This morning a teacher was reading the Christmas Story to 3rd and 4th graders. She was talking about how the angel appeared to Joseph in a dream… a boy raised his hand all confused and asked “But wasn’t Joseph swallowed by a whale?” Loved it!!

Is Clipping Coupons Cutting Costs?

Andy and I have been overly financially cautious in the last couple months; work’s been slow and we’re in the process of buying our first home. We know that God will provide but He still expects us to be good stewards of what we have.

We stopped at a gas station on the way home from church to purchase a paper for the coupons. I cut out all the coupons we might consider using, especially for the specialty items we would not have normally purchased, with the intent to compare brands and prices and sales and such. I left these coupons in a pile on the coffee table…

While at work on Monday I get a text from Andy, who was off and had graciously gone grocery shopping. The text was something about junk food blah blah blah coupons blah blah. No idea what he was talking about so I didn’t think anything of it.

Upon arrival at home after work, I was pleasantly surprised by a full pantry and fridge and freezer… noticing an unusual amount of pre-made cookie dough…

…Andy used every coupon!

It’s that time of year again… most of us refer to it as “fall” or “autumn.” However, the children of my center see it as a time for dressing up and collecting candy.

In the hallway I was approached by an almost skipping 3 year old, Levi. He blurts out “I’m going to the Halloween Store.”

“Are you going to buy your costume?” I respond

“No, I already have my costume.”

“You do! Well then, what you going to be for halloween?’

“SCARED!” was Levi’s response and he went almost skipping away.

…sigh… living on the ‘short-end’ of the barbie stick

Andy and I were at his brother-in-law’s, firing off a few rounds just for the fun of it. Andy thinks it’s fun to have me shoot the gun first so he can be entertained by my reaction…

…well I was shooting dad’s Smith & Weston 9mm and I shot off two rounds…  for some reasons the shell casings were discarding to the left rather than to the right… causing the casing to go down the front of my shirt and burn my boob. I dug it out, figuring it was nothing and shot another round… this time in bounced off my neck, burning me again.

Trying not to let the gun have victory over me, I fired a fourth (and final) round… again down the front of my shirt… burning my boob.

Andy thought this was hysterical and told me he’d attend to my wounds later when he could fully administer the proper first-aide.

Sigh…

“I have an under-ground pool” Lucas (age 6)

“He’s talking to his imagination friend” Adam (age 6)

‘Happy Birthday” “Today’s my fake birthday” “What’s you real birthdate?” “May 6th” What was yesterday?” “May 5″ “That makes today?” “May 6th.” “So if today’s May 6th and your birthdate’s May 6th then today’s your real birthday.” “No, today’s my fake birthday.” -This went on for 10 minutes before I gave up… felt like I was playing ‘who’s on first’

really… are you serious!!

Let me take you back a few months… 8 months to be precise. August 2009, Andy and I drove our newly purchased Ford Escape to Milford, Delaware, to show my family. We’ve made this trip so many times we could do it blindfolded with our hands tied behind our backs.

However, on this particular trip our EZ Pass transponder decided to be fickle and two weeks later we had a notice from Delaware Dept of Transportation that we were responsible for the amount of a toll plus a nice even fine of $25.00.  I opted to appeal the violation submitting all the required information plus the both locations where which the transponder actually worked… the claim was denied.

I repeated this process 3 times… each time the claim was denied. The 4th notice from DelDOT came in the end of January,  indicating that because I hadn’t paid the fine in a timely fashion I was awarded an additional $25.00 bring the grand total owed to $57.00. Angry I appealed the violation but included money for the original amount. Two weeks later the check posted against my account and I let the situation go.

Today, 8 long months later, I received a reimbursement check with a touchingly personal letter… “Thank you for allowing us to address this matter. We have carefully reviewed the appeal for consideration of dismissal and based upon the supporting documentation submitted, it has been determined that you are not responsible for the payment of this violation. DelDOT regrets any inconvenience this may have caused.”

Apparently time and aggravation didn’t fit into the envelope.

The ‘You Too’ Phrase

Walking into Walmart the greeter, who was an elderly gentleman, says to us “Welcome to Walmart”

Andy responded completely sincere and rather respectfully with a distinct head nod… “You too.”

I burst into laughter and say “You can’t handle the ‘You too’ phrase!!”

Girl After My Own Heart

Child sitting at the table not wanting more than two bites of her breakfast…

“You need to have breakfast so your muscles grow strong and you learn lots in school.”- Ms. Amanda

“But I already know everything.” – Kaylin

For St. Patrick’s Day my assistant colored my class’ milk green. We told the kids that a magic leprechaun came into the classroom and brought a special green milk and that we were super lucky. This launched the class into conversation about when they’ve seen a leprechaun or tried to catch one and such.

So we talked about where leprechauns come from and Lucas told us they come from eggs… I explain to him that they’re a special type of people and that they are born from a mommy and daddy just like we are.  Then he told me this couldn’t be true because they lay the eggs that are given out by the Easter Bunny.

For all you who think you know the traditions of our holidays have nothing on Lucas!! He’s going to be the next writer for Disney.

Not a P-Diddy Morning

… wake up in the morning feeling like P-Diddy… or so the song says. I’m not entirely sure what that means, but I am certian Derick did not feel like P-Diddy this morning.

Derick walked into my class about 7:50am and stood for a moment looking around the room. He decided to have a seat by himself at the table. A particularly strange move for him because he’s an active individual who goes to drastic measures for the approval his peers.

So I asked him “Aren’t you going to play?” after a slight delay he answered. “No I think I’m just going to sit here, I’m really kinda tired.” I let it go, thought maybe he needed a few minutes to himself. About two minutes later I look over and he’s nodding off doing the head jerk thing. I suggested he lay down on the couch… “No I think I’m just going to sit here, I’m really kinda tired.” Again about two minutes later I look over at him again and he’s about to the fall out of the chair totally asleep. Again I suggested the couch.. “I’m okay, I’m only a little bit tired.” At this point I told him to go lay down on the couch… we still had a good 20 minutes before needing to get ready for the bus.

8:15am I woke Derick who was sleeping, snoring, and drooling…. had to wake him 3 or 4 times. He got up, and walked over to the line…

… and fell asleep standing up!! Super funny!! He was about to fall over when one of his friends woke him. And I had to tell him to wake up about every 30 seconds until he got on the bus. What a fun morning!!