Fat Naked Crayons

A few weeks ago I got myself a Crayola Crayon Maker! I had been looking for one of these for 2 years. They had stopped making them and I asked everyone I knew if they had one, so you can imagine my surprise when I walked in to Target and saw the Crayon Maker! And it was ON SALE!!!! So I tossed it in my cart and took it into my classroom to take all of our old crayon stubs and make them new again. I had my student assistant read all the directions and set it up, purchased the lightbulb and then we put in the crayons and let it rip! You should have seen the reaction of my students. They are 12-14 year olds and they would gather around it as it was melting and ask me about a million questions like:
how does it work?
is it hot?
why does it smell so funny?
why are they all different colors?
may I help peel the papers off the old crayons?
can I pleeeese be the one to pour it?
And the truth is, I was just as excited as they were! The comment that truly cracked me up was when one kid asked, "hey, where is the paper around them?" and another kid replied "Yeah, these crayons are fat and naked", and we all laughed.

Christmas is here!!!!

Today is the day after Christmas and after yesterday, I have come to a few more realizations about Christmas:
1) Do NOT forget to fill the stockings! Saying, "stay here while I go check if Santa came" to your kid just doesn't cut it and is sure to raise your heart rate to an unhealthy level while madly stuffing stockings.
2) Wow, what a mess! I could have filled 5 garbage bags with wrappers and trash and I only have one kid!
3) The simplest toys are the most appreciated. My daughter has been entertained since last night with her weaving loom. It is the hit toy of the year in our house.
4) Christmas is no fun when you are on the run. I was so happy to be back at my house by 5 with a fire going in the fireplace chilling out with our new toys!
5) There is much less of a let-down after all of the presents are opened and all of the fun is over if you remember the true meaning of Christmas- love. God showed us his love by sending Jesus to us as a baby born in a simple manger to save us from our messed-up selves and give us the gift of heaven.
Merry Christmas!

waiting on Christmas

I cannot believe that it is Christmas eve already! I will start by confessing that Christmas is not up there as one of my favorite holidays. There is such a huge build-up and let-down over it. Even if I do try to keep it simple and focus on the true meaning of Christmas, it always seems to leave me broke and tired. There are a few things I have learned now that I am the adult in charge of Christmas at my house:
1) You will see THE BIG PRESENT that your kid wants every time they are with you, but the one time that you have a chance to run out and get it on your own, it will not be there.
2) Desperate times call for desperate measures: when I realized that THE BIG PRESENT was not to be found in stores two days before Christmas, I paid 40 bucks to have it overnighted, 40 bucks! I was desperate, which leads me to number 3...
3) Just because you pay 40 bucks to "overnight" something does not mean it will actually arrive the next day. In my case, it actually meant at least 5 days later.
4) The hobby shop is actually a pretty cool place to find Christmas presents, a parking spot up front and no line at the cash register, SCORE!
5) Waiting for your kid to fall asleep is virtually impossible without actually doing so yourself.
6) Last but not least I learned that you should buy a little something for yourself too, or your child will tell you that you must have yelled at them too much this year or made them do too many chores, and that is why Santa didn't bring you anything.
Merry Christmas!

don't hate us cuz we're Floridians 2010

Here are some reasons why you should feel sorry for us Floridians in the winter time fresh for 2010. It is usually 88 degrees and sunny here, so when the temperature dips down below 50, it causes a lot of excitement. First of all, it takes until at least mid December to finally get cold so we are always very surprised. It also happens very suddenly- one day we are swimming and wearing shorts and the next day we are like, "oh my gosh, what is happening". We hope it will pass in a day or two and warm back up for the weekend, which it usually does and we can just make do with a hoodie But when it doesn't warm up after about 4 days, everyone is like, "OH CRAP WE NEED TO BUY COATS!" My kids in my class grow too fast for their parents to spend money on coats they will grow out of overnight, so they just bring their blankets out with them to the bus stop in the morning, and when they get to the school, stuff them into their backpacks. And to top it off, we are probably all going broke paying our kids extra allowance for carrying our plants into the house so the frost won't kill them.

cars and peas

This week my car's air conditioner broke. I know that doesn't seem like such an emergency, but I live in Florida, so it kinda was. Anyway, both my little one and I were sick this week, but I made time, left work early and took the car in. Two hours later, they gave it back and said it was fixed. I did not even make it home before it was blowing hot air again. Needless to say, I was irate just thinking about the one and a half hour round trip I would have to make again. I called them and said that I was not happy! Well, they must have wanted to make me happy pretty bad because the next day they sent me a new car, and a cute guy to take mine in! When he dropped the car back off to me though, I could tell that I didn't stand a chance with him. The conversation went something like this:
Guy: I vacuumed out your car for you...
Me: Uh, so how did that go for you.
Guy: Um, were those peas in your backseat?
Me: Uhm, yeah they were, thanks.
Oh well, maybe next time!

Colds and Hocking Loogies

My daughter has had a cold for a couple of weeks now, and I was trying to decide whether to take her to the doctor for it or not. I called her godmother, who is a pharmacist, for advice. She told me that I should look to see if what she is coughing up is infected or not. I thought that was a great idea- until I realized that my daughter did not know how to "hock a loogie"! So, we hung our heads over the toilet together, and I tried to teach her how. As a very experienced teacher- a middle school teacher at that, you would think that I would be done teaching her how to spit in about 30 seconds flat, but after 5 minutes of coughing and going "ach", we had a whole lot of nothing to show for it. Boys are probably born knowing how to do this stuff, lol!