I Cannot Live Without Books

I seriously thought that I was gonna keel over today when I got out of bed at 7am. Seriously. I was dragging. I had to drive my kids to school, because of the stupid gate situation. I didn't know if it would be open or not.

I told you about that yesterday, right? Hughey Elementary and Ross Middle school's back fence boarders post. And there's a locked gate. And there's MP's (Military Police) that come and unlock it before school, and after school, and supervise kids and roads and such. Very safe. Very nice.

Well, there was this rumor going around school yesterday that it was going to be closed. Because of construction. Indefinitely. SO, I had to drive the kids to school. Because if I sent them off walking to school, and got there right when it started, and the gate was closed, what would they do? Sigh.

I got up at 7am, directed them a bit, and took a shower, and fixed my new non-gray hair. I looked pretty cute. ROFL! I clean up nicely - hehehe. I left the house at quarter till 8 and drove over to the back entrance to school. And there was the MP. I dropped the kids off, and went over to talk to the guy. Andrea showed up at about the same time. We got the phone numbers for his boss, and for the Provost Marshall's office. Someone was bound to know what was going on.

We chatted with MP for a while, and thoroughly embarrassed him. Andrea went on and on and on about how proud she was of me showering. I'm not sure what the poor MP thought - ROFL! Before we left, she told HIM that she was proud of him, too, for showering. He'll never think of women the same way again, I'm sure :)

It was SO cold outside, I was very grateful to get back in my truck and head home. I helped Jimmy get on some shoes and socks, and we headed out the door. Jake had a TON of work to do for school today, and he was going to have the house to himself Peace and quite. Undisturbed working time (well, except for Captain America's lunch hour. He'd be home).

We headed to CDC (Child Development Center), and I got Jimmy all signed in. We went to the preschool room, and Jim was SO excited. He was SO happy to be at "preschool". ROFL! It looked like a preschool, so I let him think it was :) He didn't even want a hug goodbye. He was too busy scoping out the room, and playing. Looked like he was gonna fit in just fine.

I drove over to ACS (Army Community Services) for my class, and was the first to arrive. There were about 10 women total in the class. Nice girls :) They had snacks for us (donations), and some M&Ms for our chocolate fix. They knew how to treat us right :) hehehe.

From 9-11:40, we had an overview of the FRG (Family Readiness Group), its mission and purpose. Next, we learned about how to effectivly communicate with the families that we're responsible for. We had a break in there at some point, and I got some snacks (sun chips and peanuts), and I felt MUCH better. I'd ran out of the house with just an apple and a water bottle, and needed something else in my poor tummy.

I called the numbers from the MP during the break, and I finally got a hold of someone. They said that they'd received a TON of calls, and that they were currently trying to get a hold of housing AND the construction guys, and said to call back in 2 hours. That would be around lunch. Sounded good.

Andrea texted me around lunch time, and wanted to know if I wanted to go to Applebees. Sounded PERFECT to me! Shrimp and spinach salad is the BOMB! I got there first, and ordered for me and her and Luke. So when she got there, there was already food on the table. See, we're efficient. We only had about 20 minutes to eat and chat before I had to run off to my meeting, but lunch was fun! Thanks, girl!

The 2nd 1/2 of the day we learned about how the FRG leader and the unit leader work together. And then we had a bunch of the services at ACS come and talk to us about their programs.

They have a TON of classes. A ton, really. And I got to thinking. If I picked classes, twice a week, for a few hours, Jimmy would get free childcare in the preschool room. Well, isn't that preschool? And all I'd have to pay is my time. And I'd be learning something at the same time. Sounded like a win/win to me - hehehe. I'm gonna look into that more...

We got some free stuff as hand outs too. Pens, and a 3 sided highlighter (triangle shaped), and even a flash (thumb, whatever it's called) drive. Only 1GB, but still. It's free. And mine - ROFL!

At 2:50, I was headed back to the CDC to pick up Jimmy. He'd had a WONDERFUL time, and didn't want to leave. He wanted to go back and play outside. Sigh. I almost had to drag a crying child from the building. But he "manned up", and came peacefully - hehehe.

On the way across post, Andrea called and said that the gate was locked. Sigh. I was gonna be late getting off post and picking up the kids. What a mad house. Who locks a gate without giving warning to ANYONE. I was getting madder and madder by the second. That's SO not cool. Parent didn't have time to make a "plan" as to how to get their "walking" children home from school.

The 2 schools sit side by side, and let me tell you, it was a madhouse. No parking anywhere. I had to park in the middle school parking lot, and walk down to find my kids. I waited outside Joe's room, and no Joe. His teacher said that all the Ft Bliss kids were being held in the gym. OMGosh!

So I went in the gym, and there were parents and kids and teachers everywhere. It was chaos. And let me tell you. Those moms were just as hot as me. I kinda felt sorry for the principal. He didn't cause this problem (for once). He has no control over the MPs locking the gate. That's not his job. And I think he was glad for that. I woudln't want this angry group against me - hehehe.

After about 5 minutes, I realized that I was missing a child. And I started to panic a bit. I couldn't find Emeline. She wasn't in the gym. I left the other 2, took Jim with me, and went to search for her. She wasn't in her classroom, and neither was her teacher. I finally found her out by the back gate, waiting for her brothers. Just like she was normally supposed to do. Sigh.

I took her back to the gym, and we all talked about possible solutions. I thought maybe we could just transfer to the "on post" school. I didn't want to have to leave post and get back on post each day to take my child to school. (I called later, and the school wasn't accepting transfers, though, so that option was out).

We talked about either the school district or the post providing a bus for the kids. Really, that would be great. I'd be happy with that. People started to trickle out, and Andrea said that she couldn't leave, because Sam (her 11 yr old) had extra PE club. So I decided to stay and wait with her, and we took the kids to the playground to play. I think they had fun. And we had more time to be mad about the stupid gate.

After extra PE, I took Jim, Joe, Tom, and Eme, and walked to the other school, got the truck, and came inside the gate. What a hassle! When we got home, Andrea texted and said to come and hang at the park for a while.

Really, I had a TOn of work to do, but went for a little while. I stayed until about 5pm, and chatted with her and Leslie. I hadn't seen Leslie for a while. We eventually came home, and I directed Tom in fixing Hot Dogs for the kids, and I retreated to my room to work. Tuesday at 10pm my time is the deadline to get new products in the store for Friday. So, I already had 2 done, and needed 3 more.

I ended up designing some "kid" Valentines packs. Pirates and Princesses. I liked 'em! I got Joe's homework done with him, and put the kids to bed by 8pm.

I worked on a WordArt collaberation with SuzyQScraps, and got it all ready for release on Friday too. I did my WordArt Wednesday, and got it all posted. Captain America came home at around 9pm (yeah, so much for coming home early)

I started blogging at 10:30pm, and am almost done now. I'm SO tired. Hopefully tomorrow will be less stressful. But then, I have to drive the kids to off post school, drop Jimmy off at CDC, go to my class at ACS, lunch at Andreas, back to ACS, pick up Jimmy at CDC, pick up kids off post, come home, prepare a Cub Scout Den Meeting (the leader is struggling, and wanted me to do a "sample" meeting), dinner, Cub Scouts at 7pm with all 5 kids (sigh), come home, design, blog, sleep. See, tomorrow isn't gonna be any better than today.

I know. How about you all donate 10 minutes of sleep from your night to me. I'd be SO rested when I woke up, with all of your 10 minutes..... No? You need your sleep? Crud. Well, it sounded like a good plan, anyway...

Oh yes, this statement is SO true! Well, I can, but how fun it THAT! Not fun at all :) Click HERE to go to scraporchard to download the zip file, and remember few things. First, it's only available for about a week. Second, you must be signed into the GALLERY in order to get the download. And third, leave some love if you like my work. Thanks!