Another Long Update

I think I really need to be taking a nap. However I'm waiting for Son1 to get home from church - I went to early service, cried through most of it, waited around afterwards to talk to a couple of people then came on home. What initially triggered the tears was one of the songs we sung during worship - "We all need". I left Son2 at home sleeping this morning - he'd been gone most of the day yesterday and was a stubborn mess last night. On the one hand I really struggle with feeling like a terrible mom - I know he needs to be in church, I want him in church but some mornings I simply can't handle the argument - especially when we are both exhausted. I got up this morning feeling like I'd been hit by a truck - have probably had too many late nights, too many long days and it's time I "crashed" for a bit.

The week ended up out pretty good overall. I learned that it's impossible to make coffee without putting water in the coffee maker! Truthfully I knew that already but that's how Friday morning started - Son2 had to come ask me "mom - did you put water in the machine?" Needless to say I didn't have coffee before I drove the bus that morning. Thankfully later in the day I was able to make coffee fine so I didn't cause the machine to break. It's almost as bad as the day I ate "raw" oatmeal and drank 1 1/2 cups of cold coffee before realizing the microwave didn't work - I don't function overly well first thing in the morning. I spent Friday morning between routes with a girlfriend I hadn't seen for almost a month - we'd been meeting pretty regularly on Friday mornings. She had the coffee already brewed when I got there - it was so good to be able to visit over breakfast, see her children and generally catch up on each other's lives. We are going to try to get back to meeting regularly at least a couple mornings a month. I don't feel I can handle more than every other week as I'm on the go so much anyway.

Friday evening I made spagetti, chicken and gravy for dinner - Son1 needed to have a high carb meal as he had a meet Saturday. This was an invitational meet with maybe 10 other schools - there were 7 races held that day - between the middle schools and high schools varsity and junior varsity teams. Boys and girls race separately with the top 7 of each team racing in the varsity races and any remaining members racing in the junior varsity races. I enjoyed watching the races as I knew kids in all of them - mostly from our school system of course but a few from another school. For the second year in a row, our middle school boys took first place as a team - that's exciting. Son1 ran his race very well again - he PR'd by 12 seconds off his time from last week coming in at 23 min. flat for the 5K race that the high school students ran. I drove the bus again this week - it went well though I did "yell" at one of the middle school boys for "hitting" another boy with his warm-up suit. ( I called him by name and told him not to do it again when he looked like he was going to) On the way back we only had both coaches and several high school team members on the bus. The rest had all gone home with parents.

While Son1 and I were at the cross country meet, Son2 had gone to a TaeKwonDo tournament - he wasn't able to participate as a competitor as the budget did not allow that. However he did get to help the judges out several times - recording scores, making sure people stayed in their rings, etc. He came home pretty excited and also exhausted. He is looking forward to being allowed to compete near the end of October.

Last night Son1 and I went to have dinner with B and his son. Son2 was expected to go along but being as he was tired and grumpy I left him home to be grumpy alone. Overall Son1 and I had an enjoyable time in spite of the fact it was too wet most of the evening for 4 wheeler rides. We had dinner, visited and watched the movie "Wild Hogs". It was interesting to watch though there was language in it.

Tonight I have an A run scheduled - going to MI to pick someone up and bring them back. It's funny - I can go for a couple of weeks with nothing then get 2 calls to do runs the same evening. Needless to say I can only do one of these - and the MI one was scheduled first. Thankfully I've not got any cross country meets to drive this week. I don't think any are scheduled until this coming Saturday. Unfortunately Son1 won't get to run in that as he's got a schedule conflict with Gospel Choir.

This week has been a less busy week so far - no weekday meets, not a lot of extra running...Probably the thing that has helped the most is that I no longer have to sit at the elementary school for 30 min. after I finish my kindergarten shuttle - the special needs student I've been taking is having his school day extended so I no longer will be transporting him. He never caused me any problems - my issue with it was the fact that I had to sit and wait for that time period. Today I actually took a short nap after I got home before my afternoon route. That was nice. I'm still weary tonight though. My afternoon bus route was interesting though thankfully fairly calm. I had 3 middle school students (8th grade boys) sitting in the front half of the bus - none have turned in their signed rule sheets yet and that was the consequence I had set up. I rather expect I will have them tomorrow afternoon as none were particularly pleased that I made good on my warning that they would be sitting up front if I didn't have them back. At least today I didn't have the issue of one child threatening to punch another one.

Tomorrow is likely to be a longer day - regular route, cleaning house, kindergarten shuttle, pm route followed by an extra afternoon shuttle - taking football and volleyball kids to the next town over. Friday I don't have much planned I don't think. Saturday is Son1's next cross country meet - we likely won't get home until 2:00 pm or so. Sunday evening I have a run to MI scheduled - that will be another late night as I probably won't get home until 11:00 pm. Monday I'm scheduled to do another late afternoon shuttle run and Tuesday I think I have a cross country meet to drive. Ok...on that note I'm going to close for now. It's time I got off the computer.

Busy Week - Long

O.K. - I can hardly believe it's been nearly a week since I posted anything. I must admit the last week has been absolutely crazy busy - with several very long days in it. I honestly don't even really know where to start.

I guess I will start with Son1's cross country meet yesterday. I got to drive the bus - a benefit because I got to get paid to go watch him run. Having said that, it also meant that we had a very early day as the coach wanted to leave the high school at 7:00 am. That meant we needed to leave our house by 6:30 am to be there on time to load and be ready to leave. The drive down to Marion went well - it was a beautiful morning - slightly foggy, cool with promise of a sunny day to follow - excellent running weather. The varsity teams (girls and boys) ran first then it was time for junior varsity - we had no girls running and Son1 was the only boy from our school running. However there were over 150 runners in the junior varsity boys' race so there was plenty of competition. I felt like many of those runners should have competed in the varsity race as they were that fast. However I guess only the top 7 runners got to compete there. Anyway Son1 ran a very good race - he beat his time from the first meet by 3 min. 34 seconds or so. I knew he was going to beat his time - the first meet was on a day when the heat index was over 100' - it was incredibly muggy and the course was one of the harder ones they would run on. None of our runners did exceptionally well that first meet. We hung around for the award ceremony as two of our girls had placed in the varsity race - one of the freshman placed in the top 10 runners! We got home about 3:00 pm so it was a long day on the bus.

Last night we went to a friend's place for dinner and a swim. What a blast! It's been years since I've swum in a lake and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. The water was not too cold and mucky so it was fun. And I enjoyed goofing off with the boys. I did have the unexpected opportunity to drag Son1 to the pier when his calves cramped so severely he couldn't do anything - there was no wading in - one jumped into water over one's head. After a couple of bananas and a sports drink the cramps eased and he was able to enjoy most of the rest of the evening. That involved 4-wheeler rides and BB guns as well as dinner.

Thursday and Friday were long days for me. This year I've picked up a mid-day kindergarten shuttle - I'm finding it exhausting when combined with my regular (new) route. I was on the go pretty much from 7:15 am when I leave for my morning route until 6 or 7:00 pm in the evening. I'm not driving bus the entire time - much of the extra time was running errands and cleaning the one house I clean for someone else. (That's a bit funny considering I have such a challenging time with my own!) Additionally my students were very wound up Friday afternoon as we were expecting a 3 day weekend - that made the bus route challenging. I honestly don't remember much about the first part of the week - except that I was running most days then also.

Oh yes...Son2 tested for his next belt in TaeKwonDoe Thursday evening. I had an appointment after my bus route in one direction while he had class in the opposite direction. I had arranged for him to ride a bus that would drop him off at the school (early) so he would make class. I then went to my appointment then went to class arriving in time to watch him test. Son1 also arrived - on a shuttle bus from the high school - in time to see him. I got some pictures of him testing though unfortunately I didn't actually get his "board break".

OK...this is probably long enough and I still have an email I need to send yet tonight. Thankfully Son1 is still watching a movie so he's not hovering wanting his turn.

I was going to try to catch up on blogs this morning but instead I really need to clean house and get my grocery list made up. That way I can hopefully find coupons for some of what I need.

This weekend went by way too fast - mostly it was a lot of fun. Saturday the boys and I went with two friends to a tractor show - it had all kinds of tractors, engine parts, antiques, flea market stuff...I thoroughly enjoyed myself. There were many antique (literally) books to look at - that was probably one of my favorite parts. Of course being on a huge budget didn't allow me to purchase any. (Not to mention that I'm really trying hard to limit the number of books I bring in). Son1 also found it enjoyable. Son2 wasn't as interested though he had a friend his age to hang with. We stopped for dinner on the way home (the town where the show was, was 90 minutes or so away so it was a longish day).

Yesterday was church in the morning - I went and picked up Son1's girlfriend to bring her with us. She came home afterwards and spent the afternoon with us. In a sense this reminds me of the Amish ways where a dating couple spends weekends at each other's homes - it allows them to spend time together but not be completely "unsupervised". Also it allows the family to get to know the other person involved. He's young to have a girlfriend and that does concern me. However I guess it's something he can hopefully learn from.

I'll close with this quote from Pastor's sermon yesterday. He was taking about "Giving What You Have" - and how we have to understand the reality of what we have to offer and the responsibility to offer it. One example he used was that it doesn't do any good to bail someone out of a financial mess without teaching them how to not get back in that mess - people need changed lives and hearts. Anyway...here's the quote:

What I give, He takes.
What He takes, He cleanses
What He cleanses, He fills with the Holy Spirit.
What He fills with His Holy Spirit, He empowers.

I'm not sure if this is something Pastor came up with himself or if it's quoted from someone else. Usually he's pretty good about saying where stuff comes from though if it's from someone else.

8 Random Facts

8 Random Things about me:

1) I was born in Somalia

2) I am terrified of heights - to the point that I don't willingly climb anything higher than about 2 feet.

3) I love driving school bus - getting to know "my kids"

4) My favorite photo ops involve waterfalls and kids who aren't paying attention.

5) I nearly always have at least one book with me where-ever I go - and hate to finish one up without having another one handy.

6) I've kept a written journal pretty consistently since I was about 12 - and I still have most of them on a shelf in my "craft room".

7) I have way more craft projects to do then I'll ever have time to complete.

8) I still blush at the drop of a hat...one would think I would have outgrown that by now!

Ok...I'm not going to tag 8 people. If you want to participate feel free to do so and leave me a comment so I know to check your blog.

Ok...it's been a crazy couple of days. Yesterday overall went well - I haven't heard anything on the appraisal yet. My afternoon bus run ended up being longer than necessary - I missed one student's stop - she sat there and looked at her house as I drove by - waited until I was completely at the next stop - about 3 miles away - before she said anything. So we had to double back to take her home. Then another student commented on the fact that we were retracing our steps. It turned out that she was completely on the wrong bus - I don't go anywhere near her home. So my boss had to meet me (again) to get her and take her home. At least this time I didn't know her at all so could be excused for not realizing she wasn't "mine".

Yesterday I also started taking a special needs child to a daycare after my kindergarten shuttle. That means that instead of getting home about 12:30 I don't get home until close to 1:00 pm. My afternoon bus route went o.k. I guess overall though I'm still not getting home before 4:15.

Son1's first cross country meet is this Thursday someplace south of here. I'm going to be driving the bus for that and several of the other meets they have this season. So right now I'm feeling more than a little busy. That will continue until cross country season is over. We'll have a little break before spring track.

Son2 was supposed to be ready to go to TaeKwonDo this afternoon when I got done from his bus route. However he's not ready so he's not going again today. (He missed all of last week due to being sick). I told him that he's definitely going to start back next week - I'm not really sure what his issue is right now with this. However with the chaos of the first week of school I'm not going to argue too tremendously much.

Monday

First Monday morning of the school year...heavy rain and thunderstorms beginning sometime overnight. I actually had thought we might have fog this morning as it was fairly heavy last night while I was doing my Amish run (and to be honest I was rather hoping for a fog delay because I was really tired and up too late.) Anyway the bus route went quite well - most parents from in the countryside area either kept their children inside until the bus was at the house or drove the child down the drive to wait for the bus. My in town stops were not that way though - I had several rather wet children getting on the bus. Some had parents that kept them inside, most did not. Being as my bus is much more crowded this year than any other year that I can remember it's taking me a bit longer to learn names. Additionally when it's raining heavily it's more challenging to keep the windows clear and visibility decent. I got to the school in good time though - that was nice. Shortly after getting there though I had a student come to me and tell me that a girl sitting behind him was being mean to him and telling lies about him. Of course these particular students were in the very back of the bus so I couldn't hear anything that was going on. However I walked back to attempt to assess the situation and deal with it. Long story short after some discussion with the 4 students involved I instructed the two boys to sit nearer the front of the bus - and allowed the girls to continue to sit near the back. However the original student, A, who came to me initially continued to get upset - he was obviously getting angrier rather than calming down. I ended up...after talking to him some more alone - walking him into the school to see the school counselor as I really didn't want him to start his week off on a angry agitated note. I wasn't at all sure how the counselor was going to react being as I hadn't radioed ahead asking to see her. Thankfully she was very supportive -recognized A immediately and took us both to her room. I explained the situation, what I had done and why I had brought A in. She also made sure to take the extra step of explaining to A that I had brought him in because I cared and wanted him to have a good day. (I hadn't said that to her either- had just said that he was agitated and explained why). I was able to leave A with her to chat some more and come up with some additional ways to deal with things. I will probably need to call parents tonight but am not sure yet. Overall I am pleased with how things went.

Yesterday was chaotic and crazy - I had 3 additional friends here at the house for most of the day. Son1's girlfriend was over - I picked her up for church. Then I had another friend over to play with Son2 That left me mostly free to visit. We had a good time overall I think. Most all of us got involved - at different times - with a wrestling match. That was fun to say the least.

Saturday a couple from church came over to help pull carpet in my bedroom. That involved getting all my furniture moved out, carpet pulled and everything put back in. Really it only took a couple of hours - the boys and I had mostly moved the smaller stuff out before they arrived. However I ended up working almost until 10:00pm Saturday night getting stuff put back away. There's still some to go - some to sort through and decide what to do with. In addition to pulling carpet we also finished painting the one bathroom - a project that had been started 18 months ago. I'm really glad to have those two things done.

Enough rambling for now - have an appraiser coming shortly followed by my kindergarten shuttle that I have to do.