More Kindergarten Funnies

Yes the Kindergarteners have still been making me laugh, I just keep forgetting to write it up. I have a running journal at work of the good stuff. Here is what I have have right now.

I was stopped in hallway by a unknown first grader on her way to parent pickup after school, "Excuse me, do you have a red pen?" "No, I'm sorry. What do you need a red pen for?" "Well my teacher made a mistake on my behavior chart. She made a minus and she meant to make it a plus." She was sneaky enough to want to change her chart but not enough to lie to me about why she needed the pen.

Teabag Darling asks me, "Mrs. Leppard how do you spell gunna?" "You mean 'going to'," I reply. She sighs deeply and looks at me as if I have lost my marbles and says, "No, I mean gunna, like My mom's gunna have a baby'."

Sweet little boy says to me, "I cried when Beyonce got married because I was going to marry her when I grew up."

"Mrs. Leppard, how come you have brown dots all over you?" This led to a discussion on freckles. The child asking this lovely question has gorgeous soft brown skin. He looked a little worried and asks, "Am I going to have to have brown dots all over me when I am old?" I would be offended but he told me he wants to marry me so I can't look that bad.

One of our top students brings me her paper and asks, "Is this how you spell Virginia?" I look at the paper and read, "I live in Vagina." I tell her sure that is right and walk out the room to have a good laugh.

At the beginning of the year they would tell on each other by saying so and so said the "s" word or the "d" word. Now they have learned to sound words out. One says to me, "Mrs. Leppard _______________ said the S T O O P I D word."

One little boy has learned to wiggle his eye brows up and down. It looks hilarious and he knows it makes me laugh. I was scolding him and he did this so I just laughed and started walking away. He says with a chuckle, "Sometimes I'm such a great kid."

The teacher got a bad cold last month. She came to school Monday really sick and the kids were so naughty. I walked in and let them have it for being disrespectful when she wasn't feeling well. The next day she wasn't able to make it to school at all. I reminded them that they had not been nice to her when she wasn't feeling well. One tenderhearted soul starts to tear up and asks, "Did we make Ms. _______ sick?"

A little girl walks in wearing overalls and her friends says, "Sheesh you look like a farmer."

They have started social studies which is basically looking at a huge world map and singing songs about the continents. The teacher was pointing out the north and south pole. One student runs to the map and with much excitement points to some islands near antarctica and says, "I see some penguins!!!!"

Hope Renewed and Random Life Stories

Renewed hope - Ok so no there was no big change in our parental status but I just felt so loved and blessed by friends and family that I had to write a bit about it. I was really upset this Thursday when I found out we couldn't go forward with AI and I had so many emails and phone calls that I knew God was hearing all your prayers. He might not be answering exactly the way I would like Him to but He made sure that I was surrounded by love. It was pretty cool to experience. Now we move forward to next month knowing that only God has the answers we seek but content to rest in Him.

Random Life Stories

First, this was a cool sunrise I saw this week. I know there are a ton of telephone wires and it is not a perfect picture but hey life is full of telephone wires so I didn't erase them from the picture.




Second, I caught a snap of one of the baby birds leaving the nest. I know one died for sure but I am hopeful the other two lived. He is an ugly little fellow now but.....



if it is a he, then he will look amazing like his dad.




Third, this weekend we bought a Wii. I never thought I would own a video game but we both loved playing this over Christmas and so we caved in and got it ourselves. Very fun. We like to claim that we got it for neices and nephews but it is really for us.

Fourth, Ben has only one long trip and 6 weeks left as an Admiral's Aide. It has been a great year for him and he has loved it but we are both ready for him to be home more consistently. He has already started learning his new job which is at a Naval Shipyard 30 minutes away.

Bummer News

Quick note to those of you staying up to date with our fertility issue. We were scheduled for AI this weekend. It can't happen as Ben gets home too late to make it worthwhile. Also found out I only had one egg which is normal if you aren't on hormones but I am on hormones so not great news.

On a positive note we did get our paperwork in on adoption. Just a few minor details like an FBI check to make sure we are fit to be parents. We also heard back on the IVF treatment. It looks like another 6 months at least. Waiting. I will be good at it someday.

Thanks for your prayers and thoughts. I am working on my attitude today as I was a bit "put-out" as the British would say:).

There is a chance we might get lucky the old fashioned way this weekend so I guess that is also good news!!

Hopeful Thoughts and Long Weekend

This next weekend is a big one for Ben and I. After two surgeries and much waiting we are going into our first fertility treatment that might actually result in a baby. I have asked everyone I can think of to pray for us as I know only God can create life. If all goes according to plan, we are having IUI done on Saturday. I'll keep the blog posted on the outcome.

This last weekend was a three day weekend for me. I took Friday to go explore some of the area and went with a friend to the Botanical Gardens. They were amazing. I am excited to have them nearby. The weather was perfect for it. I got some cool pictures of this.

Ben and I spent Saturday planting grass seed in our front lawn. It took a good 4 hours and we fell asleep on the couch at 8:30 sore and blistered. But hopefully a nice full lush lawn will spring up in the next week or two.

We spent Sunday filling out yards of paperwork for adoption. My hats off to anyone who has ever gone through this whole process and survived.

Babies Babies Everywhere

No not mine:). I posted pictures of our little bird mother last week. Well here she is again.

Here are her eggs.


And today I saw the babies. The bush has grown in the last two weeks so it was harder to get a shot. They aren't the cutest babies you have ever seen but it was still pretty neat to capture them on camera. I felt like a National Geographic photographer.


Here is her sunset view as she looks up from her nest.


As for us no babies yet. But amazingly enough we will be doing AI this month as the timing has all worked out. If you think about it you could pray for success on April 25th!!!

Oh Happy Days

I love Fridays. Today was even better as it was 85 degrees and I only worked two hours. I took off to go to the dermatologist who only found two teeny tiny basal cancers that he was able to freeze off. This is good news as last year I had five large ones treated and I have pretty bad scars from them. I am now waiting for Ben to come home. He has been gone 10 days and I am ready to have him back. While I wait for him I thought I would add some shots of the week and some news from my life.

We had crazy weather this week including fog. This is not a black and white photo but just the neighbors cool tree against the fog.



Jaimal is one of our top students. He did not like the note that went home on his behavior and used his new found writing skills to add to what the teacher had written. I love the self confidence it shows. He did get scolded by the teacher for this but we both had a good chuckle.

In case you can't read it, the teacher wrote "Running around the room during centers" and gave him a medium face. Jaimal changed it to a happy face and added, "Still good Jaimal."

After no recess for four days little hands and feet were very excited to be outside. I wish I could show you their faces as it was all smiles. But I did capture some of their excitement for the sun.

Monday Madness

Picking the kids up from PE I noticed one small girl running late to get in line. I asked her why she was late lining up.

"I had an emergency and had to go number 3."

"Number 3? There isn't a number 3."

"Uh huh!! Number 3 is diarrhea!!"

On the way out the door I was getting a nice long hug from a girl who has been gone for a week. She was patting my side. I thought, "How sweet." Then she ruined the charm with, "I like the way it jiggles."

But my day ended positive. One of my little boys has a cousin in the next class. I was talking to them on the way out. The cousin kept staring my hair. I asked if it was looking crazy. He said in an awed voice, "Oh no!! It is BEAUTIFUL!!"

Lessons from my mad Monday. There is a number three and I might be jiggly but I have great hair.

Back to Kindergarten

I promised Kindergarten stories almost a month ago so I decided to sit down and write the ones I could remember.

I have found the concept of time to be very amusing with this age. They are beginning to be aware that the whole world is watching the clock but they don't understand it. The teacher is not the best at remembering time herself. I tease her about it often. On our first day back from spring break she told them that something exciting would happen at 9 O'Clock. It didn't actually start until 9:15. As soon as it was nine one of our smart ones yells, "Ms. ________ it is time for something exciting." I asked him if he had learned to tell time over the break and he nodded. I looked up at the teacher and said, "You're in trouble!!!" I was all impressed with how smart this boy was until I asked him why he was so tired and he said, "My brother woke me up at 77 hundred."

Tea-bag darling came up to me and said in her lisp, "Latht week I had a baby and wath bald." After some discussion we came to the conclusion that she was trying to tell me that WHEN she was a baby she was bald and to her that was last week.

She has also taken to randomly telling me that she loves me. I will feel her little hands rubbing my arm and she will whisper "I love you Mrs. Leppard" in my ear. Or she will yell to me across the room, "I love you Mrs. Leppard." I always say, "I love you too." She has done it so much that the rest of the class has started saying it too. I hear the phrase, "I love you Mrs. Leppard" all day long now. No wonder I love my job.

I walk a few kids to parent pick up at the end of the day. One boy had a hard time adjusting to Kindergarten as he was so hyper and big. But he is very smart. His mom came up with a way of helping him be good. He gets to play computer games or video games only when he has a good day at school. He had had a great day and I asked him if he was going to play his X-Box at home. He says, "No the X-box is too important to me and I fall apart when my character dies." I loved how he quoted his mom word for word.

Before spring break we had a vomit incidence. I have a tiny little boy in my class. He is really too young and immature to be in the class but the mom cannot see this. He was lining up after lunch and made a horrible sound. He loves to be the class clown so I went over to yell at him. "I throw up" he says to me. "Run to the trash can," I yell back. And he does, he runs as fast as his tiny legs can carry him. The trash cans are huge and he can barely reach his chin over the top. He stands there on his tippy toes, fingers gripping the edge of the can and manages to throw up 5 times without getting any on the floor. For one day he was my hero and I was very proud of him. I hate throw up so if you can make it to the can so I don't have to see it, I like you.

We just started the two letter sounds like CH, SH and TH. We have a little girl whose name starts with CH but it is pronounced SH. One boy quickly noticed that her name had one spelling but the wrong sound and we were talking about her name when she raises her hand and says, "Well you all call me SH but Mommy calls me CH." We have called her the wrong name all year and she just let us.

Spring Sweetness

While gone in California two things happened. First a sweet little bird got misled into thinking our house was abandoned and made a nest in the bush RIGHT next to the back door. Second the bulbs I planted bloomed. It was quite a nice welcome home. The momma bird is not as fond of me as I am of her but I think we have an agreement. She gives me stink eye while I go in and out and yells at me if I take two long. If I really hang around she flees the nest and yells at me from a nearby tree.

One piece of bird trivia I learned is that not all eggs are laid at the same time. She laid one a day for three days. I know I probably should be too old to be as fascinated by this little nest as I am but I love it.

I told the kids about it and one raised his hand. "We had a little nest above our door and Mommy smashed it and the eggs because of all the poop everywhere."

Stink Eye from Momma Bird


The Babies


My first flowers

Promised Pictures

I said I would put this up but it took me awhile. This is the ball at the Ronald Reagan Library.

Air Force one and the sunset. - this is a pretty cool picture if you click on it. It looks really dark in the small size.

Me and my dad - we matched:).

The swing at my brother's house.
Nephew one

Niece two posing.

Nephew three

Why Uncle Ben is a hit - he climbs in paddling pools.

My nephews huge lab that thinks he is a small dog.

Time for ice-cream. It sure felt like summer.

Ben's sister with my brother's daughter. I am not sure how or if they are related.