Is it possible to love someone that you don't know? Well, some would probably disagree, but I have to say yes, absolutely.
Thursday night I got a text from Jody, saying that Mel was having contractions. Nothing serious, but since we had arranged that I would watch Kian when the time came, he was giving me a heads up, just in case. Well, at 4:30 Friday morning I got a call from Jody. "It's baby time!" Long story short, I drove over, they drove to Peaster. Kian woke up, was incredibly angry to find me in his house instead of his parents, cried for about 45 minutes and went back to bed until 11:30.
Eli was born somewhere around 10, and when Kian woke up, I called his dad so he could ask if it was a boy or a girl. On hearing that it was a boy, he immediately decided his name should be Rusty Rust. Jesse came over after work and battled Kian's ogre with Kian's dragon until Jody, Mel, and baby Eli got home around 4:30.
One of the most amazing things is seeing a child become a big sibling. Kian is one of the most loud, constantly going, rambunctious little boys I have ever met, but the moment he set eyes on baby, he was a big brother. Little kids' "aawwwe!"s are so adorable, and seeing the four of them there was beautiful. Kian kept trying to touch Eli's head, and hold him, and Jody was trying to keep Kian from accidentally kicking him in the head, or knocking him over. It didn't matter how many times you explained to him that babies' heads are fragile, and Kian is not very gentle, he just wanted to love on his little brother, and he wouldn't back off.
That, my friends, is a prime example of loving someone without knowing them. Eli is a part of their family, and has been for quite some time. They all love him, even Kian, who is only 5, and loved him before they even met him.
Another type of love attacked us at church on Sunday. I guess we've been around long enough everyone decided at the same time it was time to rope us in. Maybe they discussed it at the last business meeting and wrote up a plan of attack. They are Baptists, after all... older man always greets us at the door, and this week he stopped us, told us that he loves us, and that he hopes we will join the church. He said that he felt like he needed to talk to us about it, because we're good prospects, and it's a good church. Being a PK, I understand when people see you as a "prospect", and I appreciated him taking the time to talk to us, even if it was a little awkward. I'm not sure if Jesse saw as quite such a normal conversation to have, but that's ok. I don't even know how many people came up to us that day to talk to us, introduce themselves or other people, invite us over for dinner, and just tell us that they're happy to have us around. It was nice. It was a bit overwhelming, but it is good to feel loved, even when it is coming from people you hardly know. I'm sure there are plenty of not so great things that you can say about Texans, but they sure seem to know how to love on people, and that makes up for alot.
Thursday, October 24, 2013
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Stuff and Nonsense
It has been too long since I have written anything. It's probably because things really are settling down and becoming more like home. The everyday occurrences are less novel now than they were. But I am trying to keep everyone up to date, so I will try to amuse you with a few short stories.
As you know, I have started substitute teaching at the elementary schools, and it has been great! People say bad things about the schools here, but they seem to be ok from a sub's perspective. The kids all seem good, the teachers act like they care, everyone is nice, the principals do lunch duty...it's not bad. I subbed for the dual language Kindergarten classroom last week, and that one was a bit of an adventure. The morning went fine, I had a helper, she's hispanic, soft spoken, and has a pretty thick accent, so I can hardly understand her, but the kids know what she's saying, so that's good. Thankfully, it was an English week, so they had to speak english, but I did get to sit through her Spanish Language Arts lesson. One girl asked me "What are you doing here?" And I was just like, "I don't even know. I'm just along for the ride right now." After lunch I picked them up from recess, and my helper had disappeared into thin air. The recess teachers told me that "the one that doesn't speak much english in the red shirt" was complaining that he didn't feel well, but they all whine all the time because they want to go see the nurse, so I didn't think much of it, and we went inside to start our math test. Partway through the math test he started crying and causing a ruckus, so I sent him off to the nurse with one of the other kids, because nobody was getting any math done. Well the nurse wasn't in her office, so I had him sit on the carpet, where he proceeded to cry and kick his feet and pound on the floor and ask for him mama. Great. He was creating a lovely atmosphere for the others to focus on math, of course. Well that went on until he suddenly stood up and started vomiting bright blue. It was like somebody dumped a blue slurpee all over the floor. Everybody started yelling, I took him into the bathroom, but the toilet was clogged and it stank, which I didn't figure was going to help him, so I took him back out (the whole time he was following me around and leaving a blue trail behind us) and went into the hall. Mrs. Cyprian's classroom was right across the hall and her door was open, so I left him in the hallway and tried to explain what was going on without totally upsetting her class as well. "Um, Mrs. Cyprian? I have a child out here that's....vomiting blue stuff everywhere." I don't think I accomplished my purpose. She was so nice, she called the office for me, which reminded me that all classrooms have an intercom that goes to the office. That would have been handy.
Anyway, long story short, he finished puking, I put paper towels over all the puddles, because there were absolutely no cleaning supplies in the entire classroom, finished up the math test, and was just getting them lined up and ready to go to the bathroom before the field trip when the janitor came in. I don't think he was very happy with me. He told me next time that I should give him a trashcan. That would have been smart. I did not use my noggin. Anyway, we were all using the bathroom, and I was planning on dropping the little sicko off at the office on our way out, when my helper came back. She rattled off some things in spanish, felt his forehead, and said he was fine and put him on the bus with us. I'm really not certain what I should have done there. I'm pretty sure that when a kid starts puking, you're supposed to send them home. Especially because another teacher came in at the end of the day, somehow got wind of it, and looked at me and said "and why is he still here?" Great. That was totally not my fault. So I tried to explain, and the kids all started yelling "You said we weren't going to talk about it!" And my helper lady said "he didn't have a fever" and I said "I think it was just the ice cream..." And eventually the lady shrugged and left. So I don't think I got into any trouble...But I still feel bad. He did fine the rest of the day, but I was exhausted.
Later that night, we went back to Mary's with Jason and his family before the football game (we seem to be establishing a Friday night routine) and I encountered the 8lb cheeseburger. I don't really know how big it was, but it was about an inch and a half thick. It was seriously massive, and it took me half an hour to eat it. I finished it, though! Everyone was amazed, and accused Jesse of helping, but he didn't even finish his chicken strips, and I ate some of his fries and toast while waiting an hour for my food. That place is fantastic, but it takes a long time to get anything. Oh, I also had a slurpee drinking contest with Jason on the drive over. I think I won, but he was in his own car, so I really don't know. It was a big food day.
Apparently Jason asked Jesse why I never talk...I was tired and grumpy the last time we went out with them, and I will admit that I was kind of a poop face. So I tried my best to be social and nice...but I'm just bad at it. I don't make friends well. I can do customer service like a champ, but that involves social encounters that only last for a minute or two, in which you have a pretty set script, rather than an entire evening at a football game where I have absolutely no idea how to carry on a conversation. I guess I'm going to have to get used to it. Jesse and Jason went to "stretch their legs" which was apparently a plot to leave me with all the womenfolk and force me to talk. Rude. But it worked, I guess. We talked a little. Oh, that reminds me...Jason's wife had a job interview this week. I ought to ask him how it went. Or have Jesse do it. That's easier.
Anyway. Things have been going well here. I've started getting a few more kids in my dance classes, we're going in this afternoon to get our drivers licenses, and the weather has definitely cooled down. We even lit the heaters today. They're super old school, propane, light them with a lighter kind of deal. They've heated about half the house, which is better than nothing. Let's see....anything else? I got a new phone yesterday and it's so giant it hardly fits in my hand...I got my debit card that is hooked to Jesse's bank accounts...and that's about it.
As you know, I have started substitute teaching at the elementary schools, and it has been great! People say bad things about the schools here, but they seem to be ok from a sub's perspective. The kids all seem good, the teachers act like they care, everyone is nice, the principals do lunch duty...it's not bad. I subbed for the dual language Kindergarten classroom last week, and that one was a bit of an adventure. The morning went fine, I had a helper, she's hispanic, soft spoken, and has a pretty thick accent, so I can hardly understand her, but the kids know what she's saying, so that's good. Thankfully, it was an English week, so they had to speak english, but I did get to sit through her Spanish Language Arts lesson. One girl asked me "What are you doing here?" And I was just like, "I don't even know. I'm just along for the ride right now." After lunch I picked them up from recess, and my helper had disappeared into thin air. The recess teachers told me that "the one that doesn't speak much english in the red shirt" was complaining that he didn't feel well, but they all whine all the time because they want to go see the nurse, so I didn't think much of it, and we went inside to start our math test. Partway through the math test he started crying and causing a ruckus, so I sent him off to the nurse with one of the other kids, because nobody was getting any math done. Well the nurse wasn't in her office, so I had him sit on the carpet, where he proceeded to cry and kick his feet and pound on the floor and ask for him mama. Great. He was creating a lovely atmosphere for the others to focus on math, of course. Well that went on until he suddenly stood up and started vomiting bright blue. It was like somebody dumped a blue slurpee all over the floor. Everybody started yelling, I took him into the bathroom, but the toilet was clogged and it stank, which I didn't figure was going to help him, so I took him back out (the whole time he was following me around and leaving a blue trail behind us) and went into the hall. Mrs. Cyprian's classroom was right across the hall and her door was open, so I left him in the hallway and tried to explain what was going on without totally upsetting her class as well. "Um, Mrs. Cyprian? I have a child out here that's....vomiting blue stuff everywhere." I don't think I accomplished my purpose. She was so nice, she called the office for me, which reminded me that all classrooms have an intercom that goes to the office. That would have been handy.
Anyway, long story short, he finished puking, I put paper towels over all the puddles, because there were absolutely no cleaning supplies in the entire classroom, finished up the math test, and was just getting them lined up and ready to go to the bathroom before the field trip when the janitor came in. I don't think he was very happy with me. He told me next time that I should give him a trashcan. That would have been smart. I did not use my noggin. Anyway, we were all using the bathroom, and I was planning on dropping the little sicko off at the office on our way out, when my helper came back. She rattled off some things in spanish, felt his forehead, and said he was fine and put him on the bus with us. I'm really not certain what I should have done there. I'm pretty sure that when a kid starts puking, you're supposed to send them home. Especially because another teacher came in at the end of the day, somehow got wind of it, and looked at me and said "and why is he still here?" Great. That was totally not my fault. So I tried to explain, and the kids all started yelling "You said we weren't going to talk about it!" And my helper lady said "he didn't have a fever" and I said "I think it was just the ice cream..." And eventually the lady shrugged and left. So I don't think I got into any trouble...But I still feel bad. He did fine the rest of the day, but I was exhausted.
Later that night, we went back to Mary's with Jason and his family before the football game (we seem to be establishing a Friday night routine) and I encountered the 8lb cheeseburger. I don't really know how big it was, but it was about an inch and a half thick. It was seriously massive, and it took me half an hour to eat it. I finished it, though! Everyone was amazed, and accused Jesse of helping, but he didn't even finish his chicken strips, and I ate some of his fries and toast while waiting an hour for my food. That place is fantastic, but it takes a long time to get anything. Oh, I also had a slurpee drinking contest with Jason on the drive over. I think I won, but he was in his own car, so I really don't know. It was a big food day.
Apparently Jason asked Jesse why I never talk...I was tired and grumpy the last time we went out with them, and I will admit that I was kind of a poop face. So I tried my best to be social and nice...but I'm just bad at it. I don't make friends well. I can do customer service like a champ, but that involves social encounters that only last for a minute or two, in which you have a pretty set script, rather than an entire evening at a football game where I have absolutely no idea how to carry on a conversation. I guess I'm going to have to get used to it. Jesse and Jason went to "stretch their legs" which was apparently a plot to leave me with all the womenfolk and force me to talk. Rude. But it worked, I guess. We talked a little. Oh, that reminds me...Jason's wife had a job interview this week. I ought to ask him how it went. Or have Jesse do it. That's easier.
Anyway. Things have been going well here. I've started getting a few more kids in my dance classes, we're going in this afternoon to get our drivers licenses, and the weather has definitely cooled down. We even lit the heaters today. They're super old school, propane, light them with a lighter kind of deal. They've heated about half the house, which is better than nothing. Let's see....anything else? I got a new phone yesterday and it's so giant it hardly fits in my hand...I got my debit card that is hooked to Jesse's bank accounts...and that's about it.
Sunday, October 6, 2013
Company Soup
I never thought that football would make me miss home. We went to another game with Jason on Friday, and this time Jody and Kian came with us. The cheerleaders throw candy and Tshirts every time they get a touchdown, and Kian ended up with tons of tootsie rolls. Needless to say, he got pretty excited about the whole thing, jumping up and down, cheering, yelling, running around with Jason's kids, nephews, and any other stray children he could find. But it really did make me miss Oregon. It wasn't really like Oregon, it was warm, there were only 12 kids on the field, they prayed before the game and announced that they were raffling off a rifle, but there's something about it...I guess it's mostly missing Dance Team. It was homecoming week at OC, and I know that the Jets were dancing with the band, and Mac Attack was being crowned homecoming queen. It's silly, because even if I was in Oregon, I wouldn't have been there, but it makes me miss them, all the same.
We hit an armadillo on the way home. It was the first one I had seen. Jody was surprised that Jesse would hit it on purpose, and Kian was very concerned, until he remembered that Armadillos have armor and therefore cannot die. We also saw a sweet lightning storm that was happening to the West (maybe? I'm bad with directions) of us. Kian called it a rainbow lightning storm, and it was pretty cool to watch.
Saturday morning Jesse went out to dig a hole for his pig bait. He's had corn and yeast and koolaid and I don't even know what all else in a bucket fermenting for a couple days now, so we drove it out to one of the tanks (they call ponds "tanks" here) and dug a hole, but so far nothing has shown up. We drove out again last night to check.
Jason and his brother in law were supposed to come out yesterday and shoot, but it was only about 60 degrees yesterday, and the wind was blowing pretty hard, plus it rained for a while, so the Texans opted out. It is difficult to shoot with a strong wind, I guess. So we ate pizza and played GTA, and they decided to come out today instead.
In their honor, we commited a cardinal sin and skipped church. At about 9:30 Jason texted Jesse and said that he was on the way with 16 people. Jesse asked if we could feed 16 people, because I had made a pot of sopa de maiz and had told Jason that we would feed them. Well, my response was that you can always stretch soup, so I added another can of corn, some more milk and boullion, and called it good. Shortly after, Jason said "Oh, did I say 16? I meant 4." He's going to have to learn not to joke about cooking for an army, because I will do it. But that's ok. We will have plenty of soup in the freezer for days when I don't feel like cooking.
Jody and Kian also decided to join us today, and Kian got to shoot an AR for the first time. He was all over it. Jason's daughter Ashley is 9, and is also pretty excited about shooting. Jesse put a can of Tannerite under an orange cube and she shot it out from under in 1 shot, and it flew straight up into the air. Nobody told her what Tannerite would do, and she was all confused about where it went; she wanted to shoot it again.
At the end of the day, everybody got to shoot stuff, stuff got blown up, Kian cried because he didn't want to leave, and Jesse and I sat down to a giant pot of company soup by ourselves. We'll be eating it for a while.
We hit an armadillo on the way home. It was the first one I had seen. Jody was surprised that Jesse would hit it on purpose, and Kian was very concerned, until he remembered that Armadillos have armor and therefore cannot die. We also saw a sweet lightning storm that was happening to the West (maybe? I'm bad with directions) of us. Kian called it a rainbow lightning storm, and it was pretty cool to watch.
Saturday morning Jesse went out to dig a hole for his pig bait. He's had corn and yeast and koolaid and I don't even know what all else in a bucket fermenting for a couple days now, so we drove it out to one of the tanks (they call ponds "tanks" here) and dug a hole, but so far nothing has shown up. We drove out again last night to check.
Jason and his brother in law were supposed to come out yesterday and shoot, but it was only about 60 degrees yesterday, and the wind was blowing pretty hard, plus it rained for a while, so the Texans opted out. It is difficult to shoot with a strong wind, I guess. So we ate pizza and played GTA, and they decided to come out today instead.
In their honor, we commited a cardinal sin and skipped church. At about 9:30 Jason texted Jesse and said that he was on the way with 16 people. Jesse asked if we could feed 16 people, because I had made a pot of sopa de maiz and had told Jason that we would feed them. Well, my response was that you can always stretch soup, so I added another can of corn, some more milk and boullion, and called it good. Shortly after, Jason said "Oh, did I say 16? I meant 4." He's going to have to learn not to joke about cooking for an army, because I will do it. But that's ok. We will have plenty of soup in the freezer for days when I don't feel like cooking.
Jody and Kian also decided to join us today, and Kian got to shoot an AR for the first time. He was all over it. Jason's daughter Ashley is 9, and is also pretty excited about shooting. Jesse put a can of Tannerite under an orange cube and she shot it out from under in 1 shot, and it flew straight up into the air. Nobody told her what Tannerite would do, and she was all confused about where it went; she wanted to shoot it again.
At the end of the day, everybody got to shoot stuff, stuff got blown up, Kian cried because he didn't want to leave, and Jesse and I sat down to a giant pot of company soup by ourselves. We'll be eating it for a while.
Wednesday, October 2, 2013
Teaching
On Monday I got the last of my paperwork done and watched the super old training videos (on VHS) so I could be cleared to sub. When I was done with all that, I went around to the schools to introduce myself, and everyone seemed pretty happy to see me. In fact, they asked me if I could work the next morning, so on Tuesday I got to substitute for the PE assistant at East Elementary, which is K-1st grade. That was probably the best way to start out, honestly. I got to meet all the kiddos, I didn't get stuck with one group all day, and I wasn't even the teacher, I was just assisting, so I didn't have to do anything for real. It was pretty sweet. We only had one child completely melt down and cry so much that he left a puddle on the floor, so I would consider it a success.
I did discover one very amusing thing. Tiny Texans' accents are so much funnier than adult Texans! They're all these little babies running around with the thickest drawls I have ever heard. One said "I was fixin' to tell her that!" and it cracked me up. I don't think I've heard a 7 year old say they were "fixin" to do anything. They all sound like Honey Boo Boo. It's pretty great. But the gym floor is concrete, and my feet were killing me by the end of the day. I think I pulled a muscle in my left foot, or something, because it has been sore for two weeks, now, and after I got off work and picked up Jesse, we went to WalMart, and it popped and it hurt so bad I thought I had just ripped my foot in half. But then it was fine and wasn't sore or anything, until I went running this morning and now it's back. I don't understand it. It's not even like I got new shoes, or anything...The shoes I run in are either my trainers that I got last year, or my old running shoes that I've been running in for 5 years and never had a problem with. Maybe that's the problem...They are getting pretty old. My toes almost fall out of them.
But anyway. I thought I had a toddler class this morning at 11:45, and then a FunJam class at 4:30, but it turns out that my toddler class was at 1:15 and then FunJam is at 4, which was confusing, but that's a long story. It's Homecoming week and everyone is confused, especially cheer people who are planning the parade and all that jazz. So I went to Party Planet at 1:00, was shown where all the smoothie stuff is and how to sign people up and stuff, if need be, and then nobody showed up. That wasn't very surprising, though, because there was only one signed up and she's in 2nd grade, so she couldn't have been there for the morning class anyway. They must have checked the wrong box and meant the later one. So hopefully I will have at least two tonight, but you never know, because it's homecoming. I guess I will just have to wait and see.
I left my lights on this morning again (I know...it's bad. I even thought about it as I was parking and still somehow managed to not shut them off), so my car was dead, so I had to jump it before I went into town, but I guess the drive in wasn't enough to charge it. When I tried to leave, my car was dead again, so Jesse had to come over in the company car and jump it. But while I was waiting for him I danced around in the gym, and oh my goosey hoover, it is so much fun to dance on those springy floors! I love it! It was all big, and bouncy and stuff....super awesome. I should have just told Jesse not to worry about it and stayed and danced by myself for two and a half hours. But it's probably better. I probably would have gotten some wild idea to teach myself how to back handspring again, and then broken my neck and nobody would have had any idea until 4:00. And my foot was hurting, because I am a baby.
So hopefully I will have some kids tonight, but if not, maybe I will get to learn how to tumble for real....but probably not, because Stan Carstons has a Tahoe that we need to look at.
I did discover one very amusing thing. Tiny Texans' accents are so much funnier than adult Texans! They're all these little babies running around with the thickest drawls I have ever heard. One said "I was fixin' to tell her that!" and it cracked me up. I don't think I've heard a 7 year old say they were "fixin" to do anything. They all sound like Honey Boo Boo. It's pretty great. But the gym floor is concrete, and my feet were killing me by the end of the day. I think I pulled a muscle in my left foot, or something, because it has been sore for two weeks, now, and after I got off work and picked up Jesse, we went to WalMart, and it popped and it hurt so bad I thought I had just ripped my foot in half. But then it was fine and wasn't sore or anything, until I went running this morning and now it's back. I don't understand it. It's not even like I got new shoes, or anything...The shoes I run in are either my trainers that I got last year, or my old running shoes that I've been running in for 5 years and never had a problem with. Maybe that's the problem...They are getting pretty old. My toes almost fall out of them.
But anyway. I thought I had a toddler class this morning at 11:45, and then a FunJam class at 4:30, but it turns out that my toddler class was at 1:15 and then FunJam is at 4, which was confusing, but that's a long story. It's Homecoming week and everyone is confused, especially cheer people who are planning the parade and all that jazz. So I went to Party Planet at 1:00, was shown where all the smoothie stuff is and how to sign people up and stuff, if need be, and then nobody showed up. That wasn't very surprising, though, because there was only one signed up and she's in 2nd grade, so she couldn't have been there for the morning class anyway. They must have checked the wrong box and meant the later one. So hopefully I will have at least two tonight, but you never know, because it's homecoming. I guess I will just have to wait and see.
I left my lights on this morning again (I know...it's bad. I even thought about it as I was parking and still somehow managed to not shut them off), so my car was dead, so I had to jump it before I went into town, but I guess the drive in wasn't enough to charge it. When I tried to leave, my car was dead again, so Jesse had to come over in the company car and jump it. But while I was waiting for him I danced around in the gym, and oh my goosey hoover, it is so much fun to dance on those springy floors! I love it! It was all big, and bouncy and stuff....super awesome. I should have just told Jesse not to worry about it and stayed and danced by myself for two and a half hours. But it's probably better. I probably would have gotten some wild idea to teach myself how to back handspring again, and then broken my neck and nobody would have had any idea until 4:00. And my foot was hurting, because I am a baby.
So hopefully I will have some kids tonight, but if not, maybe I will get to learn how to tumble for real....but probably not, because Stan Carstons has a Tahoe that we need to look at.
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