Most awful beggining of school

Well, school is back in swing. So far, this has been the worst beginning of school. Usually, the first few weeks are pretty good bec. the kids are a little nervous of a new teacher. Not these kids!!! I have came home with a headache almost every night. I already have 4 kids sitting by themselves and have already had several parent conferences. I hate it when kids don't behave. I think that I am a pretty good "teacher" and have a way of putting school work in "kid language". But, I am not a good disciplinarian of other people's kids. I expect kids to behave and I know how to handle my own personal kids. For some reason, they know I mean "business". But, when it comes to other kids, I just don't have the knack. I am not good with "consequences" like pulling cards. It seems that i can't find consqences that "fit". For example, if a kid doesn't do his work, he should get a zero or not get to play on Friday until his work is done. Makes sense to me, except the kid doesn't care if he is not playing, he just sits there instead of doing his work and if he gets a zero and has a bad grade on his report card,,, who is punished??? Me, bec. I have to fill out all of this paperwork about how I am going to help his do his work. Now, I understand if he "can't" do the work but, it is not that he can't, but he won't.

Now see with my own kids, if the teacher wrote me a note saying that my kid did not do his work, I would make sure it didn't happen again. There would be no TV, video games, nothing for a long time. But, not with the kids in my room. The parents don't seem to do anything bec. the same kid still won't do his work.

As a matter of fact, Gray got into trouble yesterday. I have been out sick for two days. I felt good yesterday and went to work but I couldn't talk above a whisper so I got a sub and came back home. I was sitting on the porch waiting for the kids to walk home from school. I heard the bell ring and see a little boy in a blue and white stripe shirt running out to the street and climbing on the "walk" pole which is near the road. I couldn't quite tell if it was Gray or his friend. I hear the teacher telling this kid to wait on him. Well, the light change and the "walk" sign came and he ran out half way to the road before the teacher got there. By then I could tell that it was Gray so I started walking toward the road. When I met Gray, I told him we were going back to the school to talk with the teacher that walks them. I went to this room and the teacher tells me that this is not the first time Gray has went to the road without him. (I am thinking,"why haven't you told me before?". So, we came up with the plan that if Gray ever runs out again then the teacher is to take Gray to the office and call me or his dad to pick up in the office. By the time we got back home, Gray's dad was home and Gray had to tell his dad why we went back to the school. Needless to say, if we ever get a call from the office that Gray must be picked up bec. he ran close to the road, it will not be a pretty day for Gray's backside. I mean, we talked to Gray about the dangers of the road and that even though the sign said walk he has to wait on the adult. I don't think he will do it again bec. he knows i mean "business". And if the teacher had of told us that he had done that before, it wouldn't have happened yesterday. I am just glad that I was home yesterday to find out about it.

Last day of summer vacation

It is sad to think that today is my last day of vacation. I went to the school to work in my room the last two days bec. I knew that I wanted to be home on my last day. I got up and made Gray his fav. breakfast..pancakes. I took a picture of Zac driving (by himself!!!) to band practice. I can't believe that I have a driver for a kid. And now I am going to turn on Magnum and clean the kitchen. My plans for the rest of the day are to eat at my fav. lunch buffet, go grocery shopping, take a load to the goodwill box and a load to the church daycare, and then to visit with my mother, and cook supper. Tonight I am going to load up my car with stuff going back to the classroom so that I can sleep as late as possible tom. morning. I am just glad that I don't work at a system that started today.

POWER TO THE S.O.S. (save our summer group)

Hen Party/ Man Bashing

My sister and I took my mother to visit her last remaining sister in MS. Talk about fun. It really was like a big spend the night party. Her sister lives on a "compound". Aunt Hester lives on 10 acres with all of her kids and grandkids in various dwellings around her. There were lots and lots of kids coming and going. The women folk there have all had man trouble at some point in time so we stayed up until 11:00 man-bashing. That is really late for 80 somethings (folks in their
80's). I did not man-bash bec. I said that after almost 20 years of being married I had it figured out... you just have to ask the man to do the little jobs and they would be willing to do them. Well, I guess I have to eat my words. I had asked David to sweep up some grass on my just-cleaned floor and would you believe that after three days it wasn't done?

Aunt Hester has always been my favorite "blood-kin" aunt. In the 1950's she moved from the country (AL) to a city in MS. She lived in a neighborhood and had coffee with the ladies after the kids went to school. She changed her name to Louise (her middle name) and always wore make-up and fingernail polish. Even at 83 she still puts on make-up and dresses up to go out of the house. She once told me, "Sally, you must always be careful to keep a girlly figure." I think that was her nice way of saving that I had "put on a few".

I will miss these days

I am sitting here at the computer, surfing the net. Autumn is next to me watching a Disney movie and Gray is in the next room playing with something. The cutest part is that he is "talking" to his action figures. It is so wonderful to hear his voice as his imagination takes him to his "places". I know that it won't last for long. I treasure all of the little things that he does; his soft hand resting on my arm, his excitement over our new kitten, even his huge, adult teeth that are too big for his face when he smiles. Like the old saying, "if we could only keep them little for a while longer." Having two teenagers in the house, I really know to treasure these "sweet" days.

Summer Series Shows

My fave. tv (old) series is Rockford Files. I love James Garner in that role. Rockford is so cool, living in a run-down trailer on the beach, fighting gangsters, and driving that fast car. (He is also great in The Notebook and The Gift. Although, I hate seeing him as being so old in real life. To me, he will always be 40's.) For Christmas the last couple of years, David has given me a R.F. DVD. The greatest thing is that now i can watch all of the seasons on Netflix. So that is what I did everyday at the start of the summer while cleaning. I soon ran out of R.F. so I switched to another series from my childhood... Quincy. If you haven't seen Quincy, you must. Quincy is older and not quite as cool as Rockford but he also solves crime...(think pre CSI). The really neat part of Quincy is seeing how much technology has changed. My degree is in Criminal Justice with a lot of classes in forensics so I love seeing the old crime-fighting tech.

For those who don't know Quincy, he lived on a boat in a marina. In between solving mysteries,lovely ladies would frequently visit him there. (My daughter thought it kind of gross bec. his character is rather older.) The show always spotlighted some kind of "issue", like alcholism, second hand smoking, Vietnam vets. It was usually Quincy against the "system". Sometimes the show ended with things getting better and sometimes not.

Now, I am on Magnum PI. Tom Selleck is so cute in this show. Magnum came on in the mid to late 80's. I really wasn't into TV much then, mostly dating, so I didn't watch it. Magnum, who was in his 40's on the show, was too old for me. But my sister loved him then. Magnum is a private investigator who drives a sports car and live in a mansion on Hawaii (My dream land). I am just starting on Magnum. It isn't as interesting as the others so I don't watch as much. The neat thing is that my daughter is "into" the 80's so I can show her the styles.

Only two more weeks to go until school starts. I better get to watching the flix.

Back from camping

We went camping on Wed. and got back yesterday. Autumn had a friend go with her so they had a grand time and Gray had a friend with him and they had fun. One night my sister and her husband came up and we cooked cobbler in the dutch oven which is sooo good. It is a small world bec. we saw quite a few people we knew there. Also, we met some people from Clay that know some people we know. CAmping next to us were some people that we know "their house" in Mt. Olive. We always talk about "that is "the RV" we want when we retire" as we pass by their house. We also knew mutual people. The last night we talked to the campers next to us. He was a police officer from ILL heading for Gulf Shores. He and David talked shop and we told them about places at the gulf to see.

Today David is leaving for GA for a week. The kids and I were going to go for a few days but the kids did not really want to go. They like to do things around here. I guess it is a good thing bec. I really need to clean up the camper and the house before school starts. Zac needs to find a job and they have dentist appt. this week. It is also reg. at Minor.

Oh, great news.... David made LT. We have been waiting on news from that for the last few months.

Zac's 16th B'day

It is unbelievable that 16 years ago we had Zac. My, it seems like yesterday. He did not want us to do anything for his b'day. I really wanted to give him a party but he insisted that he just wanted money. (go figure??) We got up and let him pick lunch (Cesear's). Then he opened the presents. One was a bag of beef jerky and his other favorite goodies. I wrapped his other presents in Thomas the Tank Engine paper bec. that was his favorite character when he was a little boy. Then, I had to go to a workshop.

Camping tomorrow..