15mph PLEASE!

It seems that every morning I have to motion for someone to SLOW DOWN in the school zones.

Here on Ft. Huachuca, school zones are 15mph, which is a snail's crawl.  

It's pretty obvious when a car isn't going 15!  

I often try to control the speeders in the school zone where my child crosses the street.  Now, I know that it's not my job to do this because I'm not an MP, but I am a parent and I have 3 kids that use this school zone 5 days a week.  I want people to take heed to the school zones!

 

I wave my hand every morning to motion for SOMEONE to slow down.  Do you know that the majority of these drivers are women?!?  You'll find drivers throwing up their hands in defense as if to say "Hey, I'm not speeding."  But there's a hug difference between 25 and 15.  

Granted, the school zones signs in our area are very confusing because there's not sign that says END SCHOOL ZONE, so in the defense of these drivers, some think that as soon as they get past the the yellow crosswalk they can go back to normal speeds.  That's not the case.  And granted, unlike what I'm use to on the east coast, the school zones speed limits are for the entire time that school is in session, not just during the times that kids are going to school and coming from school.  But that's beside the point.

I'm not perfect by any means.  I have a lead foot very often, but I feel that when you are in a school zone during the times when kids may be crossing, it is a driver's duty to keep the kids safe and drive slow.

So, until someone tells me differently or drivers suddenly decide to adhere to the 15mph signs at all time, I will continue to play mini-cop and warn these drivers about speeding.  

Those are MY kids out there!

Getting back into a routine.

School started here on Wednesday. 

YAY!

The kids all LOVE their teachers and classes.  I'm so happy to hear that.  When I when I picked them up I asked each one of them how their day was and the responses I got were,

"Excellent!"

"Awesome!"

"Good!"

This could be a great year.

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On the second day of school, Kid 1 wanted to ride his bike to school.  Of course, he's in middle school now and always the most athletic, so a mile ride on his bike was no problem for him.  Even with his bummed foot.  Did I mention he kicked a ROCK?  

I mean, if my mom wanted to take me to school every day, I woulda been first in the car!  But QUE SERA!

So, on the second day, I let him ride with his friend.  RELUCTANTLY because his foot has still been bothering him.  

Well, we're in Monsoon season here.  Anyone ever lived in AZ?

Well, monsoon season here means short scattered thunderstorms.  Unually no big deal.  You can look off in the distance and see it raining at say, Walmart, but barely get a drop a mile away.

Well, I picked Miss Missy up from school because it started to sprinkle right when I went outside to walk across the street to pick her up.  I had to drive.  She's a girl!  No way could we have her walking home in the rain and getting her hair wet!  By the time I reached the school, (I can see it from my front door, by the way) the rain had stopped.  

Cam had ridden his bike to school as well so I didn't bother to pick him up because there was no rain.  He came in and all was fine.  

But MOMENTS after he finished greeting me, THE SKY OPENED UP!  I mean THUNDER, TONS OF LIGHTNING STRIKES!  The WORKS!

MY BABY WAS OUT IN THIS?!?!

I made a beeline to the car and rode along the trail that I knew he would have ridden to get home.  There were poor kids walking, drenched from head to toe, running in TONS of water, jumping over puddles and desperately trying to make in home.  All kids within a mile are required to walk home.  

When I made it to the school he was nowhere to be found!

Back home I flew, as fast as the 15 miles per hour school zones would allow me to go.

When I pulled into the driveway, his friend's mom was pulling into the driveway as well.  She'd beat me to them, thankfully!

But that wasn't the end of it.  As we pulled his bike out of the jeep, of course it didn't come out easily and she and I ended up SOKED from head to toe.

Now, my neighbor's kid and grandmother was waiting at my house as well.  The poor 3rd grader was in tears... literally terrified. 

They were inside the house and when the lightning struck, it set off the alarms in the house!  The carbon-dioxide alarm and the smoke detectors.  Again I went out into the pouring raining, unsuccessfully dodging the river of water flowing down the street, to go to see what the problem was in their house.  The boy was terrified and the grandmother NO SPEAKA EEENGLEESH!  Sure enough, the the sirens were blaring so loud I couldn't concentrate and there was no way to turn them off.  The boy said he'd seen lightning hit the backyard, but who knows where a kids imagination could take him during a lightning storm.

So they waited out the storm at our house, waiting for his mom to come home to the rescue.

*********************************

Saturday Morning.  I would have preferred to stay in the bed and SLEEP.  But I'm on a mission to a healthier me.  So I got up and Hubs and I went for a walk/run.  Well on the way back I think I may have pushed my already sore legs to the limit as we sprinted a short distance.  I'm limping and I'm taking the day off from my walk.  

Last One Off To Pre-K

As I sit here and listen to Miss Missy chatter on and on behind me about something I have no idea what she is talking about, I can't help but to be thankful that she is starting Pre-K next school year.

Most people think that because she is my last and because I'm a stay at home mom and won't have anymore kids at home that I'm, for some strange reason, gonna be sad when she goes off to all-day-big-girl school.


UHHHHH.......... NO!

She is finally gonna have someone else to talk to other than me! Someone else will be able to listen to her stories about iCarly and what happened to Drake and Josh. She'll be able to show and tell her teacher all about the dream she had about the cat who ate our dog, Ginger, and why the mermaid swam in our bathtub.

Miss Missy has a very creative mind, much like her mom. She plays for hours in her room by herself, talking to her dolls. I was like that too. Many times I made my little brother play with me, many times she has Sir Talks-A-Lot play with her willingly, but the whole imagination thing was all the same.

Okay, so maybe I'm not all that thrilled that my little Miss is growing up so quickly BUT you better believe that I'm gonna enjoy my free time while I got it! The kids have summer vacation and mom looks forward to school!

Mama Days

The rain decided to hinder my workout plan yesterday. It's okay, though. I figured that if I at least get in 3 good days a week, I'll be better off than where I was before. So today, Mrs. "Confident" (I kinda liked The Big Head name better, but we'll go with that) went for a quick walk around the trail and it went by so fast. I guess because we just talked and moved. I feel great after that and I have plenty of adrenaline going.

I haven't even mentioned the whole back to school thing. I was excited about back 2 school. Today is day four and the kids seem to really be excited about it so far. Runnin' Man, my oldest, is more excited than the younger one, who I will now call Sir Talks-A-Lot instead of MCS. Anybody who knows him knows that name just fits him so much better.

I think it's so cute that when he chose his clothes and he wanted to wear a collar shirt rather than the t-shirt and shorts I'd picked for him. He wanted to look, "handsome" on the first day. He's my photogenic one. The one that loves to be in every picture. He's the one that has always come home clean, even back in Pre-K.

Sir Talks-A-Lot on the other hand wanted to wear a wrestling t-shirt on the first day, which I decided against. I put him in a polo shirt as well. He came home unsure of how much he likes school, same as last year. He said they have a lot of work and some of it is hard. Not the same as last year. He's usually saying that he knows everything. He's a lot more difficult that Runnin' Man ever was. If he doesn't understand something, he doesn't want to get it. I'm not looking forward to homeowrk nights with him at all!

I know that school is going to be a bigger challenge this yea for the boys and I love it. They are bothe very smart. And I love it when they are challenged and not just flying through everything. Let's me know they're learning something.

This year is going to be a challenge for me. I'll say it in 3 letters...... P. T. O. ! Yeah I got suckered into this PTO thing and they were true to their word when they said I'd have to do 20-30 hours a week. UNPAID??? Are you kidding me??? LOL. For the looks of it, Miss Missy and I will be spending plenty of time at the school for one reason or another, for one fundraiser or another, then for one fieldtrip or another on top of that. I'm not so bothered by it, but I think Hubs might be a little annoyed by it taking up more of my time. I enjoy having something to do personally, since we've agreed that I'd stay home with the kids, PTO is a great way for me to have some adult interaction.

BUT, Good Lord is it going to be a lot of work. Get ready PTO parents, cause I aint doing all of this alone. I'm soooooo about to start delegating.

Too soon for a routine.

Well, there are just less than 3 weeks left until school starts and I'm already starting to feel anxious. I think the kids are too. There is a higher amount of arguing and fighting amongst all of them lately, making it more difficult to just enjoy the the time we have left of summer vacation.

It's time almost time to get back into a routine. The bedtimes, which have become non-existent, are going to have to change really soon in preparation for school hours. Yet, I want them to be able to enjoy the last few week they have, and with this Georgia heat, early bedtimes become an issue. Of course the longer hours make it almost impossible to get the boys to sleep at 9 o'clock considering it's still light out. And, the heat here in Georgia reach staggering temperatures and the humidity makes it impossible to take a slow walk, much less ride bikes, jump on trampolines or run. The kids can't even go outside until around 7, when the sun is beginning to descend and the heat is only in the low 90's (still unwavering heat, I know). So it poses a problem when trying to get your kids, who have been stuck inside all day, to come inside at 8 o'clock and be ready for bed by 9. An hour outside barely gives them enough of an outlet or enough exercise to burn off a calorie!

So for now, I just plan to play it by ear and perhaps hold off on preparing them for the school routine until the week before they have to go back. Remember when summers seemed to last forever?