I miss you Meshach!

My life lately has kind of reminded me of a book called "If you give a mouse a cookie." So, I've written my own version of the story called, "If the window on Nathan's car breaks."

Sunday was Dad's birthday dinner. Nathan and I decided to go up to Syracuse for his birthday dinner, but the very afternoon we chose to do that, the window of his car fell off of its track so that he couldn't roll it back up again. And so we begin...

If the window on Nathan's car breaks, you might decide that it is too cold and wet and snowy to take his car all the way to Syracuse. You may decide that your car is a better option and take it instead.

If you choose to take your own car instead, you might get to about North Salt Lake before your car overheats and you have to pull over to the side of the road. You may decide that you can't drive any further for fear of ruining your engine and choose to call your Dad (remember how it was his birthday) to ask him to tow you home.

If you choose to call your Dad and ask him to tow you home, you may have to wait inside your cold wet car for about an hour and a half while your parents drive down to come and save the day. While you are there, you may decide that you should have put up with the broken window in the first place. When your parents tow you home, your dad may let you take their car down to Salt Lake so that you can get to work. You may decide that is a great idea and take the car.

If your Dad chooses to let you take the car, you may try to take good care of it and make sure that all of the doors are locked before you go to bed. And then the next morning, you may discover that the locks on the doors are very hard to open... meaning you can't. You may choose to call Nathan to come and give you a ride to work instead.

If you choose to get a ride to work from Nathan, you may realize that you don't have any way to get home. You may also realize that the only one that knows how to unlock the car is your dad. So you may choose to call him to pick you up from work and drive you home to unlock the door.
If you call your Dad to come and help you unlock the door, he may be able to get the door open. Only, after getting the door open, you might find out that the door has gotten some water in it from the night before, is frozen solid, and refuses to shut again. The two of you may decide that the door needs to be warmed up so that the ice can melt. You may choose to ask your roommate to trade you places so that you can leave your car in the garage.

If you choose to put your car in the garage, you might also put a lamp inside the car and leave it on all night so that it can warm up the car. You may discover, however, that because the door won't shut, the overhead light in your car is also on. The only way to get it to turn off is to lean something against the door to keep the door shut and the light off. You do this, and go to bed, hoping that your car will work in the morning.

If you choose to put a lamp in your car all night, the next morning your car door with finally shut! However, you might also discover that the heavy object you put against the door wasn't heavy enough. Your overhead light may have been on all night and now your car might not start. You may choose to call Nathan again to come and save the day.

If you choose to call Nathan to save the day, you may discover once again that you have no way to get home from work. So, Nathan might have to come pick you up during his work break, and sacrifice his dinner and drive you home to try to jumpstart your car. On the way there, he may tell you that he fixed the window on his car so that it cannot fall down again. You may choose to breathe a sigh of relief, happy to hear that your troubles might end soon.


Or at least we hope! Let's all hope that Meshach returns home safe and sound. We miss you Meshach!

Toleration

Kindergartners are much more tolerant of others. I learned that today... and I continue to learn it every day in our little classroom.

The other day I was teaching penmanship, and one of my students fell out of his chair. That's right, just fell right over. This is not an odd occurence. It happens just about every day. My reaction is usually simply, "Well, climb back in your chair."
At that moment, I stopped to think, "What if an adult sitting in my classroom had just done that?" For one thing, the other people in the room would have noticed. It would have been a concern. And if it turned out that the person had simply fallen out of her chair simply because she was wiggling so much that she had lost her balance, the adults around her may have considered getting her some help--- psychiatric help. Not so in kindergarten-- you just keep on working as if nothing happened at all.

Or how about when Ryan put his coat on upside down today and complained because he couldn't get his backpack on. The coat was hanging totally up on end with his hood hanging down by his knees, and what was Ryan was saying? "Miss Parrish, I can't get my backpack on." I looked at him and said, "That's probably because your coat is on upside down."
This got no response, other than the fact that Ryan was spinning around in circles trying to catch his other backpack strap. Finally, I stopped him and told him, "Ryan, you need to take your coat off and put it on right side up." He did so... only because he knew he had to because his teacher made him do it- not because it bothered him that his coat was on upside down. The other children either did not notice or else it didn't bother them.

That's tolerance.

But some things cannot be tolerated. Not even by kindergartners.

Today during small group instruction, I was interrupted by a student. Usually, I encourage the students to work independently- and only interrupt me if they are dying or going to wet their pants or someone is badly hurt. The girl assured me this fit under the category of "important." It did.

"Tupu is putting crayons up his nose."
"What?!? Tupu! Come over here!"

"Are you putting crayons up your nose?"
"Yes." Simple response. There was no shame. Not even a little bit.
"Don't put crayons up your nose!" I said this as firmly as I could... under the ridiculous circumstances, it was hard not to laugh.

That afternoon, the students in my p.m. class asked me why Tupu had gotten his card pulled. I told them why, and one little boy responded by saying, "You got to be kidding me!"
Like I said, some things even kindergartners can't tolerate.

Paisley

It is now a new year. 2009, if you will.
In honor of such a fantastic new year, I found an awesome background for my blog. As the Boy would say, "Paisley is amazing."

The Doctor Visit

Going to the doctor is a significant event in my life. If asked at any given time, I can count off on my fingers individually the number of doctor visits I have had... and the traumatic experiences that accompanied them. I don't see the doctor often, unless I'm sure that I am dying or my mother makes me. This time it was the latter.

I'm not dying... I've just been slowly and surely losing weight until I look... well, bony. Does this concern me? A lot. So much that I've talked about it a lot. You see, if you never go to the doctor, there's nothing wrong with you. And if you talk about it a lot, eventually it will just go away. Mom doesn't agree with me, and since we both kind of thought I brought home some happy little parasites from Taiwan, off I went to the doctor.

The picture shown here is a little extreme, only because of the intense contrast of the fat kid on the right.

You know what that doctor told me? (Besides telling me that they needed to take my blood- which I survived, in case you were curious or worried.) He told me that I have a high metabolism (yeah... didn't figure that one out on my own), that I need to drink only whole milk (check, been doing that), that I need to drink instant breakfast in the morning (double check), and that I need to eat a lot of carbs (hmmm... do I eat anything else? Oh wait, I do. It's called chocolate). So, I basically got told that the doctor totally approves of my current diet of fatty goodness, though I'm not sure exactly what it's going to change... other than maybe helping Rick gain a little extra weight in support! :)