Friday, October 31, 2008

Halloween

Remember when I said teachers hated Picture Day? That it was only third to Halloween and The last day before Winter Break?

Today is Halloween.

I have spent the last two weeks trying to figure out what to be for Halloween. An adult should never have to do that. Last night I finally went to the mall, to look at the costumes there. Everything there was "A Sexy (fill in the blank)." Yeah, I'm sure that would go over really well at an elementary school.

I called Erin, who made sure my clothes always matched in high school and college. After hours (really, it was hours) of talking and wandering, she suggested I get some smarties, tape them to my pants, and be a "Smarty Pants."

Why didn't we think of this last week? It's simple. I can wear my jeans and a T-shirt. I LOVE IT!

But if you know me, I can't do it half way. I never can.

You can't just wear any shirt. I found an old shirt that says ""To save time, Let's just Assume I know everything." Perfect.

I bought two bags of smarties, because more is better, right? Ha.

When the tape didn't stick to my jeans, I spent all night sewing 100 rolls of smarties to my pants. Yes, sewing. Yes, 100.

I made earrings from rolls of smarties.

Yep. My easy, simple, comfortable costume is now as heavy as two bags of smarties (I may need a belt), and it took me 5 1/2 to sew (last night and this morning.) And I now walk like a bowlegged cowboy.

Well, Halloween is the day to be what you aren't. I think I proved that.

I'll post pictures this afternoon, after the sack of Room 12 is over.

* and here I am . . . Thanks Jennie!*

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Tagged

This must be a new thing, or I have just picked it up. I say this because THREE people have tagged me this week on their blogs. Holy Cow people! When did tagging begin?

It's like those emails about yourself that you fill out when you don't want to work. You answer question about yourself like what color socks your wearing and what you last ate. Things I know everyone is dying to know. (you know you are!)

I was tagged with telling 10 random things about myself and one where you list five things about yourself in different areas of your life and one where all the questions are pretty much for married people (who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Does your spouse snore? Who pays the bills? What is your song?)

Since all the answers come right back to me . . . I can say that I sleep on the right side of the bed and snore after I have paid the bills, and my song is "Someday My Prince Will Come". . . I think I will skip that one.

And since I am inherently a random person, I don't think you would be at all shocked by anything I had to say . . . for example, I don't really check to see if my socks match everyday and I change my ringtone on a weekly basis so I'm that person who isn't sure if it;s their phone ringing.

So, to appease the blogging gods, I will do the five things about myself.

5 things I was doing 10 years ago:
1. I was substitute teaching
2. I bought my first car
3. Erin and I were living at home again
4. I interviewed for my job with Granite district
5. I went to Disneyland with Erin and Autumn and Emily

5 things on my to-list for today:
1. choir practice
2. church
3. nap
4. laundry

5 snacks:
1. Reese's peanut butter cups
2. chips and dip
3. ice cream
4. Pina Coladas
5. Popsicles

5 jobs I've had:
1. Schmidt's Pastry Cottage (not a baker)
2. daycare
3. summer day camp counselor
4. janitor at the Y
5. Teacher

5 things I'd do with a million dollars:
1. pay off the cards
2. make a down payment on a house
3. pay off the car
4. I would invest, but right now, I think I would but some under my mattress.
5. trip to (fill in blank)

5 things that made me laugh this week
1. The Office
2. Jennie
3. Jessica quoting Hitler ("Make the lie big, keep it simple, keep saying it and eventually they will believe it" . . . she was talking about me saying she looked nice)
4. My class watching me sing the BYU fight song
5. Our walking field trip

5 things friends I tag to do this blog:
This is just mean, because I don't even know who reads it regularly, so
TAG - if you read it, you're IT!
Just let me know if you actually did it. I try to check your blogs regularly but remember how random I am? regular for me isn't always on a regular basis.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Walking Fieldtrip

Today we walked from Driggs Elementary to Olympus High to see the first half of the musical "Into the Woods." Which the kids liked, but not as much as the walk there.


We left at about 9:15 am and walked for 15 minutes. Grades 1-6 went. That's everyobody but about 40 five year olds.


The principal came over the intercom before we left and made sure the students understood about the safety of it all. There are no sidewalks in this neighbohood, so they had to stay in a singlefile line in the bike lane. I was busy in the bathroom while he was talking, so I figured my kids were in the classroom being rowdy and ignoring him. They usually ignore me when I talk about safety.


But the kids totally listened!


While we were walking I was so busy worrying and keeping an eye on my class, that I didn't even look up and notice this darling picture until it was almost too late . . .



. . . 600 students walking singlefile along the road with their teachers, kicking leaves and enjoying a cool but not cold morning. Cars were stopping just to look. 600 students actually listened today! Holy Cow! I would feel like that teacher in "Dead Poet's Society" if I had had anything to do with this.

The kids were really polite, and well behaved. They would give me looks when I said something about "fieldtrip manners" like "Ms. Pettit, you're freaking out. Settle down. This one we've got under control."

Also, the leaves were gorgeous today for the first time, which added to the magic (sorry to get all corny but it's true).


So, While I'm tired and ready for a weekend, I am so proud of my Driggs' Dragons!

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Our Ugly Couch

On Saturday, I posted a picture of my crazy roommate. My dear friend Sharlon noticed not the goofy pink feetsie jammies she was wearing (or the fact that she was wearing them at 1:20 pm) but that our couch was ugly.

All I can say is . . .
You only noticed the couch?!

Let me take you on a tour of our lovely abode. And remember, we moved here because it has been recently "remodeled."

Here is our couch. When I first moved into this complex we had a couch that a roommate picked up off the curb. I graduated from that to a Bean Bag (yes, a bean bag) and a chair my mom donated. Jessica got this couch and all the end tables for a song about a year or so ago. We had a cover, but that was uglier than the plaid.

But ignore the lovely 80's flashback of a couch and travel back in time further as you turn your attention to . . .

. . . The wood paneled wall. Which by the way is not sanded, varnished or finished in anyway. You can get a sliver by leaning on this wall. So all of those cracks are filled with cobwebs that will never come out. Not that we've actually tried.

Now our landlord did remodel the kitchen. There are new appliances, more cupboard space, and new counter tops and sinks and floor tiles. Our last kitchen had smaller cabinets that had been stained a dark walnut and then painted white. Who stains anything dark in a kitchen this small? And doesn't sand before they paint? This is much better. But can you tell what they didn't change?

If you guessed ugly fluorescent lighting you are correct! Check out the stains. And they hum. Loudly.

In the wind they rattle. I think if we were to lift one of the covers up, things would fall out. I'm not sure what things, but things.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

A Weird Day


Jennie and I are having a really weird day. First of all, I got WAAAAAAAY too much sleep yesterday, and second of all, Jennie still hasn't gone to bed yet. It's 1:20 p.m.

Guess who has the boyfriend and who doesn't.

By the way, Jennie is in her Pink-Duckie-Jammies-with-the-Feetsies. I am fully bathed and clothed. Since 5:00a.m. On a Saturday. See, I told you. It's a weird day. And it all started yesterday. I blame Utah Educator's Association.

Yesterday, I went to take a nap at 3:00 because I am always wanting to take naps and now I can. It's UEA weekend. I woke up at 4:30 in a panic because I thought I missed my ride to a thing with my cousins and my sister, which wasn't yesterday it's today. Autumn had a good laugh at me over that. So I went back to sleep, and woke up at 7:30 in a panic because I didn't know if it was a.m. or p.m. It's the UEA weekend. Does it matter? Went back to sleep, woke up at 11:45 and took my meds and didn't wake up again until 4:45 a.m.

Jennie got off work and went to her boyfriend's house where she was all night (counting submarines in the Great Salt Lake) until she walked in on me scrapblogging at 5:30. Needless to say, we're both a little goofy. I am wide awake and ready to do anything, like clean the house and maybe weed, definitely maybe clean out the car, and then if there's still time, take over the world.

NEVER let me get too much sleep. I'm easier to handle if I am a little lethargic.

Jennie still hasn't been to sleep and she is going out again at 3:00. She'll be a joy.

Between the two of us, we've been singing and dancing and telling really dumb jokes. Apparently, Jennie is normal and I am not. Where Jennie, like most people loses brain function when they don't sleep, I lose it when I get the sleep I need. Between the two of us it was quite a show around here.

I finally sent her to take a nap. Her boyfriend will thank me.

Don't worry. This won't last. Erin, Autumn, Emily and I are staying up late tonight to watch Jane Eyre and eat spaghetti. I'll be appropriately tired tomorrow for church. Jennie and I will catch up on our sleep then.

But right now, I have another hour or so to do my laundry and solve the problems with the economy.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

My solution

I teach fourth grade which can be noisier than working construction at times. But I have found the best solution! and no one even thought to tell me about it in teacher school.

Yesterday, I was taping some art project together with masking tape, and I had an extra piece of tape on my finger, so I stuck it on the student's mouth as a joke. We laughed, and he said "I'm going to keep it there all day." Yeah, right.

Never underestimate the weirdness of kids.

Before I knew it, everyone in math wanted a piece of tape to put across their mouths. I literally taped all their mouths shut. The nut cases. I took a picture, which I can't post without parent's consent, so, sorry, you miss that fun image.

Maybe they were getting high on the adhesive.

But now you have a solution. Your kids loud and obnoxious? get out the masking tape. They'll love it!

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Ode to Joy


This how Bach should be performed! LOL!

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Picture Day!

Today is picture day. Only kids look forward to picture day. It comes right after Halloween and the Christmas Party on their list of favorite school days. Valentine's is only fourth because they forget it even exists until February 1st.

So I have to actually put a straightener to my hair and make up to my face. I have to wear contacts so the photographer doesn't yell at me to take the glasses off or put my chin down . . . and they do yell. You would too if you had to take 600+ pictures of uncooperative children in one day. Not to mention the uncooperative teachers.

And this morning I realized the only laundry I've done in three weeks is what was absolutely necessary. You know what I mean.

Therefore, all I have to wear today is jeans and nicer T-shirts (meaning the ones that have Driggs' Elementary slogans rather than Star Wars slogans on them) which I could normally get away with for one day until I got the wash done. But I will be in 22 class pictures. I should probably look a little more professional. I did find an older blouse that desperately needs ironing, but my iron was trashed during an art project involving crayons and watercolors.

So, Ms. Pettit's Room 12 of 2008-09 will be memorialized with 22 darling children and a teacher wearing a wrinkly blouse, the same jeans she wore yesterday, frizzy hair (because I ran out of anti frizz stuff), leaning a little because she is wearing uncomfortable boots that are grinding her knees to dust, and squinting because her mascara is irritating her contacts.

All in all, a fairly accurate portrayal of what my teaching career has done to me.

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Sorry . . . and EWWWWWW!

Alright. I have a job. I have roommates. I have laundry. I have my pet obsessions.

These things take TIME people. So, sorry I haven't blogged in awhile. Get off my back and get your own obsessions.

So Today is Katelynn's 19th birthday . . . Holy Crap, where did those years race off to?!

And Friday was my roommate Jennie's #*th birthday. She blogged about birthday cake, because she didn't get one. (Hey Jennie . . . you can make your own, you have two hands and a working knowledge of the kitchen. . . I'll make the Pina Coladas).

Anyway, if you haven't looked at her blog, which I am assuming you haven't, because most of my friends don't know Jennie and the one who does won't read blogs, you missed this really creepy cake. (In school, that is called a run on sentence. Some teachers call it a runny sentence but that's almost as creepy as this cake.)

Yes. That is a cake in the shape of a baby. I assume it is for people who want to add that extra something to their baby shower.

But what exactly is that extra something?

The baby looks dead. And it looks like it has been dead for a while. Perhaps in a garbage bag?

So what are you really saying to the mother when you give her this cake? Isn't this cake encouraging people to cannibalize their children? After all, you're handing a pregnant woman a baby shaped cake and saying "eat up!"

And I would really like to take a vote . . . if you had to eat a piece of this cake, which piece would you fight for so you wouldn't have to eat the face.

Happy Halloween.