Sea Star Not Starfish

from our Natural History Museum trip

Right now, we're knee deep in sea animals. I just made an awesome collage of sea animals for the kiddos. We're researching sea animals for a research report, and we're also nearing our sea-tastic performance. In the middle of a discussion about sea animals, Mr. GD and I had this conversation about sea stars:

Mr. GD: Mrs. T----?
Me: Yes.
Mr. GD: I think sea stars are happier now.
Me: Because we finally got their names right?
Mr. GD: Yes because they're not fish. (beaming smile)

How cute is that?

Time - Chantal Kreviazuk

What Happened to Miss Mary Mack?

Today, I was listening to some of the girls in my class sing this hand clapping song:

Hey Mr. Booty
Here comes a girl with an African Booty.
She can do the pom pom.
She can do the twist twist.
But most of all she can kiss kiss like this.
(Proceeds to do the splits as they spell kiss.)

It's all sorts of not P.C. I was so surprised. I told my hubster about this rhyme. His reaction:

Hubster: Did you teach them that?
Me: No!
Hubster: Then what the heck would make you think to think of that?
Me: (LOL)

Shaving Cream Spelling

I can never say how much I heart the teacher who I'm lucky enough to be paired up with. She's showed me how interesting and engaging a curriculum can be. She's also big on stretching a lesson, so it can touch all the different kinds of learners (kinesthetic, verbal/linguistic, musical, spatial, interpersonal, and intrapersonal).

For the spelling lesson today, the kiddos didn't have to use spelling paper or pencils. Instead, they got to smear their desks with shaving cream, write their names at the top of their desks, and then write the words in the shaving cream. When we did a new word, they just had to smear the old word away. I was covered in shaving cream this morning, but it was so much fun. Can you imagine that spelling could actually be fun? It was great. The kids even smelled great afterwards, just like Irish Spring.

Post Secret (Sunday Feb 17)

You Can Keep It or We Can Shave It

Today, I went to the dermatologist with my hubster. My primary care doctor suggested I go to the dermatologist to get this beauty mark on my lip checked out since it was rather dark and I wasn't born with it. Since she mentioned that suggestion in January, I've been terrified that I might have skin cancer. Yea, I'm one of those glass is half empty kind of people. This is how the doctor visit went:

Dr: Hi I'm Dr. ------. It's nice to meet you. So, you're here to get a mole on your lip....Oh my gosh! It's a beauty mark. How cute is that! It's right on your lip. It's soo adorable. (Suddenly, shoots out technical dermatologist jargon to her assistant.)
Me: (Smiling awkwardly) Thank you.
Dr: So here are your two options, you can keep it or I can shave it off.
Me: (Thinking) Can I keep it? (Entirely too afraid to have it shaved off.)
Dr: Of course! It's so cute. I would keep it. Remember though, if it starts to grow arms or legs then I'll have to take it.
Me: Sounds good.

That was the the 5 minute potential skin cancer appointment that I'd been dreading for a month. Yes, most of the doctors in the area that I've met are this quirky and have affinity for talking to me like I'm not 23 going on 24. Now, I have to get a lip balm with SPF of something and wear it religiously. :)

Happy Cupid Day!

from daily mammal

Happy Valentine's Day! I'm still sick with this gawd awful flu. (Being exposed to god knows how many germs is one of the non-perks of working with the kiddos.) I had to miss our class Valentine's day party along with having to cancel the pre-valentine's day date with my hubster yesterday. Fantastic, right? Hope your Valentine's is going better than mine even if it's just another Hallmark commercialized holiday. :)

Chinese New Year Festival

To celebrate Chinese New Year, we went to the Chinese New Year Festival at the SB Museum of Art. I've never been to a Chinese New Year Festival. Usually, our festivities involve a small family get together of eating dim sum or gai. Last year, we went to this temple in Sacramento, which was pretty intense. The festival this year was really cute. It had an extensive program including the dragon dance, lion dance, acrobats, folk dancing, martial arts, and traditional music played on a long neck zither.

The lion dancers were from UCSB and did an excellent job of hamming it up with the kids. The kids just adored them. The acrobats that we saw included a contortionist and a balancer. The balancer was my favorite. She balanced 3 eggs on a stick on her nose and 6 layers of mini glasses with fluid in them on her forehead while she hula hooped and spun rings on her arm. My hubster liked the contortionist. It was somewhat painful to watch her. That's how good she was! She's only 10 and has already trained with a Cirque de Soleil coach. I loved the festival. It was definitely a family affair. We're excited to have kids soon but not too soon.

*Sorry, no pictures. My camera wasn't charged. I forgot my cell phone. My hubster's camera didn't have the memory card in it. I'm sooo bummed. I'm definitely becoming too dependent on having my camera with me all the time. It was a beautiful festival. >_<

<3 + <3

Like any couple, we have our ups and downs. But when we have moments like the one below, I know I married the right person.

As we're at the Chinese New Year Festival surrounded by families:

Hubster: If we have a daughter, I know I'm just going to adore her.
Me: What makes you say that?
Hubster: I don't know. I just think I will.

Post Secret (Feb 10)

Aerial View

Because we're really anal retentive, we're already planning our Palm Springs vacation in March. We can't really think of what to do. We're definitely going hiking, but probably not at Joshua Tree Park. We're thinking Palm Canyon or Ladder Canyon. Thanks to Janah Banana, we're going to eat at Las Casuelas Terraza. I just found this aerial tram ride. It may have to take some convincing of my hubster, but I think I can work on that.

Here's Looking at You Kid

Today, I watched Casablanca for the second time. I wanted to get it from Netflix since I'm trying to introduce movie classics to my hubster. What's more classic than Casablanca? I also wanted to see why it was such an acclaimed movie. When I first saw it, I was in Mr. Franklin's World History Pr/AP class my sophomore year and I fell asleep in the middle. 0_o Overall, I thought the movie was pretty good, not one of my personal favorites. However, I can see why other people love it. I liked how Rick didn't get the girl in the end. Rick and Victor had the best lines throughout the movie. I wished Ilsa and Sam had better lines.

What's my favorite line from Casablanca?
"Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life."

Homemade

I had a really awesome conversation about homemade cards with this kiddo that my teacher tutors.

Me: Mr. P, have you gotten your valentines ready for Valentine's Day?
Mr. P: Nope.
Me: Mr. P, you don't have much time. It's next week! Do you normally buy valentines or make them?
Mr. P: (pauses) I like to make cards. Even for birthdays, I'll make the person a card. My mom usually buys me things and I put them together. It might take me two days if I have tutoring.
Me: What do you put on your cards? Like, if you were going to make one for your mom, what would it have on it?
Mr. P: A heart.
Me: What about your dad?
Mr. P: A boat.
Me: Why?
Mr. P: Because my dad sails boats. He's been in a bunch of championships.

If only you knew how awesome it is that this kiddo likes to make homemade cards. It's beyond endearing. Can you imagine a championship boater receiving a homemade card from his son?

Catch Up: Sing-a-Long

It's really funny when I see behavior in my kiddos that I have seen my friends or my hubster do. For example, Mr. MH is a bright kid, but he's not that musically inclined. We have this HUGE musical coming up and having been practicing like crazy. To compensate for his lack of musical talent, he's beyond silly or completely apathetic. He'll break out his opera tenor voice or his composer fingers. When we actually encourage him to sing, he doesn't know any words, so he sings about poop. Who does that in my life? My hubster. Always. When I had to tell Mr. MH to stop, I could barely do it. I was dying laughing in my head.

Who Said Money Can't Buy You Love?

One of our many valentine's day projects is making a love mobile, which consists 5 pictures displaying love. Since there are many different kinds of love other than romantic love, the kiddos are encouraged to bring a wide variety of pictures. These pictures can be family pictures or pictures from magazines. Slowly, they've been trickling in. It's really interesting what you learn about what family values influence them and what their extended families are like. Yesterday, I was going through one little girl's pictures. There were the standard pictures with siblings, grandparents, parents, and friends. Then, BAM:

This isn't the exact picture. As I remember, there were more diamonds along the band on the picture that she had. Seriously, those are some high expectations. I was taken aback because you wouldn't expect this from her. She has such a kind heart. I bet mommy probably helped her pick out her future engagement rings. It's how these moms roll. I've never seen such impressive jewelry let alone engagement/wedding rings.

Catch Up: One of Many

I really wanted to blog today because I had a bunch of mini moments that were quite funny. Hopefully, I'll remember them tomorrow when I have more free time to blog and I'm not completely exhausted. Because I still wanted to post something, here's one of our many wedding photos.


Oddly enough, it's one of my favs. It's very us. My hubster looks like he's checking his cell phone and I look uncoordinated in my dress as I try to navigate along the pebbly beach. More relevant posts tomorrow...

Spirit of Uganda

Today, we had one of our many all school field trips. We had to take a large school bus, a mini school bus, and an air bus. No joke. We went to the Arlington Theater to see the Spirit of Uganda. It's part of the Empower African Children project. The children who performed either lost one or both parents to AIDS. Overall, I thought the show was wonderful. The drummers were amazing. I can't imagine drumming as quickly as they did for as long as they did. There was a part when the storyteller had all the kids standing up and dancing. It was so endearing seeing all these children jamming to African rhythms.


Even though the show was great, I thought their could be some improvements. I don't think the board members or whoever should go through the "Thank You to so and so organization" speech at the beginning of the show, especially when the number of children outnumber the number of adults. I don't think the board member of the Empower African Children Organization should go into the "This is what happens when you invest time and effort into a child" speech when everyone in the audience is either a teacher or a student. Firstly, that's what teachers do every day. Secondly, what does that mean to the kids?

As for the show itself, I only have two major gripes. I thought there were too many "courtship" dances with a bunch of gyrating. The narrator even went into detail about how if the person couldn't dance well enough and didn't find a mate then he/she would be single forever. How is that relevant to kids? I thought they should have explained the significance of the dances before the dance instead of after.

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Gung Hay Fat Choy! Happy Chinese New Year! It's the year of the rat! Yay, it's my year! (Oy, Another twelve years have already passed, which means I'm turning 24 this year. That's a whole other blog entry.) Today was an awesome Chinese New Year day. I got to share it with my kiddos. I did a whole presentation on Chinese New Year for them. We talked about where China is because we're learning about continents. Then, I told them what main dialects were spoken in China. I also read a little book explaining different traditions. I ad libbed what I normally do with my hubster's family. Lastly, I handed out red envelopes, oranges, and Chinese Horoscope pages. It was a bunch of fun.

Post Secret (Sunday Feb 3rd)

Octopus Sausage

At lunch time with the kiddos:

Mr. RN: (smiling) Mrs. T---, come and look at my octopus sausage.
Me: (thinking: OMG! Is it really octopus? He's Japanese and his dad is a sushi chef, so it might be. Am I ready to deal with this? Am I going to toss my cookies?) Sure.
Mr. RN: Look, it's an octopus!

Was it really an octopus? Nope. They were little pieces of sausage with slits cut into them, so they looked like they had octopus legs. How cute is that? Then, I told Mr. RN about how my mom used to make mohawk mango pieces for me. In addition to mohawk mango pieces, my mom also made teddy bear and heart shaped pancakes for me. My mom was so awesome.

I definitely want to make fun food when I have kids. I'm going to make heart shaped pb and j sandwiches, pizza with faces, and ketchup happy faces on hotdogs. My hubster thinks that it's spoiling them, but it's the stuff that childhoods are made of. :)

A-K-E-E-L-A-H

Last night, we watched Akeelah and the Bee, which was a Starbucks Entertainment production. It was okay. Not terrible. Not wonderful. It's the basic underdog story. Akeelah is a bright student with a not so great attendance record at Crenshaw Middle School in LA. She lives in the projects, loves Scrabble, and just wants to fit in at school. Her principal wants her to do the spelling bee, so Crenshaw can stop having such a bad reputation. Yadda..Yadda...The only part of the movie I enjoyed even though it was pretty corny was when her whole neighborhood rallied behind her and helped her study for the national spelling bee. They helped her practice 5,000 spelling words.

Mmm....Minty Fresh

Lucky me, I was finally able to upgrade my phone this past week. For the past two years, I've been a slave to my pink Motorola Razr with its crappy keypad that would freeze and its non-existent battery. To replace this piece of crap phone, I bought a Blue Mint LG Chocolate. I love it!

I can answer and dial my phone without sliding it open to get to the keypad, which will really help with not putting too much wear and tear on the little slider device. The IPod-like turn button makes it super easy to browse through the menus. When we first went to check out phones, my hubster wondered if I was serious about getting a chocolate. He was still thinking about the first Chocolate:

The first Chocolate was definitely lackluster. After playing with my phone last night and this morning, my hubster is eager to get a Chocolate of his own. Kudos to me for having good taste. :)

New Soul & Toxic - Yael Naim

What's in a Name?

from flickr

Now that I've finally figured out to make a spiffy picture banner for my blog, I would love to get a new name for my blog. Of course, it's obvious that the current title is inspired by Claire Dane's show, My So-Called Life. What can I say I'm a kid of the 90s? I'm looking for a witty not obnoxious or grandiose title. Maybe, something that involves some kind of word play or spin off of an awesome book or song. I'm not picky at all. :P Suggestions are definitely welcomed.

update: I think I've come up with one I like. It's up above. It's loosely based off of a French film called Ma Vie en Rose. My life is definitely not as complicated as the wee protagonist in the movie. However, I like the alliteration plus it's in French. Oh how I miss taking French. Wow, I never thought I would ever say that.

Catch Up: Snow Day

This week we had Snow Day, which involved having a bunch of snow (actually crushed ice) brought to school for the kids to frolic in. It was our much anticipated closing activity for our winter unit. It was a really fun day. The kids got all geared up in their snow gear, including adorable snow suits, mittens, hats, and boots. Then they got to make snowmen and snow angels with their buddies. It was really special for one of our kiddos because she had never been in snow before. The first thing she did was make a snow angel. Then, she spent most of the time just sitting in the snow making mini snowballs. I definitely enjoy being a part of such important memories. :)

Evil Gummy Bears

While driving around downtown right before dinner:

Hubster: Remember when I was on a business trip?
Me: Yea?
Hubster: I was on the phone with you. then this lady cut me off. then I cut her off really badly and it made her mad. She was honking and everything, but it felt soo good. I had little smiles in my stomach.
Me: Those aren't smiles. They're evil gummy bears eating your soul.
Hubster: (laughs)