The Life and Times of Butler Blue II: Miss Butler

So I got a special package in the mail on Wednesday morning from a group of 20 (or so) elementary school students. I must say, this package couldn't have come at a better time as I was feeling quite tired and irritable after the Butler Bulldogs men's basketball team took one on the chin late the night before in the Horizon League Tournament Championship game. (The Bulldogs lost by three points to Cleveland State, but in all likelihood will return to the NCAA Tournament for the eighth time in 13 seasons and third time in a row. As the Indianapolis Star's David Woods put it, "Butler IS going to the NCAA Tournament. Twelve months ago, that was nearly unthinkable." Well put, Mr. Woods!)

Specifically, this package came from Miss Butler's multi-age kindergarten and first grade class at White Lick Elementary School in Brownsburg, Indiana (also home of Butler freshman Gordon Hayward) and contained a top-10 list citing reason why my dad and I should come and visit Miss Butler's class this spring. Here's a shot of me reading the list...

I must say, it's the most clever, witty and fun class visit request that I've ever received and I commend Miss Butler's students on their creativity, ingenuity and charm. According to Miss Butler, who graduated from Butler University in 2002 with my dad, this list came about as an original idea from the students. She only helped to scribe the list for them.

Evidently the list came about in their "writer's workshop" where Miss Butler was teaching them "organization in writing" and "lists" were brought up as an illustration of that. As avid readers of my blog, Miss Butler's students quickly recalled my recent blog post where I chronicled "25 Random Things" about myself. Their response, without further adieu, is a list of the "Top 10 reasons why Blue and Mr. K. (that's my dad) should come visit us..."

10. We are probably the only five, six and seven year olds that read your blog.

9. Some of us weigh sixty-two pounds, just like you!

8. We've bot some Star Wards fanatics in the room and we want to hear Blue's "whine." [In reference to my Chewey Chewbacca reference.]

7. We're dying to see Blue's infamous tricks!

6. We try to do things at school "The Butler Way." [Keep up the good work!]

5. We'll even make sure our room is really clean.

4. We're Bulldogs just like you (except we're not real dogs...we usually don't bark) [That's okay, I meet a lot of humans around Butler that claim to be Bulldogs, but don't appear to be anything like me. I get it.]

3. We're lots of fun (at least we think so)! [I can see that!]

2. For some reason we think body functions are hilarious. [In response to my random report on my bodily waste routines. Glad you enjoyed that one. Respect the relief of bodily waste being jettisoned from the body, but never lose the humor in it either. It is what it is.]

1. We're Butler University's #1 fans! [Thanks, we'll take all the support that we can get...especially come NCAA basketball tournament season!]

Signing off with a "Come visit soon" are Jakob, Brayden, August, Leister, Ellie, Andrew, Ryan, Ashley, Jacob, Dietrich, Leah, Gavin, Jonathan, Reagan, Martin, Evann, Lydia, Bo, Belle, Jackson and Miss B.

Thanks friends! You guys are the best! I lick my nose in approval...

A special thanks goes to Miss Butler who, by helping her students create and send this to me, is illustrating just what a great educator she is...bravo Miss Butler!

But how about those students?! Wow! According to Miss Butler, these youngsters love reading my blog and particularly enjoy the pictures of me, and they've become huge basketball fans this season. Miss Butler reports that her students now know more about the Butler men's basketball team and Horizon League than she does and they love http://www.butlersports.com/.