Crushes

True story: the first time I saw this picture it made me think of my friend Justin's joke about the first mention of a car in the Bible and I laughed for a good five minutes from both the humor and the pleasant memories.


So all this school-story-telling probably does not bode well for when I have kids of my own. I live in fear that somehow I will morph into one of those obnoxious, over-sharing parents that repeatedly find their obnoxiousness showing up here. Please, if that happens, someone slap me back into my senses.

Anyway, the other day I was telling Luke about my day and how I was walking down the hall heading to kindergarten and my second grade class was lining up out in the hall and I guess someone saw me because the next thing I know the whole class is not-very-quietly whispering "Miss Lacey's coming! Miss Lacey's coming!"

For a moment, I felt like I comprised the entirety of the British army . . . circa 1776, of course. :-)

Luke's reaction to this story was: "Sooooo . . . are you, like, the most popular aide in that whole school or what?"

I hesitated (and still do) to say yes, and only partly out of not wanting to appear full of myself. However, I do feel like I'm just being honest when I say I am pretty popular. And since it's pretty much for the first time in my life, I'm kind of enjoying it. The weirdest (for me) part? I seem to be most popular with the boys, and believe me that is absolutely the most foreign thing in the world.

I was thinking the other day - I get easily half a dozen hugs a day at least. And the vast majority are from the little boys. Granted, about half of them are from "Eric" most days but still . . . most days they're all from boys. Crushing a little maybe? Like I said, this would be the first time ever I've been the subject of so many crushes at once (or more than one crush at once, to be perfectly honest) so I'm kind of enjoying the attention. And it's just cute. :-)

I'm always a little nervous when returning hugs. I'm sure there's some sort of policy about it, but I certainly couldn't tell you what it is. Disney has a pretty strict policy about it, which I will admit to violating a time or two - for the same reason I may have here too: when a five-year-old has their arms around your neck and squeezes like there's no tomorrow it just plain feels wrong to respond with one arm loosely draped on their shoulder for a second or two. They're still so sweet and loving of everyone and it seems cruel to do anything that would disillusion them so soon. Besides, it's not like I'm not doing anything wrong, if for no other reason than I'm never alone with these hug-y kids. And isn't it sad that the state of affairs in general is such that hugging policies have to exist at all?

Anyway. Enough of that. Here's some silly stories involving boys who may or may not have a crush on me.


~ So in second grade this week the spelling list is all about open syllable words. (Another concept I'm not certain I learned when I was in school. Basically we're talking two syllable words where the first syllable has a long vowel - a concept I did learn, but had forgotten . . .) I work with my spelling groups before the actual class spelling time, so on Mondays I'm introducing the concept to these kids who are having a harder time with spelling than the rest of the class. Great. I can't help but wonder sometimes if I help or hinder more, but the teacher says I've helped a lot. Anyway, what I do is I tell them what the concept is, then I explain what it means, then I ask them to tell me what I just taught them. More often then not they can't remember the first day without a little prompting, and that was the case this week. So I say "open . . ." and that little clown of a "Jehosaphat" jumps up all excited and full of a 7-year-old's confidence says "SESAME!!!!!"

Now, normally when the kids say something funny I'll have a quick laugh and move on. Not this time. All spelling work stopped for at least five minutes. We're talking tearful laughter here folks. And then the kids started laughing even though they didn't get the joke and three or four times I'd try to get myself back under control they'd keep giggling and I'd be lost for another few seconds. I really hope that group did well on the spelling test today because I'm not very sure I taught them much this week.

~ Second grade again. Today was a half day, and since I'm in second grade last things were a little bit different than usual. Shortly before the end of the day I headed out to make some copies for next week's spelling groups who shall be known as David stopped me to give me a hug, as he sometimes does when I leave. I told him I was just making copies and would be right back. A couple of minutes later when I did come back I think he asked me "How was your coffee?" I'm not entirely certain because I didn't quite catch it and he got all embarrassed and wouldn't repeat himself when I asked what he said. But clearly at least one of us heard the other incorrectly. It made me giggle, after making me a little confused.

~ There is a darling little guy in kindergarten who shall go by Andrew. If I get only one hug in a day, it is his. The teacher might be right in the middle of showing them how to write a letter or something, but he will jump up and run to me. He goes right back to his seat immediately, so we all let him get away with it. Last week he added a little something . . . lately he kisses me on the cheek too. I've seen him give others hugs the second they walk into the room too, but I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who gets a kiss. I keep telling Luke he has competition - because I'm pretty sure Andrew thinks he does. As do a couple of others, I'm thinking. :-)

~ Then there are the third grade boys who come to my group the second the first bell rings even though they're supposed to wait for the second. I feel like it's always crowded back in my little corner because half the time there's twice as many people there as there's supposed to be. I send them back to their desks, theoretically until the bell rings again, but in actuality they're usually back within 15 seconds. I realize that in third grade everything is still exciting, but I kind of doubt it's because they're dying to do a math word search. (side note: Katie, one of them has also asked me a couple of times if Luke has bought me anymore jewelry yet, lol. I want to bring Luke to school just to see what kind if conversation those two would have!)

All in all, good times. I hope I'm not contributing to the creation of future heart-breakers!

btw, the car in the Bible thing? I don't remember the exact reference, but it's the first couple of verses of an early chapter of Acts and it says something like "And it came to pass that they were all in one accord in that place." *rim shot*

P. ost S. cript
I'm not sure what I think of this. On the one hand there's the "holy-crap-how-did-this-happen?!?" sort of feeling that leaves me thinking it's pretty hysterical. On the other hand, for some reason screw-ups are cool or something, and someday there will be people out there who will pay big money for this . . . more than for the "right" ones. So then I'm thinking it's kind of brilliant and I should, like, invest in one or something. Also: if you can't find what's wrong with this picture, we might not be able to be friends anymore. ;-)