Friday, April 25, 2008

Weeping and gnashing of teeth

Most of my family is happy this morning. Jacob is going on a field-trip to the pizza farm (where they show how all the ingredients of pizza are made and then they see it made and eat it!), Benjamin is also semi-happy. He tried to make his stomach virus last one more day. He did the usual "my stomach still hurts a little" thing. He really likes to be at home. When he saw that it wasn't happenin', he got OK and got on the bus.
Matthew is pretty good. He got off pretty easy, in my opinion, from the confusion over his Disney World spending, etc., so I think he is just kind of flitting around hoping things don't change with our thought about this issue. Lots of his friends bought things for "themselves" and then didn't want them. I mean this happened about 4 or 5 times. One friend bought an "As I Lay Dying" t-shirt and curiously didn't want it. I discovered this one this morning. Something is up or either Matthew has a way of looking totally pitiful where people want to buy him things. Embarrassing. I don't think he cares, though.

Matt is slightly bitter that I have the day off from school, but not too much. He isn't showing any animosity towards me. :) He is learning Man of Constant Sorrow to do with the Lafayette Quartet. Fun! I wish I had thought of that one. My ensemble is doing Tuxedo Junction, what they consider old people music. Ouch.

Claire, on the other hand, left the house and got on the bus in tears. I hate to see my girl like this, but we have been dealing with the issue of her not wanting to read for school. I know playing with friends outside looks far more fun, but.............you still have to do what you have to do. I trusted her one time and just signed that she had read and found out later that she had NOT read. I said "no more". I had to stay late at school and got home around 6. I drove up and she was laying out on the driveway at Annie's house. I can't believe she is doing this at 7. They had blankets and pillows and an umbrella ( no bathing suits, just wrapped up in their own blankets) to shield them from the hot sun. Anyway, I asked her later if she had read. Well....no. I asked her to go read before supper....didn't happen. Before her shower.....didn't happen. (she just kept showing up talking about something totally different). Then, she wanted to stay up late and read and I had to think back on a sign I saw on a bakery door (referring to wedding cakes). It read "Your failure to plan does not constitute an emergency on my part". I was ready for my girl to learn this. This morning I wrote her teacher a note saying that we would finish the book this weekend. I think the thought of letting her teacher down and facing the consequences was too much for her. I hated for her to leave like this, but I hope this has made an impression.

I know, I am mean. Most parents now-a-days would probably have bailed her out, but I want her to grow up to be responsible and maybe not come home and live with me when she is 30. (of course I would always take my child into my home if she or he were having a major life crisis, just not if they wanted me to keep doing everything for them.)

Today I am home with mom. I am so excited. Our day is wide open. Not sure what we will do. First, I have to get the garbage out, though. Exciting. :)
Tomorrow we are going to see my 95 year old grandmother whom I haven't seen in too long. she had to move to Alabama a few years ago. We are meeting two of my brothers who both live in Atlanta. I can't wait to see those knuckle-heads. (I have 4 big brothers just so you know). I say knuckle-heads with the most affection.

Have a blessed day. God is so good. I hope you all know that He loves you very much. Just thought I might link to this page on our website that talks about this, FYI. Who is Jesus?

I will find out today or Monday if I got he job in Oxford. I have a hint that I am supposed to stay where I am, I am just not positive. We'll see. Take care.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Claire misses Matthew

My Claire is sick today and that makes me very sad. I hate it when I can't do anything for my kids to make them feel better. She was complaining about being "car-sick" when she went to play disc golf with Matt, Neil and the boys. When I finally got to Oxford and picked them up so he could go back and play, she was very droopy. I had to go to Wal-mart to get a shirt for one of my choir guys (our pictures are tomorrow). Jacob had some birthday money that he wanted to spend and so we were in the toy section. My poor baby let us all know why she felt so bad. The bathroom was not close enough. Poor thing.
On the way home she started talking about missing Matthew since he has gone with his band to Disney World. She's in bed now, so I pray that sleep will do her good. Jacob really felt bad for her. He didn't quite know what to say, but he came to her room while I was in there and tried to ask her how she felt. So sweet. That was really good to see, since most of the time they aren't getting along.
Mamaw is coming to our house tomorrow. It will be so good to see her. It has been too long since we really got to be with her.
I have the second day of choir auditions tomorrow at school. Today went great. It is so cool to have kids coming into high school that are really excited about choir. Good attitudes, not discipline problems. I try not to let bad attitudes and discipline problems stop me, but it makes me breath a sigh of relief when kids do care. Makes my job so much easier. I am sad in a way that I will not be able to be around, next year, some of the kids in choir that have had problems because a lot of them aren't going to be in choir. I wish I could have made more of a difference. I guess you never know, though.
Matthew and his band are going to march in a parade while they are at Disney World. I hope it goes well. He was so excited. God bless those chaperones.
Matt and the kids are home tomorrow. Mamaw has said that Matt and I get a date tomorrow night when she gets here. Yea! It has been a really long time since that has happened. We won't know what to do. We are always like high school kids on a date when we get these. We don't take them for granted anymore now that we live further away from our moms. It takes a little more effort.
I can't believe that we only have a few more weeks of school. So much going on. Concerts, banquets, graduations. It is amazing that we don't have more conflicts with each other's school calendars. I think I will be going to prom this year. I've got to show all of my kids how a 36 year old white woman dances. They need to learn the real dances of the 70's and 80's, don't you think? The other day I saw a picture of me at prom my junior year. My sleeves were really "real big". I thought that was just a Napoleon dynamite thing. If it weren't 10:44 now and if I weren't up way past when I wanted to be, I would go get the picture and scan it for all to see. Maybe tomorrow. I certainly would love to have the figure I had in that picture.
Oh well. Have a great weekend.

Friday, April 11, 2008

Hay in my van, kids at school, Matt on a bus to Atlanta and me being a slug







I am so thankful that my school district built in some snow days this year. Last year we had to take snow days and had to make them up. Well, today is a day that was to have been a snow day. Since we didn't use it, we all got a little vacation. We'll get another in two weeks. Ahhhh............
I usually have many plans for my days off. Today my mind was set on my bed and watching parts of Nero Wolfe in between sleep. I have already had a little part of that, and am about to have more.

The kids will be home in about an hour and then it will be exciting. Matt has gone to Atlanta with the LHS choir. They are singing in a competition and going to Six Flags. He'll be back Sunday night.

My last elementary musical of this school year is Monday night. It is set on a farm so I went the other day and got two bales of hay. I took it to the auditorium so my family could fit in the van and that I wouldn't be smelling hay all weekend. But.....there is quite a bit left in the van. When the musical is over I am going to bring one bale home and let Jacob use it for archery practice with his new bow and arrows.

Well, have a great weekend. Matthew is doing a drama with his drama group for the conference at church. I was involved in this, but will be home with our peeps.
Weekends...................:)

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