I hate it when I look like the fool...

I stated in my last post that I picked up my nephew from school the other day. Well here is the whole story. I got in the car line and realized I did not have the tag to pick him up, my dad had it. It was right when school was letting out so I knew calling someone to bring the tag was not an option. I got out of line and parked my car. I then walked into the school and into the office. The office workers were not there nor was the principal. The office workers know me because I sign in when I go eat lunch with him regularly. The principal also knows me because she sees me at lunch coming and going. She is a great, dynamic woman. Her light was out. There was a woman that I had never seen before working in the corner alone. She asked what I needed and I explained to her that I left my tag in another car and I needed to pick my nephew up. She asked his name and teacher and then proceeded to call that room over the intercom. I heard her say she needed little man to come with all his things. He came. I walked out of the school with my nephew. Do you understand what I am saying? I WALKED OUT OF THE SCHOOL WITH MY NEPHEW. No id check, no card file check to see if I am authorized, nothing. I was shocked. I could have been a child molester stalker whatever person.

This also had me thinking that this same thing happened last year with the nurse. He went home sick twice and I took him home and the nurse never asked or verified who I was.

Well I mentioned it to my sister in which she was shocked too. She was going to talk to the principal the next day. Well the next day came and I was at work minding my business and had stepped to the back. I saw in the camera that a woman and child came in and were inquiring about minister robes. I walked back up front to start shutting down when I realized that woman was the principal. We did small talk and then I inquired as to whether she had talked with my sister. She said she had not. My sister did ask to talk to her that day but the principal was in a meeting. So I told her what had happened and she was shocked too. She explained that one of the special ed teachers (whom I had never seen or met) was doing dismissal and she may not have remembered school policy. She thanked me for being comfortable enough to talk to her about it in a caring way and being concerned because essentially it is her job on the line.

Today, I go by my sister's house and the first thing she says is the principal came to me and told me that the dismissal lady that day knows you and knows you belong to little man. I was flabbergasted. THAT LADY DOES NOT KNOW ME. How would I know a special ed teacher? Little man is not special ed. I know only a few people there. His teacher this year and last, the lunch monitors and the secretaries which I repeat were not in the office that day. That is it. I have never seen this woman before in my life.

Essentially, this woman covered her tracks with a lie and made me look like the fool. So now I am mad and want to approach this woman on her lie but know I have to let it go. She was covering her tracks. I thought about this more, even if she knew me she did not know if I was authorized to get him so she still failed at her job either way. She looks good though to the principal and I look like the fool. I am not a problem-starter and would not have mentioned anything if I was not concerned. We are in the times that extra measures have to be taken to ensure the safety of our children.

I leave with this bit of information though. My sister along with a hundred other mothers were taking their kids home early today after a celebration. Every mother had to show id and the cards were pulled to ensure the safety of the children.

So if I had to be a fool to ensure the safety of my nephew and his school, so be it... I am the fool.

Dam or Damn

I picked my nephew up from school yesterday when he discovered some kids book in my car with the words "mad scientist" on it. Well smartypants is learning to read and decided that he found out that mad spelled backwards is dam. He thought he was bad with his new word. I explained to him that dam is a word and it is what beavers make in a river or stream to stop the water. I also explained to him that we really should not go around saying dam because it is also means a bad word when we put a n on it. One may ask, how does he know that word anyways.....Well you can blame his Nanny because this summer she hit the fence and was mad and used the one with the N on it. He repeated it and received a lecture. Also his Nanny and Bebob were having a heated argument one day when I took him outside in the rain so he would not hear it but munchkin was listening through the storm door when his Nanny said it in anger again. In her defense, that is the worse word she knows and it only comes out when she is mad. I found out later that his mommy uses it too in a fit of anger. SHHH!

On with the story, so he sits in the back seat saying...Oh Dam, Oh Dam, Dam. I turned around and told him that we do not say that word and he knows that and that I was just trying to explain the difference because he is so smart now. He looked at me with a straight face and informed me that he was not saying the Dam with the n on it but the beaver dam. I thought I was going to bend over laughing but I kept a straight face and gave a stern lecture. He may be smart but not smart enough for me to explain the context of what he was saying. He just thought he was getting away with a bad word.

Ohh to get in the mind of a child.

This reminded me of a story of me as a child in church. I was questioning the use of the word a$$. I did not understand why it was in the Bible but I could not say it. I just did not understand. My dad tried to explain to me that the use of it in the bible as another name for a donkey. ( He used the word in his sentences, though) Then he explained that it is a derogatory word now in today's society.
Well the next week in Wednesday night church, the subject was things we want God to forgive us of or others of. Well my mind was going. I knew my dad had used that word to explain to me the difference in context. In my mind I knew he had said the bad word. I wrote on my paper that my dad needed to be forgiven for bad words. The next day I was telling my mom all about Wednesday night church and forgiveness and I told her that I wrote my Dad's name down for saying the A word when he talked to me about it. I also told her the leaders were going to post them in the foyer so the church can see we are learning and asking for forgiveness. She about went through the roof. Needless to say a few phone calls later and my forgiveness poster was intercepted. I was still clueless as to why she was so upset that I had written for the whole church to see that my daddy needed forgiveness for saying bad words. I was being oh so honest on my forgiveness project.

Update... Should I be scared...

Yep, I did get scared.... one minute before my class. Nothing to do then but go forward.

I will not say I blew it away but I think I did a pretty good job. The professor told me she gave me all threes and fours out of a zero to four scale. I was happy. There were a few things I left out. I had a great closing. The students(my peers pretending to be high schoolers) were interactive and just loved when I hit on certain subjects. The professor afterwards told me to not pretend to be a teacher and to go up there as a marketing professional and my natural teacher will come out. She said when I started using my personal stories that the learning took off and my natural teacher came out with fire on the subject. I will heed that advice.
I did have to reprimand a few students. One was running late today for school but I had to treat him as a tardy student in my class. He is a really nice guy but I had to do it. I gave him his notes and quietly told him that Marketing is a Business class and in business it is important for us to be timely. I did not reprimand him in front of the class but quietly at his desk. When I finished the lesson and we evaluated it from the professor's point of view and from the student's point , he mentioned this. He said that he knew he was late but that I quietly reprimanded him but did not embarrass him. He said he knew I meant business and if we had class tomorrow he would be there on time and early. The other students were role-playing 11th graders so they were trying to chit-chat and over talk me. They received the teacher look and stopped, mostly.
Overall it was a good experience. Now , I just need the paperwork for my provisional license and for a job to come available. Please keep that in your prayers. I really need a good paying job with health insurance. In the mean time I will continue to lean on God. He knows my future.

Should I be scared...

In less than nine hours, I will stand in front of my classmates and present a 50 minute lesson on a marketing class. Yes, a 50 minute lesson to a bunch of adults that have to act like high schoolers. This will be my first "real" teaching as a teacher. I teach preschoolers every Sunday and sometimes do not prepare until 10Pm on Saturday night. I should be scared or worried, right. I substituted and had to teach a lesson on how to draw ladybugs but they were elementary schoolers. Should I be scared?

I know the material but have never had to present it in 50 minutes to real people before, just fake people in my imagination. Should I be scared?

Yes, I guess I should be a little scared but I am not. Maybe it has not hit me yet. I don't know. Maybe I guess I can wing it with no problem. I don't know. Maybe it is just the Lord letting me know this is where I need to be.

If you read this before 8:15 AM on Saturday , please lift a prayer for me to keep this peace and do great tomorrow.

With God All Things Are Possible.

I an do all things through Christ who Strengthens Me.

Then my ultimate favorite: Jer 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

You Butthead....

Yep, that is what I called a lot of people on my way home today in Hampton Roads traffic. But there was one big butthead in particular today. She was driving a new big tan Tahoe. Yep , you thought you were bad by not letting me over to get off on my exit with your big over sized SUV. No, I did not procrastinate getting over. Your entrance was right before my exit. See I slowed down so I could get behind you but No you slowed down too. Then when I sped up to get around you, you sped up too. I missed my exit because of this. When you finally sped passed me I looked over at you and you know what you were doing.... You know of course but now all of my two readers will know..... YOU WERE SUCKING YOUR THUMB !!!!

Yeah so you think you were big and bad but seeing you sucking your thumb really ruined your big and bad car syndrome. Actually reminded me of Little Man Syndrome. You earned the name BUTTHEAD today or should I say... THUMBSUCKER GROWN WOMAN HEAD!


Oh and an apology to my spiritual best friend Jen K. She already knows about this or I would not be blogging about it but I called her a butthead today too because she rang my cellphone as I was crossing five lanes of oncoming traffic and about scared me out of my pants. I did not know it was her , I just said, " what butthead is calling me now "after my heart rate went to about 199 after it rang. See I was not really calling her a butthead, that could have been anyone on the phone. I was calling anyone a butthead not her, yep that's my story and I am sticking to it.

Adoption Truths....

If you read my blog enough , you know I am an adoption advocate. You also know my sweet nephew is adopted. He was brought into our family at three months old. His biological mother gave him up at birth. His biological father would not come sign the papers because he did not want to acknowledge the birth. The adoption agency convinced him he had to for the baby to be placed. He did this after three months. See it was an affair and he finally convinced himself for it to go away he needed to do this. I thank them everyday even though they do not know it. We were given a great gift.

Well "little man" has become quite inquisitive about pregnancy lately. The subject did not come up and we did not talk about adoption or pregnancy. He told me awhile ago that he knows he came from another woman's belly. I asked my sister if they had talked about it and she said no and was puzzled. Today we were having lunch after church at a steakhouse. A pregnant woman walked by and "little man" told everyone she had a baby in her tummy. Then he asked his mommy if he had been in her belly before he was born. She told him that he was not in her belly but in another woman's belly. That woman loved him but could not care for him so she gave him to mommy and daddy. He asked why. She explained that the woman knew they wanted a baby boy and could love and care for him. He looked at her just as serious. We were all thinking, what is he thinking and what is he going to say next. The next thing he did was put his hand over his mouth, we all gasped not knowing what he was thinking. He then blurted out....."Mommy your breath stinks."
She had been eating sauteed mushrooms and garlic. He then walked over to his daddy and hugged him and said, " Her breath is real bad, daddy. " Well my sister and I chuckled it off but I had to go to the bathroom so that I could really laugh.

Oh, to get in the brain of this 6 year old .

Living with the Tide

Blue font because when I came home tonight I had waterfront property. Some people pay vookoo bucks for this and all I had to do was have a Northeasterner come through the area and voila.

When I left for work this morning, you know when you have a small business you must be open at every possible moment to earn that penny that someone may want to spend in the middle of what Mother Nature sends us, my street was beginning to flood. I had to go down another street which had a little less flooding. I went to work thinking , why are we open. We had a few customers come in but it was pointless. I was the one in charge today and knew that high tide would just wreak havoc on my already flooded street. No I do not live near the beach but when it is raining constantly and high tide , the water has no where to go but up. It cant go down. I decided at 2 to close. I called ahead and guess what , it was not high tide yet but my street was completely flooded. I had to go to my sister's house. The roads were horrible. So bad that I had to make a decision to drive or make a u-turn and try different routes that could be worse. I chose to move forward and pray that my not so old car made it through. It did, Praise the Lord.

I spent the afternoon at my sister's house with my nephew running wild because this is day three of no outdoor play and he is an outdoor kid. I decided to to have my brother in law drive me as far home as he could which was only about three houses into my street before dark. I then waded my way home. Just think this still was not high tide.

I never knew that my day would revolve so much around the tide. WOW, what a day!

Comfort Zones

We all have our comfort zones. I had lots of them. Had is a big word. These past few months I have had to step out to make some changes for the better in my life and future. What have I had to do?

• Start school again. Although only a 10 week program, an intense 10 week program. This will help me to progress in getting a teaching job in marketing. I have had to drive to a new school 30 minutes away and enter a class full of strangers, make these strangers my friends and the school mine for the time being.
• Observe at a public high school. That is a scary step if you have not been in a public high school in 18 years. I had to navigate my way to the specific classroom and observe the teachers and the students. Believe me when I say that today;s high school student is way different than I was 18 years ago.
• Introduce myself to a teacher who views me as a threat because I am fresh in the teaching market but have lots of marketing experience they may not have. They do not have tenure yet so the friendliness and helpfulness was lacking. I had to continue this for 3 solid weeks in which at the end they were a little friendly, I guess because I was leaving.
• Start substitute teaching. Oh my! That was an experience. I will not go into details, some of you have already heard. I will say as advice to anyone else that may step out of their comfort zone into teaching...Don't let your first day be at a downtown low-income school. Trust me, not a good combination of new substitute and street kids. I always loved fresh new crayons, it does not phase them. Crayons= break and make a weapon. I also was exposed to more than a street kid, ummmh way more of that street kid than I ever wanted to see.

As I have experienced many new things and challenges by stepping out of my comfort zone. I have to remember that God has placed me in every position and some good will come of it some how. I hope and pray I will have a real teaching job soon. In the mean time I hope I have made an impact in the lives of people that have crossed my path. Despite my terrible day as a substitute, one little girl found me later, hugged me and said , "I really like you." Lord, please let me remember that moment forever especially as more things change in my life that require that comfort zone to stretched. May I reflect your light in all I do and you are preparing me for my new future.

Thanks to all my encourager's, especially Jen at Noodles Nest on my side bar for keeping me on track and pushing me to step out of that zone. Thanks also to Mike T, the hubby of Jenn #2 on my side bar for that special prayer you wrote me this week to encourage me. You made me see the bright point of my bad day and the lasting impression that I may have had on that one little girl.