Up and At 'Em Girls!

5:40am the alarm begins to sing to me.....Yes, 5:40am!  Now, I have gotten up at 5:40am for the past year and a half on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays to get the little girl I babysit in and tucked back into bed but not Monday and Thursday and on the days I do get Bella I was able to go right back to bed until 7:30am. I hate middle school!  I am glad the kids are at school and out of the house for eight blissful hours but I despise the fact that I have to get up and get them out the door! The reason we have to get up so early?  Well, their bus picks them up at 6:30am and school starts at 7:20am.  I toyed with the idea of driving them to school in the mornings so I could have a few more minutes of sleep but in the end decided that I don't have to be pretty in the morning for them and the bus stop is good enough.

As it turns out when your children enter middle school, it is not cool for Mom to accompany them to the bus stop.  I can sit on the porch but I am not allowed at the bus stop!  I understand that it isn't cool and they have to keep up appearances but it was their first day of middle school and I was nervous for them.  Apparently my feelings mean nothing to them!  Once they were gone, I was doing the customary happy Mom dance and could care less what happened at middle school so long as they were there and not here claiming boredom. All in all it was a great day for all of us - I enjoyed the little ones' kinda noise and got a lot of stuff done.  We continue the early morning wake-ups Thursday and Friday.....TGIF!!!!

As soon as the girls' got home from school on Friday we headed out for the weekend.  We went to visit with our military family, The Brysons'.   Our first stop was a high school football game - Franklin -vs- Carlisle.  This is a big game not only because it's the first game of the year but it's a huge rivalry between the two schools.  We went to the game because our friend, Ernie, who recently returned from a tour of duty in Iraq was tandem jumping that night right onto the football field before the game.  The schools were doing a tribute to all veterans.  Ernie jumped and landed safely.  He said afterward that while it was a very cool experience he wasn't quiting his day job! After he landed a couple more soldiers followed suit and then the last jumper had a huge American flag attached to him.  It was truly amazing to see the colors of our Nation come down from the sky like that.

After the game we headed back to Ernie's and Tanya's house.  We sent the guys for pizza and had a great time visiting.  I had to go to bed shortly after eating though because the exhaustion of early rising, the drive and excitement of the evening had me worn down.  The next morning we got up and met some of Scott's family for lunch.

As I mentioned above, we met Scott's family for lunch on Saturday.  In attendance were his Uncle Jerry, Aunt Cheryl, cousin Kristen and her husband Tom and of course our family.  It was nice to visit with them and get caught up.  Jerry and Kristen are both podiatrist and Kris came prepared to help me with my planter facsciatitis in the form of a big ole fat shot of Cortisone in the foot.  Now I am not sure if it is appropriate to get a shot in the restroom of Max and Erma's but quite honestly I didn't care.  My foot was starting to feel a lot better by yesterday evening, that is until I stepped on a thumb tack that penetrated the bottom of said foot while vacuuming!!!!  I love kids....

After lunch, my shot and a trip to Nordstrom Rack (LOVE THAT PLACE!) we headed back to Carlisle for Ernie's homecoming party.  It was a great time with good  friends, good  food, drinks (the grown up variety) and laughs.  We stayed for about five or six hours and then headed back to their house to pass out. The next morning we got up and headed home to prepare for week two of early rising.

Monday I went out to our land to pick up some things needed for this weekends girls' trip to Virginia Beach! WOOT WOOT!! I also went to my brother's house to pick up the trailer we plan to use to transport all of our stuff to said beach.  Michelle was there and gave me a great gift........wait for it.......wait for it.......Captain Morgan Lounge Pants!  I love them and plan to wear them on our trip.  Man does she know me or what? Anyway, came home and passed out - without the help of the Captain himself.

Today.  Today was "Meet the Teacher" at Olivia's school. Natalie and I had decided to ride together to the blessed event but we had to take Marc and drop him off since he still isn't able to drive himself around from the quad accident.  We got to the school only to discover a line the length of the school waiting for them to open the doors.  We finally get in the school and each of us took our kids to their prospective classrooms. When Olivia and I got to her classroom we separated all of her supplies into the provided boxes and found her seat.  Once all the parents were in the room Mrs. Krebs gave a quick little speech about her classroom and herself and then dismissed us to look around the room.  We checked out all the different areas of the room, signed the necessary paperwork and were done.  When we walked passed Ryan's classroom the door was shut and everyone in there was looking forward.  Emma had Mrs Engle for kindergarten so I knew what was going on in there....we might as well do a tour of the building and find a seat to wait.

Eventually Natalie and Ryan were released with a boatload of paperwork...While we were waiting though I was quite entertained by a Mother who lost it and had to be taken to the Principal's office to calm down.  This woman was so upset she was brought to tears over her child going to kindergarten!  Get it together woman!  She obviously is a first time parent because any seasoned Mother can appreciate the value of school, am I right?  I mean who cares what they are learning as long as it is peaceful for a few hours everyday. May be I am just heartless!?!  Probably so.

Well, that's it for now.  I need to get dinner finished, get Olivia ready for her first day of school tomorrow and start gathering my stuff for my weekend getaway.

Sincerely,
The Queen of Insanity