Hello everyone!  Cheeseboy here, from The Blog O' Cheese. VTK has been gracious enough to allow me to guest post while she is busy this weekend with fun things.  I hope I do her proud.

We Elementary teachers are pretty patient people for the most part. We look and play the part of the kindhearted, peacemaking caregiver. Most of us truly are these things with the possible exception of about 5%. However, I can guarantee that just about every teacher cringes in unmistakable torment at the sound of the following decrees. I present to you, in full Cheeseboy regalia, the top 9 announcements teacher hate to hear:

9. "The PTA will be putting on a fund-raising assembly today." This pronouncement means I will be spending an hour sitting on a metal folding chair and listening to obnoxious squealing over cookie dough and prizes that clearly could have come from the Dollar Tree. And that is just the PTA ladies.

8. "Today will be an inside recess day." Inside recess day means three despicable things: Pent up rugrats with energy to spare, pent up ME with energy to spare and a complete mess in my room. Inside recess is a little like putting a group of superheros in a cage, shaking it up a little bit and hoping that they won't use their superpowers to hurt you. Oh yeah... they are going to use their powers and it's NOT going to be pretty.

7. "It's Grandparents Day today!" Yes, it's grandparents day for SOME kids. Congratulations kids, your grandparents are still alive. Now all you kids with dead grandmas or grandpas that just don't care, come line up over here and eat lunch by yourself. Cheeseboy, you are good at consoling upset kids, right?

6. "The 6th (or any other grade) is using the gym today." There will be no PE in the gym. Oh great, that means I've got to take thirty 7-year-old's out into 30 degree temperatures pretend to enjoy a rousing game of freeze tag. Literal freeze tag.

5. "The choices for lunch today are trout treasures or chili." Trying to convince kids that something called a "trout treasure" or "school brewed chili" is delicious is a little like convincing the Amish that they are going to die of global warming.

4. "It won't stop bleeding." Almost always referring to a nose, but not limited to the nasal region. "It won't stop bleeding" actually means, "Better buy more tissue cause this box will soon be a giant red glob in the garbage can."

3. "I kicked my shoe over the fence at recess." I know what you are thinking: Really? How often does that happen? The surprising answer is: 2.7 times per year. 2.7 days of one child in the classroom crying for six hours while wearing a single shoe. A teacher delight.

2. "Tomorrow is crazy hair day." I hate crazy hair day. It's simply an excuse for a child to act as crazy as their hair. Generally, the rule of thumb is: the crazier the hair, the crazier the kid acts. Crazy hair day always coincides with some special week like Red Ribbon Week or Safety Week. I propose we start a week called "Wear normal hair at school and drive your parents bonkers with crazy hair at home week."

1. "I couldn't make it to the bathroom." No matter what the kid is talking about, if they say this phrase it never means something positive has taken place. Ever.

I am participating in Jenny Matlock's Alphabet Thursday. This has to be a quickie because I am headed out of town for a wedding for a few days. I was shopping for a last minute wedding gift......reaction: really procrastinating there teach!....when I encountered a woman on her cell phone in Bed Bath and Beyond. She was Really loud and kept going on and on about her boyfriend cheating on her with another woman. I Really tried not to pay attention to her going on and on about this Repugnant behavior of her boyfriend when......another woman walked up and handed her a card. She Read it and threw the card and began following the woman using very Racy and Repugnant words. I couldn't help myself, I had to pick up the card she threw at the woman. I wanted to know what spawned such a Reaction. The card Read :

" Dear Cell Phone user,

We are aware that your ongoing conversation about your husband's vasectomy is very important to you, but we thought you'd like to know that it doesn't interest us in the least. In fact, your babbling disregard for others is more than just a little annoying."

This was actually printed on a card like a business card. The woman wasn't really talking about the above, but the last sentence was totally on target. I wish I had some of those cards.

My reaction: I doubled over in laughter. Have a great week-end. I will be back in a few days.

I spent several hours this past week-end putting my report card grades into the computer at school. Imagine my shock this afternoon when I opened up the data to find that a lot of it had been lost.  I spent several more hours reloading the data but this time I printed copies of the report cards in case it happens again. So when I got home at 8 pm, I was  tired.  Two big pet peeves I have are scammers and junk mail. I hadn't planned to write a post tonight since I worked so late until I came close to getting suckered in by an email scam.

Email Scam alert

When I got home,  I had  received numerous emails from blogger acquaintances that read like this:

Your contact .................. invites you to participate in an iPad review program.
 Marketing research companies are looking for individuals who are interested in reviewing the new Apple iPad.  Sure they are, and donkeys fly too. The testing period lasts one month, after which reviewers can keep the device as a reward.
 To see more details or to register to our program, follow the link below:


.btincgroup   = scam


 Thanks,


 The Beta Testing Inc Group

At this time we are actively searching for people who will be willing to test the new Apple iPad. The testing period will take only two months, after which you may keep it as compensation.

Considering that the iPad has already been released, that put up a red flag for me. Inconsistencies on the site like 50,000 ipads to test in one spot while the FAQ's say 5,000 was red flag # 2. The biggest red flag of all was asking for my email  address and email password. No way am I giving that out! That is a sure sign to me that they are going to spam everyone in my email account. 

Junk mail

I have found a very effective way to deal with the unwanted junk mail or credit card offers that I get  in my mailbox. 

I got tired of so much junk mail being sent to my house that I didn't want. Even if you send them a nice letter asking to be removed from their mailing list, they keep sending the stuff. I started using the business reply envelope and putting all the junk back they sent in the envelope... along with something heavy like a thin piece of metal. Those companies stopped sending me stuff because I imagine that the postage they were paying was enough of a discouragement for them to remove me from their list! 


So, since I have to get up at 6, I am headed to bed. I hope all my blogging buddies forgive me for not visiting until tomorrow. I am one tired teacher even if I didn't have much of an appetite today. That fiber stuff worked its magic long into the night last night....sigh!

To post or not to post, that is the question! Okay, why not! 

Today turned out to be one of THOSE MONDAYS. I woke up five minutes before I was supposed to leave for school and no, I am not posting a picture of what I looked like today. Suffice it to say that I have looked betta.........! Since I barely had time to get my clothes on, I ran out the door without breakfast...or lunch. I try to pack a lunch every day since you have to pre-order at my school. 

I make it into the parking lot with a smug look on my face only to realize that I couldn't find my keys when I got to my classroom door. I searched my pockets and looked in my big teacher satchel but they were nowhere to be found. It had started raining as I made my way back out to the parking lot. I searched all through my car but couldn't find them. I trudged back inside where I had left my tennis shoes and purse parked beside my locked door.

I picked them up and headed through the door to my teammate's room that adjoins with mine. I plopped my tennis shoes down on my chair when I heard a ping. You guessed it! My keys  had slipped inside the sole of one shoe where it caught at the toe. 

School started and things were looking up..... with one exception. I was hungry. I mean, I was really hungry. Finally, it was snack time. I asked around on my hall to see if anybody had any snacks to spare....nada! I even resorted to checking the trashcan to see if one of my charges threw away a perfectly good snack today.....but they didn't.  I went to the workroom to see if there was any food in there but, there was none to be found. I was dejectedly headed back toward my room when I found an open box of Cinnamon flavored Metamucil fiber wafers. I wolfed two down...and those things were delicious. They were really crisp and crunchy and I am was a sucker for Cinnamon flavored anything. I figured it wouldn't hurt to have two more......I was sooooooooo hungry. I had a couple of glasses of water because I figured that might fill me up too.

I went back to my classroom and all was well. I kept counting the minutes until  lunch. Sometimes in the middle and high school, they have a few extra lunches to sell. I thought surely today I would  get lucky and be able to get something but there were none to be had. I trudged back toward my room when I remembered that there had been one pack of those wafers left in the Metamucil box, so I snagged them.

After lunch, I was in the middle of teaching when I told my assistant I would be right back and literally flew to the bathroom we share with the other class. After some time, kindergartners from both classes started pounding on the door. "Who is in there?" "Why are you taking so long?" "When are you coming out?" "Can you hurry up?"

When I finally sheepishly emerged, I got some rather stern looks from my students.  I heard the teacher across the hall telling her students to be sure and read the directions. It would have been nice if I had done that before wolfing down three packs of those darn wafers today.

I don't care how hungry I am next time.....I am turning up my nose at  fiber wafers.....sigh!

If you read my blog, you will know that I was recently given a Versatile blogging award. Today, since I am posting about something that is not directly related to teaching,  you will see why Robin at Your Daily Dose thinks that at times my blog may be a bit versatile.

I am certain that you all have heard the phrase random acts of kindness. I am referring to small acts that any of us can do that can have a great effect on others. Let me give you a prime example. I have three blogging friends who  recently exemplified  practicing this "pay it forward" or "random acts of kindness" attitude. ~J at Boobies, Babies and a Blog, Shell at Things I Can't Say, Tree at Mother Of Pearl and many other blogging buddies have been blogging about a precious baby girl whose parents recently learned that she has cancer. Can you even imagine the horror and fear those parents must have experienced when they learned that their little Monkey was going to be fighting a battle against this awful disease.

How does this relate to my blogging buddies ~J and Shell you ask? Let me explain it to you. They have joined up with other bloggers to try to raise money for little Monkey. Her story can be found on her sweet mother Michelle's blog at Momma's Pixie Dreams. ~J and Shell asked the women who sponsored Friday Follow to assist by participating in a raffle to help raise money. Go to ~J's blog Boobies, Babies and a Blog or to Shell's Things I Can't Say  to read about this. They asked other bloggers to consider giving an amount without specifying how much.  Their purpose was strictly to help this small baby.

Their actions bring to mind for me a quote by Albert Schweitzer who said "I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve." What I feel these women are trying to do is to put a "reverence for life" into practice in their lives in order to alleviate the suffering of a small child. In their quiet, unassuming way, they are working for a better world.

I recently overheard a woman in line at the grocery store tell the cashier that she didn't want to donate $1.00 to The March Of Dimes because nobody ever does anything for her but her. How sad this world would be if we all had that attitude. Random acts of kindness are just one way for us to serve others. We don't do them to accrue a "payback" but for the inner peace and joy that we ourselves gain by grounding ourselves in spirituality. In each of us lies the opportunity to work in some quiet, yet unassuming way to make our world a better place for all of us. As a Christian, I feel that God wants me to see Christ in all of us whether it be a child with cancer or an adult like my precious blogging buddy Teresa at Too Many Heartbeats who is  dealing with a very rare and debilitating illness called Dysautonomia/POTS. Just think about how much it would mean to Teresa to get a comment on her blog telling her you are thinking of her or praying for her.


If you hold a  pencil between  your hands, it will snap in two with very little pressure. But, if you take a large number of pencils between your hands, it is impossible for most of us to break them. Can you see the analogy to helping  fight against a dreaded disease, helping to feed the poor, or assisting those who have lost everything in a flood. 

God can use each of us to help others who are suffering. My prayer for each of you is that you will find your own small way to become a healing difference in our hurting world.


So let us not become tired of doing good.
Galatians 6:9-10