Giggles & Blessings

We started back to school today.

The kids are nice and tired - which is gReAt for me, since getting back to work after 2 weeks of laying around and sleeping in is less then an appealing idea.

Seriously.

Can I be on permanent vacation but still get paid?

In all honesty, long breaks aren't that great for me, since it gives me WAY to much time to sit around and think. I really struggled with my anxiety the last few weeks. This topic is worthy of a novel-lengthed blog entry or an entire 60 minute Oprah show, so I'll save that for later.

I'm working very hard at keeping positive, trying to stay out of my head (as my mom says, "Stay our of your head - it's a bad neighborhood." Which is very true. And if you deal with anxiety - you know JUST what my mom is talking about. We manifest the worst and then obsess over it. It's sounds so healthy, doesn't it?!?).

Our break was a bit of a struggle - including having to leave in the middle of the night from Jay's parents house in Spokane and drive ALL THE WAY HOME because my asthma got so bad, a broken refrigerator upon our arrival, a paper due for our (LAME!) class that the state makes us take for our teaching certificate (because you know - I'm not a good teacher unless I write a few papers, proving my abilities), blah, blah, blah.

So in an effort to giggle and remind myself of the small blessings in life, I share with you (drum-roll please) ... a couple cute things my kids said to me today:

Student: Mrs. Stookey, do you want to know what I got for Christmas?
Me: I SURE do!
Student: An electric scooter and my two front teeth.

* * * * *
Me: Does anyone want to talk about what you did for New Year's Eve?
Student: On New Years Eve we ate a lot of cheese, fish and crackers.
Me: Oh, that sounds yummy! Is that a family tradition?
Student: No, my mom and dad are not eating milk, cheese or meat for the month of January so we ate a bunch before January.
Me: Oh, interesting. How come?
Student: Well, it's their New Years "Revolution".

And questions from students that I'm supposed to know the answer to because I teach 1st grade and 6 year-olds are curious:

• How tall is the Statue of Liberty?
• What is the difference between a Space Shuttle and a Rocket?
• How did they build the Statue of Liberty?
• What does it say on the Statue of Liberty's book?
• How does a Rocket land back on Earth?
  

And so ... Google was my friend today.

• The statue itself is 151ft tall. From the pedestal to her foundation, she is 305ft tall
• "A Space Shuttle IS a rocket." But "the rocket is what provides the blast you see at the launch. When it gets to a certain height, it will detach itself from the shuttle - which is the vehicle that will go into space and contains the people on board." This answer confused me. First they said it IS a rocket, but then they go on to tell me the difference. Huh?!? I don't get it ... and so I remained uninformed ... and my attention span for Google quickly faded. So the remainder of the answers sounded something like this ...
  
• Very slowly kid ... very slowly; and with many, many parts. Mainly metal.
• The Statue of Liberty's books says, "None of your business Pal. Now scat."
• It doesn't land. It stays in space forever. Whoever is on it also lives in space forever.
  

Okay so I didn't answer them quite like that ... but that's how I answered them in my head.

And then I quietly giggled ... counted my blessings ... and enlightened the kids on everything Space Ship, Rockets, and Statue of Liberty.