Dear Oldest G,


As you start sixth grade, it is important to remember to find the positive and to not dwell on the negative.  Yes, you have a male teacher this year and you're not real sure about him.  But who knows, he may be the best teacher you've ever had.

Be nice to the fourth graders, you were the youngest in the building not too long ago.

Enjoy catching the bus at 8 a.m. this year because next year that will change to 7 a.m. and you will wish you were still in bed.

It is still hard for me to believe that you are already in sixth grade.  I remember how excited you were to start school and how animated you used to be when you returned home.  You would tell me story after story about what you did and what you were going to do.

You don't have much to say these days and I have to admit that I miss the excitment of days past.  It changed so quickly that I forgot to enjoy the last story.

Here you are at the start of your sixth grade year, half way to the finish line.  Half way, already.  It doesn't seem possible yet I know it is.

If the next six years go as fast as the first six, I'll be sitting at your commencement ceremony in two shakes of a dogs tail.

Here's hoping that I'll get to hear at least a few more stories before that happens.

I love you.


Mom (formerly known as mommy)

After a week of questionable weather, coupled with the start of school, the kids and I were looking forward to spending a few days at the pool.

Our pool days are numbered with the closing set for next weekend.

Saturday hubby had to put in some hours at work so we went over after lunch.  The water was very cold.  I have to admit that I didn't get in very far before I decided I was significantly cooled.

The kids swam for a while.  Little G has an ugly rash.  I called the doctor and they said it sounds like a "contact dermatitis".  In other words, poison oak, poison sumac, poison ivy....you pick.

The doctor wasn't interested in seeing him because I guess they can't see everyone with a contact dermatitis but still you kind of want them to make an exception for your kid.  He told me if it hadn't improved by Monday to bring him in.

It's kind of ironic that the word for the day in the cafeteria on Friday was allergic reaction and then my kid ended up having one, but other than being itchy and looking a little rough he seems fine.

I'm hoping that it's completely gone by tomorrow morning, however I have my doubts.

Sunday we headed to church and then back to the pool.  My friend B and her husband invited us down for a crab feast and it was delicious.  Unfortunately, Copper the dog hurt his paw on something (possibly a crab shell) and is now quite gimpy.

Here's hoping that he doesn't have to go to the vets later this week.

School is back in session.

Life is resuming it's regularly scheduled programming.

This year oldest and middle daughter are at a different school than the one i work at.  Only Little G is riding along with me.

This week I learned:

1. Allergies.  It is very difficult to ascertain who can have what.  My opinion:  If your child has an allergy to a food and it can kill him, shame on you for not packing his lunch.
2. Seafood.  It is possible to be so severely allergic to seafood that your mere presence can require the entire school building to become a seafood/shellfish free building.  This means we are no longer allowed to cook/offer/serve fish nuggets/fish patties or tuna fish sandwiches.  No one is allowed to pack a tuna fish sandwich in the entire building....including the adult staff.  How am I supposed to know what you are packing your kid?
3. Milk/Milk products/Soy.  If you child is listed as SEVERELY allergic to products that include all liquid milk as well as all products with milk or soy in them, please don't send them to school to purchase pizza (cheese is a milk product and the crust contains soy), a cookie (also made with milk and in a factory that produces soy products) fresh veggies with ranch dip (ranch dip is also a milk product) and grapes.  THIS WOULD BE A GREAT DAY TO PACK.
4. Terror.  The feeling experienced by a  low wage employee when they think they may have caused a child to have a severe allergic reaction by giving them a Smuckers pbj pocket containing SOY. 
5. ANGER AND ANNOYANCE.  The feelings that same employee has when the mother of said child indicates that it's really not that severe of an allergy.  "He can have cheese and soy as long as it's mixed with something else and he is very aware of what he can have and can't have."  Um that's not what your doctor said and we don't ask 5 year olds what they are allowed or not allowed to eat.

Struggling with an overwhelming desire to choke someone,

~KISA~

Near the middle of June I complied a list of 30 things I'd like to do this summer.  Today we're gonna find out how well (or how bad) I did.

1. Visit with Family.  I did pretty well with this one.  In June, my friend B and I went to visit with my mom and attend a scrapbook convention; my sister and our friend G came out to visit in July; my MIL and FIL visited us a handful of times including a very hot day at camp.  My dad and step mom went to a baseball game with us.  We went "back home" for a weekend in July and August.
2. Get my birthday scrapbooks up to date.  I didn't get this one completely done.  I have them about 3/4 complete, but not exactly what I hoped to accomplish.   Little G's birthday is in October and I'm hoping to get that other 1/4 done before then.
3. Scrub the living room carpet.  completed.  I know...I'm impressed too.
4. Get a roof.  We haven't come close to getting this one accomplished.
5. Siding replacement. It's on the calendar for the 2nd weekend in September so I'm considering this one complete.
6. Car Inspection. We actually remembered to get this one done.
7. Have the van's hail damage assessed.  We had this done in early June! 
8. Scrapbook weekly. I may have missed a week or two but for the most part I scrapbooked on a regular weekly basis throughout the summer.
9. Free bowling.  We didn't get this one accomplished.  We had a very hot beautiful summer and we spent most of it at the pool.
10. Summer Reading program.  We signed up.  We read a few books. We lost interest quickly.  We spent most of the summer at the pool. 
11. Read at least three books.  Failed.  I only read one book.
12. School scrapbooks.  These are ready to go.  But I'll soon need to add....6th grade, 4th grade and 1st grade.
13. Visit Hershey.  I was very nervous about this trip and thought it might be a form of torture.  However, we stayed the entire day.  We didn't really fight.  We didn't cry.  We didn't get lost.  We had a lot of fun.  Dare I say it but I would be willing to do it again next year.
14. Use the Pool.  We were there at least three times a week, if not more.
15. Clean my closet.  I can't believe that I accomplished this, but I did.
16. Bulletin Board ideas.  I needed to come up with two unique ideas for the cafeteria and I told one of the kindergarten teachers I would help her out as well.  Our theme this year for Accelerated Reading is under the sea.  Keeping that in mind I made octopus for the one cafeteria bulletin board.  It says Armed with the Rules of the cafeteria and includes the five behaviors we would like to see.  The other bulletin board says Welcome back to school and has all of the classes depicted as fish.  I like how they turned out.  For the kindergarten teacher I made her whales and they say Whale come to Mrs. W's class.  I also did a Dive into a good book bulletin board for 3rd grade.  Don't tell anyone, but I actually like doing it.
17. Use some scrapppin supplies.  I did pretty well with this.  However, I probably bought too much additional paper.
18. Crayon Factory.  Until about a week ago, I didn't have reliable transportation so this little day trip was pushed to the side.  Now that we have a new van it has a better chance of coming around again.
19. Encourage my kids to go to summer playground.  I'm pretty sure that summer playground made our summer more enjoyable.  We need a few hours apart from each other or we all start getting on each other's nerves.  My kids loved playground and if you have one in your neighborhood I would highly recommend it.
20. Go camping.  We went.  We baked in the 100+ temps.  We had fun and we didn't bring the dog.  I think that may have been key.  LOL
21. Pick blueberries.  We picked two quarts and ate them in a day or two.  They were yummy.
22. Swimming lessons.  I decided to take Little G out of swim lessons for the summer and to instead encourage him to take the swim test at the pool and it was one of the best ideas I have ever had.  He enjoyed swimming.  He began jumping off the high dive.  He began going down the big twisty slides.  He can actually swim!
23. Bathe the dog regularly.  This depends on your definition of regularly.  He probably had a bath three times this summer.  It probably should have been six.
24. Organize my craft room.  This one didn't really happen.  It's still a mess in there.
25. Cook dinner at least three times a week.  Success.
26. Pedicure.  I had two...which I guess should make a girl happy.
27. Housework.  The goal was to keep the house reasonably clean.  I think I made this one, but hubby would probably disagree.
28. Paint my bedroom.  This didn't happen and probably isn't gonna happen anytime soon.
29. Teach Little G. to ride a bike.  Yeah!  Pictures to follow later this week.
30. Enjoy.  I had a great summer.  Yeah, the kids fought with each other and with me, but that's okay.  We had a lot fun together.  We made quite a few memories that will last a lifetime and for the most part I accomplished all that I set out to do!

How did you do with your summer to do list?

The last weekend of summer is officially over.

I know that it is supposed to be Labor Day weekend that signifies the ending of summer, but alas we go back to school on Wednesday and that's when those processed bits of chicken will be making their grand re-entry into my life.

How did I spend it?

Friday we went to a moonlight swim at our pool and realized that it was far too cold to enjoy a moonlight swim.  So we left and had a bonfire instead.  That was significantly better.

Saturday we planted flowers at the elementary.  I should have taken a before and after photo, but my mind wasn't really focused.

There is a big flower bed near the enterance of the school I work at and it never has any flowers in it.  I found out this was because there was never any money to put any there.  So I asked a local dental business if I could have some money and in return I would make sure everyone knew that he sponsored the flower bed.

He said yes and it was only then that I realized I know nothing about flowers, how to plant them, how to care for them....blah blah.

So I begged asked hubby to help me and he did a fantastic job with just a little help from me and the kids.  I think the bed looks great.  I hope everyone else thinks so too.

Sunday we went to church and I did some grocery shopping.  I had put that off far too long and we were down to bread and black olives.  I'm not joking.

In the evening we went to a baseball game that looked like it could be rained out but then it wasn't.  It turned into a beautiful evening.  Of course, Oldest and Youngest got a baseball at that game so you can imagine how happy Middle was on the drive home.

This morning is my mandatory staff meeting which starts in about 30 minutes and tonight is kindergarten orientation.  I'm orienting people to lunch.  Oldest is coming with me to dress up as the school mascot to have her picture taken with the Class of 2023.  Does that make you feel old or what.

It's possible that oldest may be the shortest bobcat in the history of our school district.  I'll have to get my picture with her too.

Happy Monday....

I know you have all been patiently waiting to hear what I learned in lunch lady training. 

It began with an hour long seminar on diversity and the importance of not making flash judgments.  Of course, this implies that we have the ability to refuse service to someone.

NO SOUP FOR YOU!

Which, of course, we do not.  Even if we had that ability, I can't imagine any lunch lady refusing to feed a child for any reason but I suppose stranger things have happened.

My favorite part of the diversity training included a piece about apples.  The facilitator lined up six different varieties of apples and challenged us to list their similarities and their difference.

The similarities, which included things like shape, size, the fact that they all grow on trees, that they each have a stem, that they all have seeds, nearly doubled any of their difference.

After diversity training we split up into smaller groups and at one point formed a human knot, played a game of bingo with answers that included things like meat/meat alternate, liquid milk, 40 degrees, and tuna.  We also had a "Find what's wrong with this picture" class that may have depicted the world's most unkempt kitchen in the entire world.

In the mandatory "scare the crap" out of you class they provided us with the following scenario and asked us to tell them what we would do.

The foodservice manager's worst nightmare is coming to life.  The sixth-grade class went on a field trip, and the cafeteria furnished reimbursable lunches to students who ordered them.  The lunches were packed and picked up that morning and put on the bus.  The children ate lunch around noon.

When the students returned to their classroom around 2 o'clock, a couple of them complained of nausea, headaches, and achy muscles.  Some students were vomiting and had to call parents to go home.  Concerned that this could have been caused by the lunch, the teacher tells the principal, who immediately comes to the foodservice manager's office.  The principal decides to call the local public health department because two or more students have reported the same symptoms, and all ate the school lunches packed for the field trip.

What should the manager do?

First, I think it's important to remember that students get sick and that it's not always the foods fault.  Students spend lots of time together and often share the same germs with each other.

Secondly, perhaps the teacher in this scenario was so quick to blame the cafeteria because it was she/he who didn't properly store the lunches.  Was there a cooler on the bus?

Thirdly, I find the Principal's response slightly rash.  Yes, it is protocol to notify health officials if more than two students have symptoms, but I do not believe that would be his/her first phone call. 

That being said all food served that day should be put aside for further investigation, no comments should be made to outside sources to avoid any "sympathy symptoms" and all phone calls should be directed to the food service director because they make the most money.  LOL

Keeping my fingers crossed that this always remains a scenario,

~KISA~