This week has been interesting. Warmer weather, storms, craziness. It is garage sale week here. I know I have written about city wide garage sale week before, but it goes without saying it is insane. Everyone collectively loses their minds. What? A tv stand that I don't need? I must stop my car in the middle of the street, walk over, talk to the person, try to talk them down from the $2 that they are asking for it, and then stand there talking some more, all while still blocking the street. And it starts early - as in the sales are set up and going now! As in, yes, try to get to work Hope - just try - you want to drive around the side street to park the bus, as you do every single day? Yea....too bad for you! :)
The garage sale is the biggest fundraiser that the 4-H club does each year. And for me, even if I don't volunteer, because I am in town, I get voluntold regardless. People start bringing stuff to my office to donate to the 4-H garage sale. My office is full of donations, my car is full of donations, I have people calling to see where I am at, so they can drop off donations. And I truly don't mind, but it always turns my week into a bit of a circus.
Last night, I told our neighbor I would swing by after my bus route to pick up their donations. As I was finishing my route, the bus radio started doing the screaming weather alert thing (if you live in the mid-west, you know). The storms were still a bit north of us, so I dropped the girls off with instructions to get chores done quickly and I would be right back. As I am at the neighbor's house, loading their donations, I can hear their weather radio going off inside their house. I got in the car - to hear tornado warning, but north of us, and severe thunderstorm warning for our area. I quickly ran home to find the goats were out (apparently our goat pen expansion project needs more work). The girls and I managed to get them caught, and put up right as the lightening started bouncing around. We didn't quite make it inside before the rain started falling. It was a toad strangler!
My little bus boss!
This is from my parent's back deck. We didn't have quite as good of a view of the rainbow!
We lost a lot of the new leaves and branches from our trees!
The rainbow we could see from our back deck!
Mallory got worried about her basement flooding - although she said her sump pump seemed to be working. She decided to come out and grab our shop vac in case she needed it. As she came in the house, she told me that the stop sign on my bus was flashing. The current fleet of buses we have is honestly a pile of junk. They are absolute garbage. The rear stop sign's wiring and relay switches are on the outside of the bus - which means they get wet when it rains, which means that they can and do short out. I had to run out and cut the battery in order to stop it. Ridiculous. I stopped to show the transportation mechanic this morning, and he said sadly, he can't fix it, but it should stop when it dries out. Nice? I noticed there were a couple other buses flashing as well. The good news is the sign folds up and comes out as it is supposed to, so the flashing is up next to the bus and not stopping people as I drive down the road. What a fiasco!
The good news is I haven't needed to water my garden, or my trees this week!
Mallory has spent this school year traveling around, visiting the schools of the other Kansas Teacher of the Year nominees. They have collaborated, commiserated, compared and contrasted and become good friends. This week, she had her last school visit. She has learned so much, grown professionally, and really taken in a lot of information. It was a good program, a great bunch of people to get to know, and a really amazing opportunity for her. Resources I know she will continue to utilize and make herself an even bigger asset to her career!
Aunt Mal also gave the girls spray chalk - thus beginning their careers as vandals!
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