Sunday, July 31, 2005

so sick -__-

ryan came down to spend the afternoon, but i ended up getting really sick. :\ shortly after he arrived, i had my head in the toilet, puking up my breakfast. :X we went and saw "wedding crashers," but i really wasn't paying attention. i kept tasting the acid in my throat every time i swallowed. i sent him home around 6:30, i felt so bad. :(

i miss you... i hate that we spend more time apart than together...

this will be a great week though. on thursday we leave for our anniversary weekend. :) <3 i can't wait.

the run-down

well, i just got home from anupama's wedding. it was fun. :) very energetic at the end, hehe.

Indian bride

it was at foxchase manor in manassas. the place is huge! but too cold. :P

Couple

omg, aren't we the cutest? ;) i have to admit i look really good here. (not to mention my boobs look enormous.)

Say cheese

some other random pics:

from friday...

peace out. (i think that ghostly image by my face is actually my phone. i was swinging it around on my finger at one point, it might have been this one.)

Um...

here i am with two of my favorite girls:

Me and the girls

ryan thought it would be funny to take a picture of me brushing out my curls. silly boy. (ooh, nice handprint on the mirror. i need to clean.)

Sneaky!

damn yo, look at that perfectly done hair. ;)

Kathy says

i'm not vain. really. :D

Saturday, July 30, 2005

tales of the funny, the sad, and the weird

what a full week it's been...

1. the saddest thing that happened this week was someone stealing nick's game cartridge from his gameboy. according to nick, after lunch he placed his gameboy on the table and he sat on the floor to play cards with a group of boys. josh (his brother) saw the gameboy, handed it to him, and told him to put it away. nick put it back on the table and said he would put it away later. about 10-15 minutes later, nick reached for the gameboy but the cartridge was gone. he came up to me with his gameboy, looking like he was going to cry. "ms. kim, someone stole my game."

the teachers and i turned that place upside down looking for it. i got all the kids into their classrooms, and i had them all dump their bookbags and empty their pockets. nothing. i called kathy and told her what was going on, and she asked that i gather all the kids by the kitchen and do another dump. i had ben take care of the older kids out there, mike and raymond searched their kids in the classroom. i had some of the boys help me gather up all the trash bins, and i searched them with my hands. it was the most digusting thing i've ever done. do you have any idea what's in those trash bins after lunch? gross. but i did it anyway. the bookbag and trash searches turned up nothing.

the kids went back to class, but the other teachers and i were still really upset. why would anyone steal a game from nick?? we stopped classes and did another search. i helped ben with the older kids, mike and raymond did theirs, nothing turned up. as the kids went back to class, i checked the bathrooms, the outside bathrooms, under bookshelves, behind plants, everywhere. nothing. i told nick we had done our best, but someone was hiding it and we didn't know what to do.

around 2:00 raymond pulled me out of class and said he had found the game. on a hunch, he had gone into the boys' bathroom and looked under the trash bin. there it was. he was so angry. he paced the hallway for a few minutes. he went from class to class, talking with each boy individually, but no one confessed. we called mike out and we decided that we had to sit the kids down and let them know how disappointed we were about this incident. they lost all their lunch privileges, so they have to eat in their own classrooms, no wandering, no computer lab, no gameboys, no cards.

the sit-down with the kids went really well. considering it was the 2nd time that one of the kids had lied to us (the first time being the "Dirty" incident), we had to let them know that we were dead serious and they were not going to get off scott free. we all did a pretty good job of expressing our disappointment (with the exception of ben - explanation to follow), and i think the kids understood that this was no laughing matter.

okay, so here's what happened with ben during this whole time. during the first bookbag dump, he was yelling at the kids to be quiet and throwing their stuff on the floor. unacceptable. during the second dump, he literally picked up each bag, held it upside down, and dumped everyone on the floor. he got papers, books, and pencils scattered everywhere. the kids were so upset. he didn't flinch and told them to hurry up and pick up their things. during the third dump, i had the kids line up in front of me and ben for searches. all i did was open the bags, stick my hand in and search around, and only open pockets that looked suspicious. meanwhile, he continued dumping and throwing. kids migrated to my line. there was no need for him to take it out on the kids like that. he needs to learn to keep his temper under control and understand that scaring or pissing the kids off doesn't help our cause.

during the sit-down, he butted in with something about integrity and "a man's word." i think we all rolled our eyes. he always does that - says something that the kids won't understand, in a way that's even hard for us to understand. he just loves bringing in his marine background into everything he does and says. it wasn't necessary, and it was inappropriate. he has to keep things simple and straightforward.

anyway, we didn't tell the kids we had found the game. we pulled nick and josh aside at the end of the day and told them not to tell anyone we had found it. nick was so happy when he got it back. i was glad to see him smile again. if i ever find out who took the game and stashed it in the bathroom, i am going to give him a piece. he'd better hope and pray.

Nick

look at that face! how could anyone do such a thing?!

2. raymond and sandy began carpooling this week. sandy also has a "boyfriend" named scott. ;) hehe.

3. on thursday, before classes started, i was at the front desk, and ben was sitting across from me, talking to kelly, one of the little girls. i don't remember what they were talking about, but all of a sudden i heard him say, "i'm way cuter than mr. wolf." i had to turn away so he wouldn't see me laugh. i had to keep it quiet. i told kathy about that yesterday. she was like, "what?! no one says that about my mr. wolf." hahaha. ben always says things like that. that just makes me bring it up even more. "oh, mike, i think kathy has a crush on you. she said you were so handsome again." ;)

4. yesterday, we had pajama day again. ugh, the day ended up being ALL ABOUT BEN, as usual. he got on my nerves as soon as i walked in. he said he was going to watch "school of rock" with the kids. i told him it was inappropriate since he was going to be with the 2nd graders. he argued that there was nothing bad in the movie and that it was funny. i reminded him of the opening scene (jack black wakes up with a bad hangover), and the mention of pot later in the movie. i told him that was more than enough reason not to show that movie because i didn't want to have to explain what a hangover was. he said, "oh, then send them to me, i'll come up with some lie." yea, way to handle that, ben.

then he started asking my kids if they wanted to see "school of rock." of course, some of them had no idea what it was, so they wanted to see it. i told them it was inappropriate and that we had already agreed to watch "napoleon dynamite." ben started arguing with me. he said he was going to find a way for them to watch it, whether or not i approved.

i told kathy that she needed to tell ben not to show that movie. she frowned and asked, "why doesn't he know what's okay and what's not okay?" yea, i can't tell you that either.

so he ended up watching "spider-man 2" with the 1st-3rd graders. i watched "napoleon dynamite" with the 4th-8th graders. so ha.

5. during the movie, sandy was in the room with ben. she put a chair in the back of the room and sat down. he pulled a chair up right next to her and sat down. she felt uncomfortable, so she got up and moved to the front with the kids. she laid on the ground and the kids laid on top of her. halfway through, a bunch of the kids left for the bathroom. ben approached her and asked, "do you mind if i join you?" she said she did and asked that he go away. he thought she was kidding and asked why she was being mean. she repeated her answer, but he wouldn't take no for an answer. he laid down, so she got up and left the room. jacob and i were at the front desk, she came over and sat down. she was angry about his actions and told us what happened.

i went to see how my kids were doing (they were supposed to be reading), and ben saw me in the hallway. he said, "where's sandy? i need help with the kids." i told him that she had gone to the bathroom (lie) and had stopped to talk with jacob (mostly truth). i said i would go get her. when i told her he wanted her in the room, she said she wasn't going back. jacob and i laughed because, well, it was funny. :P ben came out to the front and asked sandy what was wrong because she seemed a little nervous. she went off on him. she told him that he shouldn't have laid down after she said she minded and asked him to go away. unapologetically, he said, "oh, well, i'm sorry." he went back to the room.

later he came out front again when sandy had gone to the bathroom or something. he asked jacob what was wrong with sandy. jacob mumbled something and left. when he told me, i was amazed that ben would think there was something wrong with sandy. the real question here is, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU, BEN? get a clue. she doesn't like you. no one does. you're weird and creepy. janet talked with you about your behavior before she left. just because she's not here, it doesn't mean you can start being creepy again. it's called SEXUAL HARRASSMENT.

anyway, sandy never went back to the room. kathy came back at 12 with the pizzas. after all the kids got their food, ben left for mcdonald's, and i told kathy what happened. she was upset and asked sandy if she wanted to sit down with ben and talk with him in front of her. sandy said she thought it would be okay, but that if he did it one more time, she'd let kathy know.

6. i think it was monday, or maybe last week, but one day sandy was getting ready to leave at 3:30. she started walking back to her room to get her things, ben saw her and said, "wait, i'm going home too." he got his things too, and i saw them walking to the door together. kathy stopped sandy and said she needed to talk to her. they went back to the conference room, and ben stood by the front desk, flipping through a magazine. i was sitting at the desk, just watching to see what he would do. the kids i drive home brought their card game out front and were playing on the floor. mike was tutoring one of his kids, and he came out front to xerox something. he saw ben and asked, "what are you still doing here?" ben said, "oh i'm going to leave soon." mike left. i didn't say a word, just continued to watch him. i pretended to be doing other things.

now, i knew why he was still there. he was waiting for sandy. around 4, he asked me what kathy and sandy were talking about. i told him i didn't know (truth), but that it was probably about some of the students in her class. he nodded and went back to reading a magazine. at 4:15, sandy and kathy came out of the conference room. there was the usual exchange of "see you tomorrow's", and ben followed sandy out. as they were leaving, i made eye contact with kathy and whispered in korean, "don't let her leave yet, he's been waiting for her." immediately, she called sandy back in. by that time, ben had already gotten out the front door. sandy came back in, but he had no choice but to leave. coming back in would have looked suspicious and made his intentions obvious. i laughed about it as she came back in. she said, "i have no idea why he keeps doing that." we chatted a little about the inappropriate things he was doing, and sandy expressed how uncomfortable he made her.

seriously, what reason would he possibly have for waiting 45 minutes for sandy? they don't drive in the same direction. 45 minutes?? why? i just don't understand him. i think sandy has made it pretty clear that she doesn't want anything to do with him, but he has utterly failed to pick up on her signals. how dense. ugh. at least it makes for a good laugh the next day at lunch. you know, before ben joins us.

and that concludes the week.

oh yea, ryan left work early yesterday and came to see me at work. :D well, kathy too, because she missed him. ;) even some of the kids stayed late just to meet him, how cute. :) so check it out, me and my boy:

Visitor

went and saw ken's house yesterday. it was nice. a little on the small side, but big enough for a single guy.

anyway, anupama's wedding tonight! :D

Sunday, July 24, 2005

let's keep swimming

we took the kids to planet splash 'n play on friday, and it was so much fun! ^_^ i didn't take my bathing suit initially because i hadn't planned on going in the water. but all the kids kept asking me to go in (plus i wanted to get cody to go in the water), so i drove all the way home to get my bathing suit. i was pretty self-conscious at first, but once i got in the water and got drenched, it was okay. :P

yea, so as soon as i got in the water, mike, raymond, and jacob came up behind me (without my knowledge) and splashed me mercilessly. :P then they ran away. it took me a few seconds to figure out who had done it, but i knew right away because they were laughing on the other side of the pool. i wasn't able to get back at them, but i'll find a way. (okay so maybe i probably deserved that from raymond ever since the whole candy incident at the bowling alley, but mike and jacob will pay. ;) such nice boys... so deceiving.)

yesterday, i went with ryan to a water park by his place. it wasn't as fun and exciting because there were so many kids, and it was just a regular pool with a slide. maybe i can get him to go to splash 'n play today. :D

oh yes, i got myself a bear yesterday at build-a-bear. i got one for victoria too. :)

Thursday, July 21, 2005

*sigh*

baby, i miss you...

Ryan

also, emperor penguin babies are so cute. ^_^ i want one. yay!

Wednesday, July 20, 2005

a little relief

what a day:

1. mike went to the emergency room this morning, so daniel came in to cover for him. fortunately, mike will be okay. :)

2. janet talked to ben. i think he took it extremely well, as he didn't really let on. i didn't feel as uncomfortable around him, which makes working less stressful. i hope he learns from this experience.

3. it took 40 minutes to get a TB screening, which lasted all of 30 seconds. ugh.

4. jacob got a nice surprise from grace and jiwon to make up for their rudeness yesterday. aww. :)

5. i have bigger calves than raymond, a soccer player. -__-

i'm so tired...

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

a few of these, please

so cute. ^_^ i can't wait to have my own.

The world outside
Victoria loves standing at our back door and watching our dog. Last week, she learned to say "mung," which is the onomatopoeic word for dog. Last weekend, she learned to say "may," my dog's name. :) too cute.

So pretty!
Another thing she learned was to use a comb. I wasn't here for this one, but it looks like she's doing pretty well.

Cha-ching
Victoria also learned how to use zippers.

Let's read
She's taken an interest in books, which is always fun. :) Now she won't tear and pound on the pages of the books she has.

Watching TV
Watching TV!

Look at me!
Okay, so she didn't learn to play the piano, but it's a start. ;) She pounded on the keys with her hands until my dad showed her how to use her fingers. She's so smart.

Friday, July 15, 2005

eff - are - eye - dee - ay - why

well, today was just... wow. how many times did i make eye contact with mike because of ben's inappropriate behavior? i lost count after 5. that boy is really going to cross the line one of these days and get himself into some serious trouble.

"oh my god, he is so annoying. i need a cigarette break." ~janet

:D

well, janet only has another week of enduring his weirdness. she has to go back to work the last week of this month because her school is on a modified calendar. we'll all miss her. :)

new uniform! haha... oh man.

oh yea, one more thing...

happy 24th birthday CHI! love ya, miss ya... <3

Thursday, July 14, 2005

homer says

"now i have four children. you will be called... stitch face."

haha.

*sigh* i needed that laugh. :)

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

one big huff

i can't believe it's only wednesday. i'm so worn out already. o_O

i had told my girls the way mike and i felt about ben. in turn, the girls asked mike if what i had told them was true. :P i walked into mike's room at the end of the day, and he said, "you can't trust them with anything." hehe. all the girls - especially esther and sammy - are starting to feel really uncomfortable around ben. he singled out esther this morning during the meeting because she had pantsed one of the boys. (it happened in my room, his pants never came down past his butt, and only the older kids were in the room.) i thought ben overreacted by doing that, and so did mike. ben thought it was completely reasonable. (i roll my yes so much lately.) he's been really friendly with sammy, maybe a little too friendly. she tells me about how uncomfortable he makes her, especially with some of the comments he makes. he said something about how he's attracted to hispanic girls, and that sammy looks hispanic. (she doesn't.) he touched her leg to get her attention yesterday, which was really inappropriate, considering she was sitting less than 2 feet away from him. then she told her she needs to come earlier and stay late so he can tutor her in spanish. not necessary considering he WON'T BE TEACHING SPANISH.

i switched with him in the afternoon because he said he was having a tough time with the three ESL boys he had. i volunteered to switch. well, i worked with them yesterday and i didn't have any trouble with them whatsoever. except for a few times where they refused to speak english, they worked the whole two hours. raymond said he doesn't have a hard time getting them to work either, so i don't know what's going on with ben. i think it just might be that the kids don't want to take him seriously, or they aren't comfortable speaking english the whole time. well, i'm switching back to spanish next week. i'm glad because a lot of the kids taking spanish said he tries to teach too much new information in a short period of time without giving them enough in-class practice. ben said he clicked with them instantly and that things just rolled well, but that seems to contradict what the students said. i'm a little more willing to believe the students since there are more of them, and i know they wouldn't lie to me. i've known brian for a year now, and i know he wouldn't make things up. well, it'll be good to be back there with them. as hard as they can make it sometimes, i prefer being with them.

we're going to six flags next friday. the girls seemed excited, even more so when they learned that ben wasn't going. :X anyway, i think it'll be fun. we decided that the youngest group wouldn't be allowed to go unless each child came with his/her parent. a lot of them wanted to know why a parent had to come. i feel bad that they want to go but probably can't because no one can go with them. :\ well, hopefully they won't feel like they've been denied anything. we'll be going to planet splash and play in a couple weeks, so they can have some water park fun there. :) mike and i will probably take the older kids. they all want to go with us because they know we'll let them enjoy their time without ruling with iron fists. i'm taking them on all the coasters. :D

*sigh* so tired... maybe a nap?

Monday, July 11, 2005

black ranger!!

lately my cousins have been blogging about the US version of naruto. (cartoon? i'm so not hip.) anyway, apparently johnny yong bosch is doing the voice of naruto.

JOHNNY YONG BOSCH! ^_^ (for those out of the loop, he was adam park, the black ranger on the power rangers in the 90s.)

*sigh* how i loved him.

i am a huge dork.

Sunday, July 10, 2005

happy birthday!

happy first birthday, sweet victoria. :D



Friday, July 08, 2005

bowling!

so we took the kids bowling today. i didn't participate, but i did cheer and jeer. ;) raymond, ben, and mike really got into it with the kids. they really had a lot of fun. one successful friday down... 6 more to go.

after most of the kids left, we (me, mike, jacob, raymond, and janet) went out for drinks. well, janet and mike drank, the rest of us stayed sober. ;) we just talked about how things have been going and did some "getting to know" chatting. "it was an accident." haha.

ah well... here's to the weekend. victoria's first birthday tomorrow. i probably need to stop by PEI on sunday and fix those computers for raymond's class. yay how exciting. -__-

hope everyone has a great weekend.

ooh yea, more pics posted.

Just the girls

Boys just wanna have fun

Thursday, July 07, 2005

the world is a scary place

i turned on the radio and it took me a few minutes to figure out what was going on. elliot was talking about something in london. when i finally put the pieces together, i got that strange feeling in the back of my throat again. not because i was scared... but because i was sad.

i don't know anyone in london. i never knew anyone in nyc. but it's still hard to pretend that i'm not affected by either event. even madrid last year. has the world really come to this? my dad is really angry about it, he's been condemning ALL OF ISLAM AND THE MIDDLE EAST. he has a tendency to overreact. i don't understand why london was targeted by extremists because it's a relatively quiet city in international affairs. they've had their share of terrorism from their northern neighbors. i don't know which is worse.

i've been hearing so many theories on the news. they chose england because they can't get past american customs. they planned it to coincide with the opening of the g8 summit. it was the french, angry over their failure to secure the olympic games. (right.) i don't think americans are overreacting by heightening security - it's a natural reaction, especially in our post-9/11 world. i'm not bothered by it - in fact, i almost called my parents this morning when i got to work to tell them to stay out of the city. i work just down the road from dulles international - who knows what kind of affect an attack there would have on outlying areas?

i'm not paranoid, just really saddened by the state of our world.

sometimes, i think our world really is coming to an end...

.o0((condolences to the brits and others who lost loved ones today.))0o.

it does make my life seem that much more insignificant.

work has been really stressful this week. i got two new students in the morning, and one in the afternoon. the morning kids i can deal with because they're half asleep most of the time. but the kids i have for spanish on tues/thurs have been so unruly this week. i'm in some unbelievable pain right now from all the stress today. my shoulders ache - as much as they would had i been hauling 50-lb. rice bags all day. (haha, i made a funny.) ben's going to take over spanish next week, while i do his ESL class. i'm fine with it. ben and raymond have both given up on them because they're so unattentive and unwilling to work. i'm not sure how much better i would be. *sigh*

also, we lost another computer to the superb computing skills of the kids. with three out of commission, the kids were fighting for time on the computers. i had one of the older boys, brian, act as lab monitor, making the kids take turns every 15 minutes. then yesterday, we discovered that someone had vandalized raymond's room with the whiteboard eraser. he/she had taken the eraser and written "Dirty" on the wall, then rubbed it all along the wall below the board. everyone denies knowing anything about it. so i had all the kids come to the kitchen area for a little sit-down. i told them that we needed to know who did it. he/she did not have to admit to it right then, but he/she should tell a teacher or kathy later during the day. the computer lab would be closed indefinitely if no one came forward. by 3pm, no one had confessed. raymond tried to reinstall XP on one of the three computers, but for some reason, it wasn't connecting to the internet (or maybe it just wasn't recognizing the connection). well, that just means i'll have to take a look at it. i am the resident computer fixer. um. considering the number of times i've had to reinstall XP on my machine, that's a little funny. :P

well, we're going bowling tomorrow. that should be nice and chaotic. i'm not bowling. i'd rather just watch and keep the kids out of trouble. and then... happy hour! :D or rather, "jessica sitting at a table while the rest of them drink" hour. :P

hmm... what to do about my aching shoulders?