Luke and the Monsters

(Pic is from Luke's first Halloween, 2004.)

Last night the baby slept all night, but his brother didn't.

At 12:00, I heard Luke at our bedroom door. "Mama! Where are you?"
"Here!"
"Come get me, I can't see you!"
I clumsily dragged myself to the door. "What's going on?"
"I'm scared!!! Sleep with me!!!"
I held his hand and navigated his bedroom floor. Didn't want a Lincoln Log lodged in my foot. I fell asleep beside him and woke up about twenty minutes later, tiptoed back into my room, and went back to sleep.

2:00 am
"Dada!" It's Luke again, this time wanting his father.
"What's wrong, Luke?" I ask.
"I need Dada and he needs to bring the monster spray."
Chris and I laughed. Chris "sprayed" his room with Febreeze one night a while back telling him it was Monster Spray and it made him feel better.
Chris grabbed the Febreeze bottle and headed out.

Boo

From a Lord of the Flies essay, answering the question: "Should Jack or Roger be on trial for murder when they get back to England?"

Student writes,
"No, because what happens on the island stays on the island."

My other favorite was when a student wrote that "the intellectualism on the island came to an end when Piggy's head exploded on the rock and red stuff came out." I wrote, "I'll say!"

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Student keeps making a car alarm sound in the corner while we read Macbeth. He's really good too---like that dude in Police Academy.
"What are you doing?"
"It says alarms here."
"No, it says alarums. Different thing."
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Working the football game wasn't so bad. Chris came with me and hung out with me and the other teacher while we sold tickets. We were working on the other team's side and we would laugh when someone would try to walk past the ticket office and try to get in without paying for a ticket. Everyone had a reason they shouldn't have to pay. "I'm a booster." "I'm with the band." "My daughter's on the danceteam." The band played constantly, right over our heads. All drums. They just pumped their clarinets and stuff in the air. Didn't play them.
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Luke told his Mimi today, "Don't bite the big one while I'm gone." We were all shocked. We don't say that. Where did he pick that up?
Jake said his first word today. Mimi was the recipient of that one too! He said, "Boo." Plain as day. And he said it over and over again. How perfect is this? Near Halloween too!

For Your Saturday Guffaw

Me at 16. Spring 1989. This was an important year reading-wise for me. I stopped reading Stephen King and V.C. Andrews and I discovered Of Mice and Men (I hated it at the time because of all the GDs in the text.) I also read Little Women, Les Miserables (loved it!), and The Crucible (I didn't catch all the dirty stuff at the time; ah youth.) I wish I had caught The Catcher in the Rye at this age or earlier. I didn't find that until I was a senior. Of course, I HAD found bright pink lipstick, Salon Selectives hair spray and Aussie Scrunch spray. Also...small jackets with shoulder pads. Nice.

Vampires, a Witch, and "Scare Its"

I'm tired of lockdowns. We had one for two hours today. Scared me.
******

I'm overwhelmed and tired. I'm behind on laundry and everything else. I'm afraid I'm gonna lose my temper and bite someone's head off if they bother me about anything ELSE I need to do at work. And yes, I have to work the football game tomorrow night. Fun. (Sarcasm.) I can't wait to go risk my life downtown to sell tickets to a football game that no one really goes to anymore.

*******

I'm worried about my speech issue but have an appt on Nov. 8, the day after my 35th bday.

I'm leaning towards my problem being Paxil related, even though I've been off the diet Coke with Nutrasweet for a week. I had been switching doses for weeks before my problems started. I felt too doped up with the higher dose and like it didn't do much for me with the smaller dose. Well goodbye to both... The data compiled by the World Health Organization indicated that Paxil has the highest incidence rate of withdrawal adverse experiences of any other antidepressant in the world. The Food and Drug Administration also could face pressure to require the antidepressant manufacturers to put warnings about suicide and violence on their drugs' labels.
The duration of the withdrawal process seems to vary from individual to individual. The worst being the first two weeks. It can take up to six weeks for the symptoms to subside.
Level 2 Symptoms: Panic Attacks (even if you never had one before), severe mood swings, (esp. heightened irritability/anger), suicidal thoughts (in extreme cases), a unconventional dizziness/vertigo, the feeling of shocks running the length of your body (similar to mild electric one), an unsteady gait, slurred speech, headaches, profuse sweating (esp. at night), muscle cramps, blurred vision and breaking out in tears.

*****

Luke calls skeletons "scare its", which is very appropriate. He also says "red" and "dead" like they have two syllables--that's my Southern boy...
*****

I'm gonna be a witch for Halloween. Boring, yeah, but I don't remember when I've ever been a witch...on Halloween at least. Chris is gonna need a box and some gold chains for his costume. Wanna guess what he's gonna be? (Edited to add: Go ahead and take a look at what he's gonna be. How are we gonna explain this to the children one day? He's gonna shave his beard just like that and spray his hair up too...this should be funny.)

*****

We had movie night last Friday. Watched Interview with the Vampire. How did we miss the obvious...uh, relationships when we first saw it back in, what was it, 93? Were we that sheltered? :) Ha. Loved watching this. Fun seeing Kirstin Dunst as a kid again; she was amazing for her age for sure. Brad Pitt looks all "Legends" here, and Banderas looks SO MUCH BETTER than he does now. He hasn't aged that well. It was fun seeing Tom Cruise play a character that was so unlike his other characters (they all seem like it's the same TOM CRUISE character over and over again). I kept forgetting it was him. I miss Christian Slater. Love the early 90s glasses he was wearing in the movie. Felt sad watching this though, thinking about Katrina stuff.

Tale of a Different Kind of Tape

Yesterday we had students participating in this. Of course it wasn't a school sponsored event, and some kids who were participating seemed to enjoy being the center of attention, and "making a (albeit) quiet scene". I only had one kid do this. Administration wanted all the parents of these kids to know what their kids were doing, since some were not able to perform in class activities during the day (when speaking was required of them) and so they would receive zeros for assignments. Many kids ripped off their tape and didn't let the administration call home. Others, like my student, did not. Her mom backed her up. Other kids had parents tell their kids to "stop their nonsense."

This photo is from my student's Myspace page. I don't know how I feel about this whole thing. What do you think? Part of me thinks it's cool that they are taking a stand, but the other part of me (the teacher part of me) thinks it's just a "hey look at me" stunt.

How I Amuse Myself

I'm making a new test for LOTF and adding vocabulary.

For one of the answer choices for the word "martyr" I put:

d. a sauce you put on fish

HAHAHAHAHA

(What?)

Tale of the Tape

A few weeks ago when I started teaching Lord of the Flies, I checked out a CD where William Golding reads the story. It's my first time using such a thing; in the past, I have read aloud, had kids read aloud, have them read silently or at home. I enjoyed using the CD but around chapter three, there were lots of nicks on the disc so I went back down to the library to see if they had it on cassette. They did. I checked out the six cassettes and headed back to the room. I did not take the CD back just out of pure forgetfulness. The cassettes were easy to use (one side is chapter 10, one side is chapter 11, etc.). HOWEVER...there was a problem today. During my first class, I popped in the cassette and I sat up front in my director's chair and read along with the tape like the kids. Then came the moment when Piggy is standing at Castle Rock, trying to get his glasses back from Jack and his tribe. When Piggy accuses the group of boys of acting like a pack of painted savages, he veers off the printed word in my book and in everyone else's.

He said they were acting like a bunch of painted Ns. Oh yeah, he said the N word. And I'm a white teacher teaching in Alabama in a school that's about seventy percent black.

My mouth dropped open. My kids freaked out, dropped their books and looked at me. I was clearly as shocked as they were, they could tell.
I stopped the tape. "Uh, did he just say what I think he did?"
"Yes! Piggy's a racist! Why did he say that??? That's not in the book!"
"I know," I said, "It's not in mine either. Weird." So I assumed that in the original text, Golding had really used that word. I assured the kids that obviously, this must have been an old reading of the original text, and that they had realized that the word had no place in the novel and had taken it out. That calmed them down somewhat. I quickly got out the CD that I hadn't taken back to the library and found the same spot where Piggy is shouting. Thankfully, the N word had been replaced by savages. (I was still pretty weirded out that it was used as a synonym for savages...what was that all about? See the link below--I found out.) I was so glad I didn't have to deal with the issue with any of my other classes. It was really pretty shocking for all of us!

I looked it up when I got home and found this (look under The Coral Island section).

Hmmm

Stacy sent me a link about Diet Coke and slurred speech. Normally Stacy knows I just give her a smile and nod when she talks about things all healthy and stuff, BUT I have found lots of other sites out there that say the same thing---check it out.

Y'all, I have been drinking 3 to 4 Diet Cokes a day since Jake was born (trying to lose the weight).

Could it be the reason my speech is slurred? I will abstain and will let you know what happens...thank you Stacy!!!!

Whoo hoo---hopefully this will fix my problem! Pray or in Dennis's case, cross your fingers. :) Ha.

Speech, Jesus Dolls, and Secret Lurve

The Issue
A lot of you have emailed me wanting to know what the hell is going on with the new doctor visit...for some reason I have been talking kind of weird for the past 2-3 weeks. I don't know what it is. I feel like I'm garbling words, especially s's and r's, which is exactly what I had a problem with when I was in elementary school. It's more pronounced when I try to talk loudly--which is what I have to do as a teacher. It's making me give the students more bookwork and less discussion because I've gotten kind of nervous about speaking in front of them lately. When I'm talking on the phone or casually in person to a bud I can control it better...So anyway, I'm concerned. My first thoughts were, A) is my tongue swollen? Do I have cancer? B) Did I have a stroke and didn't know it? C)Am I going nuts? Well, A)the doc took a good look at my mouth and doesn't see anything strange, doesn't think my tongue looks swollen. B) The doc tested my reflexes and I haven't had any of the other warning signs/symptoms of a stroke and C) Hmph! There IS the possibility that it's a rare side effect from a medication I take...so...I'm weaning myself off of it. I'll let you know if the condition goes away when I'm off it. Anyone have any ideas? I'm kind of weirded out about the whole thing.

Secret Lovers
While having the kids read a chapter from Lord of the Flies the other day (and listen to William Golding read from a tape) I looked over and noticed that a boy and a girl were holding hands on the sly under a desk. I thought it was kind of sweet and haven't said anything to them about it. Ahh, high school love.
Speaking of high school love, I was grading students' journals the other day and one girl wrote about being grounded because her boyfriend was black and she was white. He is now her ex-boyfriend.

Jesus Dolls?
In other journal news...The kids responded to a question I put on the board about Jesus dolls being made. I asked them what they thought about it, if it was right. Some thought it was okay, that it would teach kids about God, some felt that it was blasphemous, as "you can't keep kids from doing bad or weird things with the dolls" (I did some weird stuff with my Barbies, that's for sure!) Something that struck me as interesting was that many of my black students wrote about "how can they know that THAT is how Jesus and everyone else looked?" They thought it was important not to show Jesus and the whole gang as this one way. What do you think about this issue? I had to give a mini-lesson the next day about how they should be capitalizing God and the Bible. "Otherwise you are saying that your God is the same as a god like Zeus." That got their attention. :)

Other Student Factoids:
As I probably told you, my seniors were born in 1990. They also have a huge fascination with pit bulls (many of them own them) and hopefully don't do bad things with them. Most of them have after school and weekend jobs. MANY of them watch reruns of Fresh Prince and The Wonder Years. And they never lock their locker. Even after I tell them, "It's a LOCKer, not an OPENer."

Just quick update: blood work okay, but they are referring me to a neurologist for a different problem that has presented itself...and the hits just keep on comin'.

Sunday

Ugh

First it was the bad left knee, now the stitches in the left heel. I'm falling apart!

Chris says he's gonna trade me in for a newer model.

Do you know how hard it is to take a bath with one foot sticking out, wrapped in a trashbag. Lovely, I tell you.

Also...Send out good vibes and/or a prayer for healthy blood test results on Tuesday. I'm worried I have a thyroid issue...

*****

Fun

Last night we had the awesome Kurt and Mia over for the football game festivities, along with Tanner and Dusty. It was a fantastic night. Thank goodness Auburn pulled out a win. Luke was running around screaming like crazy during the fourth quarter. It's funny seeing him watch football. It's probably just as amusing that I know so much more about football than ever before. Every year I get a little better. :) I like surprising Chris with my casual football banter. Much better than the times I used to say crap like, "Is that the rifle formation?"

****

Ninja Tanner and Costume Ideas...

Earlier yesterday, I was "surfing the web" (always feel like a tool using that phrase) for ideas on Halloween costume ideas for me and the hub. I yelled out, "NINJA! Chris can be a ninja!" Tanner started talking about how, if he was a ninja, everyone would make fun of him. I pictured Tanner in the Ninja outfit and couldn't stop laughing. Tanner finally said, "Jen, I think you have passed the point of laughing with me and now you are laughing at me." I couldn't help it. I love TanTan. :)

Here are some ideas for costume ideas. Weigh in with your thoughts please.

Geisha--me, Samarai--Chris; both of us as pirates; ghost--me, Ghostbuster--Chris; Playboy girl--me, Hugh Hefner--Chris; Wilma--me, Fred Flintstone--Chris; both of us as pilgrims; Little Bo Peep--me, Sheep--Chris; Cowgirl and Cowboy; 80s rockers; Chris as Ron Burgundy, Blind Referee, Miami Vice Dude, or Love Boat Captain Stubing...me as a witch, bumblebee, Dorothy, detective...or my favorite---me as Sally Field in Smokey and the Bandit and Chris is the Bandit (would shave off his beard and leave the mustache). Thoughts, ideas, etc.??? Here are some costumes of the past...

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An Evening of Culture With Dusty and Chris

My free Prentice Hall Superkit arrived today. Absolutely free copies of the new textbook we'll probably get next year. My nerd bells and whistles were going off like crazy. Chris was like, "Because you need more books..."

******

Here's a story for you...Chris happened to mention casually in conversation that he saw "Tartuffe" at AU with Dusty back in the day. You should have seen my expression.

"You saw Tartuffe? With Dusty?"

"Yeah, it was for a class...I didn't want to go by myself, so I told Dusty that I would buy his ticket if he went to see it with me...Dusty had been sitting at the bar at Applebee's all day so he was tanked up, I dragged him to a play. Neither of us knew what was going on. They kept talking in thees and thous and Dusty kept asking me what they were saying. I didn't know what the hell was going on. Dusty was getting hungry and he kept asking me if they had chili dogs. He kept getting up during the play and pissing off everyone around us and trying to head to a concession stand that didn't exist. Like he was gonna barrel down the aisle with a bucket of popcorn and a Big Gulp."

He adds, "I still don't know what it was about."

Smells Like...M&Ms and Neosporin

This reminded me of a dream I had about Grandma Jones a few nights ago. We were in her little apartment and it was just as it used to be and the understanding was that she was on a fabulous trip somewhere and we couldn't wait until she came back to tell us about it. The whole family was there just talking and that good "all together" feeling was present in the dream. I miss her.

****

I was shaving my legs the other morning and realized that the shaving cream, Skintimate (always loved that product name) Raspberry Rain, had a smell that brought back a negative memory from somewhere in my brain. I can't figure out what that is all about, but I know that it's negative. Chris always does the shopping and brings me back shaving cream all the time, and this time he brought back this innocent little can. It's pretty, it's pink, and it does smell good, but it somehow reminds me of a bad time in my life. I'll be glad when the can is used up. I'm not gonna throw it out; that would be dumb and not cost-effective at all. So I'm standing there, using up the Raspberry Rain and I think of other smells that take me back to good places or bad and the immediate things I can conjure up are...the smell of Obsession perfume--reminds me of being a freshman at the U of A when things were so new and scary and of my homesickness. (I later transferred closer to home, obviously.) The smell of that purple bottle perfume from Elizabeth Taylor (is it Diamonds? Passion?) reminds me of my Aunt S which is a good feeling. Oil of Olay smell reminds me of my mom from when I was very young, also a positive feeling. What smells remind you of stuff? Good and bad?

****

We are potty training hard over here. Peanut M&Ms are the ticket for Young Patches. Who knew? He still doesn't have the poo poo thing down though. Last night he found a package of his Spiderman big boy underwear that I had in his sock drawer (cuz he doesn't have an official underwear drawer yet) and slept with them. Guess that's progress. He seems so proud when he pees and I hug him and tell him how excited I am. He says, with a shy smile, "Thank you Mama."

****

This makes me glad I'm not a celebrity. (NSFW...language) However, why doesn't she stay home and stop going out quite so much? I mean I know she has to leave to do stuff every now and then, but she is out there every day. Also, she does seem like she's heavily medicated. That makes me feel kind of sad for her. It's kind of funny how the paps told the neighbor off and defended Britney (even as they take unflattering pics of her to sell)...

****

Anyone else watching Tell Me You Love Me on HBO on Sunday nights? Thoughts? We like it because it opens up some really interesting conversations between the two of us. I recommend. However, I'll go on record to say I really hate the "lock my wife out" husband and the odd voiced Jamie.

*****

I'm at home today. All by myself. It's heaven. Last night I was up from 3 to 5 (guess that would make it morning instead) with Jake. He was having nasal issues. I was already tired to begin with and I just decided to burn a personal day today. Chris told me I should let him take Luke and the baby to daycare so I could rest and catch up on my sleep. After feeling a bit guilty about it, I agreed and I'm glad I did. I slept until 10:30 after I helped get the boys ready for Daddy to take them out the door. Unfortunately, I dropped a glass in the kitchen around lunchtime and cut my heel pretty bad. I called Chris to come home to see if he thought I should see a doc. He bandaged me up and made it better. I'm about to go take a nap and the thought of it thrills my soul!

*****

Pics. These are Jake's first bath at about 2 weeks old. His umbilical hernia kept me from bathing him in a tub earlier. Cuz I was freaked out by it. All is well now.

If you look close you can see the Percocet bottle on the nook. Sweet memories. Ahhh. Also? My chest looks huge. Ha!

Nice KNIVES behind the touching scene. Think we have enough?

Big thanks go out to Noggin, for turning my son against candy corn. Geez.

Saturday Suckiness

This has been a pretty rough weekend. Jake is still reeling from getting his two month old shots on Wednesday--he is sore and just not himself. Luke has been very active and let's face it, kinda bratty and we are trying to turn the brat train around. Chris and I have some kind of nasty bug that has left us with aching joints and headaches, add to that a crying baby and a 3 year old acting like he can get whatever he wants whenever he wants...well it just makes for a hard weekend. One high point was getting Luke's Halloween costume---he wanted a blue one but they didn't have it in his size, so he agreed to a red Power Ranger costume. Of course, being in his "all about me" mode yesterday, he wanted to take it back and get a blue one after he wore it around for a few hours. He cried, pouted, etc. I told him I'd just give it to a kid he goes to daycare with and he wouldn't have one so he shut up about it then. Then he wanted to pose for me, that's where the photos come in. (Ignore my ugly flower beds and the yucky stump. We have no time or energy for gardening.)

Have a good Sunday. I'm hoping it will not be like my Saturday. Saturdays aren't supposed to suck, but yesterday's sure did!

Wah wah wah

Felt like a loser mom this morning---pretended that I was leaving Luke because he wouldn't follow me to the car and I was running late. I thought he'd hurry if I said, "Bye!" and opened the car door. What I didn't know was that he would burst into tears and run to catch me. Felt like a real ass. I held him and hugged him and wiped his tears off his face and promised him I would never really leave him, EVER and I told him I was sorry I played that joke on him. I told him I would never do that joke again. And I don't wanna. I felt absolutely horrible all day because of it.


Got stuck with an observing education student today from FU (ha ha, funny university initials). She was sweet but it's unnerving to have someone sit and watch you all day long to "learn" what a teacher does all day long. I felt like a)I was boring and b)I was lisping. I really am lisping more than normal---it's freaking me out. I think it's because I'm so tired. That, or I had a stroke and I'm in denial.



I need to get this poster for my classroom.



I'm quizzing my students on a chapter a day from Lord of the Flies. Some still haven't gotten a copy of the book. We are on chapter five now. Good Lord. No pun intended. One girl asked me if this was the same as Lord of the Rings. I gave her a blank stare. They wanted to know if we are gonna watch the movie. The same one that a history teacher shows every year. First off, I hate that a history teacher is showing this movie and ruining the suspense of some of my students (who then tell others what will happen). Second, when I told the students that I would show them the 1963 movie that followed the book better, which of course, is in black and white, they reacted as if I had told them I was gonna hook them up to an electrical current and zap all of 'em. Gasp. The horror. A black and white movie.

Luketalk in the AM

"Mama," Luke says as I buckle him in this morning, "I wanna jump high like a Power Ranger."

"Oh really? That's cool."

"I wanna fight crime and bad guys. And jump high."

My son the crimefighter. I laughed. "Fight crime huh?"

"Yah. And I'm gone be the blue Power Ranger."

During the drive to daycare, he instructed me, "And you're gone be the Pink Power Ranger and Dada is the...yellow Power Ranger...and baby bruther gone be the little suit... black Power Ranger..."

I thought it was interesting that he put me in the pink one. Odd, huh? They learn quickly, don't they? And the "little suit" thing made me smile.

Hey, is there even a black Power Ranger?