Lucky pennies are debatable

Yesterday was the first official day of summer vacation for my kids. For me, as ALL you stay at home parents know, every day is a vacation. ::snort::

Sara was pretty much done with kindergarten after the graduation hoopla around 9:30 on Tuesday and while Tucker was stuck in school for a full day on Tuesday, he was out two hours early on Wednesday.

To my great and thankful surprise, neither child woke at the zero dark thirty. I woke up around 7:30, and the kids were up within 15 minutes after that. That totally works for me. Anything after 7 is heaven - being that I'm as much of a morning person as say...oh, a vampire.

I left this week pretty much open as far as planning anything was concerned. Next week we are going to be crazy busy, so I'd hate for my kids to forget what bored feels like. HA!

We did have a doctor's appointment for Tucker at 10:30. Somehow, he developed a nasty infection around his right middle fingernail and I really didn't want it to spread any further or end up with the fingernail having to be removed. That happened to Robert around Christmas last year and it looked painful and gross.

The morning passed quickly but pretty well. The kids were excited to not be in school so they played really well together and we all hung around in PJ's until it was time to get ready to go. Which, may I just add, I'm impressed to share that they had that rare morning of not having to be asked twice to do anything nor did they complain about what we had to do.

I knew we were going to have to fill out a ton of paperwork for the new doctor's office, so we showed up about 25 minutes early.  Between my having to flip through eight years of Tucker's medical records and what seemed like a really busy day, by the time we got back into the PA's exam room, it was close to 11. No big deal, I was as much to blame for that as anyone. ::Note to self..when not on a military base, have the kids socials with you at doctor and dental appointments::

Things went great with the exam, we all liked the PA and the office staff and we were out of there in no time with a prescription for an antibiotic.

In the exam room, I noticed two pennies just sitting on the couch with heads up but I didn't pick them up. I figured I'd leave them for someone who was having a much rougher day than we were.

Our next stop was the drug store to fill the prescription. I got out of the car and saw yet another penny on the ground, heads up, all shiny and pretty. I picked it up on a whim, thinking if this was the third penny I'd seen within an hour, maybe I should pay attention.

We drop off our prescription, run into my neighbor and chat for a while. The kids were behaving wonderfully in the store, not being wild or asking for a bunch of stuff. Once we got the amoxicillin, off we went. Our next planned stop was the grocery store because they have this amazing salad bar plus I needed a few things.

To my complete and utter amazement, Sara decided she wanted salad for lunch and Tucker decided he wanted fruit. ::happy dance for voluntary healthy eating::

I fixed my salad, Sara fixed hers, Tucker filled his fruit container and then I went to get some soup. Sara decided she would like some fruit too, so I stopped what I was doing and helped her get fruit. The kids were waiting on me to finish up and Sara accidentally dropped her fruit container, which burst open and fruit went everywhere. So we all quickly picked up the spilled fruit and threw it away. We got her more fruit and headed to the checkout line. I was trying to carry two salad containers, my keys and wallet, a very, very hot container of soup, and a large cup of iced tea. How I didn't drop something, I will never know.

The store was super busy so I decided against grocery buying and we headed to the self checkout area since that was the only place without a line. I had to enter a code for every item (frustrating) and the self checkout would give me an error message if I tried to put both fruit containers or both salad containers on the scale at the same time, so it was taking me longer than I felt it should go pay and go.

Sigh.

I look up and see a lady standing about 10 feet behind me with a couple of packages in her hand. An older gentleman was approaching her in one of the store versions of a hover round. Instead of steering slightly to the left or right, and I do mean slightly, he gets within six inches of her and barks, "ARE YOU WAITING IN LINE OR JUST STANDING THERE?!?!?" The poor lady, the kids, and I were all startled at the volume and tone of his voice. She replies nicely that she's in line, but trying to give us some space. Awww, thanks kind stranger!

Instead of just going about his business, Sir Grumperton McHatefulpants starts grouching at her about blocking the aisle and how inconsiderate she is and a bunch of other stuff that made me say, "Wow." Then he  sits there and glares at her until she takes a giant step back so he can continue on this way without having to change direction in the slightest.

image from http://www.zazzle.co.uk/grumpy+old+man+art

I feel badly for this lady and I catch her eye and say, "Sorry!" to which she snaps, "What are YOU sorry about?"

Um, well, now I'm not sorry about anything. Sheesh.

I finish as quickly as I can and we get out of there. I try not to let our less than optimal grocery experience make ME grouchy even though the kids are swinging the bag with the fruit in it around like it's a carnival ride. I'm trying not to spill the soup, which is still scalding hot and appears to be actually melting the lid I put on it, while holding my cup, trying to hang onto my wallet and untangle my keys from around my fingers as Sara yanks on the door handle and starts shouting for me to 'LET ME INNNNNNNNNNN RIGHT NOOOOOOWWWWWWWWW!'

I finally get the doors unlocked and everything in the car and home we go. The kids immediately jump out and head inside and I'm all - 'HEY! You guys need to grab all your stuff from the back seat, please!'

Grumbling they come back and get the items they brought into the car, plus their fruit. That leaves me with hot soup, cold sweating drink, two salad containers, keys, phone, wallet, medical records, medication, purse, and plastic eating utensils.

But I make it upstairs without dropping or breaking anything, so that's good. I want Tucker to take his medication before he eats and open up the prescription bag to discover the pharmacist forgot to mix up the amoxicillin powder.

Ugh. Really not wanting to go back out after the last 15 minutes.

So we sit down to eat our $20 worth of healthy food. Tucker takes a few bites of fruit and says, "I'm full."  Uh huh. I bet. I ask him what he's going to do with the rest of the fruit. "Throw it away...." Um, no. It's $5 a pound and that container was packed full - which is what I tell him. He gets teary eyed and admits that he doesn't like it because all the flavors are all mixed together. I resist the urge to talk about kids who scrounge food from dumpsters to survive or who are happy to get a cup of non rotten rice a day. Instead I ask him to come up with a solution  - which he does - and he rinses the fruit off in the sink and sorts the fruit into separate small bowls.

Sara, to my great and utter surprise, eats her salad and her fruit and then hugs me and says thank you.

Huh.

Didn't see that coming.

My salad ended up having slimy peas and my soup was burned. Bummer.

So, after we ate and cleaned up, we went back to the pharmacy and got Tucker's medication fixed and stayed in for the rest of the day. I'm thinking that I'll share that lucky penny with someone else the next time we go out. Too bad I can't pass it off to Sir Grumperton McHatefulpants.

Graduation blues

My daughter, who is six, graduated from kindergarten today.

I am.......ambivalent....... about such things as kindergarten graduations.  I can actually better understand a pre-school graduation because the transition from pre-k to kindergarten is (in general) more drastic than say kindergarten to first grade.

The school the kids attended before we moved in March didn't do the graduation ceremony thing. I was cool with that. The new school does.

Coming in to a new school so close to the end of the year, I knew there would be a lot of things that everyone else would know that I wouldn't - such as where to find out what time said graduation started and perhaps the amount of minutes before the ceremony starts one should arrive in order to find parking, sign in, and a seat in the tiny little auditorium.

Until today, all I had seen about this graduation thing was a sheet the room parent sent home about the celebration afterwards and what needed to be sent in. For GP (general purposes), the only time I had seen was 9:30 am.

On my way to school this morning, I started thinking about that.

Prepare yourself, my train of thought may astound you.

If the celebration is at 9:30, chances are high that the actual graduation is before that. School starts at 8. So logic would lead to the conclusion that the ceremony would be sometime between 8 and 9:30.

Duh.

I asked the teacher who was helping in the drop off line if she knew what time graduation started. She didn't, but suggested I call the office and ask them. When I got home a few minutes later, I saw that Sara hadn't taken her book bag out of the car. So I opened it and crumpled at the bottom was a graduation program. It started at 8:30, which meant I had enough time to freshen up, grab my camera, change clothes, and head back to school.

I got there at 8:27. There was no legitimate parking to be found, so I parked on the side of the road beside the parking lot halfway into the forest. It was way more impressive by sight than by description.

I power walked into school, where the last of the kindergartners were filing into the auditorium. I signed in, slipped into the auditorium, and realized Sara's class was closest to me on the stage, so I was seeing their backs. So I walked around to the other door so I could at least see her and she could see that I was there.

The auditorium was packed, which made sense after seeing all the extra cars parked around the school. Each kindergarten class sang their own little song, then all the students took turns walking across the auditorium to get their 'diploma'.

I have to admit, it was cute.

It was also really hot and stuffy in there. By the time Sara's class was up, I was sweating, just like everyone else near me. The older I get, the less I like crowded places and being shoved in small rooms with a ton of people I don't know, so I was a bit anxious to get out of there and once the kids started filing out, I took off and waited for Sara in the hallway. Immediate relief.

Now, here's the thing. Luckily, Sara had agreed to dress up this morning and she looked adorable. Most of the other kids were dressed to the 9's - party dresses and little suits. Wow. Parents and grandparents and I'm sure some aunts and uncles were there with balloons and flowers and cards for the graduates. Double wow.

I hadn't brought anything like that for Sara. It's flipping kindergarten.

We made it into the courtyard where there were tables set up with treats and punch. I helped Sara make a plate and we sat down so she could eat. It was a beautiful day outside and we were sitting on the edge of the   sidewalk kind of in the middle of the area, so we had a great people watching spot.

I was surprised how many parents were really dressed up too - like it was a high school or college graduation or something. I found it all very....interesting. And kind of foreign. I think it's great to have a little celebration at the end of the year, but seriously? This was treated like an actual graduation.  I'm surprised there weren't new bikes or scooters wrapped in big red ribbons waiting in the parking lot.

Sara asked me on the way home (because she got to leave after the celebration) what the first grade graduation was like and when Tucker would have his second grade graduation. I explained that she probably wouldn't have another one until high school. She was devastated. And that's a lot of my problem with 'graduations' before high school. Why on earth is a high school or college graduation special if you've had them every few years since you started school?