I can’t quite get my mind around how long it has been. More than five years, and even then only long enough for a quick lunch at one of my favorite restaurants. For LM, it’s truly been longer than he can remember. He was 2 when we moved away and has no recollection of the dear sweet, polite, quiet, methodical boy he used to play with.

Since we moved, our friendships have only grown. Stacy and I email nearly every day. She’s been my friend, my support, my cheerleader, my secret-keeper, my joy, my laughter and my sister in Christ. LM and her son are sporadic but heartfelt pen-pals. Trading jokes, successes, pictures and contrasting details about their lives the two are a study in opposites bonded by friendship.

Tomorrow, after all this time, we will set off on a long overdue visit. To her house that I’ve never seen. To see children of hers that I’ve never met. To finally sit and talk with the dearest friend I have in my small precious collection.

While we are in the area, we’ll stop in and see how my grandpa is doing. I hope to also take LM on his first-ever tour of the college where his parents met, including the famous ice cream shop and maybe even a sandwich from Arthur’s where his dad and I used dine.

The trip will be far too short, and it will be hard to leave, but I can say with certainty that this trip will be good for the soul.

I’ve posted previously about LM’s fantastic pronunciations for various words. Today, I give you three more: ‘documentary’ pronounced ‘documentarry‘, ‘Shaff-er” which is LM for ‘chauffeur’ and my new all-time favorite, “uROphic”, which is the new, trendy, LM-way to pronounce “euphoric”. Try it in conversation for yourself and see if you don’t like it.

“The thought of never studying the pythagorean theory again in my lifetime makes me simply uROphic!”

A train leaves the station at 6:34pm with a child aboard who is studying for his SAT exam less than two weeks away. If his mother has just taken a heavy dose of cold medicine after an agonizing day with first graders, and the dog desperately wants to go out, which of the following is true?
A. The child will forever associate the acronym “SAT” with “Stupid, Absurd, Test”;
B. The mother’s head will implode at the mere mention of the words “algebra” and “geometry”;
C. The dog will actually score higher than either the child or the Nyquil-induced mother, but will be unable to properly mark his answer key without an opposable thumb; or,
D. The child, the mother and the dog will all mutually agree that the train is an antiquated and nearly obsolete form of transportation in America and thereby declare all questions involving, pertaining to or referencing trains to be null and void.

As part of her sub plans, the teacher I filled in for today left me a new game she wanted me to teach to the kids in small groups so that they might be able to play it independently during center time in the future. I looked at the instructions and chose a version of the game that would best accomodate small groupings of first graders working on their own.

As per her instructions, I called over small groups of students to learn the game while the rest of the class worked on their centers today. The game itself was fairly simple, and the version of rules I chose kept the format simple enough for everyone to follow. There were two decks of cards: one with beginning sounds (individual letters or blended sounds) and ending word sounds. Every student in the game was dealt five ending word sounds. A typical hand might include “-ick, -it,-at, -uck, and -am” Then each student took turns drawing a beginning sound and matching it up to form words. The goal was to match all the cards in your hands with a beginning sound.

The students have been working hard on their letter sounds and grew quite agitated with me when I said “skor” wasn’t a word, nor was “wram”. The students both gave me several examples of the words “score” and “ram” to set me straight. Then we had a whole bunch of words that were indeed words, but the students just didn’t know them. Words like “skit” and a “bray” and “jock”.

When I left my notes for the day for the teacher, I made sure to mention these concerns with the game. Knowing her intentions to allow them to work independently on it, I wanted her to be aware that it might raise some issues.

Most importantly, however, I also let her know what an interesting round of play we had when one student paired “d” with “-am” and once he had it all sounded out, thought his new word was hysterical. He was quickly out done when a second player accidentally paired up “f” with “-uck” and only upon sounding it out outloud did he realize his blunder. Before I could stop him, a third studentpaired up “sh” with “-it” and nearly fell out of his chair laughing. Even “dr” paired with “-unk” brought on a squeal of laughter.

I can just hear these children reporting back to mom and dad tonight the new game they learned with a substitute today.

about the boy whose mother spent every day substitute teaching to pay the bills while hoping for a permanent teaching position, and every evening helping her son cram for the SAT test. The boy who sat with his mother for two and a half hours just trying to understand equations; the mother who walked through every single practice equation with him, doing the steps right alongside him in an effort to teach him the methods solidly and yet quickly as possible. The mother who applied her background in teaching to demonstrate the steps in a variety of ways, helping the boy overcome the obstacles of learning algebra in three days or less.

This would be the boy who made his mother very nearly cry when he then shared his thesis for his English essay. “I’m writing about how teachers are so hypocritical,” he said, as he went on to explain the frustrating things teachers do to students.

Have you heard about that boy? No? Well, maybe you heard about the boy that was sold on ebay for $1.92 yesterday? Yeah, that’d be the same one.

I didn’t think I would have a sub position for Valentine’s Day, but when a funeral pulled a teacher away unexpectedly, I got the call and eagerly agreed to help. Next time I might not be quite so eager. Here’s what I learned about Valentine’s Day from from 24 First Graders:

1. If you think an activity will take 25 minutes, it will only take 5. Valentine Word Search? Better make them find 100 words, not 10 if you want it to last long enough to exhale

2. To ask them to sit in their seats on a day of such celebration, you are just kidding yourself. Their behinds automatically fling them in the air if it even gets close to the seat of the chair.

3. Even if the teacher only requests snacks from a portion of the children’s parents, you will be given 35 white-frosting cupcakes, 30 red-frosting cupcakes, 30 peanut butter cookies with chocolate kisses, 40 brownies, 30 chocolate peanut butter no-bake cookies, 3 different kinds of suckers (not including yourself), tootsie rolls (the big ones), crackers, Cheese-Its, oranges and strawberries and other assorted bags of candy.

4. The parent in charge of plates, napkins and cups needs VERY specific information. Large styrofoam cups will be the death of you one way or another. It would be better to just pour a mouthful in each thirsty child than to place this much liquid in a container on their desk.

5. The parent in charge of drinks, likewise needs VERY specific information. Red juice is NOT a good idea, especially in conjunction with #4.

6. Apparently, any DAD put in charge of bringing a snack also needs VERY specific information. ONE deep dish apple pie will not serve 24 first graders evenly or easily. Especially when no utensils accompany the pie.

7. If you are the mom purchasing pixie sticks as part of your child’s Valentine to each classmate, you MIGHT receive an anonymous phone call that sounds like 24 six year olds tearing apart a classroom. I’m just saying.

8. If you are the mom who bought a bracelet for her six year old son to give to another six year old girl in his class, you need your head examined.

9. If you are the parent of the two children who received their third warnings and a subsequent referral for kissing at recess, you need to talk with the mom in #8 and tell her what’s in store.

10. When you stop at your sister’s after school to drop off Bird and George and to thank her for lending you something red to wear, take three aspirin, not just two.

But no matter how bad the day was, no matter how big the headache is, no matter how many times you had to raise your voice today, remember the fun you had before school slipping cards into the desks of your two favorite elementary students: Bird and George. (Oh, and looking ahead to your next paycheck isn’t so bad, either.)

…complain about it being Valentine’s Day.

We’re thankful all year through, but especially on Thanksgiving.
We’re giving all year through, but especially on Christmas.
We’re kind all year through, but especially on someone’s birthday.
We love our mom’s all year through, but especially on Mother’s Day.

Yes, we should be loving all year long. But can’t we also spread a little extra love today, too?

Now, I’m no proponent of Hallmark. I don’t encourage materialism on any other holiday so I won’t start now. But I also don’t think love has to cost a dime. That said, sometimes it’s nice to do more than just say the words; sometimes it’s really nice to do them.

After all, love is a verb.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

(Her family doesn’t like tomatoes, or beans, or any veggies that aren’t also a starch.)

Amy’s Chili
I don’t measure, so add as much as you like of the following:

brown the following together:

cooked lean ground beef
green pepper
yellow onion
garlic cloves

Move to big chili pot and add:

stewed tomotoes
tomato sauce
kidney beans
pinto beans
northern beans
tomato paste

Season with:

oregano
chili powder
A-1 sauce

Simmer on the stove until you can’t resist the aroma anymore. Enjoy with crusty bread and cheese. We’ve just made a pot big enough for the whole neighborhood, so come on over and join us!

As I look ahead to the next year and our goal to be back in a house by next summer, I’ve been looking at ways to cut our budget in order to get more money in savings. One of the things I have been looking into is dropping cable. Since we mainly watch sports and movies, and now that football season is over and there’s a Blockbuster just down the road, it doesn’t make uch sense to me to pay $60 for our television portion of our cable bill each month. I made a couple calls to the cable company. Despite the fact that my bill appears to show a fee of $9.99 for internet (with a $10 credit for the package with television), the cable company tells me my internet alone will cost $30 a month if I cancel the cable TV.

So I call other internet providers. There are plans for $15 a month for basic DSL, but only if you have a landline phone already in place. Otherwise, everywhere I turn it’s $22+ for internet alone.

What happened to free TV? What happened to internet for $10 a month? What has happened?

I am so frustrated at spending $80 a month for the TV.

Which makes me wonder, what will people do in 2010 when it’s all HD? Will everyone be forced into cable or satellite? Are the days of free television over? And if so, why are we paying for the shows and still being forced to watch so much advertising?

UGH!!!