Do you see what EYE see....

Carlie has worn glasses for a while now. This year in 5^th grade Madi has been insisting that she needed some. We just had her eyes checked in the summer so I thought she was just thinking it was cool to get a pair. Granny has always taken the girls to Claire’s Boutique where they have a 10 for 10 special. 10 items for 10 dollars. While they were there, they found some designer eye glasses that had no prescription, they were strictly for fashion. She got all the girls a pair. Madi just LOVED hers. They looked cute on her and she insisted that they helped her see better.

A few weeks later, I got an email from one of Madi’s teachers, Mrs. Hearn. Her email said that Madi had been complaining of headaches frequently at school, and that maybe if she wore her new glasses more consistently then her headaches would get better. So I emailed her back and told her that she was going to get a good chuckle, because the glasses that Madi had been wearing had no prescription and were just for looks.

So fast forward a few months, and Granny took both girls to the eye doctor for me. And they both needed new glasses. So they each picked out a pair and Madi started wearing hers to school. Another teacher stopped Madi in the hall and said “Oh, Madi, I LOVE your new glasses. Do they help you see better?” Mrs. Hearn leaned over and said “Oh, those glasses are just for fashion. They don’t have a prescription.” Madi tried to tell her that they were real and Mrs. Hearn said “Now, Madi, your Mom told me those were not real glasses!!!”

So I had to email her back and tell her that now they WERE real glasses.

So while Granny was at the eye doctor with the girls, she told the optometrist the story about Madi’s fake glasses and the teacher thinking they were real. He said “You know, I am an OPTOMITRIST and my fiancé bought a pair of those glasses at Claire’s and she SWEARS that she sees better when she wears them. I’ve told her over and over that they are totally fake and she won’t believe me!!”

Anti-Obama

For years we have had this issue with our kids and school lunches.  The cost of school lunches has continued to go up over the years.  Multiply that by four and it adds up to alot.

So we had the kids start packing a lunch.  But they insisted they wanted to eat hot lunches.  So we made a deal that they could eat one hot lunch a week.  The kids would careful scan the week's lunch menu and determine what day they wished to have their school lunch.

Wellll...then comes Michelle Obama and her health kids campaign.  My kids sat up on election night and were CRUSHED to find out that Obama was re-elected.  Not because of MR. Obama, but because of MRS. Obama.

Carlie said "MAN, it's going to be another FOUR years become we can have Oreo Delight back in our school lunches again!!!"

So today Carlie said "I am just not having a hot lunch this week"  I ask "Why not?  You are always excited to pick out your school lunch each week?"

She said "Seriously Mom.  Have you ever heard of a whole wheat CORN DOG?!?!"  And Madi chimes "Yeah and we just get FOUR tater tots"  And Libby says "And we just get for items on our tray!!!

They are ready for the next Presidental election.

Drama Queens

Three daughters grades 8th, 5th and 4th + first day of school = drama.

Carlie hysterical because she couldn't find the shirt she wanted to wear that she supposedly laid out the night before.

Madi hysterical because she had a "Zit" on her forehead that needed to be covered with makeup. 

Libby hysterical because Madi is wearing shorts that she claims are hers even tho Madi could barely squeeze into them. Are we having fun yet?

I'm blind, I'm blind!!!!

So Thursday was the first Jr High dance of the year.  Frank is in 8th grade and Libby is in 7th and they both wanted to go.  It was from 7-9pm.  Bob took them.  I was getting my hair done...so I was coming by the middle school on my way home.  It was 8:30pm so I thought I would just grab them a little early.

When I pull up there....I see a sign and it says "7th graders picked up here....8th graders picked up here.....AT 9PM"

I go up to the front doors and sure enough, they are all locked.  The doors are glass.  I press my face to the glass to see if I could signal a teacher to let me in.  What I saw HORRIFIED ME.  The kids were in the atrium....it was DARK.....Miley Cyrus's The Climb was blaring from speakers....and the kids were  SLOW dancing...with their arms wrapped around necks and waists.  The was a disco ball flashing.

I staggered back from the door screaming "I'm BLIND.  I'm BLIND!!!!"  The sight of my "babies" slow dancing in the dark....well it doesn't even bare things about....no...not yet....PLEASE.

When I was in Junior High....the boys stood on one side of the room drinking punch and the girls gathered on the other side giggling.  And one or two "fast" couples might be out there in the middle dancing.  What the heck HAPPENED!!!!

Then the principal finally noticed me and let me in.  I walk into the office, and I see row after row after row of cell phones lined up on the counter.  The 7th graders had on color of sticky note with their names on them...and the 8th graders had another.  Holy Smokes, Batman!!!

Food Fights

As they say in "A Christmas Story"....every family has one picky eater.....in ours it was.....Carlie.

School lunches have gotten so expensive that we have the kids pack a lunch four days of the week.  One day a week they get to have a hot lunch.  They look at the lunch calendar each week....and each kid carefully selects and plans which day they will have a hot lunch.

Well Carlie's tastes are just too refined for a sack lunch.  She hates anything we suggest.  Turkey sandwiches taste gross unless we buy her the expensive deli meat.  She won't eat peanut butter and jelly.  She can't take soup or anything like that because they don't have a place to heat it up.   She will only eat GREEN apples....not RED.....etc, etc.

Granny went up to the school one day to pick them up, and they told her that they were concerned about Carlie's lunch.  One day all she brought was a green apple.  And one day just a small kids' yogurt.  Ummmm.....well thanks for sharing.....but you can look at her sister's lunch to see that I don't starve my kids....and look at both of them to see that they don't miss too many meals.  One day she had no lunch at all.  So on these days they let her get a hot lunch.

So I called the school and told them that Carlie is allowed to have ONE hot lunch a week.   And she might just have to go hungry for a couple of days before she figured out she couldn't manipulate the system.  She was very helpful and said she would let me know if there were any more problems.

So the other day I got this email.

Julie,

Thought I should let you know that on Tuesday Carlie only brought a bag of grapes in her lunch. When a asked her about it she said that she didn’t have time to eat breakfast so she ate part of her lunch on the bus and that she eat some more of it during morning snacks in Mr. Oliver’s class. Yesterday she ate a hot lunch and I didn’t think anything about it but when she ate one again today a said something like “Oh it must be a special week.” She looks at me and says, “I’ll tell my Mom when I get home. I slept to late and didn’t have time to pack my lunch!” Thought you might like to know.


GLM
Coe Food Service Secretary

Sigh.  Now every time she has TWO hot lunches in a week, she doesn't get one at ALL the next week.

I have a Spiritual Family

This week was homecoming, and Granny got the kids some really cool mohawk wigs. They had a blast with them. We were getting ready for the game, and Libby comes into the room. She has a yellow and a blue knee high sock on, blue shorts, and blue and gold shirt that didn't match the shorts, and the mohawk wig.




I guess I just wasn't thinking. I looked at her kind of funny and asked "Why are you wearing that weird stuff?"

She looks at me and says "Duh, Mom...I'm being Spiritual!!!!"





And I reply "Ohhhhh....you have school spirit, Libby. Spiritual is what you feel when you go to church!!!

9/11/2001 to a generation who wasn't born yet....

My youngest daughters born in 2002 and 2003 were born after 9/11. Now in 3rd and 4th grade, this is the ten year anniversary, and they are old enough to somewhat understand. Both of them learned about 9/11 in school today.

They both came home talking about it. It was hard for them to understand that this happened before they were born. And they wanted to know what year I was born in....and was I born before or after 9/11....and what was I doing when I found out it had happened. That they recently killed Osama Bin Laden. We had a good discussion. Madi said she cried along with a bunch of the girls in their class as they watched movies about it. The magnitude of the loss is almost beyond their comprehension.

So maybe 30 minutes later I was reading a book in bed, and Carlie comes in and her big old green eyes are shimmering with tears. And she said "I watched five videos about 9/11 in a row and I didn't even cry once!!" in a choked up voice.

And I said "But you wanted to" and she busted out bawling and said "It's so sad." and threw herself into my arms. I held her awhile then told her to go find something cheerful to watch.

So she came back in a few minutes later and said "Mom, now I'm listening to Irvin Berlin!!!" I said "WHO??" She said you know Irvin Berlin....he's singing God Bless America. He's older than you...probably Memaw's age." Only my 8 year old would know who Irvin Berlin is. She said "I just thought of him and looked him up on YouTube."

The Wheels On The Bus....

Now that we are living out in the country, the kids are getting to ride the bus for the first time. I have been warning them repeatedly about how unhappy I will be if they miss their bus...especially since their school is in the opposite direction from where Bob and I work.

Carlie is a bit ADD, she can't keep up with her shoes. If she can't find hers she'll grab the first pair she comes across and puts them on.

It just so happens that I can see the girls waiting for the bus at the end of our driveway from my bathroom window as I'm getting ready for work. I see Madi come flying back towards the house in a tizzy. She comes in bawling that Carlie has HER shoes on. So I told her to tell Carlie to come back in the house and find her own shoes. I watch as Madi goes back out there. I see yelling, shouting, waving of arms. It's clear that Carlie isn't going to give her the shoes. So I open the window an inch and yell out there for Carlie to give Madi her shoes.

About a second after I shut the window, the shoes come off of Carlie's feet one at a time and she throws them at Madi as hard as she can throw them. Carlie charges back into the house....puts on someone elses shoes and makes it back outside about two seconds before the bus gets there!!!

Hateful Butterflies

You can tell that I have already parented a plethora of kids, because the school Spring and Christmas concerts aren't fun any more!!! We have grades K thru 4 together. You can look out across the crowd and see the bring shining faces of parents who have kindergartners in the program for the first time. The rest of the parents are tired, sleepy, playing on cell phones or fighting squirmy kids.

But anyway...it's not too fun for me any more. This year the girls had to dress up as insects. Granny bailed me out by bringing materials to make butterfly wings. She and the girls carefully cut out wings and decorated them with pretties. We even made some extras that they shared with kids who didn't have any.

So the night of the concert we get ready to go, and Carlie is mad about something and she is pouting horribly. Then Madi can't find her shoes. We are all waiting in the car and she's bawling on the steps because she can't find her shoes.

I had wanted to take their picture together so that Granny could see what beautiful butterflies she'd made. But what I got was one pouting and one bawling. I told them "You guys are the most hateful butterflies I've ever seen!!!" Carlie just looks at me and says with this incredulous look on her face "Did you just call me a hateful butterfly????" Ummm...yep....yep, I did.

Letters from Carlie

Bob and I went to Parent Teacher Conferences. Carlie's teacher had asked each student to write a letter to their parents about something. The topic was up to them. This is what Carlie wrote.

Dear Mom -

I know you don't want any more rodents in the house, but I really want a bunny. I'll clean its poopey cage and I will help buy it. I will wash it. I'll feed it. It will be a birthday present. Mom I will do anything.

Love, your intelligent, loving, most supportif daughter,
Carlie

Ammonia

We had school conferences tonight. The PE Teacher asked me if Carlie has had a cough at home. I told him that she'd had one for about two weeks now and that she has asthma. He said that her cough suddenly gets a whole lot worse when they are doing something in PE that she doesn't want to do.

On the way home, Carlie told me "I really think you need to start giving me cough medicine again. Because if you don't then I'm going to get Ammonia."

So I gave her a big dose of nasty red cough medicine before bed last night so that she wouldn't get Ammonia.

First Day of School

The first week of school is probably by far, the most difficult week I have in a typical year. And this one didn’t let me down. In fact, it started out the day BEFORE the first day of school. Bob is doing two a day practices. He was supposed to get the kids up and get them dressed before he left for practice, because Granny had said she was coming to get the early and take them out to our new trailer to work on getting it cleaned up. He was so excited about his first practice that he forgot. I didn’t want them to be in bed when Granny got there, so I had to get them up and get them dressed before I left. I had told Mom that Frank had a meds appointment in Wichita at 3pm and that the three girls had their “meet the teacher” night at 5pm. So she was going to have the girls back at our main house at 4pm so they’d have time to clean up.



So I take Frank to his appointment. The doctor decided to completely change every one of Frank’s meds…right in time for school to start the next day. That sounds like a GREAT idea…change all his meds on the first day of school. So I go by the pharmacy to get his new meds and they are out of stock. So I drive home with Frank, and it’s after 4pm after I get there. There is no sign of Granny and the girls. I call her cell phone and get no answer. I figure that if I drive out to the property they’ll be on their way in and I’ll miss them. So I wait ‘til 5pm and finally head out there. Granny had worked hard all day (the trailer looked GREAT by the way) and had forgotten about meet the teacher. So I rush the girls home to get their school supplies. They are in play clothes, swim suites and covered in paint, and we don’t have time to change. So I take them to “meet” their teachers….look out school…here comes the Pooligans.



After that we went back out to the land to swim in the pool and I started a bon fire. We roasted marshmallows. They wanted to spend the night and didn’t want to leave. I explained they had to get up early and go to school the next day. I was finally able to drag them home, get everyone bathed and in bed. We get lunches made, backpacks and instruments ready. By now its 9:30pm. Bob came in a few minutes later from football practice. He walks in the door and says “Juuulie” and I can tell by the tone of his voice that something isn’t good. He said “I just ran over someone’s cat…..and it’s dead.” So we walked back up the street and there is the poor dead kitty. We don’t know who it belongs to so we start knocking on doors. We finally locate the right neighbor. The cat belongs to his two little boys. We apologize profusely, and their Dad is really nice about it.



So we go home and go to bed. Then Day TWO begins…..



Libby is so excited about starting school that she got up at 4AM. By the time the rest of us get up and start getting ready she is so grouchy and hateful that no one can stand to be around her. She jerks open the fridge door so hard that it hits the back of Carlie’s heel and draws blood. So Carlie comes to me in the bathroom crying. I get her taken care of. Then Madi had this plastic stick shaped toy that makes noises. Carlie had it, and Libby was trying to reach over her head and take it away from her. Carlie let go of it, and it pops back and cracks Libby on the head. This makes her furious so she whacks MADI across the back with it…never did understand why she whacked Madi and not Carlie. So Madi comes in my bathroom bawling and has a big red welt across her back. So Bob takes the toy away from Libby and whacks her across the legs with it several times to see how SHE likes being hit with it…and now Libby is bawling too.



Frank now goes to Junior High which is in a different town. It’s on my way to work so we decide that I will drop him by school on my way. At 7am, Carlie is ready to go to school and insists that we take her RIGHT THEN. We try to explain to her that she isn’t supposed to be at school until 7:50am, and they only let us take them up there at 7:30am as a favor to Bob because he’s a teacher. But she throws an awful fit that she wants to go right then. So she’s sitting in my bathroom bawling. Then I ask her why she’s crying….and she says her eyes are hurting. I tell her that her eyes are hurting because she’s CRYING. Ugh.



So I’m trying to get a befuddled Frank and all his stuff in the minivan to leave…and I’m already running late. He starts crying because he’s nervous about his first day of Jr. High and he can’t find all his stuff. So we get in the minivan, and I realize I haven’t given him his new medicine. Did I mention that it was raining??? I dash back up the steps to the house and hang my toe on the first step, land on the side of my ankle on the second step and ROLL across the wet porch. So I get up, go in the house….errrr limp into the house….change my clothes and get his medicine.



I get to work, and my beloved Blackberry (Crackberry) is not on my hip where it’s supposed to be. I don’t know if I left it at home or if it flew into the bushes when I fell up the porch.



Awwwww….those good old days of school.

Tanganyka Field Trip With Carlie

Today I got to spend the day with Carlie and the 1st graders at a Wildlife park. We had a great time. I've been able to take this trip with each of my girls when they were in first grade. (Frank didn't go to 1st grade at this school.)









Above is a Lorikeet. It's about three times bigger than a parakeet. You get to walk into their enclosure where they flying around freely. The keeper told us that sometimes they land on your arms and hands and they also will bite. I've had a bird about that size before, so I knew a bite might hurt a little but wouldn't bring blood. So we are walking around and this bird is on the side of the cage. He puts his foot out like he wants to step onto my finger. So I stick my finger out, and he leaned over and BIT it instead. I held my fingers over his beak until he let go. And Carlie starts chuckling. She says, "Wow, Mom...that bird baited you, huh???" I about cracked up. I was telling Bob about it, and Libby says "What does baited mean?"

Day At The Zoo With Madi

Like myself, Madi is a true animal lover and we enjoyed taking our time at the zoo today without being rushed by other family members. There is something about Madi that attracts animals. At the lion exhibit a half grown lion cub came up and sat by the window right beside her. And when we went to the otters, an otter was trying to get her cap through the glass. We had a great day!!!

Rebel in the Wrong Century

I got an email from school yesterday. Frank had been having SUCH a good year. But apparently he took his DS to school with him yesterday. Then he took it to the bathroom with him and stayed in there alot longer than he should have. He had a sub...so I guess he thought he could pull one over on her. When they finally got him out of the bathroom the sub asked what he had in his pocket and he lied and said he didn't have anything in his pocket. They finally got it and took it away from him.

Then after he went back to class his teacher told him to get ready for a spelling test and he told her "FU".

I like to read romance novels set in the past. And they are full of swashbuckling men who get what they want and don't take any crap off of any one. Right now I'm reading about an Irish Chieftan.

I got to thinking that Frank was just born in the wrong century. If he were a 30 year old Irish Chieftan, his FU attitude would get him women and hero worship.

Unfortunately for us, it's just not appropriate for an 11 year old in a modern classroom. Sigh.

You Just Don't Use Coloring Much In Life

Carlie had just always marched to the beat of her own drummer. Pictured below she's at a football game with those socks that have places for each toe on her hands. LOL. It was about 90 degrees outside.


We've still been going 'round and 'round with Carlie and first grade. She's still getting in trouble alot, and I am having her tested independently so we can figure out what's going on. I told the lady doing the testing that Bob and I both and ADD/ADHD traits so Carlie might have a tendency towards that. So she sent two forms for each of Carlie's teachers to fill out and send back. There were questions where the teachers were supposed to rate her. Instead of just putting the rating on there, they wrote all over the form. And it wasn't pretty. I was so upset.

They wrote that she was telling the other kids "I'm SO much smarter than you are!!!" That when given assignment she was rolling her eyes and saying things like "This is SO easy." They said she was manipulative with adults and kids. They said if another student got a question right that she sulking and glowered at them until they felt uncomfortable. I don't know WHERE she got any of these traits from....no idea.

They were also concerned about her fine motor skills. So Bob and I sat down and talked to her that night. I asked her "If someone came up to you and said I am SO much prettier than YOU are...would you like that??" and she said "No".

Another comment was that she was rushing through her work and then immediately demanding more to do. Bob told her he wanted her to take her time and write her name. (She's a lefty.) So she wrote her name perfectly. Then he got one of her school papers out that was NOT written perfectly. He asked her why she didn't write her name neatly all the time and she mumbled "Well it's good enough that they can READ it." So then he asked her if she could color neatly...and she said she could. So he got out one of her school papers that had been scribbled on. He asked her WHY she didn't take her time and color her best. She stared down at the ground and thought about it a minute then she said "Well Dad, there's just not much coloring in life!!!" Oh My.

Bored in School

We are hving problems with Carlie in 1st grade this year. They have to "pull a stick" when they get in trouble. If they pull two sticks they lose 5 miutes of recess time. We'll she gets bored and then gets in trouble. I'd say three out of five days a week she loses recess time. Her teacher sends a note home every week. This weeks's note said "Carlie made the decision to give herself a small haircut with her scissors. She lost her scissors for the remainder of the day. Hopefully she will not make this choice again. She has assured me she will not."

Sigh. Why can't they just figure out they need to keep her busy and challenged!!!

Full Nest

Someone besides me has a nest that is full to overflowing. When I took the kids to their Meet The Teacher Night, this nest was up in the corner of the school porch.

Carlie's Kindergarten Trip

Carlie's class got a chance to go visit a farm for a field trip. I wasn't able to go, so Granny took her. They had a good time. Just wanted to share some pictures of Carlie. I'm glad Granny got to go with her.

1st Grade Field Trip

Madi and I got to go to the Tanganyika Wildlife Park for her first grade field trip. I got to do this with Libby when she was in first grade as well.

This park breeds and sells rare and endangered animals. They have recently opened to the public as well. While not nearly as big as a zoo, the big difference here is that you can interact with many of the animals.

Madi and I got to pet a kangaroo and feed the Lemurs. Unfortunately, my camera batteries died shortly into the trip, so I didn't get alot of pictures. But here are a few.