the weekend . . . .

So, within the past hour or so, my plans for the weekend have changed. I was going to ride with a friend to go to where I graduated from college, but things just weren't working out. So . . . I'm now going to just spend the weekend relaxing and trying to finish the cleaning I started last weekend! Maybe I'll actually make some progress!! One thing that would greatly help me is to be rid of the mattress leaning against my heater so I can actually turn my heat on in the living room!! I finally turned the heat on in the bedroom 2 days ago, but either need a new home within my home for the mattress, or a good Samaritan to haul it away for me!! (I would prefer the latter above the former!!)

I really need to get home, but I wanted to share something I learned from a former professor and good friend of mine. I was telling her how my students are on a kick right now of "Why aren't you married?" My response has been, "I ask myself the same question every day!!" She shared with me something a 60-something single lady says whenever SHE is asked about her singleness. (I LOVE this!!) She says:


"No man can stand to be that happy!"

Journal entries . . .

My 3rd graders have, as do all the elementary students at our campus, a journal. We give them topics to write about 2-3 days a week. Today's topic was about Peace, Goodwill, and Friendship Week. They were to write about how they can keep peace with their friends. One of my students wrote this:

I can make peace with my friend's by playing with them. Who would like to join Sally and Jane's horse club? (names changed to protect the innocent :-) Now, inviting everybody like teacher's, boy's, girl's and younger & older kid's it's all about having fun. Not hurting, just living the life all recess time persides it's like you are a horse. There's talking about horses, playing horses, sometimes we even let people play as a enemy. It's so cool. Check us out on the playground we start this Wednesday.

Can you tell we just learned possessive words? Now everything that ends with an "s" MUST have an apostrophe!! When I read through this, I said, "Persides?? What does that mean??" She said, "You know, like, persides all this, we can do something else!" I, being fluent in thirdgradese, said, "You mean besides??"

Why must school start so early??

Today was a first. I woke up when my alarm went off (no, that's not the first time I've done that -- just wait -- it gets better) I turned my alarm off and turned over. I usually do this, but I usually only doze for a couple of minutes before waking up and finally get moving on my day. Well, today when I finally got to the point of moving on my day, the clock said 8:10. For those of you who may not know, this is the time that my school STARTS. I'm supposed to be there at 7:30. Needless to say, I made a beeline for the bathroom and took one of the fastest showers of my life -- the kind that makes you wonder if you are really clean. When I got out, the school called me wondering where I was. I told them I was on my way. Fortunately, I only live about 2 miles down the road from the school, so I was there by 8:30 (like I said -- REALLY quick shower -- I even dried my hair!!) I was afraid the kids would be really disrespectful and say mean-kid stuff like, "AAWWWW, you have a tardy!" or something like that. My first comment was, "You look sleepy." They were apparently very concerned about my health (especially when they saw me that soon after getting up) Let's just pray this is the last time that happens -- it was definitely not a good start to my day!!

vitamins and health class

In health class today, we were learning about vitamins and how they help our bodies. After learning about the second one which may help prevent cancer, this started a conversation about cancer. Some of them were saying, "What is cancer?" Before I could answer, one girl piped up, " I know -- cancer is when your arms start shaking and your eyes roll back and you swallow your tongue!" I was a little confused at first then said, "um, no . . . that's a seizure."

you never know what to expect . . .

Today I heard my best, truly random comment from a student. We were about to do our sentence dictation for Spelling and one student looked at me and said, "Why haven't you gotten a boy to ask you to marry him? Do you want me to knock one upside the head so he will? I go to karate - I can do that!"

What can you say to something like that??

Question: Are fish cannibals??

Though this may seem like a random question, there is a reason behind it. I was at my parent's for the weekend and (as I often do) don't think I fed my fish before I left (though I had the day before, Thursday, so I figured they were o.k. -- they've gone longer than that without food!!) Anyway, when I came home from school on Monday, I finally remembered to feed them. I have this habit (given my frequency of feeding) of checking the top for floaters and counting my fish. I have 2 goldfish and 5 little neons. I'm usually more worried about the neons since they are so small, but I'm sure I usually am aware of the goldfish also. When I went to count them on Monday night, I was trying to count the neons, when I suddenly realized -- there is only one goldfish in here!!! I looked over the top, bottom, between the little decoration thingies, and even in the filter, but didn't find it. I then looked around the floor and the only dead animals I found were stink bugs (are they as bad where you live as they are here???!!) Basically -- I CAN'T FIND IT!! I didn't see a skeleton in or around the fish tank and I'm not really sure what to do next! I guess I'll just be greatful that if the other fish did cannibalize the poor thing, at least they survived another day or two!!

I think I need to go home and feed my fish now . . . .

FIELD TRIP!! (well, tomorrow . . . )

I remember when I was in school, I absolutely loved going on field trips!! Now that I'm a teacher . .. I realize why we didn't go on any more than we did!! Add that it's 1 1/2 hours away and we are ordering lunch from there . . . yeah, and I was saying I'd like to do more than I did last year!!! AM I CRAZY????? (don't answer that!!) Anyway, I just wanted to post that really quickly. I need to get off to my tax class -- did I mention that I'm taking a tax class twice a week from 6-9 and have choir practice in-between that and the Heritage Festival at my parent's this weekend -- I think I am crazy!! (you don't have to agree! :-)

my alarm

One other quick thing while I'm thinking about it. I got up late this morning -- not as late as I have been, but late all the same. I usually wake up to my phone alarm, but I realized that it seemed later in the morning and I hadn't heard it yet. So, I rolled over to look at my phone, and the screen was blank, so I looked at the clock -- 7:20!! I'm supposed to be at school by 7:30!! (I only live 2 miles from my school -- yes, you can be jealous of me :-) I didn't make it by 7:30, but I was there by 7:45! Anyway, my battery wasn't dead, so I don't really know what happened -- it was really weird! I decided to share this story with my class. As I was telling it, when I got to the part about my phone being off, one student piped up with, "It was sleeping, too!"

picture day!!

Last Wednesday was picture day. I know picture day to many parents is the day you look forward to having a nice pictoral memory of your child's year in their particular grade. Please remember, though, that we teachers tend to DREAD picture day. P-Day (sounds ominous, right??) fell on a Wednesday this year -- one of our P.E. days. Come to think of it, I think it fell on a P.E. day last year also. I think the picture people have something against me! Fortunately (for the parents receiving the pictures) we were able to get our pictures taken before the kids got all hot and sweaty. The main problems with picture day are the time lost in class and what I like to call "kid-wrangling". "Kid-wrangling" involves keeping 23 OTHER student occupied while only one can have their picture taken at a time. Then, trying to "wrangle" them while I get my REQUIRED picture taken. Not that I wouldn't like to have a decent picture of myself somewhere . . . Anyway, the funniest part of the day involved my hair. If you don't know me well (or haven't seen me in a while) my hair is about 3-4 inches past shoulder length and I have no bangs. For me, this means I ALWAYS wear my hair back as I can't STAND to have it in my face while I'm teaching. For picture days, I'll opt to wear it down. I also wear make-up (which I usually DON'T do except for special occasions) on picture day. The kids kept saying -- "You look different!" or "You don't look like yourself!" or (my favorite) "Wow! You look pretty!!" I just look at them and say, "Are you saying I usually look ugly??" They got a real kick out of that! Maybe I'll post my school picture and let you be the judge (or I'll just put it on Facebook -- I haven't decided yet)

I need to go -- Since it's now October and we've started a new Science unit, I have 2 bulletin boards to change and desks to rearrange.

Post a comment!