458 First Day of Fourth

Today my little girl went back to school. She is now officially a Fourth Grader. And while I am excited about the new level of calm in my house, I am already missing my girl. But hey! At least I was able to get on the computer for more than two minutes. Guess I will have time to bore everyone to death again.



I am keeping my fingers crossed for this year of school.

Last year Katie was miserable. Her teacher was a screamer, and the little girls in her class were already pulling out the "popular" card. It is amazing how kids interpret being "popular" as being the biggest bitch. Gee, thanks a lot Disney! She spent the summer asking me to homeschool her, but she WILL NOT listen to me so I would have no hope of her actually doing any work. Plus, I think it is important for kids to interact with others. They need to learn how to deal with conflict and adversity. In real life you will not always be surrounded by the ones who love you most, so you have to learn how to trust in yourself and have strength. It is a hard lesson to learn, and it is one I seem to be forgetting myself.

We are also breaking in two teachers to helping Katie monitor her diabetes. I can only hope it goes more smoothly than last year. If they start sending her to the office in order to call and eat her snack when her blood sugar is out of whack again I will flip my lid. She was missing thirty minutes of class ... and then being expected to understand what the teacher didn't teach her. The whole point to having her 504 Plan is so that her diabetes does not have an impact on her learning. Last year Katie was made to feel that there was something wrong with her. She felt singled out. She was made to feel that she was interrupting the class.

How hard is it to allow a child to check her sugar? She knows how to do it herself.

How distracting is it for her to eat a bag of fruit snacks? It isn't messy and it goes quickly.

How hard is it to show respect for a child? Way too hard apparently.

So, keep your fingers crossed and say a little prayer for Katie AND her teachers... I am hoping this won't be as bumpy of a ride as last year.



379 First Day of Third Grade

Mornings sleeping in have come to a close again. School started yesterday. I aam officially the mother of a third grader.
We rushed around on Wednesday trying to find some bermuda length shorts that would fit dress code. It was not the first time I had looked longingly at the uniform section. Ohh, the joy that is dressing your child like every other schmuck. Waking up and picking one from the bottoms pile and one from the tops and being ready to go. The ease! Anyone else in the Desoto County school system want to lobby for uniforms?
Bright and early (way too early for me) we got up and ready to head off to school. We only live about eight houses down from the walk through to the school, so I walked Katie to school for her first day. IT WAS HOT ... and worse than hot, IT WAS HUMID!! There was a huge flaming ball in the sky, but it looked so pretty shining in Katie's eyes that I forgave it. Of course when I tried to get Katie to let me take a pic she had to block her eyes and squint against the sun. Sigh ... she is not willing to suffer for my art ... how rude!

I did walk Katie to her class. I had to talk to her teacher and set up a few times for Katie to check her sugar and give her a few guidelines for taking care of Katie and her bloodsugar. We have a meeting with the county nurse to set up her new 504, but they are using her old plan until then. Turning my girl over to a new teacher is hard! We have been so lucky with our teachers so far. Each of Katie's teachers have been diligent with her diabetes. They knew exactly what to do and how to handle each situation. They were good about calling if they had a question. I am sure her new teacher will be wonderful and everything will go smoothly, but I have a hard time trusting someone else to keep my baby alive.

The day passed without a phone call and I headed up to the walk=thru at 2:20 to meet her as she walked home... And a group of kids came through, but no Katie. I asked the teachers at the bottom of the hill, and they said they had another group that goes out the back, or I could check the office. I walked to the back, no Katie. I tried to walk in to go to the office and was told "you can't go in there". EXCUSE ME! My eight year old is possibly wandering around somewhere because your incompetent asses did not make sure ON THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL that my daughter got in the right line?! and I can't go inside your school! So, I walked around to the front of the school (did I mention it was 102 degrees, with a heat index around 120 degrees) and just barely saw Katie being walked toward the street in front of the school to be sent across and wander around by herself in a neighborhood which is NOT hers?! She said she told the teacher she did not live that way, and they were still walking her down. I know, I only wrote our address down 15 times on paperwork. How could they possibly know which line she was supposed to be in to walk home? LIVID LIVID LIVID!!!

Add to that, one of our friends in the Madison, MS area has been reporting on Facebook that there have been three attempted kidnappings by the same man in the last few days. Hopefully he has been caught by now. But when I could not find my extremely beautiful child and knew she might be wandering around somewhere trying to find her way home, I was understandably angry. And SCARED, very scared! Each day the pervs and psychos of the world scare me more. Not for myself, but for my children.

All of that aside, Katie had a great day of school. She likes her teacher. Her teacher managed to keep her alive. One of her little friends is in her class. SHE WILL GET IN THE RIGHT LINE TO COME HOME. All is right in the world ... for now.

280 The rest of the 1st of 2nd

I totally forgot to mention that Katie's skirt was made by me. I think it is important to continue the tradition of wearing something Mom-made on the first day of school. My girl is much more rockin' than I ever thought of being! (Mom told me last night she was wondering why Katie's skirt looked frayed) And now you know why, too. When she picked out her shirt at Kohl's we also saw a really cute skirt with the "made from old jeans" look and black leggings underneath. Why buy it when you can make it??

I started with an old pair of Katie's jeans. These are 5Ts, but she can also put on her brothers 18month size jeans as Bermuda shorts.

You just rip the seams and realign them, stitch it up, and cut it off. A skirt is born. This is my first short skirt, but I have made full length skirts for Katie as well. In fact, she wore the full length one to her last day of school in 1st grade, I think.

And, of course I had to embellish it a little. Just some simple stitching (and you could not even see it under the shirt she wore). Sorry for the pics, it was night time when I finished the skirt.yes, she is still wearing the skirt, it just got pushed up when she sat in the bus. Good thing she is also wearing those leggings, huh!?While she was at school I made her a little purse our of one of the pants legs I cut off. Oh, and Sharpie markers :) I do love a good Sharpie marker!

We hadn't been home long from our dinner at Chili's to celebrate Katie's first day of school, when the sky went from gorgeous blue with puffy clouds to STORM ... and it went FAST!!! Needless to say, when we tucked away the floats and ran inside I cleared out the closet under the stairs. Luckily, we did not need it, but I had to have it ready. They called this "Significant Weather" in the alert on The Weather Channel site. It looks QUITE significant to me!

279 1st of Second

Yeah, I handed her the apple ... but she is the one that decided to actually bite it.

Oh, the leggings ... baggy.

The silliness in these pictures are all Katie induced.
She was VERY excited about her first day of school!

This is Katie's "Mooooooooom, can't you stop taking pictures and leave" face

.... and you know I will have to add some more when she jumps off the bus this afternoon!