Happy Thanksgiving!

This year for Thanksgiving, I headed to the beach :). Sand, sun, waves. Yes! photos to come...

My high school friend Rosie came to visit for the week as well. It has been fun to have her around!

Sorry for the lack of posts. Trish and I moved into our apartment but are holding out on paying for Internet until January.

I am waiting for the bus to San Jose... I think it's here!!!

More Kids Making Me Laugh

''Miss Siscoe, I don't know how to use a Kleenex."
"What do you mean, you don't know how to use a Kleenex?"
"I mean I have never used one properly."
"How do you think you use one properly?"
"I have no clue." (exasperated sigh)


History book says: Children in the 1700s went to a dame school to get a good education.
Student reads: Children in the 1700s went to a damn school to get a good education.


"Miss Siscoe, what is this on my arm???"
"Boogers."
"Awwww nooooo." (Student gets about-to-throw-up look on face)
"Run!! Don't get sick in here!" (me thinking I was only kidding, I had no idea what was on his arm)


"Miss Siscoe, have you noticed all the bird poop on our balcony?"
"Yes."
"Well I think I'm going to talk with Mr. Bob" (our principal) "about putting up signs telling the birds where they can and can't go."
"Great idea."


"Miss Siscoe, can we kidnap some more boys for our class so we have more boys than girls?"


"Miss Siscoe, I love you."

Humility Lesson for the Day

Ever dreamed there was a mosquito swarming around your head? And have you dreamed that you are swatting it away but it keeps coming back?

Yup, that happened to me last night. Except I think the mosquito was real and my dream was an interpretation of the attack happening to my face. That's right... my face. As soon as I opened my eyes this morning, I knew something was wrong because my right eye was swollen almost completely shut. I could hardly open it! I looked in the mirror with my other unswollen eye, and there... was my eye. Very swollen.

I asked Trish if a swollen eye was a good enough reason to not go to school and she said no. So off I went to school with my best professional outfit to help me feel more teacher-ly and no makeup to not irritate my eye more.

For about the first hour of school I was able to laugh about the strange looks people were giving me. I explained my situation rather eloquently. I walked around the halls with confidence.

And then about the second hour, I got tired of it. I just wanted to look normal, to have people look at me normally, to not have to explain a million times all the theories on what was going on. By the end of the day I was walking around with my hand over my eye after breaking down in tears when I saw my puffy, red, golf ball size (okay, not really that big... but it sure feels like it!) eye in the bathroom mirror.

Final theory. That mosquito in my dream was real. I have another bite on my left eyebrow, and my right temple and cheek. There are also bites all over my left arm. The mosquito feasted and I... learned humility.

Can we learn something else tomorrow? And can it not involve my face?

Advertising for Photography!!!

I will be in Illinois between December 15th and January 6th, and I am advertising my photography skills as a fundraiser to pay off more of my debt from college loans and save up for future opportunities. I have experience with weddings, senior portraits, and family and child portraits. Looking at this blog will give you an idea of my skills. If you are interested, contact me at kathrynsiscoe@gmail.com, and we will talk about dates, times, and prices!!

Thanks :)

Goodbyes

It's official! Trish and I will be moving in together again this Wednesday, and we are getting really excited. I gave a couple gifts to my tico family to show my appreciation...

flowers for Blanca...

and some photos of the family and me!

and then Blanca surprised me Saturday morning with this jar she had painted. It's a Raggedy Anne doll that she renamed Kate...

and here's the gift tag painted on the other side.



AND there was a huge cake waiting for me Saturday morning! This is only half of it after we feasted for breakfast, haha.

and a side angle. This cake is so good, it deserved 2 photos on the blog!! Wow, this family has been good to me. I reminded Blanca I am only moving 2 blocks down the road, and ManRi started laughing at Blanca's exaggerated sad face expression. I am sure I will still see them often even when I don't live with them!

Zoo!

We turned our classroom into a zoo last week with our final projects for our first animal unit. I was blown away by the students' creativity!!!

golden retriever 3D poster

Dolphin aquarium and dead snake in jar

Butterfly garden

Lion hut?

and baby pandas!

Having Too Much Fun ... Again

The Sojourn teachers went all out for Blast from the Past day... We've had lots of dress-up days lately, you've probably noticed, so here we are again!

And the fourth graders all dressed up... We had Al Capone, Cleopatra, a pioneer, mother Mary, Johnny Appleseed, Vikings, and 50s girls... Quite the mix.

me as a Greek, and Trish rocking the 50's housewife look.
and the hair! I put leaves in mine and we put a small tupperward container under Trish's french twist to get it to be a classic beehive. We didn't have enough time to tease it, so we took a shortcut.

and Mariana won the prize for the best-dressed in 4th grade!


And of course, another embarassing moment happened. A tica teacher asked me what my costume was, and I said, ''Soy igriega!!'' which means ''I am a Y!!''... what I meant to say was ''Soy griega!'' (''I am Greek!'') which is way too close to how to say Y in Spanish... Yup, Trish and I had a good laugh about that one...