A Glimpse Into the Mind of a 7-year-old Part II

Miss Weathers (handing her a coat): Here's your coat.
Rylee (pointing to the sweatshirt she has tied around her waist): I have a coat.
Miss Weathers: That is NOT a coat! Here.
Rylee: But I don't like this coat.
Miss Weathers: Why not? It's cute.
Rylee: It makes me look too fat.
Miss Weathers: We all look fat in our coats. Look at Sebastian. (points to the boy who is wearing a fluffy down coat) He looks like a marshmallow. Everyone is fluffy in their coats...and warm.

*She did take the coat with her to recess. I don't know if she wore it, but at least I can tell her mother I made her take her coat.

P.S. We have had record low temperatures here in the Seattle area this past week. It was 9 degrees at my house overnight. Nine! And another interesting tidbit--this morning it was 20 degrees in Seattle, while it was 30 degrees in Juneau. So, to enjoy warmer weather we just need to head up to Alaska!

A Glimpse Into the Mind of a 7-year-old

Overheard as my class was lining up for lunch today:

Hunter (to a classmate): No, the Tooth Fairy isn't real, but Santa is. I'm not sure about the Easter Bunny.



Such important things to contemplate! I'm just sad I didn't hear the response from whoever he was talking to. I was too busy trying to get all these crazy, Christmas-hyped-up kids to lunch without anyone dying.

Annabelle

My new roommate is a little Chihuahua-Dachshund. You might say she is a Chi-weenie! She kind of looks like a miniature Golden Retriever, but much, much smaller. She's only 7 1/2 pounds--a pocket Golden, if you will. It was a rough go at first--getting used to having a dog around. But we have gotten in to a nice little routine.

Annabelle is a crazy girl. She is perfectly content to sit on the couch and nap while I grade papers or watch TV. (Like she is doing now.) But when she gets outside, watch out. Especially if you are a bird or a squirrel. She really wishes she wasn't on a leash so she could go after all those dang squirrels in the park. She even chases birds while they are flying overhead. I don't know how exactly she expects to catch birds in midair, but she sure does try.

Here are some pictures especially for my niece and nephew. It will be so fun at Christmas when you can play with Annabelle!

All Creatures Great and Small

*I know I should be blogging about my amazingly fun trip to New York/Europe, but it's just so overwhelming that I'm putting it off. Instead you are going to get this random story:

I love all of God's creatures. Sure there are some that I would rather not occupy space near me, but I generally can tolerate, if not adore, most critters. I honestly didn't mean to harm that poor innocent animal.

This morning when I went out the my car that was parked on the street in front of my building, I almost had a heart attack. There under my car there was something...something that should be alive but no way was it alive based on its position under the back wheel of my car. At first I thought it was a little dog, and I almost fainted. Its head looked like that of a little terrier or chihuahua. Then I came to my senses and realized it was actually an opossum. I see them around here all the time. (I had a picture of one, not of this opossum, but of one that was cutely scampering along the fence. Alas, I can not find it anywhere. Don't worry I won't subject you to the horror of what this one looked like.)

So, back to this traumatic event in my life. Before I vomited all over the sidewalk, I raced around to the driver's door and got safely inside. As I'm starting it up, buckling in, etc..., I started thinking clearly again. Yesterday--morning as a matter of fact--(a little detail that will come in handy later on in this story, as will the fact that it's been about 90 degrees here the past couple of days. Just file those little tidbits away for future reference) as I was parallel parking my car, I recall that I went up on to the curb. At least I felt that little bump that means I've gone up on to the low curb where I usually park. I guess it wasn't the curb after all. We are all going to agree (for my poor heart's sake) that the animal was already dead before I pinned it under the wheel of my car, okay? Okay!

Well, now remember how I told you I parked my car in the morning, it was actually around noon so I guess it technically wasn't morning, and how it's been so freakin' hot here lately? Well, just imagine the smell. I'll give you a moment to really picture it. It was odorific as I started the car and turned on the air conditioning. The first place I went was the car wash. I'm hoping that "The Works" car wash is worth the eight bucks and works at getting rid of roadkill fumes. I'm not going to be sniffing around the back end of my car anytime soon, though. But I am going to be extra careful about where I park my car from now on!

The Finish Line!

It seems like just yesterday that I wrote this. The school year has past so quickly, although while in the trenches it does seem to drag by in slow motion. I got everything done that I needed to get done to close out the year. I HATE the end of the school year! Not because I don't like summer vacation or because the kids are bounce-off-the-walls crazy the first day the June calendar goes up. It's just I have sooo much to do and the kids have nothing to do.

I mean, I have to finish up grading, do report cards, do Scope and Sequence reports for my English Language Learners, add comments to both, clean out piles of paper work, pack away EVERYTHING in the room, sign certificates for the awards assembly, oh yeah still gotta finish those report cards, more papers to file, make a slide show of all the pictures I took this year to show on the last day of school (I bring that one on my self, but the kids just love it), and finish cleaning up the room--it is amazing how much random stuff gets collected in that room over 9 months, including giant dust bunnies. All the while, I have to keep 23 very excited 7- and 8-year olds occupied so they don't kill each other and are doing something somewhat productive.

Can you see why I hate the end-of-the-year? I'm lobbying for a new approach to the last day of school. We tell the kids that, yay, the last day of school is June 17th. But then, they come to school on June 12th and we say, "Surprise! Today is the last day of school! It's been fun, have a nice life." Then the teachers get the last three days to do that they need to do with no kids to worry about. I just don't know how to handle the parent factor. Any ideas?

So, back on topic--I survived. Here's what my room looked like when I finally left for good for the summer. (I had to go back in for one day after the last day, but that's pretty good for me.)

The view from the door. And looking at this picture just now I realize I forgot to take down the flag and put it in the cupboard. Oops!

My former teaching station almost bare--I left some stuff up, cuz, hey, I'm going to use it next year!

The whole room (almost) stacked up in the corner. It looks like so much less stuff like this.

The back of the room totally bare.

The cupboards stuffed to the brim with all my random crap. It's not quite this bad during the year!

Only a fraction of the amount of garbage and recycling that cleaning up produced. I lost track of how many recycling bins I filled.

All-in-all it was a good year. I was actually sad to see my kids go, unlike last year when I couldn't get rid of the fighting, arguing stinkers fast enough. And we actually had a really nice last few hours. We watched our slide show, listened to a story, went out for recess, signed yearbook/memory books, played some games, and watched a story on DVD. Then it was time to go. There were some tears from some of the girls who knew they were moving, but overall very low key.

And now--time for my big trip to NYC and Europe. I'll try to update this blog along the way. We'll see how much blogging internet access and time allows. Otherwise, there'll be a lot of posts after the end of July!

And the Oscar Goes To...

I'm just saying--I should have won an Academy Award for my performance at work today. I was pushed to my physical and emotional limit and all I wanted to do was curl up in a ball and cry myself to sleep. But I couldn't because 23 8-year-olds were waiting for me to pull myself together. So, instead I splashed some cold water on my face, put on my lipstick and tried to earn that Oscar. I'm happy. This is fun. Smile! Happy! Fun!

Okay, Here I Am

One of my friends commented (after I commented on her blog) that she couldn't figure out who I was based on my blog. I don't have too many pictures of myself, but I was looking through my pictures and I found these.

It was one night at my friend Clint's house. He had a recipe from his mom for "Chocolate Mug Cake" you make in the microwave. It was very exciting to watch it almost explode as it cooked. As for how it tasted--it was very dense and needed some salt. Other than that it was yummy. Next time, though, we decided to split them, cuz you can really only eat half of it.

Yum! "Mug Cake with Ice Cream"

Clint, very excited about his microwave mug cake.

Zeke already chowin' down.