Once There Was a Cockroach, Cockroach, Cockroach

So did you know that cockroaches could fly? Well neither did I till last night. I was sitting in my bed, minding my own business reading my book when all of a sudden I heard a noise of something going from corner to corner, I looked up and saw a cockroach- and I thought oh no that thing just went from one corner to another. As soon as I realized what it was I got up and grabbed a shoe and started to chase it around my room, I had been chasing it for like 5-10 minutes (it seems to draw out when you are uptight about getting it out of your room) when the stupid (or I guess really smart if I stop and think about it) cockroach went behind my bureau. I decided that it was where I couldn’t see it and so got back in my bed, but after like 10 minutes of being in bed I couldn’t go on knowing that it was somewhere in my room and so I got up and continued to chase it around my room again, but have no fear I won! I then proceeded to use my shoe and push it out the front door and through a crack on our porch. I felt kind of bad during this whole thing as I kept on jumping up on my bed and slapping my shoe on the bureau and on the wall and it was like 1:20 in the morning, I was afraid that I would bother Natalie but she told me that she never heard me. Once I had gotten rid of the cockroach I was able to lay down, of course after I prayed to Heavenly Father to protect me from any other flying or crawling cockroaches that there maybe (yeah Mom laughed at me but they really make me uncomfortable). I was then able to turn my music on and fall asleep very quickly without any creepy-crawlies on me.
*New knowledge: Cockroaches can fly-beware of those evil things.
This morning I woke up and went through my clothes to find a shirt that had polka dots on it (as that it what we were learning about in my morning class), I got dressed and then started looking through the rest of my stuff to see what else I had that had polka dots on it, it kind of made me sad because I have tons of stuff that has polka dots on it but for some reason I did not bring very much of it with me, I was able to find two other ribbons and then borrowed a purse from Natalie. I went downstairs about 10 minutes before class was supposed to start and grabbed some paper and then started to cut some circles out of the paper, the bell rang and I grabbed my stuff and then headed to class. I started with calendar and then told the kids that we were going to be talking about polka dots; I asked them if they knew what polka dots were. I guessed by the many blank stares that I received that they did not know what polka dots (:D) were, I then pointed to my shirt and showed all of the other things that I had brought with me. I then had the kids help me cover the white board with polka dots, we first used yellow polka dots that were all the same size, when we had finished that I asked the kids if all polka dots have to be the same size or the same color, of course not so then I brought out a bunch more polka dots of different sizes and colors and the kids helped me cover the white board with the polka dots. It was quite fun, I wish that I could have taken my camera to take pictures to show the cool patterns that they created.
I don’t really remember much of my short break and what I did, it seems to go by all too quickly, that is something that I do remember. I think that I came upstairs and checked my e-mail very quickly and then grabbed stuff for my next class.
For my middle class we were talking about using please and thank you. I started by having 3 volunteers play ball with each other, I let them play for a little bit and then walked up to them and yelled that I wanted to play (it was kind of funny- during the 5 year old class Teacher Michelle didn’t know that it was me and thought that it was one of the kids and looked up and said something and almost was going to yell at whoever did it, then she realized that it was me and we all started to laugh), we talked about if that was how I should ask to play with them, we then re-tried it, this time with me asking if I could please play with them. After we had done it one more time we then started with 2 kids and they were playing and then one at a time one of the kids would come up to the group and ask if they could play with them and then saying thank you when they let them play. When everyone else had all joined the game I came up and asked them if I could play, it was kind of fun to hear them all answer back yes very loudly and happily to let me join. When we were done with the game everyone sat down and I pulled out the treat bag (I have a bag that has become known as the treat bag, if I bring it the kids know that they are going to get something special) and each kid got a piece of candy after they had asked if they could please have a piece of candy, we were practicing every part, I told them that yes they could, they got one and said Thank You and then I said you are welcome. All very fun!
When class was over I went and put some stuff away and then grabbed food from the kitchen for lunch, I am starting to have an even greater appreciation for the Chinese teachers, they carry these heavy trays of food everyday for lunch, they must have very strong arms, I have only had to carry the trays for the last two days and both times I was pretty much shaking the whole time and was afraid that I was going to drop the tray of food (it didn’t help matters much that Ali and the other teachers told me not to drop the tray). When I got to the classroom with the food I found that Teacher Stephanie was not there yet and the kids were running around crazy, so I got the kids calmed down and to sit down, we sang a couple of songs and then it was getting late so I decided to have them say the prayer, Teacher Stephanie walked in when we were in the middle of it. I guess that yesterday they decided that the groups were much too large for the nap time and so today they decided to split the kids up into the 3 classrooms for nap time, so Teacher Stephanie had to clean the beds, because she was doing that I basically had to do lunch all by myself. Generally when I am in the classroom at lunch time I am used to being just a person sitting there and helping the teachers a little bit as they need it, well I guess that today was a time that they needed it, it was kind of weird to have to do all the work- I don’t know how the teachers get any eating done or let alone anything done while having to help the kids eat. By the time I got back upstairs it was like 5 minutes to 1 whereas I normally get upstairs almost half an hour before that.
I hadn’t talked to mom in a couple of days and so decided that since I had the time and it was not too late at home I would call her. It was nice to be able to talk to her; we talked for nearly an hour which we haven’t been able to do lately because of when we normally call each other. It was also nice to talk to her as she gave me a ton of different ideas for my lesson today, whereas I hadn’t really planned on what I was going to do. I ended up talking about Switzerland today and talked about the different things that they are famous for (of course we had to talk about chocolate, I didn’t have any real Swiss Chocolate but did have some regular chocolate and the kids don’t really care either way). It was really funny, part of the Passport is that we would draw the country’s flag, something about that country and then last but not least I would add an official stamp to say that they have been to or learned about that country- anyway today on my first stamp for some reason I made a sound when I did it, the kids thought that it was hilarious and so we started to do it for every stamp that I did, even after class was over as I was walking to the office I heard kids all around me making the sound. It was rather interesting though today, when the 2nd class came in they were late and both of the teachers were very frustrated, I guess that besides just doing the Passport page for her class she had also decided to do a craft project and what she viewed as easy was not easy for the kids. The teachers ended doing most of it and it was just way too much stuff to be done in a little class period. Anyway I heard much of their frustrations, they tried talking to Natalie about it, but I am not quite sure that she completely understands their frustrations, we will see though if anything changes.
When class was over I had a tutor student for 20 minutes, her name is Kristy and she is a 5 year old- it was a pretty easy job, we only had to read a couple of short stories and then look at a picture and circle pictures that began with a certain letter, not too hard or straining on my brain. When we were done with our session I went downstairs because I wanted to talk with Teacher Stephanie and make sure that everything was ok with Natalie’s class, she was busy talking with a new parent at first and so I played with the kids for awhile. After I had eventually talked with her I somehow got sucked into watching the beginning of Bambi with them, as soon as I had sat down on the ground Meggy came over and sat down in my lap, she is so cute/adorable, it is just not fair- why do some kids get to be like that?
After awhile my legs kind of got tired from sitting on the ground so I got up and wandered back to the office, it was kind of a good thing that I did because when I walked in Yuling was on the phone with someone, she got off the phone and told me that it was Leo’s dad- he had just been hit by a woman on a scooter, he was fine but the lady was on the ground and wasn’t moving. They didn’t know how serious it was and so he was waiting for an ambulance to come. That part was sad but it wasn’t the worst part, not long after she got off the phone Yuling started not looking very good, she said that it was her stomach around her cesarean stitches, it was really hurting she said and it was not a pain that she had, had before. She had been sitting there for a little bit in pain when she got up and worked slowly towards the bathroom, asking me if I would be willing to watch Daniel. She was in the bathroom for awhile and then she came out, she was doubled over in pain and couldn’t make it back all the way to her desk, she had to stop about part way and sit down for awhile. She finally was able to make it back to her desk and sit down, but she was still doubled over in pain, because of the pain she became very weak very fast, at one point Daniel woke up and started crying, I quickly washed my hands and got him from her as she was having a hard time holding him. Yuling was able to call her husband and tell him that something was wrong, but she continued to get weaker and not be able to talk, I continued to hold Daniel for nearly an hour, rocking him as he was hungry but Yuling couldn’t take care of that. Finally Joseph (Yuling’s husband) showed up, several times he tried to help Yuling stand but she was really weak and could not. They decided that they were going to take her to the hospital; Joseph was able to get her a little way before she started throwing up. I have not heard from them or anything so I do not know what is going on, I hope that it is not too serious and that Yuling is ok, it made me ache for her to see her pain.
Right after they left I had tutoring, two of them back to back. The first one was Kevin, he came in about 10 minutes late and we started right away. He has a little bit emphasizing his “s” at the end of words, I hope that we will be able to work on that and improve it as we go along, though it is nice as he does pretty good at staying on track and working straight through the whole hour. My 2nd one was Henry, now he is a funny kid- it was fun because we could work and joke and at the same time. I think that I will enjoy tutoring him.
Since I have finished tutoring I have had a chance to talk to Kyle, my friend/basically roommate Erin, Sallee, and get my blog done while watching Ocean’s 11, I would say that I have been pretty productive tonight and it is not even midnight!! But I think that I am going to go and organize stuff a little bit and then head to bed. So this is ~Betherd~ signing off!