Will you be my friend? I need more friends.

So....been a long time.

Next Saturday is the big Odyssey of the Mind competition and I cannot wait for it all to be over. It is no longer fun just life-force-sucking and stressful. These kids are driving me crazy with their complete lack of motivation and utter laziness. Were we like this in 5th and 6th grade? I hope not. Kids these days have terrible attitudes and poor work habits. Maybe it's just these kids. I hope so.

So after Saturday, my life can begin again. On to the next big event....Spring Break! I am so excited!! I need a break, I need to get out of this town, and I need to see some sights. How can this all be accomplished? Why, a road trip! On a Saturday very soon, we will be loading up in someone's car and heading off on the Grand Tour of the South. We will be touring 6 scenic states: Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Well, I hope they're scenic, as I haven't been to most of these.

Here are things I'm most looking forward to: Elvis paraphernalia, Southern accents, biscuits and gravy, the Nun Bun, blues music, the Nash Trash tour, the Civil Rights Museum, Chattanooga-the home of moon pies, road trip mixes on the ipod, reading maps, and eating some good comfort food. What I will regret: Dollywood not being open while we are there. One day, Dolly Parton, I will come see you and your park of amusement.

So woo hoo! I am counting down the days! Three weeks to go! (I believe.)

I am ready.

Are you?

For Kali or Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.

Since I apparently have not posted in awhile, here's the skinny:

Well, we got through another major holiday with the kiddos. I guess two major holidays if you count Veterans Day, but anyway. We had our little Thanksgiving program and the kids were incredibly cute with some dressed as pilgrims, some as Native Americans (Indians come from India) and some dressed as turkeys. Definitely a photo opportunity.

So that was a great success and now we've begun to prepare for the holiday extravaganza that is Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Eid al Something or other/Saint Lucia Day/ Anything else we can think of. Yes, indeed, we will be discussing and making some sort of art and craft with each and every one of these holidays. And there will be singing and snowmen and snowflakes and Santas galore. We've already had the Santa conversation because one of the kids has been telling all the other kids that Santa isn't real. A few of the kids quickly became panicked when they heard this and came running up to me. "Miss Beck, Miss Beck, is it true? Is Santa Claus real?" I just told them, "Well, Santa Claus comes to my house. Everyone has a different opinion and not everyone has Santa Claus, but he comes to visit me!" What else could I say? I couldn't squash their five-year-old hopes and dreams! So after being reassured, they all responded with a proud "me too! He comes to visit me too!" So take that, you unbelieving five-year-old.

I do have a life outside of work, I promise. Well, at least I think I do. Oh, I just thought of a story I could tell you about a fifth grader that I'm having to cut from our Odyssey of the Mind team, but that would be work/school-related and I'll restrain myself. So in other news, I got a new phone that I'm not entirely sure how to use. I went to the mall yesterday and remembered why every year I tell myself I'm going to buy everyone's Christmas gift in July. Too bad I never remember that when it actually is July.

Woo, ok, maybe I don't have a life outside of work. Two and a half weeks more of school then I can do something else for a few weeks. Like sleep past 5:45 in the morning on a weekday.

If it was socially acceptable, I would go to bed at 8:00.

Kids are walking germ factories. I think I have been sick in some way or another since the school year began and today is no exception. I finally went to the doctor this afternoon and got some medicine so I should be on the mend soon and I can't wait. It will be awesome not to carry kleenex around in pocket at all times.

So, in case you didn't know, holidays with kindergartners are fun. We celebrated our first one, Halloween, with a class party complete with costumes, cupcakes, and head injuries. Yes, one of our kids got a minor concussion on Halloween because, darn it, those princess shoes are slippery on that gym floor. But no worries, she is good as new and back at school learning important things, like Indians come from India and Native Americans did in fact wear clothes. My, the things we talk about. So now that Halloween is over, we're moving on to the next big event: Thanksgiving. And we've already started with the arts and crafts. We sure do make a lot of stuff in Kindergarten. For example, for Halloween, we made bats, bat hats, ghosts, witches, pumpkins, two kinds of jack-0-lanterns, two kinds of skeletons and who knows what else. So I can't wait to see what we'll do this month. Today we made scarecrows and we're starting our turkey invitations for the little Thanksgiving program we're going to have. I feel sorry for the parents who have to decide what to do with all the arts and crafts we send the kids home with. What goes on the fridge and what do you put away for a bit so that they'll forget about it and then you can sneak it into the trash? A parent's dilemma.

In other news, I had a good weekend. My friend Lindsey took me out Sunday and we went to the modern art museum and took the tour in Spanish. Oh, it made my heart happy to hear Spanish. Te echo de menos Espana! And then we found the closest replicas of cafe con leche and a napolitano this side of the Atlantic which made our day. I've really been missing Spain lately. I think it's with all the cold weather and I've been wearing some of the stuff I wore when in Madrid, that it's really made me miss it. I miss walking down the streets and seeing other people out and about too. I miss getting warm in a cafe. I miss speaking Spanish everyday and hearing it spoken. I miss having only 7 shirts and not really caring about it. I miss wearing scarves.

Well, in honor of election day, I'll leave you with this comment overheard today in class:
Teacher: Does anyone know who Uncle Sam is?
Kid: Yes. He's that old man that wants your money.

I'm gonna shake, shake, shake my sillies out.

I made a kid cry today. Well he deserved it. He was being crazy all day AND had an attitude about it so I had to write a little note in his folder. He didn't get his smiley face for the day so he cried. But the great thing about 5-year-olds is that you can get on to them in one minute and then tell them to give you a hug the next minute. And they actually do it! They will give you a hug no matter what. Unconditional love. It's the greatest. Those are the things that make my job bearable.

It's fun because now I'm starting to learn all of their personalities and believe me, no two 5-year-olds are alike. I had always just grouped them in the "small-ish children" category but they're pretty cool. They're growing on me at least. Well, everyone except the bad ones.

One little girl came up to me today and said this:
"Excuse me. I have a booger."
I said, "All righty."



I went to Lubbock this weekend and had a great time. It made me miss college life. Although I felt deeply relieved when my friends still in school had to actually crack a book and study while I found something else to do. Being out of school for over a year, it is getting harder to imagine actually having to go to class or write a paper. If I ever go back for grad school, it will definitely be an adjustment. Oh, but let's not think about that today.

Attack of the Spider Monkeys

So, things are going ok. The kids are great and we're all starting to get the hang of things. I even had the kids all by myself one day and we all survived unharmed, so I count that as success. We even had our first fire drill and only no one screamed and only 2 kids cried. So also a success. We're going on our first field trip next week so that should be pretty interesting. I think we'll have about 15 parents chaperoning as well which makes me more nervous instead of less nervous. This one mom told me that it was just too far to send her baby by herself so she has to go too. Lady, we are going to Dallas. But whatever.

Here's something that happened the other day...

Kingergarten Boy: Ms. Beck, do you know that the world is going to end tomorrow?
Me: I think tomorrow it will just be Wednesday.
KB: No, there will be an attack of spider monkeys tomorrow.
Me: Well, are you prepared?
KB: Oh yes. I always have God's sword. (Begins to make slashing sword motions with his hands.)
Me: Oh, that's nice.


Maybe I shouldn't encourage them, but it's just so funny.

Please Sit On Your Bottom

Today was picture day. Even though our kids wear uniforms, it was still fun to see them with their hair fixed and clothes clean anticipating picture day. I loved watching them sit on the little stool and smile their little smiles. If only they were this cute all the time. And I had my picture made too. It's weird to think that I will be immortalized in some kid's yearbook for all of time now. I know I have looked back at my old yearbooks and it's crazy to think that I'll be in someone's yearbook. And I'll be one of the big pictures too. Maybe even under the heading "Faculty". Weird.

This week there have been good days and bad days. It seems like when one kid is acting crazy, all of them decide to act crazy. Like stand on the toilet seat and sing or all start repeating the same words over and over and over. These two kids today were just sitting at their table practicing writing their names and saying "he's weird, he's weird, he's weird" again and again. Why? Because they have to drive you crazy. It's their job.

But today was a good day. Not only were the kids pretty alright, but I had lunch with the
Spanish teachers today and got to practice a little bit of the español. Yay! And one of the Turkish teachers invited me to have dinner at her house this weekend. I'm looking forward to that. She's so sweet and you know I love the multicultural foods. So I'll let you know how that goes.

That's about all. Our dog is leaving us this weekend to go back to Kuwait. Tigger, it was nice knowing you. I will miss you but I will not miss cleaning up your vomit.

Life with 5-year-olds.

So school has started and I'm getting used to being around these crazy kids all day. As you may know, I'm working with the kindergarten class and we have 26 wee ones. I have some favorites and some that make me want to pull my hair out. Woo hoo. But I do like it for the most part and I get to relive my own 5-year-old days. My favorite part of the day is story time. And nap time. Because that's when I get to eat my lunch and they're somewhat all quiet. I have never appreciated the "quiet" more.

So I don't think my calling in life is to teach kindergarten or anything, but I think I might try teaching. What? I have no idea. What grade? Not a clue. Just a thought.

We all know that kids say the darndest things, so I'll try and include some funny kid stories.

Too bad I can't think of one now.