This is the Best Day Ever*

If any of you are familiar with Spongebob Squarepants then you have heard the above phrase which is one of his favorite sayings. He uses it often when things are going, well, not quite the way he might have liked them to go.

Today was my regular volunteer day at the Media Center at the angelbaby's school. I have been volunteering there for going on three years now and the Media specialist and I are great friends and work really well together. Somehow the last two years my regular day happens to coincide with her busiest day --meaning she has class after class of little kids coming through all day long. I found out today that last year it was just a fluke, but this year she engineered the schedule to work out that way by alerting the teachers to consider choosing Thursday as their Library day because I would be there to assist her.

Thanks a lot! It isn't that I don't like kids, it's just that I don't like kids around when I am trying to get work done. We seem to have three of the most rambunctious classes back to back this year and when I am not playing "time-out monitor" for the kids that she has had to eject from the story room for being too obnoxious to sit through the 20 minute story I am answering the same question for the fifteenth time. "No we don't have anymore Diary of Wimpy Kid books", "You have to bring back the book you checked out last week before you can get a book out this week", "You are only allowed to get one (Where's Waldo/Magazine/I Spy) book out at a time." "Do you mean to tell me that you are in third grade and you still don't know your lunch number?"

Now to be honest I didn't actually say that last one out loud but I have to admit that I did think it.

So, thanks to my wonderful "boss" we have a busy busy day filled with one group of unruly kids after another all day long and I try very hard to keep as upbeat as possible all day. I actually find that when the going gets really tough it really does help to stop and say, in my best imitation of Spongebob "This is the best day ever!" and then eat a nice piece of chocolate.

Because it would be just wrong to sniff glue or drink alcohol at school now wouldn't it?

Even so, I keep going back week after week, because as tormenting as the kids are, I really do like the Librarian, and I like the work I am doing there to help her make her Media Center something of which she can be very proud.

It also reminds me why I never was called to become an elementary school teacher. I would have either killed some poor kid or be locked up in the loony bin within a month. God is good.

Pax