Yesterday was what Sam has dubbed "Mommy New Year." The house was as quiet as I had hoped and I remembered what it was like to think a complete thought. I thoroughly enjoyed my day. Thoroughly. Even as I type right now I am amazed at how quiet the house is and how radically different it looks and sounds when the kid tornado hits at 3:00.
Emily started high school yesterday. We went on Tuesday night to meet her teachers and I am telling you that campus is HUGE. Oh, and the kids are HUGE. My little 14 year old will be walking the halls with huge 18 year old football players. Not to mention that weird guy we saw with the spiked mohawk wearing a kilt. Seriously. A kilt. I'm sure he hangs out with the football players and cheerleaders on weekends. Right. High school hasn't changed much since we were there. Except for that kilt--no one in my high school wore a kilt.
Em had a good day and was able to find her classes with ease thereby escaping every freshman's nightmare of getting lost. She had a hard time finding her bus at the end of the day and had to run to it in the nasty heat, but that was the extent of the hardship. I'm looking forward to hearing how day 2 went since she didn't have the first day nervousness to deal with. She already had homework last night and tomorrow she has a test in English. Day 3 and a test. Very unlike the other kids at the elementary school who were spending the first day being indoctrinated with the classroom rules and did getting to know you activities all day. Katya heard about one of the other 6th grade classes who had to do math and language and stuff. You know--work! Clearly that teacher didn't get the memo. Katya was horrified for her friends in that class.
So, here is the breakdown: Katya is in 6th grade--her final year in elementary before heading off to the junior high. Noah is in 5th grade and has Katya's teacher from last year--which is nice for us to not have to get to know someone new. Rachel is in 4th grade and has Noah's teacher from last year. This is actually proving to be a bit confusing for me because I am used to Mrs. B's stuff being for Katya and Ms. J's stuff being for Noah, but now Mrs. B's stuff is for Noah and Ms. J's stuff is for Rachel. I have enough trouble keeping track of things without added confusion. I'm sure there will be more than one time when I send the wrong kid with the wrong paper. They'll have to get over it. Anyhoo, Tommy is now in 2nd grade with a teacher we have never had before. I don't think anyone has prepped her for the Tommy experience, but she has 20 years of teaching under her belt and she should be able to handle him. Theoretically. The good news is that his first grade teacher misses him--seriously. So, he's a tough one to handle, but his personality and the cuteness factor clearly make up for that. Of course the passage of time helps too.
Tommy's class is in a portable building this year because the school has grown so much. His teacher likes to refer to them as the "chalets"--which I think has a nice ring to it, as compared to the "double wide trailer trash out back." This means the long walk to the bathroom (which is inside the building) is going to be frought with temptations for him to be distracted by the children who are on the playground. None of his cohorts from last year are in his class this year though so that is very good news. He told me the story of a boy at his table yesterday who was hiding one of the girl's nametags. The teacher had to ask him THREE times to give it back (Tommy delivered that news with much horror--3 times!). My response was this: DO NOT become friends with that boy!!!! Stay away from him!!!! Tommy always seems to be able to find the one kid in class that is a bad influence on him and then we (and his teacher) end up telling him he can't sit with him at lunch or sit by him in class or look at him, etc. I'm hoping this year is different. Hey, a girl can hope!
So, now I'm off to pick up my little darlings and to witness the force of the kid tornado (level 5). And then we are off to a DBacks game tonight with our friends the C's. Yahoo!
Here I go binge blogging again. I think I need therapy.
I figured I'd post some pictures from our vacation since the disk is sitting here next to me and if I don't do it now odds are I never will (remember how I said I would tell you about our trip to Montreal?). We spent a week enjoying the fantastic weather and our friends' hospitality in beautiful San Diego. Any family that can have all 7 of us come stay with them for a week deserves an award.
Just a few more days. School starts on Wednesday. I'm seriously looking forward to being in my kitchen Wednesday morning around 8:30 and hearing the wonderfully comforting sound of the refrigerator humming. I remember last year on the first day of school discovering that the refrigerator actually makes a sound and it seems that in the frenzy of noise and activity we like to call "summer vacation" I have forgotten what it sounds like.
Now a disclaimer: I love my kids. I do. Most days. It's just that they are 5 whirling dirvishes--very loud whirling dirvishes--pulling me in 5 different directions at all times. It's exhausting. And the fact that in just a few days they will have something to keep them occupied all day--I mean besides asking me their full quota of questions--is a huge thrill for me. I'm done being Julie the Summer Cruise Director. No one wants to play the games I had planned on the Lido Deck and I am clearly not cut out for planning fun-fun-fun 24/7. Julie made it look so easy back then--but she had Gopher and Isaac helping her out and she didn't have to contend with 110 degree temperatures.
So, I'm turning in my clipboard and sending them off with their backpacks and lunch boxes and hanging out in my unbelievably quiet kitchen for the day thinking entire thoughts without interruption. Except for that pesky humming sound.
I got a recall notice from Costco today. Since they listed the specific items I bought that are covered by this recall, this reveals to me that Costco knows everything my family has eaten since we got a membership. Some people might feel like this is an invasion of their privacy, but I'm thinking it could be handy if my doctor ever asks for a food history. "Hold on Doc, I'll just call Bill over at Costco really quick and ask them how much red meat is in my diet." I'll keep buying my m&m's and ice cream at Wal-mart though. There doesn't need to be a written record of how many m&m's I have ingested over my lifetime. Although I can tell you that so far there has been about one every sentence during this post.
A funny thing about this recall notice is that it is for some packs of canned chili that we bought. They listed four separate packs in the recall notice and said that the company was voluntarily recalling them regardless of the best by date on the cans. Now, our family only infrequently eats said cans of chili and so the fact that they are including the last four times I purchased it calls into question the effectiveness of this recall. Um, we only had four cans left out of all those cans that we bought months ago! And why are we recalling all of these cans of chili? Possible botulism. Hello? That's a little late now that we only have four cans left! And since the letter says to seek immediate medical care if we have any of the symptoms listed it leads me to believe this is quite serious. But, they said that there has been no contamination found to date. So, explain to me why it is being recalled since it has already been fully digested by my family and so far they can't find any contaminated cans? And don't you think I'd have already had my family member seek medical care if they were having trouble with speaking or swallowing? That seems an obvious sign that all is not right. Especially in our family--someone stops talking or eating and we check for a pulse.
Maybe I'll start calling Costco every once in a while when I'm bored to check and see how many packs of frozen chicken I've purchased over the last year. This could be a fun game to get a little bit more out of my membership.
