I Think it's Fixed

Well, I didn't get any sewing done this weekend, but used the machine a little on Thursday and I think using the correct oil finally helped. It seems okay. The true test is when I run it for a couple of hours tonight. Almost through with all the reusable shopping bags I am making for our class project. I will post pictures of the piles of them tonight.

PS...My mom came for a visit to see my daughter play volleyball. We had a good, but short, visit. Wish she lived closer!

My Poor, Poor Old Sewing Machine!

Yes, I made most of the rice bag innards last night. Still have the covers to make and about 20 reuable shopping bags to finish. My class is working on an ecology project and my part is to take recycled materials and make shopping bags. But, after all of this continuous sewing, my machine is starting to rattle a bit and I am not going to use it until I locate the oil and get it nice and oily on the inside. From the diagram, it could take from 2-8 hours for me to figure out where it all goes. I haven't used my machine much in the past few years.

Rice Bag-o-Rama

A good friend and former co-worker of mine just emailed me and wants to order 12 rice bags! Yay!! Isn't it amazing that my local sales are making me tons more money than my Etsy worldwide website? Thank goodness for friends. BTW I love my new neck bag and I am having a hard time keeping it because my daughter keeps using it for her volleyball soreness. Another friend wants me to make one that she can wear around her back. That's one I will have to figure out. OH, and can someone go to town and get me some rice from Wallyworld? I'm running low for some reason.

Oh, and check out my new MIT Theater T-shirt.

Testing Question

This past week I had to give a state test called the TAKS test to the fifth grade class. At part of the test, students are given a piece of paper that has measurement info and rulers printed on it to use on the test. The test instructions called this a "seperate mathmatics chart". The instructions I had to read repeated the fact that the students could not write on this chart probably seven or eight times. It got a bit rediculous. Anyway, all the students were feeling a bit tense and everytime I had to read that part again I would kind of grin at the craziness of it. The kids would roll their eyes. Finally I got to the end of the instructions and, of course, it asked, "Are there any other questions?" I looked around at the class. One boy raised his hand and a smile came to his face. He asked, "Mrs. M, are we allowed to write on the seperate mathmatics chart?" With this, the class collectively laughed and a rush of tension left the room so we could begin the test. Someday that kid is going to write sitcoms for TV!

Stop Me If You Have Heard This One

This is an old one but it really happened. In fact, I think it has happened more than once, but never to me.

My husband was on playground duty one day. The kids know not to come tattle all the time to him, but if something really bad happens they should let him know. So, one of the more well behaved children comes up to him and says "B said the F-word!" Suddenly, this child has my husband's full attention. This is a pretty big transgression for an elementary student. Before he set the punishment in motion, he wanted to be sure that this student had heard B clearly. After interviewing her for a minute or two he asked her to repeat the word.
"You won't be in trouble," he told her, "I just need to know exactly what B said."
"Well...." the little girl hesitated, "He said fart." After my husband stopped laughing he actually called B over and told him not to say fart again.


BTW: The S-word is shut up!

Elementary Teacher Predictions

You know, when you spend eight hours a day for 138 or more days a year with a group of kids, in your head you start making predictions about what they will be and who they will become. It is inevitable! One year I had a class so wild, so unruly, and so defiant, I could swear that some of them were destined for Huntsville! I kept this to myself of course. I didn't really want to think ill of them. Most of them were sweet souls with no self control at all. Well, I don't know much about what happened to this class. I do know that one of the worst of the bunch is now happily married with....get this....six children! I am so glad he is not in jail. Now, as for the teachers who work in that area....prepare yourselves!

My Favorite Story

I've got lots of funny and sad stories. This is my favorite.

Teachers don't have favorites. Teachers don't have pets. I will always stand by this as true. But if I did have a favorite it would have to be one of the most rambunctious, rowdy students I ever had. This is the kid that you had to tell twenty times a day to sit down or be quiet. "D, don't drum on the desk...pay attention...leave them alone." And yet, this kid has a special place in my heart. It didn't take me long to see once the year started, that D was not what he seemed. He wasn't the troublemaker that I had been led to believe. Instead, I saw what should have been obvious. I beautiful heart inside that constantly moving body. Also, what I soon determined, was that the other boys in the class would constantly pick at him and try to make him mad. Especially at PE class. They soon learned though, that I saw right through them. By the end of the year I hated to see D go. I hated to think he was going to another classroom. Who would be teaching him? Would they understand him? Or would he end up constantly in trouble? Constantly being yelled at? Put down? It broke my heart to see him go. My class has never been quite the same since. The best part of the story is the next year. I would see him in the halls and he would always give me a big hug and talk to me for a minute. One day, before school he handed me a folded piece of construction paper that he had made into a card. It said, "I love you. Thanks for taking my side against J and C." That is one piece of paper that I will always treasure as much as anything my own daughter has made. I still think about and pray for him. I hope that he is surrounded by people that understand and support him. Someday I hope to travel across Texas to see him play football. But, of course, I don't have any favorites. Never! I love you D!

My 100th Heart Celebration!!!!

Hey out there! I got my 100th heart today!!!! Yay me! Anyway, to celebrate, I am going to promote that shop here.

YeOleSuppyShop

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5552210&order=&section_id=&page=1

They sell supplies for all you wonderful jewelry makers out there! Buy some and make me some fabulous jewelry!

Vegetarian Vultures and Other Tales from the Classroom

There are so many tales. Some of which are so old I may not remember them. I am an elementary teacher. I have been teaching for seventeen years. Yes, I have lots of stories. Stories that will curl your hair...some might make it fall out! I will start posting them here as I remember them. Here's a new fresh one.

I have recently divided my class into two groups for a special project. I thought I would use our school initials to name them so that there would be no A, B...A's are better than B's business. So they were group B and group V. Well, in the course of calling them I discovered they are so close sounding that I needed to name them. So I started calling them Buffalo and Vultures, just to be silly. When one girl whined that she didn't want to be a buffalo I told her that it was better than a vulture because they eat dead stinky skunks. Then, my comedianne from the V group said..."Ewww. If I have to be a vulture, I am going to be a vegetarian vulture!"