Horrible Monday.

I am posting this a few days late...

Several weeks ago I had a mouse in my room, so I got a mouse trap put in my room by my desk. It was a “glue trap,” so they get stuck on it and then can’t get off and eventually die….well, the mouse never came around, and I forgot about the trap and never threw it away.

Monday morning I got to school and the papers that were on the counter were strewn about on the floor. We have a class pet. She is a gerbil named Skittles. When I saw the papers, I suspected her because they are right by her cage. I looked in and she was not there. She has gotten out once before because a student didn’t leave the door securely closed. That time she was sitting in the middle of the floor looking at me all cute, and I was able to catch her in a box and put her back. This time I looked frantically around the room…then I remembered that rat trap…I walked over and screamed. There she was, the class pet, stuck to the glue. It was pitifully sad. I did not have enough time to “dispose of it” before I had to get my kids, and I did NOT want to be the one to do it anyway. I went and told Mr. Ed (the one and only man at our school--he's a parent volunteer), and he said he would come back when I had dropped my kids at PE in 15 minutes. I had to spend 15 minutes with the kids in the room and Skittles on the trap. I was petrified that one of them would look and find her, but they did not. After I dropped them off at PE, I came back to the class, and Mr. Ed pulled the mouse trap out from under the desk. When he did, he saw that Skittles was still barely alive. Barely hanging on. We thought seriously about trying to pry her lose somehow, but were pretty sure it was a lost cause. She had even gnawed through a part of her tail to get lose, but her entire back was still stuck to the glue trap. We then decided that somehow we had to put her out of her misery because it was so sad. She was making little screeching noises. ...And this is the part of the story that I walked out of the room for….Mr. Ed put Skittles inside of a plastic bag and used a hammer to “put her out of her misery.” I left the room and Mr. Ed did his job and then took Skittles out.

When I picked my students up, I told my them that I had found Skittles ‘passed away’ when I got to school this morning. They assumed she died in her cage. There is no way they need to know otherwise. Too gruesome. I hid the cage so they would not find the huge hole that Skittles gnawed in the plastic to get out of her cage. There was even ‘saw dust’ on the counter around the hole that she had made. Craziness.

All that to say, it was not a good morning.

RIP Skittles. 46 sixth graders miss you very much.

Random Updates

Today I let my students vote on the name for our new class pet, the gerbil. I know her name was Ginny, but I wanted to give them some "ownership" over her, so I let them nominate names, and then they voted on them. Well, the verdict is in. Her new name is Skittles. Sounds like 6th graders named her, doesn't it? I think so. I am okay with it though. It was better than some of the other nominations though. Ms. Sunshine was a hoot. I really hoped they didn't vote on that so I didn't have to refer to the gerbil as Ms. Sunshine, lol.

This gerbil is very active. I think I may have to remove the "running wheel" during class because that thing is constantly on it! I think she thinks she is getting away. Isn't that sad? I suppose we can be like that sometimes, too. Running from God, but not getting anywhere.

On to other news, Casey is away on a mini-trip. He is playing golf in the "Tin Cup." Roger Clark (my former CFA boss) puts it on every year, and he invites about 25 guys to come and play in East Texas. They stay at his lake house (except Casey and a few others are staying at a hotel due to lack of room for everyone). He left the house at 5:25am this morning in order to get to Chickfila by 5:45. They headed out to East Texas and teed off at 8am. They'll get back tomorrow evening. I think they play 45 holes in all. I think Casey would do this monthly if he could. If it weren't $175, I might let him! :)

I think someone with some resources needs to plan a girls' mini-trip. I know people do this, but it is normally geared for older women, I think. I want a weekend of massages, manicures, pedicures, and shopping :) Too bad that costs more than $175. Maybe I'll get to spend that much on clothes or something since he's getting to do that on GOLF--I cannot think of something I would like to spend money on any less. Ha ha. The difference in guys and girls (I know a lot of girls play golf, but not many of them would rather pay to play than shop)!

Speaking of money....I GET PAID IN TWO DAYS!! WOO HOO! For those of you who don't know...this will be my first real pay check ever. EVER. I think my last pay check over $100 was at Chickfila, which would be like 4 years ago. AND I've basically been working for two months with no pay. Can't wait, can't wait, can't wait! woo hoo!

Gerbil Alert!

I got a gerbil. Yep, that's right, a gerbil. You see, there's this woman at our church who is on staff with Casey. Her 2 kids had a gerbil named Ginny, but recently they got two little puppies. Sooo, she asked Casey if I might like it for my classroom. I said "sure!" I think it would be fun to have a class pet :) The first time she tried to give me the gerbil her little girl just started crying and so she let her keep it. Today she asked her if she thought it was about time to give Ginny to "Mrs. Lauren." Her little girl said yes, so today Casey brought little Ginny the Gerbil home. Ha ha. I have been watching it all night-it is so interesting. I guess I am pet deprived because normally a little rat-like animal would not intrigue me so. However, Casey has deprived me from any cat or dog since we have been married. I have actually never had a hampster of gerbil or anything like that so it is kind of fun watching it. I think I will wait to bring the gerbil to my class 'til Monday though. It will be a nice surprise for my students :) I think I might let my kids name her...maybe I will let them vote since it is an election year ;) ha ha--always trying to think of a teachable moment. Lol.

Anyway, tonight Casey and I were watching The Office when Ginny started going crazy in her wheel-she was running so fast and eventually went too fast! She turned upside down and went all the way around until she fell right out of the wheel. It was so funny. She did it twice, and Casey and I laughed our heads off. So far she is pretty fun, but her wheel-running is kind of loud. I might disable it tonight so it doesn't wake me up. I might even have to do that when I am teaching so the kids are majorly distracted.

Anyway, that is my life right now. New gerbil in the house.