The Romancing of Mrs. M

Here is the definition of stress:

1.  You live 45 minutes from town.
2. You have to leave around 6:35am to get kids to school on time.
3.  The time is 6:27am.
4. A child shouts out that one of the calves is out of the cow pasture.
5. You call your husband to inform him of said calf, and he wants to let you know to drive slow because the roads are icy.

All I can say is thanks goodness for Handsome Dude.  As soon as he heard the shout that the calf was out, he hollered out “Got it!” and shifted right into Mini-David mode.  He ran out and got the job done in about 10 minutes.

He is getting pretty handy to have around.  And sweet.  He has all of his Halloween candy hidden away, but he knows I like Twix bars.  So this is what I see each night by my pillow:

Anyways, back to the stressful morning-the roads were indeed icy.  I saw three flipped cars on the way to school.  I drove much slower, and somehow, no one was tardy.

#winning

The heat is broken in my new car.  (#notwinning)  For some reason it is taking forever and a day for this to get fixed.  It is quite sad for us.  We are to be pitied, myself and the four Maliblahblah children.  David is not to be pitied.  He has heat in his work van.  The children and I must drive all around the world with blankets atop us and try to stay warm.  The heated seats in our fancy rig have been a life saver.  We just finished up the entire Little House series on audio books, and it was a great way for us to feel a connection to Laura Ingalls Wilder.  When she would travel by wagon she would put a hot iron at her feet and bundle up with blankets.  It really put us in the moment.  So there you go.

Life is, as usual, crazy busy.  All four kids are on a basketball team.  Teaching is busy.  Everything is busy.  I am tired.

I have this student.  We shall not say his real name, for that would not be cool.  We shall call him Norman, because I have always wanted to name an animal Norman and I keep forgetting.

Norman is quirky.  Oh, I love him.  He will bring me vast amounts of entertainment.  He is hilarious.  But he is coconuts.  Here is proof:

A) He tries to pick up my classroom phone because he wants to call his dad and say hi.

B)  When our class is traveling through the school, he gets turned around and joins other classrooms on the way to their destinations.

C)  Whilst swinging, he belts out, “I believe I can fly!” in his most bestest singing voice.

D)  He can read.  However, I had to do a nonsense word test with him (blahblahblah) and so the word is “tif”.  The student should say “t-i-f . . . tif.”  Norman says “t-i-f . . . bahnahnahnah.”  For all of them.

E)  I asked the class what plants need to grow.  His answer?  Water, sun, and oil.

F)  One day, I lost him.  Had to do an all call for him and everything.  (Teacher of the year!)  He was supposed to get on the bus, but he was nowhere to be found.  I ran to the bus, asked the bus driver to please wait as I had lost Norman.  She was less than impressed.  I ran through the building, checked the bathrooms-no Norman.  Found him soon after happily waiting and singing to himself at car pick up.

Me:  Buddy!  Why didn’t you get on the bus?

Norman:  I missed my dad and want him to pick me up instead!

Me:  Oh, dude.  It doesn’t work like that.

G)  While reading a story that had nothing to do with flooding-

Norman:  There was a flood in Casper, Wyoming!
Me (remembering he had recently moved her from out of state):  Oh, is that where you were from before you moved here?

Norman (looking at me as if I were an insane, crazy person):  No!  I’m from Cah-rad-do! (Colorado)

I have recently discovered Norman loves me.

Allow me to expand:  with the class, I was modeling how readers make connections with the text to themselves.  The kiddos then went off to read in their own books and see if they could make a connection with the text to their own lives.

Norman:  I have a connection!  In this book it looks like the girl wants to kiss her teacher!  Just like me!

As of late, Norman has asked me on many dates.

Norman:  Mrs. M!  Does Mr. M.  ever take you to the movies?

Me:  Sometimes.

Norman:  Does he buy you popcorn?

Me:  Sometimes.

Norman:  Wanna come to my house?  I have popcorn for you!

Here are the other “dates” I have been asked on by my pal, Norman:

“Mrs. M?  Wanna come to my house?  I have lots of orange gatorade.  You can have some!”

“My dad’s house is so so so fun.  Wanna come over and play on my Playstation?”

One day while coloring-

“Mrs. M, this is so fun.  You wanna come to my house and color with me?”

And yesterday-“Mrs. M!  Do you wanna swing with me?”

And I did.  And now I know that I am super old because it made me so dizzy.

Yesterday was a hard day at school (minus the swinging date, of course).  I had texted David that it was a bad day, but that was just about it.  At 4:00, he showed up to the school with coffee and switched me cars.  He told me to go home and he would pick up all the kids and come home later.

What-the what?!

So, of course I obliged.  I was so tired and had cried most of the morning.  (Teaching-not for the faint of heart).  Plus, David’s van has HEAT.

He later came home with pizza (the true key to my heart), chocolate, and flowers.  So that was amazing.

Between David and Norman, I am like the most romanced girl in the world right now!

Happy Saturday!