On squeaky wheels and good women

So, as many of you know, there has been a bit of an uproar in our kids' school district.  The superintendent "RIF'd" (reduction in force, or layoff) our principal, but lied about it and told everyone he had retired.  Last year they cut our PEP (gifted) program from a full time teacher to a half time teacher.  They hired a consultant who wrote out scripts for each and every reading teacher to say from Kinder to 5th grade.  Seriously.  Scripts.  With the "proper hand motion" written in next to it.  ("Tap the beginning of the sentence and then swoop your finger under the verb.")

All of this culminated in a bunch of very angry and pretty vocal parents descending on our school board meetings.  As a result, we now have our principal back, and as of last night's governing board meeting, starting next year we have our full time PEP teacher back AND they want to make our district a district of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) magnet schools.  And I'm not giving up on getting rid of the reading program scripts.

A friend of mine said "Hey the squeaky wheel gets the oil--good for you."  Followed by, "What's that saying?  Good women don't make history?  You go girl."

While I appreciate the support, and know what she was saying, how is fighting for your kids education not the sign of a "good woman"??

I'm proud to be a part of this community of concerned and caring parents.  Go Garden Lakes!!!

like mother, like dau....uh oh!

Evie and I were in the car this morning on our way to a baby shower.  We were third in line at a red light.  When the light turned green the cars were apparently a little slow taking off.  Evie says, "Why are we going so slow?"  I reply, "Well, I can't drive through the car in front of me."  I hear her shift in her seat, and then; "Wellllll... this lane is wide open."  Oh dear.

tween speak

While watching the Detroit Red Wings vs Pittsburgh Penguins game.

Tyler:  "The Detroit goalie is named MacDonald?"
Dennis, sarcastic:  "Nope, the goalie is wearing the center's jersey tonight."
Tyler, looking confused:  "What?"
Gabrielle:  "He's saying, "duh of course that's his name." "

Planning ahead

I realize many of you have already done this whole being-responsible-and-thinking-about-the-worst-case-scenario thing, and appointed legal guardians to raise your children in case of your early demise, and medical POA's and financial POA's, in the event that the unthinkable happens.  Dennis and I have had the conversations, but they always circled around to "WE want to raise our children" and it got pushed back to the far corners of our minds only to peek out with impending travel plans and whatnot.  We recently got a bit of a stern talking to from an insurance agent that Dennis works with through his business, so.... 

Finally, today we did what we have been talking about since we first brought Gabrielle home eons ago.  Driving home from the attorney's office, I thought I would feel melancholy, ("On a family vacation, the plane goes down and you all die together, who do I write down as beneficiary in that scenario?"), or worried, or I'm not sure what, but oddly enough, I felt a little euphoric.  Not because we have finally taken care of something we have known needed taking care of, but because I was driving home to spend more time with the kids we had just finished discussing for 2 hours, and what would be the best situation for them given this circumstance, or that circumstance.  And the circumstance is, we are their parents, and we are the best situation for them right now.  We are far from perfect; I'm sure all of you who have read and laughed at my "I lost mother of the year AGAIN" blogs concur, but we're it, and our family is perfectly happy being together each with our own imperfections, laughing at our inside jokes and Bill Cosby quotes, and listening to our eclectic blend of every type of music imaginable, (show tunes and Irish drinking songs? got em.  Current pop hits?  got em.  Country, rock, and alt rock?  got em, got em, got em.  Oldies?  got those too.  Hip hop and rap?  we even have a few of those)  And if our situation changes, I am comfortable in the knowledge that we have raised kids who will roll with it and be perfectly happy in the next situation with all its intrinsic imperfections, because there will be new inside jokes, and comedian quotes, and... well, probably not new music.

The simple solution

I have mostly shielded the kids from too much television news of the earthquake/tsunami and resulting nuclear disaster.  But the following conversation, after the kids watched about a minute of coverage, warmed my heart.
Tyler:  "Why aren't they leaving on planes?"
Mom:  "There aren't enough planes honey.  There are too many people affected."
Tyler:  "Aren't we friends with Japan?  Why aren't we sending our planes there to bring people here?"
Mom:  "What would happen if we did that?  How would we make sure we kept families together?  Where would we put all those injured people?  "Where would they live?  What would they eat?  They might not know the language and would have a hard time getting a job.  They would have no money to buy food."
Evie:  "Couldn't they just bring their piggy banks with them?"

THIS is why we live in Arizona

Could today have been any better?  It started out with making pancakes for the kids and Evie's friend Charlotte who had slept over.  Throwing the windows open to let in the gorgeous weather.  A couple cups of coffee and the Sunday paper while starting some laundry.  Then the kids, who have begun to be very diligent in their training for Pat's Run, talked me into going to the track.  (Okay, this was not my favorite part of the day.  Is there ANYTHING worse than running around a track??  At least around a neighborhood the scenery changes.  Is it still considered parent/child bonding if I was silently cursing them for talking me out of a neighborhood run???)

Came back to find Evie riding her bike without training wheels!  Surprised the heck out of me.  She was not even a strong bike rider with the training wheels.  She would still sometimes kinda freak going around our corner which also has a curb cut so the bike tilts a bit.  But her friends are riding without training wheels, so she asked Dennis to take them off. 

He says he took them off, talked to her about leaning side to side for balance, and ran holding the bike for about 5 feet, then she rode down the road on her own with him just running next to her.  She couldn't steer, and forgot how to use her brakes and instead just put her feet on the ground, but still, the other two never rode the length of the street on their first try! 

The funniest part though, was she was determined to get it down.  She would scare herself, put the bike in the garage, do something else, then ask one of us to run next to her, and try some more.  Eventually she asked us to NOT run next to her, and would go 3 feet, put her feet down, go 3 feet, put her feet down, go 12 feet, put her feet down, then 30 feet.  She did that all afternoon. 

The afternoon for the rest of us involved throwing the football, (Tyler tells me my spiral is getting better.  I'm not sure Dennis agrees...)  gardening, watching the kids ride their bikes and scooters, playing soccer in the street, and ended with a beer with good friends. Did I mention the weather was around 80 and perfect today?  Love Arizona, love our family, love our friends, love our life!

DOH!

No more playing the numbers for me.  You know, the "the-light-just-came-on-I-have-at-least-30-miles-worth-of-gas" numbers.  Yes, I really did.  With all three kids in the car.  On the bridge on McDowell Rd.  Where there's no breakdown lane.  Where traffic zooms 65mph even though the posted speed limit is... ummm... less than that. 

Thank you to the gas fumes that allowed me to crest that hill so that I could put it in neutral as the car shut off and every light on my dashboard came on, and roll down off the bridge and turn into the Avondale Water Company driveway.  Thank you to the kids for making the best of it instead of complaining, and running around playing in the little grassy area while waiting for roadside assistance.  Thank you to Kia for providing a First Aid Kit in every Sedona so that I had gauze and band aides to clean/bandage Evie's FIVE INCH LONG road rash that happened as she came running off of the grass, slipped on the gravel, and slid across the blacktop.  Yup, it just got better after I ran out of gas.  Lesson learned.  Got it.  Really.