Elementary Memories

Before I start my tag for the day, I have a quick story:
My son came back from the Learning Center where he's apparently learned a new song: I'm Bringing Home A Baby Bumblebee. Now, I've learned a different version than he's picked up, but his is hilarious, and at times...quite gross! It starts with taking the baby bumblebee home to mommy, then after it stings you, the squooshing commences. After squishing the baby bumblebee, it's a mess, so you wipe it on your pants. After trying that, it's still a mess, so you (here's the part that made me gag a bit) lick up the baby bumblebee. That causes you to not feel so good, so you (more grossness to follow) puke up the baby bumblebee. Then you feel much better. I was laughing so hard at the kid, he thought I was in a playful mood, and he started belly-bumping my typing arms. Not a good choice, kiddo!! Now he's sulking in his bedroom. Oh, well...Anywho...
Stephanie from For Better or For Worse tagged me with a new meme. You get to tell some of your elementary school memories. I've shared some of them before, but I guess I'll share them in order now! :)

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Kindergarten: My teacher was Miss Richardson. She was so cool. She taught us how to play jokes on people. She involved us in her April Fool's trick on her family...it was a good one. Kindergarten was the year I learned about boys chasing girls. We had a game we'd play where the boys would catch the girls and take them behind the side of the gym where they were held until the boys kissed them, allowing them to leave. I prided myself on never being captured...until one day....the boy who caught me was Brandon Killian. At the time I just thought of him as a good friend. He finally kissed me (on the cheek!) and I was free to return to the jungle-gym for the rest of recess. A big kid (3rd grader) asked me if I was a kindergartner and I said I was, then he told me that all of the teachers had rung their bells and recess was over. I hurried over to the other kids at the side of the gym and told them what I had found out. We all rushed into class, VERY embarrassed and very humiliated at being late! The end of kindergarten I got chicken pox from a boy in my class and I missed the last few weeks of school. Not a very fun time!
First Grade: My teacher was Mrs. Knibbs. I HATED this lady! She and I did NOT get along. For most of that school year she was pregnant and very moody. I was an early reader and felt that the reading sheets they sent home with us were BORING. So I didn't read them with my parents like I was supposed to. I ended up being taken out of class to catch up on my reading. I also had a few accidents that year. Mrs. Knibbs did not like the fact that she had to call my mom those few times to tell her that I needed clean clothes. She and I butted heads so much that she helped to put a mental block on my math skills (which until then had been very good.) This was also the year I got glasses. And Mrs. Knibbs didn't like having to accommodate for me to see the chalk board...It messed up her perfectly organized rows. Ack!!
Second Grade: My teacher was Mrs. Welker. She was so cool. Our theme for the year was circuses. So we had small reading groups and I was in the trapeeze artists. (I can't believe I remember that!) This was also the year I made a really good friend named Maryeah. She and I hung out during recess and played all kinds of things. We had some girls in our class who told the teacher that they didn't have any friends, so she had a thing where the girl feeling left out would pick a friend to play with at recess. As I thought about it, I felt like I didn't have friends either. I told the teacher and she started letting me pick who I wanted to play with...unfortunately that thought was wrong and I ended up hurting Maryeah's feelings. Our friendship was never the same after that!

This year was also the year "the net" happened. I was playing at the back of the field with my best friend, Carrie. We were doing something weird I'm sure, although I can't remember the exact thing, it's okay...that's not the important part. Anyway, while we were back there some boys came up to us and somehow they managed to wrap me up in the broken fence. It resembled a net...hence "the net." Anyway, while I was wrapped up in the net one of the boys, Chris Baldwin, leaned over and began kissing me. I was mortified, but my "friend" Carrie just sat back and laughed at me. She DIDN'T save me!! She just laughed and kept that memory stuffed in her endless supply to bring out, remind me of, and laugh again!

Also that year I was bit by a girl who got mad at me. I was standing up for my rights and she leaned over my shoulder and laid her teeth into it. My mom wondered for years why, and I still haven't told her the whole story. Maybe someday...

Third Grade: My teacher was Mrs. Budge. She lived in my ward growing up, so she knew me fairly well. She was very stiff and not very pleasant (to a third grader anyway...she's a sweet lady...now that I'm older!) She favored me because she knew me, and because of that she brought me back to school on a Saturday to finish my Iowa basics skills test. I didn't get my math section finished in the time they had given us, and she wanted me to do better. I don't think it was really very fair, but she did it anyway. This year we got the chance to go to another classroom for reading. I was in Mrs. Swenson's reading class. She was kind of stiff and uppity too. I guess I just saw them that way because I was young and they were OLD!! At this school we were the top dogs. It was a small school and after 3rd grade we went to another school. We thought we were so cool!

Fourth Grade: My teacher was Mrs. Lind. This was the year that my friend Carrie was FINALLY in the class with me. She and I caused a lot of trouble. (Just thinking about the things we did makes me giggle!) She and a guy who sat beside me would start "Fart You" wars. (Where they'd write "fart you" on one another's desks...just to make the other person mad.)

We played WEIRD things at recess. We confiscated the monkey bars nearly every time, climb up on top of them and sit. We would imagine that we were astronauts and we even had invisible diplomas that we stored in our hands. If we weren't playing on the monkey bars, we were making nests in the field; picking grass and shaping it into a circle where our toys could play house.

We also split off into reading classes this year, and my reading teacher was Mrs. Balgeny. (Man, I can't remember how to spell her name!!) Mrs. B went to school with my mom, so she was ANCIENT!! I remember her husband sending black balloons and a coffin to school for her 30th birthday.

Fifth Grade: My teacher was Mrs. McMurtury. She was so cool. She reminded me of a beatnik. She wore loose clothing and berkinstalks. She was so neat. (Carrie was ALSO in this class...which she had to remind me of....because I forgot! Another friend was in this class, but I didn't remember it either...until she reminded me!) We had white tickets that we'd earn each week and they'd be drawn out of a bucket for prizes. I won something EVERY week! I was always picking free time on the computer where I'd play Wheel of Fortune.

I was very much the teacher's pet, and one time when Mrs. McMurtury was gone some kids thought it'd be cool to switch seats and mess with the sub's head. I immediately told the sub what was going on and one girl, Meagan, remembered it. Years later we were working at the same place and she told me that she HATED me after that because I was such a goodie-goodie! By that time, she had gotten over it and we were friends again. I just remember being terrified of her because she knew Karate!

Sixth Grade: My teacher was Mrs. Woodhouse (aka Mrs. Woodhead.) No one in this class liked her. One of my good friends, Ellen, didn't even like her. Mrs. Woodhead was rude and just miserable to be around. If we got all of our homework done for the week we were allowed to go to German class on Fridays (taught by my friend, Ellen's, mom.) One week we had all had it with Mrs. Woodhead's attitude and we whined to Ellen's mom and she told the teacher about our complaints. After that the teacher had a "pow wow" with us where she bawled about how we were her worst class ever and how last year's class was AWESOME! I just remember her crying and crying. We all felt bad after that, but didn't stop with our behind the back complaints about her.

That year was also the year that I broke my tailbone...for the first time! I had to carry around a pink crocheted pillow to sit on. It was NOT fun!

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Well, now you all know that I was a major brat, but I'm hoping that I've changed for the better. I learned a lot in those short 7 years...somethings I love to remember, and some I wish to forget. But they will always be a part of who I have become!

Now it's my turn for tagging! *mwahahahahaha!!* I'm going to tag carebearmommy (see her side of the same events), Mama D, and Nikkie. Have fun ladies!!