Highs and Lows

High: Two new babies this week! A new generation of Clements (congrats Jason and Kirstie!) and Hank & Tomoko started their new family.
Low: Lost an alum from Class of '96. I don't know what happened to her. So sad. Rest in peace, Kim.
High: Junior is coming home today!
Low: Grades are due.
High: Fun Friday night out with the family.
Low: Marathon cleaning session tomorrow morning.
High: Maryland!
Low: Missing student in Spain, $4 gas, bloodshed in Libya, social status of my chosen career.
High: Blessed to have a job, a home, and people I love and who love me.

Hope you had a great week!

DRIVER!

A fellow mom and I were discussing today our new role: taxi driver.

Because really, once I leave school, that's all I do. For example, today. Before school I dropped off Caleb and Emma. After school, I went and picked up a scholarship app from Emma, went home to find the letter of rec. she didn't include, wrote another one, drove to the post office to mail said scholarship app, drove and picked up Nikki, and drove home. And this was a reasonably quiet night because I didn't have to go pick up Emma and, mercifully, Scott took Caleb to baseball practice. Of course, the reason it was quiet was that I was leading a Girl Scout meeting (lest you think I was cleaning my house or grading papers or doing laundry, which I was not).

I told Krystal (the other mom) that somebody should have warned us when we were thinking about having babies that someday, our entire lives would revolve around getting each child to where they belong at various times of the day.

Perhaps all of this would be less aggravating if gas weren't $5 a gallon. But perhaps not.

Crash and Burn

Here's a little parenting tip: If your child's school nurse calls you and tells you that your child fell while running and is probably too sore to make it through the day, believe her.

Pictures to come.

The Parks name may have died, but the genes live on...

Today

One girlie without a fever.
One girlie on antibiotics.
Two girlies on the mend.

One trip to school to make emergency lesson preparations.
One trip to Escondido to see the doctor.
One trip to the grocery store.
Four happy people eating potato cheese soup for dinner.
(Not five-Caleb hates potatoes.)

One alum quoting Maya Angelou on his status.
One alum quoting Edgar Allen Poe on her status.
One happy teacher.

Uh oh.

I was looking at an article about ADHD today, because Caleb's teacher hinted that she thought that he might have it at the beginning of the year (I'm sure she has changed her mind; he has none of the symptoms). Anyway, as I read Inattentional ADHD (formerly known as ADD), I became concerned. Read this list:

Signs of inattention:

• Has a hard time paying close attention to details
• Makes careless mistakes in schoolwork or other activities
• Daydreams, has trouble focusing her attention
• Has difficulty listening to what's being said to her
• Is easily distracted from tasks and play
• Doesn't follow through on obeying instructions and fails to finish schoolwork or chores (but not out of rebellion or failure to understand)
• Forgets things
• Has trouble organizing tasks and other activities
• Loses important things or items needed for tasks and activities, such as toys, school assignments, pencils, books
• Avoids or strongly dislikes tasks (such as homework or games) that require sustained mental effort

If you know me, you're probably concerned, too. THAT'S ME!!!!! :/

Why I Love My Job

Or "Why I Often Bang My Head Against the Wall"

Student: Hey. Can you tell me which Best Buy scholarship we're supposed to do?
Me: Um, the Best Buy one?
Student: We can do any of them?
Me: There's more than one?
Student: So we do all of them?
Me: [Exercising great restraint by not using ANY of the smart-alecky comments I'd like to.] Sure.
Student: Do we have to?
Me: You don't HAVE to do anything, but this IS an assignment for AVID.
Student: To do all of them or just pick one?
Me: [banging ensues]

And just in case you think it actually WAS confusing, Google Best Buy Scholarship and you'll get this.

It's been a REALLY LONG TIME since I've blogged. And I don't know that I'm quite up to blogging now. So here goes nothing.

The first part of January was FUN! Molly, our Australian friend, arrived on the 10th. We had a great time playing tourist with her. We even went skiing for the first time in YEARS! We loved it and it was her favorite thing we did while she was here. It was even worth the ridiculous Visa bill after she left. (OUCH!) It's a good thing we won't have another Australian student for a year!

The second part of January was SICK! Bad sick, not good sick. First Scott got sick. Then I got sick. Then Scott got a rash all over his body, so I couldn't be sick anymore. Then he woke up with swollen hands so we went to the ER. While we were there I broke out in a rash. We finally figured out we had parvovirus (AKA fifth disease) and Scott's turned into viral meningitis. He missed three days of school and I missed one DURING FINALS WEEK. We were both on the mend when Caleb broke out in a rash on Tuesday. Now Nikki has a fever. I'm really glad Emma has been gone so much. Hopefully, she'll dodge the bullet!

So now it is February. We started a new semester, which means right now I have NO ESSAYS TO GRADE! Nikki should be better by next weekend. Yep, things are looking up! Happy New Year!