LEAVIN' ON A JET PLANE!!

It's finally HERE ... the day I get to go to Ranger U!!!

Today is also my birthday ... so I think it's safe to say that THIS is one of the best birthday presents I've ever gotten; thanks to Tim Holtz and the wonderful people at Ranger!

When the list was announced, I immediately started getting emails from people I could never believe were writing to me!!  People who's work I follow and admire so much....like Linda Cain, Tammy Tutterow, Nancy Wethington, Linda Elbourne ... the list goes on....  
They congratulated me and welcomed me to the "Certified Ranger Educator" family.  They told me how I was in for one of the most memorable and amazing experiences of my life!

I am still pinching myself to make sure I'm not dreaming!  

The list of Ranger U attendees is such an amazing "Who's Who" in the art world.  I a humbled to be among them....and as some of us have jokingly emailed to each other, just waiting for an email from Tim saying ..."Ooops....made a mistake!" haha

I have already made some amazing friendships with such insanely creative people like Hels Sheridan and Linda Ledbetter.  I soooo admire their work....and now I know that they are not only incredibly TALENTED people, they are incredibly GOOD people as well!

I hope that Cheryl Grigsby, another fellow April 2011 Ranger U attendee, doesn't mind my sharing a thought she emailed to all of us.  I about peed my pants when I read it!  But, it soooo appropriately captured the way many of us are feeling!  She said, "I feel like a weinnie in a steakhouse!"  Isn't that hysterical?

Since I won't have a laptop or Ipad2 (haven't evolved to that techno level yet) with me, I probably won't do a lot of Ranger U blogging until I return.  But, rest assured, I WILL be posting about this once in a lifetime experience upon my return!

I can't even BEGIN to tell you how excited I am!  I KNOW the wonderful opportunity that has been given to me and I plan to soak up every single drop of the creative genius in that Ranger U room...the entire time I am there!  And then...I can come back and do what I love to do...teach and share all of this wealth of knowledge with you!  I can't wait to be able to add "Certified Ranger Educator" under my name!

WISH ME LUCK and prayers for safe travel!!!