How we do Thanksgiving at School

The school has a "Parent Appreciation Day" where parents are invited to have lunch with their kids and the school serves  "traditional" Thanksgiving fare. Since my children rarely buy lunch, they get very excited about this day and I let them all buy lunch.  This year I was only able to get to sit down and have lunch with Callie. 

She was pleased I came to join her, but also a little shy and embarrassed.

This was what we had: Peas, candied yams, roll, stuffing, turkey with cranberry, and an oddly flavored peach pie.  It was.... well, it was cafeteria food, but the turkey was quite good.

After lunch, I walked to Callie's class with her.

She showed me her desk and we had time to chat for a bit.

She hates getting her picture taken, but she humored me.  It was a nice time with my girl.

- - - - - - -

Joshua's grade had a Thanksgiving Feast thing.  They asked all the parents to contribute something and I made 2 pies.  There was so much food that there was a ton of leftovers.  There was a veggie tray, a cracker tray, 2 turkeys, a ham, fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, sandwiches, rolls, and gobs and gobs of desserts.  It fed all 4 classes plus parents, teachers, and then some.  Rylee came with me and she sat in a corner eating while I handed out rolls and finger sandwiches to the line of kids.  After serving, I got to go hang with Joshua in his classroom.  It was kind of fun!

Rylee enjoyed the frosting off her cupcake!

I snuck a picture of my boy.

All the girls were impressed with Rylee and really wanted to play with her.  Joshua enjoyed having something that gave him status and he took fun advantage of it.  They both had a marvelous time.

And Thus it Becomes a Venting Medium

I'm annoyed.  And crabby.  I wonder if it is me.  Is it?

I was looking for a doggie sitter for Levi over Thanksgiving.  I posted on our local base Facebook page and 2 ladies offered.  I messaged back and forth with the first one.  I was a little annoyed that she didn't seem to answer questions directly.  If I ask, "Would you like me to bring the dog over so you can meet him?" and she responds with, "What is your address?"  I wonder if I was unclear.  I was starting to feel a little less secure in my decision when she had other comments on the base FB page about working late hours.  Levi needs to not be kenneled all day and that was not inspiring confidence.

I messaged back and forth until we seemed to have an agreement of dates and money and she had said she'd come over this afternoon to meet him.  Am I crazy for wanting to meet someone before letting them take my dog for a week?  Is it odd that she would rather come here to meet him than to let me come to her house?  If my dog is going to go to her house for a week, does it not make sense to have a getting to know you visit there beforehand?  It did not seem to be a priority to her.  And I had no clue where she lived.  The only clue I had was when she mentioned that she wasn't going to be on the base on the day I invited her to meet Levi.  Great, all I know is that she lives off base.  Am I odd for thinking that this might be important?

This afternoon I messaged her to see if she was still coming.  She said no, she didn't have the gas.

So, um, yeah.  I don't like you anymore lady.

I'm crabby.  I am annoyed with you.  I'm angry because I thought this was all taken care of and now I have zero trust or confidence in you.  And I feel guilt because I agreed to pay you to watch my dog.  And based on other comments, it seems like money is tight for you.  Well, those comments and the fact that when I adjusted the doggie-sitting from Tuesday to Monday, you doubled what you wanted me to pay.  I feel bad that you are strapped for cash.  I feel bad that my sense of loyalty makes me feel bad for backing out of our agreement, but this is my dog and I don't trust you.  Bah!

I also feel bad because in the last hour, I did contact the other lady (who I had better vibes about but had already agreed to let the first lady watch the dog) and she's happy to dog sit, for half the cost of the first lady.  So I am very happy about that, but I still feel like a jerk for not going with lady #2.  Who I haven't told I'm backing out on yet.

I think I need some chocolate.

Murphy's Law

Yesterday was the special day at school when the parents are invited to join the kids for lunch and they have a traditional Thanksgiving fare, although they manage to make it look nothing like what it is.  I went out to hang out in the cafeteria and enjoy some time with my kids.  Since it was overcast, I carried my umbrella.  I hauled that darned umbrella around with me for 2 hours, and carted it home, never needing it.

Today, Joshua had a special Thanksgiving lunch for his grade and parents were invited.  Rylee and I went out to enjoy the festivities.  As I left the house, I considered grabbing an umbrella, since I was carrying a bag, and could easily haul it around with me.  The sky was lovely and blue, so I left without an umbrella.

You know where this is going, don't you?

I spent 2 hours at school with Joshua and his class.  I served finger sandwiches and rolls to about 100 students and to some parents.  I got to enjoy my own yummy lunch with my favorite son and I got to giggle at the antics of my youngest child as the girls in Joshua's class tried to entice her to play.  Since Joshua wasn't going to be doing anything but watching a movie after the party, I checked him out of school 2 hours early.

As we walked to the front door, I noticed it was raining.  Not just drizzling, but huge drench-you-in-2-drops raining.  And I had 2 children, a bag with a pie in it, and NO umbrella.  And we had 1/3 a mile to go to get home.

Sigh.

Fortunately, there is a happy ending!  I ran into Callie's teacher, who loaned us a good sized umbrella (which I will return when I go back at 3:30 to pick up Callie!), and Joshua scoured the lost and found and came up with a giant green umbrella.  We managed to get home without getting soaked.

Getting Poked

Some of you may know I have been visiting the acupuncturist because I have stupid Plantar fasciitis that won't leave me alone.  Now I'm pretty sure no one actually enjoys being poked with needles, and most find it uncomfortable.  I tend to be fairly neurotic about needles.  Or I guess I use to be.  Now that I've been getting allergy shots each week for the past year, I have accepted that it is okay to be uncomfortable for a second to receive a better result.  I wasn't concerned about acupuncture though.  I know the needles are super-tiny and don't hurt.

Well, they usually don't hurt! When I went in the first time, they lovely lady told me it would sting going in because of all the nerves in the feet.  She wasn't kidding!  About 4 or so of those needles hurt going in.  They only hurt for a minute, then all is well. Out of the 15+ needles she put in, only a few actually hurt.  And since I have been back for 3 more visits since then, well, it must have been worth it to me!  If you have never tried acupuncture, it is pretty simple.  You tell them what the problem is and they poke needles into areas that should help fix it.  You lie there for 30 minutes, then they come and remove the needles and you are done.  Again, it does not hurt at all during that 30 minutes. 

I brought my camera with me on Saturday for my most recent visit.  Since my foot has improved so much, they said I needed fewer needles and they wouldn't hurt going in at all because they wouldn't be going in as deep.  I was suspicious, but it was true!  Whew!  

Here I am, being a pincushion:

Marian, How do I love thee....?

Marian brought this home the other day.  Her Girls on the Run did this as a self esteem thing, I think.  It was super cute.  Someone drew an outline of Marian and Marian wrote lots of words on it to describe herself.  I was reading the words and asked her if she got them off a list.  She said no, she thought of them and wrote them down all by herself.  I LOVE this kid!  You can't really read them all, so here are the words Marian used to describe herself:

fierce  kind  helpful  awesome  creative  funny  fantastic  cool  smart  thoughtful  nice  remarkable  hungry  fast  loving  generous  energetic  flexible  unique  beautiful  courageous  radiant  responsible  cute  lovable

Ye, my darling daughter, you are ALL of these!!