We want some mo, we want some mo, we want some mo!

This is one of my favorite movies.  I grew up watching it, quoting it, its soundtrack was the first CD I  ever bought myself...  I love it.  It's one of the only movies I could finish and then immediately start over.  One of my siblings' favorite stories, especially when teasing our parents, is about this movie.  Once, when we were younger, all the kids were home and my parents were at the grocery store or someplace.  When we finished our homework / chores for the evening, we wanted to watch a movie.  It was 9:00, though, and we knew that, 1) Mom and Dad would be home soon, and 2) when they got home, we'd have to turn off the TV and go to bed.  But one of us was smart and remembered this movie, which is also one of my mom's favorites.  So we made a non-monetized bet - if we started this movie, even at 9:00, Mom and Dad would let us stay up to finish it.  

They got home at 9:15.

Worked like a charm.

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"In fanciful stories people can talk to the birds freely, and I wish for the moment I could pretend that this was such a story, and say that Peter replied intelligently to the Never bird; but truth is best, and I want to tell only what really happened."  - J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

respeto

This is exactly why I allow nothing less than respect in my class.  One of the first words my students learned from me (and probably the one they know best even now) was respeto, and they know it's not just for me.  I require them to listen to each other speak, to not laugh if someone answers incorrectly, and to respect each others' - and their own - artwork even if it's silly. One of the first lessons a second grade class learned from me is that words are important.  A boy teased another boy, who started crying, and the first boy said, "They're just words.  Words don't matter."  We stopped the entire lesson until everyone in that class knew that words do matter, and when you say something that can hurt someone's feelings, you make it better.  Because no one deserves to grow up feeling like they're not safe at school.  Everyone deserves to grow up knowing they have friends in their classroom.  Thankfully, I teach at a school where people are pretty nice.  I've been really impressed with my students.  Almost every classroom feels like a tight group of friends, as well it should.  I don't see them on the playground, so things could be different than they seem, but I'm thankful that they have learned to support each other, at least in the classroom.  Mistakes are made there all the time - it's a good place to learn respect.

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"He was standing erect on the rock again, with that smile on his face and a drum beating within him.  It was saying, 'To die will be an awfully big adventure.'"  - J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

jobs (other than my own) that I would love: part 3

You don't have to watch all of that, but you'll be in for some great entertainment (and a couple of fun surprises) if you do.  I, for one, am highly impressed with her ability to pull out so many different dance moves in just five minutes, even if she does make extensive use of the model walk.  

Oh, and I sang that song in my fifth grade musical.

But back to the point - I would be such a good store mascot.  I've always thought it would be soooo fun (except in the boiling heat) - AS LONG AS I had a head.  If there were no head to go with the costume, I would probably be just like most store mascots, but if there were a head and I was allowed to listen to music (whether on a loudspeaker or an iPod), I would be great and it would be super fun.  Everyone driving / walking by would totally come into my store / buy a mattress / pizza / insurance / fried chicken from me.  Whaaaaat!

(I was going to insert a video from "The Middle" where you find out that, when Sue is the mascot, everyone loves her, but I couldn't find it.  You'll just have to imagine. :)

So, that's pretty much it.  I would enjoy being a grocery buggy collecter, a tutor, and a store mascot.  As for jobs that I don't have enough to say about for them to get their own post, there's just one.  It's "teach you how to go grocery shopping"er.  I'm good at going shopping and living on a low grocery budget, I think.  I wouldn't teach a class, necessarily, but I think I could do a pretty good job going into someone's home, looking at what they like to eat, helping them learn to look through an ad, and then going shopping.  That kind of thing.

Oh, and high school choir accompanist.

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"Which of these adventures shall we choose [to describe]?  The best way will be to toss for it.

I have tossed, and the lagoon has won.  This almost makes one wish that the gulch or the cake or Tink's leaf had won.  Of course I could do it again, and make it best out of three; however, perhaps fairest to stick to the lagoon."  - J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

jobs (other than my own) that I would love: part 2

here

A tutor, particularly in Spanish or Math (or Self-Esteem - that would be fun:).  These are my two favorite subjects (as far as tutoring goes), and although I love teaching, there's something about giving one-on-one help that's different and special.  Also, the grammar-based style of teaching Spanish is getting older and being phased out a little, but I really enjoy tutoring students who have learned by that style because I love grammar (and teaching it).  I am fascinated with the nuances of speech, grammar, accents, and pronunciation.  Anyway - I could go on but I won't.  Job #2 = tutor (but hopefully we both would look happier and the kid would have a better haircut).

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"The difference between [Peter] and the other boys at such a time was that they knew it was make-believe, while to him make-believe and true were exactly the same thing."  - J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

jobs (other than my own) that I would love: part 1

There are a few jobs in this world that I would love to have.  Not only would be they provide a great amount of joy to me, but I also just think I would rock at them.  I considered posting all of them right now, but then I realized I have a lot to say about some of these, so, without further ado, here is "Jobs (other than my own) that I would love: Part 1." 

here

Let's be honest, I already love this job.  Every time I go grocery shopping by myself, I'm excited to return the buggy, and every time I go with Joel, I volunteer to return the buggy to the cart corral.  I would LOVE to be the buggy gatherer at a grocery store.  Love.  Why?  First of all, scenes like this...

here

...make the OCD "I enjoy organizing" part of my brain start filling up with endorphins.  Seriously.  I get excited just looking at this picture.  I want to clean it!!  Secondly...

here

...look how happy they look!  I'm kind of kidding - most shopping cart picker uppers do not look that happy, and every time I've talked to someone about this dream job, they tell me I would hate it soon after starting.  I have to say, though, I'm really good at doing repetitive organization tasks and still liking them at the end.  I feel like I would look like those people if I were doing that job, especially if I were allowed to, 1) talk to people and/or, 2) listen to music.  Also, I could go around taking people's buggies for them when they finished unloading!  Fun.  And thirdly...

here

...there would probably be an unlimited amount of opportunities to do that.  So there you have it!  One job I would love to have (and be great at) is that of Grocery Bugger Gatherer.

here

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"'I have often,' said Smee, 'noticed your strange dread of crocodiles.'

'Not of crocodiles,' Hook corrected him, 'but of that one crocodile.'  He lowered his voice.  'It liked my arm so much, Smee, that it has followed me ever since, from sea to sea and from land to land, licking its lips for the rest of me.'

'In a way,' said Smee, 'it's a sort of compliment.'" 

- J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

anonymous

Dear bloggers I don't know whose blogs I read,

I know it's fun to get comments from people you don't know, but where's the line between exciting and weird?  Is there one?

Or, how many times can I comment on your blog before you think I'm a crazy person? 

Sincerely,

She

thought questions

I found a website today called ThoughtQuestions: Asking the right questions is the answer.  The questions tend to be pretty simple and interesting to think about, so I thought, maybe when I feel like writing on my blog but don't know what to write about, I'll look something up on there. :)  This one is just for fun, not because I have nothing to say.

Hey! Snow day!

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"But undoubtedly the grimmest part of him was his iron claw."  - J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

Laaaaaambert, the sheepish lion

Okay, this post is not about Lambert, the Sheepish Lion.  I did watch that show / sing that song when I was younger, but this is about an entirely different lion.  Christian.  I love watching this video!  It is one of my favorite animal stories in the entire world.  Please watch it at least once (feel free to repeat several times).  I dare you to do so without smiling! :)  (Also, this is your Valentine's Day post.  Can you get much cuter than this kind of love?!)

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"[Hook] was never more sinister than when he was most polite, which is probably the truest test of breeding;"  - J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

oh yeah, this happened in December :D

It was a fun surprise. :)

Usually when someone is chosen as Teacher of the Month, one of these banners is put on a wall outside her classroom.  Because I'm a traveling teacher this year, though, I don't have a classroom so I found this one day hanging on a random wall in a hallway. :)

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"It is a fair, even-handed, noble adjustment of things that, while there is infection in disease and sorrow, there is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor." - Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

No wise man has the power

I grew up listening to oldies.

KOOL 106.1 - All oldies, all the time.

I'm not sure why.  I don't think it was because of my parents because my older siblings listened to current music.  But for some reason I only listened to oldies.  I didn't really know who *NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, and 98 Degrees were, except for a couple of their songs that my friends sang.  I knew who Hanson was because my best friend loved them.  But I remember, after I turned 14, being excited to go to stake dances each month because I would hear the current songs I liked.  Why did I wait for stake dances instead of just listening to non-oldies stations on the radio like everyone else my age? 

As a result, some of my all-time favorite music and artists continue to be from the Golden Oldies era (and into the 70's).  They put me in a good mood like current music still can't.  The other day, J and I were listening to the radio and the deejay said, "Coming up, music from the very best decade of music, the 80's!" and I said to Joel, "The 80's? That's ridiculous.  Everyone knows the best decades of music were the 60's and 70's."

Side note: Randomly, Carrie, who's my best friend, also grew up listening to only oldies (although she started transitioning into the modern day sooner than I did. she knows all the words to "Ice Ice Baby," people.). 

Anyway, 

I LOVE THIS SONG.


Ha, I just went back and saw that I've written about this song before! I guess that proves how much I love it. :)




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"It is the nightly custom of every good mother after her children are asleep to rummage in their minds and put things straight for next morning, repacking into their proper places the many articles that have wandered during the day.  If you could keep awake (but of course you can't) you would see your own mother doing this, and you would find it very interesting to watch her.  It is quite like tidying up drawers... When you wake in the morning, the naughtiness and evil passions with which you went to bed have been folded up small and placed at the bottom of your mind, and on the top, beautifully aired, are spread out your prettier thoughts, ready for you to put on." - J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

alisonism #15: my favorite cereal

I eat a lot of cereal.  I just grew up that way.  I love it! and it helped that my mom bought good kinds.  We weren't allowed to eat it all the time, though.  Milk was too expensive for all of us to eat cereal whenever we wanted.  When my parents would on temple trips or dates, it was so exciting when we got permission to have cereal for dinner.  We asked for it as a snack after school (and always got turned down) so often that my mom made a rule that we could have cereal for a snack on Fridays.  IT WAS AWESOME.  I still remember how excited I was when she made that rule.

This is my room at my parents' house.  If you look at the background in my closet, you can see how much cereal I had in there.  It was mostly full, but probably 10 or so boxes are gone. Also, there's a pantry shelf and two other closets with that much.

Anyway.  I have three top favorites.  There are others I like a lot, of course, but I don't think these three will ever be topped.

1.

Oh, Oreo O's.  The day you were discontinued was the day the music died.

It was momentarily resurrected when we found a box of you in my mom's stash, it's true,

but it died again when the box was all eaten.

Note: For those of you interested in getting me an awesome gift, Oreo O's are still sold (!!!!) in South Korea for an outrageous price.

2.

I looooove Cocoa Pebbles.  If these were ever discontinued, I would die.

They are, by far, the most delicious chocolate cereal (Oreo chocolate doesn't count as chocolate) and produce, by far, the most delicious chocolate milk.  Well, Cocoa Puffs milk is pretty good, too.  But I love Cocoa Pebbles.

And,

3.

Absolutely DELICIOUS.  I looooove blueberry morning!  I get excited just thinking about it!  The old version.  The new version, with its new "healthy" "rice flakes" or whatever the heck they are, is not as delicious as the old version.  It's still good, and they still have the dried blueberries just right.  But the old version is a cereal to get excited about.

Well, there you have it!  Coming in at #1, we have Oreo O's; at #2, Cocoa Pebbles; and at #3, Blueberry Morning.  When I was younger I might have said Cinnamon Toast Crunch and perhaps Rice Krispie Treats Cereal, but Cinnamon Toast Crunch is now just as good as many other cereals and I haven't seen Rice Krispie Treats Cereal in years.  Who knows, that one might still be a contender.

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"'Can anything harm us, mother, after the night-lights are lit?'  'Nothing, precious,' she said; 'they are the eyes a mother leaves behind to guard her children.'" - J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

bookmark

I have a student who is a handful.  I don't know that it's necessarily his "fault" - he just likes to talk and he's social and likes to be silly... but it is hard to teach around him.  About a month ago, I took candy to class for the first time.  Everyone who was respectful to me during my time there got a piece of candy at the end.  He didn't.  He was either the only one or one of two, I can't remember.  For two or three weeks in a row after that, he was awesome.  He would ask at the end of class if he deserved a candy, and once or twice I gave it to him (and only him).  The third time, I told him I wasn't giving candy to everyone anymore but I would leave one in his teacher's box because he deserved it.  That was last week.  

This week, I wrote him a note.  I told him I'd noticed how hard he'd been working and how proud I was of him.  I taped a piece of candy to it and left it in his teacher's box.

Yesterday I went to his class.  As soon as I got there, someone said, "[Boy] got your candy," or something like that, and another boy said, "He got your note, too," kind of teasing.  A girl remarked, "Yeah, he uses it as a bookmark."  They took it away from him, teasing him, and he fought to get it back.  I took it away from the girl who had it - I don't tolerate disrespect in my classroom - and gave it back to the boy.  

He keeps that note with him, using it as a bookmark.  He won't let anyone read it, and he fought to get it back when someone took it away from him.  Perhaps it's a coincidence - maybe he needed a scrap of paper for a bookmark and he's embarrassed for anyone to read it because he thinks it's dumb - but I'm choosing to believe it meant something for him to hear that someone was proud of him.  You can tell he craves that kind of attention.  One person can make a difference.  Don't hold back a compliment when it's deserved.

(Note, because I feel weird not explaining this: I don't typically use candy as a motivator.  I'm not a fan of using a lot of extrinsic motivators.  It's the only thing he's responded to, though, so for one kid, when it's helping him learn, I'm okay with it. :)

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"There were odd stories about [Peter Pan], as that when children died he went part of the way with them, so that they should not be frightened.  [Mrs. Darling] had believed in him at the time, but now that she was married and full of sense she quite doubted whether there was any such person." - J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

good music

This song is so fun! I'm loving it right now. :)

"Barlights," by fun.

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Will [Mr. and Mrs. Darling] reach the nursery in time?  If so, how delightful for them, and we shall all breathe a sigh of relief, but there will be no story.  On the other hand, if they are not in time, I solemnly promise that it will all come right in the end.

J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan