lots and lots

As of yesterday, Josh and I have been married three years. I honestly didn't think that we would get so far (I thought one of us would die first) and I really didn't think that we would be so happy together. It's always nice to be pleasantly surprised.

Today Josh ran 6 miles, uphill, both ways, and he didn't like it. But he did it anyways. He's one of the better shooters in his class (I'd say in the top ten), and he's passed all of his tests so far. His biggest test, "Night Problems" is coming up next week. It'll be at night and he'll encounter some problems doing pretend car stops and searches, but we don't know specifically what it'll be. We do know, however, that if he doesn't pass then he will be instantly fired. It's a pretty big deal. But when he gets through that then the next week he gets to go to a closed driving course and learn how to drive like a cop - squealing 'round corners and everything.

The kids actually really missed me when I was sick last week. On Monday when I came back, one of them was in in-house suspension for trying to stab my sub with a pen. I went to go talk things over with him and as soon as he saw me through the door window he flung himself at me yelling, "Yoshi!" and gave me a big hug. Awww. Then we had a talk about how it's not ok to stab people. He gave me this sheepish grin with a hang dog look ... "Yeah, I know ..." Co- missed me too, "you're going to be here tomorrow, right?" accompanied by an anxious look.

But after being gone from them for nearly a week, and going to two different normal schools (one for an interview and the one that I'm going to teach at this summer), I feel a lot more like my old self, my acne has cleared up significantly, and I was strongly reminded how off these kids are from what is considered normal. So yesterday when Ju- started cussing me out because I wouldn't let him use the computer I decided that I had had enough and I wasn't going to let them get away with anything. Starting this morning, I and my aides have been monstrously strict with them, forcing them to tow all lines and being tyrants about taking away their points. And it's working. I know that it might sound silly being that I only have another 6 days with them, but now that I know I have a good relationship with them and they know that I honestly do love them, I am going to show them how good some old fashioned discipline is. It's worked rather well. I had a brilliant day today and they all did their work. They even sat in their desks. The only bump I had was the ants.

Je- almost got out of control this morning when I told him that he could heat up his food in the microwave and he opened the microwave to find his hamburger that he left in there two days ago (and he nearly beat up another kid who he thought had stolen it!), all covered with hordes of ants. So we tossed out the old burger. I microwaved the ants until they died, cleaned out the microwave, and then I made to put his fresher food in there to heat it up. "What?!" he shrieked. "You are NOT putting my food in there!!!!"

"Why not?" I asked, honestly puzzled.

"Because there were ants in there! I ain't eating no food from a microwave that had f-n ants in it!"

"Fudging ants. Well then you are going to eat cold food."

"No, I'm going to go heat it up in Mr. M's room."

"No you're not. You are not going to go and disturb another class!" I said in an extremely firm voice.

"Well then you can go heat it up in the teacher's lounge for me." he said with all the snobbery of a king.

"Nope. You can heat it up here or eat it cold. Keep this up and you won't eat it at all until lunch time, break or no break."

"What?!" again he shrieked. "I ain't eating no nasty ant microwaved food and I'm hungrrrrry."(The last word was a sniveling whine, if you didn't catch that from spelling).

I was extremely tired of the shrieks and I detest whining. He can have a very high pitched voice. And since I didn't want to set him off swinging at people, I decided that my best option would be to startle and distract him. With my index finger I scooped up several of the hundreds of ants that were still crawling up and down my wall. "Look." I ordered. I commanded. I had had it. "Ants don't hurt you." And with that I popped the crawling black specks into my mouth and swallowed. "Now I don't want to hear another word from you. Either heat it up here or don't heat it up at all, but don't give me any more stupid excuses because you're embarrassing yourself with your behavior."

"She just ate ants! Miss. Yoshi just ate ants!"

It worked. He was so distracted and startled by the ant eating that I had his food microwaved and had shooed him out to eat it in the hallway where his crumbs wouldn't attract more ants before he knew what hit him. Je- had a very good day today. He did all his work. But really, I doubt that he was going to give me any problems when I was crazy enough to eat ants, because you never know what a crazy woman might do.

That's part of teaching these kids that really works - distracting'em. A great trait that I picked up from my mother of a sister. Thanks Jess.