Slip of the tongue past the tip of the teeth

What a to do

What a to do to die today
At a minute or two til two.
A thing distinctly hard to say,
But harder still to do.
For there'l beat a tat, too,
At a quarter til two,
A rat-a-tat, tat-a-tat. tat-a-tat, too.
And the dragon will come
When he hears the drum,
At a minute or two til two today,
At a minute or two til two.

A fifth grade reader's theatre warm up exercise.


Don't you feel like sometimes your life is a tongue twister. Today I have encountered two slips of the tongue past the tip of the teeth.

I have a poster on my wall with the Peanuts characters walking on the top of the globe and the poster says "Everyone smiles in the same language!" A kindergartener walked past it and said,

"Everyone Smells in their own Language."

How true that is.

I was teaching third grade today and I was talking about the song Harlem Airshaft of Duke Ellington's. The song is about an Airshaft in New York City. I said...

"Harlem Airshaft is about the noise that you can hear in an Air shaft in New York Sh**y"

Oh yes, I accidental swore at a class of third graders. They totally heard me do it too. They said,

"Did she just say S***y?"
"What did she say??"
"Giggle giggle giggle (unintelligible third grade girl speech) giggle giggle"

I explained my slip of the tongue with the city and shaft getting combined...

And yah, I think that they might forget it before they go home and swear to their parents. At least I hope they do.

Wii nerd?

Well,
Yesterday Mario Cart for Wii came out. We bought it. Oh yes, Wii did.

We made ourselves do all of our wedding homework, and then, we partied by playing Mario Cart. Let me tell you, it is so much easier with a steering wheel than it is to steer with a joystick. I am much better at it than at the original wii. I am not good with my thumbs, and this solves the problem. No joystick, no thumbs. TA DA!!!

I am doing Jazz lessons with all of my students this week. I was going to do Jazz lessons last week, but I was deathly ill and wanted to die. I still want to cough up a lung, but all in all, this is better than having my throat swollen shut. Trying to look on the bright side here.

Speaking of bright side, I may not be counting down to my wedding, but I just decided to count down to the end of school. There are.... (pause for me to look at calendar) 18 days left total. WOW!!!!

Have I really been teaching for a year. Did I really fake it so that people thought I knew what I was doing for an entire year?

'Guess so.

Friday?????????

Will I ever be ready at the beginning of a school day. I don't know what else to do to fool proof this day, but I still feel like it could flop at any minute. I guess that there is only so much prep work that a teacher can do in order to feel ready. I think that it is an energy thing. I didn't sleep well last night and it is throwing me off. Especially since I have to work with a tough fifth grade today and they TOTALLY drained me yesterday.

Last night I was retching to Christopher about the fact that I have to work with a couple of kindergartners who do things just to see how much they get away with. The fact that they are the smartest two little boys in their class worries me. At home, they can do no wrong. Can their parents see their behavior? Do they realize that something is not connecting? Chris said, "Don't you know already what to expect from these boys?" I said, "Yes I do know what to expect from them, but it also helps me to blow off steam just to talk about how they make me crazy."

For instance: I asked the kindergartners "What do you do in the mornings when you get up" I called on many little girls and boys who couldn't wait to tell me that "I take a bath." "I brush my teeth" "I don't ever want to get up, and my mom turns the lights on and stomps on my floor"

And then little Red headed David pipes up. "I go to the store to buy dynamite to explode the dryer" (With a "what are you going to do about it lady?" look in his eyes.)

Well little red headed David... Time out of the group for you!

Chris said, "Aren't you supposed to let kids think outside the box."

Yah, Try being a teacher for a year and then tell me that.

Thank the Lord for Vicks

I have been sick for the past three-ish days.
Last night I tried a "Mom's home remedy" and rubbed Vicks Vapor rub on my feet before I went to bed. I put socks on my feet after the rub so that it would stay on my feet and not vicks my sheets.

Anyway... I woke up this morning, and I feel a lot better. Was it the Vicks? or the 1000 other drugs that I have been taking trying to beat this thing?

Eye, there's the rub.

Post

Weekend:
Friday night: practice for church
Friday night: eat entirely too much
Saturday 6:00: wake up and make breakfast for NE fan football friends
Saturday 9:40: get out of bed for real
Saturday 12:00: Leave for T-Stock!
Saturday day: hang out with friends, eat good food, loose wallet, find wallet.
Sunday am: Burn right eye with foreign contact solution cry and eye water for 4 hours
Sunday noon: eat Good food with mennonite friends
Sunday afternoon: Honest hours
Sunday night: 7:00 come home
Sunday night 8:15 fall into bed
Sunday night 9:15 fall asleep.

Ah.... The weekends go by in a flash, but this one felt as long as a week that had gone by in a flash.

Pfffffff

THE STORM IN THE NIGHT!

So, two nights ago it was the storm window banging, and last night it was just a storm.

I woke up at 3:08a.m.-ish to probably the loudest roaring of storm I have ever heard in my life. Which is shocking because living in tornado alley for all of my life has caused me to be involved with some interesting storms.

I was writhing in bed, very annoyed with the roar, when suddenly I thought,

"If I am writhing here annoyed that I am awake because of this loud roar, and that loud roar turns out to be a tornado coming right up my street, I am not going to be pleased with my decision to stay in bed."

So, I got out of bed to make sure that I wasn't going to have a Dorothy/Come to Jesus experience right then and there.

The roaring turned out to be a combination of the fact that the gutter outside my window is plugged so the water cascades against the side of the building in waterfall loudness and hale.

Fun.

It is long, but hang in there... cause it is bizarre enough to be interesting.

Last night was an interesting night. The wind was pounding on the south side of the building where my bedroom is. I was frustrated because the storm window in my bedroom is loose so it banged against the window casing almost all night long.

I fell asleep around 10:00 and somewhere around 1:30 started to dream this dream:

I was in my parents’ house with a bunch of vagabond looking children. One of them was one of my fourth grade students and in my dream he was my brother.

(He is Asian, which I thought was appropriate since my sister in real life is Asian. Anyway… in real life he has been having nose bleeds, and I must have been concerned about it because...)

I dreamed that he had had a bad nose bleed and had bled all over his shirt and on my clothing as well. I fixed up his nose and took his cloths upstairs to wash out the blood. I rinsed my shirt as well. I distinctly remember the blood mixing with the water and trickling down the drain. Suddenly I felt the need to hurry and get dressed again because I had to take my little brother with me to fight for Batman against the Joker…

(“WHAT~!” You are thinking… but just roll with me… it gets better.)

So, I get brother all ready to go and we go outside. The entire time I am fearing for my life. Suddenly we are met by three girls who are part of the Joker’s team. We fight them for a long time. Dodging futuristic weapons and using no weapons of our own because we haven’t met up with Batman yet to get our weapons. Finally I knocked a force blasting gun out of one girls hand and instead of shooting it, I hit her under the chin with it so hard that she flew up into the air and out into the atmosphere. I can still picture what she looked like floating aimlessly in the universe.

(cause I could see that with my naked eyes right where I was standing with my fake little brother in my parents front lawn.)

The other two henchgirls ran away after I knocked their teammate to the moon. Which gave me just enough time to figure out how to work my force blaster.

I say force blaster because there is no other word for it. It didn’t shoot bullets. It was very similar to the stunning guns that the alliance uses in the TV show Firefly. It shoots out force fields which knock out and disarm my opponents. I finally figured out how to work my force blaster. I was forgetting to cock the gun before I pulled the trigger.

(Go figure, a wii can shoot without begin cocked, but a force blaster… not a chance.)

After I solved the problem with the force blaster, I took my little brother and we set out for a taxi. We got into a taxi, but the inside was HUGE and filled with the henchpeople of super villains/heroes. I was plotting with my batman team, when I saw my “childhood friend” Christopher sitting plotting with Joker’s henchyouth.

Our eyes met in an “I will defeat you” moment and then our gaze softened as we remembered all of the good childhood times we had together.

(Now if any of you are following… Christopher is my fiancé and we were not childhood friends, but I guess for the purposes of my dream, my mind created him into a childhood friend. WEIRD!!!)

So at the same time we realized that we were in love. “So” he said, (and then he said something that I can’t remember) and then we kissed. We kissed passionately.

It was very wet.

(I might as well get some good kissin in my dreams… Right?)

Ahem…

We decided (after the kissing) that we would be on the same team, and that Christopher would come over to Batman’s side, but only after we had a chance for him to work as a double agent.

Our taxi pulled up in front of a large old building with multiple stories. We got there just in time to see Batman and Joker fighting. We climbed up inside of the building and I saw Pirate Man (I don’t know where he came from. He isn't even a superhero) and Penguin who were just about to come to Batman’s aid. (which is also strange since Penguin is an enemy of Batman in real life.)

Christopher, my fake little brother, and I jumped out into the open ready to fight and suddentlyyy………….

The storm window banged against the casing of my bedroom wall and I awoke from my dream poised sideways in bed as if I was going to shoot the Joker right in the back with my force blaster.

Well,

What did you dream about last night?

Whoop new template

Well, My attention span is shortening just like my tolerance for the same template for my blog. I wish that I was savvy enough to create my own template... but alas I will have to rely on those computer smart guys to think of things for me.

Anyway. Last night I ran to Chris' then Chris and I walked/ran for a LONG time. I found out that I don't use my hip flexor muscles in Zoomba, and they were in need of a work out. We ate dinner and started planning our church service for next week. It is looking promising. His job in planning is to be a liturgical genius and transition savvy, and my job it to make sure that the chords are in the right Key/Place and to sing random Christmas songs out of the Mennonite Hymnal because I couldn't find any other songs announcing Jesus birth.

It was beauteous, or at least I thought so till the hymnal was snatched from me like a lizard snatches a bug.

I did however find the sending song all by myself. Even though I thought that it was "Sweet victory in Jesus", before I realized that it was "I love to tell the story of unseen things above." They have similar beginnings. Mennonites are complicated.

After church-ing we played some Wii, and Chris killed me at tanks and I killed him at pool.

The real fun began when our score was tied 5-5 and we decided that it was best to end on an even note because both of us are too competitive. I decided that I wanted to create some new wii's.

I made my sister first. I couldn't get her face exactly right, but I am pretty sure I got the right size. She is twice as thin as I am and a whole head shorter. That makes her the tiniest Wii possible. It is so fun to watch her bop around the screen with husband Le, who I made next.

The most fun to make was Bob Ross. That's right, If you play baseball on my Wii you might just wind up at bat with Bob Ross.

Chris said that he wants to create the cast of American Idol next. His goal is to make Ryan Seecrest as little as my sister...

Fast and Slow

I have been engaged for three months and a two weeks.

Some of the time has gone fast. Correction the first two months went fast. Suddenly there is a lull in the time space continuum. It is as if time has ceased at three months and the next three will never happen.

Hmmm

I refuse to count down. Count downs are for new years and other frivolous holidays not weddings. I refuse to spend my days waiting for better/other/newer days. I don't want to wake up one morning and find that I have wished for each weekend or event so badly that I didn't take time to live during the "every day."

How am I going to accomplish living during the "every day"?

Well working world, How do you live during the "every day"?

Wii will Wii will rock you!

Guess what happened yesterday........

I called Target yesterday and asked them my usual question, "Hi, can I speak to someone in electronics?" "Do you have the nintendo Wii in stock?" They normally say, no we don't.

Four months people!

But yesterday they said YES!

So, I called Chris and told him that there was a wii at Target, and that he should go right then and get it. He told me, "I can't go now, it is a really bad time, I can maybe go later." So I resigned myself to teaching the rest of my afternoon classes with the knowledge that we probably just lost out at our once in four moths chance at a wii. Anyway... I didn't hear back from Christopher, so I called Target after school and they told me that THEY STILL HAD ONE!!!

I jumped in my car and went as fast as I could. I got there, and there was one left. It wasn't even out on the shelf. It was still in the back room. I texted Chris and said, "Tell me if you found one cause I am going to buy one in 5 minutes." I bought it and another controller, and then texted Chris telling him of the conquer of my spoils. I had been hunting for so long it felt good to finally get to purchase my sought after wii.

Christopher called me after school and I told him again of my purchase.
"No you didn't." he said.
"YES" I almost yelled.
"Well good cause I got one two." He told me with exasperation in his voice. "You mean that I busted my butt to get out of work to buy you a Wii, and you went and got one yourself?" He stated.
"Yes. You should check your phone." I quipped.

That's right, After waiting through 4 months of calling Wal-mart and Target about three times a week and finding nothing we suddenly had TOO many WII's.

So, we called our video gaming friends to see if they were in search of one, and when they weren't we took our EXTRA WII BACK TO THE STORE.

Oh yes... we did. So if there are any of you who are looking for, and can not find, there is a Wii at target in the northern town of the middle of the middle of Kansas.

How young they learn

I have been working on building a relationship with three girls from the fifth grade. They are girls who give teachers headaches with their constant chatter and fifth grade girl pettiness. They stayed after school last week to help me get my room ready for carnival and we had an interesting conversation about girls, boys, girls and boys, parents, phones, and listening to other people's ideas. It was quality time, and honestly it has helped me in my classes this week.

Anyway, This morning I took a little extra time with my hair (which is as long as it has been in a WHILE) and curled it with my new three barrel roller. It is not a curling iron per say, but more like a ginormous crimper that doesn't make crimps it makes waves. I like it a lot, and it is somewhat satisfying my life long desire for naturally curly hair.

A fifth grade boy walked in with his class this morning and said, "Miss. Music, what did you do to your hair? It looks weird." I told him, "I got a different iron."

One of my fifth grade girls walked up to me, put her hands on my shoulders in a somewhat comforting way and with an encouraging tone of voice said, "He might of said that it was weird, but at least he noticed and that's good."

frost

This morning I woke up and wanted to demand spring. One way to demand spring is to dress for spring right? Now some times people can wear skirts in the winter, so I decided that a skirt just would not do to truly demand spring.

I settled on a lovely light-weight short-sleeved blue sweater, white linen pants, and silver sandals with a little kitten heal.

I had to scrape FROST off of my car windows today. IN APRIL. FROST.

Grrrrr

At least I look good.

Monday

I am tired.
The weather changed today.
The kids were loud today, but they were controllable.
(I didn't have to outsource my classroom management to a Ninja.)

I had a good weekend.
Any weekend that includes more than one game of Hand and Foot is a good weekend.

Two observations from this weekend:
1 Captain Crunch Berries do taste good, but they do not make good beard ornaments.
2 Pranks cereal is not a good substitute for Trix Cereal.

Television

I don't have much to say really, but I want to post so that I have a little record of some of the things that I was doing at this point in my life.

We have about seven weeks of school left, and that is with no breaks added. (Yuck, no breaks is no fun) How did we get a day off each month for the rest of the year, and none in the last two months... the hardest of all?

I am completely interested in this season of American Idol. I have a feeling that it will be:
Brooke, David, David, and Carly/Michael in the top four. I can't decide who will beat out who between Carly and Michael since I think that the same kind of people are voting for both of them. The other one who may not get there is Brooke, just because her voice is not as powerful as the guys and Carly's. She is, in my opinion, one of the better musicians though and deserves to make final four.

I watched the first show of this season of Hell's Kitchen last night. It was completely painful to watch. You would think with all of the cooks in America they would be able to get more competent looking people on those shows. The opening show had 28 beeped out F's in it and the scenes from next week had two more for a grand total of 30 F's for the evening. Where I was raised, people could cook without F's. How bout you?

On a brighter note, This month is Jazz Appreciation Month! So go to your local library and get some Jazz music to jam to.