Student: I hate bein' sick. Last time I was sick I had to go to the place where they take your coffin.

ME: Your coffin?

Student: Yeah.

ME: Where do they take your coffin?

Student: You know, the doctor, that place where they take your coughin'.

*note*: Please pray for divine intervention in my life. I literally feel as though I am being coughed and sneezed on in all directions. Hey kids, have you ever heard of PERSONAL SPACE? It will be an act of GOD if I make it through this round of sicknesses unscathed. And you know I don't want to be sick on spring break. I'm off to the store for more emergen-C.

Yesterday we went down to Portland to help our friends Kara and Jason out with a house they are buying. But first we went to the early service at Mosiac, our old church in Portland. It still feels very much like home and it really blessed me to see what God has been doing there. These are some of our friends at Mosaic.

Kara and Jason are OUR HEROES (or are they just crazy?). This is Paul consulting with Kara about rebuilding the front steps.

This is a two ton dumpster full of debris that they removed from the house AFTER the tenants had been evicted and moved out.

Kara and I worked on cleaning the kitchen. It was literally the filthiest place I have even set foot in in my entire life, and I am not exagerating. There were cockroaches (which I wasn't aware could even live in our climate) and maggots EVERYWHERE. I told Kara that this was my own personal version of Fear Factor. The walls had crusted food all over. Yes, that is a mask I am wearing.

There were dead bugs encrusted all over the cieling of the kitchen.

Great podcast:

http://www.derekwebbchat.com/audiochat.php

A conversation with Derek Webb (of Caedmon's Call) and Don Miller (of Blue Like Jazz) on theology and social issues.

We are *NINJA* entertainers!

Yesterday we had people over after church, Casey and Brandon Korpi, who by the way OWN snowshoes and LOVE to backpack. How lucky are we? Now if we can only lure them into being friends with us!

And then, we went to a community worship / prayer event (for http://www.convoyofhope.org/) at Bethel Church and had five people over after that! We didn't get to bed until 10, which is late on a school night for us, but that's OK. We love hanging out. Actually, we were in bed last night and realized that we had completely forgotten to eat dinner.

On Friday we both had the day off so we went snowshoeing at Mt. Ranier. It was beautiful and then we had coffee at Copper Creek Inn http://www.coppercreekinn.com/, we decided to go back for breakfast or lunch sometime, dinner prices looked a little steep for us.
I am going home and taking my report cards with me!

*Ninja is code for "the best" or "really good at something", Paul and his construction buddies made it up I think. Also, if something is "not so ninja" it's not up to par.

Students found a note on the floor today and were trying to discern whether or not it was from a leprechaun.

"No, I think leprechauns write cursive."
-student

Tornado (this is our classroom pet) says, "Happy St. Patty's Day to you!" I know it's fuzzy but I thought he was so cute.

Our class is celebrating St. Patrick's Day tomorrow because we have no school on Friday. It's a big deal and something that the students asked me if we were going to do at the very beginning of the year, because they remembered it from last year. I pretend that there is a leprechaun on the loose in our school. I have a green wig this year and I am planning on really playing it up. It's also a great time to talk about St. Patrick because he was a missionary, and a Christian. I am also getting some Lucky Charms at Walmart so we can graph them. I was thinking about making green jello jigglers, but I don't really think I will have the time. This is one of my favorite days, besides the 100th day of school. Happy St. Patty's Day!

I was listening to our local Christian radio station when I went to work this morning the impossible question of the day was, experts say doing 15 minutes of this everyday with make you less stressed. Guess what it was? journaling! Which is almost the same as blogging. I have been needing this validation for some time because this means,

blogging is good for you!

I spend at least 15 min to half an hour looking at other people's blogs everyday, and sometimes writing my own. But this gives me a REASON, you know, other than just blogging for blogging's sake. Right now, for example, I am sitting in my classroom, blogging, when I should be planning, cleaning, and so on. But no, I'm eating peanut butter and blogging. Well. Stress relief.
Stress relief is something I need. I have spent 27.5 hours in the last month just going to classes on top of my work. I can't complain, I volunteered for most of it. And I really do enjoy most of it too. But it's still work and if there's anything I've learned from being a teacher for the past year and a half it's that work that's fun it STILL work, and you need to take a little time to blog now and then.
Speaking of, horror of all horrors, I woke up on Saturday to about 2 inches of snow. And what did I have planned for Saturday? I had to go to a math class. I can really identify with children who have to go to school when it snows now. It's tough to leave all that white stuff because you know it will be melted when you get back. Paul had a good time playing in the snow. He grew up in Costa Rica, so snow is quite the novelty for him, and he loves it.
Well, blackboards and lesson plans await me....

Currently reading: How come no one told me that Sherlock Holmes was so good? I have to tell you that I have given up on new fiction. Rarely does something come out that is worth reading. I have reverted to classics. Right now I am listening to the last book in the Anne of Green Gables series in the car, on the way to and from work. I also just finished reading God's Smuggler, by Brother Andrew, which couldn't really be considered a classic, but good anyway. Please give me suggestions on what to read next. What is your must-read right now? Leave comments.

Snow!

I took this picture early this morning before I went to work.

Readin' writin' and 'rithmetic were a lost cause today! It would take a magician to calm these kids down.

Quote 'O' the day:

"Math? BRING.......IT.......OOOOOONNNNN!!"

-first grader

This day just keeps getting better. Smokey the Bear is coming to our classroom on Friday, and I wanted the kids to guess who the special guest was.

ME: There's a special guest coming to our classroom on Friday. He's tall, and he's furry, and he wears a hat. Can you guess who he is?

Student: My dad?

Snow showers forcasted for Thursday / Friday!

My favorite thing that happened today was when I asked a student to use the word "ditch" in a sentence. Here is what he said:

"Throw the deer in the ditch....(long pause)....unless it's a good one."

It would be really funny to wear a tape recorder for a whole day, there are some pretty funny things about working with kids and one of them is that you tend to say things about six times, and find yourself saying laughable things. So I wrote some of those things down today when I said them:

".... and a pencil is not a weapon ..."

".... your mother would not be happy if she knew that you had a staple in your mouth ..."

".... do NOT flick green beans with your spork ..."