Friday, December 21, 2018

It's the Little Things That Make Me Laugh Sometimes


  1. We told Mica to brush his teeth in the kitchen because Isaak was in the bathroom. We only have 1 bathroom.

    Mica said, "I can't use that sink water. It's not filtered. Gross!"

    He thought this whole time that the bathroom has filtered water!

    Then he attempted to put his toothbrush under the filtered water spout on the refrigerator. It's a good thing I stopped him. Boy that would be a mess!

    How is it this kid is so smart, yet so not smart at the same time? Even Isaak was shaking his head.

  2. Travis went to cut his hair. The blade he was using wasn't working out the way he planned. So he buzzed it.

    The problem is that he has one white spot in the front of his hair, so he looks very bald right there, or like he really messed up with the trimmers.


  3. At work someone gave this odd creepy clown for the White Elephant Gift. No worries there was a $20 Target GC it was holding. The winner didn't want the clown, so I stuck it on a student's desk that loves hates clowns.


  4. My older sister can be a bit of a control freak at times. I'm surprised I haven't gotten in any fights with her in the last year.

    We were running through the list of things to bring to the Christmas Eve Feast. They want Travis to bring a soup, and me to make a veggie tray.

    My sister, "Don't put any green peppers on there. No one eats them. We could practically have a veggie tray that's nothing, but carrots and celery."

    My other sister, "Throw olives on there. My boys like those."

    I was complaining to Travis about how picky they were being, and said, "I never even put green peppers on a veggie tray. I like red, yellow, and orange peppers." He said, "Make a veggie tray that's only green peppers. Have the real veggie tray in the car."

    So...I'm making a prank veggie tray with only green peppers and olives just because I'm an asshole a prankster. LOL

  5. At work a co-worker said she wouldn't eat hummus because it rhymes with pumice. For my White Elephant gift I gave a pumice stone, hummus and lots of pita crackers.

    I don't think the hummus got eaten. It's a shame because hummus is good! 
Tell me something that has made you laugh lately. 

Random Tid Bits


  1. It took me 30 minutes to clean 1 dry eraser board in my first year classroom. I called to leave boss man a message, "Hello! :) I think it may be time to change out the dry eraser boards. It's taken me way to long to clean it. It still looks stained."

    He called back, "Mr. G (coworker) says it's too much work to switch them out. He wants to see if we can coat them, or do something else to them. He'll be the one that has to replace them."

    Me feeling like an ass, "Ok, but they've been there since I started in 2001. I think they are ready to retire." I felt like saying, I think I may be ready to retire right along with them. Not really ha! I sometimes feel like I get people more responsibility when I don't mean to. I'm just trying to get things done.


  2. Recycling has been way too hard at my work. Seriously! They act like I'm cutting off their limbs to get them to recycle. One sweet lady takes care of the cans and bottles. I take care of the paper. I was combining the paper boxes - each classroom has one under their printer table.

    I'm supposed to do it on my own time. There are times where I try and sneak to combine them. Today was one of those days. Really I was just cleaning up all three rooms: Grades off the walls, brooms, cleaners and rags all put away.

    Boss Man came out when I was doing it. He didn't seem annoyed that I was combining the boxes. He did seem a little like his pants were on a little too tight when he found out I was taking the student's grades off the walls, to toss them out. He said, "These should be shredded!" I said, "Oh I can do that if you'd like, but to be honest everyone has always thrown them out, since I started here in 2001. The student's names, and social security numbers are not on them. It's just a Student I.D. number that means nothing to anyone, but the students."

    He said, "Really?!" I said, "Really." He said, "Well I'll talk to the Director to see what she thinks." I said, "Go ahead. She tosses her grades out too. Let me know what you both decide." Truth be told, even his wife tosses grades away.

  3. The Education Director wants our spring syllabi by January. I'm trying to get them done. My co-worker got his turned in in October. He hasn't gotten his proof-read and back yet. I'm not sure what I should think of that.


  4. The Education Director said, "Did you do attendance for the last week of classes?" I think we're one of the only colleges that takes attendance - possibly! The students check in and out with a hand punch. All I can think of is gross - germs! I'll just take my own attendance thank you! They insist it needs to be done. The last week of classes everyone leaves after their test, which throws the punch way off. I don't even see the point. I did it anyhow.


  5. Travis wanted me to apply to a $250 Grant. I really wish there were examples of written grants proposals and artist statements online. Maybe there is, but I can't find them. I can find sites that talk about them, but not specific examples. I'm not saying I want to copy them. Just read them, and come up with my own. That's how I roll. I look, see draw, and totally change it into my own. I do that with writing as well. Do you roll by example? 

    I was lacking on sleep all last week. I was worried about Isaak. This week I feel like I'm getting Isaak's cold, so my thinking/writing wasn't working that day at all. It never happened. Possibly it happened, but I never submitted it. That made me so pissed. I was annoyed because Travis said, "It's so easy! I'll help you write it." Then he watched Spiderman Homecoming with the boys. It didn't just stop there. They watched all the special features. Any superhero movie is loud, then quiet, then loud again. Here I was trying to write. I wanted to scream.

Monday, December 17, 2018

Sledding

Last weekend the boys went sled riding. I watched.

They kept saying, "Come on Mom! Join us." Sometimes I feel old. Oh I can be silly, but that day I was feeling old and PMSy. Possibly more information than you wanted to know, but it is what it is. I never hide it at home. I'm very blunt.

My favorite stills from that day:

Shadows


Mica lugging his sled up the hill


Isaak coming down the fill


We had to test the sleds out. We went to a thrift store, and got the L.L. Bean sleds for $11! That's super cheap! Some of their sleds are close to $200!

The hill was perfect! No fence or street at the bottom.

Mica:



Isaak

Sunday, December 16, 2018

Our Meeting With the Principal and Teacher Went Really Good!

I didn't want to leave my readers hanging...so the meeting with Isaak's Principal and teacher went really good!

We didn’t go in attacking anyone. I was afraid I would cry, and didn't. It was great we had everything written down, so we didn't forget things.

We do know Isaak has filled his own plate too full. Two things in particular are towards the end of his school day: Chorus and Student Council. Student Council doesn't happen all the time. But they have meetings, and rotate with taking care of recyclables. When those things happen Isaak has to hurry to go to Safety Patrol. Then he can't get back in his classroom to get his homework. He sometimes misses the end of the day announcements. He may drop one. He’s a people pleaser, so that might be hard.

He tanked a test, so we talked about that. He’s usually great with math, but word problems get him. He’s to practice online. The teacher is going to be more informative on when tests will happen. Right now we only know the day before. If he doesn’t have his math book with him, then we can’t help him. He didn’t know what deposit or withdrawal meant, so vocabulary talk before tests. Other kids struggled with that too.

It turns out because Isaak’s a people pleaser, he does too much homework. She’ll give him every other problem, and he does all of them. He thinks he’s being ultra good by doing that.

I talked to the teacher about delivery. Like instead of saying, “You have 14 pages of fun work to do by next week, or you don’t get to watch movies with the rest of the class.” Say, “You have to do 2 pages a day out of this packet, for a week.”

The Principal will be meeting with him to talk to him about his thoughts. He knows who Isaak is, but has never really had to get to KNOW him because he's a good student that pretty much stays out of trouble. The Principal wants to get to know Isaak more.

We have a follow up meeting in January.

I do think the teacher is hanging onto busy work too much. She loves these sheets that has a big scrambled up long word, and the kids have to make shorter words out of the letters. Then there's another side that has synonyms on it. I suggested to keep doing them, but also having reading with questions that go with a book of of their choice. I don’t know that, that will happen.

I guess they are having more recess time, but Isaak didn’t think so.

The Principal thinks Isaak is too tuned into others emotions, which their are some bad apples in the class. He’s also full of empathy, so that will be hard to overcome.

I made it clear that this is our first year with problems. It’s not 1 person’s fault, but we have to work with one another to figure out why he’s struggling.

The view of it seems that he filled his own plate too full, and for some reason hasn't connected well with this teacher.

One thing is great: Isaak's teacher has gotten him to work faster. That's always been a struggle. He's just a slow poke. His teacher last year tried using a timer, and that sort of worked. His big eyes kept glancing at the timer. She shows the class a photo on a screen, puts it up for a certain period of time, turns it off, and makes them write down all they can about the photo. It's cut his test taking time down a lot! He still tests well. 

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