It Figures!

Just a little grumping here today about something that seems to be the norm in my life -the telephone and when it rings!

It used to be as soon as I would decide to lay down and take a much needed little catnap (well, in my mind, naps are much needed things, ya know), it was inevitable that within 5-10 minutes after I would fall asleep, the phone would ring and it would always seem to be my older daughter calling. I used to think she was a bit of a mind reader or just knew my ways and my schedule all too well -either that or she had impeccable timing. But then, knowing that timing is far from impeccable in that daughter's life, I eventually ruled that out.

However, yesterday, I was pretty much convinced that there must be a secret camera located somewhere in this house that captures me sleeping on the couch and that it has a timer too, to let people know how long I have been asleep -the better then for them to phone me and wake my butt up!

I figure this because try and I did to get a nice little nap under my belt, each time I would fall asleep, within 10 minutes the darned phone would ring and wake me up.

Finally, after the third try for a solid nap was interrupted, I gave up on the idea of resting and proceeded to tire myself out by cleaning the floors downstairs with a good mopping, followed up by baking a cake and getting it iced as a little surprise for one of the therapists who works with the grandkids and who was scheduled to show up here yesterday for a little home visit with the hooligans. I even found some of that canned icing that you can spray on and write a message with it on the item being iced too and so I trimmed the cake with a "hello" to Renee with the word "Trouble" on the cake. (We refer to this therapist as "Trouble" because a few years back, shortly after Kurtis finally began to develop a bit of a vocabulary, one day when Renee was coming in the house, someone made the wisecrack of "Here comes Trouble now!": Kurtis picked up on that and began referring to Renee then as "Trouble" and it's since then stuck as our code name for her.

Well, wouldn't you just know it after I got all that done and Mandy got home from work, I learned then that Renee wasn't coming yesterday after all but rather would be here today instead!

Oh well, at least I have the cake still ready and waiting for "Trouble" to come and have a chunk of it to celebrate her birthday a few days late! It will give Kurtis a big thrill though today to be able to sing his birthday greetings to Renee and present her with this sorry looking cake decorating. (I didn't like the way the icing came rushing out of that little canister as it gave you no control at all when trying to write with it then!)

On another note -a little different direction here -yesterday was the first day of school for this year for our district so both kids were really happy and very excited about that. The day went by quickly too and before we knew it, the van was here dropping Kurtis off so the school bus should have been right behind that. Mandy walked up to the bus stop to meet Maya but ended up standing there for very near to a half-hour as the bus was very late getting the kids home.

The driver informed Mandy and the neighbor up the street (also waiting for her daughter's return) that the reason they were so late was because they had been hunting for a missing student. The student was finally located and had boarded the wrong bus. Thank goodness that's all that was wrong there but boy, when a school bus is that late bringing the kids home, all kinds of thoughts do cross a parent or grandparent's minds.

I later learned that the little boy who had boarded the wrong bus is like my grandkids -autistic -and what had happened, according to his grandmother, is that his TSS at the school had left before ascertaining he was on the correct bus!

It brought back memories to me of a day in March of 1973 -right after my ex-husband, older daughter and I had moved from Philipsburg down to a little neighboring village here and my daughter, who was in kindergarten at that time, had gone that morning on the bus to the school here. When it came time for her to arrive back home, I waited and waited but no daughter got off either the elementary or the high school bus. Before I knew it, almost 40 minutes had passed and no child that belonged to me came home and I was in more than a bit of a panic mode!

I called the school to inquire about her but they said there were no extra children there who might have missed their bus but they would check on daughter's whereabouts as much as possible. I waited -very nervously for an answer and when they called me back, they asked if daughter knew anyone in Grassflat? Well, yes -certainly she does because that's where her grandmother lives. Then they asked if she knew a little girl named "Karen" and they gave Karen's surname -and yes, I said, she does know that girl.

Apparently what happened was that my daughter exited the classroom in Karen's company and boarded the bus with her and got off at Karen's stop too -which was, by the way, about 2 doors from my Mom's house! My mom was a trifle surprised when her granddaughter showed up at her house but didn't give it a second though that she wasn't supposed to be arriving there that day!

Thankfully, in both instances of boarding the wrong bus, both kids were located and were safe and sound. But not after having created a whole lot of panic in the minds of parents and grandparents alike in both instances!

Now -I'm entertaining suggestions for supper tonight so if anyone has some good ideas of what I can fix, feel free to share them with me because my menu planning is currently operating on brain dead!

It figures!