Mcgilla’s Weblog

remember that paula abdul song opposites attract???  You know the one with the video of her dancing with that super cool cartoon cat?  yeah i was rocking out to that song at the roller rink in 1992.  That song danced through my head all day today.  yesterday i got really excited.  Some of my kids that i have to really work to pull anything out of them showed me that they might actually be learning.  Kids that struggle on step one were all of the sudden doing step 3 without any prompting.  It was a super fun day because i got to be all yay you! you’re a reader! kiss your brain!! Oh my goodness, you’re so smart!  all day long…… and that’s enough to put anyone in a good mood….. i’m not exaggerating when i say i was nearly dancing and skipping down the halls and little birdies were chirping lovely little melodies in my head as the soundtrack to me day.  I went to bed last night feeling like we had turned a corner and i couldn’t wait to get to school today…… unfortunately….. every single kid took their crazy pills today.  and not the kind that make the crazy go away.  it was like we were back at square one.  Every kid i saw going down the hall was off like a bat out of hell.  classrooms were loud, and not in the we’re doing creative stuff kind of way, and students who were doing step 5 two weeks ago all of the sudden couldn’t do step 2.  Maybe is something to do with the fact that it hasn’t stopped raining all week……. uhg. back to the trenches in 9.5 hours.

Today, in passing, i overheard part of a conversation between some 4th-5th graders.

Student 1: my grandma says if i talk to my cousins she’ll have me arrested

student 2: like, you’ll go to jail???

student 1: no, because if she tries it, i’ll file a lawsuit against her!

only in madison county would kids’ first thoughts on anything be lawsuit.   I don’t think i even knew what that was when i was that age….. much less think that i could ever be in one.  sheesh.

today elle came over to show off her halloween costume. While over she asked if she could get a book from my room to read….. i have a big bookshelf full of kids books so i told her to go pick one and bring it back……  well she brings me a book i have from a weekly ready series for kids on relationships and behaviors and stuff…. she brings me the one titled ” You’re Either One or the Other”  sub title, a Children’s book about Human Sexuality.  AWESOME.  So i read Elle parts of the chapter about being a girl…. basically all it talks about is stuff like some girls like to do these things… and others like to do these things…. and that’s ok.  Some girls like pink, and some like blue, that’s ok…. some girls like sports, and some don’t, that’s ok…. blah blah blah…. Well at the end it asked a few questions…. so i asked them to Elle…. and she’s not only hilarious, she’s pretty well adjusted.

Question 1: What are you? are you a girl?  Elle: yep, i’m a girl.

How do you know that you’re a girl? because that’s the way that God made me…. (great answer i was really hoping for her to say something that would be embarrassing to her mother….. but oh well)

What does it mean to be a girl?  very beautiful

How does it feel to be a girl?  Good. I feel Good

What do you like best about being a girl? being fabulous

What do you ike least?  talking all the time.

gotta love that girl.

today i went to old navy and found an 80’s pop art glow in the dark skeleton shirt that logan had to have.   this was the conversation that ensued as i presented the gift…..

Me: logan, before i give you this who’s your favorite aunt named kristi???

Logan:  ummmmmmmm……….

Tiffany: Logan, who’s your favorite aunt

Me: (to tiff) no you can’t ask that

Tiff: (to me) why not??

me: (to tiff) because the answer is Kelli…. she’s elle’s mom

Tiff: oh right…

Me: Logan who is your favorite aunt named kristi

Logan…. you mean other aunts don’t count

me: right, only the ones named Kristi

Logan:……….. slowly points at me

me: good nuff ( threw the shirt to Logan)

When he opened it and looked at it, i didn’t get a thanks….. but i did get a really excited. OOOOOOOOOOO!   That’s better than a scripted thank you any day.

today i heard the best story i’ve ever heard from a parent.  On Sunday morning, she found her daughter standing by her bedroom door wearing a scarf and she was saying good morning and welcoming in all of these imaginary friends….. Good morning Gracy, Good morning Treven, Come in Sammy, Welcome to school Andrew…. etc etc.  When mom asked her what she was doing, her answer was, i’m pretending to be Miss Kristi.  =)

due to the changing of the season, we’ve got some mouse issues.  I’ve been hearing the pitter patter of little feet above my head in the drop ceiling (delightful let me tell ya).  So, Judy insisted on putting a couple of traps in the ceiling…. to which i was not a fan.  I just imagined being awakened by the snap and little mouse squealing.  (Less than an ideal wake up call).  But of course i lost…. so when i came home and came down to my room, to my horor i found not only were the traps set, but the tile was left open with the trap right on the edge…… see….

All i could picture was an unlucky mouse finding the trap about 2 am and being awaken not only by the snap and squeak, but by the trap flipping and landing on the floor right next to my bed…..  unfortunately, i thought too much about this, and spent all night being woke up by dreams where not only did the mouse flip to the floor….. but it bounced off the bedside table and onto my bed, or just skipped the table and landed right on my face.  My favorite was when the snapping trap evolved into someone knocking on my window……. needless to say…. it was a long night.

oh… and we didn’t catch a mouse.

• When a kid is in trouble, and i make them cry, it makes me happy…. sometimes even gleeful. (is gleeful a word or did i just make it up??)
• When a kid is being rotten, 85% of the time, i think it’s really funny, and i have to work hard to not show it…..
• Some times when someone is doing something terrible, but thinks it’s funny ie…. two kids in the office today got in a fist fight, and were giggling because they were so proud of themselves and just thought it was great…… I say something like, look at my face, does it look i think this is funny?  And i say this not to help the kids understand that it’s not funny, as much as to challenge myself to make a really “this is not funny” face.
• I get really proud of myself when i can get the really shy sub to say a couple of sentences to me without much prompting.  Probably more proud than when a student shows that he/she learned something.   Ok maybe not that much….. but close.
• after rereading this post, I nearly deleted it because it’s really rambley and sounds like i’m hyped up on caffeine (i’m not) but then i thought, meh, these people know what i’m like, they can deal with it.
• Best compliment of the day:….. Ms. Gill (that’s not a typo that’s what i get called a lot)  You have crazy hair…. but the good kind!

kid 1: Wait…. what’s an “m”

kid 2: you know that letter that looks like a stick then 2 boobs.

oh yeah…. and we have lice and AND fleas in kindergarten. yuck.

Today i got to grab some latex gloves and wet wipes and clean a poopy bottom.  Normally that would mean that you had one of the worst days possible…. That was until i went after school to check on one of my kinders who normally rides the bus, but was sent to the office.  I found him cheerfully sitting next to his sister who was not so cheerful.  I asked what was up, and the boy said….  Dad’s picking us up today, and when i asked why, his response was…. because someone puked on my sister….. yeah, my day wasn’t so bad.

anybody remember this post it’s from new year’s eve when i was at the grocery store with a friend and we found a forgotten birthday cake that was cut into strips and sold in 4 hunks.  We were doubled in laughter in it.  Some of you suggested that i should submit it to cake wrecks…. and i assured y’all that i had submitted it before i even blogged about it…… well….. i never heard anything about it, and it was never posted….. but today, i recieved this email….

Hi there!

I’ve got some amazing news about one of the photos you submitted to Cake Wrecks: first, it made it in the book, and second, Rachael Ray (of the Rachael Ray show) liked it so much that she’d like to talk to you about it – possibly on the air! So if you could, please e-mail Holly Pakfar, the show producer, at hpakfar@kingworld.com to discuss the details. If the show segment works out, you could be sharing the spotlight with a few of your fellow Wreckporters and my fabulous Wrecksistant and sister-in-law, Anne-Marie! I don’t have many details, but I imagine they want to hear the story of your cake: where you saw it, your reaction to it, etc. I’m sending this to several of you, so here’s the breakdown of which photos the show is specifically interested in. If you’re getting this e-mail, one of them should be yours. (Be sure to tell Holly which cake is yours, btw.)

Pg 2: “God Bless Everyone- Inside a heart!”

Pg 7: Happy Birthday Hannah- lg font Cole & Alli- small font”

Pg 55: “welcome home charles/ happy 70th birthday jean”

Pg 57: Cakes cut up and sold invididually

Pg 80: wedding couple cutting cake under statue

Pg 96: Happy birthday nancy – the end

Pg 101: Huge Me

Please let me know if you have any questions…although any show-related queries should go to Holly, since I’m really just the messenger here. If you could cc me on the e-mail so I know you got this, though, I’d really appreciate it. Thanks, and congratulations, Wreckporters! You guys make me so proud [sniff].

- Jen

www.CakeWrecks.com

In case you didn’t catch that…… I’m going to be in CakeWrecks…. THE BOOK….. and if that wasn’t enough ms 30 min meals herself wants me.  =)

I’ve been getting some ribbing over my early celebrating of christmas… ie… i watched white christmas.  But i will take it no longer. My next door neighbor is all out decorated and playing christmas music AND today i saw that hersey’s kiss commercial where the red and green kisses are bells and they play we wish you a merry christmas…. Although that doesn’t make it officially christmas season (chia pet commercials do) it makes it officially acceptable to do christmas type things…. SOOOO i’m starting the room/hall decorating… and i’m sticking to a “kids crafts” theme…. construction paper ring garland…. glittery paper snowflakes…. cotton ball santa faces…. it’s gonna be fun!

i confiscated a… “i’m mad at you” note today at the YMCA…. i’ve never read one quite like this before… i thought i’d share…

I Am NOT Talking to any of yall until you can show me you can DANCE!!!

From Froggie.

Some of the girls on my hall have been saving me their toilet paper rolls… and i’ve been having craft time…. look at what i’ve got so far.

I’ve not really done anything today…. i’ve been thinking about it for a couple of hours… and i think i’m going to try and cut my own hair…. just for fun.  if i go through with it, i’ll show you pics. haha. i think i’ll cut conservatively in case i make it really awful…. that way i can get it fixed by someone that knows what they’re doing without chopping it ridiculously short.

ok…. so i cut it…. and i couldn’t really see the back… because i thought about it after i started that i don’t actually have a mirror to see the back….. soooooooooo my friend edith came over to clean it up for me…  =) I pretty much freaking love it…. but it’s late… who knows. lol… it could be crazy gross and i don’t know it

this is edith… she’s my sylist. =) we had fun…. she insists that i say horrible picture of her…. i respectfully disagree

ok…. she made us take a new one of us… here she is

i’ve been failing with the self control the last couple of days….

yesterday i watched white christmas….. twice…. well sorta…. the first time i watched it… but i was doing other things…making snowflakes… so i mostly watched it.  The second time, I was talking to a friend on facebook and he was watching white christmas and quoting lines to me… and i couldn’t keep up, and i didn’t want to be beaten… so i put it back on and fast forwarded to about where he was so i could beat him to the punch on some lines.  I think he still beat me.  He can pretty much quote the movie verbatim….. I can’t.  But he watches is periodically throughout the year… not just the christmas season.  BUT he’s never EVER seen Holiday Inn…. So I can’t really admit total defeat.  I’d kill at that one.   Am I rambling??? Oh yeah… on the the second part of my lack of self control…. I’m finishing up my second pot of coffee this morning…. with no food in my belly.  I haven’t had this much coffee in the morning since working at TR’s… and i would just keep filling my cup and not pay attention to how much a drank…. I’m super jittery…. it’s kinda fun tho.  I’m apologizing in advance to anyone who has to be around me today…. it might be annoying… I’m just saying…. OOOOO gotta go, coffee JUST kicked in. YIKES

I just remembered why i was kept to a maximum coffee input at trs….

I roughly drank a half gallon of coffee this morning…. and i am a mess….

I’m talking at a rate about triple my normal speed

I can’t get ideas out because my brain is going so much faster than my mouth that i’m on to step 6 before i’ve said step 2 causing there to be gaps in my logic to people not prevy to the information zooming through my head

i’ve used the restroom 3 times in the last 2.5 hours…. that’s my usual output per day

I have a really hard time not reacting when i overhear other people’s conversatin…. this is no good when you don’t want people realizing that you’re listening in….. today i overhead a girl on her phone… and my ear tuned in just in time to hear her say…. just shove it up your butt and i’ll check on you in a little bit….. WHAT??? HOW CAN I BE EXCPECTED NOT TO REACT TO THAT??!!!

tomorrow i will only have my normal 1.5 to 2 cups…. no more 2 pots for me…. i learned my lesson…. for now,.

It’s gonna be crazy but in a good way

• huge project due tomorrow, that i thought was due on tuesday and i hadn’t started (until last night) because i thought i had travel time to work on it
• Friday morning fly out to Nashville to see my BFF and meet Emma.
• Get back in town sunday evening
• Monday go to the Association of Christian School International convention in Dallas, and work vacation club
• Tuesday Vacation club again, work from 6am to noon
• Tuesday afternoon fly home for thanksgiving
• Sunday night get back to Dallas
• mon-thursday, crazy school work, 3 tests, 2 projects, teach 4 classes
• thursday night, fly home for my cousin Betsy’s wedding
• Friday drive to Champaign for wedding
• Sunday fly

I’ve realized that working at the Y has turned me into a 7 year old boy.  When I got home from work the other day, i emptied my pockets and had to laugh at their contents.  Through the course of the day i had accumulated:

• a toy car
• 3 checkers
• 4 leggos
• a wadded up piece of notebook paper
• a rock

if that’s not the definition of a little boy’s pockets, i don’t know what is.

about this picture (taken to send to someone to show my haircut) 1. my giant sunglasses (which i found and did not buy) 2. you can see my reflection in the door behind me and apparently, i stand with my legs crossed.

when you take a big swig of really fizzy coke (that’s coke not soda for you silly southerners) and it makes your eyes water

the smell of crisp cool air first thing in the morning

sunsets from planes

goosebumps from really sappy movies

watching terribly cheesy movies with old friends and secretly loving them despite all the fun you make

learning people’s old nicknames

sleeping when it’s super cold and you get to hunker down and snuggle up

watching people pretend they like the stupid elementary crafts you make them so they don’t hurt your feelings

really smooth rocks

Having a conversation with someone stretch a whole day via text messages

how pretty i feel with freshly painted toenails even though no one is seeing them

front hugs (shhhh don’t tell SAGU)

i just heard that the rubic’s cube has only 1 right answer, and 43 quintillion wrong ones….. i don’t even know what that number is!!!!!!!! crazy!

As many of you know my Grandma is in a nursing home, and has been occasionally crazy for quite some time…. in case you’ve forgotten, you can check here or here. Yesterday i went to visit her first question for me was if i was seeing anybody to which my answer was not at the moment.  She pursed her lips and looked at my mom.  So, mom asked if that was ok with her.  After a long pause as she tried to find the words, her reply was, no i don’t like it, but i’m not seeing anybody either. oh grandma. you’re the best.

is crazy.  After thanksgiving dinner, jimmy (that boy that screams) and i were fighting on the couch…. Something about me being a tool because i wouldn’t let him take my phone and text (probably wildly inappropriate comments) to the person i was texting. Before i knew it, he was kicking my legs over my head and i was suffocating because my airway was being blocked by…… well you should probably just see the picture.

This is especially painful just after eating thanksgiving dinner…. but don’t worry, i got him back… it’s hard to have control over everything when you are very full and laughing really hard and gasping for breath and you’re forced into a ball…. so i farted in his face.  accidentally.  I’m pretty sure his mouth was open.  I think i win.

Every now and then, when i’ve been away from work for a few days, i begin to forget that my kids are big messes.  today i was reminded.  While playing outside a couple of my boys got into a bit of a fight.  I was talking to one of the boys after his time out to redirect his actions….

me: why were we sitting in time out

Kyler: cuz i pushed aiden.

Me: right, and is that something we should do?

Kyler: No

Me. Why not?

Kyler: because it’s not friendly

Me: very good, now what should we do next time?

Kyler: Not hit

Me: great, and then what should you do (i’m going for tell a teacher or walk away or both)

Kyler: Kill him!

gah! and we were doing so well! Later, Kyler asked one of my girls, Alaylah, if he could touch her stomach, she immediately shook her finger at him and yelled, Noooo boy! (with hip action and plenty of attitude) Kyler didn’t seem to be too discouraged because about 5 min. later when Alaylah’s dad arrived to pick her up, Kyler introduced himself saying that he was Alaylah’s boyfriend so he can kiss her anytime he wants.  Alaylah’s dad’s eyes just about popped out of his head and i’m pretty sure he wanted to kick the poor little thing across the room.

When we played outside… i wore a hoodie over my y polo, hood up, coat and mittens. Once i ran around with the kids i didn’t really need it…. but STILL!! I do appreciate cool air (since it is december for crying outloud) i don’t care if i do live in Texas, i want my winter.

Remember in Joshua Chapter 10 when Joshua and the Israelites were fighting and Joshua asked for the sun to stand still so that they would have more time to fight?? And God did it? The sun delayed going down for a whole day! I love verse 14 where it says, “There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the LORD listened to a man.  Surely the LORD was fighting for Israel.”  Well, I know it says it hasn’t happened since, so it can’t really happen again… because that would make a liar out of the book of Joshua…. But i was thinking…. maybe since i’m a WOMAN…. God could make the sun stand still for a whole day again…. or keep it from rising…. i’m not picky.  So i can have an extra day to get all my work done before the end of the semester.  Then someday people can say, Surely the LORD was fighting for Kristi.

remember the other day when it was almost cold in texas??? well today it’s 70. tomorrow back to the 30s…. How is anyone supposed to stay healthy with junk like that??? My sinuses are so confused

5 year olds, when they want to, can work together with surprising effectiveness. In the gym we were playing a tag game.  I was playing too… and when i play all rules of tag go out the window and it quickly turns into… everyone see  you can catch Miss Squeakers.  These little boogers can run forever without getting tired…. and they work together like a pack of wolves to bring down their prey….. yesterday they succeeded

if you notice my white feet…. right before this 2 kids took my shoes off of me and threw them on top of a tall cabinet. brutal!

I was reminded today what it’s like to live at home and not have any privacy.   While taking a shower this afternoon, my sister came over, she came in the bathroom to tell me something…. which is quite normal… but then she said… meet your new nephew, opened the curtain and shoved her new puppy inside for me to see.  Now… in her defense, she didn’t look inside the curtain… but still!! come on!…. the puppy is really cute.

I’m on my second cup of coffee… and it tastes sooooo good today.  I’m not sure im going to be able to stop myself from making another pot. But this is a really bad idea…. just see here or here.  someone please stop me… i’m an addict.

This is my 200th post. I was trying to think of a really great way to celebrate and write some fantastically funny something that would have all six of you peeing in your pants…. but the pressure was too great… so i’m just gonna get this one over with.  I’m really hot, but not in the, oh wow, you’re hot! kind of way…. in the gah, i’ve been sweating all day and smell like a dirty old man kind of way.  I have a gazilion things to do before i can call this week done. There is a good chance that i might cause bodily harm to the girls that just walked down my hall singing screaming “oh happy day” They are now two floors above me and it’s still excruciating.  SO…. i say all that to say, i am in no mood for a good post…. so if you want one that might make you laugh, i suggest you go here, here, or here. And to commemorate my making it to the big Two-double-Oh, everyone should leave a message. THAT MEANS YOU THERE WITH THE FACE LOOKING AT YOUR COMPUTER SCREEN.

ps…. while creating my links i found out that this was my second most popular post of all times. Second only to the “grossest ever” which is the third link above….. sorry joe.

i begged and pleaded for your comments… and i got 7. SEVEN! pathetic guys, really.  anyway, i digress.

Last night, i was talking with a friend about scar stories.  I’ve always loved scar stories, and i’ve always loved having scars…. there’s something tough about them right??? Well last night when telling my scar stories i realized that i don’t have cool, tough scar stories, i have WHAT??? that’s ridiculous scar stories.  I’ll give you 3 simple examples.

1. i have a scar on my foot from a friend who went to wake me up by tapping my foot with a spoon, not realizing that said spoon was super hot, it melted my skin to it and ripped the skin off.  The wound got infected, i got blood poisoning, and according to the doctor, i nearly died.

2. i have a scar on my arm from this time that i was swimming in my pool with some friends and we were playing a game and one of my friends jumped in the pool on top of me and sliced my arm open with his toenail.  TOENAIL!

3. i have a scar across my thigh from a time that i attended CM’s coronation dance (the one where you wear the hoop dresses) I was wearing my sister’s old set of hoops, one of the hoops broke and the metal sliced my leg open.

So just to recap…. three of my scars caused by 1. a spoon 2. a toe nail 3. a dress.

i’m glad i’m from Illinois. Here are a few reasons

• In illinois it’s not necessary to post signs on restaurant doors saying that fire arms aren’t allowed.
• We must wear our seat belts, it is unacceptable to ride around in the back of a pick up, and you can eat out, go bowling, even hear a great band in a ( gasp) bar without having to fight smoke.
• When we say we want a coke, we get a coke, not a dr. pepper, a sprite, or a rootbeer.
• we say chuck, not chunk when refferring to throwing something…. webster’s dictionary agrees with me.  Chuck means to toss; throw with a quick motion, usually a short distance….. while Chunk according to the dictionary is.. a thick mass or lump of anything.
• when we are in the store, we push a cart, not a buggy.

unfortunately sometimes we have governors try and sell senate seats… and president elects are ducking questions about their knowledge and involvement…. shocking.

It was nearing the end of my work day, i had about 5 kids left to be picked up when we went for a restroom break.  The custodian informed me that the boys bathroom was closed and the boys would have to use the girls’ room.  Not that big of a deal since i only had one boy and he’s the brother of 2 of my girls.  So while i was waiting for my last girl to come out of the restroom, I was telling Derek (the lone boy) to be sure he put the seat down when he was finished…. to which his response was, why? my sisters never put the seat up for me!!…. That maybe so, i replied, but you are using the GIRLS’ room, so you should leave it ready for the GIRLS.  This argument seemed just fine for Derek, so when his little sis trotted out, he skipped in.  A minuite or two later, Derek came out to wash his hands, I asked him if he remembered to put the seat down, and he told me, I didn’t put it up so that i wouldn’t have to remember to put it down.   He must have seen the look on my face because he immediately followed up with, Don’t worry, I’m a great aimer…… I checked, he didn’t lie.

apparently i’ve been accused of posting lots of non flattering pictures of myself….. in honor of that…. and the fact that i’ve been really stressed out…. here you go….. in my life stress comes in the form of a fever blister. uhg.

i have one final to go…. and it shouldn’t even count as a final… it’s a 20 multiple  guess question chapter test.  tonight i’m going to a graduation party and a basketball game, and tomorrow i’m cleaning and packing (after taking a quick quiz) and then bright and early wednesday morning, i’m headed for home!  If anyone gets bored between the hours of 7am and 6pm on wednesday feel free to give me a ring! i’ll be on the open road.

it was a long drive, but i made it. YAY! I just decided that it’s no fun when my internet at school is down for 5 days because today i checked my google reader for the first time in 5 days…. and i normally check it twice a day…. and i had 178 blog subcriptions to read. YIKES! it took FOREVER. but i’m caught up, and onto enjoying my vacation.

I’m currently unemployed, so i am making my christmas gifts. Today is getting supplies and ideas together day.  I’m kinda stressed about it…. hope it turns out as good as it is in my head. i guess we’ll see. =)

Every year my family drives up to Chicago to attend Willowcreek’s christmas show.  We drive up on a friday night, and we eat at Geno’s east.  For those of you not from chicago land, that’s the best deep dish pizza on earth.  We get the sausage patty pizza, which is not just sausage patties on a pizza… it’s a solid patty of sausage that covers the entire diameter of the pizza. I know what you’re thinking, it must be too good to be true, but i assure you it is not… and it is glorious…. as can be seen by scott’s expression.

After dinner we went to IKEA where fun was had by all.  I won’t go into details, it would take 8 pages. Then when we got back to the hotel, i decided that i HAD to do a snow angel…. no one would join me…. bunch of darla downers.

getting ready for the jump

trying not to fall down…. which is kinda funny since i’m about to lay down in it.

making the angel.

ta-dah! i’m so much fun

It’s been a while since i’ve written…. a week and half…. I just don’t seem to have as much material when i’m at home out of my regular routine…. Anyway, the longer i go without writing, the more I feel like i need a really good post for my welcome back….  So tonight while perusing facebook, i was thinking about a post my Sister in Law Kelli wrote about the most horrendous thing she’d ever seen.  You can read about it here….

Anyway…. that’s when i found this…

Yup… that’s not photoshopped, that is my good friend Ben Weaver actually wearing those horrendous pj’s…. and not JUST wearing them… but posing in them to be captured for all to see.  (He can’t be upset that this is going to make the internet rounds… he allowed himself to be photographed in them).  But still…. even after seeing this picture, i gave Benji the benefit of the doubt, and i assumed that these pj’s are a big joke, and that he just put them on for the photograph…. That’s when i came across this….

You guessed it…. that’s Ben on Christmas morning before he woke up…. he put those pj’s on Christmas eve and slept in them all night.  He’s actually wearing them… not for a picture, but as pajamas, and by choice. oye.

last night i was home alone.  And sometimes that means strange things happen…. I was sitting in the mom and pop room all alone and after a while it became impossible to ignore the elephant in the corner… or in my case the saxophone…. so i whipped it out and played a little…. after a little hot cross buns actions i decided that i’m awesome and played joy to the world.  I even took a picture via my macbook’s photo booth of me rocking out.

Well…. then i thought my trumpet might be lonely, so i went downstairs and got it. I didn’t think i’d be able to play it at all since it’s been several years…. so i buzzed a bit, then i ran through a couple octives of a chromatic scale and decided that i’m as awesome as i’ve ever been and played the good ole roxana school song, from memory.  I was going to play the whole pregame show… but after the national anthem, my chops were done…. i’m a little out of shape, and today my lips are a smidge swollen and i kinda feel like i’ve been punched in the face.  Oh well…. it was still a top night.

Today i rang in the new year with two old high school buddies.  my friend steph and i went to the grocery store to pick up a few things to make to take to our friend casey’s.  We were crashing her family party and felt it only fair that we bring stuff.  So we picked up the makings for pico de gallo… and as i have never made it before wasn’t sure how much stuff we would need…. we started cutting up veggies and before we knew it had 2 giant Pyrex bowls full of the stuff…. anyone want to have a party??? i have the pico!  We also got stuff for her to make this buffalo chicken dip, and i made cookies… (already had the fixins for that).  Anyway… while at good old shop-n-save, steph and i discovered a few things…. one.  we really shouldn’t be allowed in public together… we were obnoxious… while getting chips, we decided we had to get the “scoops” tostidos. and couldn’t find them… finally i spotted them and exclaimed… SCOOPS! Stephanie immediately responded with… jeez could you be any louder?? This of course is a challenge, so i yelled scoops really loud… and he turned a little purple with embarrassment.  mission accomplished.  Next i realized that the scoops were on the top shelf and there were only 3 bags left so they were all the way to the back.  I had to jump to reach them.  The first bag i got on my first try, but the second took several jumps… and each jump came with a bit of a grunt and a hoooya…. when i got it, i realized that i had accumulated an audience and received a round of applause….. awesome.

During this trip, steph and i also realized that shop n save has some weird stuff…. One… they have a whole section of shelving devoted to “saint candles” i found this really odd and pretty funny, so i got my picture taken with them…

We also found out that if you want cake… but not a whole one… no worries! for a buck and a half, you can buy a whole column of a mistake cake or a forgotten cake…. like this one…

we believe that’s happy birthday to ron….. kinda sad that ron didn’t get it…. but steph and i nearly peed ourselves putting it in order for the picture.  Is this normal practice??? because i’ve NEVER seen it.  Shop n Save is officially the best store ever.

Last night i went to my brother and sister-in-law’s to hang out.  We decided to have brinner and kelli made the eggs and i made the pancakes.  I had never actually made pancakes before and i told my niece, Elle, that while she watched me cook.  She was very surprised that it was my first time and pointed to the pancakes when it was time to flip them.  When we were eating, Elle took a bite of her pancakes and got super excited and gasped and said, these pancakes taste JUST like PANCAKES!!…. thanks Elle, you’re so encourging.   Later in the night, after Elle’s bath, Joe was getting her ready for bed and Scrubs was on.  There was a part in the show when Elliot went to talk to her ex and said something like i feel really bad because i never apologized with you about how things ended.  Elle’s immediate response was singing, It’s too late to ‘pologize….. Ha, she’s cooler than your niece.

today i was presented with some plans… and i had been in my sweats and gross all day.  As soon as plans were finalized, i dropped the phone and ran to the shower…. and i got completely ready in… wait for it…. 11 min!!!!!!!  I even look kinda cute. I rule.

today i had to run to target and take some stuff back for my mom…. while i was there i found some shades on super clearance…. super fun!

pair#1… the bigger the better.

and pair # 2…. i’m so cool sometimes it hurts a little

my sister-in-law hates my new sunglasses. especially the white ones from my last post. (she also complains when i blog about baseball) however, my brother is crazy cool

break is over, i’m back in texas. The trip back was….. uneventful…. so much so that i listened to NPR for about 4 hours.  The radio was annoying…. i must be getting old.  And the highlight of the trip was somewhere after joplin but before the big cabin exit, i apparently drove through “pig country.” i mean, i’m used to smelling the pig smell…. but this was different… it just kept on lingering.  After a solid 20min i was beginning to wonder if someone snuck into my car while traveling down the interstate at 80 mph (the limit was 75 don’t judge!) and took a dump in my backseat.  Ridiculous. needless to say… it was boring. see?

don’t i look bored?

and parents, i know you can’t tell bc i have on sunglasses, but i promise that my eyes were on the road and not looking at the camera.

look at my fun ikea fabric in the background…. isn’t it grand??

I had…. well still have…. a 19 inch tv. It is a great tv and i love it, but my parents were trying to get rid of an old 27inch so i did my daughterful duty and took it off their hands.  With the help of my friend mackenzie, and by help i mean i stood and said let me help, don’t hurt yourself, yeah it goes right there, while he lugged it around. I wasn’t sure if it would fit or not…. Good news, it does!

Whew…. that thing’s a beast.  I’m so glad that God created big strong boys.

Today was the first day of “class.” I didn’t actually have class, but i had orientation to find out my student teaching assignment.  I’m teaching kindergarten and i’m super excited and pretty terrified.  I go tomorrow to meet my master teacher, so i’ll let ya in on how that goes.  In the afternoon we have a 2 week class that coincides with student teaching. we meet for about 4 hours each day however today we were given the syllabus and an assignment and sent on our happy way.  since we were suddenly given all this free time, a group of us girls decided to go catch a matinee (for $2) Being a group of girls, we went to go see bride wars…. and let me just tell you…. ridiculous!  I mean, it was silly, and fun, and cute, and blah blah blah… but it was sooooooo girly it was crazy… i swear that estrogen oozed out of every frame….. I feel like i need to eat some red meat, play some football, and burp to make up for it.

Today was my first day in the class i’ll be student teaching in.  For the next couple of weeks i’ll just be observing and figuring out the class.  I was very nervous going in wondering what this semester will bring and if the first day was any indication, i’m going to have plenty to write about.  As soon as i came in and sat in my new class of kinders, my master teacher, mrs. story, introduced her self to me saying, “Last time i had a student teacher was just two years ago.” (me… YES, she’s gonna know how this goes) then she continued…” and i was really big pregnant so i just handed her all my plans and sat down to rest.” (me…. Jesus help me).  About 10 min later, I had my first interaction with one of the girls.

Girl:  (pulling up her sleeve) do you know what this is

Me:  (recoiling a bit) oh my, that looks a little like

Girl:  (very excited to tell me) THAT’S RINGWORM

Me:  (staying calm) oh, well, do you get to put stuff on it?!

Girl:  (yeah, sometimes momma puts this white stuff on it

Me: ok, good. go sit down. over there, where your seat it, across the room

ok…. don’t make fun of me, but sometimes i get really excited about little things…. today i got my very own desk in my classroom!  Yesterday my Mrs. Story and i went to the storage room to look for things for me and found a rolly chair for me to sit in…. i had been sitting in a mini baby chair…. and she pointed to some tables that were buried  that we would dig out some other time.  After school yesterday, Mrs. Story went to one of the janitors and asked him to move the table into her room so when i got there today the table was in there…. Mr. Ray (the janitor) came in after i had been there a bit to ask me what height i wanted the desk to be and he set it just exactly how i wanted it. =) I HAVE MY OWN DESK!!!  I think next week i will take a pencil jar and some post-its to keep at MY desk.

I got myself super excited about my first weekend back to school and not having anything to do. I had great plans for sleeping in, washing my car, painting, maybe a sewing project.  I did sortra sleep in, but i woke up feeling like i’d been hit by a truck.  I tried to get out of bed and get going but i struggled…. turned out that i had a fever all day. So much for my first weekend.  but i got a ton of rest yesterday and a little bit of drugs in my system, and i’m feelling much better today.  Still a little congested…. but i can deal with that…… let’s go cardinals (and kelli, that’s football, not baseball)

Today there was no school, but the teachers in my district had a training and work day.  I wasn’t required to go, but thought it would be a good opportunity to meet some people and learn a little something.  We knew that we were having a crisis training, but the admin didn’t tell any of the teachers anything else.  After a brief faculty meeting in the cafeteria, a man wearing a mask came running into the room firing a gun, many of the teachers screamed as he instructed us to get up on the stage and and kneel.  By the time i got to the stage i was in the very front near the middle…. perfect.   The man paced back and forth yelling about wanting his kids and firing his gun at the floor and ceiling.  Apparently some of the teachers were smiling, or stifling a giggle partly because they were uncomfortable and partly because they knew the whole thing was fake.  Unfortunately the perp didn’t think this was funny and pulled out a grenade, pulled the pin and handed it to ME, of all people, handed it to ME and told me if i dropped it we’d all die.  AWESOME.  So i held it like a good little trooper until the cops came in and gunned the guy down.  The cops instructed everyone to exit the room and had me stand on the other side of the room and hold the grenade until someone came to take it from me, then all the cops left and just left me in the room, all alone holding a grenade like it was no big deal.  haha. Eventually one of the cops came back in and told me i did a good job and took the grenade from me.  Afterwards, all the teachers and admins apologized to me for being so rudely introduced to the school.  And every time i went to an office or another class to drop something off, whoever was in the room said… OH! you’re the grenade girl!! you poor thing!  So i’m pretty sure that the rest of the semester, i’ll be the grenade girl and no one will actually know my name…. But hey, it’s a good conversation starter, right??? I can never do anything normal.

Today i had recess duty.  My class was outside first so we were also the first to go in.  When it was time to go in there were 5 other kindergarten classes outside playing.  I stepped to just outside the playground, put my hand in the class and yelled “Mrs. Story’s class, time to line up!” and i then counted down from 5.  By the time i got to 1 all my kids were standing in a straight line behind me with their hands behind their backs and a bubble in their mouths.  As i counted heads to make sure i had everyone, i glanced up at the huddle of other kindergarten teachers and they all had that, wow, i’m surprised and impressed, look on their faces.  I walked a little taller back inside and thanked the YMCA for honing my get kids in a line skills.

I might add that i was impressed with how well the kids got in line too…. they’re WAY easier than Y kids. ssshhhhh don’t tell!

Today i put two boys in timeout at recess and during the work day i made two kids “pull their pins” (not good).  It’s not all giggles and rainbows anymore…. Ms McGill has come to town.

Today my cooperating professor came to my classroom to talk to my master teacher about what the university expects of me and when she can come and observe me, yadda yadda.  So, i was left in the classroom by myself for the first time.  Mrs. Story gave me a couple of things to have the kids do and then a “if you have time” activity.  I looked at what she gave me and was pretty sure i wasn’t going to have enough to keep us busy, but she was rushed because Dr. Boone was pulling her out in the hallway so i figured i’d deal with it.  So…. within about 15 min we had finished the work given to us plus learned a poem (the if you have time activity) and then we made up motions to go with the poem.  By my calculations i still had about 10min to fill so i had a few kids who didn’t finish their morning work, get their stuff out and get to work and i had the rest of the kids get their library books and spread out to read.  A few mins later Mrs. Story came waltzing back in and had a rather confused look on her face when she saw her kids sprawled around the classroom quitely looking at books or sitting in the corner reading their books to one another.  This was the conversation that followed:

Mrs. Story: are they reading their library books

Me: yes, we finished our work and i wasn’t sure how long you’d be, so rather than start something else i thought they could read

Mrs. Story: they finished both pages?

Me: Yup, and i checked them all for names and dates and they are turned into the box on my desk

Mrs. Story: did you go over the poem

Me: yep, the whole class recited it a few times, and then we made up motions for it and sang it a few more times

Mrs. Story: Wait, they did both papers?

Me: yep, everyone finished them, and then we did the poem and made up motions, and now they’re reading

Mrs Story: …… wow.

Me: =D  (thinking haha i win)

I watched the vols/memphis game today, i was rooting for the vols, and they lost a heart-breaker, just one hoop…. then tonight i went to the SAGU boys game…. they lost by i think 5.  They should have won… at one point they were up by 12.  for some reason, our guys play a crazy sloppy 2nd half, and if my count was right they missed 15 free throws… FIFTEEN!  GAR.  It’s been a rough day…. On the bright side, i got this cute hat today on clearance for two funky dollars.

hey… i kinda look like i have a dimple in this picture… weird.  OH! and everyone is trying to tell me that i’m not too old to put a purple chunk in the back of my hair in the under-layer. I don’t agree. I think i’m too old for sure… but people are working hard to talk me into it.

Today was my first day of official student teaching…. i did morning calendar and counting and a couple other songs.  Then… in the afternoon, my teacher was like… so you haven’t been here for math yet, right.  I said right.  And she said ok…. have you ever used an elmo? (which is like a camera that you put your book under and it projects it onto the screen) Nope, i haven’t used one before.  And she said… oh… well here’s the math book, we’re doing these pages, you go do it…… Wait, what? were we in the same conversation because i’m pretty sure she asked me if i had seen her do math yet and if i had ever used an elmo before… i said no to both of those questions…. yet she still just gave it all to me without anytime to even look over the pages and see what i was presenting…. It went fine… but jeez edith!!! Oh and Thursday there’s going to be sub… aka, the class is mine all day! YIKES!

Today i did draft book with the kids.  Basically we make a circle map the middle is what our theme is (this week our theme is bears) and then the outter circle you write things about what is in the middle, then the kids have to write two sentences about the theme.  We would have done bears but since it was icey today and Texan kids don’t get that very often we made a circle map about ice.  I was asking the kids things they knew about ice and for the most part i got normal answers…. Ice is cold. Ice is slippery, You can play on ice. ect.  Then came Camden who said, ” Ice is bad because it makes the power go out, and then the house gets cold and it makes momma cuss.” Classy.

it’s funny how sometimes taking a story you know well out of it’s normal context can illuminate new stuff for you.  I recently read the story in Mark chapter 5ish where Jesus meets Legion, the man with all the demons.  This guy is nuts, he throws himself into fire and terrorizes an entire town.  Jesus meets him and casts all the demons out of the man and into a huge herd? of pigs.  The pigs go crazy and drown themselves.  This basically crushes the economy of the whole town, the people are less than thrilled and want Jesus to leave.

now normally i read this story when talking about how powerful Jesus is, those demons ain’t got nothin on Him…. or talking about His miracles… that sort of thing…. and I’ve always kinda had the thought… now why would Jesus throw those demons into the pigs??… those poor people losing their livelihood.  I’d even had the passing thought that it was a bit of an oops moment for Jesus.

Then i put the story into the “Jesus loves us” context.  What if, Jesus saw the situation (because he is fully God and that makes him omniscient) and knew that there was two choices.  1. don’t do anything for this guy and this whole town will be receptive to him and he can go talk to all of them 2. free this guy and ruin the town and they’re gonna kick him out.

Jesus didn’t go with the numbers, he left the 99 to go find the 1.  Jesus knew that this would make the whole town want him to leave, but he loved this man so much that he set him free anyway.  He then told the man to go and tell everyone what the Lord had done for him.

The great thing is that love applies to me too.  God loves me so much that he would sacrifice everything to prove to me how much.  And maybe the town kicked Jesus out… but I bet he knew what he was doing when he told the man to go and tell what the Lord had done.  After a while, i’d be willing to bet that several of those town’s people saw for themselves the awesomeness and came around to accepting that Jesus was who he said he was.  So, now that i know how much He loves me, what should i do? I should go and tell what the Lord has done for me…. And lookie there… the great commission…. kinda cool how that whole book fits together.

Today, Mrs. Story was to be out of the room to do testing.  She had a sub planned for the day, but basically the day was given to me.  I’m still not planning, so my teacher got regular sub plans together, but i did all the teaching.  I was a little nervous going into today, but i was excited to get a whole day under my belt without being watched by my master teacher.  The sub (who is a regular in the building) all day said over and over, i don’t even know why i’m here, i can’t believe this is your first week, i could have never gotten as much done as you have.  So, that makes me feel good… but my favorite moment of the day was when one of my boys gave his table a sunday school lesson while they worked.  He said, do you know who our REAL father is?  I’ll give you a hint, he created the WHOLE world…. it’s GOD!  And then he added that they were all three the same. And one of the girls asked who was the same, and said, you know… God, Jesus, and the Holy Moley!…… Well… at least he’s excited about it… we can work out better names later.   The only bad thing was, this lesson he was giving started a bit of a disagreement.  He said that God created the world, while the girl next to him said that Jesus created the world, and then they came to ask me who was right….. all my bible school education and i didn’t know how to answer…. I’m pretty sure i avoided the question and told them to get back to work.

that’s john, not joe.  He’s my friend. He plays basketball.  He’s really tall.  6′9″. Coach decided that the team needed to be clean shaven. you know, like duke. After much sweet talking, i talked him into the fumanchoo before shaving it all. Awesome

for my third post today…. i realize that you are sick of me…. but this needed to be shared.  I wore a really cute jacket all day and it has one of those collars that kinda sticks up so it’s not like a lapel….. i don’t really know how to explain it…. but anyway, it rubbed my neck all day long, and now it looks like i have a big ole hicky… or actually 2 one on each side.

Exhibit A

exhibit b

gah… this would happen to me

tomorrow i’m visiting a friend’s church because it’s his last sunday to lead worship.  Our other friend, who invited me, told me that they are having a drawing for all the first time visitors for this super nice grill and a ridiculously nice set of steaks….. keep your fingers crossed that i win.  Not that i have anywhere to put a bbq grill…. but still, i WANT IT!

maybe i should have started with something a little easier….

poor little guy, he’s all lumpy and lopsided…. face only a mother could love…. or maker…. I love him… but somehow, i still think he’s adorable. haha.

update… he’s been named… Orwell… Orwell the crippled bunny.

Today we were talking about the times of day, Morning, Day, and Night.  Each were written on a big piece of chart paper and then the students were saying things that we do in each part of the day.  When we got to Day, kids were shouting out all kinds of playing activities.  Mrs. Story, really wanted the kids to say school…. so she said what is something that Mrs. Story would really really really want you to say??? And one boy, Wes, got very excited and shouted out…. YES MA’AM!!!

well he DID answer the question

i’m working on something cool….. i’m in love. you’ll see.

I needed something to put valentines in for the vday party at school…. hopefully i’ll be getting lots of valentines from the little kiddos. =) =) anyway…. without further ad-do….. as mentioned in my last post, i was working on something…. and something was my valentine pail…… TA DA

that my brother would be rock star….. he started early….. his first album, Jammin Joe at his Best quickly led to his rapping career. he even got paid for for rapping at church once.

that’s joe on the right…. and parter nathan on the left performing at church camp.

And don’t think that he just became stylish since he married his rockin hot wife…

you see him??? inbetween the girl in the white shirt and boy in te blue shirt…. there’s my big bro in a teal windbreaker i’m sure he borrowed from mom…. and are those cavaricci’s???? classy.

i’ve finished my second v-day pail… sorry for the picture quality.

Today at school i wore a black dress and boots…. and since valentines day is coming up, a long necklace with a big red heard charm.  I’m on dismissal duty this week, so i was taking the kinder car rider line to their waiting spot.  Towards the end of the line there were about 6 girls in a row.  Their heads are just about heart charm level so each one walked by, saw my heart, stopped, and said, “oooo i like your necklace!”  And to each one i said thank you very much.  After the 6 girls, there was a boy who wanted to see what the fuss was all about.  He looked at my heart (never at my face) tilted his head, scrunched up his nose in a confused look, shrugged his shoulders, and walked on without a word.

couple of notes from student teaching….

today i gave one of my boys some directions and he said yes ma’am, but he’s got a bit of a cold so i thought he said mom.  and i said… Camden, did you just call me mom??? And he giggled and said no that he said yes ma’am.  And then he thought it was funny… and he said, no i mean, yes, i called you moom!  and i said, I am NOT your momma! and Camden thinking this was so funny, said, yes you are! you just don’t know it, you cook me hot dogs and EVERYTHING!  haha.  Well i’m glad to know that to be a mom i have to cook hotdogs. =)

Later one of my girls, Rylee,  told me that she took all her mom’s panties and flushed them down the toilet.  (remind me not to get on her bad side)

And one of my other girls, Reigni Hope, got me with her rapid fire questions.

Reighni Hope: miss mcgill, miss mcgill, miss mcgill!!!!!!

Me: heaven’s to pete! yes miss reighni?

Reigni Hope: What’s you’re name

Me: Miss McGill

Reighni Hope: What color is the sky?

Me: Blue

Reigni Hope: What’s the opposite of down?

Me: Polly-fill?

Reigni Hope:What?? no, the opposite of DOWN

Me: oh, sorry, Up?

Reigni Hope: Miss mcgill blew up???!!!

Me: I did say that, didn’t i?

Reigni is all teeth and dimples at this point….  I told her she got me good, but it’s not over…. i’ve got plans for her tomorrow.

it shouldn’t come as a surprise that i LOVE goofy pics. I take silly pics of myself and post them all the time…. I’m not about hiding all but the very best… i guess i just don’t take myself that seriously… and there is something authentic about pictures of yourself making horrid faces, in clumbsy moments,  terrible hair,  etc. etc. etc.  they cheer me up, and i figure that they cheer other people up too….. so i don’t hold back… as you know if you’ve been a reader of my blog…. i post terrible pictures of myself and admit it when i accidentally pee my pants, get called out in my first days of student teaching to hold grenades, fall down stairs, catch a breeze that blows my skirt over my head, burn dinner, so on and so forth.  That’s life. rather than hide it and pretend i’m “perfect,” I embrace the goofiness and share with all the world so at least others can get a smile or a chuckle from my oopsadoodles.   Because of this, there’s not much that i enjoy more than having friends that do the same and share their less than perfect moments with me….. So the other night, i was talking to my good friend, Nate.  In our conversation, he mentioned that he hasn’t gotten a haircut in a while and his hair is the longest it’s been since i’ve known him and he gets some crazy bed head.  I laughed and said something about how that would be fun to see… (nate usually has a short buzz so it’s always in place).   So, the next morning, i was having a drag-your-booty-out-of-bed-already-worst-morning-ever kind of day, when i got a text message.  Upon opening it, I found this….

I laughed out loud and all of the sudden was in a great mood and went on to have one of the best days i’ve had in my classroom.  Thanks to nate.  See what we can do if we share a little unperfectness??? Let nate be an inspiration to everyone….. capture your goofiness and share it with a friend, whether is be by pic, blog, comment, or word of mouth. Get over yourself and get it out there, you might just make someone’s day.

My last two days have been the best ever.  The kids have been excited about learning, they’ve stuck to their work, made lots of progress, and listened really well.  Today was my first day being observed…. it was literally the worst day since i’ve been here.  The kids were bouncing off the walls, they could not get focused no matter what i did. We fought through my lesson, and Dr. Boone somehow had some good things for me…. at least it wasn’t just me and the kids were acting up because dr. boone was here. They kept it up all day long. WORST DAY EVER! i’m taking a nap.

kids were back to normal today.  We got a lot done and had a lot of fun doing it.  And i have my phone back… and lunch was really good.  I had turkey and swiss with lettuce, tomato, and sprouts on a whole wheat roll, red bell peppers, and a fresh salad with homemade vinaigrette.  all in all, a pretty good day… tomorrow, Valentines party…. while most people will be having cupcakes and cookies, our precious 5 year olds will be having nachos and make your own sundaes. YIKES.  we’ll see how much actual learning takes place. HA! i’m not holding my breath…. OH and tomorrow i get to embarrass myself in front of the whole school…. details to follow.

the school i’m at is participating in “jump rope for heart” you can check it out here.  basically kids get people to sponser them to jump rope and they get a bunch of excercise and they raise money for the american heart assosiation.  it’s a win win…. WELL…. all the teachers get put on “pep teams” to get the kids excited and the teams win points for doing stuff….. my team is called the Kolesterol Kickers and we have a farmer/cowboy theme.  yesterday morning we were going to have as assembly and my team was going to dress up in jeans/overalls, boots, red shirts, bandanas, and cowboy hats.  Then we were going to get up infront of everyone and do an impromtu dance to cotton eye joe.  sooo  embarassing….. what i didn’t know was that the assembly was a ginat pep rally and that all the teams got up infront of everyone and did something stupid….. so it all fit.  And our team was pretty much the best….. but after all my jumping around, and nearly losing my britches, i was pretty tired…. but my kids loved it…. they were talking about how i was the best dancer all day. ha.

Checking blog stats to see what people type into their search engines to find me…. one because, why would people be searching that, and what are they looking for? and two, how did that bring you to me??  some of my favorties…

• the mustache helps
• woke up peeing
• boyfriend threw my shoes
• wet the bed dorm
• smell like dr pepper
• harry wong
• sister came in the bathroom peeing
• putting on a finger buddy
• meat sweats
• how to side pony
• grocery cart ideas coronation dance

apparently, all these things will bring to to mcgilla.wordpress.com….. i’m just not sure how…. or what these people were really looking for, i’m pretty confident that i’m not it.

I’m going to try and find some more pictures of our team making fools of ourselves…. but for now these will have to tide you over.  On the midlothian isd website, LaRue Miller (my school) and our JRFH assembly is being featured….. I found this out when i took my kinders to the computer lab this morning, and as they got the internet browser up (the midlothian website is the homepage), I heard dozens of….. miss mcgill! you’re on the internet!!!!…… i turned very quickly and wide eyed, hoping it wasn’t true…. but alas… i am on the front page….. here it is….

this is after we’re done dancing…. and coach rogers (the pe teacher) is giving a speech about “kicking” bad habits, bad food, and getting Kicking, with being active and jump roping, and what not…. (we’re the kolesterol kickers) and every time he said kick we kicked and yeehawed.

here’s the rockin ropers…. they danced to some 70’s rock hit… i don’t remember what….. but it was fun.

The cardiac QT’s…. they walked back and forth to “material girls” and princess waved…. the one in the middle with the crown, glasses, dark hair, and wide open mouth is my master teacher….. this whole team theme and creation is hers. (she’s a self-proclaimed princess)

here’s a pic of some of the 5th grade jump team…. i wish i had more to show you… they did some really cool stuff…..  you can’t see them.. but there are 4 more kids to the left of this screen with the letters j-u-m-p…. they jumped into the rope one at a time and called out the letters as they jumped in…. and all 8 jumped together several times…. it was fun.

This week we’re talking about America and US symbols…. Today we mostly talked about Abraham Lincoln.  In passing it was mentioned that he was killed… but never really discussed, and not by me…. while reading a book one of my other boys said that his dad told him that Abraham Lincoln was shot…. but that’s all that was said.   Much later in the day the kids had a page with pictures of lots of things on it and the kids had to color the pictures that started with the letter Uu.  One of the pics was a set of stairs with an up arrow.  After about 2 min, one of my boys (not the one who made the lincoln statement earlier) came up to me to proudly show me his work. he had colored the stairs red and proudly announced in his best comic book villian voice…. “these stairs are red because they’re drenched in the blood of the 16th president!”   How is it that boys naturally know how to man up even the most mundane thing?

He’s used to be a glove…. now he’s a woodland creature….

i’m pretty much in love with him…. you can’t see it in this picture… but his tail is bendable!!!!

I often find myself making deals with the kids in my class…. If you at least get two of those 3 things done, you can go to the restroom.  You don’t play with your totally awesome ring while you’re doing work, you can keep it with you today.  If you listen really well while we do this lesson, i’ll read a little more of that book you really like…… This got me thinking, why do i make deals with my students instead of just expecting them to do what i ask?  Then i realized that i do the same thing with myself.  Just today i caught myself saying….. If you get all the dishes washed and the bathroom and “kitchen” cleaned before you turn on the tv, you can sit and have cereal and all the decaf you want for dinner.  When in all reality, i should just keep my dishes and bathroom clean (disclaimer…. i didn’t have that many dishes, and my bathroom stays pretty clean). And i can have cereal and decaf whenever i want it…… so, what deals do you make with yourself???

i really need a life.

how would you finish that sentence?  that was a writing prompt for my kinders today, and although most answers were pretty simple, some were simply too adorable not to share…..

If i were precident, i would……

“love my mom” -Mikah

“play baseball at the white house” – Marshall (kid after my own heart)

“help the usa by telling them about emergencies” – Gavin (too cute right)

“shoot all the bad armies” Camden (hoo-rah)

and my absolute favorite of the day…..

“If i were president i would…… have the president wear a yellow suit” – Wes    who i might add was the same kid who said this

nope…. that’s not dandruff…. Sparkle, the toothfairy came to school.  That’s fairy dust.  It was magical.

I was really excited about this writing assignment i had for the kiddos today…. We’ve been talking about Dr. Seuss and reading his books because his birthday is coming up next week.  So today, the kids made their very own Seussical page.  I wrote a pair of rhyming words on each of 20 cards.  Then i folded up the cards and put them into a cat in the hat, hat.  The kids came up and drew a card out of the hat with their rhyming pair…. the kids then had to put their rhyming words into a silly sentence and illustrate it.  The results were AWESOME.  One of my favorites came from nick, i like to rake the cake…. his picture was priceless…. probably i enjoyed it so much because i was expecting the cake is on the rake….. anyway, you know an assignment is going over well when all the kids finish in less than 10 min and the room is pretty silent while they’re working.  The bad news is that i was hoping to have their work to put out in the hallway with the bulletin board i’m making….. but the writing went over so well that Mrs. Story decided that they were going to go into their portfolios.  which i guess is good news.  Even my kids who struggle to do more than string nonsensical letters together without any spaces were able to write nearly understandable sentences….. VERY FUN!

Today has been a bit of a day.  One of my beautiful, precious, little girls dropped the B bomb at lunch, and 3 other girls dropped it to tell me that it was said.  All day long the kids have been bickering and just being mean to one another.  After rest, which comes right after lunch, i had decided i had had it.  We sat on the rug together and talked about words that make us bloom and words that make us wilt.  We talked about how we should only say words that will make our friends bloom, and if we think that something we have to say might have a teeny tiny chance of making someone wilt, then we should swallow those words and not say them at all.  To practice “blooming”  I pulled out my popsicle sticks that have the kids’ names on them.  I use them to pull out a name at random and call on students.  Anyway… i gave one stick to each kid, so they had someone else’s name.  I then gave them a piece of paper and they each wrote a bloom note or a bloom picture for their person.  Many of them were very thoughtful and took time to really think about things that their person likes.  The kids glowed after hearing their blooms, so we hung them up all over the room.  

(don’t tell the kids that they’re actually practicing good writing skills…. i might put this into our weekly curriculum.)

This post is not for the faint of stomach….. don’t read further if you can’t handle it….

You’ve been warned…..

I have a sinus infection….. my mucus used to be neon yellow/green….. now it’s a weird brownish yellowish color….. like this….

should i be worried??? do you think that’s brain matter??? i cant’ really afford to be blowing it out my nose.

what do alexander the great and winnie the poo have in common???

their middle name!

how do you tell the difference between a walrus and an orange?

Put your arms around it and squeeze, if you don’t get orange juice, it’s a walrus.

Your Welcome.

my bulletin board created for Dr. Seuss’s birthday.

in hind sight…. i should have put the rhyming pairs together….. but i’ll just say that this makes it “interactive”….  isn’t the cat in the hat cute??? i drew him myself!!

First thing this morning one of my girls rylee came in telling me that she loved my ring….. then she told me that it looked just like an egg yolk on my finger….. awesome, just the look i was going for…… then at lunch she asked me why do you have your hair like that??? it makes you look like a boy.  I told her her hair looked like a boy too (hers is a little shorter than mine) she didn’t agree. I didn’t think my ring or my hair looked bad….. but i guess it does…. what do you think????

on a bright note…. Reigni Hope gave me this penny.  I told her she should keep it, and she had a big ole grin on her face when she said, No! i want you to have it Miss McGill, i found it and it’s a lucky penny, and it’s for you!!!….. how could i say no??

Today after lunch all the kinders got together to watch a dr. seuss movie.  Nick is one of my more ornery boys…. he is constantly doing weird things and causing me all kinds of grief.  During the movie, he kept being silly and pulling his arms out of his sleeves.  I told several times to knock it off…. but he just wouldn’t stop…. finally he pulled his arms out of his sleeves and crossed his arms and put his arms into his opposite sleeves.  He was showing off for everyone, but soon discovered he was stuck.  He came to me panicking because he couldn’t get his arms out, and i said…. tough dude. i told you to knock it off, i guess you’re stuck…… What you don’t know about nick is that he’s a very proud boy, and if he has to sit in his mess, he’ll get pretty upset.  He sat there with this horrible look on his face, and i couldn’t help it, but i started cracking up… i tried turning my head, but it wasn’t working, so i had to leave the room…. on my way out, one of the other teachers asked what the problem was, and when i told her she started cracking up too…. Nick soon cried big ole crocodile tears…. and one of the other teachers took a picture….. priceless.

you know those days when you feel like everything you says just lands on the students like sunshine and sprinkles?  the whole day is magical, kids a learning, and loving it, they are catching on quickly, cooperating, working well, being nice, the teacher is loving what she’s teaching, and everone has a great time???  today was not one of those days.

as mentioned earlier… today was less than wonderful….. i just felt like i was moving through thick mud all day and all my thoughts had to find their way through the labrynth before they could find their way out…. well…. on my way out of school, we left early today for our “student teacher class” the breeze (which wasn’t even very strong) caught my skirt just right and blew the back of it over my shoulder. i tried to catch it and pull it down but it just kept going up, up, up. My friend Rachel tried to help me and she grabbed part of my skirt to pull it down, and i grabbed part of my skirt… but somehow, it still defied gravity and exposed my poor booty for everyone (or amanda the other student teacher, and that bus driver who wasn’t looking…. i don’t think) to see.  i began to spin to catch more skirt and rachel grabbed with 2 hands but somehow with all 4 of our hands grasping for the floating fabric, nothing seemed to get my skirt back around my knees where it belonged.  Finally i sat down on the ground with my pride bruised and battered.  By the time i got back to my room and changed into much  needed sweats, i decided that i deserved a girl scout cookie.  I have a box of samoas bought by my mom that i have been rationing to last as long as possible…. but of all days, today is the day that i need one. I pulled out a cookie, bit into it, and just as the carmely goodness began to flood my mouth i got a funny feeling in my mouth and found a very dark, very coarse, very thick black hair baked into the cookie.  (urp)  so much for that.

not only do i get to make awesome leprechaun ears with my kids…. like this

also…. st. patricks day made one of my girl’s, reigni hope, magically funny.  First thing in the morning i let everyone come to the pencil sharpener, and i sharpen everyone’s pencils.  Reigni hope came through the line a second time and i wasn’t paying attention and took her pencil, right before i stuck it in the machine, i realized it was already sharp, i then looked up and saw her standing and grinning at me….”HA! i tricked you!” she said very excited……” you sure did, ya little snot!” i replied with a laugh.  Reigni Hope, being the only kid in class not wearing green today quickly responded with, ” y’all are snots, not me, look at all that green!”

Maybe it’s not that funny if you weren’t there…. or maybe my sense of humor is equal to my kinders…..

Today we wrapped up our 2 week unit on texas by having a “rodeo.” We were suppposed to do it outside…. but it’s rained for 3 days so we were inside, and each class was a station and each teacher was in charge of a station and the the classes rotated through the stations all day long.  We had amadillo races (riding on bellies on scooters down the hall) bean and boot relays, barrel racing (or running around chairs in the barrel pattern on stick horses), face, painting a campfire reading complete with flashlights, chili tasting, and I did throwing cards into a cowboy hat and then taking your cards, glueing them on a cut out of texas and making a math problem out of them…. unfortunately, i also got to take over my cooperating teacher’s station as well….(she’s the yearbook gal and the yearbook was due at 6pm, she went to take it in early last night and was told she did the whole thing in the wrong program and was frantic putting that together all day today.) So, i took over her station which meant that i got to teach classes all day long the stars at night, are big and bright, (clap clap clap clap) deep in the heart of texas…. song (ALL DAY LONG) and if that weren’t enough i also got to teach them all the dance to cotton eyed joe…. yes there’s a dance….. my last class of they day was my best….. they sing in their room all the time, so they picked up the song super quick and were all about singing it.  After we sang it a couple of times they sang a song for me….. it’s to a familiar tune… but i can’t tell you what it is because i can’t get these words out of my head…. but anyway it goes…

I’m a Tex, I’m a Tex, I’m a Texas star

Way out west where the broncos are

I can ride um I can rope um i can show you how it’s done

So come on i’ll show you with my 6 shooter gun

(keep in mind there are movents to this song…. so at this point they pull out their finger guns and go… BANG BANG, blow blow (as they blow out the ends) chick, chick (putting the guns in their holtsers) YEEEE HAW! (lasso arm move))

This class even did this song on the announcements this mornings… and all the teachers and admins ooo and awww and talk about how cute they are….. and all i can think is, if i taught illinois kids that song about shooting a gun, with sound effects and motions…. i’d be fired.

I’ve been casually reading this book called the red sea rules….. it’s pretty good…. and there is a thought in it that i’ve been mulling over a lot lately….. It talked about when the hebrew people were finally delivered out of Egypt, they were totally stoked…. but then they camped at the Red Sea and the most powerful army in the world was fast approaching…… it seemed hopeless….. It seemed that God had just led them out of captivity to be slaughtered down the road…… but then, something amazing happened.  God made a road right in the middle of the sea and the hebrews just walked right through…..

God knew way before he allowed his people to be put into captivity that he would get them out…. and that he would do some pretty fantastic things to get them out. He wasn’t just flying by the seat of his pants going…. oh stink, the egyptians are coming and there’s that stinkin’ sea in the way, what to do? what to do? GOT IT!….. this’ll be neat.  God had this planned the whole time….

Sometimes it may seem like i’m stuck between a rock and hard place, and i get frustrated and think, how did i get here? Why did i do that if this is where i was gonna end up???? But i have to remember that God knows right where i am.  He allows me to be in the place i am, even if it makes me uncomfortable…. If i have some patience, and remember that i have blinders on and can’t see the whole picture, and just wait….. I might find out that God has plans that will get me past that rock…. or the hard place…. and He’ll do it for His glory.  So instead of getting mad, and frustrated, and yelling at God for forgetting…. maybe i should be still and know, and maybe just maybe, he could use this clay pot to give him the all the praise.

There are sometimes in life when it seems like no matter how long you work, or how hard you try… there is a wall that is keeping you from getting past a certain point.  And the same has been true for me for quite sometime…. But i have good news.  Today i turned the corner and over came a huge obstacle in my life that i have been trying to push through for a few years.  I would like to thank all of you that have been praying that i would overcome, as you know it has been a struggle.   yes, it’s true, you can believe the rumors….. I beat Reda today in racquetball.  I was down 10-4 and i came back all the way to winning 14-11…. and i knew it would still be struggle as i tend to tighten up at the end of games….. and let me tell you, it was epic…. Reda tied it up at 14 and we exchanged serves back and forth back and forth before i finally became the victor at 16-14.  Whew does it ever feel good!

yesterday i took advantage of early bird voting and voted for local elections.  My brother in law, Jeremy Plank, is running for office.  you should vote for him. he’s awesome.

excuse my hair….. it was 78 degrees and i cruised all over town with the top down. Life is rough.

the mcgill’s came over on the boat…. and we’re irish…. but we came over as protestants….. not the majority from ireland….. I think for that’s the reason i didn’t get the drinking gene… so i didn’t spend st. patty’s day gettin shloshed…. however, i’m still an irish girl.  Corned Beef and Cabbage.  ’nuff said.

I was kinda worried about coming back today…. I assumed that with a whole week off the kids would have forgotten what it means to be in school and it would be a rough day….. quite the opposite happened…. We did have a few talkers and some noisy moments… but all in all i was really proud of their behaivior…. the whole class stayed on green, and that means lunch with he kiddos tomorrow. =)  Maybe this time i won’t get stuck next to butt digger and ringworm. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

• I was told that my lunch was “yankee food” I had chili mac for lunch.
• One of my boys asked if he could stop calling me Miss McGill and start calling me Pretty Lady.  (i said of course)
• My boy who is constantly talking about fire and venom all of the sudden started talking about kissing and romance today.
• You never ever want to hear the old ladies eating behind you talk about what color bras they buy
• I’m getting ready for opening day….. i switched to my cardinal bag today
• I got to be in our class picture. =)
• I woke up late and didn’t wash my hair this morning. =(
• someone found my blog today by searching, “my friend’s hot wife”
• MC Hammer is currently on Ellen
• Oprah and Dr. Oz are introducing viewers to joe who might be the “first person to reach 150 years old”….. I think Oprah and Dr. Oz need to read Genesis.

Started the day by broadcasting the fact that he forgot to take a shower last night…… and the day before that.  At the end of the day (right after my cooperating teacher douced the room with air spray) i found jackson laying face down on the floor sniffing really loud.  What are you doing??? i asked….. and jackson jumped up to say SMELLING!! THIS ROOM SMELLS GOOD! he then went straight back to the floor to sniff……. sometimes you just don’t ask questions.

you probably don’t want them…. but i got 2 new ones today. and i really like them…. WAIT. i’m NOT going to share…. last time i put jokes on here, i forgot about it, and then i went to tell them to my brother and got made fun of because i already blogged them….. you can ask me about them…. they’re better in voice than in type anyway.

After the release of orwell the striped bunny…. my birthday buddy has begged for a “manly bunny”….. well Ron…. I was going to make you a manly bunny….. but decided instead that you needed a frog.  So here ya go Mr. Woods….. meet your new little buddy.

of my search engine terms being filled with things like green snot, thick mucus, nasty sinus infection, blood in your snot, brownish mucus, treatments for sinus infections, neon green stuff coming out my nose….. and the like.  So from now on, i will not be sharing the details of my sicknesses on my blog.  I don’t care how many complaints i get…. bc i know y’all are going to miss my mucus…. but it doesn’t matter, you won’t persuade me.  Snot talk is over.

And migranes aren’t fun either….. but medicine is good.

Today, kids were given an assignment…. they had an easter egg with a circle in the middle of it… they were to color and decorate it, and in the circle, draw what was in the egg.  On another egg shaped piece of paper with lines, they were to write about what was in the egg (what they drew).  We then put the two pages together to make a “book”….. Since these were easter eggs (our theme this week is easter) the kids were supposed to draw things that you’d get out of an easter egg…. like chocolate, jelly beans, small toys, money…. etc. etc. etc. Unfortunately, last week’s unit was oviparous animals… that is…. egg layers….. so most of the kids drew animals that hatch from eggs.  i had this conversation with a girl when i wasn’t quite sure  what she had drawn.

Me: Oh, Maribeth, your egg is beautiful!….. what is that you’ve drawn in it??

Maribeth: That’s a rattle snake!!! (huge koolade smile)

Me: Oh! WOW! how bout that!

Maribeth: yeah, he has a really big rattle!

Me: yeah, he sure does!

……… here….. maybe you can see why i was a little confused/concerned.

i mean…. CLEARLY that’s a rattle snake with a big rattle.

today i was getting ready for work.  I’m standing at the bathroom counter getting ready to brush my teeth and head out the door, when i realize that i’m standing on something… or something is stuck to the bottom of my foot….. i pick up my foot to brush it off, and this is what i found.

in case you can’t see…. that’s a penny on the INSIDE of my panty hose….. how one gets a penny in there, i haven’t the slightest….  but as i was on my way out the door, i wasn’t about to take my hose ALL the way off, fish that penny out, and put my hose back on…..  so i walked on that penny all day.  Once i had my shoes on, i didn’t even feel it. I was just walking on luck….. Nothing particuarly good happened today ( except for the GREAT easter basket i got in the mail =)……) but could you imagine if i didn’t have that penny???

• I got a craving for old school Cross hymns and have been singing, “at the cross”, “alas and did my savior die”, “crown him with many crowns”, “the old rugged cross”….. i could go on forever….. I wanted to find a church that would do some of these today… but it seems those days are over.
• The red birds swept the ’stros…. and they did it in style…. Albert with a 7 rbi game on saturday… and lohse a complete game shut out on sunday
• out running errands with friend, katie, i found this tshirt at old navy….

HA! i doubt they tell many of them in dallas…. but near home, they might get rid of them

• it rained all night last night, and on my way to church this morning, i tripped and fell into the super-saturated grass, soaking my dress and underwear through to my skin…. and i got to sit in it all morning in an artic blast a.c.-ed sactuary.
• after service, friend, burt, coined my favorite easter thought of the day…. possibly ever….. “if jesus had died in modern times, would we decorate syringes with flowers or wear elecric chairs or guns around our necks?”  Funny thought.

Today in class we did an art project that went along with eric carl’s, The Tiniest Seed.  i was at the board doing the project step by step with the kids.  during one of the steps, one of my kids started singing a song…. it had spread all the way across the room by the time i realized what they were singing…… it cracked me up so much, that i had to grab my phone and capture it.

What a bunch of weirdos!

• I love the way the air smells on the first hot day of the year (it was 91 today)
• I don’t love the way my classroom smells when 17 sweaty pups come back to my toom
• I love when the kids bring me some of their after school snack ( 2 fig neutons, 6 squished gummy bears and 3 m&ms)
• I don’t love when said kids sit and watch until i eat said snack
• i love that our room smells a bit like fresh dirt from all the planting we’ve been doing
• I don’t love that i some how come home with dirt all over me every day
• I love watching the kids light up watching their grass seem to grow right before our eyes and lima beans sprouting….. it’s such an exciting age when they are making discoveries and figuring out how things work
• I don’t love that i can’t teach anything without 24 kids (i only have 17) interrupting me to tell me that THE LIMA BEANS HAVE ROOTS TODAY!!!! yes, we’ve talked about that 34,000 times….. this is subtraction.
• I love posting poor quality videos of my kids doing things that totally crack me up
• I don’t love that no one acknowledges my funny kiddos….. don’t you know i measure my self worth by the number of comments i get??? And funny/ insulting comments count for 3 point…. syrupy sweet comments count .5 points.

1. today i was looking at my search engine terms…. and although they are coming up with less mucus hits per day…… today i got the grossest hit i’ve ever had… and it made me throw up in my mouth a little bit.   Panty sniff.  URP!  did you just throw up in your mouth??? i did.

2. At school we have a new roll playing area called trike town for the kinders to play in.  Today was a beautiful day, almost 90 degress, so after our rest time (after lunch)  i always read to the kids, today i took them outside and we read in trike town.  Afterwards i let them play in the the new town for a few minutes before heading back in.  I was casually observing some kiddos at “mcdonalds”  there are speakers that you can talk through to make it more like a drive through….. this was one of the conversations that took place while ordering.

Camden: Welcome to mcdonalds, can i take your order?

Audrey: yes you may, what are my choices?

Camden: You can have chicken nuggets, cheeseburger, or fries

Audrey: Oh, umm…… i’ll have some……poo poo please

Camden: oh, well…. we don’t serve that at mcdonalds….(short pause followed by eyes as big as saucers before saying)…. but if you wait a minute, i’ll be happy to make you some.

precious.  he has such a servant’s heart.

last week was plant week….. and although i did get soem flack for having the kids grow grass on 4/20….. we had a lot of fun.  today the kiddos took their grass home.  In just a little over a week the stuff has grown from seed to about 8 inches tall!!! and i can finally appreciate why we mow about once a week.  For the most part everyone’s grass grew really well…. except poor camden.  But he was so proud of the grass he did have, you couldn’t feel bad for his bald little cup. Here are some shots

Mikah, Rylee, and Maribeth. showing off their green thumbs

What a great looking face, and all that hair! wow! Reigni Hope is giving Ruth a haircut when she gets home.

my grass…. looks a lot like the grass in the other kid’s cups. Camden’s grass……. i little sparse. poor thing. but look how happy he is!

For the most part it was a normal day.  No big thing….. I wrote all the kids a little “thank you” note. and i included a class pic with  me in it.  Mrs. Story gave me some really cute scrapbooky pics of the kids, and all the teachers signed a little thing for me, and she got me a cookie cake, in cardinal colors! she loves me….. OH AND BASEBALL TICKETS!!!! WOO HOO!!!!  Also, one boy, gavin, came in with a jar of flowers and a giant leaf picked from his yard and filled with water.  He was so proud of it!

a better look at my flowers

I also got a gift from one boy,Wes, who wrote notes on each item.

on the dry erase marker set: Good luck with your new class

On the shampoo: pamper yourself for doing a great job

On the candy: you are the sweetest teacher.

cutie cutes!

I was recently reading in a book and came across a great idea that i thought i would share….

In Revelation 18, the new city of Babylon is destroyed in zero time, and all the people are weeping and saying “alas alas” because the city was so great and they are mourning their loss.  But then you go to chapter 19 and it says that all the heavens are seeing the same scene, but they are saying alleluia! amen! And it got me thinking….. It’s like when you’re getting ready to board a plane in really cruddy weather…. you’re worried about delays and cancellations and looking at the sky and it’s impending doom.  But then, once you’re up in the plane and above the storm and looking down, the clouds are beautiful and majestic, and you can’t help but say, wow! look at that!…… So whether you are saying alas, or alleluia depends on your perspective.  And if we can work on getting above the storm, and looking at things from God’s point of view, we will always have something to praise and say alleluia, amen.

Where’s your perspective today?

I’ve officially been home almost two weeks and am yet to unpack.  This is partly due to my great loathing of all things packing and unpacking.  But also because we have gotten new carpet in the bedrooms at home and since everything needed to come out of the rooms for carpet, i couldn’t very well be unpacking and putting things in the rooms….. so…. basically everything i own is piled in the living room.   For one full day we unloaded everything from the other two bedrooms and discovered why we have never carpeted all three rooms at the same time before…. It’s rather ridiculous trying to find somewhere for everything to go, thus creating a kitchen and dining room with a small walkway to get through and a livingroom complete with mt. st. helen piled in the middle.  At the end of this long and dreary day of moving and piling and dragging and stacking, i was very relieved to find that bed was a short time away….. looking forward to a shower i set to get my things together and to my horor discovered that my underwear was burried under and behind said mountain.  I immediately let mydisappointment with the current situation be known.  Judy quickly suggested from the other room that i hand wash the pair i was currently wearing and throw them in the dryer…. although this didn’t sound totally unreasonable, it kinda grossed me out.  Dad, who was standing next to me gloated that his underwear were right at the front/top of mt st. helen…. amere inches from his hand.  I was not ammused.  But not to fear, dad risked breaking bones and televisions and altitude sickness to climb the mountain and rescued me one fresh pair of undies…. And i must say that there is quite a lesson to be learned here…. Rule number one, always keep your underwear handy and your dads handier.

When sitting at a desk looking out on to fergson ave there are a few great time killers.  My favorite today…. counting the motorized wheel chairs that mosey down the sidewalk.  You would think that would be a few and far between kind of occurrence…. but not here!  in about 90min, i’ve seen 4.  And that’s not the same one passing by several times…. that’s four different chairs trucking down the side walk.  Maybe if i’m lucky i’ll see someone hitching a ride on the back of a wheelchair….. I have seen that on ferguson before… more than once.

i don’t write much anymore…. mainly because i don’t have funny kids doing goofy things.  A lot of people think i’m real funny, but it’s not true, i just spend time with funny people.  This blog for a while may turn into the Sofie blog for lack of kids to talk about…. Sofie is mom and reda’s new pup she’s a lab/german shepherd mix… and she’s about 5 months old with a TON of energy, so i’ve taken to walking her in the afternoons.  The goal is to walk her daily, but due to rain a couple of previous engagements, i started about a week and half ago but today was only our 3rd walk, it’s been a bit of a comedy of errors. 

Day one: I subbed a half day at dad’s school and didn’t want to take the time to change, so i just changed into tennis shoes and was wearing a simple cotton skirt, tshirt, scarf, and giant running shoes (cute right?) I’m working really hard on keeping sofie on a short leash and teaching her to walk with me.  She’s doing…. okay… and i’m about to let my guard down a little when we stop at a corner for a passing car when Sof got excited and jumped up at me. Her paw caught my skirt and she successfully pulled it straight to the ground, my underwears caught and came down a little too…. so if anyone was looking out their windows, they saw my booty.

Day two: Sofie is getting much better at walking on the leash until about 6 blocks from home when the heavens opened and the rain came pouring down.  Sofie, who is a bit of a chicken, freaked out and bolted.  I could not get her to calm down so we ran the last 6 blocks and came home absolutely soaked

Day Three: Sofie is VERY excited for the beginning of the walk, i give up trying to hold her back and decide to run a bit.  about the second block into the run sofie caught the scent of something she liked and took a very sharp left right in front of me, i FLEW through the air.  flew is not an exaggeration. luckily i landed in the grass rather than getting torn up on the side walk.  I then pulled Sofie over to me, and we had a conversation eye to eye.  she stayed with me REALLY well after that…. and then we hit 10th street…. there are an abnormal number of dogs on 10th.  Sofie is a chicken and was pretty jumpy going down the street, but all in all, we kept it together…. And it starte pouring today as soon as i got in the car and drove away so i feel like my luck MIGHT be improving.

here’s some friendly information for you.  Every time you come in, i don’t particularly want to hear….. How’s that MRS degree coming?  You really need to get that MRS, love is the best.  You got your MRS yet?  Any prospects?  I can hook you up with my son, he just turned 18……. I get it, you want me to get married.  I don’t need 8 reminders of it each and every time you come in.  it’s getting redundant.  So… for now on, instead of dropping 8 of these comments in 15 or so min….. cut it to two, and then at night when you’re praying for the elderly, sick, injured and dying…. just lump me in there… cuz you know, single, elderly, sick and dying…. same diff.

i had this conversation today with matt drury….

me: did you see my new pic with fred bird…. i’m pretty sure he’s making fun of me

Matt: oh… look at that… did we have the all star game?

Me: what do you mean

Matt: has the all star game happened yet?

Me: no, that’s not till the middle of july

Matt: oh…. is it in st. louis this year?

Me: do you live under a rock?

then his mom called and he had to go.

Alli is kinda new to the area….. she hasn’t learned all of the things that we just don’t do around here. 

we don’t say “pop” you’re not in chicagoland anymore.

we wash our hands after we use the restroom.  I don’t care if you didn’t “pee on yourself” wash your hands.

Hit-n-Run is not ridiculous or silly.  And a humm dinger is not dumb.

I just bought her her first ever….. 

i think she’s been touched by the glory

Logan has been on this…. mommy is my favorite thing…. and Jeremy kinda eggs it on….. So Sunday night Logan was asked who his favorite aunt was…. to which is immediate response was OH! FIRE ANTS!!!!  Then last night after making him “really yummy doubled (deviled) eggs” and giving him ketchup and mustard to mix together when he couldn’t remember what red and yellow make…. and him thinking that it was way cool i might add…. he was asked again who his favorite aunt was….. another quick response… aunt kelli.  DANG!  She’s not nearly as fun as I am!  I play zombie with him, and pirates, and dinosaurs, and robots, and monsters….. AND i have all the cool books.  But kelli has the ultimate trump…. she’s elle’s mom.  sigh. One of these days i’m gonna have the coolest kids ever so that i can be the favorite aunt.

i worked outside to today and got really gross and really sweaty and all around looked disgusting.  I then went to BOTH the grocery store AND walmart.  I didn’t see anyone i know.  Not a one.  I always see people i know when i’m out… ESPECIALLY when i look terrible.  but not today.  Today must be my day.

it seems like forever since hillsong took over with Shout to the Lord….. Their new album comes out in about a week…. and this is a cut from it by Brooke…. i love it.  ok, i’m having trouble embedding….. so LINK

1. i am very blessed to have the girlfriends i have.  They are a group of amazing women of God that love eachother and encourage eachother as unconditionally as we as humans can.

2. Casey stirred up the idea of us helping each other out on reading through the bible…. we all struggle with consistency and we really want to help each other to stick to it…. so we’ve got a schedule and we’re going to talk about each book as we read.

3. because this is such a great thing…. i wanted to invite y’all in on the action…. so if you’re in, we’re gonna use THIS schedule and we’re starting tomorrow, july, 29.

we’ve been reading for about 4 or 5 days now and still going strong. We’re almost halfway through exodus, and by the end of the day will be over halfway through it.  I thought i’d share a little of what i picked up from Joseph.  So i’m at the part of the story when Joseph is basically ruling Egypt and his brothers are there to buy food and the whole family is finally coming back together….. And right there Joseph understands the fulfillment of the dreams he had as a kid that got him in so much trouble.  God didn’t intend for Joseph to rule over his brothers, but instead He wanted to put him in a postion to be able to save his brothers and therefore help fulfill God’s promise to Abraham.

This got me thinking….. How much trouble and grief could Joseph had avoided if he would have been more mature about the dreams that God had given him???  Obviously, in the end everything turned out good…. but could the middle part have been better???  Now’s the really hard question… How many times has God put dreams in my heart, or your heart… or given us success in a ministry…. or whatever, fill in the blank….. And because of our own immaturity and pride, we boast about how great we are, or how great we will be, instead of being quiet and letting God do his thing???  And how much better could our dreams be going if instead of thinking about how powerful or successful we’re going to be…. think about how we can serve and love and save.

This weekend a great friend from jr high/ high school had a bridal shower, and all the gals came in town for the festivities….. Some bullet points highlighting the fabulous weekend.

• Buying the gift with Steph means lugging a huge box through a store where people stare at you and don’t let you through although you’re struggling to remain upright…. which obviously leads to giggling, and maybe a little peeing.
• GREAT FE show complete with chicken necked dancing enthusiast.
• sneaking 4 giant soda’s into the movies via my “theater purse”
• seeing a movie along with a room full of 65 year old women and smelling strong booze.
• Causing a traffic jam, or as steph would say “a pocket of traffic” thus causing more tears, laughing and near peeing.
• hanging out at the bridal shower and not being nearly classy enough for the very fancy shower…. and although we did cheat at the game, we passed around the piggy band and made the bride and groom a nice little starter on the honeymoon fund. We’re pretty awesome.

little emma, bethany, CASEY, abby (the bride) me, and steph. are we cute or what?

today i got to hang out with my favorite 3 year old.  She’s nuts to say the least.  She ran around all day yelling, I’m Brian Fellows!!!!!  For those of you who don’t know….. it comes from this.  Random right???  We also went to Walmart to get elle a “congratulations, you’re a big sister” pet fish.  She picked out the prettiest beta in the bunch, and after trying out several names, i think settled on….. you guessed it, Brian Fellows.  We’ll see what he’s named tomorrow.  She’s nuts, but i love her.  She also had a lot of fun taking pictures.

to tell how thrilled i am at the arrival of a chubby, healthy baby girl, miss paisley rae mcgill.  Welcome to this world little lady!!  I love you with all my guts.

May the Lord bless you, and keep you; The Lord make His face shine on you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.”‘

for those of you have been bored with my less than stellar blogging of the summer, you’ll be glad to know that i started subbing today.  Right now, i’m a kindergarten aid…. and btw, first day of kindergarten is killer.  i was bouncing between classes helping out wherever i could. The down side, i run around all the time and don’t really have a “routine” the up side, i get to see a lot more kids on a daily basis giving me a lot more material….. 3 things from today.

1. don’t send your kids to their first day of kindergarten without telling anyone how they’re supposed to get home.

2. don’t send your kids to their first day of kindergarten wearing overalls, seriously, they can’t work those things

3. best quote of the day…..”Mrs. Booten, my sister says your RICH!!!”

oh yeah, and this is my 300th post….  congratulate me

Today one of my sweetest, best listening boys came back from the restroom bawling today.  He wouldn’t tell me what was wrong until he got close enough to tell me in my ear…. when i figured it out a little for myself…..   between sobs he managed to get out…. I had….. to….. go….. poop….. and….. i…… don’t’ know…… how…. to….. wipe yet.

1.  that’s pretty gross

2. it just about broke my heart

I told him it was ok, and to go back to the bathroom and do the best he could…. and quasi explained what to do…..

Parents, please don’t send your sweet little babies to school without knowing how to wipe themselves.

just a few points….

• i can deal with really dirty faces and hands
• I can tie nasty smelling shoes
• I can wipe lunch off of faces
• I can wipe snot from faces
• i can clean up vomit
• I can’t pick up poop that someone wiggled out of his pants

considering all of my cans….. i don’t think this can’t is very unreasonable

not for everyone… but it is for me, and i’m headed back to the south.  Did you miss me dixie?

In one of my classes today we had a birthday boy….. that made him the “top banana” and he got to bring show and tell and snack for all the kids.  After show and tell, all the kids took turns giving him wishes…. or telling what they wished they could give him for his birthday…. Most of the kids said things like…. i wish i could give you a bike or a scooter…. one girl offered a race car bed….. it belongs to her little brother… but he peed all over it.  One boy really wanted to give the birthday boy suuuuuuper poooooowers.  And one boy got uber excited and jumped up and shouted, i want to give him a HOT DOG!!! And he threw his hand up in the air and took a huge bite out of his imaginary hot dog.   Gotta love that kind of enthusiasm.

The birthday boy then handed out cupcakes to the class…. unfortunately i think he played dodgeball with the boxes of cupcakes on his way to school.  Ah well… they were still delightful….. and i got this megga cool ring out of the deal.