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...

Recent Thoughts

Ready for the randomness?? Here goes!

I just got back from a pilates class with a real-live instructor!! Ha, I have done pilates in the past, but always to a video. This instructor was hardcore too... telling me to squeeze my butt harder or to point my feet or to straighten my back. Oooo I'm going to hurt tomorrow...

Trish and I have decided it's time to do life a bit more independent again, and we found an apartment that's cheaper than living with our families! It's really nice too... we'll each have our own bedroom and bathroom, and there's plenty of room to host Friday night events :). Photos to come once we've moved in...

We also house-sat and babysat this past weekend, and I am once-again reminded how thankful I am that I am not a mother yet. The 3 year-old woke up and cried for what seemed hours both Friday and Saturday night. Sunday morning in church was a bit rough as we were all (Trish, Lindsay 17 years, and me) nodding off a bit during the sermon... Whoops.

I am feeling much better after my bronchitis episode. Thanks to so many for the encouragment to keep resting... Yes, Mom, you were right that I needed to stay in bed.

Until next time!

4th Graders' Writing Journals

Three times a week, we have a ''10 Minute Writing Frenzy'' when the students write and write until the timer goes off. It's always interesting to see what the students come up with.

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Today I saw Lucas seek well... he is a boy bout it doesn't matter he is my friend and when he came to school I was surprised because of his eye and now is 12:56 and were at righting workship and he's writing bout he look like he is really seek and his eye is itching poor Lucas and he said that yesturday he was in a fight and somebody had the purpose to kick his eye really really really poor Lucas and today I feel bad for him bout I know that if I put a prayer request on the tree of pray request that Lucas is seek and that he feels bad Jesus will help his eye and his body to feel well and thats why I want and at recess I want to see Lucas on Monday run and jump and scream and because I say Lucas is my friend and when one friend of mine feels bad I need to help him and that is what Im going to do.

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My nicest dream was to go to Italy and visit the leaning tower of pizza and go to get inside it and visit Venecia and build my own hot dog shop right there.

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''Do you want to visit Tasty World?'' the boy asked me and of course I said yes. So we saild. When suddenly the water turned chocolat milk and all other icecream flavors. So I took a jar and got some tasty water. Then we got to land. The clouds were cotton candy and the house were made of chocolat andd yumy candys. Every thing in that world was candy and things your parents don't whant you to eat.

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Today I had fun. I got to dress up like a G.i. Joe. I wish the G.i. Joes were real. it would be cool. today I learned about how a farmer compare to God's job in chapel. I realy like pumpkin seeds. there fun to eat when there fried. infact, I wish my mom could cook some but we can't grow them hear.

Character Day

Last Friday, we could dress up as our favorite book, movie, or TV character. As Trish and I were discussing how to dress, we impulsively decided to dye her hair to fit in with her Princess Jasmine costume. She had been wanting to do dye it for a long time, so it came as a good excuse. Here we are as Princess Jasmine and Sherlock (or Shirley, if you will :)) Holmes.

4th grade also had ''visitors'' (aka my students) Rapunzel, King Peter, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Molly the American Girl Doll, Pokemon Trainer, Spiderwoman, Jessie the cowgirl, Jo from Little Women, a GI JOE, one of the three musketeers, and Violet from the Incredibles. Too much fun!!

Shout Outs

It's about time for a few shout outs here, so here goes!

Thanks to Joann Blum for another of her amazing packages. This time I ate Skittles and read two of the books she sent while laying in bed recuperating from bronchitis. Thanks, Joann, the package arrived just in time!

Thanks to Grandma Siscoe for photos from Aunt Janna's baby shower. A tiny shout out to the new little Siscoe cousin too!!

Thanks to Danette Cooper for substituting for me today. I appreciate it so much!

And of course, thanks to Mom, who talked on the phone with her bed-ridden daughter almost 2 hours today! Thanks Mom for being the entertainment committee, ha!

The Bronchial Tubes Need More Air!

Alright...

Humble confession.

I'm not always the best at self-diagnosing. My mom has known this my whole life as I used to insist that my stomach ache was from something she fed me... not gas bubbles rumbling around. Or I would be convinced my body simply wasn't hungry, that I would never need to eat again, and I would continue with my creative expeditions in my room (or whatever I was doing) until finally I crawled downstairs, exhausted from no fuel to keep my creativity flowing. Mom was always right... yes, it was gas and yes, I was hungry.

So here I am, a grown woman. I have now learned to diagnose when it's gas bubbles and when I am hungry because I forgot to eat, but new puzzles about my well-being have dawned on the horizon. For example, I am just out-of-breath after walking up the stairs because I haven't worked out in a week, right? Or maybe it's just the San José altitude affecting me again out of nowhere. And maybe the reason I can't sing at church is because I didn't eat very much so now I just don't have very much energy. And maybe the reason I'm coughing up green stuff is just from the cold I had last week... right? And I'm just so exhausted and weak because I've been trying to do too much extra stuff after school... right?

WRONG.

Last year my bronchitis diagnosis came after a neighbor told me to go to the doctor because my coughing was keeping her up at night. This year, the diagnosis came after Blanca told me we should go to the doctor because I felt feverish.

So off we went yesterday to the doctor. Yes, fever. Yes, junk in lungs. Yes, medications.

And then today I took the day off. Is it bad to admit that a day off to do nothing but sleep is actually quite heavenly?? :)

So next time I have bronchitis, I know the symptoms. Quick loss of breath. Cough with the lovely green. Pressure on my chest and upper back. Not being able to sing. And an impending emotional breakdown (right Mom? :)).

Give me a week or so and hopefully I'll be back to my usual creative nonsense.