Second day of school

Wow, I am grateful for all the support I received on "The First Day of School!" I was feeling guilty for complaining about "public" school.
I do need to clarify a few things. I don't have any problems with the school. Personally, all the contacts I've had with the school have been positive. I just wish my kids could see beyond the uniforms and discipline policy.
Yesterday, the 2nd day of school, when I picked my kids up I asked them to tell me 2 things they liked about school. Greyson answered, "Lunch and recess." Which is a typical response for him, but he was greatly disappointed on the first day when they spent the first part of recess reciting the school values before they could play. So YEA! for more playtime on day 2! Grant answered PAT and recess.
Then just before dinner I got a call from Grant's teacher. "Grant seems really tense. Is there anything making him nervous beyond being at a new school?" I answered that Grant always took a while to warm up to new situations and that everything was new about this school. "Grant is a good kid, but I can tell our rules are different than what he is used to. He had to stay inside for the beginning of recess because he had trouble following rules at carpet time." This was nothing new, both my boys have A LOT of energy that does not mesh well with sitting in school. Sigh.
So overall, the 2nd day went better and today is school tee shirt day and I'm hoping for more good reports from my kids!

To leave this on a funnier note, on the first day I asked Grant if he told anyone he was from Michigan. "Yeah, the kid sitting next to me talked to me in Spanish. I said, 'I don't speak Spanish, I speak what Michigan speaks.'" Well, that's my little Michigander!

The First Day of School

Yesterday was a big day for us. The one-month anniversary of the boys and I moving to New Orleans AND the first day of school!
I guess I should start by saying the schools in New Orleans are notorious.  Most of the public schools have been taken over by charter schools. And the charter schools have a lottery process, some with testing, that happens in the spring. So moving here in July, we were short on choices. When I first started calling around, no one answered since school was out for the summer. When I finally did start getting a hold of schools we got the "no vacancies" message. Finally I found a school and it is not too far away. But of course, if it was a school that still had openings it wasn't a "first choice" with other parents.
After I went to the parent orientation night I could tell that this was an inter-city school with a big focus on discipline and "preparing all of our students to attend a college-preparatory high school, graduate from a selective college, and contribute positively to their community." It was definitely going to be a change.
And the first visible change was that we needed to go uniform shopping! Uniforms were a totally new concept for my kids! And the strictness of them got me, "all black shoes, including the soles."
Finally the first day of school arrived.

After counting down the days until they started - I was actually nervous for them!
And then, I was heartbroken when they both got in the car after school and said, "We like our old school better!" I learned that Grant had eaten NOTHING at lunch, despite packing a lunch of his favorites. Greyson told me they just talked about discipline and values all day, which he thought was unfair.
Grant did tell me he liked that they have PAT time which was picking your own activity, but Greyson said the only thing good about school was coming home.
Greyson also said to me, "I'm the only white kid in my class, everyone else is brown. In the other 4th grade there is a white girl, but she was home schooled and has no idea what school is." All I said was, "Oh, really?" I guess I want Greyson to make up his own mind about what that all means.
So this morning as I woke up the boys I was greeted with cries of, "We don't want to go back there!" Well, you don't really have a choice. I want to help my kids see the opportunities and good experiences, but I'm not sure myself what those are right now.

Emergency Chocolate

I'm not gonna lie, the first two weeks here were really hard. I arrived to a dirty house, spent my first afternoon cleaning, my husband left the first night we were here for volleyball - so dinner & bedtime was on my own, our possessions arrived late, I felt totally disoriented and I went from being a working mom to a stay-at-home mom with a house full of boxes and two kids to occupy. BUT, I think we've turned a corner. I'm becoming amused by life again and ready to laugh.
The following post generated a lot of buzz when it was posted to Facebook:

Today as we walked into the grocery store I said to Greyson, "Don't let me forget the emergency chocolate." (Aka, the-kids-are-stressing-me-out chocolate). And Greyson loudly answers, "What about the emergency vodka, mom?"

A recent shopping trip

I need to add, I was mortified...but what do you do with kids - finish the grocery shopping! I'll admit, I forgot about it almost as soon as it happened and only remembered later that night.
I'll also admit, that just 2 years ago, I wouldn't have been mortified, I'd have been horrified if I heard that story from someone else. How does a 9 year old know about vodka?
I don't usually drink in front of my kids, however I often do put them in bed and pour a drink! But my kids do hear me and my friends talk about drinks and right now the Detroit-made Valentine Vodka has been a topic of conversation. I received a bottle as a going away gift and bought another in a new flavor (Elderflower). And as previously mentioned, wineries are family trips around here!
So, if you want to judge me on this, go ahead. I would have been right there with you a couple years ago. But what my kids do know about alcohol is that it is for adults and right now they have much more interest in the driving age than the drinking age.
I used to not like the John Lennon song, Whatever Gets You Through The Night, because I didn't agree with all the lyrics. But, when I became a single parent, and then an unemployed single parent, I understood that sometimes there are situations that seem to hard to face alone in the dark of night. And if it's emergency chocolate or an emergency vodka that gets you through....than it's "salright."
And if I can be a listening ear - just let me know!

New Orleans

Where to start? We've been in New Orleans for 2 weeks now.
We left Southgate on June 29th and picked my sister Marie up from the airport (from Anchorage) and headed to Frankenmuth, MI to meet up with my sister Shelly's family for a late celebration for Grant's 6th birthday at the waterpark. It was a great time. From there we all headed to Ohio and spent time with my parents. Including a trip to Put In Bay. July 4th we spent at our traditional family reunion. On the 5th the kids and I left with Marie and drove her to West Virginia where we had lunch with my brother Stanley and Marie continued with him to Virginia Beach.
The boys and I got to New Orleans about lunch-time on July 6th. We had already been told our moving van would arrive the next day, but we got used to our new place. We've gone from living in a house with a basement and a garage to the top floor of a duplex - 3 bedrooms, two bathrooms and a small laundry area on the first floor. Pretty much no storage space except for the single closets in each bedroom. And it costs more than we previously paid for our mortgage AND Alex's apartment together.
The movers did arrive on Saturday and we started to turn our place into home.
By Monday afternoon I was ready to go crazy...and then I found a life-line. The library summer reading program was on Tuesday. We showed up early and all got library cards. The program was from the zoo on wetlands, with lots of live animals!

We've settled into a weekday routine for now, the kids are supposed to: have breakfast, clean up, get dressed, make beds, do a chore and a worksheet and then they may watch a tv show, they play a little and then it's time for lunch followed by piano lessons, quiet reading time, another tv show, play time and then dinner. Not to say that there isn't a lot of whining and fighting going on in between! Tuesdays are library time and we usually go back on Thursdays for new books. And Wednesday we go to lunch with Alex.
We signed the kids up for school. The public schools here are notoriously bad and most of the charter schools have lotteries in the spring, so we got into a "front-line" school which is one step up from a public school, but are hoping for a charter school closer to home although that may have to happen next year. But school starts August 6th and I don't think I've ever been happier to see the start of school!

Sold

Okay, so this story really should go in May, but I've just had time to catch up...

The day drove into the driveway and the "SOLD" sign was up Grant burst into tears saying, "I don't want to move to New Orleans - they have black widow spider there!"
I knew this wasn't the full story, so I probed him over dinner, "Why don't you want to move to New Orleans?"
"Number 1," what 5 year old has a list of reasons??? "They have black widow spider."
"Those spiders don't come into houses," I lied.
"Number 2," sniff, sniff, sniff, "I don't want to leave my friends." Okay, I'll give him that one.
"Number 3...wait mom, do they have Chuck E Cheese there?"
"Yes, we've even been to Chuck E Cheese in New Orleans."
"But do they have Stevie B's?"
"Well, you may be out of luck on that one."

True Story of the Lost Wallet

Okay, so it's been a month since we've been back from Spring Break, but I just now have time to recount the story of the lost wallet.
If you follow me on Facebook, you know that half-way on our drive to New Orleans I discovered I had lost my wallet. We stopped for lunch at Subway at a gas station and when I went to pay - oh, no! - I had no wallet in my purse! When I thought back, I realized at the last gas station (2 hours and one state ago) I had put my wallet in my pocket. I did have a checkbook, so I was able to pay for our Subway and then I turned back around to go back to the last gas station and see if I could find my wallet. In the meantime, Alex called the gas station and they said no one had turned it in, but I had to see for myself. I remember being in the women's room when the boys started screaming in the men's room (the acoustics in bathrooms is apparently great for listening to screams!) so I hurried myself out of there. And I'm sure that is when my wallet fell out of the shallow pockets of my hoodie.
After making the 2 hour drive back to the first gas station, they had not found my wallet and I couldn't even go through the garbage because it had already been taken out. I'm pretty sure that whoever found the black leather Kate Spade wallet in the women's room kept it for the wallet itself...and the $50 inside. Luckily that was all the cash I had inside and when I started calling to cancel the credit cards, more than 3 hours after I lost them, no purchases had been attempted.
We turned back around and started driving to New Orleans again, and when I had about 90 miles of gas left the kiddies had to go to the bathroom, so we stopped at a gas station and I asked, "Do you take checks for gas?" Yes. "Without an ID?" No. I sent the kids into the bathroom and when I came out the attendant asked me, "Are those your babies?" "Yes" "I couldn't live with myself if I didn't take your check." Oh, the kindness of strangers! I'm sure everyone says they have have money in their account to back up their check, but I really did and am thankful for that attendant who took a chance on me! The next two stops I was not so lucky, both places would not take a check without ID. The kiddies had $3 that they brought so I used that and slowed my speed for maximum MPG. I arrived in New Orleans with 20 miles left on my gas tank.
While losing my wallet was annoying, and I had a few tense moments wondering how far we'd make it, I knew that we would make it to NOLA, even if Alex had to meet us for a fill-up. This was actually a good way to start off vacation, because it put everything in perspective. A lost wallet is no comparison to an accident or breakdown - and the vacation was all uphill from there! I am also very appreciative of the kindness of strangers. Greyson was extremely upset at first - but again there were good lessons to be learned. We were going to make it to New Orleans, just later than we had originally thought. And this is why there is no such thing as "finders - keepers," it really hurts when someone is not honest enough to return your belongings.
I hope when you read this, you can pass on kindness to strangers and help restore the lost, because sometimes it's the little things to us that sometimes mean big things to others.

Ps, I also forgot to say thank you to everyone who offered their support on Facebook and sent me texts! I had friends offer to get me money and after the fact found out others were trying to figure out how to do that too!

Enjoy every sandwich

Apparently I get philosophical on Fridays!

When I turned on the radio this morning Werewolves of London was on. That song always reminds me of an interview between David Letterman and Warren Zevon. Letterman asked Zevon what he understood now, being diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, and Zevon answered, "Just how much you are supposed to enjoy every sandwich."
If those aren't words of wisdom, I don't know what is. So today, I plan to enjoy every sandwich. And beyond that, every interaction I have with a living person.
Happy Friday!