My kids' last day of school

Today was my kids’ last day of school. They got out of school late this year because we had so many snow days and ice days in the winter.  Trevor was a tiny bit concerned about the late release from school because, technically, hir first job started a week ago. But, fortunately, hir boss was very understanding so ze’ll start tomorrow.

Before this week, I was aware that Jesse’s last day would have a different schedule. Mainly, he would get out of school early. On this particular last day of the year, it was a different “early release” time (one year, it was 10:30), so I made a note of this on my phone calendar.

With Trevor, however, I was not sure what the schedule was. The school sends out a weekly newsletter every Friday, and they usually do alert the families if there are schedule changes. But I was not entirely clear about the schedule change for Trev’s last day of school. I knew that all students at the school had finals on the last two days of school, but I did not get info about a different schedule. So I just assumed it was regular hours!

Well, this was true for Wednesday. The students all had regular hours for finals. But today’s schedule was different. I was informed of this when I asked Trev about it last week and was told the last day’s schedule would be different. I made a note to check the latest school newsletter that I had received as well as the school calendar that is on their website.

When I finally did get around to digging up the latest school newsletter (I save them all for just such a situation!), I was dismayed to see that it didn’t exactly give the schedule for Thursday. Nuts! So I went to the school website to look for their calendar. Thankfully, the schedule for today was on there and I copied it then sent it to Trevor yesterday, asking if this was the schedule ze would need to follow. I did say in that email to get back to me “ASAP” so that I could plan my morning schedule accordingly.

But Trevor forgot to answer the email yesterday. So when I checked my email in the early hours of this morning, I was frustrated not to have that information. And Trev didn’t say anything about it in the note that was left for me about breakfast/lunch.

I was really upset about this. I started fuming and wondering WHY I even went to the trouble of sending the damn email if Trev thinks it’s not important enough to answer. I did remind Trevor about it twice before I went to bed last night.

Anyway, I finally got the info from Trevor when I was busy getting Jesse ready for school. And, because I got so upset over the unanswered email, THEN Trevor took the time to answer it! But I was so mad, I didn’t bother to read it. Since Trev wanted to tell me in person, I decided, Trevor will tell me in person. So I ASKED Trevor in person about the changed schedule. Surprise! I got an answer! (This is not the only time this has happened. My husband has also either forgotten about emails I have sent him or he ignores them. Pretty much why I feel like I shouldn’t even bother with those anymore, either.)

So, yeah. I got both of the kids at their schools at the time they needed to be there. And since Jesse was having a field day today, and was going to be outside all morning, I made sure he put on sunscreen before we left. And when I dropped Jesse off at his school, I went into the office to pick up his meds from the nurse’s office. The office was really busy, though, so I had to wait to be seen. I was sure glad Trevor started school later this morning, because I had to wait a while! After I got the meds, I said goodbye to the office staff, thanked them for everything, and wished them all a happy summer before I left.

Then I had to take care of things with Trevor. Since it was a late start this morning, I grabbed the opportunity to take a shower. (The new schedule calls for my shower to be at 11 instead of at 6 a.m., which it was before! I get up at 4 now and since I have to wake Trev up at 4:30 and leave at 5:15, there’s no time for me to grab a shower! But I MIGHT volunteer this summer and, if so, that time will be moved earlier.) After that, I made Trev’s lunch, and I was feeling kinda sad about it. This would be the last time I make Trevor lunch for school for a while! It might be hard getting used to that no longer being a part of my weekday morning routine for a while.

So I got Trevor to school. On the way there, Trevor let me know ze had forgotten a textbook, so I said I’d bring it and Trev let me know when it would be a good time to do that. It was shortly after Jesse’s release from school. So I got Trev to school then I went to grab some breakfast on the way home. Shortly after I finally had my breakfast and took my allergy medicine AND my antibiotics (for my throat infection), I had to leave again to get Jesse. But then I realized I’d forgotten the textbook. Ugh! I picked up Jesse, took him home, made him lunch, grabbed the textbook and headed out the door again. I took Trev the textbook. While I was there, I asked about what time Trev gets out today and Trev checked the schedule and said “2.”  But when I got there later at 1:50 and hung out in the library, reading a couple of pages in a book, I noticed not much was going on at 2. I decided to check the hallway. On my way out of the library, I double-checked to make sure there weren’t any unpaid fines or dues that needed to be taken care of and was told it was all clear.

Back in the hallway, I texted Trev to let hir know I was there. But I didn’t get an answer. I started walking around and I noticed there were not a lot of students coming out of their classrooms. Was school still in session? I double-checked the schedule, read Trev’s email (there wasn’t a note about any changes), and was confused. The schedule said 2:20 but Trev said 2. Did Trev just need more time? Or were all students to stay in classrooms until the bell rang at 2:20?

Whatever it was, I decided to just hang out and wait. So I walked among the halls of the school. It’s a big school! I checked out the athletic department and read all the names of Track & Field events and some of the names of students who won those events and I checked out the trophies and other awards. Wow, this school had an awesome assortment of gifted athletes! I was impressed.

So I walked around some more until it was 2:20. Then I hung around near the freshmen’s locker, waiting for Trevor. But Trevor texted me that ze was at the main office so I headed over there. Once I told Trev where I had been, I was informed that the students can’t use their lockers today. All of them were cleared out and not accessible to students. Oh well!

So we left the high school and I drove Trev home. On the way, I patted Trev on the back and congratulated hir on making it through the first year of high school in one piece. Yay! Freshman year is over with! Woo-hoo! And with straight “A’s” too. I am very proud of my teen.

I am happy both of my kids had good last days of school. Our summer is going to be a little bit different this year – no late-night movies every night and going to bed when it's not very dark out – but it’s only for THIS summer. We have LOTS of activities and classes planned and we look forward to it still being a great and fun summer all the same.

Mother's Day 2017

Today was Mother’s Day and it was a really nice Mother’s Day for me. Mother’s Day actually started at 4 a.m. for me! That’s when I woke up filled with so much love and gratitude for my children. I just love my kids SO much! They really do mean everything to me. I am grateful to have them in my life. I went into their rooms and kissed them both then I sent Trevor a text message saying “I love you.” Then I hung out in the living room to drink some water then I went back to bed.

Jesse made me breakfast this morning: Pop Tarts. I enjoyed them! He also had a really sweet art project that he made for me for Mother’s Day and he gave it to me this morning. It was just so sweet and melted my heart. He also gave me chocolates.

Later, Jesse made a Minecraft project for Mother’s Day. He does this every year. He is really good at Minecraft and I thought it was awesome.

I also received another Mother’s Day gift from Trevor and my husband later in the day: It was a really nice candles. I love candles and collect them so I was happy to add this one to the many I already have. 

Jesse also made me lunch today but hubby gave me some of the rice that he cooked too. I ate that with the PB&J sandwich from Jesse. I also drank tea with that lunch. It was yummy!

I spent some time doing things for myself – reading articles online, spending time on my personal Twitter account, updating my website and finishing a book I have been reading – but I also spent time with the kids. We hung out on the couch watching TV and we also went out to do a bit of shopping. We get a free Redbox movie tonight so we’re going to watch that movie and have popcorn, too.

It’s been a very pleasant day. I really feel so blessed to have my kids and I am glad to share another Mother’s Day with them. They really do mean a lot to me and I hope that when they are older they will look back and recall happy memories from their childhood. My goal is to raise my kids to be good people but I also want to give them the best kind of life that I can. I want them to have a childhood they won’t have to recover from in adulthood and I hope that has been working out for them so far.

Jesse's first day of swimming lessons

Today was Jesse’s first day of his very first swimming lessons! He was really excited about being able to go to swimming lessons today. I have tried to get him signed up for swimming lessons in the past but I was always too late; the classes were all filled up by the time I started looking. Every year that I tried! This year was better. Got him signed up and today he started.

Unfortunately, he was 5 minutes late for class. Parking was TERRIBLE! Ugh! I think they need a larger parking lot! Well, it still worked out okay.

His swim coach is really nice. I was glad to see that there weren’t a ton of kids in his group. There were other swim classes spread around the pools but they all had ample space. Jesse was glad that his lessons were at an indoor pool. There were only four kids in Jesse’s group and they all were well-behaved.

For the first class, they practiced things like climbing in and out of the pool, floating and jumping in. It was a very basic and easy class. It only lasted for 30 minutes so there was only so much that they could cover.

Still, Jesse had a lot of fun. He LOVES his swimming class! He wasn’t afraid of the pool at all (though he was afraid to jump off the miniature diving board) and he got along with everybody. He also handled showering and changing in the boy’s locker room well too. Plus, there was plenty of space for parents to sit and watch their kids.

After his class, Jesse was all smiles and he was excited. He said it was “amazing!” and he looks forward to going back again. I am just glad that he will finally learn how to swim!

Here are pictures that I took:

Jesse's Friday of fun

“I want to go swimming.”

My son’s request made me pause. Swimming? Where? I knew there were public pools here in Eugene and also in Springfield, but I wasn’t sure if visiting one for a day was even possible. I had recently been perusing a catalog for Splash!, a waterpark, and was upset to see that they charge an out-of-district fee for visitors. I thought that was really unfair for people who just wanted to have some fun in a pool! So I decided to ask friends if they knew of a more affordable place we could go to for Jesse to have some pool fun. Unfortunately, our friends weren’t sure, and also unsure about what was available at the Y.

So, I hit the Internet. I Googled local public pools and checked out what came up. One public pool did charge an out-of-district fee to get in, another one had some really bad reviews, and another one was closed. Fortunately, I did find one that DIDN’T charge an out-of-district fee and, better still, the one day pass was MUCH more affordable (under $5!). So I told Jesse we would go there. I had also discovered that they offered swimming lessons and ALSO at an affordable price! I have been trying to sign Jesse up for swimming lessons for years but I was always too late. By the time I looked up swimming lessons for him, they were always full.

Well, not THIS time! In fact, there were 4 spots left for the swimming class I wanted to sign him up for, so while we were there, I got him signed up. Yay!!! He is FINALLY going to learn how to swim! At age 9, I think it is high time he learned how to swim. (Sidenote: We don’t have our own swimming pool.)

So I drove Jesse out to the public pool today. Thankfully, I managed to get there without getting lost! (All that time I spent on Google Maps figuring out the route paid off LOL)

When we got there, I got Jesse registered, signed him up for swimming lessons, and paid for the one-day pass. Jesse was too nervous to go into the men’s shower room by himself so they told him he could just go on in to the swimming pool. He was so excited when he got into the pool! His face lit up and he said, “Wow!” He started swimming around and I stayed there at the side, watching him. There were two lifeguards on duty at all times but I kept an eye on him anyway. I advised him to use a floatie at all times, even though he was in the shallow area, and he had lots of fun with THAT! He also bought some goggles and he thought it was cool to see underwater. The first time he did it, he said “that’s cool” and “it’s awesome.” He really had a blast playing in the pool. He was only able to play in the pool for an hour, though, and he really DIDN’T want to get out of the pool! He was having too much fun! But I assured him we would come back sometime.

After he got out of the pool, he was more comfortable going into the showers with the other kids and he also changed clothes. After that, we went home, grabbed Trevor, then headed out for froyo at TCBY.

Then after Jesse finished eating his froyo, he went across the street to play at his friend’s house.

Now we’re ending the day camping out on the couch, eating gummy worms and watching the movie How to Eat Fried Worms.

Jesse sure had a fun day today and we are looking forward to doing more fun things tomorrow. His last day for Spring Break is on Monday so I’m hoping to squeeze in as many fun activities while I can.

Here are pictures I took at the pool. It’s an indoor pool, by the way.