Change the Channel

When Jill and I moved to this town, we found out that it is nearly impossible to get any channels on the television without getting cable. So... we lived for a while without TV and it was alright, and then Jill got Cable because she needed it for football season. The Cable left when Jill left, and Husband and I have been without it for a while.

We got a digital antenna because that was supposed to fix the entire thing. Our converter box and antenna were going to be the monthly fee free solution to the problem. We found out that not even digital channels are broad casted at a high enough power level to reach this little middle of everywhere place.

We had Fox, NBC, and Occasionally (about once a week, after 6 P.M., when the atmospheric conditions were just right) we had channel 12... barely.

So I got used to changing the channel. That's it... one channel to change... then back to the first one... option a, option b, a, b, a, b... so on and so fourth.

Then the reception on Fox and NBC got dodgy... Chris got frustrated and made an antenna hammock out of my crochet yarn to hang in our large window in our living room in hopes that it would help... It didn't.

Long story short, we got cable. It is the most basic of basic packages. We get the first 6 months free and then after that we only pay $12.95 a month. It was hard to convince the cable guy that we didn't want to upgrade for 14.95 a month... we just wanted basic cable.

Last night I changed the Channels! It was pretty awesome... lots of political stuff, some home shopping network, and The Office of course.

Now I will be privileged to watch every Jerry Bruckheimer episode that CBS has to offer.

God cares about Wyan

This week is going faster than last week did. That is surprising because last week I only worked two real days. That just goes to show how 2 days of really hard classes can make up for 4 days of good classes.

I had one of a few successful kindergarten classes today. The am kindergarten is having a difficult time getting settled because of a new little guy in their class.

He is from a split home. He just moved in with dad. Mom wants him back. Dad is not a good parent, but he wants to be with dad. Little brother is much more of a nightmare than this little guy. He is getting along well with his teacher as long as she is doing what he wants to do. There is not much structure in his life. Today he was forced to come to my class, and he stood gripping the handle to the door for most of class. He had moved 3 feet into the room throughout the 20 minutes he was with me inches each minute. He is a good little kid... his life is hard.

God cares about wyan (little guy can't say his R's).

His eye is on the sparrow and I know he watches me.

This Town Hates Us

So...
This weekend we were invited to the young marrieds group pumpkin patch outing at our church. The young marrieds group is pretty active, and husband and I have been wanting to attend. We have not made it to anything on Sunday mornings because of Choir and other church commitments.

Anyway,
We were supposed to all meat at church at 6:45 to carpool to the pumpkin patch. Husband and I pulled in at 6:46. No one was there... Well I shouldn't say no one. Pastor M. was there. He sheepishly explained to us that we were the only ones who had showed up. He also told us that he couldn't understand why they didn't have a bigger crowd. Last time they all got together there were 36 people who attended.

I assured him it was because We had decided to come. All of our efforts for socialization have now been flushed. We are externally inflicted hermits.

Not My Style!

From weekend to weekend

This week was bazaar. On Monday and Tuesday I had in-service. We learned more about Ruby Payne and her theories on Poverty. It is helpful information, but after a while it seems to repeat itself.

On Wednesday, I stayed home from work with aches and serious congestion. I felt like some one was pounding on my nasal passages with a large bass drum mallet. (the fuzzy kind that is hard as a rock inside)

Then I was back to work yesterday and had a pretty good day. For the most part the children were well behaved and enthusiastic. I still have some students who come to class testing me. One month I need to completely not allow anything at all to happen. After their warning I just need to clamp down and make them miserable for the rest of music. I think that is the only way to get through to a couple of these kids. They must have no structure at home. Either that or they are just that ornery.

I am looking into Friday thinking... I just want to pass out and not get back up. That is not a practical option because when I do that on the weekends I wind up board and grumpy. So... we may go to the rival high school game tonight. That's what happens when you live in a town with two high schools. They become serious rivals. Our school is dressed out for south spirit because someday our kids will feed into the southern most high school here. We are having the cheerleaders come for a pep assembly and everything. SUCH an exciting day. And I get to skip out on my Crazy last class of the day. (first graders at the end of the day... not my idea)

Well, the bell has called me into action. Off I go to conquer the world. Or at least the morning...

In celebration of the lower gas prices...

Thump thump thump thump
Thump thump thump thump
Dun da dun dun dun dunnnnn dunnnnn
Dun da dun dun dun dun da da dunnnnn
Chick chick chick chick
chick chick chick chick
chick chick chick chick
chick chick chick chick Waaaaahhhh
I'm goin to Wichita...
Far from this opera forever more!
I'm gonna work the straw
Let the sweat drip out of every pore...

but seriously I am going to Wichita. So if you read this some time today, Friday, the 10th, and you are in Wichita, I might just see you.

Got Coffee? Saturday night. Be there or be square.

it's where all the attractive people go.

P.S. did you watch The Office last night? Did you or did you not think to yourself....

"I steal from my job all the time, (like right now)"
or perhaps.... "How can Angela do that? She has such double standards." ...
and finally..."I never want a steak ever again."

Family Reunion

Going to family reunions has never been a part of my life before. I think in my entire life I may have been to two on my mom's side and two on my dad's side. Once every ten years or so, and that's about it.

Sunday I got to go to my first In-law family reunion. It all started with Great Aunt Ruth's 90'th birthday party. It was held at the activity center at the old folks home in her home town. It was quite the display of fresh flowers, four different kinds of cake (white, lemon, chocolate and strawberry), mints, nuts and the other kind on nuts.

Since I happen to be from the small town that Aunt Ruth is from, I knew more of my husband's family than he did. However I did not acknowledge the fact that I did know them.

It was interesting at the party that all of the people looked like the cake, there were four distinct different kinds of people. People directly in Ruth's family, the outer circle of Ruth's family (which was the largest group), the I married into Ruth's family (there's me!!!), and the friends of Ruth and her family.

After the Birthday bash we ran around town and then made our way over to "the church" for the big reunion. (Which was pretty much the same people who were at the birthday party minus the friends of Ruth's family flavor)

Again, I knew more people than my husband. Husband, brother in law, and I were trying to think of clever things to write on our name tags instead of the traditional... "son of so and so." "Married to what's her face." statements that we were seeing.

Here are some of our best

Hello my name is Clinton "I am here for the food."
Hello my name Jen "I married in."
Hello my name is Husband "Antisocial"
Hello my name is Clinton "Mute"
Hello my name is Husband "No questions please."
Hello my name is Jen "I may say I remember you, but that is a lie."

Husband and I got to leave after about an hour and go hang out at my family's. Chris crashed, my sister and I talked. We ate wonderful food and that's about it.

My Sunday and my first in law family reunion.

Ahhh the memories.

check this out

http://antiquemommy.com/2008/09/23/horns/

Bread Machine

We got a bread machine for our wedding. We didn't do anything with it until last Sunday late afternoon. We were sitting around and decided that we wanted pizza. Problem: We ran out of food money for the month so we were out of luck. Suddenly we realized we had all of the ingredients to make pizza if we used the bread machine.

About 4 hours later after figuring it out, getting it ready, and combining ingredients we had pizza. It was GOOD.

Then we baked bread. Whole Wheat bread that takes a while to chew because it is so nutritious, but it tastes so good.

Last night we wanted burgers but we didn't have buns and remember no more food money so I used a french bread recipe, only set the machine on Dough then pulled it when it was ready and made my own buns. (Run on sentence that I am too lazy to edit) They were WAY better than store bought buns.

All of this to say... Getting married has not only benefited me in the usually expected ways but others as well Like...

The budget
The bread machine
The knowledge of baking
The creativity to put it all together.

Kindergarten Smile

I can not tell a lie. I was not excited to get another group of kindergartners through first semester this year. They are much easier to work with once they are used to me, used to the rules, and used to school.

Yesterday, I rescued a kindergartner before afternoon kindergarten started. She was walking through the hall way and looked quite lost.

"Mahala, are you lost?"
"Um... Yes I think I am lost."
"Well you just follow me."

I took her to her class, to which she was about 10 minutes early and luckily her teacher was free. Later I passed Mahala and her teacher walking from the front door to the kindergarten room so that "next time you won't get lost."

Two days ago I was in class with kindergartners and we were talking about Gustav Holst and how he wrote The Planets. This spurred a conversation about astronauts and who wanted to be an astronaut someday. This spurred a conversation about what do you want to be when you grow up.

"I wanna be a cowboy."
"I wanna be a fire man."
"I wanna be a chef! So does my brother!"

Then from the front of the crowd a little red headed girl with the HUGEST eyes you have ever seen raised her puppy paw sized hand and said.

"Mrs. Music... I want to be... I want... I... I want to be a... a... a Snow Cone when I grow up."

Well Addi, That is a high aspiration." I said with a smile and vote of confidence.

She smiled back and said, "Yes it is."

What do I want to be when I grow up?

I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up, but here are a list of possibilities:

1 Family Counselor
2 School Counselor
3 Teach Orff full time
4 Mom
5 Choir director (high school or college)
6 School Principal or vice principal
7 College president's wife

All of these things are true possibilities. None of them borderline on "not gonna happen." I have that list and it is longer than I am tall.

I don't know when the things on that list hit a "Not gonna happen" category. It is kind of interesting that I have that category as a optimistic dreamer. I guess that reality sets in as a person gets older.

Curse reality.

Don't mind me

Don't mind me as I sit here and sigh whilst I suck on my zinc throat lozenge.

Don't mind me as I sit here through hours and hours of parent teacher conferences and dream of getting this huge to do list done.

Don't mind me as my brain gets fat and lazy from a four day weekend without students and will be shocked into reality when Monday hits with a five day work week.

Don't mind me as my allergies cause my entire brain to drain down my nasal passage into my throat.

Don't mind me grumpy because of chocolate deprivation due to a valiant effort to "not be a fat butt."

Don't mind me while I watch the time that I should be directing choir tick by as I sit at my desk and think of ways to yet again be unassuming.

Self Help Town

So,
Husband and I have lately felt as if the town that we live in holds nothing for us but three wonderful jobs which we enjoy emmensely. The problem is that we don't know anyone and therefore have nothing to do after work but put around the house.

This puttering has inspired us to examine our lives and how we are spending our free time. We have come up with some self improvement ideas.

First of all we are embarking on team "do not become a fat butt." This team consists of Husband and I eating right and trying to exercise 5 times a week. So far we are three of three nights a week. Pretty good eh? We are also giving up pop. Yes no more soda for me. This will be a challenge since the beginning of the school year is causing me to suck down Pepsi and DrPepper like it is the lifeblood of my soul.

Our second self improvement step is to learn Spanish. I took three years of spanish in High School and loved it. Senoria Gassie was una bien profesora. What we really want to get is the Rosetta Stone, but it costs a little less than rent for one month. So... We are not sure when or if we are going to get it. Right now we are using a program from the public library. The first conversation the Husband learned in spanish was this.
"Perdon Senorita, intiende engles?"
"No Senor, no intiende. habla espanol?"
"Hablo espanol un poco."
"Es usted norte americano?"
"Si"

It was enthralling. Simply enthralling.

In other news... What else do I want to do with my life? It is the constent debate.

Rambo Shop

I admit it. I used to Rambo Shop.

Do not confuse this with Commando shop. Trying on clothes with no underpants is just NASTY!

Ewww.

But I did Rambo shop. Especially when I was with my mother and sister. We would set off at some AM time and travel a half hour to an hour away because everybody knows that it is hard to find clothes in Mac town. Anyway... we would set off on a LIS/SIS operation. (long inseam/short inseam) Pants were the goal and we were going to do anything that it took to get them.

Upon arrival we would relieve ourselves of the soda that we had consumed in transit. That my friends is the last time we would see a bathroom for the next 8-10 hours.

The next 3 hours would be spent following my little sister around trying on sizes that I couldn't get my left calf into.

All by itself.

Alone.

Then she would find sweet success in a store for tiny people with short legs, and the search for the 36" inseam pants would begin. After several strike outs I would wind up with something akin to capri's and resign myself to what would would become the 6 1/2 year search for khaki pants. (Seriously... from my junior year of high school to my first year of teaching I searched for khaki pants. Gap On Line $19.99 my saving grace.)

After the Three to Four hour search for long pants my mother would walk into Christopher and Banks, and at this point my sister and I would set up a fox whole in the dressing room next door to hers and would randomly comment on the nasty leftover fast food we found under the bench in the dressing room. Food that could only be seen when laying on the bench with legs up in the air resting on the wall.

I will have you know that my legs were up in the air in order to drain the blood that had collected in my swollen feet back to my head.

27 tops and 15 pants try ons later one of us declares mission accomplished, and we all decide that our throbbing heads must mean that our blood sugar levels have hit rock bottom along with our spirits. We would then head to a restaurant where we would go straight to the bathroom and then to our booth. Food would then be consumed in glorious quantities and we would travel home exhausted and victorious.

Victorious we would show dad our purchases in all of their glory and he would say his usual "Well, that's neat." and "I like that's" or my sister's personal favorite, "That's interesting... are you going to wear something over/under that?"

Rambo women we certainly were. Refusing to support our physical well being all in the Blessed name of Shopping.

Oooooo I'm mad

So,
Last year I wrote a grant for $2,500 and I actually got it. I have been anxiously awaiting my instruments arrival. I have also been calling and e-mailing the company to see why I don't have them yet.

They haven't contacted me to let me know why I don't have them.

I found out today it is because they lost the purchase order, and now I have to wrangle the SEF to send another purchase order.

I swear never to order from this company again. Grrrrrr. If I buy from them it will be in person. IN PERSON!!!

THE END

No words

Ok,
You know when you meet a kid and at first you think, Hm... cute kid but a little dense. Then after a while you think, Hm.... this kid is still cute but a few fries short of a happy meal. Then after an entire year of interaction something happens that seals the deal. This kid is cute... but seriously... Nothing capital N is happening upstairs. Nada.

Zip.

Ok, Mrs. Music is teaching first grade. We are watching a clip of Louis Armstrong because he is our composer of August. Anyway this little guy leans over and whispers,

"Teacher, (because he can't remember my name, not even my unmarried name)Why do you like music?"

"I Don't know, (I reply) But I love it. I really do love music."

"Oh," (he says his eyes lighting as if he has grasped a new level of knowledge)
"That is why they call you the music teacher~!"

Wow.

After a year and a month of me teaching him music he figures out that they call me the music teacher because I like music.

Wow.

Don't you hate it

Don't you hate it when you get a good idea for a blog, and then your life gets so busy that you can't remember your good idea a all?

Me Too.

Not only is it a good idea, but it also has an awesome catchy title which is sure to make all Internets who are not regular readers stop and glance after hitting the random "next blog" button.

Really stinks.

Just like my classroom.

"Like School Corn."

As in "Mrs. Music, Why does your classroom smell like school corn?"

Indeed, I do not know.

School Daze

You know that old song "School Days?"

Well, I don't either.

But I do know that I wouldn't have named it "School Days" I would have named it "School Daze." Because it does seem like the beginning of school is a daze.

I am using my shorter than short lunch break to type this (10 minutes to scarf down food, and 10 minutes to communicate with the 10 Internets out there who read this blog.)

So far I have had an excellent fifth grade beginning.
A par for the course second grade start.
A troubling third grade kick off.
And in kindergarten town little Susie Sunshine announced that,

"This is boring"

I wanted to say, "Duh, of course it is boring. We are learning how to make a circle because average child IQ has dropped an approximately 50 percent and you my dear are the only student in class whose parents both played with her which put you in the top 90 percent in class and did not teach her common manners."

Instead I said, "Why little Susie Sunshine, that is not a very kind thing to say, and we will move on to more fun things in just a moment." (in the happiest fake voice you ever did hear."

All in all not a bad day, especially since this year the kindergartners actually made a circle on their second try!

Astounding

My second post of firsts

So, Disregarding my last post this is my first post as a married woman. I probably should have written this one first, but it was easier to write the last one because it was light and required little thought to organize and publish. I am not so much into thought and organization right now. This is reflected in the bedroom across the hall from me right now. Disgusting.

There are some things about marriage that have surprised me

For instance. When I set the alarm at night, it is not for me, since I am not working right now. Nope it is for Husband who is working and doing a wonderful job of it. So when I panic about weather the alarm will go off or not, it is not for me but for him. But here's the deal. I thought, before the wedding,"Whew... we will both set an alarm so therefore if one of us messes up the setting at least the other's will go off and therefore save me the worrying of the malfunction of an alarm clock.

I was wrong.

Also, planning meals is a little different as well. When he says... "I think I want _____ ______ with _____ for supper." I jump on it because seriously, I don't like deciding what we are going to eat. I am less picky than he is and therefore I agree with pretty much any eating choice. He however is more likely to say, "let's not have ____ tonight lets have _____ instead." Which is how I found out that if one marinades fish one day thinking that one will eat it that evening, and the eating of the fish is put off for two more days, the fish will definitely be OVER MARINADED.

Lemon Pepper.... That is all I have to say.

But, for the most part Marriage so far has been delightful free of the past stresses of our relationship.

Such as,

"Should I bring the food to your house?"

"Should you bring food?"

"Shouldn't we go out cause it is easier than lugging around groceries?"

"Should we kiss that long?"

"Was that too long."

"Is there a too long?"

"Am I a Loose Woman?" (no kidding)

The ever popular high school question that should never be subjected onto adults of "How far is too far?" "What about farther?" "NO FARTHER THAN....!!!" "BAH"

"Did you remember to bring the game/movie/invitation/miscellaneous stuff that we need over here tonight or do we have to go back to your house to get it?"

"It is stupid for us to make two rental payments, and two utilities payments, and two everything else payments. At least we can combine our phone plan and sill live a blameless life before God and Man."

So you see, there are definitely wonderful reasons to get married. Some of the more positive ones are:

Saying goodnight in bed instead of outside in the dark standing barefoot on the unforgiving ground.

Talking about forever without worrying about making boyfriend nervous.

Getting to go to the Young Married's Sunday School Class rather than the No Man's Land Sunday school class that every church from here to Galilee tries to pass off as a "Single's Group."

And that list doesn't even mention the unmentionable. That's good too

I am going to postlude to any of you who stumble across this entry and are discouraged by wanting a marriage but not having one. Do not despair, God's timing is wonderful and he has amazing plans for your life just as he has for mine. Who can fathom the wisdom that God has, or the reasons for the incidents in our lives. No one can. So therefore be encouraged because the unfathomable is yours to live out day by day.

first post of firsts

This is my first post on my new school laptop. It is a wonderful thing to graduate from a PC from the early 2000's to a lap top that I can take with me where ever I wish it to go. I went to pick it up this morning, and I had to go through this excellent training.

It began with : How to dock a lap top at a docking station.

NO do not open the lap top. The monitor now works as your computer monitor just like normal.
A monitor is the screen thingy in front of you.

Now turn on the lap top. Ahem... This is the power button. No not that power button, the one on the docking station. Yes there is a power button on the actual lap top, but for the purposes of today we will not be using it. YES you can use the other power button at home.

This is the new Improved (gay) version of microsoft office. Have fun finding spell check. Then after a week of practicing finding spell check you can begin the terrible journey of finding PRINT!!!

Anyway... It was kind of like the blind leading the blinder and some sighted persons like myself through the valley of the shadow of death.

I will admitt that when I tried to open the package that had my power chord in it, I launched the chord across the room with the force of Dwight's potatoe gun. I didn't feel quite so bad though because the woman who was leading the training launched the laptop, that she was carying around the room as a visual aid, onto the floor with a terrible crash.

You didn't see that, She said.

Oh yes... We did Miss curriculum tech from so and so elementary.

I just felt bad for the guy next to me who was a computer programing teacher. I can imagine that he felt that the introduction to the start menue was quite benieth him.

Although the "do not undock your lap top untill the light turns green" statement probably became his sustinance for life in that dry and barren technical desert.

Play day... wow. Jump Jump Jump!

It is the last day of school. I have to go teach my morning classes. I am excited and in a weird mood all at the same time. It doesn't feel like it should be the end, but then again it is just the beginning of another end. So anyway.

I wish that I could have had more time to write over the past couple of days. We had play day yesterday. I was the leader of team six. The kids did amazingly well. My group had little to no problems and my fifth grade leaders were AWESOME. We decided that team six jumps. When people asked us why we jump, we just said, "we don't know, we just jump." Kids love a gimmick. We did jumping celebrations throughout the day.

I was also glad that I took the time and the money to make bandanna ties for each of the kids in team six. The group was split into teams of four and these teams were categorized by color. I had 24 little Rambo head bandanna head clad youths following me around all day. It was truly something to jump about.

I am not having a jumping celebration for the farmers tan that I got yesterday. No body told me that it was going to be 91 degrees and all sunny. Not that I didn't enjoy my favorite kind of weather, I just wish that I would have sun screened my face and arms. Hey, it could be worse; I could be burnt.

school year's end.

What do I do at the school year's end?

I need to clean up, clean out, and take down. I need to clear out, and make room. I need to...

I need the people from Mission Organization to come to my classroom and make it PRETTY!!!

I need help.

I need to get to work.

NOW

Summer 2008 to do list: This list is in process, even though summer is not

I am not working this Summer for the first summer in about 9 years. Instead I am going to:

1. Clean out my apartment room by room, inch by inch
2. Clean out my room at my parents house
3. Learn how to make cinnamon rolls

4. Finish wedding details:
4a. Figure out wedding gifts
4b. Reception food
4c. Reception paper goods
4d. Reception decorations/wedding decorations
4e. Find a huge GINORMOUS fern
4f. Choose Scripture/music/readings
4g. Prepare a centerpiece to see if it works
4h. Finalize Photos/Dress/Flowers
4i. Get shoes
4j. Get musicians their music
4k. Move Room mates stuff out
4l. Move Christopher's stuff in
4m. After wedding move Christopher in

5. Get Married
6. Honeymoon
7. Print/Send 6 hundred million thank you cards
8. Buy back my soul from the united states postal service

9. Learn how to be a wife
10. Learn how to cook more German food
11. Make a quilt from the wedding fabrics

12. Plan/choreograph programs for the 2008/2009 school year
13. Go to balavisicx work shop
14. Go to Orff work shop
15. Go to tech work shop
16. Get my room ready for 2008/2009 school year

Indicatory

If the way that I feel this morning is an indication of how the children are feeling, I am done for.

I had a most wonderful weekend. Christopher's birthday was Friday and we went to the River fest and then saw Colby Collette at an outdoor concert. She is good by the way. I have only heard a couple of her songs on the radio and such, but she has a good repertoire, and she is not bad live which is a problem for some performers. Not bad means good in this case.

Then we watched brother of Christopher play tennis at state on Saturday. He metaled, and we are Very proud of him. I never knew how fun and intense Tennis could be. I truly enjoyed myself.

Saturday the rest of the day we spent with the fam, as well as Sunday. All of the extended family came over on Sunday for a salad lunch. I had some good coleslaw that I will have to post the recipe for. I also made a hot water cake that was GOOD.

Then Sunday night we went to the burro to watch my dad play bass in the oratorio. He did wonderful... Applause for Dad!!! And we celebrated birthday of Crustin and Justifer and Mothers day afterward. All of the families in one place... now there's a loud room of people.

Then home again home again to a wonderful bed at a little later than I wanted it to be.

Amy is right... Traveling every weekend is not easy, but it is almost always fun.

Live for the week as well as the weekend! (that is my new mantra)

divine revelation of a kindergartner

"The only things that should go in your mouth is food and your tooth brush." ~ Brock

"And also drink, you need drink." ~ Mi'chael

How true that is, how true that is.

TOOOOSDAY!

Yah,
That's it.

TOOOSDAY

Don't want to be at work.

Really want to go for a walk right now.

Specials teachers need recess just like the kids do.

~THE END~

Desperate Times Call for Desperate Measures

Well ladies and germs, There are officially fifteen days left in our school year. These are desperate times my friends.

Desperate times due to the fact that both our principal and our assistant principal are out of the building today. Do you understand what that means???

The inability to send children to the office.

Gasp!

It is true, we are not allowed to give office referals because our principals are gone, and the secretary just doesn't think it is in her job description to RIP kids. Even though both you and I know that she could rip anybody's kid any day of the week.

The biggest part of this deal is that, Shhhhh we don't want the kids to know that they are gone.

So in a desperate effort to fool the students, our secretaries have set up a Tina dummy.

Behold the Tina Dummy



It is a suit of clothing stuffed in proportion to our fearless leader. It is topped with a proportional balloon with a wig on top of it. The face of the balloon has been artistically improoved to look pretty much JUST LIKE TINA. Tina dummy sat at her desk for half of the day yesterday.

I thought that our office staff had stuff to do... I guess not.

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.

Vision

I had an interesting weekend. If you have been reading or have any touch with my life, you will know that last year I moved to a new place to start a new job. I have a new room mate and at Christmas a new Fiance. All of these new things had changed my way of thinking without me knowing it.

I have always been a person with a large imagination and a will to make those things which I imagine come into being. This past year I have lost my imagination and without knowing it I have also lost my vision. This weekend I got some of that back. Christopher and I had an interesting night on Saturday, and we broke through a large communication wall. He helped me see some things that I had been too distracted to see. In being distracted, I had lost the ability to look ahead to the future and see the possibilities there. I was just seeing bleak options and failure in our current location.

Then on Sunday the pastor talked about how Vision is just hope with a Blue Plan. How true that is. I can hope for things, and with a Blue Plan I can make those things happen. With a vision I don't have to get stuck looking at the ground where I am standing. I can look from this place to a place I want to be. That is a wonderful thing.

I Pray,

Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art.
Thou my best Thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word;
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;
Thou my great Father, I Thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.

Be Thou my battle Shield, Sword for the fight;
Be Thou my Dignity, Thou my Delight;
Thou my soul’s Shelter, Thou my high Tower:
Raise Thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.

Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise,
Thou mine Inheritance, now and always:
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art.

High King of Heaven, my victory won,
May I reach Heaven’s joys, O bright Heaven’s Sun!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.

READ THIS!

So,
I have many times said that you should read what bigmama writes, but this time I have a specific audience. It is directed to the female sex, those of us who take the extra time to worry about lots of stuff, those of us who are pondering the future, and those of us who just want some answers.

Read it please and know her heart, and know my heart, and know your own heart.


http://thebigmamablog.com/index.php/2008/03/27/pressing-on/

Misty Morning

This morning we had a staff meeting, which means that there was precipitation today. During the winter, there was always snow on Staff Meeting Mornings. Now that it is FINALLY spring, it is a misty morning. I love the misty mornings though. They are some of my favorites. I love that feeling of the air being cool and fresh. The air is moist enough to drink, but it is not hot enough to feel like a sauna.

Ahhhhh....

I hope that the misty morning is a prediction of a good day.

Off to Kindergarten and the Very Hungry Caterpillar. "He ate through one apple...two..."

Can't find a church

Hi,
Sometime I worry, which is a sin, and it is funny because I worry about stuff like why "We can't find a church."

We have looked high (on the hill) we have looked low (way out on state street) we have looked in the middle (mid central part o town). We have tracked, trodded, tripped, tried, and become tired.

Does this mean that we shouldn't be here?

GRRRR I can't put into words how much I hate that question.

Poop!

The Thoughts in Chuck's Lounge

Tere is refusing to cook all of next week. She says that she has enough left overs to feed an army.

Kathy said that her kindergartners are confused as to why she died her hair.

Megan does not want to eat her lunch, or any other food for that matter. She is already big enough (Megan is having a baby and is looking quite round)

Amanda's personal trainer is writing her up on an exercise plan... She wants to loose 15 lbs and tone the leftovers from pregnancy.

Deanna just wants to make sure that everyone signs the sheet proving that they were at the in service so that they can get paid.

Becca wants the jerk she met a couple of weeks ago to stop texting her.

Gina is sick, and wants to go home.

and:

Shawn is counting down the days left of school. There are 47 including our end of the year work day.

I am wondering if I can send an entire third grade class to Green Land And 2 fifth grade classes to Siberia?

Today I was almost pantsed

Do you remember the fear of getting pants-ed in Gym class. You made sure you tied the drawstring cord very tight in your little uniform PE shorts. Luckily I was never pants-ed in Gym. I was pants-ed in Volleyball, but that was somehow OK because Volleyball is just girls.

Anyway... I was in the hall at school and the Inter Related students (students with severe and multiple disorders) got back from bowling. One fifth grade student stopped me to tell me that he did a good job bowling today. It was hard to understand him because of his mental condition, but I gave him a Hi Five and congratulated him on his personal best. Then he gave me a hug. The hug didn't end there. He went from a hugging position standing to a hugging position around my ankles without letting go. It was something akin to sliding down a wide fire pole. Luckily I had a long undershirt on, and I grabbed my pants as he was on the way down. I saved my butt (literally) by just a few inches.

While he was down around my feet he made some inappropriate motions with his pelvis. (Oh yes... he did... ahem)

I sternly told him that "No, You may NOT do that!" and he got up and went to his classroom.

Little did I know that someone would try to pull down my pants and well... ahem.

Is it Thursday, Because that was certainly inappropriate, but it makes for a good story.

Eye of the Tiger

Here is the deal,
My town had a teacher induction program much like other districts. Basically it consists of a mentoring program which is good, and a bunch of other mindless paperwork which is not good. Our last meeting is coming up WAHOO, and for this meeting each of the new teachers has to give a positive presentation of what they learned/what happened during their first year of teaching.

There are four new teachers at my school this year, and the beauty of it is that three of us graduated from the same little college and lived together my sophomore year. We know a lot about each other and we decided to work on the project together. We are making a music video for our program, because there is no other cool way to deal with this presentation. We have chosen the song Eye of the Tiger. Filming normal situations in school started about 2 weeks ago, and next Monday we are all going to get our 80's on and do some shots of us "working out" and "teaching our kids." There will be no students involved in this process. We are going to clip in our 80's footage into the regular footage that we already have.

I am wondering... What should I wear? I have an afro, and I know that it's 70's, but seriously... I have an afro.

What else should I wear?

How much does it matter

I am an American Idol fan. As I watched the show last night, I wondered. How much do the judges comments matter in the outcome of the show. Last night's turn out was in complete agreement of the judges thoughts, but in other seasons... that has not been the case.
This has been the hardest season to predict. Normally I can pick out the top 4 or 5 contestents out of the top 20 or so, but this season it is anybody's ball game. I think that the rest of America may feel the same way I do. All of the contestents are differenc and for the most part all of them are extremely gifted.
So, Congradulations Simon Paula and Randy, this is the time when your comments matter the most. Because no one can REALLY judge past those obvious week links who will be "The Next American Idol."

P.S. The new stage is cool, but the intro.... Really? And it cost HOW MUCH?

That's all.

P.P.S. I am totally loving Brook. Not the best singer, but definately one of the better artists.

Shhhhh No TALKING!

Yesterday I had First and Second Grade programs. I was super impressed with my second grader's behavior for both the performance and the dress rehearsal in front of the school.

I was less than impressed with my first grades' behavior for the dress rehearsal. They talked in between songs, and they talked during songs. So after the dress rehearsal I went back to their classrooms and explained to them how important it is to not talk during programs. I finished the speech by having them put their right hands in the air and their left hands on their nose.

"Repeat after me" I said.

"I Promise" - "I Promise"
"That I" - "That I"
"Will not" - "Will not"
"Talk in between songs" - "Talk in between songs"
"and if I do" - "and if I do"
"I will let" - "I will let"
"Miss Music" - "Miss Music"
"Cut my nose off" - "Cut....WHAT!?!?!?!"
That was met by a chorus of "Miss Music are you really going to cut our noses off?"
"Yes." I answered
"Really?" They questioned
"No" I said
"Really?"
"No I am not kidding." I stated
"YOU ARE REALLY GOING TO CUT MY NOSE OFF!?!?!" They exclaimed
"Yes." I said.
"Miss Music, if you cut my nose off will I die?" they wondered.
"No." I stated.

Then I left the room.

Always keep them guessing.... And Lie. It keeps them interested.

High School Again?? O Dear...

Wow,
It was hard to wake up this morning. I was having weird dreams again, two nights in a row. I remember the one from last night. I was forced to go back to high school. It was almost like we all got taken back in time, and we couldn't exactly remember what life was like before we were taken back. I remember coming to school (looking like I did in High school) wearing one of my old favorite pairs of jeans, and remembering that I had to change into a skirt or I would get in trouble. I got a skirt out of my old locker (which always has a combination in my dreams, even though I never had one in high school) and went to the bathroom to change. The entire time I am thinking "I know that I am independent, I live on my own, I have a job, I can't remember that job, but I should not be here." But then I would see someone looking like they looked in High school, and I would think... Hmmm that must have been a dream. (But it was really real life)

I looked for my class with my friend Shauna. We found them in Mr. Loewen's room, but it wasn't Mr. Loewens room. It was Mrs. Kaufman's room, and Mr. Nelson was the teacher there. We had a bunch of food in the room. There was breakfast food, and lunch food, and supper food, and desert. Amy got up and made herself a salad stating, "Well if no one else is going to eat this, I am going to." I got up and got a muffin and a banana. Then I sat back down in a desk that had to be adjusted to my height because my knees wouldn’t fit. I sat down by a couple of guys that could only be known as “the good old boys who never worked on anything in high school…or at least it seemed like that.” My arch nemesis sat on my other side, and within the first minute of me sitting down, he included me in conversation was nice, polite, and friendly. I should have taken that clue that it was a dream.

Anyway… Nelson gets up to make an announcement. He starts off with, “I know that some of you are confused as to why you are here. It has been a while since you have been here and I won’t waste any time in getting back to….”

That is all that I remember. I think I woke up, possibly screaming because of the thought of having to go through the awkwardness of my sophomore, junior, and senior year because that dream sure zapped me back to the beginning of my sophomore year.

Jesus Works Music Miracles

Even in the music classroom, miracles can happen. I just got an e-mail about a grant I wrote earlier in the year for $2,715.00. I didn't expect to even get half, because well, that is a lot of money in the world of education. The e-mail is as follows:

The Allocations Committee has met and will fund your grant request. Yes, complete funding! We would like for you to put Tuesday, March 25 on your calendar for a reception honoring our new grant recipients and the new LIFT recipients. The reception is from 4-5:00 and the presentation of the grant and LIFT recipients will be made first thing on the BOE’s agenda.

Letters are going in the pony today—but wanted to share the good news with you now. We are excited to sponsor your great project.

HOW AWESOME IS THAT!?!?!

That money is going to make it possible to use Orff instruments in my classroom! I no longer have to have five students per instrument!!! I have enough instruments for a full score orchestration!!! WOW~!

SWEET MUSIC IN THE WORLD OF MISS MUSIC!

Can't make myself work

I can't seem to make myself get stuff done. I am becomming quite the procrastinator. It is not a healthy habbit to be a procrastinator. I have seen at first hand what procrastination can do to a person. STRESS much STRESS.

So, I am going to go enter grades... Yes that is what I will do...

Or I might go check out some blogs.

I AM SO BAD!

Yesterday my head hurt

I had a headache yesterday at 6:20am that got worse and peaked from 4:30-9:15 when I went to sleep. It was possibly the worst headache I have ever had. I woke up this morning and gingerly took my head off of the pillow. It did not hurt and still does not, but I am going to be extremely careful with my actions for the rest of the day.

No Shouting at Children~!

Sub part 2: AS IF THIS SUB THING COULDN’T HAVE GOTTEN ANY WORSE!

I just came back from Chuck’s lounge and found out that my Tuesday sub had also outraged the third graders as well as the fourth graders, and here’s how.

The third graders were playing a review game, and they were split into two sides. She gave the contestants only 15 seconds to answer and then she counted them wrong. She didn’t help them with the material, and to top it all off. SHE GAVE THE WINNING TEAM SUCKERS!!! YES SHE APPARENTLY FOUND THE SUCKERS AND GAVE THEM OUT TO THE THIRD GRADERS WHO WERE NOT SUPPOSED TO GET SUCKERS!!!

When I told this to the teacher I sat with at lunch she told me, “Well she gave my kids suckers.”

WHAT!?>!?!!)(*&#$)(EOF(#)(*#$)(&@#)(*&%)(*#$$

“Yah,” she said “when I came in she said, well team 1 wins and she gave team 1 all suckers.”

Let me show you my sub plans for this class.

RECORDER REVIEW
The students have been playing recorders for a while now, and they have some songs that they can play. Have students choose songs to play from the pages that we have worked on.

The overheads for our pages are located in the red folder under the overhead projector. It says recorder on it.

They may choose songs from pages 6-11. Songs on page 11 are very new.

You will need to count off four beats before the students play.
You will need to snap the steady beat while the students are playing to keep them on track.
You, or other students, may point to the note that is being played with the long black pointer on the ledge of the board. (If you do have a pointer, make sure it is someone who can keep a steady beat and point to the correct note.)

Is there a review game anywhere in sight in those sub plans? Is there mention of a team? Is there mention of ANYTHING LIKE SOMETHING THAT LOOKS LIKE THE WORD SUCKER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FOX that is her last name, I don’t know the first name of my sub, but students call her MRS FOX.

Well, let me tell you a thing or two MRS FOX. I agonize over my sub plans. I stare at them for 45 minutes after I have taken 4 hours to write them just so that they will be easy to understand and work with. I was a sub. I know that a sub needs good plans, and goll darn it my plans are good. If you,,, O HIGH AND MIGHTY ONE SENT TO ME FROM RUBY AT THE BOARD OFFICE have a problem with the fact that I LIKE TO KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON IN MY CLASSROOM, then LET ME KNOW IN A NOTE!!! I am bossy by nature, THAT IS WHY I AM A TEACHER!!!! Don’t give my students candy with peanuts that could CAUSE THEM TO SWELL BEYOND RECOGNITION. And don’t MAKE UP FOR A STUPID MISTAKE BY FEADIN MY STUDENTS THE SUCKERS THAT YOU WERE TWO IMPOTENT TO FIND IN THE FIRST PLACE. AND DON’T LET 3RD GRADERS TALK YOU INTO GIVING YOU CANDY!!! IT IS STUPID. And most importantly DON’T MAKE EVERY LESSON INTO A REVIEW GAME JUST BECAUSE IT IS EASY TO CLASSROOM MANAGE THEM!!!!!

I am going to ask my fourth graders what happened in class with MRS FOX and I may write another post for the day.

I have already have requested that MRS FOX not come to my classroom AGAIN.

Beware subs, my students tattle.

Beware subs, my students will tell.

I just got back from a two day sick/two day conference week, which meant I was at school on Wednesday last week, which explains my absence from posting. How’s that for a long sentence with terrible structure???

Anyway, One of my fifth grade classes came into the room today, and a student (Cody) who normally gives me no end of grief asked me,

“Miss Music, Where were you last week???”

I said, “Well, I had the flue on Monday and Tuesday and then I worked on Wednesday and then had a conference on Thursday and Friday.” I went on to talk a little bit about how I was sorry that they had not gotten a chance to teach the lessons they have been working on, and a student raised their hand and said,

“We had to do a lot of boring stuff.”

I thought to myself, I liked music bingo when I was little…I still like bingo. Heck people of all ages like bingo… do children of this day really think that bingo is boring?

Cody piped up, “Yah and the sub was MEAN! I got a bingo, and I tried to read it back to her, and I forgot what the bass clef was called so she told me that NOPE I couldn’t get the candy for the bingo, and that I couldn’t get another bingo! And I didn’t even want the candy because it was in her hand, and her hand was sweaty and it made the candy soggy and it was Gross!”

This was met by a chorus of loud affirmations from the rest of Cody’s indignant class members.

I was more than a little confused, How can sweaty palms make suckers soggy?

Another student said, “And she only did give out like four M&M’s when she did give candy!”

HOLD IT, HOLD ON, WHO SAID ANYTHING ABOUT M&M’S I thought. I had suckers. The lesson plan said suckers. The apple on my desk with the sticky note on it that says SUCKERS is full of SUCKERS!!!

“Where did she get the M&M’s?” I asked them…

Irving proudly walked over to my desk corner (where he is not aloud) and opened my middle drawer (which he is not supposed to do) and removed my emergency stash of dark chocolate peanut M&M’s. “FROM HERE!!!” he nearly shouted.

“She was supposed to give you suckers!” I exclaimed. “This apple is full of suckers, and that was supposed to be when you got a bingo, and I didn’t tell her that you had to read them all back correctly… She was supposed to help you and teach you when you forgot something, not take away your bingo! I am so sorry that it was so terrible.”

In my head I am thinking: WHAT THE CRAP!!! I CAN’T BELIEVE THAT SHE GAVE THEM M&M’S WITH PEANUTS IN THEM!!! HAS SHE EVER BEEN IN A SCHOOL BUILDING BEFORE!?!?! WE CANT EVEN SERVE PEANUTBUTTER SANDWICHES IN THE LUNCH ROOM BECAUSE OF ALLERGIES! WE HAVE SUNBUTTER SANDWITCHES FOR CRYING OUT LOUD. AND NOW MY SUB IS HANDING OUT PEANUT CANDY!!! AM I GONNA GET SUED???

The thought that followed was as urgent as this.

EMERGENCY M&M STASH IS GONE!!!

Cody raised his hand to call me back to earth and said, “All that I have to say is… we are glad you’re back.”

Suddenly it didn’t matter so much that all of my M&M’s were gone. Maybe this fifth grade class will appreciate me more now that they see that the alternative could be much worse.

Sister

Happy Birthday sister of me! Toast to 21 years of life on the earth. Toast to all that we learn in 21 years. Toast to all that we will learn in the next approximately 60 years. Toast to having 1/4 of life's toils over. Toast to experiencing 21 years of joys. As you begin your 22nd year, remember that in the past 21 I have been there, and I plan on being there in the next 60.

Jen

Was that a Joke?

Today in one of my third grade classes I asked the students... (while pointing to a metalliphone)

"This is a metalliphone, and why do you suppose it is called a metalliphone?

"Because it is made out of metal" Kid says

"That's right, because it is made out of metal. (pointing to a xylophone) This is a Xylophone, and why do you suppose it is called a xylophone,"

"Because it is made of wood" Alvaro piped up

"That's right, because it is made of Xylo" I replied...

"Ooooo... what is xylo?" asked Alvaro...

"It's a joke... Duh" Anna Said

"Miss hope... was that a joke?" Alvaro...

"Yes."

Oooo. Alvaro nodded his head as a glimmer of understanding blinked in the distance.

Is it Friday yet?

The Man on the Other End of the Line

Today I talked with a man on the other side of the USA. It was a simple conversation about the whats and what nots of reserving a short term apartment in Boston for this summer. His web page was down, and I needed to get the reserving done, so we resorted to the good old telephone.

We were both on cell phones, but he hung up and called back on a land line... I don't know why. He told me, but I couldn't hear through the thick accent.

He seemed like a nice guy. He was genuinely interested in the fact that his web page was down, and he kindly took care of my need to plan things MONTHS in advance.

Speaking of planning things months in advance... I am convinced that I could plan a wedding in 1 month. Yes mam/sir I could do it, and probably even work a full time job while doing so. The hardest part of it would be the invitations, because it takes some effort to gather the address of EVERYONE significant from your ENTIRE life. But other than that, it can be done.

The problem is the rest of the world. Can you believe these people who think that one must plan their wedding a year to two years in advance? I have 6 months, and people make comments to me about having a "short" engagement. Who do they think I am Droopy the slow moving detective cartoon who chugs out 5 words a minute? No, I am an efficient, determined, task oriented, exhausted woman of 24 who is out to make some progress. That is why I glued ribbon to paper for 2 HOURS last night. It is the fault of those people who book their whoever (cake, photo, church, pastor, dress, meal) 16 months in advance that those of us are FORCED to be engaged for 6 months when we just want to get married YESTERDAY.

This post went in a totally different direction than I was planning. Heh, kind of like life sometimes right?

I am out.

Don't Let Tere Come For You

Set up the scene:

It is February 13th, the day before parent teacher conferences and a four day weekend for students. The temperature in the room is on the warm side because these students know that the weekend is coming tomorrow and they only have one hour left of the school day. We are working on program music so all students have come to their seating arrangements and are, for the most part, ready to work. I attain quiet in the room, point out our agenda, and start our first song.

Suddenly the door at the back of the room opens. The sound is not loud, but it not soft. It is a firm purposeful opening of a door but also an opening that is not to be disturbing to more than one student. This one student hears the door open and his eyes open just a little bit wider.

I know, but I keep teaching.

Tere enters the room, a wonderful woman full of wisdom, knowledge, and the personality of one who has been teaching in the public school system for 20+ years. She moves with confident strides her magenta and black skirt swishing around her socked and Birkenstocked ankles.

I keep teaching.

Students who were not aware of her presence are now well aware that she is in the room, and that she is coming for someone.... someone who may not know that she is even there for them. But, that someone knows and is desperately trying to concentrate on being the best little musician he can be before being seized by Tere.

I keep teaching.

As Tere reaches her target she touches him on the shoulder. He turns to protest, but is not given the chance. She looks him in the eye with the look that only a Mother can give, takes him by the hand, and commandingly leads him from the room.

I keep teaching.

As the door clicks shut with the quiet loudness of impending doom, students turn to continue singing the song. There is a question in there eyes, "Will we ever see the Target of Tere again?" And the question lingers in the suddenly chilly air.

I keep teaching.

Valentines Day

So,
Valentines Day cometh again. It cometh every year; some to haunt, some to encourage, some to fill with emotion, and some to cram a schedule.

I am the later. I am the one who always has some stupid obligation to fulfill on Valentines Day. In fact within the three Valentine Days that I have been with Christopher, every one has been full to the brim with commitments and other such nonsense.

Last year I had the Phonathon, and Christopher had class...
The year before I had class.

You would think that professors of the collegiate world would care about valentines day a little more, since those of us who had someone to "Valentine" with were a little more serious about our valentining than we had been at younger ages. But no, they do not.

I am finding that Elementary schools are a little more forgiving... For the students. Not for the teachers. OR their parents. Yes, we have Parent Teacher Conferences on Valentines day, and in the evening until 7:30.

YUCK!!! Who wants to hear about their child's behavior/misbehavior on VALENTINES DAY!?!?!

No one, that's who, And what teacher even wants to think about their brood of 20-30-425 students on Valentines Day evening

No one, that's who,

But until USD Blankity blank blank can gets their act together... we will have conferences on Valentines day evening, and Christopher will again sit home by him self pining for the sight of my smiling face.

Good things are worth the wait

So,
As I get older, I am really learning that good things are worth the wait. I had to wait till I was an eighth grader to attend a school with more people than just my sister. I had to wait till I was 18 to go to college. That was worth it. I had to wait till I was 22 to start dating, and that was worth it. I had to wait till I was 24 to get my first teaching job, and that was worth it. And so on and so forth goes life.

So why am I all fired up to know what is next when I know that whatever it is will be worth the wait.

At least I won't have to deal with this for the rest of my life...

Oh, wait...

P.S. Congradulations to those of you who have just made it through a LONG wait.

super bowl commericals

Well, I thought that the commercials this year were not as wonderful as they have been in years past. There were some good ones, and there were some that made me want to crawl into a hole and mourn the state of man kind.

Favorites of mine,
Coca Cola where Stewie and Underdog were fighting for the coca cola bottle and the Charlie Brown balloon got it!
The E-trade commercial where the baby hired a clown with his "Extra Cash" but regretted his choice because he underestimated the "creepy factor"
The Budweiser commercial that was a rocky spoof when the Clydsdale doesn't make the team and then trains for the "big league"
I also loved the car commercial where the squirl was about to get run over and the camera panned to all of the screaming annimals. Very good!

Low points:
The Amp Commercial... Need I say more?
The Sales Genie commercials Both of them, but mostly the one with the pandas

Other than that... CRAP the Giants just scored! If they win, I will not be super happy. And you may not hear from me tomorrow, because I will be mourning the loss of the only NFL team that I have cared about since I was in Elementary school and I liked the Bears because my family thought that it was cute that I could talk like Mike Ditka.

Also, overtime would not be good, because I am in The burro right now, and I don't want to have to drive back So late.

Need I say More?

So, I can not campaign any more for the links that I have on my blog. I believe in what these women and men are writing. If you need more proof that they are good writers who deserve a glance then just take a look at this little paragraph straight from the mouth of Big Mama!

"Well, y’all will probably be as relieved as I was to know that according to some “experts” on the internet, my eyelashes should grow back in six to eight weeks. In the meantime I will be walking around with a naked eye because false eyelashes aren’t really in the cards for me due to the fact that I have the manual dexterity of a monkey with oversized hands that has just finished a bottle of cheap tequila."

Her only fault is the frequent use of the word, "Y'all."

Also, check out Antique Mommy’s post Reaching for Angels. It is pretty awesome.

The only thing I have left to say is, Thank God It's Friday!

Cameras have an odd effect on people

Have you ever noticed what happens in a room when a camera appears. You have to be a good sneaky photographer to get a camera into a room and get some pictures taken before any one notices. For instance, I had to video tape myself a couple of days ago for an evaluation that I had to do for work. The students were acting normal at first because they did not notice the camera. Yet as soon as one of them noticed, the group dynamic changed.

The camera hogs were being hoggy, looking at the camera and yelling "Hi Mom." The shy kids were being bashful, shooting little glances back at the camera and then turning around as quickly as possible with self conscious looks on their little faces.

When I bring out my camera, I have to be so sneaky in order to get actual candid shots of students. Some day I will have to show you some of my hooligans, but for now... You will just have to know that the camera changes their little personalities in a big way.

P.S. There have been four fifthgrade boy office referrals today. I am proud to say that none of them were mine, But I am not saying that I didn't think about it.

He's opening a club

I just had a kindergartner leave my room and in passing say, "Is He invited? Oh, that's what I thought. He's opening a club and him and him and me are invited, but he's not."

I wanted to say, "Well, I am opening a club and he's invited to my club, but not you and him and him." but I didn't.

Why didn't I?

When I was in third grade, I was in a club. It consisted of me, Sabra, Emily, josh, Jake, and Jana. We were the "God's creations club." It was right around the time when Captain planet was the coolest of cool in the newest of new ways. We were all different parts of God's creation. Jake was the plants, Josh was the land animals, Sabrah was the birds, I was the water, Jana was the fish, and I think that Emily might have been the sun but I am not quite sure. I remember we had some sort of salute that was captain planet-esque where we all put our hands together, shouted something, and went to our respective spots on the playground. It was the best of the best, and the rest was the rest.

Maybe that's why I didn't open my own club today. I have already been one of the "In Crowd" and although it was awesome while it lasted, the next time you see someone who is in a different "in crowd" it is hard to swallow.

Some would argue that I have been in the "in crowd" during more days than just third grade at church. Who knows... maybe it was true, but if I was in... I didn't realize it. I was just a goof being myself, and someone brought me along.

So, Here's to the in's and out's of life. May they teach us to stand strong when we are alone and rely on the reliable when we are not.

recorders strike a funny note

So,
I was again teaching a recorder lesson. The class was doing exceptionally well. They are still working on B, A, and G. I have a policy that they get to play once out of turn without a consequence, and the second time they play out of turn they have to walk a lap.

Now... This class has not had to walk any laps so far, but for some reason any time any of them let out the tiniest little squeak in the middle of a rest the whole class jumped a mile high. If they played one peep after the end of the song, they would all look around suspiciously at each other. They were quick to point out each other's out of line peeps.

Anyway, there was a little peep that I chose to ignore, and they all opened their eyes as widely as they could because they all wanted to look as innocent as possible. None of them was going to admit that they had accidental peeped at the wrong time. I looked at them and said,

"Wow, you guys are jumpy! You need a little relaxation in your lives." I immediately turned to start the next song and was counting off, "one, two, ready..." when I heard, "Yah, if we even had a life." It was muttered by a discouraged looking fourth grade boy.

I can't lie, I lost it. It was a complete 14 karate crack up. The rest of the students started to snicker as well, and then we all laughed. I told him, "You win the award for the funnies thing I heard all day!"

I probably shouldn't have said that, because after class he came up to me and asked me, "what is my prize?"

Dakota and I have a good working relationship. I call him out for talking a lot, and he makes me laugh. It is a system of checks and balances and that's all there is to it.

Bad Luck

I have been playing card games all of my life. I usually do alright when I am playing partner games, but if I am on my own I can't ever wind. I have only beaten my sister at Monopoly one time EVER in my life, and it is not for lack of trying. I rarely beat Chris at anything, and I am thinking that I know why.

I have awful luck. I have never won anything except a canvas bag in Florida that says Magic Tree Resort. I guessed how many somethings were in a jar of something. (See how memorable it was.) But other than that, my name is never drawn, and I can't get a good hand dealt to me in cards.

It is not that my hand is always bad, but it is never best. I always wind up somewhere in the low middle of a group, last of two, and third of four. I need an upper for my luck. Last night my luck was so bad that I dropped an entire box of double 14 dominoes, and that was even before starting to play.

Get this, we weren't even playing dominoes, we were playing cards.

The only time I have ever won anything fare and square was when I was learning to play poker with a group of friends. I won almost all of the candy corns that we were betting with. Yet, even the victory of that was dampened by the fact that Shane bit off all of the white tips of my candy corns when I wasn't looking.

With each loss, my competitive spirit has been a little more broken, and now it doesn't even bother me to loose. Except when Christopher looks at me and laughs his blast off laugh, and then I get mad, and he tries to make up for it but it is all just too annoying. The whole thing ends with a punch to a stomach, and the words, "Just leave me alone you big dumb jerk."

And the night is over.

Gone, but not forgotten.

The end.

Full time blog

So,
I read these women's blog

Antique Mommy,
Big Mama, and
Boo Mama.

They are amazing writers, and they are absolutely hilarious and Antique Mommy is so deep and articulate that I just want to cry when I read her stuff sometimes. I don't read Boo Mama very often, but Amy does and she has a lot of good times there. You should check them out!

Someday, I would love to:
A. be that funney
B. be that good of a writer
C. experience that much joy in the little things

Prayer

Father,
I know that I have promised to trust You in every situation. I know that I have given You every part of my life and not just some of it. I know that You have a perfect will for my life. I just don't know what it is.

I have walked through every door that You have opened. I have tried not to question Your will, and I have been blessed. Why now do I question my decisions and my discernment of Your will? I have been so confident until now? Show me the way.

Please grant me the wisdom to let go of all of my prior expectations for life and willing let You lead me into what You have for me. Help me learn to be a follower of You.

Father, speak into the life of your servant, and make a clear path for a servant to follow.

four days a week

I firmly believe that students should only attend school four days a week. Fridays, in my opinion, are useless to say the least. If I gave tests, I would give them on Fridays. Now I know why teachers choose to have tests and projects due on Friday. Because there is no other educational point for the day. And, it is a good way to monitor student behavior and focus. "Here, it's Friday, and you have been learning all week, and you really want to goof off. I think that we should see what you remember about what you have learned, and in taking time to do this I won't have to watch your every moove for destructive behaviors."

Class participation, even if students are completely engaged in an activity earlier in the week, on Friday will decrease by at least fifty percent. I am almost sure of it.

Can I blame them? Absolutely not. I think that as a student I remember thinking on Fridays... "Ok, I have a test in English, and a test in History, but the rest of the day I can just goof off because it is Friday, and no one introduces any new information on Friday, so it doesn't count." If those were my thoughts then, I can hardly imaging the thoughts of students right now.

I am all for education... (an obvious statement) But does it have to happen on Friday. I maintain that test scores would improve if we had a four day school week.

Those my friends are my thoughts.

I recant

I recant any cursing about recorders!

First, I just had a great class with recorders.

Secondly, all of my kids get to use their own recorder. I assign them and once we are done using them, they turn them in and I boil them and clean them and scrub them because I am kind of a germiphobe.

Anyway, one of the teachers just told me: "You have enough recorders that all of the kids get their own? Wow, when I was in school we had to dip them in scope between people and share them."

OH MY GOSH!!! IS THAT EVEN LEGAL!!!???!!! THAT IS... OH WOW!!!.... AAARRRRGGGGHHHH.
ICK! EEEEWWWW!!!!! (vomit into my mouth just a little)

Oh wow, I could not do that to a kid. No matter how much I don't like them, I just couldn't do it to a kid.

So, As I was Blog Brousing

I came across a blog with this link on it

http://www.expelledthemovie.com/playground.php

Now, I am not so sure what I think about it. I am a firm believer in intelligent design, and I am hoping that this film does not make people even more adverse to the issue because of the hotness of the topic thus far.
I was impressed with the idea that it takes on, and I am curious to see the film. I am one for strange movies, just ask Christopher. He will attest that I am not one who dislikes movies that the general public dislikes. I don't think that I will be able to rope him into seeing it, but if anyone is game? Give me a holler and we will explore the mind of Stein and his scientific acquaintances.

until next time.

Recorders are...

Ode to the recorder:
............
The first instrument of almost every person.
The last instrument of almost every person. (and for good reason)
.................

Miss Music 13:4-forever
Recorders are not patient, recorders are not kind.
Recording ability is envied. It is the cause of boasting and pride.
Recorder players are self seeking.
Recorder players are easily angered, and they keep a record of theirs and others mistakes.
Recorders are not to be trusted. Recorder players have little hope. Recorder players preserver only when the notes are easy B A G quarter notes.
Recorders never fail to cause anxiety.
..........................

It took me an hour and a half to round up 68 recorders in my music storage closet that had not been chewed on. There are about 100 rejects sitting in the closet that have seen better days. Days before 4th graders decided to snack on their mouth pieces for afternoon tea.

Although Recorders are hard... I am glad that I have a good fourth grade class to work with, because I wouldn't want to do this with any other group.

So... Cheers for the Fourth grade class... and down with those dingy plastic flute things!

I live in the moment, I plan for the future

So,
I haven't posted in Forever. It is because I am working on living in the moment and planning for the future. It seems like planning is taking most of my time. If I am planning at school, I am planning lessons, planning programs, and planning wedding stuff over my lunch break. After school, I work out which I consider planning for a healthy lifestyle, and then I come home, eat and do more wedding planning. The best times are the times that I can just sit around. Yes... Those are the good times right now.
I am trying to gather addresses of family and friends as of late. That and I cut out 200 little squares of paper about 3x5 inches yesterday. It took me a couple of hours plus the length of Oceans 11 to get them done. Hurray for making progress on the invitations.
In the end, my new philosophy for my wedding is, "Whatever Dude." adopted from Antique Mommy's philosophy on potty training. I know that in the end it will be wonderful, so why sweat the little stuff.

Time to start the day!

Charles Schultz's Philosophy

The following is the philosophy of Charles
Schultz, the creator of the 'Peanuts' comic strip. You don't have to
actually answer the questions. Just read the e-mail straight through, and
you'll get the point.


1. Name the five wealthiest people in the world.

2. Name the last five Heisman trophy winners.

3. Name the last five winners of the Miss America.

4. Name ten people who have won the Nobel or Pulitzer Prize.

5. Name the last half dozen Academy Award winner for best actor and actress.


6. Name the last decade's worth of World Series winners.


How did you do?

The point is,
none of us remember the headliners of yesterday. These are no second-rate
achievers. They are the best in their fields. But the applause dies. Awards
tarnish. Achievements are forgotten. Accolades and certificates are buried
with their owners .




Here's another quiz. See how you do on this one:

1. List a few teachers who aided your journey through school.

2. Name three friends who have helped you through a difficult time.

3. Name five people who have taught you something worthwhile.

4.
Think of a few people who have made you feel appreciated and special.


5. Think of five people you enjoy spending time with.



Easier?

The lesson: The people who make a difference in
your life are not the ones with the most credentials, the most money, or the
most awards. They are the ones that care.



Pass this on to those people who have made a
difference in your life.

'Don't worry about the world coming to an end
today. It's already tomorrow in Australia ' (Charles Schultz)