Second last post before our journey ends….
We spent the first couple of days of the month dealing with Conner’s English teacher AGAIN! Well, trying to. I find it very frustrating when your child is trying to catch up from being away doing a leadership function and his teacher doesn’t respond to his clarification request so his homework doesn’t get done and she doesn’t accept anything late. As a responsible parent, we email and ask for assistance in understanding what happened (BCC it to the principle) and come to find that she deals with it by – calling our son the front of the class to her desk and (to this day we have no idea exactly what she said all he’s told us is “I shouldn’t be getting these emails from your parents”) and then made him stand there and read her email response the me!!! NOT HAPPY JAN WAS AN UNDERSTAMENT!!! This woman is a HUGE reason why I hate this school system. So the end of the day comes and all we get from Conner is “PLEASE JUST LET IT GO, it will make it worse”. So we have, for now but the district will be getting a formal complaint as soon as his grades are in.
Ok, enough about that….although it was a very stressful couple of days, my new couch arrived on Thursday, YEAY that put us all in a good mood. The boys did well at basketball on the weekend, Conner is playing really well and Jamieson is just killing it. It’s always fun seeing your son get the rebound and go coast to coast for the layup (he’s finally figured out the layup is an easy way to get easy points)- actually it never gets old and coach Bruce is loving it too.
Bruce headed off to LA for the week to start his Borders stores visits – so that was on the internet every night trying to find a hotel with a nice bed. The boys and I did the usual, school, playing, packing (which got old real fast). Jamieson had a field trip on Wednesday (which Bruce was supposed to go to but I had to go to instead – thanks honey) it was fun we went to the planetarium and learnt all about the stars and planets and why Pluto isn’t a planet anymore. Then I stopped and did a little shopping on the way home. (Parents drive themselves to the field trips here, they don’t go on the bus) Thursday I dropped Paula at the airport for her trip to Minnesota, her stepdad Pat found different cancer and had to go and have surgery so Paula was going to take care of her mum, we crossed everything and she got on the plane. Friday night Andrea and I went down to Stockton for a Christmas specials party with the lady from our foot spa party so we got some beauty bargains – it was nice just to spend time with Andrea and have a laugh – and bonus was we were invited to their place for Thanksgiving so no cooking a turkey for me!! Bruce got home safely from a very successful and tiring LA trip, lots of stores in not many days. I think he can safely say he’s see all of LA & San Diego. Of course, basketball again on Saturday Kevin came over on Sunday and the kids played all day and I spoke to mum (Happy Birthday) caught up on the home happenings. It’s still weird hearing about what everyone’s doing in emails or phone calls.
Another week started with Bruce and I going out for lunch figuring out the week ahead, Bruce was travelling again, this week 4 states, Washington then down to Arizona. Up to Vegas then across to Utah. Bruce headed off to Seattle on Tuesday, I got to speak to Elise on skype which was a nice surprise seeing that smiling face and getting all the gossip. Wednesday back to the airport to get Paula from her trip – Pat was doing really well so she came home early. Thursday night was a tough one, my first official we are going home cry. Jamieson had a Family Share night at school so all the kids and their parents were there. That was also the day we had no heating – which is never fun when it’s COLD outside. Jamieson officially finished B Track with a half day on Friday and said good bye to all his friends. He got lots of emails so he was happy about that. School was out for everyone for Thanksgiving, this year 3 days earlier than usual because of the budget situation the teachers are taking extra days off during the year to try and help other teachers have their jobs ( I don’t get why any Govt would let this happen to their Education system - which is a big reason why we are leaving too) and the sad thing is our friend Bindy (Jamieson’s principle) said it’s looking like there’s more next year.
Bruce on the other hand was in travelers hell!! A storm was arriving in Utah and his flight was cancelled so he kept the car and started on the 80 freeway home trying to stay in front of the storm. Let’s just say it was a little stressful, the mountains near here had been closed the night before so I was panicing, he was driving in a storm so he was panicing…..lots of updating phone calls and slow driving till 2am (Phew!!)
We had early basketball games which was a good and bad thing up early but home early too. We are not used to those early starts usually we get the 10am games or later. Jamieson went over to play at Cam’s (team mate) and Conner’s friend Paul came over so we lost one and gained one, then Sunday Conner stayed at Paul’s and then Monday Paul stayed at ours again, then I said that was enough, they thought it was pretty funny though. Otherwise it was a pretty casual week for the boys, Bruce and I were trying to make sure all the orders he got on his trips were being filled etc, I did some packing and came to the realization that I was not doing it all this time on my own and stopped.
Thursday rolled around and we headed over to Andrea and Roberts in the afternoon for some turkey!!! It was a fun night, Roberts kids were there (even though they are grownups) Andrea’s friend from work and her family came as aswell and after dinner Paula, Steve and Steve’s mum came over for dessert. The kids played with the dogs and other kids we watched some football I got to spend some time with my friend and we were stuffed and home at a reasonable hour – It was a good last Thanksgiving. We had a sport free weekend so we made the most of it and did nothing – so we finished the month with a lot less stress than we started – thank goodness!
The countdown is on.....
