Family Hot Tubbing

"It's family hot tubbing night!  Who's with me?"  Instantly three hands from their various perches around the living room shoot up toward the ceiling.  I jump up off the couch and head upstairs to put on my suit.  In a flash I am back downstairs.  Nobody else has moved.  I say nothing,  grab a towel from the linen closet and quietly slide open the back door.  I don't tell anyone I am headed out.  I am hoping for five minutes all to myself.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE family hot tubbing, but I also LOVE five minutes all to myself too.


My bare feet sting as I walk over the snow to the front of the tub and hoist half the lid up and over.  Creeeeeeeeeek. THUMP! That aught to attract someones attention I think to myself.  As quick as a flash I am on the other side of the hot tub pushing the rest of the lid up like some kind of hot tub superhero.


Tossing my towel on the chair I throw a leg up, over and into the tub. Yikes!  This baby is hot.  My foot tingles as if a million little pins are trying to push their way out.  I quickly throw my other leg over the side and feel the same prickly sensation.  I gingerly lower the rest of my body beneath the surface of the water.  Awwwwwww, that's what I am talking about. Nice.


The jets are working their magic and my arms are floating effortlessly just beneath the surface.  I lean my head back, close my eyes and wait.


Someone slides the back door open, closes it, and sticks a leg into the water.  I open one eye to see my husband climbing in.  He smiles.  I smile and close my eye.  "Are the kids coming?" I ask.  "Right behind me." He replies.  Our oldest slides open the back door, it squeaks.  He closes the door and squeals as his bare feet hit the snow.  My eyes open as he flings himself over the side with a big splash. Family hot tubbing has officially begun.


Next comes the little guy.  He has decided to swim "naked as a jaybird" but appears to be upset behind the glass door.  His face is contorted and I can see tears streaming down his chubby cheeks. This is unusual.  I wonder what in the world could be wrong.  We all look at each other confused.  He opens the door and announces, "IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII caaaaaaaaaaaaan't geeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet myyyyyyyyyyyy tooooooooowel ooooooooooooooooon!"  My husband tries to soothe him by telling him he doesn't need his towel on right now.  That he should just come jump in.  It seems simple enough to the three of us already in the hot tub. Will can't see the big picture.  He slides the door closed and wails behind it.  This goes on for what seems like forever.  After multiple, unsuccessful attempts to place the towel over his shoulders he finally gives up.  Disgusted, he comes outside,  throws the towel on the chair and joins us.  


I lean back into the jets and attempt to relax.

Grandpa Pat

My Grandpa Pat was an 82 Airborne paratrooper during World War II.  He made three combat jumps and lived to tell about them.  Yet, he never did.  Not to me anyway.  When he returned home from the war he married my grandmother, built a house next to his brother, worked 8-5 Monday through Friday at Sierra Hardware, came home everyday at noon for lunch, ran his dogs everyday at 5:30 on the canal near his home, raised two children and never left the county again.  He had seen enough.


I was his "babydoll."  His only granddaughter.  He took me fishing on opening day,  showed me how to stack wood just so, allowed me to whittle sticks with his pocket knife while sitting on the river bank, taught me how to shoot pop cans with a 22 rifle and let me eat as much black licorice as I wanted.  He also taught me to drive a stick shift in his 1972 Ford Pick-up and never ever, not once, did he ever say a swear word anywhere near the vicinity of my precious "babydoll" ears.  He was quick to hug you, quick to laugh and quick to change the subject if you ever asked about the war.


My high school history teacher, Mr. Stang, invited my grandpa in to share his experiences about the war with our class on numerous occasions.  Each time he politely declined.  He never made an excuse, just said "no thank you" and smiled his big toothy grin.


When I think of him, as I often do, I marvel at the simplicity of his life.

Slice 2012: 5 of 31

Second Graders...Gotta Love 'em!


     It is late afternoon and I am surrounded by 3 second graders.  We have just finished reading the Lorax and they are baffled.  They can't figure out how the book came before the movie.  "How is this possible?" One young man asks another.  "I think the book came first." Offers the little girl in the group.  I suggest we look at the copyright date in the book and point out that the movie is brand new, having just been released in theaters on Dr. Seuss's birthday (which we all know was last Friday).  We open up the book to the dedication page and read that the book was first published in 1971.  "Oh, that was a year before I was born." I say.   I look up and my gaze rests on a very serious second grader who replies, "Geez! This book must be a hundred years old!"  "WHAT!" I screech.  "Do I look like I am a hundred years old?"  Sheepishly grinning he replied, "Well, sorta."  I gave him a big squeeze and vowed to reconsider purchasing another round of that "miracle" skin care product I have taking up a ton of space on my bathroom counter.

Today I...

Today I had a cup of coffee and watched the sunrise over the mountains while soaking in the hot tub.

Today I defined the word "underwear" for a three year old as I helped him get dressed.

Today I grinned a big cheesy grin when I read the comments from the other Slice of Lifers.

Today I realized my husband is a domestic genius.  Craft room + laundry room = a productive mama with happy kids.

Today I made Truffala trees and did 7 loads of laundry.

Today I said we would go for a walk but took a nap with my boys instead.

Today I figured out why we keep getting enormous black ants in the house.

Today my 6 year old convinced me that kids really do prefer playing with anything that does not technically belong to them.

Today I decided I would cook dinner tonight.  This is usually my husbands department.

Today I had to go to the grocery store twice because I forgot the main ingredient for dinner tonight.

Today a sweet elderly couple let me go first in line when the new checker arrived.

Today I tried to login to Pinterest to get my recipe for dinner tonight but the website would not load.

Today I winged making a chipotle chicken soup.

Today I realized I might actually know what I am doing in the kitchen.

In the Wee Hours

Here is my first post for the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Writing Challenge.  I read about it last week and decided I would really like to try participating.  Of course, I am late.  It is day 3 of the challenge and I am making my first post.  I am doing this with my second graders too.  I actually wrote a "slice" on the 1st when I modeled this for my students.  However, I didn't post it.  Anyway...I am going to try to make as many posts as possible for the rest of the month.  I am hoping to grow as a writer and a teacher of writing.  Wish me luck!

March 3, 2012

I was awakened at 2:30 a.m. by my 6 year old asking to get in bed with me.  Half asleep I motioned for him to climb in by lifting the duvet only to discover his 3 year old brother was already there.  The 6 year old squeezed in anyway.  This upset the little one who moaned and climbed on top of his big brother.  This isn’t going to work, I thought to myself.  So, I climbed over both of them, hoisted the little one up into my arms and stumbled through the darkness towards his bedroom.

After depositing the little guy back into his own bed I padded back across the hall and climbed back into my bed.  I snuggled up with the 6 year old only to have him start coughing in my face.  Great.  I wondered how long it would be before I started in with a cough too.  I rolled over and tried my best to get back to sleep.  3:00 a.m.  Lying with my eyes closed thinking about yesterdays skiing adventures.  3:26 a.m.  Lying with my eyes closed wondering if it is raining or if the dripping water is from the melting snow.  3:45 a.m.  Thinking about school and what we will do for Dr. Seuss week.  4:00 a.m.  Decide to get out of bed and clean house before kiddos wake up.

I head downstairs, let the dog out, build a fire and make my way to the kitchen to make a pot of coffee.    I press the button to grind the coffee beans…empty.   I head downstairs to the garage to get the freshly roasted coffee beans that I am sure my husband has forgotten to bring up.  NO COFFEE BEANS!  Grrrrrrr...

Returning to the kitchen I search the freezer for the emergency Costco bag of coffee beans.  Nothing.  I decide to clean out the fridge, inventory its contents and tidy up the kitchen until 5:00 a.m.  I grab the “light” yogurt out of the fridge that I accidently purchased last week, put on my blue puffy jacket and throw on a beanie cap.  Grabbing my keys I head out the door, down the driveway to the car.  I am not dressed warm enough but I figure I can tough it out for a quick trip to Safeway.

I pull into the deserted parking lot.  Two police cars sit side by side.  I grab my yogurt, purse and car keys.  Walking briskly to the entrance of the store with my yogurt in hand I come face to face with a sign that says to use the other entrance.  It is sprinkling and I am a little bit bummed because I have to walk 200 feet to the other entrance, in the rain, in front of the police officers.  I don’t know why this bothers me but it does.  When I get down to the other door I stand in front of it waiting patiently for it to open.  Nothing.  Waiting.  Still nothing.  I give the door a little push.  It doesn’t budge.  I imagine the police officers staring at me wondering what the heck I think I am doing.  I walk back to the first entrance and read the “Hours of Operation” sign thinking I probably should have read this first.  5 a.m. to midnight.  I am pretty sure I left the house at 5 a.m. but figure I must have read the clock wrong.  I walk back to the car and turn on my cell phone.  5:08. What the? I wait 5 more minutes.  Read a text from my brother and answer it.  Not a sign of anyone.

I drive slowly past both entrances and still don’t see a soul inside the store.  I decide to drive across town to Albertson’s thinking I will grab a cup of coffee at one of the coffee shops along the way.  Surely they are open at this hour.  I notice Dutch Brother’s is open.  Not my favorite so I drive on.  Cup-of-Joe, closed.  I like Cup-of-Joe, bummer.  Albertson’s, closed.   Starbucks looks open.  I pull into the drive thru.  No crackly, high pitched, “Welcome to Starbucks, what can I get for you?” greets me.  I sit there for a moment.  My shoulders sag with disappointment when I realize no one is going to make me a vanilla latte.

I drive back to Dutch Brother’s and order a medium vanilla latte and medium coffee for my husband.  As the drinks are being prepared I realize that my husband is not going to like his coffee, it is an Americano.  I should have gotten him a latte.  Perhaps, in retrospect, I should have just stayed in bed this morning.

TodaysMeet

I LOVE using this site as a quick assessment tool in our second grade classroom.  I almost forgot all about it until a co-worker asked me what it was called the other day.  This afternoon I introduced TodaysMeet to my tech savvy second graders.  TodaysMeet is a kind of mini facebook or twitter type website.  Students make posts to specific questions that I ask and those posts appear in real time on the site for all to read.  Using this site allows me to assess understanding for a specific question I am asking and also clues me into a students independence with spelling and other conventions.  Students get practice writing a response for others to read as well as more practice reading which is great.  You can create a TodaysMeet page that lasts for as little as 2 hours or one that continues for up to a year.  Today we wrote about what we liked most about reading and a response to what we thought Dr. Seuss was trying to teach us by telling us the story of Gertrude McFuzz.  I am sure there are a million different ways we could use this tool in our classrooms.  Here is a link to the two we used today.  They will only be "open" for one week.

What do you like most about reading?

Gertrude McFuzz

What are some other ways you might use TodaysMeet in your classroom?

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

     I am hopelessly addicted to downhill skiing right now!  This is the first year I have been able to ski more than a couple of times during the season in years.  My family and I have been driving up to our tiny ski hill every Friday since the New Year and everybody is getting so much better!  We are all feeling stronger and more willing to take calculated risks on the slopes.  As I sat down tonight to plan for the upcoming week my mind wandered back to last Wednesdays P.E. lesson and my new love of skiing.  During our P.E. lesson students were warming up by skipping, galloping, side sliding, jumping, jogging, etc. across the gym.  One little boy in my class had to be first across the "finish" line for every skill.  His need to get across the gym first trumped any kind of technique.  As I watched him (and few of his classmates) flail across the gym my mind raced to figure out how I might get them to focus on technique instead of speed.  Then I had an AH HA! moment and sat them down for a brief story about a recent experience I had.  The previous weekend I was skiing with friends.  Friends who have more finesse and skill out on the slopes than I do.  I told my students about skiing with these friends and trying my best to keep up with them.  However, in my attempt to keep up I was skiing out of control and I was not enjoying myself very much either.  I realized half way down the run that I needed to slow down and concentrate on my technique.  I started skiing better, enjoying myself more and in the end I wasn't to far behind the rest of the group.  I then mentioned that if they felt like they were a little out of control while practicing our basic skills they might want to try what I did and slow down a little bit.  Miraculously this worked for them and reminded me that living a life outside of school can make me a better teacher.  This week I will remind students to concentrate on their "technique" across the curriculum and that "slow and steady" wins the race!

How has your life outside of school made you a better teacher?