Just Rambling

It's very clear and cold this morning but thankfully it's also sunny. Last night we must have had close to 50 deer in the field across the road from the house - it was too dark when I saw them to get pictures and I knew I needed to take care of the chickens. Speaking of which...we got
the most interesting looking egg from them yesterday. It is only about a third of the size of a "normal" egg and is slightly rounder. I talked to Suz about it - she is rejoicing that I got the chicken that lays these tiny eggs - she says I will likely get one every couple of weeks or so. Hers were perfectly round and anywhere from the size of a dime to a half dollar - she said they only had the white in them. So I am looking forward to cracking this one to see what is inside it. I promised Squirrel that he could use it next time he baked anything.

Stretch is not feeling well again - it seems that it's probably because he is out of some of his allergy meds. I really need to figure out how to help with those naturally. Squirrel has been back at school all week - but he is definitely not feeling 100% yet. He fell asleep doing his reading last night - and this was a book he had chosen to read rather than something assigned. He's has requested not to go to TaeKwonDo tonight - we do have Grief Group to go to but I am thankful for the opportunity to have a wee bit of time at home. He will also miss TaeKwonDo again on this coming Tuesday because he has Math Bowl competition. He is excited about that and I think has really impressed his principal who is one of the coaches.

I spent yesterday all day with the bus - I took two groups of preschoolers to the local library in addition to my regular routes and kindergarten shuttle. It was fun and very easy. However during the day we had just enough snow to cover my driveway with a half inch or so. This made it impossible for me to get up the driveway - I ended up stuck across the road and had to be pulled up. This morning I drove up forwards instead of attempting to back up - I made it but not without really flooring it and some sliding.

Guess that is enough rambling...I have some other stuff to do yet on the computer and really want to at least get the kitchen counters cleaned - doing 15 minutes at a time.


This is one of my amaryllis plants in the family room - it's actually a result of a bulb off my original plant. They have been producing and blooming every year for the past 2 or 3 years. I even have ones to give away...it's really fun.

I don't Understand

Check out this story

I "know" this family as last school year I had the little boy on my bus. I remember getting a phone call from the mom of another student on my bus saying that her child was concerned that this little boy was being abused and wanting his address. I legally could not give it to her according to my transportation secretary. I also did not see any signs of abuse - his mom was always at the door of the trailer to see him off. She was very concerned about how he was doing on the bus - being as little as he was he had trouble staying seated complicated by the fact that he had some common health issues. I always found her very supportive whenever I contacted her. And I knew that she stayed in contact with the school as I often saw her at the school. I knew there were some cleanliness issues - clothes not clean, face not clean, etc. but I put it down to just the fact that I had gathered that the family was very poor. So to hear on the news that he had been living in such atrocious conditions and that his parents had been arrested for child neglect just breaks my heart. I feel a bit guilty for not following up more on him when the other student's parent approached me. And I ache for the turmoil the boy has got to be going through - being removed from his home and parents and thrown into a completely new situation. I also hurt for the parents as I am sure they are grieving. I don't understand how or why a parent can neglect a child's living conditions that severely - one would think they would ask for help somewhere.

Winter Wonderland

We woke up to a winter wonderland this morning - puffs of snow on the trees under which you can just about see bumps of buds that are getting ready to open. Just Sunday evening while out on a walk with B I found daffodil shoots coming up in one area. It is still snowing lightly and blowing. Soon Stretch and I will be heading outside to start shoveling the drive. I am sort of expecting my boss to come plow eventually but in the meantime I'm going to take advantage of the exercise and start shoveling. Besides I need to get to the chicken coop with fresh water for them and to collect eggs.


I have just about finished my project that I was working on for B. I am now to the point that I need to have him sit with me and go through stuff before I can completely finish it. That will be good to have done. I hope this week - and possibly even today - to get back to scanning slides for Mom and Dad. I haven't worked on that in some time and really need to get it done. Besides, going through those slides brings of memories of my childhood days and that's rather fun.

Squirrel is finally better though he still tires very easily. He went to school yesterday and stayed for Math Bowl practice. He put himself to bed early last night though and actually dozed a bit this morning after we got the call that we were closed for today. (I am really glad that we didn't start with a delay but just went straight to closing). Stretch is thoroughly enjoying play practice and so far is still fitting in time for a run afterwards. Dipstick was home sick from school yesterday. However this morning he seemed better - I think it was probably a 24 hour stomach bug. If they hadn't canceled he would have missed school but this way he gets the day to recover without having to miss one.

Well fiddle...now all my pictures are lined up on the right side! I hope that someday I will figure out how to line them up on alternating sides. In the meantime...this one was taken from the deck looking down towards the road. The middle one was out the back door looking towards the woods - notice the snow on the fence. The top one was out the front door - looking towards the fruit trees. We had NO snow on the lawn yesterday except for the bits that were in piles from being plowed earlier. Needless to say we got a fair bit.

Edited to add: According to my most "unofficial" measurements we got 6 inches. We measured in a couple of places on the driveway while Stretch and I were out shoveling. Between the two of us, we have about half the hill shoveled...the shoveled areas clear off fast but it's definitely hard work. And it was still snowing lightly though I'm not really expecting any more accumulation.

Wednesday Stuff

Well Squirrel is home from school today - running fever, headache and puking overnight. He's comfortably ensconced in bed with legos, movies, crackers, tissues and water. I on the other hand am desperately in need of a nap as I didn't get enough sleep last night. I am rather hoping that there will be a sub able to drive my afternoon route today...I've already got my kindergarten shuttle covered for the day. Of course I do have paperwork to do to get my Twinkie tossing student dealt with! Thankfully I now know for sure who it was as it was caught on video. And I caught the same student yesterday throwing a piece of pencil.

Other than that not too much is going on. It is much warmer today than yesterday...there is a dusting of snow on the driveway and the sun is shining again. Stretch had the first read-through of his script yesterday afternoon - brought the script and the soundtrack home so he can start learning it. Tonight we will hopefully install the new water softener and maybe install a hook on the top part of the chicken coop door so that I can make it stay open during the day. Sally dog is outside going nuts barking at something.

Time to go get ready to pick up my two Amish boys - since I'm not doing the shuttle I normally wouldn't take them. However Suz is not available today so I am going to take the car and go get them. At least that way I won't be gone an hour and a half - it should just be 30 min. or so.

Chickens & Musicals

9' this morning! Down from low 50's on Sunday! We have just a light dusting of snow on the ground and it's very windy though definitely less so than overnight.

On the agenda for today: blog, laundry - wash, dry and fold, dishes, work on a project for B - it has a deadline, edit pictures on the computer so I can get reprints made, figure out how to get some exercise...I am sure there is more but that's all I can think of at the moment. Last night I was out fairly late at B's working on a different project than the one I'm doing here at home. Sunday night I was out doing an evening run and got home late. Two late nights in a row adds up and I'm tired this morning.


We have chickens now - brought them home Saturday evening. We've had 4-5 eggs a day since. It's exciting for me. I just have to figure out how to get them to use their roosts rather than the nest boxes. I also still need to get cracked corn to supplement their feed and to encourage them to scratch more. Squirrel is excited to gather the eggs as well - I have hopes that this will encourage him to try eating them. Come this spring I will be getting 20 more as chicks - some will be Amerecanas that lay colored eggs.

On a different note - Stretch got the part of Mr. Bahr in the musical Little Women that the high school is putting on this spring. It's the part that he kind of wanted during try-outs. I'm thrilled for him though I know it will be an incredible amount of work. He is planning on continuing his running as much as possible in between practices.

This morning is a beautiful sunny morning - the sun is glistening on the snowflakes on the ground while more flakes fall lightly. The driveway is plowed though I shoveled some this morning yet before it got plowed yet there is already a very light dusting on the ground again. When the sun came up it was glorious - an arrow of light pointing towards the heavens from a reddish orange ball. Made me think of the Doxology:


Praise God from Whom all blessings flow
Praise Him all creatures here below
Praise Him above ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

Let it Snow!

Let it snow! Yesterday we were supposed to get snow overnight - possibly a couple of inches. However we only got a dusting - just enough to have to shovel the driveway before we left for school and bus route this morning. Stretch did a tremendous job after he got off the bus this afternoon - as it had been snowing all afternoon and we had another inch at least. I still got stuck across the road - which had not been sanded yet and had to call for help. My boss came out and was able to drive the bus up the hill - while waiting on him I spread ashes under the wheels and was able to get it mostly out of the road. I shoveled over an hour today - for now it's stopped snowing. We will see what the morning brings.

Other than that not too much is going on. Last week we had floods, lots of fog and very little snow. Then the temps dropped to below freezing over the weekend and now we have snow. The weather has been very very strange this winter.

Stretch is now running at home as track practice has started. He is not going to do track this year as he wants to try out for the musical that will be performed in the spring. This will be his first experience acting in a "real" play so it should be interesting. Squirrel, on the other hand, is now busier than ever - in addition to TaeKwonDo he is participating in the Math Bowl that the elementary school is involved in. They will have one competition in a month or so. In the meantime though he has practice 2 or 3 afternoons a week - on the days he doesn't have TaeKwonDo classes. Math is his favorite subject in school so he is enjoying that.


I was hoping to be able to capture the snow flakes as they were coming down. Unfortunately that didn't happen. However all the snow in the picture has fallen in the last 24 hours or so.

Strange Weather

Just got in from attempting to shovel the driveway again. It's not that the snow is exceedingly deep this morning - it's that the temperatures must have dropped so dramatically last night that everything - including the slushy snow we'd had in the space of an hour or so yesterday "flash froze". It was very strange - it went from rain to sleet to big heavy wet snow flakes in the space of an hour yesterday afternoon - just in time for afternoon bus route. Made the route very interesting at best - there were several very slick areas.

O.K. I started writing this this morning before I went on my bus route. The roads were all ice under the slight layer of snow - I was the last bus in to the elementary school this morning as I deliberately ran slow which made me run late. The weather this winter has been extremely strange. I am very glad that we had a scheduled 2 1/2 hour delay this morning - I would not have wanted to drive my route in the dark. (This makes 4 days this week we've gone to school late!) By Sunday we are supposed to be back in the teens temperature-wise - tomorrow they are predicting rain again.

Other than that not too much is going on. With the delays I really don't feel like I've accomplished much of anything this week - there's not been enough time at home and the house shows it. Even in the evenings we've been out running. I guess I had better scoot and load the dishwasher and swap laundry loads at least.

No Cancellation

It's 8:20 am and all the school districts around us have closed. We were on a 2 hour fog/flood delay but apparently are not going to close. The fog was so bad yesterday that I actually missed stops and got turned around on my afternoon route. Suz says that it's worse today. I am not looking forward to this. Around here the fog isn't too bad - Dipstick (who is closed again today) says it's pretty thick up by him. B is at work.

This weekend was wild - we were closed on Friday. Saturday the roads weren't too bad and we were able to get the driveway cleared. Sunday night we had another 3 inches or so of wet heavy snow - Stretch and I used our 2 hour delay yesterday to shovel it off. We had just finished the hill and were calling it quits when my boss showed up with his plow. He finished off the top - I generally leave that if I'm hand shoveling due to it being flat.

I now have a chicken coop at my house - it was brought down on Sunday afternoon. One door hinge broke but otherwise it traveled safely. Now it's a matter of replacing the hinge, getting feed, straw and nest boxes in. Then I will be able to bring the chickens home. I guess I will probably put a fence around it as well so they don't roam all over the place...not sure if I will fence the coop area or the garden to protect it.

I'd better scoot - just about time to run my bus route.

Edited to add: The bus route was definitely challenging this morning. North of the main E/W highway visibility was about 1/4 mile - better than yesterday afternoon but still not good at all. Also...after I picked up my first student I ended up having to back out about 1/2 mile of washed out dirt road to a place I could turn around at. There were no signs up warning one of a washout or deep water over the road so I didn't realize it until I was right there already. That had me running a solid 10 minutes late on the entire route. Fun times indeed! And sleet is predicted for tomorrow.

Snowed In Again

This is what I woke up to this morning - Stretch had made coffee and started a fire in the fireplace. We are off school today due to snow - I think we were one of the last districts to cancel. However when I heard that the police were requesting people to stay off the roads I knew we would. Snow now seems to have tapered off quite a bit - fizzled almost to nothing. I didn't think that was supposed to happen for another hour or so. We certainly didn't get the 11-15 inches that were predicted. I would guess that we probably have 4-6 inches but have not yet been outside to measure it.

La phoned this morning - she is also snowed in at home. We had a good chat. While we did so, the boys took Christmas ornaments off the tree and set them on the coffee table in the family room. The hope is that we can all work on putting them away while watching a movie rather than me doing it all on my own. (I know...I know...it should have been done a month ago but life has been busy. At least it's not March.) For me it's always enjoyable to remember who made the different handmade ornaments and when they were given to us. Both boys have a good collection of ornaments to take with them when they move out of the house - both handmade and purchased.

This afternoon Stretch and I will go bring in storage containers for the Christmas stuff. We will likely also work on shoveling the drive as I don't expect to get plowed out until tomorrow at the earliest. Squirrel will have to stay inside as he's been running a fever. I had him to the doctor last night - he's now on a z-pack. The nice thing about that is that he will only have 2 days to remember to take it once Monday comes - rather than having to take it 3 times daily for 10 days. While we were out we did our grocery shopping for the next couple of weeks. The stores were crowded and later in the evening when I went back with B to do his there were large empty areas on the shelves where the store was sold out of milk, bread and other staples.



Here's a view from the side door out onto the deck looking towards the road - you can barely see that the road is even there. It would probably be really nice sledding for the boys.

Lunch is over so I'd better head off to get bundled up to go outside. Stretch has been looking for excuses to put this off but it must be done.

I feel better...

I feel somewhat better this morning about getting stuck yesterday afternoon - the roads were at least as bad as they were yesterday - lots of ice and black ice. There was a trash truck stuck cross- wise across one road and apparently a county truck blocking another road during morning route time. There were also plenty of warnings from one driver to another about icy roads. I had a couple of spots where I felt the bus start to slide but it wasn't too severe. Tomorrow could be a very very different story - we are under a winter storm advisory from 10:00 pm tonight through tomorrow. There is to be some combination of rain, thunderstorms and snow that we get. Personally I'm hoping for more snow than anything else even though it means shoveling for me. At least once it stops snowing and the sun comes out - even if it's cold it is pretty. And with the temps being back in the 20's for tomorrow snow is better than rain.

Something that was really funny about yesterday afternoon was what my preschool student said when he found out that he had a seatbelt all his own..."For me?? I get my own seatbelt?! Thank you E..." He was so excited about it - talking about telling his mom and telling his cousin. I am thankful for that as it means I won't have to struggle with getting him to wear it.

Other than that, not too much is going on. I've got daily chores planned, bills to pay and cleaning to do. Stretch is really looking forward to being able to run again tonight. Squirrel has TaeKwonDo and I have a haircut scheduled.

Monday

A solitary deer standing in the snowy field. Streaks of pink, lavender and orange across the sky. Tracks across the frozen pond. Snow covered roads. Areas of wispy white fog and hoar frost on the bushes. A few minutes later the sun rises - a glowing red orange ball behind the dark silhouettes of the trees.

That was the scene this morning driving the bus. It makes me long to paint as I don't feel that words do the picture justice - it was just beautiful. And the nice thing about driving the bus is that you are going slow enough to enjoy the beauty. The downside is that it's not possible to take the camera along to capture the beauty. I honestly didn't see too many deer this morning - think only 4 by the time I got home. However seeing them solitary was almost better than seeing a whole herd of them.

On a different note...things are going fairly well here. Stretch is finishing up his driver training tonight - he gets to go drive in the closest big "city" to here tonight. Then he will simply have to practice until he is able to get his license. Squirrel appears to have the same sinus junk that Stretch and I have been fighting for weeks - Stretch is much better after one round of antibiotics. Unfortunately B and Dipstick are also fighting stuff - Dipstick is much better after a round of antibiotics but I think B is home from work today.

Squirrel participated in another TaeKwonDo tournament on Saturday. This one was an "in-school" tournament held at our local school. However it was very well attended with students from 3 or 4 different schools competing. Squirrel placed 2nd in forms and did much much better in sparring. He sparred two times - won the first time and tied the second. He sparred the same opponent both times as they had the girls spar the girls and the boys each other.

Last week I struggled emotionally - in spite of sunshine and plenty of light. I'm certain it was due to being too busy, not enough time to be creative, not enough quiet time - I spent an hour Thursday evening crocheting and felt much better. I am going to go back to carrying a craft project of some sort with me at all times. This week should be a slightly easier week - hopefully I will get some cleaning done in addition to keeping up with regular laundry and stuff. Speaking of which, it is probably time to finish this up and move on to making my grocery list and doing laundry.


This picture was taken last Thursday evening before we went to town for Grief Group - the sunset was beautiful then and there were lots of deer out.

No Snow Delay

The roads were awful this morning! I slid past most of my stops - maybe only by inches but I could tell there was ice under the wheels. There was a couple of inches of snow over most of my driveway and I couldn't get the bus back up the hill this morning. The good news is that it's half way up the hill at least so I could get out and leave it. It's snowing heavily again right now so the 25 minutes of shoveling I did this morning before I left is going to essentially be for nothing - except it is good exercise. We also had one bus get side-swiped - no damage to the bus from what the driver said and no injuries to students.

I came closer this morning to hitting a deer than I ever had - I saw 5 and had 3 cross the road right in front of the bus. If I had been going any faster than I was I would have hit at least one of them.

Both boys went to school this morning...Stretch had stayed home yesterday as he wasn't feeling well. Last night he appeared to be running low-grade fever but was better this morning and felt like he could make it through the day. Squirrel also went today though he is planning on coming home before TaeKwonDo - he took a header out of B's loft last evening and was pretty shook up. Thankfully he landed on some junk piled underneath it so didn't hit the concrete floor. I suspect he bruised his tail bone and heel but otherwise is o.k. I told him he could stop scaring me with his escapades any day - he's been the one who takes the "major" tumbles and needs stitches more throughout his life!

Time to head out to shovel and salt before doing my shuttle - I'll write about the chicken coop building later.

Clear and Cold

Very clear and cold this morning - only saw 8 deer during route time. Most seemed to be in hiding - in trees or whatever. Yesterday we saw 21 - the kids on the bus were all excited about it. Both yesterday and this morning the sunrise was red - always makes me think of that old sailor's ditty "red sky at night, sailors delight; red sky in the morning, sailors take warning". I don't know how true it is but it certainly is ingrained in my mind. I rather expected a delay this morning - B said the roads had ice on them last night. I could see it as I was driving this morning - it wasn't thick or all over but it was definitely there.

My mind is spinning at the moment so I'm going to go ahead and post this. Hopefully this weekend I'm getting a chicken coop built - not 100% certain yet that that will happen but that is the plan.

Deer Again

28 deer this morning throughout my route time - including coming home. It was really nice to see more than I have recently - that's something I really enjoy. Wish I could find more time to work on my photography... there just doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day. Of course, the fact that I seem to need to nap almost every day does not help - and I've had company and been running with the boys a lot also.

This morning I started a load of jeans and had a meeting with the lady that is helping me get my finances back under control. I did not do well last month at all. However it isn't quite as bad as I was afraid it was going to be and we have made a couple of changes that should help me. I got a brief nap in this afternoon - that was nice. Other than that, not too much is going on so guess this is a bit of a boring entry.

Can you say "overwhelmed"?

I admit it...I am struggling today. Some of it is fatigue combined with not feeling well. Some is deep concern over a girl who is special to me who is possibly suicidal and definitely needs professional help as she is cutting. Yet she refuses to go to her mom because she does not want to be honest about what is going on. Some of it is probably that I don't feel that I have accomplished anything today.

Yesterday I did not accomplish everything on my list by any stretch of the imagination. I got the grocery list made and did the shopping. I also was able to make progress on the laundry - it never is completely finished - and begin to get the checkbook balanced. The kitchen floor is swept - once. It will probably need another sweep before it gets mopped and the counters still are not clear. Tonight is Parent/Teacher conferences again at the high school - it's a new trimester so Stretch has some new teachers and classes. That means that we are not home tonight. Tomorrow night is TKD and Grief Group while Friday night is the start of the Festival of Faith at the church. Saturday we are supposed to have house guests in...can you say "overwhelmed"?

Priorities for today

Priorities for today:

Make grocery list - with price match ads. We don't need a lot but do need some specific stuff.
Laundry - towels from kitchen mess, jeans
Grocery shop - tonight after TKD
Continue cleaning kitchen - get to point where floor can be mopped.
Balance checkbook
Schedule and get to clean B's place.

Beyond that there's journaling, quiet time and exercise of some sort hopefully.

Starting off with a Bang

Well we appear to be starting 2008 off with a bang! Last night as B and I were coming back from doing a run to Graybil I called the Stretch and Squirrel to ask them to put a pot of water on the stove top to heat - warning them to make sure the slow cooker was out of the way. A few minutes later I received a frantic phone call - "help there's a fire on the stove-top! What do we do?" I could hear the smoke alarm going off in the background. I advised Squirrel to go ahead and try to get it out and if not to evacuate the house. We were at this point about 5 minutes from home anyway so I wasn't in a huge hurry to panic. Stretch threw water on it and that got it out before we got home. End result was a mess, a shattered crock pot (not the one I had supper in), a destroyed high quality spatula, a smelly house and one rather upset son. (Dipstick was at Jay's where he had spent the afternoon). That area of the kitchen is now cleaned up with no evidence of that excitement. As far as I know the burner on the cook top (which is one of those flat ceramic ones) will still work.

As I was doing that clean-up B was showing the boys the new live animal trap we had purchased while we were out - we know we've had a possum around. The three of them were able to adjust the trap and test it out on our outside cats to verify it worked. They rebaited it and set it out on the sidewalk beside the house. Around 9:30 last night Sally dog went nuts barking so I suspected it had worked. Sure enough this morning there is a live possum frantically attempting to get out of the trap and the boys are eagerly anticipating being allowed to dispose of it tonight! Ugh!

In the meantime...for about the last month not only have we not been able to get water out of our fridge we've not been able to get ice either. (It's one of those fancy ones with the dispenser in the door). So at 4:00 am this morning Squirrel wakes me up..."Mom there's a scary noise coming from the hall". I had to get up and go investigate it - to find that it was the freezer in the fridge making the noise. This morning we've determined that it's leaking water - it looks like I will have to have some drywall replaced, possibly sub-flooring and will have to repaint. In the meantime the fridge is pulled way out, the microwave cart is pulled way out and the currently unused house humidifier is moved into a different room. Stretch figures that we are undergoing a "cascade failure" of appliances and pipes due to the water softener being down. Should be interesting figuring out priorities for repair.

On that note...it's time to go check the laundry, look for a different phone call to have someone come look at the fridge and try to figure out how to function in the kitchen with the fridge in the middle of the floor. (and I will attempt to add pictures to this later)

Quick update - there's been a lot going on. Squirrel is waiting for me to come watch a movie with him so this won't be long at all. Have to love after Christmas sales - I was able to get 2 pairs of pj pants for under $5.00 total! Also picked up a few other things on clearance so am very pleased about that.

Dipstick's brother Jay (B's stepson) is in the hospital out of state with a leg broken in 3 places. He was to have surgery tonight to put a plate in his leg. (He was loading or unloading his semi that he drives when a chain snapped and broke his leg). So prayers are appreciated for him.

Just talked to another friend of mine who is just about finished with her 90 days trial period at her job. Unfortunately due to the weather we've had lately - even though she knows the company likes her work - she is concerned that she will lose her job for attendance issues due to road conditions.

When I look at other people's situations my life is very calm and peaceful at the moment. I am thankful for my blessings - I have a home in a country that is peaceful, I have a good job, healthy children, a car that runs, plenty of food and water...the list of blessings goes on. Reminders to be thankful are good at times - it's very easy to forget and focus on the negatives.

Again??

So yesterday afternoon - 2nd last day of school before Christmas break - I'm at the elementary school attempting to load my students when one of my little boys came to me and told me another one had punched him in the nose and it was bleeding. The next time I looked we had blood what seemed like everywhere. So I'm on the radio attempting to get someone from the school out to get help because I knew the student with the nose needed looked at. Finally after using my cell phone to call my boss to get a response I was able to leave the two students involved at the school and take off to take the rest home. Thankfully there were no major issues with the remaining students and I was able to get them delivered safely. So...I'm empty and proceeding home myself when I meet a bus from the neighboring school district on a gravel road with soft shoulders that we both use - she still had students on board. I made the decision that since I was empty I would move over as far as possible - unfortunately I hit a patch of ice then the soft shoulder and slid into the ditch up to my axles. Thankfully my boss was able to pull me out without having to call a wrecker and there was no damage done to the bus. I was there probably about 30 minutes. The other driver watched the entire thing happen - I found out later that she radioed in to her boss that she had just watched a bus go into the ditch and something needed to be done about the road. My boss appeared amused - and said that I'd had my share of "pulls" this year - this was the second time this week!

I'm very very glad that today is the last day of school before break - I need the break as do my students. Things have got to turn around soon - I don't want to find another job - I normally love driving bus and my kids.