She's trying to kill us...

Oh my hell. I know I have absolutely no right to do so much complaining, given that I prayed for a long time for Big Cheese to be gone, but Lord, I don't know how much more I can take.

I forgot to mention something that happened last week. My little darling, A.G., of The G Family, was moved to 1st Grade. Yay! You may remember that she and another little boy were in my class last year for half the day. They both spent their mornings with me in kdg., and then went to pre-school in the afternoon. They both have late birthdays, so they technically weren't old enough to be in kindergarten. However, D.F.'s grandma, who is our security guard, arranged for D.F. to be placed in a 1st grade class this year (with my approval). I thought A's mom was going to do the same, but she never talked to anyone in the office. I ended up going to the office for her, and was able to get her moved. As much as I'm going to miss her, I was glad to have one less baby.

I also found out that one of the boys who had been sitting in my room for 3 days was also supposed to be in 1st grade. The 1st grade teacher had been listing him as a "no show." That's 2 babies in one day! Woo hoo!

But, that excitement was short-lived. I immediately got 2 more babies the next day, so I was back to 29. Then, this morning, when I went out to pick up my class, a woman walked up to me and essentially handed me her child, saying that she was going to be in my room. Yep, the 30th baby had arrived.

On an up note, preps started today. My babies went to computers today. Yay! And, Ms. H., my parent volunteer, stayed with them and brought them back down for me. She's awesome!

OK, time to bitch about a stupid parent...
One of my babies was still standing outside with me at 3:00. He was the last one, and was waiting for his brother. Turns out the brother's teacher had kept them late, and I obviously missed them coming out, since I was already on my way to the office. I HUGE thunder shower hit as I was walking back into the building, so apparently the brother just went home instead of looking for his baby brother. I sat with him for a while, and finally at about 3:25, I called his house. I was surprised when his mother answered the phone. I identified myself, and told her that T was still sitting at school, despite school ending nearly 45 minutes ago. She goes, "Oh, I didn't even know." WHAT?!?! I mean, seriously, WTF? How do you NOT know that your 5 YEAR OLD still isn't home 45-freakin'-minutes after school got out!? THEN, she has the balls to tell me, "well, he can just walk home by himself." I wanted to reach through the phone and slap a bitch!! What part of HE'S FIVE YEARS OLD did that moron not understand!!?? Argh!!! Ok, I feel my blood pressure rising, so time to move on...

In my never-ending quest to end on a positive note, let me just say again how nice it is to have Ms. H. helping out. It's been working out to about an hour in the morning and about an hour in the afternoon, which doesn't sound like much, but it makes a world of difference, trust me! And, the best part is that she told me she doesn't mind taking my class to their prep and bringing them back when it's over. Woo hoo! You have no idea how wonderful that is for me!! That means I will truly get a 40 minute prep!! Normally, by the time I get the babies together enough to walk, then get them up (to either the 3rd or 4th floor!) to the prep, and come back down, anywhere from 10-15 minutes of my prep is gone. God forbid I have to do something crazy, like pee (!), I end up with about 20 minutes to actually do some work. This is going to almost double the amount of time I have to get things done. THANK YOU, Ms. H!!

What the....?

Wow, talk about a doing a 180! Today was NOT at all like yesterday. Those kids drove me freakin' crazy today!!!! I actually could feel myself raising my voice by the end of the day. I NEVER like to raise my voice the first week of school. I don't want them to think their teacher is some big, scary dragon. She's supposed to be The Queen, remember? I'm up to 25 babies now (with about 17 "no shows" on my list.) As much as I'm not enjoying having such a full class, I'm still wishing that about 25 more would show up, so that New Principal will open the other kindergarten class again, and put my friend back in kindergarten with me. I have a sinking feeling that the majority of the missing kids will show up after Labor Day, since their parents don't think school starts til then. I'm just afraid that by then, it'll be too late to open up another position, since it will be after the 20th day of school. (That's the 'magic day' that most of our funding is based on.)

I forgot to mention yesterday that one of the things New Principal told me at the end of the day was that she was going to send one of our parent volunteers to help me out during the day. She's one of my very favorite volunteers, so I'm very excited. She's actually worked for me in my afterschool program for the past couple of years. New Principal mentioned that if I kept getting more kids, she would send another person to help, as well, until she can reopen the other kindergarten. I'm glad she's as hopeful as I am that this is going to happen.

Even with Ms. H. to help me, the babies drove me nuts today. Even she couldn't believe how they were acting. We couldn't keep still, keep our hands to ourselves, or keep our mouths shut, to save our lives today! It was infuriating! I wonder if part of my lack of patience comes from the fact that I was just so very in love with my last class. They were phenomenal!! And, with the very short break that we had, I didn't have a chance to "forget" how wonderful they were. I don't know, whatever it is, I hope I can find some extra patience to deal with this group. The fact that I've been spending my days drenched in sweat is doing nothing to improve my mood, either!

Oo, Big Cheese news! I found out from my favorite mom, Mrs. G., that ever since Big Cheese was "evicted" from our school, he's been over at another school, doing absolutely NOTHING! This particular school isn't actually a functioning school with students. It's used for professional development, and as basically a holding place for displaced principals! His plan is to wait out his time until the end of the month, and then he can officially retire. Hopefully, the board will get their investigation going by then, or he's gonna get off scott free!

Mini Update

Ok, so we had a meeting yesterday with our new principal. So far, so good. It was a VERY short meeting, far too short in my opinion, but she was able to touch on a few things that sounded promising.

One of the things I'm most excited about it that she going to be strictly enforcing the uniform policy. Like just about every other CPS school, our students will be expected to wear white shirts, WITH collars, and navy blue pants/skirts/jumpers. THAT'S IT! Big Cheese had decided that any white shirt would be acceptable, including T-shirts. He decided black or blue pants were ok, and hey, even jeans would be ok. WTF? You just gave the kids permission to dress in the neighborhood gang banger uniform - white T-shirt and baggy jeans. Nice!

Last year, he decided to try a couple of new things. White, yellow or blue shirts would be acceptable as uniform, and that every Friday (EVERY Friday!!!) would be dress-down day. Seriously?! WTF?! I had actually argued pretty strongly with him about that one. I don't see anything wrong with an occasional dress-down day, as long as the kids have to EARN it. Maybe the last day of each marking period, and you have to have worn your uniform everyday up to that point. NOT every week, that's ridiculous! I don't think any children were in uniform last year. Which meant I could easily tell you what kind of boxers every one of the boys wore, because their jeans hung down to the back of their freakin' knees. The girls were no better, wearing shirts that they probably took out of their kindergarten sister's drawers!

I'm so excited about this one little change, it's crazy! She already has the marquee outside of school stating that uniforms are required on the first day of school. Yay, New Principal!! (I need to get to know her a little better before I can come up with a clever nickname.)

I had thrown out a suggestion to her regarding something we did at my last school. On the first day of school, all the teachers dressed in "uniform" to let the kids know how important it was to adhere to the uniform policy. Well, she got all excited and said, "I'm so glad you brought that up. I was going to tell you all this later, but at my last school, the teachers did this every Monday, and so we'll be doing the same." Oh, and she added, "If we were off on a Monday, then we did it on Tuesday." Woo hoo!! That's seriously one less day that I have to worry about figuring out what I'll be wearing to work. I think it's great!

She has already made some big changes in the past week and a half regarding the appearance of the school. There must have been a cleaning frenzy going on! She basically gutted the front office, threw out about 60% of the furniture, and rearranged what was left. It looks amazing. Our payroll clerk, who used to basically sit in a vault all day, is having a very difficult time with the new boss, however. She's been told that she will be expected to move out of her "closet" and sit out in the office. She also is expected to actually do all clerk duties, not just hide away all week, and only do payroll. Now, those of you who either work now or have worked in the past at the Hell-Hole realize what a huge thing this is!! Apparently, she tried to tell the new boss that, no, she's just the payroll clerk, and that's not her job, but that went over like a lead balloon. I can't wait to see what fireworks come from this!

The school looks so different already. There are REAL flowers and plants all over the place! Not just in the office, but in the hallway. I was amazed to see vases of fresh flowers beautifully places around the entranceway. Someone has gone down the hall and covered all the bulletin boards with fresh new paper and borders, and bright, pretty colors. New Principal told us in the meeting that she loves to see color, and she plans to keep adding it to the school. For as long as I've been there, the entire school has been the same shade of...I don't even know...dirty beige? There were some volunteers that came the week school ended and painted murals around the building. There's a HUGE one directly outside my door that is beautiful. I love it. The only problem I have, though, is it's on a wall that I used to completely cover with my babies' work. I'm going to have to figure out where to hang their beautiful papers and projects now. I was told that there are other murals on the second and third floors, but I didn't venture up there yesterday.

She told us she plans to "beautify" the bathrooms, and enlisted the art teacher to spearhead that project. She said she wants to have a "theme" for each bathroom (i.e. Mickey Mouse, Spiderman, etc. Possibly a copyright infringement, no?) which I'm hoping will help cut down on all the graffiti.

I stepped out the front door to talk to a parent (Mrs. G., who you all know I love!) and literally gasped when I saw what's changed already. We have grass in our courtyards! AND flowers! It looks like a completely different school. Somehow I got sucked into being on the School Beautification Committee (or whatever the hell it's called) and we are going to be applying for a grant to get landscape materials. Specifically, we will be turning our front courtyards into butterfly gardens. I think it's going to be magnificent. Most years I try to do the whole butterfly thing with my babies, and now we'll have the perfect place to release them. Our engineer has promised to bring me some caterpillars when school starts so we can do it right away. (I suppose that one advantage of starting school so early. Hey, I'm trying to find the silver lining here, people!)

I'm really excited to see how these changes all come together, and what effect it will have on our students. I hope they get on board with the new program. Although, she seems like a tough cookie, so they may have no other choice! The school she came from (where she was for over 20 years) is not too far from our school, but is directly across from one of the biggest projects in the city. She said the demographics of her last school were comparable to the Hell-Hole, but I have a feeling it was a bit rougher. I assume that means she'll be able to handle anything (student, parent, teacher) that tries to stand in her way. Yay!! Finally, an administrator who has a spine!!!! I'm so excited!

Well, I suppose "mini"update isn't all that accurate now, is it? I'm going to stop right here, before you all fall into a coma from boredom. But, hey, I'm excited!!!

Where have I been lately?!

• Last Friday-All day field trip with the babies to The Museum of Science and Industry. Walked about 45 miles. Dragged Stud Muffin with me since he was off.
• Friday afternoon/evening-Had the WORST plantar fasciitis attack ever, almost went to the emergency room. Poor Stud had to take care of me, Ace bandaged bags of ice to my foot, brought me drugs, etc.
• Saturday-Worked my usual 37 hours at the bar
• Sunday-spent the day hanging out with my parents and my brother. Went to dinner, then back to my parents' and played Wii all night (Did I mention that we bought my mom a Wii, plus Wii Fit and Wii Play, for Mother's Day?) It was an awesome time. I could hardly move by the end of the night because we were laughing so much and so hard, that my sides were cramping! My dad swearing at the game pushed us over the edge!
• Monday (Memorial Day) spent the afternoon with my best friend, then back to my parents' for a while.
• Tues-Thurs-The usual craziness that is the Hell-Hole! (Just don't have the strength for specifics right now)
• Friday-Went back to the museum, but had a much smaller group (the ones that couldn't behave last Friday were NOT invited this time!) and I had my favorite mom, Mrs. G, come as a chaperone. I made Stud come again, too, since he finished school on Thursday. Yeah, he hates me....
• Friday night-Had to freakin' work at the bar since our bartender is out of town. 'Nuff said.
• Today-Was woken up early by a(n unnecessary!) phone call, drove Stud and The Girl to the museum (yes, seriously! There is a Harry Potter Exhibit going on, and The Girl is obsessed with Harry Potter.) drove around for a couple of hours delivering Pampered Chef orders, went shopping for Spirit Week next week with my babies, and now doing laundry. I'm waiting to switch loads because my "work" clothes are in the washer! The twenty minutes it's taken me to type out this post is the only twenty minutes I've had to sit down today. Quite frankly, I should be in the shower right now. So, on that note....

I heart the G Family!!!

I haven't written about the G Family in a while, but I still love them just as much as always!! Especially at this time of year. They never cease to amaze my with their generosity. Thursday morning, Mr. and Mrs. G showed up with 24 goody bags for my babies.

Each bag was lovingly decorated by hand by, what I'm guessing was, the entire G Family. I love that this family actually does things together! It's sad to me that they are the exception instead of the rule when it comes to the families in Englewood. I realize not everyone had the idyllic childhood that I was privileged to have, but most of the families in Englewood are the polar opposite of what I had as a child. Most of our kids are raising themselves. Nearly all the families are single parent families, many of our students are foster kids, oh my God....I'd better stop right now. I had NO intention of writing a rant. Let's see, where was I? Oh, yeah, the G Family!!

Mrs. G always makes old-fashioned goody bags, with a piece of fruit, and few pieces of candy and maybe a little toy. This year, she included a book and some crayons. How great is she?

Of course, she brought me a lovely gift basket like she does every year. This one was just as beautiful as all the others. Just in case I haven't said it lately, I LOVE THE G FAMILY!!!

Some funnies...

Even though I think you all will find this humorous, my teacher friends will especially appreciate it! This is what happens when you use Everyday Mathematics!!

This week, I've been working on a Thanksgiving project with the babies (pictures are coming!). I had a group at the back table with me, working, and the rest of the babies were at their seats doing their name papers. Well, S.H. brought his paper over for me to check, and I asked him to fix something, and he went, "Ehhhhh!!" I guess kinda like a cross between a growl and a groan. So, D.U., who was sitting at the back table with me, yells back at him, "Don't 'ehhhh' at my lovely teacher!" Have I mentioned how much I love my babies!!??

On the way to lunch, one of the first grade classes passed us in the hallway. They had a sub today, and she was having a hard time with one of the little darlings. He also happens to be the nephew of a woman who works at the Hell-Hole. I tried to get him to listen to her, but he was more interested in whining and pouting, so she told him to go stand on the wall while she took the rest of the class to lunch. In the meantime, he stood there, whining and whining, so Ms. C., one of our custodians, said, "Boy, what is you whining about!?" R. proceeds to whine, "He whine, whine, whine, my, whine!!" So Ms. C. said, "What!?" and he repeated, "He hit me in my privacy." I heard and understood him, but she didn't. So, with a completely confused look on her face, she says to him, "What?! He hit you in your popsicle?!" I was laughing so hard, I couldn't even explain to her what he actually said! Maybe you had to be there, but I'm telling you, it was freakin' funny!

Yesterday, my favorite mom, Mrs. G., brought me a big bowl of her delicious pasta salad. OK, technically, I can't honestly say if it's delicious, because the last time she brought me some, my son ate the entire container, so I never got to taste it. I told her that when I gave her the container back, so yesterday she says, "I brought you a bigger container this time since L ate it all last time!" Gee, guess what happened to this container? I told my son about it this morning, and he proceeded to eat 3/4 of it for breakfast, and ate the rest on the way home from school. The little pig! But, it did smell delicious, and he sure wolfed it down, so I assume it was wonderful. Mrs. G. even put broccoli in it this time because she knows we like it. There was also shrimp -yum! I just wish I would have gotten a bite, that's all.

Wow, look at that, a whole post about school stuff!! It's about time, huh? I'm even gonna give you one of these:

Nothing you do for children is ever wasted. They seem not to notice us, hovering, averting our eyes, and they seldom offer thanks, but what we do for them is never wasted. ---Garrison Keillor

Happy Birthday, A.G.!

The baby from my favorite family, The G Family, turned 5 today. I just realized that I haven't written about this, so bear with me. You may remember the G Family from many of my posts. The youngest has been in my classroom since school started. On the first day of work, I saw her name on my roster, which I thought was strange since I knew she wasn't really old enough to be in Kindergarten. Here in Chicago, you must be 5 by Sept. 1 to start kindergarten, and obviously she just turned 5 today. But, I decided not to say anything because I was perfectly happy to have her in my class. On the first day of school, I saw Mrs. G. and told her that A was on my roster, and she was just as excited as I was. Well, two days later, as I was swiping in, Mrs. J. in the office told me that central office sent a notice telling her that A wasn't old enough to be in my room. It also caught another little boy, D.F., who is the grandson of our security guard. I was so upset that they were going to be pulled from my class. They are both such dolls!!

Mrs. G. was so excited that first day when I told her I would leave A in my room, because that meant that all three of her kids would be in school full-time. She immediately started talking about getting a part-time job, and I was so happy for her. Then, boom, I had to tell her about this. But, I immediately told her that I would be willing to keep A with me in the morning, since the 4 year old preschool was in the afternoon. At first she was hesitant because she didn't want me to be "stuck" with A, but I insisted. Plus, in my eyes, the biggest benefit for A would be that we do all of our literacy work in the morning, so she'd be getting all the "good stuff" from kindergarten.

Mrs. T., our security guard, was also called in that morning to let her know that her grandson couldn't stay in kindergarten, either. She was really upset. Last year, D spent his mornings in the 3 year old class, but then spent all afternoon sitting next to his grandma's desk. Sometimes someone was able to come pick him up, but many days, he just sat there for over 3 hours. Poor baby! This year, his mom has a job, so there would be no one to come get him. His grandma was so upset. She didn't want him to have to do that again. Of course, I made the same offer to her that I made to Mrs. G. It was even easier to make the offer to her because her grandson is one of the sweetest babies I've ever met!

So, back to the point...today Miss A. turned 5 (finally!) Mrs. G. brought us the most glorious cupcakes. I seriously wish I had taken a picture so you could see how delicioso they were. They were devil's food cake, topped with chocolate butter cream frosting, with an Oreo stuck into that. YUM! And, they tasted as good as they looked, which doesn't always happen.

How sad is it that I posted about a damn cupcake today? Maybe that's good because I really don't have a lot of complaining to do today. Twin Boy drove me crazy, and almost lost his cupcake, but of course, when it came down to treat time, I didn't have the heart to keep it from him. I told him he earned it back because he was so good during our fire drill. OOO!! That's what I should have been writing about. Something is wrong with our alarm system, and so we had an impromptu fire drill today. (Then the damn alarm proceeded to sound about 10 more times before school ended!) My babies made me SOOOO proud!! They walked (instead of ran!) and stayed perfectly quiet during the drill, despite the despicable behavior of the other kindergarten. (I've seriously been fighting myself everyday to NOT write about what a cluster fuck that room is becoming!!! Mrs. W. needs to go!! But, I'll refrain from going into it any further. At least today!) They really made me proud.

I'm afraid I'll jinx myself....

...by putting this in black and white. But, so far, 2008-2009 seems like it just may be a good year! Damn, now I'll probably get 6 new kids Monday morning!!!

So far, we have finished 9 days of kindergarten, and "we're 9 days smarter." For the third year in a row, I have a disproportionate number of boys to girls, as does the other kindergarten class. Right now, I have 7 girls and 13 boys. Last year, I had 7 girls and 23 boys!! I don't remember the exact numbers from the year before that, but the 2nd grade teacher asked me about it the first week of school because she couldn't believe how many boys she had. Must be something in the water in Englewood the past few years. Who knows. I shouldn't even admit this, but my cynical, jaded side thought for moment, "Gee, I wonder if the powers that be know about this trend, cuz their gonna need to build more jails in about 10 years." Yes, I know, that's horrible. That's what being in Englewood for 10 years had done to me. I immediately pushed that thought out of my head, and put my focus on trying to do something to ensure the exact opposite happens.

Another strange thing this year - our enrollment is WAY down. The first week of school, we only had 305 kids enrolled at the Hell-Hole. 305! By the end of the week, Mrs. J. in the office told me we were up to 429. Still a pitiful number. I do know, however, that during that week before the students came back, I saw three of my babies from last year and their parents in the office all asking for transfer papers.

One was my little D.S., who you might remember was the baby who needed to be thisclose to me all the time. He's the one that said, "Mrs. L., I love it when you touch me," and wanted "100 shmarshmallows." Jeez, I could think of a million more cute things he said and did. Anyway, I actually hugged his mom and celebrated the fact that he was going somewhere else. There isn't enough at the Hell-Hole for him. What a sad statement, huh? I know I gave him the best foundation I could, but I'm not that confident that there would have been a continuation of the same dedication to his education. I'm not for one minute trying to say that I'm the #1 teacher at the Hell-Hole. We have many teachers who care as much as I do about their students. But, unfortunately, they don't always have the resources to do everything they know or want to do for their students. Plus, we have a number of teachers there who simply show up everyday to collect their checks every other Friday (despite how small they are!) Add that to the fact that our staff turns over by 50-60% EVERY SINGLE YEAR, and it's a recipe for disaster.

That all leads to why so many of our kids have left. Because the Hell-Hole has been on probation for so long, the parents in the neighborhood have all been given the option to send their children to other, "better" schools. Obviously, many have opted to do just that. Which leaves me a bit torn. I'm really happy for those kids who will now get the quality of education they deserve. Hopefully, it will lead to a path of higher education that will someday get them out of that neighborhood and open doors to opportunities they might not have had.

But, at the same time, no students=no jobs. I'm not for a second worried about my job. Worst case scenario, the other kindergarten gets closed, and I will have to do both classes, probably as two half-day classes. Actually, I wouldn't mind that so much. I'm worried for the other teachers, especially those 'brand new' ones that were just hired. They come so full of enthusiasm and energy, and truly feel they can make a difference in the lives of these kids. I would hate for them to have to leave, but it's a very real possibility.

Very worst case scenario, Hell-Hole is closed due to low enrollment. Now, you gotta know, there's a small part of me that actually hope that happens. Maybe then, Big Cheese would be "forced" to retire. Within a year or two, the school would be reopened, but with a whole new administration, and probably new staff, and maybe things could finally turn around in that neighborhood. Ok, whoa, I'm getting way ahead of myself here. One can dream, can't they?

OK, back to this year's babies. For the most part, I LOVE them already. D.B. has actually been able to string together a couple of wonderful days. Just like she said, Mom didn't stay on Wednesday. There were a few ugly moments in the morning when he realized she was leaving, but luckily, Mrs. G. was going to stay with me for a while and do the morning read-aloud. [You may remember Mrs. G. and G. Family because I wrote about them many times last year. I LOVE THIS FAMILY!!! But, more on them in a bit...] So, Mrs. G. simply put her arms around the screaming D.B., and continued to read the story that she was reading, gently persuading D.B. to be her helper and hold the book, turn the pages, etc. She's so great! After a few minutes he stopped crying. I was actually able to leave the room, get some things done in the office, and put up a bulletin board in the 15 minutes that she read. Have a mentioned that I LOVE THIS WOMAN?!

There were just a couple other moments of crying, but we were able to get them under control very quickly. Thursday, Mom was saying good-bye, and the crying (ok, screaming) started again, but this time, another mom was in my room. (I had her daughter last year, and her daughter, I.W. was one of my absolute favorites.) She knows D.B.'s mom from the neighborhood, so she proceeded to step in and handle the situation. That's one thing that I still can't get used to about my parents. They really believe "it takes a village" and have no problem stepping in with other people's children. I go back and forth over whether I think it's a good thing or not. I'll let you know when I decide! Anyway, she proceeded to use a little tough love on D.B., which only made the screaming escalate. This went on for a few minutes, and just when I was about to step in (and ask her to get the hell out of my room!) he sat down in his seat, and stopped crying. I wasn't really sure what I should do, because I didn't want to set him off again. I just continued on with our morning routine, and he actually seemed fine. The rest of the day went relatively smoothly, with only two other very short crying episodes. By the afternoon, he was really showing a new side of himself. For the first time, he joined the other kids during center time, and actually played! Maybe that sounds insignificant to some of you, but to me, it was HUGE! All the other days so far, he either just sat/lied on the carpet, or sat alone at a table watching the other kids. He also put himself smack in the middle of the carpet during calendar time. The first 7 days, he was either on the very outer edge of the group, or next to me. And, the most exciting part was that he did it completely on his own. I looked down, and was very pleasantly surprised to see him in the middle, surrounded by the other boys and girls. Yay, D.B.!! Naturally, I couldn't give him enough praise and encouragement that day, and even the other babies chimed in, giving him a hand for having such a great day. One of them commented that "he didn't even cry during centers." Too cute! His mom came about 15 minutes before dismissal, and was going to come in to check on him, but I stopped her at the door and said, "Please don't jinx me, he's having a GREAT day!" She seemed very relieved to hear that.

Friday, D.B.'s mom sat with him for a few minutes reading during our quiet reading time. He was actually smiling and enjoying his time with his Mommy. Right up until....I.W.'s mom walked into the room! He took one look at her, and started screaming!! Oh, crap!! But, believe it or not, he was able to pull himself together very quickly, and the moms both left. The rest of the day was great!

I actually came home Friday in a relatively good mood. Exhausted, but happy. I also came home with my period AND a cold, but that's for another post :(

Customers are coming into the bar now, so I'll have to write about my other babies later. Have a great weekend!!

Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see. ~John W. Whitehead, The Stealing of America, 1983

I'm in just under the wire...

This is the closest I've ever come to missing my self-imposed deadline for posting every school day!! It's 10 minutes to midnight, and I've just finished doing some gift wrapping. I needed a break, and realized I hadn't posted anything tonight.

Well, the Christmas assembly was exactly the cluster fuck I knew it would be. As soon as my class finished, we went right off the stage, and out the door! There was NO WAY I could sit there amidst the utter chaos that is the Hell-Hole. My babies were awesome, by the way. I'll download the video tomorrow, when I'm not so exhausted. I'm really proud of them.

These next 6 hours of school can NOT go by fast enough. I so don't want to even go tomorrow! My mother guilted me into buying something else for the babies for Christmas. I had my niece put the pencils and candy canes in their stockings today, and I was going to leave it at that. But, this afternoon, I was talking to my mom on the phone, and she asked if we were having a party tomorrow, to which I replied, "Hell no!" Then she asked what I got them for Christmas, and I told her nothing. I told her about the pencils and candy canes, and she got upset with me. "Is that the memory you want them to have of kindergarten?!" So, I ended up grabbing something else to put in their stockings. The fact that I wanted to put it in the stockings limited what I could get, but then I found the perfect solution. I bought a case of individual snack-sized bags of microwave popcorn at Sam's Club. Perfect! They'll slide right into the stockings, and I'll feel better knowing they all LOVE popcorn.

Only one more child brought in a grab-bag gift today. That only makes 6 children that will participate, I guess. I was going to pick up a few extra gifts for those who didn't bring one, but I'm certainly not going to buy 21 gifts! We'll see how it goes tomorrow.

I did get a few gifts today, which was really nice. One of my babies from last year came up to me this morning before school and flung a gift at me, along with her 10,000 watt smile. It was the most adorable coffee mug with my initial on it. Very cute! I'm so glad it was something different. You have no idea how many "teacher" mugs I have. This is so unique, I just love it!

Another of my babies brought me a gift today, but told me I couldn't open it until Christmas. But, once I got home, I couldn't resist. It's a really cute little gift set of shower gel, lotion, bath salts and a puff. Cute!

Mrs. M. across the hall also brought me a gift today. She put together a sweet little basket of goodies for me. I don't think I've ever mentioned this before, but I have this really sick, twisted obsession with penguins. (I'll elaborate another time!) So there were several penguin items in the basket, along with some great potpourri, scented candle and bubble bath stuff. I'm all set for a relaxing night in the tub.

I've mentioned Mrs. G., one of my parents, more than once on my blog, and she's done it again! She not only brought me a beautiful fruit basket, that she put together herself, but she made individual goody bags for every child in the class. She always makes very old-fashioned goody bags for the kids, with an orange and/or apple, and some candy. I think it's wonderful! The kids were all so excited about the orange she put in their bags, it was too funny! I'm bringing some gifts for the G. family tomorrow that I hope they'll enjoy.

I haven't mentioned this yet this week, but all week, I've had a Secret Santa leaving me gifts. Actually, the gifts have been delivered by someone different every day. Every gift has been some sort of penguin, so I've been elated all week! Monday, I received a door cover/decoration with penguins on it. Tuesday, I received a penguin ornament. Wednesday, it was an absolutely adorable penguin wall hanging/decoration. Today, it was a penguin figurine, complete with a glittery little scarf. Very cute! I'm curious to see what tomorrow brings. All week, I assumed my Secret Santa was Dori, but I found out today, it's not. I'm confused. I think it may be my assistant from last year. Although, I asked her yesterday, and she said no, but I still think it's her. Just to be safe, I made sure to pick up something for her tonight.

Oo, one more gift from today. The other day, I spoke to the man from the after school program I'm working for to find out where the hell our pay was from November. He told me it would be sent out on Friday, and then told me he would be sending everyone a little Christmas bonus. He swore me to secrecy, because he wanted everyone to be surprised. I thought it was the least they could do, since we waited almost a month to get paid, but I was appreciative, nonetheless. They gave the teachers $100 each, our parent assistant $50, Mrs. J., our clerk, $100, and they sent me $200! Yay for me! It was a nice little show of appreciation, don't you think? None of the other after school programs I've ever worked for did anything like that. They called yesterday to say they were overnighting the checks, and they arrived this morning. Very nice!

Please send good thoughts and prayers my way for tomorrow to go by quickly! Come on, Christmas vacation!!! Two glorious weeks away from the Hell-Hole! I CAN NOT WAIT!!!

Like fruit, children are sweetest just before they turn bad. ---Dena Groquet

iHola Amigos!

We started exchanging our Secret Santa gifts today, and here's a story that is so typical of the Hell-Hole. (Or as my cousin says, "Vintage!") One of the ladies left her gift for her person on the counter where we sign in, figuring the recipient would see it when she got there. It was very clearly marked with Mrs. M.'s name on the tag. Well, some knucklehead decided to freakin' OPEN IT and help themselves to the contents!! It was a basket that was filled with candy, and after the first person helped themselves, it was left open on the counter for all to take. What the hell?! And take they did!! Only in the Hell-Hole would people take something that wasn't theirs, and not even bat an eye. When I was asking around about it at the end of the day, I happened to see the Big Cheese standing in the office, so I asked him if he saw it. "Oh, you mean that basket that was up here with Mrs. M.'s name on it? Yeah, I saw it earlier. As a matter of fact, I ate a few mints out of it. But, I don't know where it is now." Are you kidding me!!?? He actually saw someone's name on it, and still helped himself!!

Luckily, the basket had been picked up by Dori and returned to Mrs. M., even though all the candy was gone. Jeezaloo! People!!

At the end of the day, Mrs. G. was there, as always, to pick up her daughter. (You may remember me mentioning her in a previous post.) She said hello, and then bent down next to B., as I was helping one of the babies zip their coat. I heard her whisper, "Did you tell Mrs. L. what Daddy said?" B. gave her signature adorable smile and said "no," so Mrs. G. tells me ---

"Last week, when he came to pick up B., he came home and said, 'Oo, baby, Mrs. L. was lookin' good today! She looks like she lost some weight or something.' I said, 'And she cut her hair, too.' Then he said, 'Oh... yeah... I knew she looked different. She was looking fine.' Then he says to B., 'Tell Mrs. L. she's caliente!'"

Now, that is one secure woman. How the hell do you repeat a story like that to another woman (let alone your child's teacher!)? I would punch my husband if he came home talking about our child's teacher like that! Or any woman, actually, that he would describe as 'fine' and/or 'caliente'! Not that it wasn't a boost to my ego, mind you! That G. family! They are absolutely my favorites! Friday was the first time this year that I've seen Mr. G. (I saw him all the time when their son was in my class, but he's changed jobs now, so he works during the day now.) So maybe, he was just happy to see me! Tee hee!

I guess this doesn't exactly apply to B.G., but it's cute nonetheless...

Children seldom misquote. In fact, they usually repeat word for word what you shouldn't have said. ---Author Unknown

Friday, Flying...

Which is what I wish I was doing right now. Flying anywhere! OK, maybe anywhere it isn't 90 degrees like it was in Chicago today. Ugh! Where is the beautiful fall weather we were enjoying last week? Come on 70's!!!

I'd like to be flying away for a relaxing weekend, preferably with family and/or friends. It was a long week! I'm still completely miffed about the Big Cheese. But, I did my ranting yesterday, so I'm going to let it go....

Today, it was B.G and C.B's birthdays. B.G.'s mom brought cookies and juice for the class, as well as goodie bags. Thanks, Mrs. G.!! She's the sweetest mom. I had her son two years ago (and I'll have her youngest child next year) and she was always so willing and eager to help in my classroom. At the time, kindergarten ate lunch in the room (yeah, try and imagine what that was like!!) and she always came to help serve and clean up. It was sooo appreciated. She was also one of the few moms who always sent me little gifts for the holidays, as well as the end of the year. Last year, I had her son in my 1st grade afterschool class, and she still made sure she sent me gifts all year. How sweet is that? I only spent 4 hours a week with the boy, and she made sure I knew she appreciated my work. Her daughter is one of my favorites, of course. She's just as sweet as her mom. The youngest daughter is also adorable and sweet. I just love the G. family in general!! Oh, and since she knew it was C.B.'s birthday, too, she brought him a birthday present. Too sweet!

Writing about Mrs. G. has me in a happy place, so I'm going to just leave you with today's quote. Have a great weekend! (I made a poster with this saying, and it hangs in my classroom.)

It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice!

---Anonymous