Drinking on The Job

Today while I was working at the day-care (my second job) I was enjoying a nice lunch of "funeral potatoes," peanut butter cookies, and Rootbeer. A couple of the older boys approaced and we had the following conversation:

Boy #1: "What are you eating?"

Dawn: "Lunch."

Boy #2: "What is that you are drinking?"

Dawn: "Rootbeer."

Boy #1 to Boy #2: "She is drinking beer?!! My mom said that's bad!"

Boy #2 to Boy #1: "No it's not bad because her beer has 'roop' in it."

Boy #1: "Oh, yeah I forgot about the 'roop.'"

Well anyway, I enjoy the "roop."

I 'HEART' Movies

Some may know that I occasionally (every night) have a hard time falling asleep (until 3:00am). Now I could take sleeping pills but the risk of dependency and the weird reports of people "sleep-eating" (like I need to eat any more calories) have turned me off to that possible solution. But never fear, I have found a rather effective "sleep aid" with very few side effects: MOVIES.

All I have to do is watch the same movie a few (100 or 200) times and then I can use it to put me to sleep. The science (not actually science at all) behind this is quite sound; having watched a movie so many times I am able to listen to the movie without being required to watch it (allowing me to close my eyes which I have found to be key in the process of falling asleep). It is so peaceful to let the familiar music and dialouge invade your brain pushing out any annoying thoughts (man I probably sounded so dumb today when I said that dumb thing) and silly worries (do I have clean clothes to wear tomorrow?).

For a little while (maybe 5 years) I have enjoyed the eye-candy, humor, and deep-thought provoking film "Ocean's 11." There was really nothing that worked so well (do I sound like a drug addict?) to accomplish sleep. Unfortunately it recently lost some of it's edge (I think I do sound like a drug addict). So I found myself looking for a new "sleep-movie." That is when I stumbled across the new "Pride and Prejudice." I will admit it took a little work to get this movie to the place where it could be effective, but I have finally achieved the goal! (I like to keep my goals attainable-fear of failure and all)

Now each evening as I lie in my bed I listen to Darcy (who on first look shouldn't really be deemed 'attractive' but is SO attractive) and Lizzie (who I am secretly pretending to be) fall in love again. Oh, I 'heart' movies.

Finally Ready

The other day at the end of my afternoon preschool class the following "exchange" occured;

Sweet Little Boy: "Miss Dawn, you look cute all dressed for the day."

Miss Dawn: (a little surprised at the sweetness of the comment because this little boy has just finished trying to tackle all 9 of the other kids as they finished their snack) "Oh. Thanks bud."

Miss Dawn's Thoughts: "Does that imply that I don't usually get ready for the day, or does it imply that I don't usually look cute? Either way...."

Fate

So as you may know from my last post, this week in preschool we went to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point. The last exhibt, before the giant sandbox of fun, is entitled "Mammoth Hunters." As the title suggests, depicted in bones, there is a huge mammoth and a handful of humnas with spears and big rocks trying to bring down the mammoth. (My personal favorite part is the human being smashed by the mammoth! Totally Sweet!!)
We gathered around and talked about why these people were obviously trying to kill this animal-something about there not being grocery stores and people still needing to eat. Then we started to head out to the aforementioned giant sandbox of fun.
As I tried to walk away I felt a little hand slip into mine, and heard a quiet voice asking me a question. She was not afraid, but her voice was full of curiosity, concern, and what can only be described as a 4-year-old version of a questioning of ethics, the little girl asked,
"Miss Dawn, when I die, will my bones be here too?"

Melting Skin, Bones, and Heaven-Just another day in Preschool

Today was the first day of our preschool unit on Dinosaurs, always a popular theme that involves a fieldtrip to the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point. My first problem came when I tried to explain how long ago dinosaurs actually lived on the earth. Apparently "millions of years ago" is a little abstract for 4 and 5 year olds so I tried again with, "before there were people." They seemed to accept that.
Then they wanted to know about the dinosaurs bones. So I explained "When a dinosaur died it would eventually get covered up with a lot of dirt, and be buried. They all stayed buried for a long time. Then a long time later when people were born on the earth some of those people started to dig up the dinosaur bones and tried to learn about the dinosaurs." I thought this was a great explanation. I guess I missed the boat though because Nate asked, "Miss Dawn, what happened to their skin?" Asa answered his question, "Oh, it just melts off and then all there is is bones." An approximately scientific answer, so I accepted it. Then Sammie displayed her most important knowledge by sharing, "Well, the dinosaur bones are in the ground but their spirit is in heaven."
It was a humbling experience to remember that while ABC's and 123's are important-the curriculum I follow does not always teach the most valuable lessons in a child's life.