Should I Apologize?

That is a rhetorical question.

Maybe a better question would be "Should I feel sorry?"

Let me explain.

This week is a testing week at my daughters' school.  The testing is for sophomores.  My daughters are not sophomores.  One is a freshman and one is a junior.  So the testing does not apply to them.

I got a phone call from the school telling me that only the sophomores need to go to school at the regular time (7:30 a.m.) and that all of the other students don't have to be there until 9:30 a.m.  Then the voice on the message said that the buses would be running on the regular schedules.

What?

Well, Haley's Big Sis was all over that.  

She would not be going to school until 9:30 a.m.  Done deal.  She also wants to drive to school all week, because that would be for convenient for me.  Sweet thing.  (Can you hear the sarcasm when you read that?)

That is just fine, but I was still stuck on the buses running at regular time while my child doesn't need to be there until 9:30 a.m.

So yesterday morning I asked Haley's bus driver what was up.  Would she be picking Haley up in the morning this week or not?  She told me that she would check and let me know when she brought Haley back in the afternoon.

So I waited.

When the bus came around the corner I ran out to talk to her.  She said that Haley had a note from the teacher, but the gist was that Haley could go to school at regular time and the bus would come and get her or I could take her later.  It was up to me.

So I asked her if Haley would have something to do.  Would the teacher and helpers be there for her?  The answer was Yes.  

So I said "See you in the morning."

What would you have done?

Another rhetorical question.

I did what I did for several reasons.  

Believe me there was a little voice inside my head saying "You could sleep in every day this week!"  

But, there was another little voice inside my head that said "Haley won't."

So, if Haley is up and the bus will come to get her and her teacher is there for her she is going to school.

Done deal.

Not Quite Enough

During dinner last night Haley was pointing to a model of the Daylight steam engine in her Historic Rail catalog.  It was a model of the engine when it was painted red, white and blue as the American Freedom Train. 

She wanted to know how many dollars it was.  I looked and told her it was $185.00.

She pointed at several other things in the catalog during dinner.  Some videos and some puzzles and a t-shirt.

After dinner I was in my office when I heard a sound that I didn't recognize. 

I went in to the kitchen to find that Haley had dumped her wallet on to the island and was counting her money.  She was counting it one, two, three even though she had many different kinds of coins.

I reminded her the difference between the coins.  We talked about the dime being 10 cents and the nickle being 5 cents and the penny being 1 cent.  Then I helped her count her change.  She had 85 cents.

She pointed to her catalog again and said "Money."

"Haley, that model is $185 dollars.  You have 85 cents.  That's not even 1 dollar."

I know she doesn't get it. 

I don't know when she ever will, but she is definitely thinking.

This is what happens...

...when I don't post in a while.

People are asking me for posts.  Several people in the last week have upbraided me (politely) for not posting.

Here is my problem.  I am a little late with the posts.  Lots of things have been happening around here.  Now I can't decide what to write about, where to begin.  I want to tell you everything, but I know I should be picky.  I am a procrastinator.  This is my life.

So, this is what you missed:

Haley is on the Honor Roll at her High School.  She has a 4.0 grade point average.  I am sure she will be valedictorian when she graduates. :)

Haley has pooped on the toilet, not once, but four separate times in the last couple of weeks.  It is a big deal around here.  We all high five and yell.

On Sunday I was out of the house most of the day and when I went upstairs I was greeted with a toy explosion.  ALL of Haley's toys were ALL over the second floor.  She had been busy.

Haley is a teenager.  You know how teenagers can be.  She has an attitude sometimes.  For some reason the attitude is directed at her Father more than anyone else.  She grunts when he asks her something.  She pushes him away when he gets too close.  Last night he was walking by her as she sat at the dinner table on his way to sit down and she punched him.  She punched him, um, you know where...he yelled and landed on the floor.  I tried not to laugh.  Haley's Big Sis tried not to laugh.  He tried not to laugh.

It wasn't funny...really...it wasn't.  Hee, hee, hee.

Don't tell her I told you this, but Haley's Big Sis enjoys putting Hannah Montana songs on her computer and playing them loud so that Haley can dance around the kitchen singing.  And boy does she!

Haley got a notebook for Christmas from our neighbor.  It is so cute.  It has her name on it and it came with a pen.  Haley likes to write and draw in her notebook.  She likes me to write words so that she can trace them.  She had her Grandma write some words in her notebook when we were visiting them.  She wrote Grandma and Grandpa in the notebook.  She only wrote it on one page, in hindsight it might have been better to write on several pages because Haley looks at that page and points at that page and talks about that page so much that it is very dog-eared.  I am afraid that it will soon fall out of the notebook.

Haley still wants to go tent camping at the Tree Farm.  She talks about it everyday.  We have the words Tent, Camping, Fire and Tree Farm on the Magic White Board.  It is only a matter of time.

So...Life is good.  Haley is busy.  She improves at everything just a little bit every day.

And that is what you've missed.