What a crazy day.

This morning I woke up to streams of light coming through our curtains.  Not good, not good...I bolted out of bed and looked at the clock:  6:47 a.m.  I should be 20 minutes down the road by now.  Somehow, my alarm's volume had been turned down to zero and I couldn't hear it.  I jumped into the shower and was out the door by 7:05.  Traffic was bad, but I managed to get to school by 7:50.  On the rare occasions that I've been late like that before, it usually messes me up for the whole day.  It just feels like I'm constantly behind no matter what I do.  Once the kids got into the classroom, though, things were so busy, I quickly forgot about my rushed morning.

Our busy morning gave way to a somewhat relaxed afternoon.  We discussed firefighters and fire safety in Social Studies, which of course, led to many questions regarding extremely specific circumstances.  Where kids come up with this stuff is a mystery for the ages.  At least they're thinking, I suppose.  Some kids were concerned about the possibility of a fire at school.  I explained that we would do what we always do during a fire drill.

"But what if the door is blocked by FIRE??"

I said we could go out the window.

"Will we have to smash the windows??"

No, I said, we could remove the screen and open the windows.  The glass is about 1/2" thick, so you could throw a chair against them all day and probably not do too much damage.

"How do you get the screens off?"

A demonstration of how to remove the screens and open the windows ensued.  I discovered that the space between the outside brick and the window was filled with spider nests and all kinds of nasty looking stuff.  The windows were quickly closed and the children returned to their seats.

"Mrs. Phillips?  What if, like, what if you lived in a mansion and you were way up high on part of the mansion and like, you couldn't jump out the windows because they were so high up??"

This question was quickly taken care of by asking if anyone lived in a mansion.  One boy insisted he did, but I'm pretty sure he doesn't.

We also discussed the reasons for calling 911.  I said it had to be a huge emergency (like a fire) for someone to call 911.  I stressed that if you called it and there wasn't really an emergency you could get in big trouble.  Then, I had someone ask this question:

"So...when should you call the FBI?"


...

....

.....


How do you even answer that? 

"Umm...well, you don't ever need to call the FBI.  That's not really what they're for."  I didn't mention that if the FBI is called in, the emergency is going to be way bigger than just a fire.  But since I didn't want to get into the history of the FBI, who works for the FBI, how you can be in the FBI, where the FBI lives, or stories about how someone's grandpa's cousin's brother was maybe they think at some point in the FBI, or any other such questions, I decided to drop my explanation at that and take the kids to recess.

The Tornado Warning

This morning I drove to school (tired, the Oscars went so late last night), but enjoying the bit of sunshine that seems to come earlier and earlier each day.  As it got lighter and the thermostat on my car dashboard got higher I thought it would be a pleasant day.  Highs in the 60s was what was predicted on the weather websites I frequent.  Thunderstorms (a hint at the summer I am just barely able to make out over the horizon now) were due to roll in late in the afternoon. 

The school day began, busy as usual, my kids a little more mellow than usual (not complaining), and the sun was streaming through the classroom windows.  I told them how warm it was supposed to be and that they probably wouldn't need their coats at recess (cheers abounded).

Mid-morning I took a spare second to quickly check my email and found this:

"We are under a tornado watch until 4:00 p.m.  Please review your Tornado/Disaster Drill procedures especially since we have all moved.  And, we will probably be having indoor recess."

Wait...what?!  I checked a weather website and saw that, indeed, a storm was closing in on us sooner than expected.  The kids were working away on stories they're writing, so I thought I would tell them of the recess scenario and briefly go over our disaster drill procedures after having collected their work.

The kids gathered on the carpet and this is what happened:

Me:  "Guys, I have some news.  You're probably going to have indoor recess today."

The kids cheer collectively--for whatever reason, indoor recess is special and wonderful.

Me:  "It looks nice out right now, but by the time it's time for recess, it will probably be raining.  There's a bad storm heading our way and there will probably be some thunder.  Also...deep breath...we are going to review our disaster drill rules because...another deep breath...we are under a tornado watch."

At this point, several things happen.  One little girl immediately gets tears in her eyes, two of the other girls look at each other and start giggling, and all the boys' faces light up like I just told them I was giving them all candy and ice cream.

Me, quickly continuing:  "Now, the chances of a tornado coming through this area is pretty much none, so you don't need to be worried." Girl's tears are suppressed, but she retains an extremely worried look on her face.  Boys continue to look elated.  "Do you remember how you're supposed to cover your head in the hallway?"

Bottoms go up in the air as heads are lowered to the ground and little hands cover the base of their neck (not heads).  

Me:  "OK, great.  So, just in case anything happens we'll go in the hallway to be safe.  Any questions?"

About 5 hands go zooming into the air.  Here are just a sampling of questions I received:

"When is the tornado coming?"

"Can the tornado go under the doors?"

"What if I have to go to the bathroom while the tornado is out there?"

"Why do the teachers get to stand up and walk around while we're on the floor?"

"Can a tornado go under a building?"

"What if the tornado smashed through the windows AND the wall AND the hallway?"

"I saw a fox in my backyard this morning!"

"Should I go into my attic if there's a tornado and I'm at my house?"

"My bathroom has windows in it at home!!  My bathroom has windows!!"

"Why would we get down in the hallway?  Shouldn't we go outside if there's a tornado?"

"Could you ever have snow and a tornado?"
"How does a tornado form, anyway?"

This line of questioning went on for about 10 minutes.  No kidding.  Kids have a ton of questions about this type of thing.  After answering ALL of their questions, we were mercifully interrupted by the PE teacher who had come to pick them up for PE.  

After all of that, there ended up being no tornado (surprise), and the thunder was distant.  It rained all afternoon, though.  Made for a fun commute home (kidding).

Odd Happenings on Long Drives

Matt and I set out early this afternoon to drive to his parents house.  Tomorrow is a family reunion in West Virginia (more on that tomorrow!), so we're spending the weekend here.

We've driven down to visit his parents many times since we got married last June.  It's about a 4 hour drive and we usually end up chatting and dialing through radio channels.  We have radically different musical tastes (for the most part), so sometimes we have to suffer through songs that the other one likes.  I usually have to suffer through things like the Beatles, the Who, Genesis (*gag*), or *shiver* RUSH (*double gag*).  He usually has to suffer through dance/club/disco music or cheesy pop music.  Now, just to be clear, I certainly have wider (and more eclectic) musical tastes, but when I'm in the car on a long drive, I want something upbeat to keep me alert at the wheel.  I also enjoy dancing in the passenger seat.  Never dancing in the driver seat, though.  I would never do that...

Anyway, on these drives down to visit his parents, and through our channel surfing, it seems like we always, always, always end up on a channel playing a certain song.  I happen to love this song and promptly turn it up, start dancing and laughing, and generally enjoy Matt's misery and the amazing coincidence that we are hearing this song again!!!  Seriously, there's maybe been one or two times in over a dozen drives that we've not heard this song.  Each time we hear it, the coincidence is more and more hilarious (in my opinion).  In his opinion, it gets more and more annoying (but I think secretly he's starting to see the funny side).

So, are you just dying to know what this song is?

Are you?

Well, here ya go:

 

 

So, did you enjoy it?  Or are you like Matt and rolled your eyes and sighed loudly?

Playing Goldfish

As I've mentioned before, I've been babysitting this summer for two sweet twin boys about 3 days a week.  This morning, they were digging around for something to do.  First, they found some homemade light sabers and had a light saber battle:

It got intense.

Next, they happened upon a small cardboard box with Spongebob on it.  One of them exclaimed, "Goldfish!!"  I thought he had found a box of (who knows how old) goldfish crackers and told him to put them away for later (hoping he would forget about them).  He said, "No!  Let's play goldfish!"  Now I was confused.  You want to play with old goldfish crackers?  Right then he opened the box to reveal some sort of playing cards with Spongebob characters on them.  He quickly dealt them between himself and his brother and started playing:

Brother 1:  "Ok.  Umm...do you have any...Spongebobs?"

Brother 2:  "No...goldfish!"

Brother 1:  *draws card*

Brother 2:  "Do you have any Squids?"

Brother 1:  "Nope!  Goldfish!"

I'm assuming you now understand "Goldfish" to be "Go Fish."  But in their cuteness, they didn't realize the difference.  I tried to explain that it was, in fact, "go fish," but they continued saying "goldfish" through approximately 50 rounds of the game throughout the day.

I love 7 year olds.  They're great.

I Never Imagined...

...that I would be cleaning up stuff like this:

...before I had children.

But when your husband works at the Lego store and discovers his inner child, this is what happens.  A small set there, a box of pieces there, and it all adds up.  There's more than just this, of course...scattered throughout the apartment.