Is there a Peanut Butter Fish?

Woo doggies! Y'all, I am T-I-R-E-D. I'm barely keeping up with life at the moment, let alone my poor blog. This makes me have a sad face because I have missed writing for fun. Between my job, grad school, and my stinkin' 10 year high school reunion committee obligations (which is almost OVER! Praise J.C. from whom all blessings flow)--I've been staying busy the past couple weeks. But enough about all of that.  I don't need to be a "Gloomy Gus", as my friend Rose Nylund would say. Instead, I will share a couple of stories from my day that made me smile.

Story #1: This week in my classroom we've been doing an ocean theme. The kids have been really into learning about different sea creatures and we've made some crafts along the way for extra fun times. The past couple days we have been working on making Jellyfish [see Exhibit A].

Exhibit A:

The kids painted them and I have had the fun job of assembling these bad boys. I was finishing them up today and one of my little friends sat down beside me and started talking to me.

He said, "I like Jellyfish. They're so yummy."

Me: "What do you mean 'they're yummy'?"

Boy: "You know. Jellyfish squirt jelly out."

And then the thunder inside of my brain clapped together and it all became clear where he was going with this. A smile stretched across my face and I then proceeded to ask him about how much he liked jelly and we discussed how delicious of a delicacy it is.

Then, (and this is the best part) he looked at me dead serious and asked, "Are there peanut butter fish?"

So next time you want to make a PBJ, just go throw your line out into the ocean and catch a peanut butter fish and Jellyfish. Bam.

I love how literal little kids are. I love that he thinks we get jelly from Jellyfish. And I love that he thinks somewhere out in the ocean blue there might possibly be a little fish that squirts out peanut butter.

Story #2:
Another one of my boys has parents that own a nail shop in town. This child looked at my Assistant's fingernails today and said, "You need a full set". I then showed him my nails and asked what I needed. He shielded his eyes, as if his retinas were burning, and pretty much did the old 'talk to the hand' motion and looked away.

Oh kids. Well, that's all I've got for now. Hopefully those stories made you smile a little bit.
I only have 2 more days until I get a week off for Fall Break! Raise the Roof.

A night full of disappointments.

This post has absolutely no point whatsoever. I'm basically just writing this as a form of procrastination. I will be rambling about my evening. Which was very boring. And consisted of a trip to Wal-Mart. Yes. You probably want to start poking your eyeballs because that will probably be more fun for your eyes than having them read the following words. Enjoy, eyeballs.

I was in an okay mood until I had to go to Wal-Mart tonight. That will ruin me every single time. It's pretty much guaranteed. Guaranteed like Wal-Mart's low prices. I only go to Wal-Mart for certain things. One of these instances is big purchase trips. Example: My pantry and fridge are completely bare and I need to buy food from every single food aisle. Usually every item from the toiletry section is being snatched up on these trips as well because we all know that we run out of toothpaste, tampons, and razor refills at the exact same time. The other instance I'll go is if I need an item that I know only Wal-Mart carries.
I hate Wal-Mart so much though that I will do an online in-stock search before I go to the store just to make sure that the item I really need is in stock and on the shelf. I kid not. I've done it. I do it.
Let's say you have a hankerin' for a certain brand of ice cream bars and that's the only reason you're going to Wal-Mart because Kroger doesn't carry them. Before you risk ruining your whole night by going to Wal-Mart, get on Walmart.com and search for those puppies. In stock. Bam. Get in your car and go. Limited Stock, that's kinda dicey. I wouldn't risk it. Not in stock. That's easy. Your butt is staying home.

You might be thinking, what a silly person to go to Wal-Mart just for ice cream bars. I'm not that sad, guys. I didn't go to Wal-Mart just for ice cream bars. I went to Wal-Mart just for muffins. So there. And I wish I was joking about that, but I went to buy muffins for my students and I knew Kroger didn't have them. Only Wal-Mart. I hope my students know how much I love them. What is even more sad is that I went in for muffins and walked out spending $40. I'm such an impulse buyer. Those were some pretty expensive muffins...

After Wal-Mart I thought to myself, "Self, you deserve a coffee treat after what your eyeballs just had to look at--like the big lady in the Rascal with the fly swarming around her greasy head in front of you while in line". So I thought I'd try out Dunkin Donuts Pumpkin Latte to see how it stood up to Starbucks. I like doing taste test experiments. It actually was pretty good. My biggest surprise was the size of the cup. I ordered a small since I wasn't sure if I would love it or hate it. I figured I would hate it, so a small it was. When the Dunkin guy handed me my cup I said, "Are you serious?". He looked really scared and said, "What!?!" I then proceeded to tell him that they weren't joking around with the whole 'small' thing. He asked if I wanted another size. I think he could tell I was a girl that was about to get huffy. He probably knew I had just come from Wal-Mart. I forced a smile and told him no thank you. I would enjoy my shot of coffee.

I mean, look at the size of this cup. When I got home I told Daisy (my dog) I had gotten her a cup of coffee. It's dog sized. I mean, the coffee sleeve is too big for it.

Daisy was terrified of this little baby cup of coffee. She had never seen anything like it. 

Dog-sized and small jar candle sized coffee. How cute. Not.

Here's one more thing that was unfortunate about my Dunkin experience this evening. The guy that was working in the drive-thru window was an okay looking lad. His voice completely ruined him though. He had an unusually high voice. It wasn't a Jack from Will&Grace voice. It was just an 'I never went through puberty' kinda voice. I was sad for him. So I suppose that's the real reason I didn't have him make me a bigger size coffee. He's had it hard enough.

Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me. What dummy said that anyway?

A teacher at my school shared the article, "What teachers really want to tell parents". If you're a teacher, a parent, or just a living thing, consider reading it.

Click HERE to read the CNN article.

And because I can't just post a link for an article and let that be it, I had to add in my two cents also about why I loved this article so.

During any given school year, I have 75 or more people (this is both students and parents) that I have to keep happy. That's a lot of responsibility. It's a big job. And I do it because I love it. And the majority of all of the parents that I have had the privilege of getting to know during the past six years have supported me, respected me, and some have even befriended me. My life has truly been changed for the better because of many of the families that I have gotten to know through teaching their child(ren).

However. [Cue the dramatic Lifetime movie music when an evil, psychotic villain enters the scene.] Sometimes you have that one person that enters your life and runs a muck. One negative person that can be heard over all of the other positive voices. One negative person that you let affect your thoughts and take up your head space. I've dealt with this one person. Some of you can probably relate. I sure hope not, but because it's life, some of you know all too well what I'm talking about.

I am purposely going to be vague about the situation, the school year, and the person involved because, well, I don't want for this person to come after me. Kidding. Just have to be conscious about what I post. You all get that.

Let's rewind to the past. During this particular school year, I had a class that I loved to pieces. I had some fabulous families that were so good to me. I formed friendships with some of the mothers of my students and still keep in contact with them.
But there's that 'however', remember? I had one parent that wore. me. out. I felt like I could do nothing right in the eyes of this parent. I would receive handwritten notes that were 2+ pages long. I received lengthy emails. Phone calls. If she had a messenger dove, I would have received hate mail that way too. This parent did nothing short of verbally abuse me all school year long. I know the term bully is thrown around loosely nowadays, but this person was truly a bully.
It was one thing after another. And to be honest, her complaints were usually about nothing at all. They made no point. They had no particular rhyme or reason. She just used me as her target. She attacked me to make up for her shortcomings as a parent. For every single thing that she did or didn't do for her child, she some how threw it back on me and made it someone else's (my) fault. This parent was the complete opposite of a proactive adult.
I tried to be strong. I tried to roll her words off my back. I couldn't. This person made me cry. Many times. She made me worry. She made me physically ill. She was a huge source of stress in my life.

Sadly, this person took away a little piece of me. She took some of my self-confidence. Made me doubt myself. I have NEVER had anyone treat me as horribly as this person did. And sadly, she still to this day has no idea how much she affected my life. How much she drained me. How much she caused me to worry and stress over her and the things that she said or did.
Luckily, she's out of my direct life now. She's moved on to another teacher--another target. She's still writing notes. Still attacking with her words. And I hate that she feels that she has the power and the right to speak to any other person the way that she spoke and treated me. It's not right. It should not be allowed.

All of that was to say that the article that I linked above was powerful and meaningful for me. It spoke to me and slightly fired me up a little bit. My favorite part of the article was this:

"We know you love your children. We love them, too. We just ask -- and beg of you -- to trust us, support us and work with the system, not against it. We need you to have our backs, and we need you to give us the respect we deserve. Lift us up and make us feel appreciated, and we will work even harder to give your child the best education possible.

That's a teacher's promise, from me to you."

And all the teachers said, "AMEN!".

Labor Day Weekend Randoms.

Y'all, I've had to go on and pull out the heated blanket. It's 61 degrees here right now and I'm about to freeze to death. Two days ago it was 102 and I was swimming and getting my tan on. Welcome to Kentucky. We're having our first cold snap of the fall season, so that means it's chili making weather. I could use a big pot right about now to warm these bones.

This Labor Day weekend has been the greatest of all time. I bet I've gained 5 pounds and it's worth it because I've had glorious food. Burgers, bbq, and country ham. Cows and pigs are delicious and they're my friends.

I've had great fun. I went on a yogurt date with one of my very favorite past students.

I met a newborn baby. I was pretty scared.

I went swimming. No pictures of this. You're welcome.

I went shopping today. One of my very favorite places to go is Home Goods because they have great stuff but they also have some really weird stuff.

Can we just talk about this shell sculpture for a minute? What the eff is this? And why would you want this in your home? It's a shell boat holding a shell tower. I hate it.

I'm really easily creeped out by doll faces. Look at these and tell me you're not scared.

Oh my geez. These will be the star characters in my nightmare tonight.

I did make it out of there with the most beautiful of beautifulness fall wreath. It looks so lovely hanging on my front door. It has glitter on the edges of the pretty little flowers. Glitter makes the world go round.

Why stop now? Here's more random fun:

When I open up my fridge at home I feel like someone on Cribs. It's full of nothing but drinks. I guess that's what happens when you pair up a girl that doesn't cook with her brother that doesn't cook. We both just drink a lot.

I was writing a list and just made a mark on my couch pillow with my black Flair pen. This makes me really sad that I messed up my pillow. It makes me even more sad that I don't have anyone to blame for it. It was all me. Don't you hate when something is messed up and you're at fault? It's one of life's biggest bummers.

Check out these little dogs with their doggles and beards. They were just hanging out while their Masters were inside enjoying some Chick-fil-A.

Here's one last picture for you. Extreme Native American planking. I made my Dad pull over on the side of the road just so I could take this picture. This guy rests on the side of the road at a KY/TN border. He's been tomahawk down for quite some time now and I've always wanted a picture of it.

Maybe this planking fad is getting a little bit out of control. Keep watch over your town statues, friends. Keep watch.

I hope all of you had a great Labor Day weekend. 

Let's do a little "by the numbers" recap of my weekend. It will be fun and impressive.

12. That's how many school days I made it before sickness hit. I've had a nasty sinus infection and I've felt like total doo since Wednesday night. I blame all of the dust particles. Stupid dust. Recess has been my enemy lately. We need rain in the worst way. It's a dry, dry desert here.

6. That's how many movies I watched this weekend. Yes. 6. 

Watch a movie. Take pills. Sleep. Watch a movie. Sleep. Take pills. That's been my schedule. 

2. This is the number of boxes of Kleenex I have gone through since Friday afternoon. 2 brand new boxes. That probably equals about 5237 gallons of snot expelled from my nostrils. Did that last sentence just make you sick? Well maybe now you know how I feel.

101. This is the number that I saw on my thermometer Friday night. It was a hot night. And not in a good, sexy way.

1437. This is probably the number of things I've pinned on Pinterest today. It was my other form of entertainment between sleeping and movies. I'd say at least 1428 of the 1437 were food related pins.

48 hours. This is how long I was home bound. I pulled into my driveway at 4:00 on Friday. I didn't leave until tonight. Tonight I was only gone for a couple of hours. Just long enough to run to school to work for a bit and make a stop by Sonic. To buy a large Coke. As a reward. For being out amongst the people. In civilization. It was exhausting and I needed to refuel.

Number of Benadryl pills I've taken...I kind of lost count...

69. This is the number of followers I now have. Obviously I'm still in middle school because this number makes me smile and feel slightly awkward at the same time.

This concludes the "by the numbers" portion of this post. Thank you.

I still sound like a snotty mess but I feel so much better. Having a weekend full of nothing but time to rest was exactly what I needed. 

For some reason I decided I'd watch the VMAs...what the eff is wrong with Lady Gaga? Just when I thought she couldn't get any weirder than showing up in an egg or wearing a meat dress...she does. I think if I dressed up and pretended to be a greaser boy and was that spot-on legit, I would cry. I would cry every single night because that would sadden me that I could play the part of a boy and look that boyish. And it really looked like she didn't have any boobs at all. Totally boy believable. 

And Beyonce pregnant? 'Bout dang time. Oh my. I can't wait to see this little love child that is the creation of B and Jay-Z. This baby isn't going to be born with a silver spoon in its mouth. It's going to be platinum and blinged out. And attached to a yacht.

And I just saw the sneak peek trailer of The Hunger Games. It made me excited. Who wants to go see the movie with me?

I totally get the whole Hunger Games obsession. Totally get it now. I just recently finished the book. I read that book so hard that my copy literally fell apart. The cover is torn off and pages have become unglued. I need to get started on the second book.

Do you all have a hard time knowing how to end posts? Because I sure do. So I'm just going to end it awkwardly like this.

Meet the Teacher Monday.

I'm linking up with some of my favorite teacher bloggers (they're rockstars in my eyes) to participate in Teacher Week. My apologies to all of my non-teacher readers!

Hello to those finding me from the link-up! My name is Sarah and I am a kindergarten teacher.

I love kindergarten right down to the marrow in my bones. It's my favorite. I don't have an official "teaching" blog. This is my personal blog. On this blog I like to write about all things random. If that sounds appealing to you then it's probably your lucky day that you landed on my blog. Sometimes I do write about my classroom and my students because school and my students are a huge part of my life. So there is a sliver of teachery writings and pictures on my blog.
Bottom line is this: You're a teacher. I'm a teacher. We should be blog friends.

How long have I been doing this teaching thing?
Glad you asked. I am currently in my 6th year of teaching. All 6 years have been in kindergarten. I am so lucky to work with a great teaching team.

Team Kindergarten!

School is fun. So are we.

I feel so fortunate to work with people that I actually like. I mean, if we're being honest, we've all had to work with people that we didn't really gel with. The ladies in the picture above have been my teammates for the past three years and I'm so happy that I have these great kids to work with. 

One of the greatest parts of my job is that one of my teaching teammates is also my best friend in and outside of school! We call each other BTFs (Best Teacher Friends) instead of BFFs. Our classrooms are right beside each other so that's pretty special. 

We like school dress up days.

What I'm Looking Forward to Most This Year

Our school is implementing the Leader in Me program this year. I'm really excited about it. This is our third week in school and I am already seeing huge differences in the students. 

What I Need to Improve Upon

Oh my. I could write a long list. As a teacher I'm constantly reflecting on what I should improve upon. I think one thing I really need to work on is having more of a balance in my life. Teaching is not only my job...it's my hobby and it's easy to let the whole realm of teaching (planning, classroom decorating, creating center games, blog stalking!) consume my life. I spend a lot of time in my classroom and even more time at home thinking of new ideas and creating things for my students. While this brings me great joy, I need to learn to take some time out to "Sharpen the Saw" a little bit too.

I Heart Blogs

Blogging is pretty much the best thing ever. I have been so inspired by all of the great teacher blogs that I read on a daily basis. Two of my very favorite kindergarten bloggers are Deanna Jump and Julie Lee. They are kindergarten teacher geniuses! Seeing all of the great things that they do in their classrooms has made me want to be a better teacher for my students.

Ms. Marcum: the one without the 'r' in her name.

9 days of school down. 168 to go. That sounds negative but it's really not meant to be. This has been a great start to the school year. The first day was so calm and smooth. I had so much fun on the first day being back in my "Ms. Marcum" mode. I always kind of feel like Jerrica Benton touching her earrings and saying, "Showtime, Synergy" to turn into Jem. I go from summer time Sarah to Ms. Marcum, kindergarten teacher. It's a magical, rock star feeling and I like it. If truth be told, it's truly, truly, truly outrageous.

If only I could have Jem's cool pink hair...

Weren't you all just in love with this chick? And this pink dress? To die for. I was a 5 year old that girl crushed hard on Jem and her hair and her outfits. And maybe her purple-haired boyfriend. Rio sure was a strange cat though.

I am already loving my new kindergarten babies so much. I absolutely loved my class last year, but this group is very comparable with my last group. I have some sweet kids that have such excitement about learning and have funny little personalities. I have a thing for funny kids. This group is also very loving. It's like a constant love fest in my room. Throughout the day I have kids raising their hand just to say, "I love you". Sweet, sweet kids.

I also love kids that ask questions. I have a very inquisitive group this year. They want to know EVERYTHING. The greatest thing about kindergarten kids is that they are super observant and are really honest. I love that fact. You know if they love something. You know if they hate something. They will tell you that you're beautiful. They'll tell you that your hair is "yellow with brown pieces" as one told me today. And they sure as heck won't hesitate to question the righteous pimple that you might have on your chin. They have no filter and it's fabulous. You always know where you stand.

On the second day of school, I was using the document camera to project an example of our activity up on the ActivBoard. One of the boys said to another student, "She has on a ring. She's married." I stopped and explained to him that my ring was on the wrong hand so I wasn't married. And this opened the flood gates to the "Why aren't you married" questions. I have to answer this question to curious kindergarten kids every year. A ring is a powerful symbol my friends, and one that small children know and look for immediately.

I tell you that story because it leads to what happened today. I'm still not really sure how calendar time turned into a lesson on the single state of Ms. Marcum, but it did.
I don't know if I've ever shared with you all that I work with my Mom. She is the librarian at my school. She's Mrs. Marcum. I'm Ms. Marcum. This can cause some confusion to small children. I'm the only teacher at my school that always has to do a mini lesson to my new group about why my mom works with me and why we have the same last name. I never vounteer or lead them to these questions. The kids just always naturally bring it up within the first two weeks of school. Always.

Today, during calendar, one of the kids asked about this. If you know kindergarten kids, this isn't really surprising that a 5 year old would ask this completely random question during math time. Random is our specialty in kindergarten. The question right before (which was really a statement) was, "I touched a frog before." My response to those totally random statements is usually something along the line of, "Thank you for that completely random fact, so-and-so" or a simple, "Congratulations".

I'm veering off track. My mind is that of a kindergartener. So, like I said, I got the questions about why I work with my mom, why we have the same last name, all that. I have to explain to them that my family is just like their family. We have a last name. I am the daughter of my parents so I have the same last name. Then I wrote the following on the board:
Ms. Marcum
Mrs. Marcum

I asked them to tell me what was different between the two names. They quickly said, "The r!". We went on to discuss the fact that my mom was married to my Dad, Mr. Marcum and that when you're married you have the letter r and are a Mrs. This led to more questions such as, "Does your Dad work at this school too?" Oh geez. I seriously had about 47 questions fired at me within a five minute time period. They wanted to know if I had any children. What my Dad's job was. If I was ever going to have a wedding. If I was in love. Why I wore a sparkly ring on my "wrong" hand. Then they began sharing that they had last names and that their parents got married and their moms were Mrs. so-and-so and that their parents had to kiss at their wedding. Oh Lord. On that note, I wrapped up calendar time, or what was supposed to be calendar time, and transitioned into Theme time. Next week we're going to be doing a unit called All About Me so that we can learn more about each other. Since the focus was all about getting to know all of the personal details about yours truly, I just rolled with it and shared what's called my "Me Box" with my class. I was required to make this in college and have kept it and share it with my students each year. The box holds things that I like and that help someone get to know about me.

I was sharing all of my fascinating tidbits and started telling them about my favorite animals. I held up a picture of a koala and told them one of my dreams was to go to Australia to hold one. One of the boys said, "You should be on The Bachelorette!! Then you could go to Australia AND you could fall in love!" He was dead serious. I then asked the rest of the class if they thought I should apply to be on The Bachelorette and they all agreed. They said I needed to fall in love and kiss a boy so that I could get a different last name.
Problem solved. 5 year olds figured it out for me. Get on The Bachelorette and kill two birds with one stone. Take my dream vacation to Australia and kiss a boy to result in a last name change. We solve the problems of the world in kindergarten.

So yes. As a student that I had 3 years ago would always say, I'm the Ms. Marcum "without the r in her name".  :)