Weird stuff

Is it summer?  No?  But look, we are at the ballpark!  Come on summer, I need you!  

We have hit the "I  need" portion of the school year.  You know...the part where educational stuff has long since been thrown by the wayside, and we are doing the year end party, field trip, yearbook signing, movie watching, food eating, snack bringing, do anything to pass the time type of stuff.  The part where every single day the kids start the day by telling me 'mom, I need $3 for a field trip, $5 for a field day shirt, $10 for an arcade ticket"  next thing you know, you have spent $75 and haven't even gotten dressed for the day yet.  I absolutely hate this time of year.  School stuff is like they thought oh hey....we never did anything fun with these kids all year, so let's do it all this week.  Summer stuff, seeing that you are already insane decides to magically appear, and the list of summer programs is knocking on my door with permission forms and sign-up sheets all here all at the same time.  Can we just finish the school stuff before we start the summer stuff?  Anyway, overwhelmed, tired, ready for an ending, too much to do, too much to remember, too much to think about, too much to try accomplishing what needs to be done, and I am sorry, but I hate it.  Am I grouchy?  Perhaps.  Am I over it?  yes.  So there you go.  Happy go Lucky Hope has gone away.  Crazy, wild hair, cash handing, run kids everywhere, no brain cells left Hope has taken over.  I needed this weekend, I needed a break, and I wish they would not leave me so quickly!  When I die, they will probably put on my gravestone "the woman who never had enough weekend time."  It is a heck of a thing to be known for.  

We are still learning here.  The turtle thing has a steep learning curve.  When I think I have read everything, figured out what needs to be learned, and what routine we need to establish, they throw something new at me.  This turtle, the Undertaker, has decided to shed his shell.  I did not know they did this.  I guess I should have known - seems like common sense, but when I saw this little schutes lifting, I freaked out.  Now I know.  I tried to take a picture, but I am realizing that the black stock tank makes photo taking difficult at best.  Big Dick Randy hates to be looked at, and so when he sees me coming, he dives into the water!  I tried to get a picture of how Randy lays on top of the Undertaker when they are basking.  I am amused by these silly beasts.  

Jim left this morning to spend a couple of days in Indiana with his side of the family.  I hope he has a good time.  He works hard, and sometimes I get frustrated by how dedicated he is to the job.  This weekend, he knew he was going to be gone, so he went into work to prepare everything for the council meeting.  He was there a pretty good chunk of the day, and he had agreed to going fishing with Andrew in the afternoon.  He got done, was very excited about the fishing trip, and the boys left.  He was planning to leave on Sunday, however there were things that he had to figure out in order to finish some reports for the meeting, and so he ended up working a pretty good chunk of the day on Sunday as well.  I am glad he is getting a few days of down time.  I know he was worried about leaving me to get everything done for the graduation party this weekend, but he did leave me with a bunch of more than capable help.  Lists have been made, the kids have the day out of school today and we are making progress.  The party is happening, even if the yard and house don't get finished!    

Even though we currently have a load on our lists, Preston and I decided to go ahead and get the pool up and running.  We are at the dead algae making the water cloudy stage.  With the weekend temperatures being in the 90's, I think we were both a little bit excited about this project.  Today we are filtering and probably adding more chemicals, although it smells like a chlorine factory already!  I know that pools are not a part of life that are a necessity, but it is my favorite part of summer.  I absolutely cannot wait to get my floaty, my sunglasses, a big drink and lay there soaking up the sun!  

This picture is one I wanted to keep because it will always remind me of something that happened that maybe makes me a bad human, but I laughed.  I mentioned that we have had a hard school year with Saige.  A kid in her class has been sexually harassing her.  I won't give a lot of details here, as this is a rated PG type of a blog, but it has been difficult.  Really, really difficult.  We have had meetings, sent emails, and finally last week, we met with the superintendent.  I sat in a meeting where my daughter told the superintendent all of the things she could remember about this year.  It was hard, and I am overwhelmed with pride for how she handled this with poise, and really eloquently told her story.  She was a rock star.  Unfortunately, the harassment has not been limited to Saige.  There are multiple girls who, along with their parents have complained and not a lot of discipline has happened.  Friday, after I met with Saige and the superintendent, I went out to lunch with Jim, and some of his co-workers.  This boy, Calvin, has been working for the city.  He is an old friend of Cameron's and we are so excited for him to get an excellent opportunity, even though we are sad he is leaving the city.  Anyway, as we were taking photos and celebrating Calvin, I got a text message.  One that went like this "you did not hear this from me, but a brother of a girl who was also harassed just beat the living daylights out of the little harasser."  I am a horrible human, because I literally laughed out loud.  Is it funny that a kid got beat up?  Normally I would say no, but in this case, I felt like it was Karma.  After a little while though, I also will say that I am sad for the kid.  I feel like the level of knowledge he has is an indication that he has been exploited.  It makes me sad that he hasn't gotten the help he needs.  I truly hope that he will get some mental health care.  I truly hope he will go on to live a happy life.  I also truly hope that he will stop messing with Saige and her friends.  Time will tell.  We will continue to advocate for our kids, and we will do whatever we need to do to protect them, empower them and help them stand up for what is right.  

Harper and Diablo - I love this guy! (*and the kid).  Harper reported that she thought he died.  She reached in to get him and he was definitely not dead.  Just sleeping I guess!  She was very relieved.  He is her baby!   

A little shout out.  To Andrew.  Saturday, as Jim was stuck at work, I had made arrangements to pick up some goats from a lady down the road.  The bottle kids I bought are finally getting healthy, but he setbacks with the illnesses has caused them not to grow very well.  I wanted a couple of replacements.  I knew I could handle it, but having an extra set of hands would be nice.  Andrew was at the house waiting for Jim.  I looked at him and said "hey - do you want to go do some farm guy stuff?"  Andrew is a lot like Jim....he never says no to me.  He jumped in the truck.  These goats were a little bigger than I thought, and I was glad he was there to help me wrangle them into the truck.  Then we started to leave, but the truck wouldn't start.  He got it running again.  Then we went to my brother's house to pick up a few bales of hay, because my hay guy was hurt in a farming accident, and the bales my dad and brother put up are a whole lot heavier than the stuff I have been buying.  I am not sure how I ever would have gotten them loaded without Andrew!  I was blessed with a great son in law in that kid!  :) 

I must wrap up this never-ending blog post.  I am sure I am not out of stuff to say, but I am definitely out of time, as the list of stuff to accomplish before Saturday is calling my name!