Am I Smarter Than A First Grader?

Sometimes I really wonder what my kids think of me! The same little guy who "explained" to me what almost means, had to explain himself again today. We were talking about weekend plans. Here's our conversation:
Student: I'm going to Wendy's house.
Me: Who's Wendy?
Student: My mom's mom.
Me: Oh, you call her Wendy and not Grandma?
Student: My Nana and Papa are my Grandma and Grandpa.
Me: So they're your dad's mom and dad? (He nods) So you don't even call her Grandma Wendy, just Wendy, huh?
Student: You know....... it's like the restaurant, except it's a person!

And You Thought You Had It Rough....

Yesterday at the end of the day, after the halls had cleared of children, a lone third grader was trudging toward the door. He was talking to himself as he walked, "If I get all my things ready when I'm supposed to, I can leave when the bell rings." Poor little guy!

Why I LOVE Teaching First Grade

One of my students was complaining of a headache this morning. I sent him down to the nurse to make sure everything was okay. After lunch, the nurse told me the sweetest thing. When my student explained about his headache, she asked if he was up late last night. He said that he had been up late because he was crying. When she asked why he had been crying, he replied, "Because my mom told me that Mrs. "Kasey" won't be my teacher next year!" AAAWWWW!!!!!!!

Home Sweet Home

Thomas Cat got to come home from the vet clinic on Tuesday afternoon. Boy was he happy!! He actually purred most of the car ride home. He's doing very well. It's so good to see him be able to lay down and relax without being in constant pain. Now he just needs to eat and gain some weight back. I'm sure that won't take too long!

Thomas Part III

Thomas had surgery on his bladder today. It sounds like he came through it very well, and it was good that he had it. The Dr. found more stones, in addition to the ones that were flushed out last night. There was also a considerable amount of sand-like crystals in there. He may come home tomorrow or maybe even the next day. Thank you for keeping him in your prayers.

Thomas Part II

It's been a long, rough week for poor Thomas Cat. I just returned from taking him back into the vet. As I type, he is being put under to have his bladder flushed again. It looks as if there are more stones. They must be smaller than the first ones since they didn't show up on the x-ray that was taken earlier this week. Please pray for him.

Jesus, Bring the Rain

I LOVE MercyMe's new song, "Bring the Rain." You can listen to a snippet of it here. It speaks so much truth. This past year we have really learned to trust God so much more. The hard times make us so much more dependent on Him. I wish we were more faithful to cleave to Him just as fervently in the trouble-free times. We are striving to become the people he has purposed us to be. It's no fun going through hard times, but I must admit, those are the times that our faith has grown and we have experienced God's mercy and love in a way I never thought possible. So, my prayer is, "Yes, Jesus bring the rain. If that's what it takes to praise you, then that's what I want to do. I am your's."

Eventful Day

My mom and dad came over this morning to help us out
(i.e. Dad--do, Mom and I supervise) and get some things done around the house. I have been complaining about my clothesline since we moved into this house. It's so short, and the lines are so close together that the clothes take all day to dry. I can't even get all of the laundry done in one day. My dad made me some new poles and came over today to put them in the ground. He also fixed the garage door. His favorite line of the day was, "I don't like to do anything the easy way." Case in point, instead of removing the topper on the truck, he left it on even though it made it really difficult to get the 8+ foot poles in and out.

It was comical for us supervisors to watch him get those out. (I should mention that Tom was at work most of the day, so there was no other male support for my dad, physical or otherwise. Poor guy!) Then, he set out to dig the holes. I went in the house to do a few things. Nearing completion of the second hole, I heard him say, "I should've known that first one went in too easy!" When I went out to see what was wrong, I learned that after digging about two feet down, he had run into some kind of plastic pipe. He had to move forward a couple of feet and dig a new hole.

Then when it was time to pour the cement in the hole he discovered that we didn't have enough. We made a quick trip to get more, then my mom and I dropped him off at home and went to get a new spring for the garage door. Well, since we were out and about we did a little shopping at Kohl's as well. Needless to say, by the time we returned with the supplies for the garage door, my dad had been finished with the poles for quite some time. He perked up just a bit when we handed him a polish sausage from a local cookout! The new poles look great! You can see (kind of) how much more room I'm going to have. I was thinking that I could do some laundry tomorrow, but apparently the cement has to settle for a few days first. The next big job will be to take the old poles out.

Sticking with the "Nothing Easy" theme, we got two springs for the garage door instead of just one. The helpful guys at Home Depot agreed that it would not be a good idea to change only one spring, explaining that this would not balance the garage door, and would probably cause the old spring to break anyway. I don't know how many times my dad was up and down and on and off that ladder!! He was wanting to find and murder whoever built our garage and left NO ROOM on the west side of the door by the time he was finished!! Note to anyone that may someday build a house or garage: It's a VERY BAD idea to run one of the garage door tracks directly into the garage wall. It leaves no wiggle room when you need to fix things!

Eventually it was all finished and working beautifully. With all of the handiness going on around me, I thought I'd do something. I decided I'd change the light bulb in the garage door opener that's been burnt out for about a month. My dad and I got quite the chuckle when I pulled a 3-way bulb out!!! We figure it must've been the same guy that built the garage door track into the garage wall!! DUH!! Tom got home from work shortly after everything was done. Isn't that always the way?! I tried talking my dad into hooking up the water/ice maker on the refrigerator while he was here, but he assured me that he had had enough fun for one day!

This Week in First Grade

I have taught middle school for the last 6 years. This year, I am teaching 1st grade for the first time. I LOVE it! These kids crack me up. Even when they are naughty, it's hard to stay mad; they're just too darn cute! :) Here are a few funnies from this week.

As the bell was ringing signaling the end of the day, one little boy started complaining that he thought he was going to throw up. Since he had been fine only moments earlier, and had complained only once at the beginning of the day that he thought he was going to throw up, I knew he was going to be A-OK. I just needed to convince him that he was fine and get him off to the bus. I tried the "positive talk" approach. He wasn't buying it. So I thought I'd remind him of this morning when he thought he was going to throw up but didn't. I said, "I think you're going to be alright. Remember this morning when you said you were almost going to throw up but you didn't?" He replied, "Well....that's what almost means!"

A little girl was telling me about the "mices" she found while waiting at her bus stop. She couldn't wait until she got home that afternoon so she could catch some of them and bring them home for pets "like hamsters." A couple of days later, I asked her if she got to have the mice as pets. She said, "No. They were bunnies. They left. I don't know where they went."

We've been taking a HUGE 30 page reading test all week. Some of the questions are really difficult for first grade. Following a lengthy reading passage was this short response question: What is the main idea of this passage? In perfect complete sentence form, one of my students wrote, "I don't know." I think that's worth at least one point for a complete sentence and honesty...what do you think???

Thomas Update

Thomas was able to come home from the kitty hospital yesterday afternoon. He had his Dr. stumped since he didn't seem to be improving any more. I think he just needed to be home. He looked pretty rough at first, but he has been steadily improving now that he's here!

Thomas Cat

Thank you, Lord, that you care about our pets too! I feel so blessed and humbled to know God looks out for us and the pets we love.

Monday evening Thomas never came out to say, "Hello," like he usually does. I'm not saying that he greets me at the door or anything like that on a daily basis, he is a cat you know, but he does make an appearance at some point. After a short search, I found him in the basement and he was not himself. He wasn't in his usual spot down there, and he didn't move, meow, or purr when I pet him. He felt like he had a fever, and when I offered him some water he didn't want anything to do with it. He finally got up off the video chair he was laying on, but he wasn't moving very well. I was really concerned for him and even prayed for him before I went to bed.

On Tuesday morning I checked on him again and things seemed about the same. I debated about staying home from work to take him to the vet, but I really didn't feel like I could do that. Instead, I called the vet clinic on my way to work to try and schedule an appointment after work. The latest appointment I could get was 3:45 PM, and in order to take that one, I would need to take the afternoon off. I wasn't sure if that would be possible, but I took the appointment with the hopes it would work out. I also took an appointment on Wednesday at 5:30 PM just in case I couldn't get the afternoon off.

When I arrived at work, I was able to talk to one of my supervisors right away. Even though we were a little short-handed, I was able to have the afternoon off to take Thomas into see the vet. Again, I have to say, "THANK YOU, LORD!!!" It turns out that what Thomas had was quite serious. In fact, had I waited for the 5:30 app't. on Wednesday night, Thomas would not have lived long enough to get to that appointment. (Bear with me on this explanation, I don't fully understand it)Because of his metabolism, Thomas was not fully digesting all the minerals in his cat food. This caused crystals to form in his bladder, preventing him from urinating. The doctor guesses that he was not able to potty for 24-36 hours, and his bladder was the size of an orange and very hard. He was dehydrated and in a lot of pain.

To fix the problem, Thomas had to be put under, had his bladder flushed out, and received a catheter. The doctor called me after the procedure and said that Thomas was doing well. He was surprised by what he found, though. He was expecting to find thousands of little sand-like crystals, but what he actually found were 6-7 larger stones. Since the stones could be seen on an x-ray, he went ahead a took one this morning. Thankfully no more stones showed up on the x-ray so Thomas didn't have to go through another "flushing out" procedure. I was hoping that he could come home this afternoon, but the doctor thought it best that Thomas stay one more night for observation. If all goes well, I will be able to pick him up after work tomorrow.

To prevent this from happening again, we will have to change Thomas's diet. Luckily it will only be a small change. He'll now get Science Diet CD instead of regular Science Diet. I'm just so thankful! I don't know what we would have done without our Thomas Cat!!

Welcome Aboard!

Well, I've finally done it! I have been addicted to reading others' blogs, and I have finally jumped in and attempted my own. I hope it will be as entertaining to publish a blog as it is read them!