Bring on the Von Trapp children

Today I subbed for an elementary school music teacher. Not quite my forte, but I had fun. I think the teacher was expecting the same sub as yesterday, so the directions were a bit confusing. Fortunately, I had enough time to figure them out before kids showed up. I taught 3rd, 5th, and 4th grade classes in the morning. We sang two songs along with a tape, read a book about the Star-Spangled Banner (published in 1964! first indication that this teacher is stuck in the past), and danced a Jewish folk dance. I'm really glad the kids already knew the dance because I did not understand the directions to it. I was a little surprised by the lyrics to the first song, but my mom said she sang it when she was in elementary school (2nd indication).
Check these out:
Mister Johnson had troubles of his own
He had a yellow cat which wouldn't leave its home;
He tried and he tried to give the cat away,
He gave it to a man goin' far, far away.

But the cat came back the very next day,
The cat came back, we thought he was a goner
But the cat came back; it just couldn't stay away.
Away, away, yea, yea, yea

The man around the corner swore he'd kill the cat on sight,
He loaded up his shotgun with nails and dynamite;
He waited and he waited for the cat to come around,
Ninety seven pieces of the man is all they found.

Yeah, it may be a classic, but you should have seen the kids' faces as they listened: shock and awe. Anyway, in the afternoon I taught 1st and 2nd grade. We sang the same songs, danced the same dance, but instead of reading the old book, we watched a film reel about Mozart. I'm talking the kind of film reel that has a separate audio tape you have to be sure to play at the right time, the kind that advances one photo at a time at the sound of a beep, the kind that I thought went the way of beta tapes and eight-tracks. It took me a good fifteen minutes to figure out where the film reel was and how to get it set up. When I tried asking other teachers if they knew how to use it, they each said, "We have one of those?" And this was the final indication that whoever I was subbing for has been teaching for a very, very long time :)

First Day of Work, J/K

I am finally set up to be a substitute teacher. I officially logged-in to the system this weekend and have since been anxiously, excitedly waiting for phone calls. Since I hadn't heard anything by the time school started this morning, I figured I had the day off. Then, around 8:30am I got a call for a job teaching middle school Spanish for a teacher who traveled from one school in the morning to another in the afternoon. I quickly took down all the notes and accepted the job. After rushing to finish getting ready, I jumped in the car with my scribbled directions and headed out. I decided to call the school and let them know I was on my way. It was a good thing I did because the secretary told me that they had tried to cancel that job because it was already filled. I asked about the afternoon job at the other school, and she didn't know anything about it. I called the second school, and the secretary there didn't even know the teacher. She said there must be some flaw in the system. Goodness! I hope it isn't like this all the time.

Autumn time fun

I have always enjoyed autumn. In Arizona, it meant the end of 100 degree days and 90 degree nights. In New York, it meant the brilliant colors of the changing trees in Central Park. It means Halloween, Thanksgiving, and the build up to Christmas. This year I celebrated the beginning of fall by an apple-picking trip with some friends. We went to Lynd farm, about 40 minutes east of Columbus, and picked Jonathon and Cortland apples.


And because one of the best parts about autumn is the great food, I made a roast turkey breast with stuffing and mashed potatoes for dinner earlier this week. Last night, I used some of the leftover turkey and the apples I had picked to make a turkey pot pie and an deep-dish caramel apple pie.

Mmmm! Coming soon: pumpkin soup

Up the stairs

We thought it would be a while before our tiny little pup would be able to climb the stairs. It would be a perfect way to keep him in one area of the house. On his second day with us, Polo could climb the short set of stairs from the family room to the kitchen. For the past week, he has been attempting to climb the longer set up to the bedrooms, but he usually only makes it to step two. It's been exactly one week since we got him; just yesterday marked his 7 week birthday, and today he made it up his Everest. Unfortunately, he cannot yet make it down any stairs so he stands at the top and whimpers.

He's now a pro at these stairs...


Climbing Everest...

Polo's First Ball

We picked up a tennis ball today for Polo. It's a little big for him, but we loved watching him play.

Welcome Home, Polo!!

Michael and I have each wanted a dog for several years, but we always agreed to wait until we were married so we could raise him together. Once we got married, we decided to wait until we got a house with a yard. Once we were in the house, we wanted to wait until we finished painting and felt a little more settled. After much waiting, we decided to take advantage of this three-day weekend to get serious about a dog. We have been checking out Petfinder.com for possible adoptions and the Columbus Dispatch classifieds for pet listings for the past few weeks. Today, we took an unsuccessful trip to the humane society and then checked the classifieds again. We found a new listing for Golden Retrievers (my dream dog!) born July 24th at a price that was so good we had to call. Once we learned that all the puppies were still available, we left right away. After driving an hour and a half south of Columbus through miles of cornfields and farmland, we finally arrived at the right address. We played with three different males, picked our favorite, paid and headed home with huge smiles and full hearts. We finally found a puppy to call our very own. We named him Polo.

Polo's birthplace

Playing with Polo

Heading home together

Polo's new home

Tuckered out from a long day

Fingerprint Failure

I went in to the Dublin Schools District Office today to get fingerprinted, again. As a teacher in Arizona, I was required to get an FBI fingerprint clearance card. Interestingly, these expire. I don't know for sure, but my best guess as to the reason behind multiple fingerprint checks isn't because anyone's fingerprints change but because our criminal history might. Teaching is not the only profession that requires fingerprint clearance, and my guess is that all of us have to have this joyful experience repeated as long as we work in public service or with children. Maybe I'm not a criminal when they hire me, so they better check again every few years and see if any juicy tidbits show up during the background check.
Despite going through the process of getting fingerprinted three times before, today's experience was entirely new. The first and second time I went to a school district office in Arizona and had the traditional ink and roll fingerprinting. The third time I went to a police station in the Chelsea area of New York City. Though the environment was quite a change, I still inked and rolled. Today, I discovered that there is new technology (gasp!) that can scan my fingerprints right into a computer. Unfortunately, the computer can decide that any given scan isn't good enough, and my fingers failed. After scanning the right four fingers, the left four fingers, and the two thumbs together, the computer labeled all of them as "poor." The woman scanning my fingers was very nice about it. We tried again, then put on Cornhuskers lotion that was supposed to help the prints show up better. Nope. I washed my hands and tried again. No go. More lotion. Strike five. Another woman came over and tried to help apply appropriate pressure to my fingers as I pressed on the scanner. Finally, they put me out of my misery and said I should go home and moisturize my hands like crazy and come back on Friday. I felt guilty that I had failed at getting fingerprinting and then frustrated that technology trumped me once again. For all the advances that it brings, technology must bring twice as many headaches.