As a volunteer at school, you know the day is off to a bad start when one of the students looks at you between flash cards and says, “Yuck, breakfast. I almost threw up but swallowed it back down.” Yes, that was my experience with a 2nd grader this morning. Thank goodness another student sitting with us was able to join in by describing his barfing-in-school experiences, because otherwise that remark would’ve gone to waste as I continued drilling flash cards as if I had not heard a thing. What a nice couple of boys.

Ok, moving along to exciting stuff in the media center where I was able to unleash some creativity. Yes!! I really enjoy it when teachers let me work on little projects my way, which is exactly what I did in the media center. What did I do? Oh yeah, I should expand on that so people know what the heck I’m talking about here. Basically, I made NOTEBOOKS for the classroom writing center. All kinds! Some with lined paper, some with plain white. Small ones. Big ones. Each with colored construction paper covers! I went absolutely crazy with 2 paper cutters, transforming mere scraps of paper from the junk bin into lovely notebooks for the students. And the best part? I learned that a school staffer’s cat enjoys drinking out of the toilet. (Huh, mmkay. The perks of being a fly on the wall are priceless, aren’t they?)

Then, off to grade papers in CG’s class. With lunchtime at 11:00 a.m., I needed to drag this task out as long as possible, 20 minutes minimum. While grading, I found it interesting how some kids will garble, erase and/or merge letters together to pull off a misspelled word. So now all I’m saying is, “Sorry kids, but I wasn’t born yesterday.” Little do they (or the teacher) know, but I won the “Super Speller” award in 6th grade at Mt. Spurr Elementary way back before spell checkers were invented. Only now I rely on spell check way too much and my spelling has dropped off a bit, but I digress. Just remember, never try doing the smudged-spelling trick with me, because I’m all over that with a big fat red pen.

Lunch time. Wouldn’t you know the cafeteria chicks were serving cheese pizza today? So I decided to munch on Quaker snack mix with my Diet Dr. Pepper instead. And as I looked around the table and witnessed several kids folding their pizza slices in half like greasy-cheese-and-tomato sandwiches, I was relieved CG decided to bring a cold lunch. Then, as I continued watching cartons of milk and spoonfuls of fruit and veggies go completely untouched, I’m thinking, “Do your parents know that you’re getting through the day on a greasy-cheese-and-tomato sandwich?” How sad is that? *sigh* Very sad.

Lunchtime ended with big hugs (and a kiss on the cheek? Whoa, thanks!) from the Catholic Girlie, then I’m on my way to find a lunch. Looks like Chicken Carbonara today. Sure beats that greasy-cheese-and-tomato sandwich.

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