyway, but I'd also be extra-special super-duper happy!  And cool and ridin' a floatie around!

You have a Happy Labor Day Weekend, Friends!  I love ya lots!  I'll see ya tomorrow!  Muah!

Explorin' a Different Culture with Elena!

The magic around here isn't as obvious as the magic in Avalor!

Hiya, Big People!  Happy Saturday to you!

Well, ya know, I'm a kid who loves learnin' about different cultures, and there's a new show on the Disney Channel that helps me do just that!

It's a show called Elena of Avalor, and it's about a princess who was locked up inside a magical amulet for 41 years!  An evil sorceress took over the kingdom of Avalor, and until the royal wizard could get what was left of the royal family out of the paintings and the amulet, they stayed right the heck there!

The catch is that they're the ages they were when they went into the magic protective objects, so Elena is sixteen, not fifty-seven, and that's problematic for her, now that she wants to be queen of Avalor!

The kingdom of Avalor is different from my culture because in my culture, we don't have flying jaquins or mon fuegoes or magical amulets... that I know about.  We don't have any noblins that have the golden touch.  We can't take a sailing ship to a magical island that has the fountain of youth AND a tree that makes ya older if you eat its fruit.  Those are some BIG cultural differences, if ya ask me, Friends!

But with as different as my culture is from Elena of Avalor, there are a lotta things that are the same, like how family is there for each other, and how it's best to be yourself and not to try to be anybody else, and to be open to learning, even though you think you're ready to rule!

Friends, I love ya lots!  I'll see ya tomorrow!  Muah!

Why, Yes I Am A Big Chicken!

'Scuse me while I crow about how good this chocolate in a waffle cone is!  Hahahaha!

Hiya, Friends!  Happy Friday to you!

Well, I'll tell ya what.  There's nothing that puts a smile on my face like an ice cream cone, and there's nothing that makes an ice cream better for me than pretendin' to be a great big chicken with an ice cream cone!

You know, Friends, sometimes I'm a big chicken in my real life, actually.  Public potties that flush themselves scare the bejeebers outta me.  Those hand-dryers in the bathrooms also light up my spine with fear.  Fire crackers, loud sporting events, the goal horn... all of it turns me into a three-foot-tall chicken.  Bawk-bawk-bawk!

Thing of it is, we all have our things that make us big chickens.  And a solid way to make yourself less afraid is to eat an ice cream cone.  True story.  I know this, because for my entire ice cream-eating career, I have been conducting research, and I have found that when I am enjoying a scoopa ice cream during a troubling situation, I am eighty-three percent less stressed out about it.

So.  The big chicken with an ice cream cone is onto something!

Hey.  I'll see ya tomorrow, Friends!  I love ya lots!  Muah!

Septembrrrrrrr First!

Oh, hey, Warm Winter Woolies... I'm not quite ready to putchyoo on just yet...

Hiya, Big People!  Happy Thursday to you!

Well, can ya believe that it's the first of September already?  We're into the -Brrrrrrr months now. 

You know what I'm talkin' about, Friends: Septembrrrrr, Octobrrrrrr, Novembrrrrrr, and Decembrrrrr.

They're called the Brrrrrr Months, on accounta they all end in the sound -Brrrrrrr, and also because the temperatures start to coolin' off during the -Brrrrr months.

Although if I'm not at the Lake, I'd just as soon have it not be ninety degrees, what I'm sayin' is that the -Brrrrrr Months can just slow their roll about coolin' things off too awful much.  I mean, we had a May that behaved like a -Brrrrrr month, snowin' on my flowers I just had planted.  That was a bummer!  So the -Brrrrrrr months can maybe hold off on gettin' too awful cold until maybe around the end of October.  I mean, I know to plan on engineerin' my Halloween costumes over a snowsuit by now.  This won't be my first trip to the spooky rodeo.

Anyways, here we are on September the First, Friends!  Summer is really, truly comin' to an actual end, but we don't need to be sad about it.  We'll find a way to have a Fun Fall, too!

I love ya lots, and I'll be seein' ya tomorrow, mmmkay?  Still wear sunscreen.  It's still Summer for three more weeks.  Muah!