Teacher Appreciation

This week at my son's kindergarten was Teacher Appreciation week. One of the days the PTA had asked for one mom per class to "lunch sit". Stay with the class during lunch so that the teacher can go down the hall, to the PTA room and have lunch with the other teachers. I said I would. It's only 45 minutes, how bad could it be.

Now, there is no lunch room at the school, so they eat in their classrooms. I get to school just in time to take them down the hall, to the lunch service area so they can pick up their lunches and take them back to the room. It immediately begins! Miss Elizabeth! Can Wheeler pick me? (you see, normally when I go have lunch with him we eat out in the hall and Wheeler gets to pick 2 friends to come with us). Well, I explain that today, I'll be eating in the room with all of them. They either don't hear that or don't understand it because it goes on all the way down the hall. "Is Wheeler going to pick me?" "Wheeler never picks me."

Somehow on the way back down the hall they are beginning to get it. "Are you our teacher?" they ask. But they all ask it, one at a time, as if they didn't just hear the other one ask it. So 20 times I say, "Sort of, just while Ms. Holloway goes to have lunch with the other teachers."

So we get back in the room and Ms. Holloway has told me that the first 10 minutes of lunch is silent lunch, or they won't eat. They all know this, they do it every day. That's great! I'm thinking, 10 minutes of silence. Hah! I go to sit at Ms. Holloway's desk and one comes to give me a hug, I say thank you but go back to your seat and eat your lunch. Then comes the next one, then the next etc...So we go through that for about 10 kids. Funny thing about this, it's not Wheeler. He has no interest in giving me a hug or holding my hand while we walk down the hall, it is all the other ones. Finally, they are all in their seats, we have about 7 minutes to go on silent lunch, and they all start, one at a time of course, tattling! Tattling a little bit on each other but mostly tattling on Wheeler. Tattling on anything he might have done to them any time this past school year. "One time, Wheeler pushed me into the bathrooom.", "Wheeler doesn't eat his sandwich at lunch", "Wheeler's not nice, he wouldn't pick me to eat with him at lunch today" etc.... I just said over and over, "Tattling is talking too!" Didn't matter, they kept on.

In the meantime, one of them burps, LOUD!!. Well, if you don't know me, let me just tell you, that is not acceptable. All he can say is "I said excuse me". So he and I go round and round about closing your mouth, keeping your lips together and covering your mouth, make it as quiet as possible. Well, he does it 3 more times, then another one does is, then another one. And their response to me is..."I said excuse me" No matter how loud it was or how wide they opened their mouth. You would think they might stop after they saw the steam coming out of my ears.

After they eat, they line up to go to the bathroom, they have a bathroom in their class room so that is nice. One little girl I notice is in the front of the line to go to the bathroom next. But the next time I look up, she is still there, but the child who was behind her has now gone in. She is doing the dance, she needs to go bad! I say, "How come boy child went in? Girl child was next?" They all inform me that she is scared to go in to the bathroom by herself and close the door. Well I can't go with her, then the other 19 kids are left unsupervised. "What do I do?" I ask the wise 5 year olds. They tell me she has to go but leave the door open. "Okay, I say, go ahead and just leave the door cracked" But she is still scared and fixing to have a panic attack right there, or go to the bathroom on the floor one. Finally, with some coaxing and actual pushing (gentle ofcourse), I get her in the bathroom but have to stand in the doorway with the door closed to my hip.

Well, that's all I can take, we are going outside! Right now! So, I sit on the bench, and 6 of them sit right down with me. I shoo them away and tell them they need to run that energy off. They keep coming back, I keep shooing them away. Then of course, there is more tattling etc...

Finally, Ms. Holloway comes back and they all are elated to see her! But no one was as elated as I was!

Thank you Ms. Holloway for remaining calm around these little guys. Thank you for somehow, managing to teach them to read and write among all of this chaos!! You are greatly appreciated!

Mom Awards

I was in Kate's room last night and I noticed a note on her Bulletin Board.

Well, that was about a year ago when she broke her thumb but it reminded of the story behind it all. And how I know Dr. Greer was probably thinking he should turn me into DHR.

As you know, kids fall and get hurt all the time. A Ziploc with ice or a band-aid almost always makes it better. One day, while out shopping or somewhere and had forgotten to take my phone into the store with me (Mom mistake #1, I always try have my phone in case the school needs to call with an emergency), I have a voicemail from the school nurse. "Ms. Garrett, Kate has hurt her thumb in P.E., we just wanted to let you know so you can look at it when she gets home". Well it doesn't sound too serious but I call just so the school doesn't think I'm not paying attention at all. The nurse tells me she thought it was o.k., that she gave her an ice pack and sent her back to class.

So it comes time to pick her up after school and I have a car full. I carpool in this crazy neighborhood so I had atleast 5 or 6 kids in the car. Kate gets in first and goes all the way to the back of the van, where I can't see her thumb. So as we are pulling away and everyone is buckling up I say "Kate, how's you thumb?" She says, "O.K., I can't move it though". Okay, I know that should have been reason for concern, but I swear just 2 days before that she had hurt another finger and swore she couldn't move it, so I just figured it was the same kind of thing, plus, I had to ask, she didn't tell me anything about the thumb. So we get home, I drop off all the extra kids, I'm dealing with a sick cat...I forget all about the thumb.

At about 4:30, my college age niece comes over to help me with my cat and Kate comes joyfully bouncing into the living room, "Hey Jessi! Look at my thumb!" I am not kidding, that thing was black and blue, bent, and as big as my big toe! Jessi looks at me (budding doctor that she is) and says, "Have you seen this, I think you better take her to the doctor right now." So I call the doctor, they say come right in and when I get there of course the nurse is asking me when this happened and my answer is around 11:00 a.m. She barely looks at me while I'm fumbling with my explanation of why I just now bringing her to the doctor 6 hours later.

Well, because it is so late in the day, we had to sit in the doctors office for a long time, probably an hour in the patient room just waiting. About 30 minutes into sitting there, Wheeler crawls up in my lap, complaining that he's cold and that his throat hurts. I think he feels a little warm so the next time the nurse comes in I ask her to take his temperature. It's 102! They do a strep test, and it comes back immediately positive! I wasn't even there for him! Double whammy!

I'm thinking that Dr.'s office watches me closely everytime I go in there. I know they are thinking I deserve an award for such attentiveness to my kids.

And don't even ask me why the note to Dr. Godsil is on her bulletin board and not in the mail to the good doctor! Like I said, it was only a year ago, I've just been so busy!

Girls Campout Cake

Martha Stewart I am not, but I got this idea from Parents Magazine online (I think, I've already thrown away the printout). Kate wanted to have a Camp Out at our farm. So I went on line to find ideas...I got this one, and thought it was great! I didn't follow the directions exactly, I used my own creativity but didn't want to take full credit for the idea. I'm still pretty proud of it though.

I bought the cake, iced with the chocolate and green and added the girls in the sleeping bags. I just bought a can of vanilla icing, mixed small amounts with different colors of food coloring and iced 1/4 piece of graham cracker for sleeping bag. The girls faces are Mini Nilla Wafers. I do have one of those icing bags with the different tips for decorating the faces, but you can use the colored icing in the tubes from the grocery store (from Betty Crocker) but make sure you buy the tips so you can use the little writing tip. I also bought a can of chocolate icing for the brown. (I used the canned vanilla icing because it tastes so much better than the tube colored icing, yuch!) I let Kate decorate the sleeping bags and draw on the faces and hair of the girls.

The coolest part, I thought, was the fire, I broke some red and orange gum drops for the flames and covered them with pretzel sticks for logs. Then I put one candle right in the middle of the fire, for a real flame.

If you noticed the 2 extra campers freezing in back because they can't get near the fire for all the girls...That is Wheeler and Mitchel. Wheeler of course kept asking where he and Mitchell were so I let him make 2 more campers. (Really, he just wanted to mix the colors in the icing).

Mitchell doesn't really have yellow eyes.

Flashback Friday

I'm flashin back to 7th grade, when I wore these on my white leather Nike's with the red swoosh!....Nope, it's current. Just bought them today, putting them in goody bags for Kate's birthday party tomorrow. Hope they love em' as much as I loved mine!

Me and the Man I'm Married To

I saw this on a friends FaceBook Page and though I wasn't tagged, I thought it was cute. It is a great post for Valentine's Day, so I'm just a little late. I'm not tagging anyone, but if anyone is so inclined to copy, I would love to read it! These things are usually fun. Hope you'll listen to the Faith Hill/Georgia Middleman song playing too.

♥ What are your middle names? Wheeler and Elizabeth

♥ How long have you been together? Since the summer of 1992, married in May 1997 so dating, 17 years (gulp) married almost 12.

♥ How long did you know each other before you started dating? about 9 months, met at work in Sept 1991, he had a girlfriend, then I had a boyfriend, then he came in and swept me up from a cracked (not broken, but cracked) heart. Aint I glad!

♥ Who asked who out? He did, but like I said, we had been friends so neither of us were sure what the other's feelings were.

♥ How old are each of you? I'm 39, he's 37 (he is almost 38!)

♥ Whose siblings do/ did you see the most? It's about equal

♥ Do you have any children together? Two, girl 9, boy 5 (almost 6)

♥ What about pets? Banjo, sweetest dog you'll ever meet, unless you are a cat.

♥ Which situation is the hardest on you as a couple? I don't know, nothing big, little things here and there. We do pretty well.

♥ Did you go to the same school? High school, no, college, yes.

♥ Are you from the same home town? No, I grew up in Peachtree City, Ga he's from LaFayette, AL

♥ Who is the smartest? him, damn it.

♥ Who is the most sensitive? Me, me, me, me, me.....

♥ Where do you eat out most as a couple? Amsterdam Cafe

♥ Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple? San Diego or Jamaica

♥ Who has the craziest exes? me, but none have been crazy like stalking or calling or anything like that. Just crazy while in the relationship. It's all good.

♥ Who has the worst temper? me,me,me,me, me, me, me, me, ...........

♥ Who does the cooking? both of us, but who likes to do the cooking...he does, who despises it...I do.

♥ Who is more social? Me, me, me, me, me!!!!!!!

♥ Who is the neat-freak? I wish we had a neat freak!

♥ Who is the more stubborn? I think he would say me, but I'm just more vocal about it. He quietley gets what he wants, he is not going to be walked on.

♥ Who hogs the bed? neither, we aren't cuddlers, so we tend to keep to ourselves.

♥ Who wakes up earlier? Joe

♥ Where was your first date? Horseback riding in LaFayette

♥ Who has the bigger family? Joe, he is the youngest with 3 sisters, I am the youngest with 2 brothers

♥ Do you get flowers often? Just sometimes, enough times.

♥ How do you spend the holidays? Christmas Eve at the fraternity house (see previous post), Christmas day afternoon at my dad's house, and the weekend following my mother and brothers come to my house and we do it all over again.

♥ Who is more jealous? Neither of us really gets jealous

♥ How long did it take to get serious? I don't know, once we were sure that each of us wanted more than just friendship, it just was...

♥ Who eats more? that's hard, probably me, I love junk, sweets, candy cookies etc...

♥ Who does/ did the laundry? Usually me, sometimes his mom comes over and does it, isn't that nice!

♥ Who’s better with the computer? him, no question.

♥ Who drives when you are together? Him, but I am a great back seat driver, just ask him!

9 Years Ago!!

9 years ago tonight my husband and I laid in our bed watching the beginning of reality TV. Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire!! Remember that tacky show, it was like a beauty contest, but at the end, this cheezy man came out and got down on one knee with a huge diamond and proposed. But then "Darla" who was the winner wouldn't go through with it. But didn't let that known until days later. Tacky, tacky, tacky, and I'll never forget it... because as we laid there, we were also counting the minutes between my contractions. And as soon as it was over, we got up, called the nurse and headed to the hospital!

I had been having contractions all day, and I was a week late. Kate's due date was Feb. 8th. Once I started having contractions everyone told me to "go for a walk, do jumping jacks, get active and speed those contractions up". So I did, I straightened, I vaccuumed, I raked the whole front yard, I knew company would be coming as soon as we got home. But the more I worked, the got further and further apart the contractions got. So finally, after dinner, as we began to relax, and watch tacky tv, the contractions got closer together.

So we got to the hospital, and without going into too many gory details...after lots of screaming and lots of drugs...here is what I got!

Katherine Cawthorne Garrett

6 lbs. 15 oz.

19 inches long

She has grown and changed so much. The only time I see that baby in her now is when she sleeps, her long eyelashes and the way she holds her mouth.

Okay, crying now. Gotta go to bed.

My Sister is 9!

Tomorrow is my sister's birthday. She will be 9.

She holded me when I was a baby, like tiny, teeny.

We have fun when we play in the dirt.

We have fun at the beach when we make a sand castle and surf on the waves.

I love my sister because she is funny and nice.

Happy Birthday Kate!!

Love,

Wheeler

Another Funny E-mail, Perfect for Valentines Day

This was just e-mailed to me this morning...

"I had lunch with 2 of my unmarried friends. One is engaged, one is a mistress, and of course I have been married for awhile.
We were chatting about our relationships and decided to amaze our men by wearing a black leather bra, stiletto heels and a mask over our eyes. We agreed to meet in a few days to exchange notes. Here's how it all went.

My engaged friend: The other night when my boyfriend came over he found me with a black leather bodice, tall stilettos and a mask. He saw me and said, 'You are the woman of my dreams. I love you." Then we had a magical night of romance.

The mistress: Me too! The other night I met my lover at his office and I was wearing the leather bodice, heels and mask over my eyes and a raincoat. When I opened the raincoat he didn't say a word, but we had a wild night!

Then I had to share my story: When my husband came home I was wearing the leather bodice, black stockings, stilettos and a mask over my eyes. As soon as he came in the door and saw me he said, "What's for dinner, Batman?"

So true! And truthfully, I am just great with that!

Time for a Good Laugh

A friend sent me this in an e-mail. I thought it was really cute! I might just try it with Wheeler later to see what his answers are. I'll let ya know.

1stgrade school teacher had twenty-six students in her class. She presented each child in her classroom the 1st half of a well-known proverb and asked them to come up with the remainder of the proverb. It's hard to believe these were actually done by first graders. Their insight may surprise you.

1.> Don't change horses..................................................until they stop running.
2.> Strike while the........................................................ bug is close.
3.> It's always darkest before........................................ Daylight Saving Time.
4.> Never underestimate the power of........................... termites.
5.> You can lead a horse to water but.............................How?
6.> Don't bite the hand that........................................... looks dirty.
7.> No news is...............................................................impossible
8.> A miss is as good as a.............................................. Mr.
9.> You can't teach an old dog new................................Math
10.> If you lie down with dogs, you'll........................... stink in the morning.
11.> Love all, trust........................................................Me.
12.> The pen is mightier than the..................................pigs.
13.> An idle mind is.....................................................the best way to relax.
14.> Where there's smoke there's..................................pollution.
15.> Happy the bride who.............................................gets all the presents.
16.> A penny saved is...................................................not much.
17.> Two's company, three's.........................................the Musketeers.
18.> Don't put off till tomorrow what.............................you put on to go to bed.
19.> Laugh and the whole world laughs with you, cry
and..........................................................................You have to blow your nose.
20.> There are none so blind as.....................................Stevie Wonder.
21.> Children should be seen and not.............................spanked or grounded.
22.> If at first you don't succeed.....................................get new batteries.
23.> You get out of something only what you.................See in the picture on the box
24.> When the blind lead the blind...................................get out of the way.
25.> A bird in the hand.................................................... is going to poop on you.
26.> Better late than....................................................... Pregnant