Saturday, December 14, 2013

'Twas The Last Ten Things of Thankful For 2013

This is our last Ten Things of Thankful link up for 2013.

WHAAAAA....???

Since the next two weeks will see most of us long on thankful but short on time, the hosts of TToT will be taking an egg nog break until January 4. Well, I will be having a Diet Coke and peppermint ice cream break (not at the same time), as I don't like egg nog, but you get what I mean. 

All right, truth be told, I have never tried egg nog, because it has "egg" in the title. And I don't do nog, so....

Ten Things of Thankful starts now.

1. Another cold, blustery, snowy, icy, white crap falling from the sky week. Many schools in the area were canceled on Monday, but not us (our preschool follows the same calendar as the Joplin public schools, so if they are closed, we are, too). We worked like crazy all morning in Pre-K, because Christmas is coming and the elves have a lot to get done, plus more wintery weather was predicted for later in the week. We got the most important thing done that we needed to get done: our Christmas gifts from our kids to their parents are painted. Whew!

2. Having not seen the weather forecast that morning, imagine my surprise when I exited the bowels of the Mall to find frozen white crap falling from the sky Monday afternoon when it was time to pick my daughter up from school.  Got her picked up and home before it got slick, then we got to enjoy hearing school was closed for the next day THAT VERY EVENING, instead of waiting until that 5:30 a.m. phone call that serves to tell us of the cancellation AND startle us out of five years of our lives. 

3. Tuesday evening, everyone was speculating whether or not we would have school the next day, as many of the rural schools had already cancelled classes. Our superintendent, Dr. CJ Huff, sent out a tweet that he was going to go out and check the roads and hoped to make a decision later that evening. I was so amused by the high school students who replied to his tweet. A few of them weren't exactly nice (there's always a few), but most of them were quite witty, such as:

     "You all right, CJ? You've been gone awhile."
     "Stay safe. I've heard it's pretty dangerous out there."
     "What would Jesus do?"
     "As a teen driver, I'm scared to drive in these conditions...."
     
4. The students were all pretty disappointed that Dr. Huff returned from checking the roads to say he was 90% sure we would go to school the next day, and he was 100% correct; we did go. thus inspiring the follow-up tweet "Jesus wouldn't have done THAT." It was a little slippery, but I was actually glad we went back, because we had a Christmas program practice scheduled that morning at preschool with all the kids from both the MWF and T-TH classes practicing together in the sanctuary, on risers. And we REALLY, REALLY needed this practice. 

5. As  soon as preschool was over on Wednesday, I drove to Springfield to pick up the College Boy from school and bring him home, as he finished his finals earlier that day. And was he packed and ready when I got there? What do YOU think? Oh, well, I got to sit in the common area of his suite and watch several episodes of "Friends" while I waited for him to gather up all his dirty clothes and throw them in a laundry basket pack. I love "Friends."

6. Since we missed school on Tuesday for snow (or "inclement weather" as our district puts it when they call you and SCARE THE HELL OUT OF YOU WITH THE PHONE RINGING BEFORE THE BUTTCRACK OF DAWN, we had a lot to squeeze into our morning in my Primary class. 

First and foremost on the list was going to be to assemble our Christmas gifts for the parents. The gift is a Rudolph wall hanging, made by tracing the child's foot and hands onto brown felt and cutting them out (by me - they're THREE).  The pieces are then glued onto a 9" x 12" piece of white felt with a casing sewn along the top in which to insert a dowel rod for hanging, and it is embellished with a piece of green rickrack along the hem (the Pre-K gift is very similar, only we trace a hand onto white felt, paint part of it red and make it into a Santa head which is glued onto a green felt background).  I write each child's name and the year in gold glitter paint along the bottom, just above the rickrack, and each child glues on eyes and a red nose and it's done and it's a pain but it's cute. 

I had taken all the pieces home and had written the names on them and let them dry Wednesday evening. Thursday morning, I decided I'd go ahead and glue the head and antlers down before I even took my shower, so they would be dry and ready to embellish when the kids got to school. I picked up the first one, pre-arranged the pieces on the background (because I wouldn't want to MESS ANYTHING UP), and realized there was no casing for the dowel rod. (At this point, I would appreciate it if you would bear in mind that I don't usually teach a Primary level class, but because of a shift in enrollment this year, we had the need for more Primary classes than we did Pre-K. And that this is my 14th year teaching Pre-K. 14th. 14 years in a row.) One of the other Primary teachers had done the sewing, and I couldn't for the life of me figure out why she hadn't made a casing. Did she GLUE the dowel rods on? Not very practical, but the Rudolph is pretty big, being made with a foot and all, and there's not a lot of extra space on the background piece, so maybe THAT'S why she didn't add a casing at the top? I decided to wait to glue the pieces on until I got to preschool and see how this teacher had attached the dowel rod on the ones HER class had already completed.

I walked into the preschool office Thursday morning and started telling the director how puzzled I was about the lack of a casing, picked up one of the felt backgrounds, and stopped mid-sentence. Then I said a very, very un-preschool like word or ten, because there was, indeed, a casing for the dowel rod, and it was right there at the top where it was supposed to be. Because in the Primary class, the rickrack on the background goes at the TOP of the felt piece. In Pre-K, it goes at the BOTTOM. If you're following this very convoluted story, I thought the top was the bottom and the bottom was the top and  I JUST WROTE 11 NAMES IN GOLD GLITTER PAINT ON THE WRONG END OF THE FELT BACKGROUND. 


(Here's the thankful part.) My assistant teacher, Miss Janet, took the upside down mess that I had made and was able to make a casing for the dowel rods and still leave enough room for Rudolph. Crisis averted, and I didn't have to throw myself off the bell tower after all.

7. My Primary kiddos had asked if they could make ornaments to go on our handprint Christmas tree on the hall bulletin board, so we did that with glittery fun foam and sequins (which I didn't notice until the kids were sticking them onto the ornaments that the bag of sequins included little sequin champagne glasses, forcing me to pick them off the ornaments and replace them with something a little more wholesome). 

8. Baked some gorgeous bread this week, because that's what I do on snow days: bake.




9. Thursday night was our preschool Christmas program. No one peed, pooped, threw up or cried, so I declare it a success. 

10. And we ended the week with, yes, another Snow Day, although Mother Nature pulled a fast one and the frozen white crap that was predicted stayed to the east, giving us nothing but a cold, rainy day.

Hook 'em up here.




Ten Things of Thankful


 Your hosts

22 comments:

  1. Love the Rudolph gift! The upside-down version looks like something I would do! :-)

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    1. I'm so glad I figured it out BEFORE I glued all those hands and feet down! It was fixable at the point I had reached; it wouldn't have been if I had already glued it all down!

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  2. #2 - Aren't snow days you know about the night before THE BEST. I mean it just does not get better than that. And when everybody in the house has all their various schools agreeing on said snow day? EVEN BETTER!

    #9 - A performance where no one pees, poops, or pukes is indeed a success.

    Sounds like our week here with the frozen white crap, too. Monday Kidzilla had a delayed start. I had an in-service (LOVE those...) scheduled to begin at 8AM but we ended up getting a delay until 9:30. OK by me. Tuesday everybody was home. Thursday we all had a delayed start again. Today we're home in snow and ice, but I have to say Saturday snow days aren't nearly as entertaining as weekday ones. But supposedly there is more coming Monday or Tuesday? So much for my carefully timed lesson plans and what I planned to wrap up before break...oh well.

    I have to say a little Thank You to you, Dyanne, for being the place that I first saw the TToT and linked up. I just absolutely love you and your blog and I love the TToT and all that comes with it. So I am thankful to you for introducing me. :) Oh, I should've put that on my TToT list! Duh. :/

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    1. OH! It was Dyanne who introduced you to this? I don't think I'd realised that. Good work, Dyanne :D

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    2. Thank you, Lisa, so much! Lizzi - Lisa and I "met" on Mama Kat's writing prompts, I believe. I'm so happy she joined our hop!

      Isn't it SO much nicer to get that call the night before a snow day? Otherwise, I'm up all night, looking out the window, hoping to get enough to cancel school.

      I had two students that I thought I would have bet would have burst into tears during the program, and neither did. Wheee!

      We should be able to get through this week without any more snow days, which is okay with me. I would like to order a few for January and February, though.

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  3. I'm glad you had snow days you knew about BEFORE the startling early phonecall. And that you were able to drive safely when needed. And that your assistant teacher saved the day with the reindeer hangings. You have some solid positives on your list here :)

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    1. Miss Janet being able to fix the reindeer hangings was the best thing that could have happened; otherwise, I would have had to start allllll over.

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  4. Too woot. Could you send some of that bread over, Dyanne?

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    1. Would love to! How long would it take it to get there? Two weeks? Nothing could go wrong with sending bread half way around the world, could it?

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  5. Man, the bread looks awesome! I also am a bit in love with the white crap ( that just doesn't sound right but you know what I mean...) Where is the kitty this week? I mean sure kids are sweet but... c'mon this is Ruby.... I know what you mean about the 5am phone call... I hated that during the winter... what ever happened to waiting by the tv in hopes of seeing your school cancellation?

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    1. I like the white crap if I don't have to get out in it. Then after about two days of it, I want it gone. Fortunately, being in Missouri, I usually get my wish.

      Since Ruby has spent most of the week inside my Christmas tree and provoking her brothers, there really wasn't much in the way of thankful that included her! I'll post something this week with her picture, mostly likely of her inside the treeeee.

      They still run the scroll on the tv, and that's the most exciting way to find out school is canceled. I HATE that phone call!

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  6. "No one peed, pooped, threw up or cried" Who among us has not awoken in an un-familiar bed on a grey Sunday morning and not felt the relief that comes with that realization!

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  7. The bread looks delicious. And i wonder if our moms would be okay with us bringing our laundry home again- maybe just this once?

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    1. Thank you, the bread WAS delicious! And so tender! I haven't given in and done the laundry for him, but I haven't done ANY laundry since he's been home. I think he's about out of clothes, so one of us is going to have to give pretty soon.

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  8. Oh dear! That (the Rudolph project) totally sounds like something that would happen to me! Not sure if that makes you feel better out not but... :-)
    That bad weather must not be making it up my way...we haven't had any snow days yet... but we usually get ours in March when you're feeling like winter should been done!

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    1. I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who would do something like that. It was an honest mistake. Sort of.

      I think your snow days are probably handled a lot better than ours. We don't get that many of them, so we panic when a few flakes fall and empty the shelves at Walmart.

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    2. Oh, we get plenty of snow here but people always panic, as though they've never seen snow in their lives! "It's going to snow! We need milk, bread and toilet paper!"

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  9. Those texts from the teens are hilarious!
    Both the grade school and high school started with the calling with delays this year. I've decided I HATE that system! Two schools means twice as many calls between 5:25 and 5:34. AND they call both home and cell phones. (It is just the first one that gave us heart attacks. Just minor jumps for the others.) I'd much rather just wake with the alarm at 6:00 and check the news.
    We never cancel the night before, and 2 hour delays are much more likely. Delays are the worst, as far as I'm concerned.
    Wow, your post really got me grumpy.
    Glad the assistant was able to fix your epic craft fail. :)

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  10. LOVE your crafts...that is totally something I would do in an effort to get ahead. Glad you didn't have to climb a clocktower or anything like that! Yeah for aides!

    Glad you got to have a snow day. "Jesus wouldn't have done THAT."...very funny. Kids are funny! :)

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  11. Bread-baking, craft-making - you better get that stuff up on Pinterest! Have a fabulous, restful holiday!!

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  12. Better late than never right? I felt so bad because I never got around to posting last weekend for TToT. Too darn busy this month. Your bread looks delicious! Oh how I remember those snow days ....

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