Time to stop time

Weird things about yesterday....

Allison's class watched the first of the puberty videos today.

She came home very unperturbed about it.  Anything exciting happen? No.  Did you watch a video?  Oh, yeah.

Then she used the word "totes."  As in - "That was totes awesome."  So, like many a parent before me ("rad," "bogus," "far out") I find myself questioning my child's use of the English language.  Is that a thing?  I think I saw an article the other day about Millennials and there was a joke about the work "totes."  I, of course, had never heard it before - or if I had heard it.... I did not know it was a Thing.

So, I think I would like to stop time now.  I'm not sure that I want hormonal, crazy teenagers.  I run into No One who says "yeah, those years from 12-18 - those were totally the best!"  I don't want to stop it indefinitely.... because at the end of the teen years you hopefully have kids who then go off to college and then their lives.  But, I like their ages right now, and I could keep right now a little bit longer.

Game Pictures

Just a couple pictures from the game last night.  It was such a nice day / evening that I skipped out on graduation and went to Jacob's baseball game.  They lost, but it was a good game.  I think they are 2-2 now.

Manufacture some indignation

It's Monday.  The Monday evening schedule looked like this:

Allison - Monkey Joe's 4:30-6:00
Jacob - Baseball 5:30-7:30
Jamie - Give Final Exam 7:00-9:00
Brian - Chicago

So my plan was to drop Allison off at Monkey Joe's.  Go home and get Jacob.  Take him to baseball.  Leave baseball to pick Allison up.  Take her back to baseball game where we would meet a very kindly babysitter with a driver's license.  Then leave them all at the game to go give my final and have the babysitter take them home.

This plan was derailed (as all good plans are) by the weather.  It rained.  From about 2:30pm onward.  I kept checking the e-mail SO SURE that the game would be cancelled.  No luck.  So I went through steps above all the way until I dropped Jacob off in the rain at the baseball game where there was no other team present.

Yeah, I'm thinking "they are so not having a game."  However, here's the conundrum.... if I leave to go get Allison and they call the game - I'm 15 minutes away with Jacob at the wet ball field by himself.  If I stay until they call the game - I'm late picking Allison up and then subsequently late to meet the babysitter and late to my final.  I should mention - too - that Monkey Joe's is about as far across town as you can get from our house and still be in Appleton.

So..... I found Jacob a ride home in the event of a cancellation - but not to our home because no one was there.  By the time I picked up Allison - started to drive back through town - got a txt saying the game was cancelled and picked Jacob up from Harrison's house..... the babysitter was waiting on our doorstep and I turned quickly around to go give my final.

I'm moderately annoyed at the coach who didn't call to check with the other coach that their team would be able to make it IN THE RAIN.  Also.... who plays baseball in the rain?  It's not soccer.

Oh well.  It all worked out in the end.  The Best Laid Plans.....

Bag lady

Should I preface this with a statement about the positive environmental impacts of reusable bags?  Right now, I don't know.  Actually (I had my students look into those ones from the grocery store one time) and they are made from non-woven plastic, so technically you are still using a lot of plastic.  They have a design life of two years at which point they will start to wear at the seams and the handles will break and I will throw them away, send them to the landfill where they will never break down because they are made of plastic.  Also, they are in a landfill, which is now so tightly sealed and controlled that an apple core probably doesn't break down in there.  But - I feel like an environmental crusader when I whip them out at the store and give an evil glare to the person in front of me who doesn't have reusable bags!

Actually, I don't do that.  But mostly it's because I don't even have my bags with me.  But when I do......

Bags seem to have become the branding item of choice.  For a while there I couldn't turn around without someone handing me a bag.  The hospital gave them out at the farmers market, the school gave them out, the kids would come home with them from various events.

And then - they started to appear with drawstrings.  The kids were doing all these fun runs and every fun run came with a drawstring bag.  Drawstring bags are the least. practical. bag. ever.  First, they are small.  I use them to tote the kids things to and from swimming lessons and they barely fit a thin towel and goggles.  And they are no good for books, given that it's necessary that the top compresses (thus eliminating more potential interior space.  And the strings are too short to use it as a backpack (plus I look like a super-dork with a mini drawstring bag on my back.)

I have gotten creative with the reuse of these bags.  Granted, there are two large grocery-style bags filled with other grocery bags that I occasionally use to take groceries home from the store.  I have a bag holding each of the kids swimming lesson stuff - a bag for extra baseballs - a bag for off-season soccer cleats - a bag for toys that the kids have lost as a consequence of doing something they weren't supposed to do with the toy.  I have bags for holding other bags - bags for taking things from the first floor to the second floor - for taking things from second floor to the first floor - for hiding things I don't have time to clean when people are coming over.  There is a piano book bag (three actually - weird given we have one kid taking piano lessons) - a bag for library books - a bag full of winter things that I'm still afraid to put away.  And these are the bags that are CURRENTLY IN USE.  I did a quick count of bags in the laundry room closet and came up with 47.  FORTY SEVEN.

Clearly I have a bag problem.  I must stop accepting free bags (but they are free!).

Baseball Begins! (and other random updates)

Jacob had his first baseball game yesterday.  They lost, but only by a couple points.  They looked a little nervous at the beginning, but came back to play stronger at the end.  Jacob hit at all his at-bats, but was thrown out in one inning.  He got to play a variety of positions, and apparently had a couple nice plays at first base (I didn't see because I had to go teach my night class).

I signed Allison up for this new social skills "class" that they were offering in the area.  It meets on Monday nights too and yesterday they went to the library.  She seems to really be enjoying it.  Since we usually have therapy on Monday nights, I had dropped to only one night a week.  Then with busy Thursdays now too I got the OK to "take a break" from therapy for May.  So, our schedule is therapist free until June!  Then in June I worked it out for the therapist go with her to Boys and Girls Club rather than have therapy at home.  Yay!

School is winding down for the kids.  The 6th graders go on a camping trip next week, which means the 5th graders (all are 5/6 split classes) do a lot of other fun stuff like golf lessons.  I signed a crap-ton of permission slips last week for Allison and Jacob.  Plus, there are all these requests for parent helpers the last 3-4 weeks of school.  I'm always torn between "well, I AM free once the semester is over" and "these are the two weeks I have between my semester and when I get to (have to) be home with them ALL SUMMER."  So, I usually don't sign up.  This is why I never have anyone to talk to when I go to elementary school functions....

And - school is winding down for me!  Classes go until next Wednesday and then finals are after that.  I am behind on my grading and should probably be grading and not typing on the blog.  Unfortunately, I also agreed to redo this online class which must be done by June 30th.  So, I actually have work to fill in at the beginning of summer.  Apparently, something is wrong with me that I would propose and agree to this.

I tested cheese!

Allison has become a much better conduit of information between home and school.  She says "hey, there's a pajama day tomorrow" and there is a pajama day tomorrow!  This is pretty awesome and cool to be able to rely on her for more information rather than needing to communicate as much with her teachers.

However, we did have the following conversation in the car today.  And if you can summarize the cheese experience in a way that makes sense to me - I'll give you the gold star.

A: "Tomorrow, I get to taste-test cheese!"
M: "Really, why?"
A: "I don't get enough dairy"
M: "uh...."
A: "I tested three cheeses yesterday"
M: "Really, why?"
A: "I don't get enough dairy"

M: "Did you like the cheese?"
A: "yes, I tested three, the first was eh, the second was OK, but the third was good"
Jacob intervened: "was it mozzarella?"
A: "No, it was Monster-something"

Me: "Did everyone test the cheese?"
A: "No, Jenna had stickers"
M: "What?"
A: "Yesterday was Jenna, and tomorrow is..... Alyssa!  Jenna asked me, and I said yes"

M: "Why did you have cheese?"
A: "I don't know"
M: "But you get more cheese tomorrow?"
A: "Yes!"