This one is in the cafeteria (obviously) and if you look closely you may notice that the scarecrow is holding an apple and drinking some milk.  It's my favorite part.



We have a "food of the month".  October is Apple month.  November is Potato, which in my opinion is much harder.  This board is also in the cafeteria.



This board is in the hallway, between the computer classroom and the reading help classroom.  I recently put up two new boards in the computer room and I will try to post some pictures of those next week.

This week in the cafeteria I learned ALOT.

~Kids will say the darndest things. This week I heard one 2nd grader say to another 2nd grader "Hello my brother from another mother."  An aide was also asked by one kindergartner if she would move another kindergartner to a different table because "he has willy smelly bref."

~I don't care what the naked chef says freeze dried mashed potatoes rock.  At school we get these tiny little kernels of mashed potatoes in a bag.  You add water and in minutes you have mashed potatoes.  These aren't the flakes...these are magic mashed potato balls.

~It's my stem.  This was a phrase I said over and over on the day I decided to wear a jack-o-lantern shirt and a "stem" on my head. 

~Drop a tray day.  This week seemed like it was drop a tray day everyday.  I think we are going to have to start adding at least an extra five into the daily count to make up for the "Oh nos" and the "Ought ohs..."

~Kids know how to cheer you up.  Even on days when you think everyone around you SUCKS.  Little kids (and co-workers who care) can really cheer you up.

What did you learn this week?

Helen Keller once said "Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow."

Today I am working hard at keeping my face in the sunshine.

I am taking the high road when I would rather yell a four letter word.

I am swallowing my pride and keeping my head held high.

I often tell my tweenager to remember that if you wouldn't say it to that persons face you shouldn't say it online. That is great advice. I should know, I said it.

Today, I'm following it. I'm keeping my face in the sunshine.

This blog post was inspired by Mama Kat. If you aren't visiting her, you should be.

Enjoy the sunshine.

This post about a pedophile that stole a picture of this blogger's deceased child off her blog really freaked me out. 

I mean really freaked me out.

In fact, right after I read it I put a plug in onto my blog that prevents people from stealing awesome pictures of my kids like these.  And I'm urging you to put the same plug in on your blog

Middle G and Big G at the wedding

My sweet little boy scout

As promised, here's my hippie picture. I think I may have missed my calling.
After our soccer game we drove about two hours for a family wedding. My husband's cousin got married in the mountains near this beautiful lake. The setting was gorgeous.

• Kids will do anything for a sticker.  Children in K-3 will actually eat their green beans if I give them a "prize".  Even if that prize is a Make Your Own Pizza sticker.

My oldest is almost 12.

It is hard for me to keep track of who is her friend, who used to be her friend, who is her frenemy, who is her enemy and who she thinks is cute.

I am at a complete loss as to how to help her.  I don't understand tween girls.

I don't like them.

They judge you by who you know, what you wear and who eats lunch with you.

I vividly remember how torturous "they" made my middle school years and I'm not ready for Oldest to have to endure this.  But I feel like my hands are completely and totally tied.

Even though these girls treat her like a tissue, she values their opinion more than mine.  If I tell her that she looks great in her new glasses, she thinks that I'm just saying that because I paid for them.  If the girl who fed her a dog biscuit last year says she like her glasses, oldest beams about it for three straight days.

Today there was bus drama.  Who sits with who and where they moved to after so-and-so got off the bus.  Who isn't talking to you, who is talking to you.  It makes your head hurt just trying to follow along.

"I have no friends," says oldest.  "No friends at all."

It hurts me to hear her say this and to not be able to fix it.

Today my baby turns seven!  I can't believe that he is already in the 1st grade.  It seems like yesterday we were driving home from the hospital and stopping at Wendy's for a bite to eat. 

What can I say...he's the third and I was hungry.  We really did stop there on the way home with all three kids when Little G was about 20 hours old.

On my baby's 7th birthday I am posting seven bits of useful advise.  Maybe someday he'll read these words and realize just how smart his mama is.

1. Girls do not have cooties.  In fact, many of them can swing a light saber better than some of the boys you know.
2. School is not something to cry about.
3. There are no monsters in your closet.  Really.  I checked.
4. Chocolate bars are not a breakfast food.
5. You likely will not find a job where you can be barefoot 24/7.  Shoes are just something you have to get used to.
6. Girls love boys who make them laugh.
7. There is a special spot in a mama's heart for her baby boy.

Happy Birthday Little G.

Here's what I learned in the cafeteria this week:

• When you are in kindergarten it is possible to lose three coats in one week.  I had to laugh when I showed a little girl where the lost and found was and she found three of her coats.  Her response "My mommy is gonna be willy happy you showed me this place."
• Manners are as out of date as Little House.  Remember when Laura used to say things like "Yes, Paw" and "Right away, Maw."  Now kids say things like "Where's my food?"  "I don't like that"  "Why do we have to have peas?"
• If a student has a balance of negative $10.00 I'm required to serve him/her a cheese sandwich and a milk.  If a teacher has a balance of negative $10.00 I'm supposed to smile and serve them like there isn't a double standard going on here.
• Folding towels is a billable activity in the cafeteria.  Creating bulletin boards for the computer room is not a billable activity in the cafeteria and must be removed from your time card...even if the principal asked you to do it. 
• If you get your picture taken for the yearbook, the company will give you a free portrait package with a bunch of wallets and even a few 5x7s.  Do you think I should put them in my Christmas cards?

What did you learn this week?

My son turns 7 next Tuesday, which I can barely believe.  He's my baby and it's hard to see him so independent, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't glad that he can get himself some breakfast.

That being said his birthday party is this weekend and here are a few things that are stressing me out.

1. My dad and step mom are coming as well as my mom and step dad.  I don't know about you but this makes for a Saturday Night Live skit.  Often times I find myself wondering how these strangers turned into my parents.
2. Throw in some stepparents and add some in laws and now you really have a party.  The sad thing is that I see my in laws way more often than I see my own parents so I'm actually more comfortable around them.
3. Years of birthday parties have taught me a few things.  Don't make them very long.  If you don't want to serve lunch or supper have them in the mid-afternoon.  Always have alcohol....not for the kids but for the grownups.
4. Crafts and boys.  All of my kids, including my son, love to make crafts, color, paint, glue, use glitter....you name it.  The problem is that I've come to find out that not all boys like to craft.  Little G wants to paint some ceramic dogs at his party.  I'm stressed thinking about handfuls of boys with paintbrushes in my kitchen.  I should probably put the real dog outside.
5. Gift boxes.  For some reason I'm ALWAYS afraid that I'm going to run out of them.
6. The cake.  This year my son wants me to make a dog cake.  I looked everywhere for a cake pan--no dogs--no bones.  I'm winging it with two heart shaped cake pans.  This may turn out disastrous.
7. Presents.  Anyone else have too much crap?  I'm actually not sure I can take any more Lego's, cars, light sabers or Nerf guns.  I want to raise my children to be grateful and respectful and sometimes I feel like birthday parties teach ungratefulness and disrespect.

Of course, getting to watch my son blow out the candles, seeing his face when he opens that gift he "just had to have" and hearing him say "this was the bestest day ever" make me forget all the above.

It has been a long time since I've re-caped anything on television.  I spent a lot time over the last few years writing recaps of LOST and since the big finale last May, I haven't recapped a thing.

Raising Hope is a new comedy on FOX.  I have seen all four episodes and they are snort out loud, gut wrenching funny. 

Here's the premise.

Jimmy is a dorky young adult who lives with his maw maw, his dad and his mom.  Maw Maw is off her rocker and is often half naked and thinks Jimmy is her dead husband.  In the pilot, Jimmy leaves the house to fetch some ice cream, ends up picking up some chick and gets a little lucky.

Turns out the girl is a serial killer and when she gives birth to Jimmy's baby on death row, Jimmy ends up with Hope, formerly known as Princess Beyonce.

Mom spends most of the first episode encourage Jimmy to drop the baby off at the fire department.

In this weeks episode, mom is reliving all of the terrible family photos they have had over the years.  Anyone who has ever been forced into a picture they didn't want to have taken can relate to this episode.

At once point, I laughed so hard I had tears in my eyes.

If you watch this episode, you gonna wanna watch'em all.

Best new comedy of 2010!   Let me know if you agree.

Dear Weekend,

Thank you for the beautiful fall weather.  I so enjoyed the crisp morning air and the gentle afternoon breeze. The fam and I had fun at the Ren Fair though I'm still not sure this is a family event.  Every time we go, I feel like I can no longer be surprised by people but then alas I am surprised.

Here's what I learned in the cafeteria this week:

• A butt smacking good time.  I was walking up the stairs to fetch dirty silverware from the teacher's lounge when I felt someone whack me on the butt.  Who is it?  A second grader.  We promptly had a chat about what is appropriate and what is not.
• Elementary school is a big place.  This week I found a 1st grader just standing at the bottom of the stairs crying.  She couldn't find her way to music.  We promptly had a chat about why standing alone crying is an ineffective solution to just about any problem.
• Milketerian:  I had a little boy tell me at breakfast the he is a milketerian.  "That means I don't drink no milk," he said.  I explained that if a vegetarian eats only vegetables than a milketerian should only drink milk.  He just laughed at me.
• Bulletin Boards:  Just when you think no one is noticing all the work you put into the decorations and the bulletin boards some little kindergarten says, "Those 'piders are scary" while pointing at the bats your co-worker hung.
• Offer vs serve:  It is better to serve peaches to everyone and have them throw them away or is it better to offer the peaches and have no one take them?  "Is that applesauce?"  Really....what color applesauce do you eat at your house?

What did you learn this week?

Imagine having to go into this house to kill all those roaches. No thank you. This makes anything I have to do in the cafeteria look like walking through a bed of roses.





Road kill cleaner. I'm glad there are people willing to do this. I am not one of them.





Sheep castrator. Again. Not. Doing. That! Makes you happy to see scrambled eggs in a bag.

We had a harried weekend filled with soccer, musicals and football.

On Friday, hubby and I went to see the high school game.  It started off pretty well, but then ended in a pounding.  We lost 40-13.

Saturday was a whirlwind.  I had to take Middle G to the doctors office to have some weird mouth sore of hers looked at. 

Then we had to leave shortly after lunch to get to her soccer game which was in BFE.  In case you were wondering we lost....AGAIN.  This time 8-0.

After that, the in-laws, the kids and hubby and I went to a sight-and-sound theatre to see a performance of Joseph.  It was really good, but a little long for the younger two kids.  Oldest really enjoyed it.

It started at 4:15 but wasn't over to close to 7 and we were all starving.  I don't know about you but I don't do well when I'm hungry.  I'm easily annoyed and quick to snap.

That evening we watched Penn State lose to Iowa.  Not a great football weekend.

Sunday I scrap booked a little and finished making Little Gs birthday invites.  I'll post a picture of them later this week.  He is having a dog birthday party.

We watched the Steelers gift wrap the football game and hand it over to the Ravens.  I HATE the Ravens.

Here's hoping you had a great weekend.

~Kisa

Here's a few things I learned in the cafeteria this week.

• Dependent.  We are raising a very dependent generation.  I saw third graders just standing at the condiment table this week waiting helpless for someone to come along and put salad dressing on their salad.  Seriously?  Aren't you 9?
• Hungry.  These kids are hungry for all the wrong things.  If you only eat the hot dog, You are going to be starving.  Why not take a fruit?  Why not try the beans?  Just because it looks different doesn't make it yucky.
• Ice Tea and Soda. It's okay for some parents to send bottled iced tea and soda with their children to eat with their breakfast.  Are you serious?  Your kid is in the 2nd grade and you are teaching them to drink a Mt. Dew with their cinnamon rolls.  NOT ALLOWED.  Keep your high fructose corn syrup at home.
• Reimbursable meals.  I'm certain that even if I work in the cafeteria for many years I will never understand the government guidelines that regulate meals.  How is it possible that a student can just take a side salad and a pbj?  What about milk?  Shouldn't that be required for all those not allergic?
• Soy.  This little ingredient is going to be the death of me.  This week we found it in hot dog buns, bread, saltines, chicken nuggets, spaghetti shells, and processed government eggs.  Makes you wonder what else we are eating doesn't it?

What did you learn this week?