Hmmm  I saw this on my xanga friend Shirlanns' site...   Kinda interesting, and yes...  It sounds like me...  Where's that Margarita???                For some reason I couldnt get the code to work so here is the "plain" version 

***You Are 45% Angry***

How Angry Are You?
http://www.blogthings.com/howangryareyouquiz/

1 more day and then its Friday!  I can’t believe how lonnnngggg this week has been.  Yeah, yeah, I know it was only 4 days.  But gee whiz!   I thought we had all the bus garbage straightened out.  I guess we didn’t.  Upset parents, upset drivers..  Things have been changed around a few times in just 3 days.  Two of the kids that were taken off my bus have been put back on.  I guess the DOT did tell one parent that their kid had to ride the other bus, that parent is really ticked.   So I am officially back up to 50 kids on the bus.  At least I am still 10 kids down from when the school year started back up.   I am going to be redoing my seating chart.  I have kids that just HAVE to be separated.  I can’t handle the noise and confusion anymore.  One parent tonight made the mistake of meeting her kids at the bus.  I let her know that tonight wasn’t a good night for her son.  I have had to talk with her 3 times now about his behavior on the bus.  Hopefully this time he may listen a little bit, that and the fact that I am putting him back in a seat with his sister and little brother.  That might cool him down some

Hubby had the last 2 days off from work.  My future son in law came up and helped him work on the deck and they got a lot done.  I think he will be ready to lay the decking boards real soon.  This deck is going up a lot faster than the other one did.  

This is just one small part of our 20x24ft deck...

We didn’t do anything for the holiday weekend.  Hubby had to work so me and the kids just hung around home.  We did go out on the bike a couple nights ago though.  Hubby took me to Red Lobster for their all you can eat shrimp feast that is going on right now.  We both love the shrimp scampi.  So it was cheesy biscuits and shrimp scampi for us and then a cool ride home.  The moon sure was beautiful.  It is full now and was shining a deep orange color…  We drove thru the forest preserve and saw a family of raccoons running across the road.  I am always afraid a deer will jump out in front of us but so far that has never happened near the preserve.

No other news for now…  I am just really looking forward to a quiet weekend…   I hope all my xanga friends are doing well.  I am off to check up on you all now that I have some time.  THEN I will work on a new bus-seating chart and maybe enjoy a good stiff margarita  

Wow!  It’s Saturday already…   Where did the week go?   

Schoolbus news: I finally got the confirmation email from the school saying the routes have officially changed.  I was given 6 kids from the other route, which means I now have a rotten hilly, windy gravel road I have to drive down.  It takes 10 minutes to go to the end and come back out.  That wont be too bad until winter.  I am really wondering if I will be able to get that big bus up those slippery hills.  I AM NOT looking forward to it.   I received a phone call from the DOT yesterday, she informed me that I would be getting 2 of the students they had taken off my bus route back.  Which means now I have gotten 8 students back so I am up to 49 students, (which is still better than 60) plus I have an added 15 minutes to my route.  I wasn’t happy.  I asked her why she couldn’t turn the other bus route around and leave those kids on it, since it was simple enough for her to turn my entire route around.  Plus that bus will be going down that same exact road to the same exact house.  There are kids that get dropped off there to the babysitter and I told her the first time those parents saw me stop and drop the 2 kids off and not drop all their kids off they would be really angry.  She said she would check into it.  So we will see what happens come Tuesday.   I did hear that as far as the other driver goes I am on THE list….   And it isn’t the good one    Oh well…..

Deck news: Hubby has to work the late shift tonight which means he wont be home til after 9:30pm…  The deck holes are all filled with concrete so on Tuesday and Wednesday when he gets a couple days off he will be able to get the posts up and start building the deck.  He wont get it all built immediately, but hopefully since the weather is beginning to cool off he will get it done fairly soon…   The next few days aren’t supposed to get out of the 60’s during the day.  I guess fall is coming quickly….  Our brand new furnace and a/c was delivered a few days ago.  So that is one more thing that needs to be hooked up before the weather gets really cold….  It is one thing to be hot with no central air,  it is something else to see your breath inside

Today looks like it is going to be a busy day.  I think I mentioned my oldest daughter was moving back into her own apartment.  She stopped by this morning to get my son to help her move some things.  When he gets back he has the lawn to mow, some dirt to smooth out and a posthole to fill plus his inside chores to do.  Sara, (my 15 yr old daughter) is doing her chores now so she can spend the night with her other sister.  I am hoping all the chores get done and we can get the house straightened up a bit.  Then I have some grocery shopping I need to get done.  It never ends does it?

My oldest son is on his way over with my grandson to visit for a little while so I better get going….    Have a great day everyone

I didn’t get back to update like I thought I would…  So here I am a few days later…     Hubby got the electric line all fixed up and re buried, (along with a mental note to NOT dig in that spot again!)    our power was only off for about 30 minutes this time.  It’s amazing how much easier this stuff is to do when it is daylight and not 9pm at night...   The holes are dug, the ones for the deck and also the ones for our privacy fence.   Son Alex got some branches trimmed out of a few trees that have been needing a good pruning, and we got some dirt mounds leveled out.  That tractor sure came in handy.  Alex trimming branches..

Hubby took the tractor back yesterday morning, came home and poured concrete in the rain..  He looked like a drowned rat when he finally finished.  The building inspector showed up early afternoon and we are now good to get started building the deck.  All of that fun starts tomorrow.

A pic of our German Shepherd, Baron..  This is for Tracy who commented on him

Lil and my 3 little grandbabies popped in Sunday afternoon after the family reunion on her biological fathers side.  We need to get some more pictures taken of all the little girlies together.  My 3 granddaughters are close in age to my littlest baby.  Domi is 4, Miranda<(mine) is almost 3, Ani girl is 2 and little Annalise is almost 3 weeks old.  They are going to have so much fun growing up together.  They already get into way too much trouble together….

A pic of Miranda just because I love her so much

I haven’t heard anything from the DOT yet this week.  Next Tuesday is when all the route changes are supposed to take effect.  I am looking forward to it.  I keep telling myself “just a few more days!”  I will be so glad when the bus gets thinned out a bit.       That’s it for news for now…   Have a great night xanga buds 

Imagine this….   Digging, digging, digging…  Then you hear Pop!!! Sizzle!!!    Lights flicker, the auger gets red hot, you smell that nasty something electrical is burning smell…   The house goes dark, kids are screaming, baby is running…  and silence….    Yep, you guessed it…  hubby hit the underground power line that goes into our house.    Now it is dark and we are out of power,  BUT all the deck holes are dug!   All is not lost though…  Hubby and son Alex, dig a bigger hole, find the sliced electrical wire and because hubby is just that good in a couple hours he is able to get power back to the house, (about 10:30 last night).  We get up this morning to rain pouring down…  Off to Menards for a proper piece of wire and some shrink stuff to splice the wire in and make it waterproof.   The demo squad is outside as I type this preparing to dig fence holes now…    I have a turkey in the oven so we will have a hot dinner in a few hours and then hubby will turn the power off and get the line fixed properly and permanently…  I will be adding updates as the day goes on…  (Please send good vibes)    Ohhhh  I hear the delivery truck from Menards..   Our decking boards have arrived     Back to work.....

Where our new BBQ Deck is going to be, taken yesterday afternoon...

some of the deck holes and under the blue tarp is our power wire waiting to be repaired today.. 

Woo Hoo!!!  Things are a changing!      I got all my papers together this morning and went to my meeting.  Three hours later I was doing the happy dance out the door…  (well,  not really cuz I didn’t want “them” to know how tickled I was, but I was dancing inside!)      I will be getting 19 students taken off the bus, but I will be getting 6 added so I will only really be losing about 13.  Kinda hard to explain, but my route will once again be the west of the grade school and down to the river.  All the kids along the highway will be picked up by the other driver, although at this point in time the other driver doesn’t know this.  Changes will take effect on 9/5 after we come back from Labor Day weekend.  All parents affected by these changes will be notified by the DOT in a letter and any concerns will be addressed then.  In the next week the other drivers will be notified of the changes because this affects not only me and the other driver but also 2 other routes.  We will actually be shifting a few of the kids from one bus to one of the other buses to decrease drive times and numbers of students on the buses.  Hopefully it will all work out in the end.  I do get those extra 6 kids that are on a piece of route that I have never driven before, but when compared to what I have been dealing with for the last few years I am expecting this to be much easier.  I did also bring up a couple stops on my route that are in unsafe places in the winter.  One stop is in the middle of a rural hill, which is very unsafe.  I have actually slid down that hill backwards and sideways before with kids on the bus and never want to do that again so I requested the DOT to send an official letter to those parents telling them I don’t go up that hill in the winter, she agreed.  And the other stop was just designated as a no stop since it is in a blind spot.  This new DOT seems to be on the ball.  I really hope things continue this way.  I am expecting the other drivers to be ticked, but sometimes things need to be changed to implement new ideas.  I think this school district is due for a few new ideas…     Anyway,  hubby is outside with the tractor and post hole auger that we rented for the weekend.  No more digging by hand for us.  (He gets a 3-day weekend!  Very unusual but great to have him around for 3 days in a row )   At this rate we will have all the deck holes done and maybe even most of the fence posts dug before the weekend is up.  Another of our projects is getting at least half of the privacy fence up around our 1 acre…     So anyway…  time to go check out the tractor and the digging, but before I go…   here is a shot of baby and hubby on the tractor…   Big boys and their big toys!!! 

Miranda is driving this big tractor in our yard!!!

Is that a proud daddy or what?       Have a great weekend xanga buds 

I have to make this a fast entry because Miranda has to go watch the "vampire daddy" movie RIGHT NOW!    Tomorrow is my appointment with the DOT about the bus issues.  I have all my paperwork together and am ready to go.   I ended up with 59 students on the bus and a route that takes a little over an hour to drive.  The distance isnt so bad it is just the number of students...   Anyway,  off to watch the movie before baby has a major meltdown...   I will let everyone know how the meeting goes tomorrow

Sweet dreams

Tomorrow is the big day…  Back to another year of driving the schoolbus.  Goodbye freedom...

(Identifying school info removed, but that's my bus)

I keep wondering why I do it?   Do I enjoy the punishment I get from hauling 50+ kids around everyday?  The yelling, the fighting, the getting up at 5:45am just to leave at 6:36am every morning?  And every year the bus gets fuller and fuller.  I spent all afternoon Friday contacting the parents of the 62 students I have listed on my route sheet.  Over half of them weren’t home.  I left messages on the answering machines at the homes where they had one.  Can you believe in this day and time that there are homes with no answering machines?  Well I have figured out most of those people that don’t have answering machines live on my bus route.  Three parents called me back to confirm pick up times and give me extra info on their kids.  About 1/3 of the parents are complaining about the length of the bus route already and about how long their child will be riding.  Every parent wants the bus route turned around so THEIR child gets off quicker…   How am I supposed to do that with 62 different kids on the bus???   One parent informed me I am picking up not 2 but 3 of her children…   Apparently one of them just didn’t get put on my bus list.   So as of right now the official count is 62 students on my bus.  All kindergarten thru 6^th grade are sitting 3 to a seat.  The older kids are sitting 2 to a seat.  The bus is full…   It took me all morning to get the seating chart figured out, but at least everything is updated now.  So for the rest of the night I am free    I think I’ll go take a shower, wash my hair and wait for hubby to get home.  The kids want to watch Wrestling Summer Slam tonight so I went ahead and ordered it for them.  Maybe my last free night will be a quiet one

So that is it for today…   The last few days have revolved around bus stuff and getting ready for school to start.  I still need to make another trip to town and get my son outfitted for school, but that will wait til tomorrow.  Tomorrow is a half school day so we can do some shopping in the afternoon.  I think I have most of the school supplies they need, I just need to wait for official lists from the teachers now with any miscellaneous things….   

I need to catch up with all my xanga buds.  I haven’t even had time to do that….    And for the record, I don’t hate my job even though at times it sounds like I do.  I just get tired of all the hassle all the time and the mentality that school bus drivers are stupid that seems to come down the ranks….     

Have a great Sunday evening everyone

Its official…  They brought the bus back today…  School starts in 4 days…   I still have some bus paperwork to get finished, mostly dealing with student information and I also need to have a seating chart filled out…  As for the number of kids on my bus,  the DOT will have to get that one figured out….

Annalise came home from the hospital this morning    Her bilirubin level went down a little more during the night so the Dr thinks she will be fine now.  We had taken Miranda to the Dr today for her toe check up and he gave her the ok to do anything she would like to do now…   he said her toe looks great and her toenail is even starting to grow!!    He was so happy about that because he was really worried that it might have been permanently damaged…    For a family celebration we met Lily and my granddaughters,  Dominique, Anastasia, and little Annalise at McD’s for lunch     Miranda was so happy to be allowed back on the playland equipment   We had lunch, played for awhile and headed home so hubby could get to work.  He has to close the store down again tonight, but at least he gets off work in an hour…

I think tomorrow is a quiet day.  Ohhhh until about 4:30pm, then I have to go to school for a bus meeting…   More of a welcome back and a chance to meet our new DOT…   I wonder what good news she will have?????

I better get going,  I am babysitting my niece and nephew for awhile cuz their mom and dad had to go into town….    Have a great night everyone

Little Annalise spent the night in the hospital.  Apparently after they drew her blood levels yesterday for the jaundice they discovered it was at a 19   Borderline is a 13.  So Lily had to take the baby in at 11pm last night to be put under the bilirubin lights.  I called her this morning to check on them both and the baby’s level had dropped 1 point.  Over the course of the day it has dropped another point so that is good.   I went up to visit them both for a little while after I got back from going with hubby to the VA Hospital for his yearly physical.   What I thought were actual bilirubin lights is now a blanket the baby lies on tucked into a special little outfit that allows the light to reach her body.  No more mask to protect her eyes, because they aren’t exposed to the light and it seems to work great   The nurses said it is a brand new machine and little Annalise is the 2^nd baby to use it.  Just a little while ago Lily called and told me the Dr is very happy with how baby is responding and so she doesn’t need to be on the lights over night.  They will check her in the morning and if her level is the same or has gone down any more they will let her go home…

As for the trip to the VA Hospital…   I hate those yearly trips.  We had to be there at 9am for a fasting blood draw and then his actual Dr appt was scheduled for 10:30am.  Finally at 1:30pm we got in to see the Dr, this Dr is always backed up…  So then it is go thru the test results, all good except for the weight again….   (So we really have to work on some weight loss)  and then upstairs for an x ray to see if they can find out why hubby is having pain in his right hip.  Of course we will have to wait for those results, but in the meantime the Dr is getting an appt set up to go and see the Orthopedic Dr’s in the VA Hospital.  Maybe they can get it all figured out.

I did find out from my daughter and new son to be that the reason they decided to wait 2 yrs before the wedding is that they want to save up the money to pay for all of it themselves…   I was very pleased to hear that.  Not because I don’t want to give my daughter a wedding, but because I really like to see them take responsibility for themselves…  It just shows me a lot of initiative on their part and I really like that.  So, in a couple of years we will have a wedding and a big honeymoon.

I also got some good news from my oldest daughter, the one that moved back home in December 2005.  She has found a nice apartment and will be moving back out on her own in a few weeks…   I am happy for her as I remember at her age I could not have lived with my mom and family…   I told her as long as she could swing her rent, utilities and buy food I was happy.  If she can’t do those things I don’t want her to move.  She has assured me that she has thought this all out and has everything figured out and can make it…    Ok, mom’s happy then…   That just means that we have to move her and her stuff in a few weeks, but on the flip side,  Miranda gets her room back….

Speaking of Miranda….   tomorrow she goes back to the Dr to get her toe checked.  I think he said they would take an x-ray and make sure it is mending properly.  If so then I am guessing she can go back to playing at her favorite place,  McD’s… and swimming, and running, and climbing…   all those things I have a heart attack when I see her try to do right now. 

The countdown is on..  5 more days and school starts…   back to driving the bus every day..  I just hope the kid problem gets taken care of…    I just can’t see transporting over 60 kids on my bus ever day…   Well,  time to close..  I have to go in a few minutes to pick hubby up from work…  have a good night everyone