Twister

If you are a frequenter of my mother's blog, or if you live in the state of Oklahoma, you will know that when I say "Twister" I am not referring to America's favorite stocking-footed party game. This past week (I don't remember exactly what day since I have mentally blocked the whole incident) we had a series of storms blow through northwest Oklahoma city and the surrounding area (aka, the center of my universe). As a teacher I have to say that you have not lived until you have herded 21 nervous children into the boys bathroom to join the other two classes that are already in there and instruct them to kneel on the floor as close together as possible and assume the time-tested "duck and cover" position. They must be totally silent despite the uncomfortable smell, the suspision that the mystery liquid that just dampened your hand is actually pee, and the kid next to you whose shirt is not quite long enough to cover their exposed butt crack. And heaven forbid anyone makes any sort of accidental noise (like when your teacher, who has graciously stationed herself in front of the urinal that still had some pee in it so her students would be spared the horror, moves away from the urinal to join the other teachers across the room and upon moving the urinal flushes itself). We managed to keep very good order and I eventually ended up reading Shel Silverstein poems aloud to entertain. After all was said and done we were in the offensive "storm shelter" for approximately 30 minutes. We returned to our classroom and were told to go ahead and dismiss about 5 minutes early. I was ok with this, thinking my adventure was over and I could go home.

I was mistaken.

This was only the beginning.

As school let out we loaded the buses and began dismissing the "car riders" to their parents as they arrived. Then, as soon as we had loaded the buses (including the middle schoolers who walk over from the middle school next door to get on the bus) the tornado sirens began to go off. Crap! I look down the hall and see masses of wet students from 1st to 8th grade heading for the bathrooms and the teacher's lounge. Double crap. So I spent the following 30 minutes trying to keep the 4th and 5th grade boys from eating anything they found in the teacher's lounge and trying to get them quiet as our poor principal continues to call names over the walkie-talkie as parents arrive. She finally allowed all of us to find our way to the cafeteria (as it started to hail) and continued to call names for the next hour and a half. My favorite part was when she (still talking about my principal) stood up on a table and did the hokie pokie, since there were no parents arriving at the time. Go aunty! Anyhow... at about five o'clock they re-loaded the buses and I made the dash home. Throughout the previous 2 hours we had been hit by storm after storm with a few tornadoes in various places (like Chucky Cheese), but nothing that came too close to us. I had also been well-informed about the condition of my loved ones since some bright person invented twitter so we could be updated of every movement. I think I received at least 30 text messages during the whole ordeal. I concluded my day with a very detailed phone call to my beloved blog-buddy in Phoenix. She informed me that the most exciting thing that ever happened to her at school was a rainy day schedule due to excessive heat. Bah!
Ang

Another day, another donut-hole... ooo... donuts

My class... my wonderful, angelic, delightful class... have decided to push Mrs. DeLong to see at what point she snaps. She probably doesn't mean be silent when she said no one can talk. I bet if I confer with my neighbor I can get some good ideas for my essay even though she said we weren't supposed to. I doubt she meant single file when she said "get in a straight, quiet line". I bet we can get Mrs. DeLong to begin referring to herself in third person. They really are wonderful children, caring, responsive, but there are times when I say I want them to work quietly and I don't mean converse with your neighbor, get the answer from someone else, stroll around the room, hop around on your classmate's crutches, get your third drink in one hour, take a restroom break, go to the office for chapstick, doodle, or stare off into space. Call me crazy. So this afternoon I sought council from my more-veteran teammate and we discussed all the terrible things we could do to make them regret their very existence. I am currently throwing aroung the idea of resorting to endless worksheets until they decide to focus. Some part of me feels like I need to be more creative and positive and use rewards instead of punishment, but the other part of me just wants to be able to teach without expending all my energy on keeping them on task. Sigh. Oh well.

My night improved when my wonderful husband did the dishes so I would have room to make dinner (which I enjoyed so much that I followed dinner with cookies, of which I only ate 1 thank you very much). Then after our yummy cornbread pot pie he did those dishes, followed by the laundry. Am I the envy of women everywhere or what? Anyhow, I also worked out, which I really don't recommend if you enjoy non-sore muscles and full range of motion. I dread what my legs and abs will feel like tomorrow and I thank my lucky stars that I don't still live on the fifth floor of my college dorm. Good stuff.

Well, my bed calls so I must sign off...

Ang

A for effort??....

Soo....I tried to be blog savvy and change the heading since it is officially February. And all I could figure out was this lame picture only half the right size with the boring font. Ang...my blogging guru...fix it so we still look cool? :)

ps. School is fabulous. Friends are fabulous. Life is fabulous. The End.

-Kare

Cabbage

Cabbage
So last night I made potstickers for my husband and I and 5 of our closest friends. For those of you poor unlightened souls who don't know what a potsticker is I have included a photo. At least I would have if I was more motivated.

I enjoy making these little bundles of joy from scratch, makes me feel like a chef, but it does make quite the mess. Then I fed 7 people and we enjoyed ice cream afterwards. I also cooked up a batch of both white and brown rice. Needless to say the amount of dishes that were stacked around my cute little kitchen this morning was rather staggering. Dishes annoy me so I pushed up my sleeves this morning and dove right in. Unfortunately, after about three minutes the sink was backing up with water. This is not unusual, it just means I need to use the all-powerful garbage disposal. I flipped the switch and was suddenly treated to an Old-Faithful-esque geyser errupting from the other side of my sink. When I recovered my senses and turned it off both sides of the sink were flooded and small bits of cabbage were floating in the muck. Huh, so maybe I should not have stuck the left-over cabbage from the potstickers in the disposal. Who knew? I will spare you all the gorey details. Riley was in class til noon so I sent a pitiful text to a friend of ours who is good at fixing things. He willingly came over, experienced the excitement of my geyser, then proceeded to disassemble the pipes under our sink until he discovered the cabbage hairball that I, of course, saved to show my friends and neighbors and have graciously pictured below. I only wish that I could have included the smell with the picture.

OK, so again I am too lazy for the picture thing. Perhaps someday I will get around to gracing you with my rotting food pictures.

I think that everyone who comes into possession of a garbage disposal should be given a list of things that do not go in a diposal. I knew about potato peels, but apparently you should also avoid fibrous vegetables. To gather more information I naturally turned to the infinite knowledge of google. Here are some things that should not be garbage disposal-ed:

What Does Not Go Down Garbage Disposals

Anything that is not biodegradable food
Anything combustible
Plastic and metal
Cigarettes and butts
Bacon grease or other grease
Celery, corn husks & cobs, artichokes, pineapples, asparagus and other extremely fibrous foods


Ok so really, who puts combustible things in their garbage disposal? And surely there are better places for my cigarette butts. It was just the "fibrous foods" that no one warned me about. Well, now we know.

Life sucks and then you die

Ok, so maybe I am exaggerating just a smidge, but it's not my fault. I am terrible at being sick. Thursday morning, right as our 5th grade spelling bee was beginning (all the 5th grade teachers are judges) I had an incredible wave of nausea that threatened to overpower me. Now granted I am nauseated about one quarter of the time anyway, but this was different. This put me in true fear that I would lose it all over the poor soul sitting in front of me. I dashed to the back of the room, got a drink, and recovered nicely. However, the feeling returned midafternoon and I have been feeling... under the weather... ever since. Luckily, before I left school that day I left a few notes in case I would need a sub so I didn't have to worry about returning to leave instructions. I have henceforth done nothing but lie around for two days, which has actually done quite a number on my neck. At this point I can comfortably look straight ahead and... well... that's about it. My poor little husband has been very patient, but I think we are both tired of being cooped up. Anyhow, I am still feeling crappy and hoping I do not have to prepare sub plans for Monday.

OK, I am out of witty things to say and I'm still grumpy. I'm going now. Bah!

Ang

Is this really happening?

Is this really happening?


If I had could say anything to sum up last week, it would be that.

Let's start with Monday...
-My right arm has been hurting like crazy for the past month, then all of a sudden my left one starts up. Well some other weird stuff happens so I finally break down and go to the doctor thinking he'll just say I've been tossing too many bad children against the wall and I really should stretch before going into the classroom. Instead his response was..."That's weird. I'm going to have you get a chest x-ray and both arms x-rayed and you are going to give a blood sample." Gulp. To those that don't already know this...I HATE GIVING BLOOD. This would be the reason why when my dad plans and puts hours and hours of time into organizing a church blood drive...I simply refuse. Don't care if I am going to hell, I'm not doin it. Well, he said that he thinks God was punishing me and now I have to go give blood whether I like it or not. Thanks for the support dad. :)May not sound like a big deal to you, but I will fully take on the title of Pansy because it was a big deal to me.

Tuesday...
-Let's just say if you have two people listed in the contacts of your phone with very similar names...be sure to check and see who you are really sending your text messages to. ESPECIALLY if the text in question is about one of those people. You really wouldn't want to accidentally send a rather embarrassing text to the wrong person and then feel like a total idiot. Of course, this didn't happen to me, I'm just sayin be careful....I would never do something that stupid. I swear...

Friday...
-My Principal walks in while my kids are playing a rousing game of quiet ball/math trivia. This game involves the children sitting on their desks, catching a ball and answering a math question. Innocent enough right? Well, the first comment my principal makes is, "Make sure their feet are dangling and not tucked underneath them in case they happen to reach too far. Wouldn't want a safety issue." Totally right, which I DO tell my kids that, but since when are all your students doing exactly what you want them to be doing, especially when your Principal comes in right? So, I do a quick scan...NICE! Everyone is sitting flat. Time for the next question "Joey tell me what number is in the ten-thousand place." I turn to write the number and CRASH! One of my students inevitably has fallen off her desk, and is now crying on the floor with the desk on top of her. And YES. My Principal is STILL standing in the back of my classroom. Crap. I swoop into action catching the mixed look of horror, shock and I told you so on his face. Send the kid to the nurse immediately tell my kids to sit in their chairs and try to save some of my credibility as a teacher. Murphy's Law says stuff like that will happen. Well I want to know, who the heck is Murphy and since when was he in charge?

So there you go...I may be a drama queen but I felt like it was a rather eventful week. And yes, I did get my blood taken this morning, and yes I did almost pass out on my way to the bathroom to give another kind of sample. Not my proudest moment.

-Kare

Bark Bark!

So this afternoon I was talking to my fabulous little sister (it took me about 20 minutes to warm up my talking skills, but I got there eventually) and was trying to think of anything interesting to share in my otherwise routine life. For some reason Tess isn't always jumping up and down to hear all the little details about my 21 students (weird), and then I remembered something that would spark her interest and probably give you a good giggle as well. So I was sound asleep Wednesday night dreaming completely random things as usual. In my dream I was unlocking the front door of the house my grandparents lived in many years ago in Missouri and I had the feeling that in this dark abandoned house something spooky might be lurking, so as I unlocked the front door and kicked it open I took a deep breath and attempted to yell (was I yelling a warning for any lurking within? Preparing to cast out any evil spirit that may be lurking in the shadows in the name of Jesus? Or perhaps just making myself feel better). In typical dream fashion the scream got caught in my throat and ended up a sort of muted grunt. At this point I woke up, thought "yeah, that was weird", and repositioned myself to go back to sleep, at which point my hubby, who was apparently also awake, said "Ang? You awake?", to which I answered "yeah, why?". His answer surprised me: "You.... barked! You just let out a loud "Baarrrrraarrrrraarrrrraarrrrrrr' that woke me up and made me crack up". Oops. I guess I could have done worse things. What kind of sound does a water buffalo make? I hear they're pretty mean. Anyhow, that's my only amusing story for the week. I'm going back to 27 Dresses now.

-Ang