pokey sticks

Michelle Quote 2

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 23:19:26 -0800

Michelle: That’s like...like....so un-wow!!
(Translation: How very anti-climactic.)

Michelle Quote

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 23:18:08 -0800

Our microwave was on a defrost cycle, making it quieter than normal.
Michelle: What’s wrong with our microwave?! It’s like it’s on stealth mode or something!

Pilgrims and such...

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:12:48 -0800

Today we made pilgrims, complete with the black buckled hats. We had yarn to glue on for their hair but Max used a crayon to give his pilgrim short, spiky hair.
Max: This is Teacher Becca the Pilgrim.

On cleaning up...

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:52:20 -0800

Today I was helping Sophia, Caden and Sam clean up.
Me: Good job Sophia! Good job Caden, nice helping. Good job Sam.
Caden: Good job Becca Teacher!

I’m not really a numbers girl...

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 14:49:05 -0800

This week on my lunch break I was walking to a nearby Starbucks when I came face to face with Debbie, one of my housemates from Multnomah days. Talk about a surprise!
She invited me to go to church with her and her husband this Sunday. I agreed.
At the appointed time I was standing in front of my apartment building. Then I heard the train. It was a long one...a very long one. And guess who was stuck in the line of cars on the other side.
When Deb, Joe and sister Sarah finally picked me up we were already late for church. Since we were so close to the Pearl church, I suggested we go there instead. According to the new service times, their service was starting right then. We’d be a little late, but still fashionably so.
They agreed, and we headed purposefully to the Pearl.
When we got there they were nearing the end of a song. Naturally, the only available seats were in the front row, so I bravely led the way. After parading down the aisle, we rustled through our programs to find the words to the responsive reading. I looked all over the beginning of the program and couldn’t find where we were reading from. Then the leader asked us to stand for the benediction. The what?!
My friend Brian was leading worship. I don’t know how he kept from cracking up as he watched me search the beginning of my program for the words, especially when the word “benediction” sunk in and realization washed over my face. We had paraded in to the front row for the last minute and a half of the service.
Turns out the new service times don’t start til AFTER Thanksgiving.
Brian DID crack up after the service as he congratulated us on being so early for the second service! Haha.

Later, Sarah asked me how many square feet my apartment was. I told her I had NO idea...I’m not really a numbers girl.
She quipped back: Yeah, we noticed. =)

Fall

Sun, 8 Nov 2009 21:51:29 -0800

I love fall leaves! I’ve been enjoying them every morning from my window and each day as I walk to work.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Sun, 8 Nov 2009 20:53:54 -0800

The Friday before Halloween the kids could bring their costumes to Preschool and wear them after nap time. We were having a Harvest Festival on the playground complete with decorations the kids had made, carnival games, spiced cider, and of course, prizes! We got a staff memo to come to work in our costumes too.
Everyone I talked to had costumes from previous years
they were planning on wearing. There would be a the
wicked witch of the west, Glenda the good witch, a
ladybug, a ninja, Raggedy Ann, a Geisha, etc. I had
NO idea what to dress up as. I couldn’t believe how
professional and expensive Halloween costumes had
become.
So, in lieu of spending money, I got creative and fun.
I decided to be a character from a kids’ book.
On Monday I asked the kids what they thought I should
be. We came up with a gillion cool ideas....made me
want to have Halloween for a whole week!
On Tuesday I decided on the very hungry caterpillar.
I got pipe cleaners, pink hair dye and free cardboard
from my local Safeway.
On Wednesday the kids helped me paint the circles
during afternoon art time.
On Thursday I checked out the book from the library.
On Friday I came to work as the very hungry caterpillar!
The kids were really excited that I was wearing something they had helped make. We read the book at least 3 times that morning. That afternoon I helped out in all the other classrooms. I brought the book with me, of course! The Twos and Todds liked it so much I read it five times in each class. I can definitely add this title to the books I have memorized. =)
On Saturday I didn’t make a cocoon or turn into a butterfly...too bad. But I did put my costume in recycling...who knows what it will end up becoming! =)

The legend lives on...

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 22:09:59 -0700

2 year olds class Teacher (reading a book of opposites): Up, Down....Day, Night....Pokey, Smooth....
2 year old sitting in my lap: whips his head around to look at me
Me: ...
2 year old: You’re pokey!

Shout out to Krissy Jones who first coined the term “pokey sticks!”

Pumpkin Day

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 21:09:33 -0700

Michele and I celebrated our own little Pumpkin Day today! Two orange pumpkins had been patiently waiting to be carved all week, so we decided to go all out with the pumpkin festivities. Michelle bought a pumpkin carving kit. I baked a pumpkin pie.
(The first time I ever baked one myself...
delightfully easy, even though I cheated on
the crust and used the wrong kind of canned
milk...oh well! I used the recipe from the
cookbook pages you made for me, Andrea!)
I even found $5 Halloween shirts at Old Navy.
You know you’re official when you have
matching shirts!
We turned up the music, broke out the carving
kit and got messy. When we were done we lit
the candles, served the pie and savored the
flavor in the glow of our jack-o-lanterns.
Ahhh! Happy Pumpkin Day to all!

PS: My pumpkin is the pirate
and Michelle’s is the bat and
the moon!

Lunch Break

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 12:29:56 -0700

I’ve been spending my lunch breaks reading on a sunny church-yard bench or curled up with hot tea at Starbucks. “Sailing Alone Around the Room,” a collection of poems by Billy Collins, has captivated me. Here are some favorite excerpts:

Consolation
How agreeable it is not to be touring Italy this summer,
wandering her cities and ascending her torrid hill towns, how much better to cruise these local, familiar streets,
fully grasping the meaning of every road sign and billboard
and all the sudden hand gestures of my compatriots.

There are no abbeys here, no crumbling frescoes or famous
domes and there is no need to memorize a succession
of kings or tour the dripping corners of a dungeon.
No need to sand around a sarcophagus, see Napoleon’s
little bed on Elba, or view the bones of a saint under glass.

How much better to command the simple precent of home
than be dwarfed by pillar, arch and basilica.
Why hide my head in phrase books and wrinkled maps?
Why feed scenery into a hungry, one-eyed camera
eager to eat the world one monument at a time?

Instead of slouching in a cafe ignorant of the world for ice,
I will head down to the coffee shop and the waitress
known as Dot. I will slide into the flow of the morning
paper, all language barriers down,
rivers of idiom running freely, eggs over easy on the way.

And after breakfast, I will not have to find someone
willing to photograph me with my arm around the woner.
I will not puzzle over the bill or record in a journal
what I had to ea and how the sun came in the window.
It is enough to climb back into the car
as if it were the great car of English itself
and sounding my loud vernacular horn, speed off
down a road that will never lead to Rome, not even Bologna.

On Turning Ten
The whole idea of it makes me feel
like I’m coming down with something,
something worse than any stomach ache
or the headaches I get from reading in bad light-
a kind of measles of he spirit,
a mumps of the psyche,
a disfiguring chicken pox of the soul.

You tell me it is too early to be looking back,
bus that is because you have forgotten
the perfect simplicity of being one
and the beautiful complexity introduced by two.
But I can lie on my bed and remember every digit.
At four I was an Arabian wizard.
I could make myself invisible
by drinking a glass of milk a certain way.
At seven I was a soldier, at nine a prince.

But now I am mostly at the window
watching the late afternoon light.
Back then it never fell so solemnly
against the side of my tree house,
and my bicycle never leaned against the garage
as it does today,
all the dark blue speed drained out of it.

This is the beginning of sadness, I say to myself,
as I walk through the universe in my sneakers.
It is time to say good-bye to my imaginary friends,
time to turn the first big number.

It seems only yesterday I used to believe
there was nothing under my skin but light.
If you cut me I would shine.
But now when I fall upon the sidewalks of life,
I skin my knees, I bleed.

Library Books

Wed, 7 Oct 2009 20:32:17 -0700

I was so excited when I saw their faces smiling back at me from the stack of books: Charlie and Lola! I was picking out a book to read for group time at Preschool and seeing Charlie and Lola was like seeing old friends! We were DEFINITELY reading “I will never, not ever, eat a Tomato!” As I read, with a British accent of course, the kids corrected me every time I said “tom-ah-to.” No, it’s “to-may-to” they would say. And I would answer, yes, that’s how we say tomato, but Lola says “to-mah-to.” Today when another teacher read the book, they kids all corrected him. No, it’s “to-mah-to” they said! Yes!!
I decided I needed to bring more good friends to Preschool for reading time. I put all the books in the picture above on hold at the Library. Yesterday on my lunch break, I walked to the library and picked them up.
During afternoon free play time I sat in our book corner and started reading Knufflebunny and Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus to a couple kids. Before I could even finish reading every kid in the whole class was scooching into the book corner to listen. They LOVED both books...especially shouting NO to the pigeon and the Aggle flaggle klabble page in Kunfflebunny! They immediately wanted to read each book again. I read them 5 times each before telling them to go and play. Gotta love Mo Willems books!!
I get them out once or twice a day now. Yesterday morning as soon as I walked in the room Aaron came running over asking for Knufflebunny! It’s really fun to share books I love and see the kids love them too! Since I don’t need to actually read them anymore, I get to watch their faces as we read. They’re enthralled and delighted! Me too!!

PS Thinking of you, JV Kids, we fell in love with Mo Willems books together! They’ll always make me think of you!!

My New Job

Sun, 4 Oct 2009 17:39:52 -0700

I have a job! I am an Assistant Teacher in the Preschool class at the Children’s Garden, a child care center in downtown Portland. There are about 20 three year olds in our class, though not all of them come every day, and two other teachers. It’s a full time job with a regular schedule: 8-5, Monday through Friday.
I love kids...so it is great to get paid for working with them. We read books, do fun art projects, play with blocks and legos, play house, play outside, eat snacks, take naps and color.
I have worked one week so far. There are a lot of things to learn about how things run at the Children’s Garden, lots of name to learn: kids, staff, parents. And I’ve enjoyed the people I work with and had lots of fun with the kids!
I’m really thankful to have a job! It’s nice to have a regular schedule, and to be making the money I need to live.

I am SO not making this up!

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 11:31:25 -0700

One of the things i was looking forward to about living in America was actually living at my US address. There are a number of benefits to this...one of them being Amazon free super saver shipping! My Amazon address book has around 50 addresses in it...all people who let me order something and mail it to their house so they could bring or mail it to Europe for me. I had never before ordered something from Amazon and had it show up directly at MY HOUSE! That was all about to change! =)
I made a point to “need” to order a couple things from Amazon when I first got here. When my packaged came I was exuberant!! What an experience!
Yesterday two TCK books I’d ordered arrived from Amazon. When I opened the door, the UPS guy holding my packages said: “Oh! It’s you again! Did you already read the last book I brought you!”
YES!!! The Amazon delivery guy knows me!!! I’m obviously making good use of free super saver shipping! I LOVE living at my address! Be prepared, dude, we’re gonna be seeing a lot of each other!!