Back to the Busy

Good morning! It is sunny and lovely here. 54° and 94% humidity. Please remember that lovely is relative and that the only reason 94% humidity is okay is because 1) it isn’t 100% like it was the other day, and 2) it is 54°.

Amena and Cedric successfully got on the bus this morning. Third time in a row for Amena. That’s almost a record for her. Yesterday she told me that if you are late for school at QRHS, you get lunch detention. I asked her specifically what that means and she said it means eating lunch in the office and staying in the office for the entire lunch period. No socializing. I like that. If she misses the bus, there’s a good chance she’ll be late because I’ve started milking at 6:30 rather than 6:00 since I’m only milking once a day. Even though it usually takes 15 minutes or less to milk two goats, it does take a few minutes to strain and put away. I’d really prefer for her to not miss the bus. I’m thinking if she misses too many times, I’ll fill out paperwork to homeschool her and give her the option of homeschool, giving me $5 to $10 per trip to the school, or homeschool.

It seems that I don’t pay attention well enough or I didn’t get the information or something but other parents of 7^th graders knew about the athletic meeting on the 20^th and attended. I might have seen the information somewhere and just didn’t pay attention or let it go in and then right back out. Whatever the case, it’s nice to talk to other parents who did go because I can find out what I missed. I don’t think it was a whole lot.

On the other hand, had I known that soccer tryouts were yesterday and today, I would have been more prepared and yesterday wouldn’t have been such a fun day.

Cedric needed soccer shoes because he outgrew the largest ones we had long ago. So, after Seth’s practice Wednesday, we dropped pizza crust and baking stones off at church so the YW could make pizza and then hurried to Payless hoping they’d have some. They didn’t. So we went to Salvation Army hoping they’d have some. They didn’t. So we went to Marshall’s hoping they’d have some. They didn’t. They did have baseball shoes so we picked a pair that didn’t cost much and Cedric liked and got them. Yesterday morning, we cut off the toe cleat so he could at least use them for tryouts. If he makes the team, we can get him a better pair.

Amena was babysitting Wednesday night. We dropped her off for that and then went to Seth’s practice. Joseph wandered around and discovered that a couple of his friends were at practice as well. I told him we need to get their phone numbers next time. Cedric got to play in the scrimmage with Seth’s team.

Then we had our fun with pizza stuff and shoes.

Then we went to pick Amena up and while we were on our way, as in on the road the apartment is on, we got a call saying that she wouldn’t be ready to go for another hour. So we went home.

Paul got home just as I was leaving to pick Amena up so he went instead once I got some bags of stuff out of the car. He went. He tried calling Allison but had her old phone number. He called Kathy but she didn’t remember which apartment number Allison lives in. Finally Amena came out and then they needed to go to Kathy’s because I guess they were paying. Allison had told Amena that they were expecting her so it shouldn’t have been a big deal I guess. But when Paul called them, he said they were both in bed so Tom came out with his bathroom and slippers on. Then Amena wanted to go to Walmart (she wanted to get a new backpack because my awesome ones aren’t good enough). Paul said she said she knew exactly what she wanted and that she wouldn’t take long. He laughed. I asked how long she took and he said, “Fifteen minutes?” Two things about that: 1) Amena says it wasn’t 15 minutes (but she loses track of time in stores) and 2) sometimes Paul says he’ll be right back and it’s 15 to 20 minutes or more (he loses track of time in stores even more than Amena does).

Joseph on a rock while we were waiting for Cedric.

Yesterday morning there were morning things to do. I needed to go to the bank to deposit some money so that things could get taken care of like paying the registration for Cedric to try out for soccer, paying so Cedric can get lunch at school, paying the rental fee and deposit for Amena’s NJROTC uniform, and getting Cedric and Seth shin guards. I needed to actually get the shin guards. Also stop at Staples. And then get home in time to take care of the lunch money, registration, and make lunch.

Then Diana Chunn came over to visit because she is one of my new visiting teachers. She was running late so we had a very short visit because we needed to leave by 1:45 in order to get to Quabbin in time to get Cedric’s shin guards to him and pay Amena’s NJROTC fees.  Then it was hurry up and wait. Amena was done around 3:00 just like Captain Daniel Brennock (retired USN) promised she would. I happen to like him; he’s very nice and personable.  Still, we had to hurry up and wait for Cedric to be done. I think many parents expected them to be done around 4:00, I’m pretty sure I saw 4:30 somewhere, and it was almost 5:00 before we actually got to leave.

When we got home, Amena and Cedric thought they needed to have some cereal because they hadn’t had any. It really was too close to dinner time but they ended up have some anyway and then didn’t eat as much pizza as they normally would have.

Seth playing with an Airjitzu LEGO thing while we were waiting for Cedric.

Today should be less busy. Unless Joseph gets a birthday card with either money or a gift card in it, we don’t need to go anywhere. We don’t need to even if he does but he will want to because you know he and his siblings don’t have nearly enough LEGOs. We do need to do more cleaning. I do need to get going with wedding dresses. Malley Black is coming over so we can have a quasi YW presidency meeting. I do need to pick Cedric up this afternoon around 4:30.

Speaking of that, Cedric informed me that I should go watch tryouts. He is already impressed with the coach. It seems that he’s nice, he’s knowledgeable, and he works them hard. Cedric is of the opinion that there were probably 35 boys trying out for the team and the coach said that there will be around 18 picked. I hope Cedric makes it. If he doesn’t, he said he wants to do cross country. Still, I hope he makes the soccer team. And I think it would be fun if Ryan, Jacob, and Paul all do as well. The middle/high school bus drops off at 3:00 this year so I can leave to get Cedric when Amena gets home. That way I could watch tryouts for about an hour.

And that reminds me—when we were on our way to the school yesterday, they were working on the roads around Barre Common. Well, they’ve been working on them for a while now but yesterday they had a section completely closed to through traffic and had a detour. Problem is, not everyone knows their way around Barre, like me, so not everyone knows where you are supposed to turn once you are past the obvious. So we were tooting along and I thought, “Wait a minute, we’re headed north on 32. We don’t want to do that.” So I turned around and turned another way and it turned out to be the right way and we got the school but five minutes later than I’d hoped to. What fun. At least if it’s the same today I’ll know where to turn.

Paul called last night to say that the silver Jetta was making an awful noise. He stopped at Hal’s to see what might be the problem and he told me but I’m not a mechanic and really don’t know what everything is that he was talking about. I guess it can still be driven but it would be best not to go long distances and it makes an awful noise.

When he got home, he said that he finally has the interview that was supposed to happen earlier this week. It’s at 6:30 in Acton. No date for us tonight. And he isn’t sure what vehicle he is going to take. I really hope not the white Jetta because I’m not going to drive the silver Jetta if it makes noise like he says it does and I don’t like driving the green car. On the other hand, if he does take the white Jetta, he’ll remember that he needs to look and see why the fan isn’t working because he has to have the fan running all the time. The only time he doesn’t have it running is when the vehicle is not running.

And I think I’ve been at this long enough so I’ll be off now. Have an absolutely fantabulous day!