Good Stuff, Bodily Fluids and Art. I need more tables.

In the mail today.

A letter from the acute care specialists billing office from 4 years ago when I had Norovirus and ended up in the emergency room after 4 days of throwing up every 20 minutes or so. Not a good time.

I overpaid them, apparently. So they owe me 25 bucks. I was instructed to send them an email with my information and they'll send me a check.

I received a check from work, too. They reimburse for mileage and this time it was 85 bucks. I let them accumulate a little, I think it was 3 months. Not sure.
But it's nice to get it.

Billy has been, hm. Less work than usual. He seems to be making an effort, at least. I do have to take him aside and talk with him, and he has a tendency to smart off, either moving his mouth and pretending to talk while I'm talking to him or ::sigh:: wiggling/twisting around in some sort of smart assy dance. Makes me want to grab him by the arm and give him a little shake just to make him pay attention. Gah.

But he is better lately.

I took my really expensive colored pencils in for the kids to try out. They were out on my table this morning as kids started arriving. I have Derwent Water Colours (British, ya know) and Derwent Colored Graphite. They go on sooo smoothly and when you brush on a little water, the colors really pop.

I don't bring them in and only allow some of the kids to use them, if everyone can't have an opportunity to use them, not only is it not fair, it's mean. So I got out the water color paper and the pencil sharpener and let them go for it.

They asked me what to draw. I told them to just draw whatever they wanted to draw. Or draw nothing, just spread some color on the page and brush on some water and see what happens. That there are no mistakes in art, just opportunities for learning from what you did and applying that to the next time you do some art.

At the first part of the school year, they were a little hesitant to do stuff like that, just sit down and create... something, but they've gotten used to me and my crazy ideas about creativity. They just started drawing/coloring.

I think it was successful, they immediately started asking for the art supplies after school. I had to tell them 'not yet' because those are our snack tables and snack has to happen first.

One of the reasons I am looking forward to being in the cafeteria next year is because when there are separate tables for all the activities, they don't have to wait like they do now. We have two tables in our room with total seating for eight, which is the largest group I have at any given time. I will enjoy having an area set up for each activity so the kids won't have to wait to do their favorite things so much.

It's sort of funny, though, because not all the kids want to do art-ish things. Alex only wants to play with Bionicles. Period. I can get him to stop playing long enough to wash his hands and eat a snack but then he's right back at it. He's a neat little kid, almost done with his K year. Lost his first tooth this morning at breakfast.

ALL the kids are losing teeth this week. It's the funniest thing. Kenzie lost one during lunch today. Caden lost one last night and has another one that's loose. Billy lost his first one last week during Spring Break. Dane lost a big molar just before the break, Colin lost one while they were on vacation. And Alex has another loose tooth, too. I have some little plastic bags that I give them if they lose one while they're in program, but thank goodness they mostly don't lose them when they're with me.

I occasionally deal with bodily fluids in the course of my job, but spit/slobber really bothers me. Always has. I don't share drinks. Not even with family. And when someone takes a drink out of something and there's that little string of spit going from mouth to bottle it makes me gag. Don't ask me, I'm weird. I admit it.

Time to stop rambling and do something about getting ready for bed.