Friday, January 30, 2009

Room 102

I love my kindergartners. Here are some of their awesomeness.

Justin was out sick all week. He came back today, and during circle time Alexia asked him, "Where have you been?"
"Oh, I was having diarrhea."

Today we discovered a rash all over David's body, it was especially brutal on his cheeks. On our walk down to the nurse's office, he said, "That would be so cool if my cheeks got so red that they turned into roses, and then I could pick them off and give them to my mom. I love my mom."

All the kiddos were in groups, compromising on a fairytale story to create. Compromise doesn't happen with 5 year-olds, F.Y.I. I was working with one group, where the boys wanted protagonist wolves, the girls wanted gingerbread men. I suggested both. The boys said, "Only if the wolf get in a fight and eat the gingerbread men!" The girls practically fainted and said, "No! They should dance together." In the meantime, I noticed Anthony slowly sneaking away. He got a black piece of electrical tape off the counter and put it on his lip, like a mustache. I went up to him and said, "Anthony," to which he replied, "Bonjour my friends." I said something like what? and he said, "Bonjour my friends. That's French Miss Cline. I'm learning French." Just then one of the kids in his group yelled out, "Oh dude! We could have a story about three little mustached men!" Everyone thought it was great, so Anthony posed for his group as they drew three replicas of him and his tape mustache. Anthony kept saying, "The three little men should say 'Bonjour my friends'." In the end, the fairytale was about three little mustache men who danced with monsters.

Last Friday at recess, Will came inside crying hysterically. He was sobbing so hard - the kind where you go silent for a moment, then screech loudly as you try to suck air back in. He had rashes around his eyes, and was basically melting into the floor. I ran over to him and took the note in his hand, from the recess duty, which read, "Will is crying." Obviously. He couldn't speak, and wasn't calming down, so I asked him a bunch of questions. Are you hurt? Did someone say something mean to you? Do you miss your mom? Are you tired? Did you get in trouble? My questions probably perpetuated the crying by having him think of all these potentially sad things. After seriously like 15 minutes - I was ready to walk out - he finally calmed down (I had thrown him on a bean bag chair with a stuffed animal and was waving a pixie stick in front of him as incentive for shutting-up). I asked him for the 100th time, "Will, what's going on bud?" He said, "My body told me it needed to cry."
"What?"
"I was standing outside when my body just said, 'Will, you need to cry, right now,' and so I did." He was completely serious, took a few deep breaths, thanked me for his pixie stick and went back out to recess.

Write it on your calendars if you are able to muster the energy. Life's hard with KJW on another continent.

BL Meeting Deets

Part 1
When: Saturday, March 28th, 6:00 PM
What: Feasting on delicious food at the Rafferty home and discussing the Obama literature!
Where: Rafferty's house... KRIS, WHERE DO YOU LIVE?!?
Why: Because we like to be fancy, and we like to eat, and we like to see giant fireplaces.

Part 2
When: Same day, after dinner
What: Rowdiness! Woo! Woo! Woo!
Where: The Beav! Woo! Woo! Woo!
Why: Because we need to talk to Don and eat free popcorn and play R. Kelly on the jukebox and shake, shake, shake our sillies out! Woo! Woo! Woo!

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Cross Fire's Book Choice

Okay Better Lovers World-Wide,
I have made my decision. Drum roll please . . .
In the wake of Obama-mania, I vote we read up on this 44th president, from his own perspective. With that being said, as first book-decider, I am choosing not one, but four books. Oooooo.
Below are four different books Obama has written himself, and I think each Better Lover should pick the book that interests you the most. This way, come BL meeting time, we will have a mini Yay Obama party, and be able to discuss a range of things and compare what we noticed in the different books.

I did this recently in a third grade class, where we had the same author (Avi), with different book groups. Each group could talk about their specific book, but the whole class could compare the authors style and similar ideas.

I suppose this could be like our Danielle Steel meeting, but with MUCH better material.
So - the books to choose from are the following:
There is also a cool book out there, with all of his speeches leading up to now.

Also - if you are completely cramped for time, are unable to get your hands on a book, are lame and don't want to read a book by Obama, or are interested in a comprehensive-but-who-knows-how-trustworthy synapses of his life, I provide you with Obama's Wikipedia page!

Okay. There's the list. Do you want to know about his past, his present, or plans for the future? You decide. If you've read one, pick another. Just come prepared to talk Barack!

Also - K dubs - when is the meeting? If we are pushing it back a week for Erin, we might as well push it back three more so L Bomb can be there.

Friday, January 23, 2009

Happy Friday!

Here are some fun facts about Dr. Seuss books.

Here is a picture of a mom elephant that pooped on her baby elephant.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Two big things

Number One
I was thinking today while I roamed the black-beanless grocery store aisles... choosing a BL book is often tough. We can never make everyone happy, and all the research is tough. So...

BY DECREE OF KJW, we will take turns choosing the book. Then, the chooser will choose the NEXT person to choose the book, and so on. Bribing is fair.

Crotch Potato - you go first! It doesn't matter if everyone will love it, because we all have different tastes.

Go. Pick.

Number Two
E-Schu may not be back from Peru by March 28th, so can we move our BL meeting back a week? Here's what I'm thinking:
-Saturday, April 4th
-6:00 PM - dinner at la casa de Kris Rafferty
-After that, to the Beaver for Don time!

Respond.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Enough of this fiddle faddle. Let's decide.

When: March 28th, 8:00 PM
Where: The Beav
What book: Here are my ideas:
-Dreams From My Father, by BARACK
-Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen (some of you might have read this already)
-Kelly Is the Hottest, by Can't Believe I Found This Link
-The Other Boleyn Girl, by Philippa Gregory

Vote! Or suggest others! And tell me if you want to change that meeting time, because we could pick another time that weekend or the following weekend!

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Poor Speedy Wheels has to sit next to him every day. Well, when Rachel lets me have the 7 spot.

So, my neighbor next door has a very offensive smiley face cover on the tire on the back of his jeep. Or her jeep. Whoever's jeep it is, their tire cover makes me want to poke out my eyes.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

So....


.... are we going to read another book?

Monday, January 12, 2009

I have begun training for Ski to Sea 2009.

What have you all done with your lives?

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Butter Luvers

I am still soooo sad I wasn't at the December BL meeting. I blame the in-laws and Neapolitan ice cream. But on the upside, I went to Euclid, Ohio and learned some mad robotic programming skills.

Also I met cab driver from Lithuania. Apparently in Lithuania he was a deputy mayor, and before that a university professor. And now he is a taxi driver in Euclid. I also learned that Wal-Mart is the #1 employer in Ohio. And I heard a news story about a needy family in Ohio that signed up for getting Christmas gifts donated, and all they received were wrapped boxes of cereal and pasta.

See, aren't these facts about Euclid as interesting as facts about Norway?

Sunday, January 4, 2009

The international message

The only hoodie I have in Norway is my BL one. I hope to strike up a lot of conversations about book clubs and maaaaybe perpetuate the stereotype that Americans are a bit easy. (Just through my sweatshirt. Not through my actions.)