through the clearing smoke

So as the smoke clears from the insanity of the last few weeks, I am looking ahead to only one half day of work scheduled for next week! There will be testing, but I haven't been asked to cover any of those teachers yet, anyway. Yesterday was a really slow day, the teacher I was in for spends half her day in the second grade, and they were out of the school on a trip all day. So I hung out with the third grade teacher, who really didn't need much help. Then, to finish off my week, I broke the copier. I set it for 25 copies, it made 8, and then a red wrench turned on and it said to call for service. So I confessed to the principal and teacher whose copies I was unable to complete, dodged some other ranting staff members, and snuck out a back door.

Then only to come home to Brian who is lobbying NOT to have to endure the punishment I had promised him (he forgot three homework assignments in math this half-marking period so far; then couldn't do his homework and had no notes with him; then when finally he finished it with help, he left it at home and didn't realize till he got out of my car at school) so that he can go run wild in the neighborhood with a bnch of boys. Against my better judgement, I allowed it, and he came home telling some tale of how they entered a church, one of them spoke on the microphone, they were asked to write down their names and addresses, and those who put down fake names were taken into a police car and forced to confess their true identities. Fortunately (??), Brian had put his real name.

E is sick again. It started with a cough and hoarse voice and now she has an incredibly stuffy nose. I gave her some claritin D this morning but mostly I am trying to keep her separate from the other kids. I'm taking Megan out present shopping for her friend, whose party is tonight, and I'll just have to take E out in a separate trip. Aside from the obvious reasons for keeping them separate (they don't like each other!) I'm going to try to have E keep her virus to herself if possible. This is historically a bad time of year for Megan and sinuses, and she doesn't need additional exposure to sickness!

Oh, and in other news, we had our pool opened today! I'll try to get some pictures of it later on. I still haven't found my camera. Progress reports are due to come today, and the sun is actually shining. I took Megan down to the beach for her practice this morning and I took an hour-long walk. Someone else met me halfway and I felt like I was running to keep up with her. This is not a bad thing, but I felt terribly old and out of shape! I really have to get back up on it ... I used to be fast myself! Well, I did have other things to say but I really can't remember what they might have been - probably just rambling about Megan's summer job (or lack thereof, other than volunteer) and our European vacation (or lack thereof, other than the hours I have spent on the internet trying to find one for a reasonable price! (disclaimer: post not proofread!)