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Sunday, March 24, 2013

Lessons from the Lunchlady: sometimes you need to just drop the carrots

This week was filled with silly questions, a lot of AYFKM moments and some laughter.

Here's what we learned

Sometimes you just have to drop the carrots. After a freezer issue last week, my 30lb box if carrots turned into a really big carrot filled ice cube. Turns out if you drop the case on the floor, all becomes well again.

Can you give our teacher a message. While walking up to the teachers lounge I ran into two little kindergartners. They said, "Miss Wenny, If you see our teacher, can you tell her we are going home. I've got a bell-we ache and H has gotta bell-we ache and a headache." Um... "Are you driving yourself," I asked. They chuckled. "No. We's waiting for our wides at the nurse."

The wheels on the cart go round and round. How do you lose three wheels off of the same cart? I mean seriously? How do you do that? I don't know but I managed to do it.

Big Daddy Pizza. Dear Big Daddy, can't we just call you pizza? I mean even elementary kids think that name is ridiculous.

My coworkers got my back. I blogged earlier in the week about my terrible, good for nothing, really bad day and even when I had to abruptly leave my coworkers took care of everything. Even breakfast for the following day.

What did you learn this week?
Thursday, March 21, 2013

A simple little gift

These little onsie roses are so simple to make that I sort of wish I'd picked up some hats and little socks to toss in this bouquet as well.

What you'll need:

Floral tape
Floral wire
Some complimentary fake flowers
Vase of your choice
Tissue paper
Package of onsies, bibs, socks and/or caps

Basically, you fold the arms of the onsie in so that all sides are even and roll it into a sausage. Each onsie makes two roses.

I hope you have as much fun with this as I did. Don't get caught up on perfection. Every flower has its own personality.

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

My terrible, good for nothing, really bad day

I need a do over on today.

From the moment it started, it took a wrong turn.

I forgot my work badge. My kids never answer their cell phones. My house looks like crap. I can't catch up. Laundry is everywhere.

The 30lbs of carrots were frozen into a huge mass. I opened the case upside down. I snapped at my coworkers. All the produce didn't arrive. The cart carrying the produce lost three wheels at once and smashed some of the cucumbers.

Nothing was going right.

It has to get better right? Nope.

Just as I am about to have lunch, middle G's school nurse calls and says "G's tongue and throat are tingly after lunch. She gonna need to be evaluated."

Huh?

"What did she eat," I asked.

"Some kiwi and a pierogie."

"Is she having trouble breathing? Does she have hives? Is her tongue swollen? Is her throat constricted?"

"No. No. No. No."

I asked to speak to her and find out what was wrong first hand. Middle G told me her tongue felt "weird" and her throat was "scratchy". I still am not sure what's going on. Sounds like a mild reaction but still scarey.

The nurse takes the phone back from Middle G and says I need to come immediately. They can't continue to monitor her or answer my questions. I need to come right now.

So I tell my coworkers that I have to bail. That Middle G has a tingly tongue and needs to go to the doctor. I leave everything as is. It's a mess. Nothing is ready for tomorrow. No paperwork is complete. No breakfast is pulled.

I get there and find one school employee comforting Middle G and the school nurse armed with an Epipen and has my daughter hooked to a heart monitor. None of which were told to me. Just that her tongue was tingly.

I asked to get the ingredients to the pierogies and then I asked if Middle G was given any Benedryl. No. They don't have any there. Sigh. This seems like such a bad idea. If administered as soon as Middle G complained her symptoms may have significantly lessened.

Even though, at this point, I'm not convinced that a doctor will do anything more than give Middle G benedryl, we leave and go to urgent care.

While stuck in traffic on the way there, Middle G vomits all over the van but immediately feels better. This makes then trip significantly less terrifying but alot more smelly.

After being quickly evaluated, Middle G is given benedryl and a steroid. We are given a precautionary script for more steriod. Doctor says it was a mild reaction. Wouldn't recommend she carry a Epipen or anything. Can't say for certain, but it is more probable the kiwi than anything else. Would need further allergy testing to confirm. She should avoid it until confirmed.

I realize that everyone reacts to things differently than others. I have seen severe food allergy reactions first hand. I KNOW that they can not be taken lightly. However, today I felt like my reaction, or lack thereof, was being judged.

That it was being implied that I was reluctant to pick up my child simply because I wanted more information.

I don't like being judged. My kid will base her reaction on my reaction. If I come in there freaking out, she will freak out.

The first thing she asked me when we got to the van? "Am I going to die?"

I told her I didn't have that planned for today and she immediately lightened up and chuckled a little. She's not stupid. She knows when adults are panicked.

I wish this was the end to my bad day but alas it is not.

The garage door jammed.

My keys got stuck in the van ignition.

When I took the spot shot out to the garage to clean up the vomit it actually broke into four pieces. Really? How does a vacuum just break?

Finally free of vomit, I came inside to a rainstorm of glass when oldest daughter knocked one of my favorite wine glasses out of the shelf. It didn't just break. It imploded.

It's also garbage day and I had to take out the trash.

And I'm out of wine.

Where is the do over button?

Friday, March 8, 2013

Lessons from the Lunchlady

This week we had a snow day that was really a rain day, we served green eggs, we wore chef hats and we learned what makes a day awesome and what doesn't. Here's what I learned.

I do not like them Sam I am; I do not like green eggs and ham. I had a lot of fun attempting to color the scrabbled eggs on Monday. We had shades from shamrock shake to Oscar the grouch. Turns out if you mix the shamrock with the grouch you get a more authentic green. Who knew?

It is not the greatest day ever! When an entire second grade class squeezed into the elevator because a student with an injury couldn't take the stairs one little boy exclaimed "this is the greatest day ever" to which the teacher replied "one of our classmates has a disability. This is NOT the greatest day ever. "

Hello, I'm Janet. From the Department of Agriculture. AYFKM? Apparently a quick glance into the dry storage and the cold storage was all she needed to see. She was also very interested if I had prominately displayed my federally required poster indicating that all students are welcome no matter their race or economic status. The entire visit lasted less than 10 minutes.

Middle of the week snow day. The blizzard of 2013 turned into a mostly annoying rainstorm. The worst part about having a day off in the middle of the week is that Thursday starts to feel like Monday.

National school Breakfast week can be fun. We had a lot of new faces at breakfast this week and that's always exciting. What I learned from that is if you offer a prize, they will come.

What did you learn this week?

Friday, March 1, 2013

Lessons from the Lunchlady: your pajamas are kind of scarin' me.

It's read across America week and that means that just about every elementary school in the United States is doing something a little bit on the wacky side of things in an attempt to get children excited about reading.

We wore pajamas, we put on our Dr. Seuss and we got a little wacky. Honestly the week felt like it lasted 12 days.

Here's what I learned.

May the forks be with you. That's what my shirt said and a sweet little first grade busted up laughing explaining to me why it was soo funny. How cute are first graders?

No one takes you seriously when you wear a blue Holly Hobby bonnet. Our students couldn't believe that their beloved custodian Mr. G had on "baby's hat" on hat day. In their defense, he did look quite ridiculous.

Pajamas scare my principal. At least that's what I told the LIU preschool class when they asked why she wasn't dressed for bed. "Pajamas scare her. We should walk by quietly. Maybe she won't notice we're wearing them."

Puke-a-palooza has returned. Kids were dropping rapidly this week from the fever with a side of vomit virus. I'm hoping the big snow storm that is heading our way next week might kill some of these germs. Of course, keeping our hands to ourselves might also help. Kids touch each other...ALOT.

National school breakfast week. In case you didn't know there is actually a week of the year where we celebrate, of all things, school breakfast. More than 12 million kids will participate in the school breakfast program. I'm hoping to see some new faces next week where we'll be handing out yummy food and daily prizes. We're also letting those kids participating enter into a drawing for a Dr. Seuss prize package,

The kids were excited so I'm hoping they'll be allowed to come.

What did you learn this week? Will your school be doing something special for NSBW?





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kisatrtle
I'm a 41 year old (gasp) freelance writer, school cafeteria manager, wife and mother. I have three children and one anxious and overweight beagle. I use my blog to make others laugh, to share some cool crafts, to document my lunchlady adventures and to lament about the challenges faced by us all on the journey called life. Thanks for visiting. Please leave some crack...um...I meant some comments.
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