I made it to Thursday.
๐
A friend of ours (Regina) that used to teach with us stopped by during lunch today so we could meet her baby. Her little baby girl was the cutest thing ever. And she didn’t cry once so I took an instant liking to her.
I have said this before: every teacher’s lounge should be stocked with happy babies and puppies. And popcorn. And chocolate. And maybe a margarita machine.
Anywho . . . somehow, someway, the girls started telling Regina about the last time I ate mac and cheese. I was eating it today. I might have eaten it yesterday, too. And the day before that.
They were also surprised I hadn’t blogged about my mac and cheese incident before now which is what prompted me to do it today. So there you go.
Once upon a time, I brought mac and cheese for lunch.
But not really.
Because I forgot my lunch at home. Steve just happened to be working from home that day so I texted him, and he said he would be happy to drop my lunch off for me. My pleasure, he said. In fact, he even asked me if I’d rather him drive through someplace and I said, no no no, don’t do that, I’ll just eat what I packed.
He dropped it off and I took it into the teacher’s lounge to microwave it. It’s Easy Mac which is microwaveable. Which makes it easy to pack my lunch since I am lazy and I am not doing whole 30 unless you count I ate 30 whole cheddar-and-sour cream chips for a snack today. Then I suppose I am doing whole 30 and I’m also doing whole 40 and even whole 50 depending on what I’m eating.
So I put my mac and cheese in the microwave and then I started talking to my friend, Amy, about who-knows-what.
And then I smelled popcorn which made me want popcorn because whenever someone microwaves popcorn, I want it.
And then Amy said, “What’s burning?”
And I said, “I don’t know. It smells like popcorn.” And then I kept talking to her.
Right after that was when smoke started coming out of the microwave and filling up our teacher’s lounge which made us act a little surprised and shocked at what was happening.
And then I realized it was my mac and cheese.
I’m pretty sure I froze. Or the smoke was so thick that I couldn’t move through it. Luckily, Amy jumped into action and opened the microwave and that’s when we found my mac and cheese literally burned to a crisp.
A crisp. There was a hole in the bottom. And the pasta was black.
Apparently, I didn’t put water in it.
And you’re supposed to.
I told you I can’t cook!
We had to open the windows in the lounge, put the mac and cheese in a trashcan outside, and let the secretary know that the fire alarm was about to go off.
Over the intercom: Please evacuate your classrooms. Mrs. Oldham burned her Easy Mac.
However, the fire alarm did not go off. I don’t know how or why, but it didn’t. It should have . . . but it didn’t.
I don’t know what we should be worried about more: that I can’t microwave Easy Mac or that the fire alarm doesn’t work.
Anyway, we’re the first lunch so I kind of ruined it for everyone after that. And all the third through sixth grade teachers let me know.
What did you do, they said?
You didn’t put water in your Easy Mac?
Don’t you know you’re supposed to put water in Easy Mac?
There’s a fill line!
That smell is disgusting.
Thanks a lot, Oldham.
Now, if I am standing anywhere near a microwave, I get, “Did you put water in it?!!”
And I say NO, I AM REHEATING MY COFFEE, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!
Or I say yes and slump my shoulders.
Now I just owe Amy some shampoo.
Our hair was SO ICKY YUCKY STINKY for the rest of the day.
And the moral of this story is not don’t forget to add water to your Easy Mac and it’s not double check those fire alarms.
The moral of the story is:
My 10 year old daughter did this about 2 months ago. My microwave still smells like smoke when we use it. Worst. Smell. Ever! Your incident will make her feel better! ๐
I've worn Burnt Macaroni Noodle before thanks to my 9 year old doing the same thing. Lovely scent…?
HHAHAHAH I AM DYING!!! I literally snorted while reading this!! And then coughed up my lungs ๐
You are hilarious! Love you stories!
What I Have Learned
Oh my goodness something like this happened my first year teaching!! I had just been observed by my supervisor and I was heating up my Ramen noodles and forgot to put water in them!! The microwave started smoking and people were coming from the cafeteria asking if everything was okay!! Happens to the best of us I guess!!
PS – I love mac and cheese!!!!
This totally happened to me last year at my old school. People were not happy but I thought it was funny. Well this year I stepped it up a notch by
Putting a chicken biscuit in the microwave in it's wrapper that caught fire, yes flames, in the microwave… I told everyone I was trying to get the afternoon off and a new building but it didn't work and the smoke alarm did not go off either…
This happened at my school, except it was popcorn & the fire alarm did go off – but ours are usually announced & no one evacuated!!!
That made the Principal & Asst. Principal mad, so now we "sometimes know when fire drills will occur & we sometimes DON'T."
I kinda thought it was funny that the alarm went off & everyone was ignoring it at 3:20 dismissal, like it's just practice (but it was the real thing, sort of)!!
Oh man you crack me up!!!! For some reason this reminds me of a "If you give a" story. You know like….If you give a teeny tiny teacher some easy mac, then she will put it in the microwave, which will make her think of popcorn, which will make her think of a movie to tell her teacher friend about, which will make her smell the air, which will make her think of the easy mac that is burning in the microwave. Ok, so maybe that doesn't work but you get the idea ๐ thanks for cracking me up.
Dynelle
First Grade Fun with Mrs. Dunn
So glad you're not doing the Whole 30… I feel guilty every time I go on Instagram! I can now enjoy my glass of wine. ๐
Lauren
Love, Laughter and Learning in Prep!
This is fantastic!! I love good stories like that. And I love that it also showed your kiddos that you're not perfect and it's okay to make mistakes! Haha! Have a great weekend!!
Cheers!
Kelly Anne
AppleSlices
One day I had a brought a gluten free/dairy free frozen macaroni and cheese meal for lunch. Well the smell was awful. The people walking through the lounge would cringe as soon they walked in. They kept asking what smelled so bad. We had to open the window (December in Alaska!).
I needed to hear that today! I have been feeling like a slug. Not that I think you are a slug….just that it is good to know that other people do things that don't work out and they can still go on and live happy lives. I love you Kristin!
Terri
PS I would love to come and cook a dinner for you sometime. I am a pretty good cook, most of the time.
Man I LOVE reading your posts! You crack me up!!!
Katie
Mind Sparks
You made me laugh! Thanks! I needed that today!
I absolutely love your posts! You are hysterical! Once, I put a Cup of Noodles in the microwave w/o water and, I can't believe I am sharing this, but I put a plastic tray of cookies in the oven at my daycare. Their alarms however DID go off and everybody had to shuffle out wondering what the heck happened!! When I got off, I said, "The pyro maniac is leaving the building!" Talk.about.embarrassing.