Monday, March 26, 2007

Kids Are Quick

(thanks to Marcus for this one)

TEACHER: Maria, go to the map and find North America.

MARIA: Here it is.

TEACHER: Correct. Now class, who discovered America ?

CLASS: Maria.

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TEACHER: John, why are you doing your math multiplication on the floor?

JOHN: You told me to do it without using tables.

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TEACHER: Glenn, how do you spell "crocodile?"

GLENN: "K-R-O-K-O-D-I-A-L"

TEACHER: No, that's wrong

GLENN: Maybe it is wrong, but you asked me how I spell it.

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TEACHER: Donald, what is the chemical formula for water?

DONALD: H I J K L M N O.

TEACHER: What are you talking about?

DONALD: Yesterday you said it's H to O.

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TEACHER: Winnie, name one important thing we have today that we didn't have ten years ago.

WINNIE: Me!

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TEACHER: Glen, why do you always get so dirty?

GLEN: Well, I'm a lot closer to the ground than you are.

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TEACHER: Millie, give me a sentence starting w ith "I."

MILLIE: I is...

TEACHER: No, Millie..... Always say, "I am."

MILLIE: All right... "I am the ninth letter of the alphabet."

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TEACHER: George Washington not only chopped down his father's cherry tree, but also admitted it. Now, Louie, do you know why his father didn't punish him?

LOUIS: Because George still had the ax in his hand.

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TEACHER: Now, Simon, tell me frankly, do you say prayers before eating?

SIMON: No sir, I don't have to, my Mom is a good cook.

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TEACHER: Clyde, your composition on "My Dog" is exactly the same as your brother's. Did you copy his?

CLYDE: No, teacher, it's the same dog.

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TEACHER: Harold, what do you call a person who keeps on talking when people are no longer interested?

HAROLD: A teacher

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Unable to Predict the Future

As a parent, I sometimes think about what it must be like for a parent to have their child snatched from them. I don't necessarily mean kidnapped, but if something unfortunate were to happen and suddenly the child was no longer part of their life. I think it's a natural worry when you're suddenly responsible for such a tiny little life you've had the joy of knowing since birth -- and in some ways even before.

As I watched her brush her teeth tonight, I realized that's part of the equation. It's not just that one minute they're there and the next minute they're not. But that up until that point, everything was normal. You're standing in the doorway watching them brush their teeth.

I guess in some ways that's part of the uncertainty of life and same could be said of a car... you parked it and went into the store. You walked away and it sat there happily awaiting your return. And then a meteor hit it while you were in the store and you came back out to find only a crater.

I suppose I'm not making any sense. But I guess it's all about how you can never predict anything. And also that you can't worry about life or you'll turn into a useless ball of jelly afraid to leave the bomb shelter.

So instead all I can do is Thank God for breath, for life, for family and pray for future protection and leave it all in His hands.

In completely other news, I finally uploaded new photos. As always, sign in for the actual pictures of people.

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Bleatnik

Get it? :)

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Back-overs

Reader's Digest had a really sad story in the latest issue (not yet available online) about back-overs -- where a child is injured or killed by being backed-over with a car by a family member.

It's really sad and they noted a great organization called Kids and Cars.org that's trying to raise awareness. It's responsible for 50% of all non-traffic fatalities of children under 5 years of age and growing.

The sad thing was that they were vilifying the car manufacturers for not doing more. I will concede that this could be considered a "design flaw" to have such poor visibility behind cars, but manufacturers have resisted calling backup cameras and sensors "safety" features recognizing that they aren't foolproof and to call them "safety" features just opens them up for lawsuits.

One company in the article even sued Nissan because the salesman wasn't more pushy in trying to get them to get the camera on their Lexus. (My words.)

Apparently, it's common for a child to go back out to a car to say bye again to a parent who's leaving.

I do feel bad for these parents and I pray that this never happens to me and I would hope that, especially after reading this, my wife and I are really vigilant, and that we pay attention to things like the beeping noise that we hear any time an exterior door is opened in our house, and that we back in our cars (so we're pulling forward when leaving would all work towards protecting our child(ren).

The worst part of the story was a grandpa who accidentally backed over a child. I just can't stop picturing the thought of the dad getting the call from his wife telling him nothing except to come home and him finding the car backed partway down the driveway, the grandfather laying on the ground in the fetal position sobbing and his wife holding their son wrapped in a towel, refusing to let her husband see him, just saying instead that he should picture the child as he was. I feel so awful for that grandfather and so amazed and the will of the mom to bear all that alone, to even shield her husband from it. Wish I could link to the article, but they don't have it on their website yet.

Monday, March 05, 2007

Baby Blogging

An interesting article on News.com about parental blogging. Thoughts?

Face Of God

When my little girl gets that sleep in her eyes,
And she settles in with her head on my chest,
Why do I feel like my heart's gonna burst?
That I'm willing to die for this angel at rest?

And why am I filled with unshakable faith,
When I look at that child so fragile and sweet?
There's something eternal I see in her face,
Something much more than her mother and me.

Maybe I'm looking at the face of God.
Makes me think I may be looking at the face of God,
And He's smiling back at me.

Why do I feel like the smallest of things,
When I try to count all the stars in the sky?
When I see the world that we're in at it's worst,
Why do I feel like it'll all be all right?

I can't see the wind as it moves through the trees.
So how do I know that I know that I know,
That somebody out there is speaking to me?
Saying: "I love you and you're not alone."

Maybe I'm looking at the face of God.
Makes me think I may be looking at the face of God,
And He's smiling back at me.

Oh, I know that I know that I know that He's out there.
Somebody’s out there.
When I look at the beauty around me,
And the love that surrounds me.

Maybe I'm looking at the face of God.
Makes me think I may be looking at the face of God,
And He's smiling back at me.
Maybe I'm looking at the face of God.
And He's smiling back at me.

Artist/Band: Cyrus Billy Ray
Lyrics for Song: Face Of God
Lyrics for Album: The Other Side
(Bob DiPiero/Rivers Rutherford/Tom Shapiro)