Summer School

Even though it's only summer school and only lasts for 20 days because Annie gets to go to the Kindergarten class she has the feeling that she is a big important kindergartener now. She is pretty darn proud. Danny is enjoying being a fourth grader as well. He is taking Spanish and Greek Mythology (I don't remember these being options for summer school when I was younger!) So the first day of school I pick them up from the sitters after work and I ask how the first day was. Danny says he is taking spanish and has learned the spanish words for Good, so-so, and bad, he learned "how are you?" and "whats your name?" After telling me this he says that he is going to become fluent in spanish so that he can go to China........after a good laugh I explained to him that in China they speak Chinese, NOT spanish. When it was Annie's turn she told me that she had chicken nuggets, beans, applesauce, and chocolate milk, but she didn't like the beans and applesauce only the chicken nuggets and chocolate Milk, and she said all of that in one big breath.
So most of you may know the story of the second day of summer school but for those of you who don't know the follow up I thought I'd add it all in here as well. Both of my kids have been "car riders" since we started in this school district, the baby sitter takes them to and from school, since it's such a small town her home is too close to the school to get a bus stop but too far away to walk. So on the first day of summer school all goes as planned, Danny gets dismissed he goes to Annie's room and gets her and they go to Callies car and they are on their way. However on day two the plan goes amazingly wrong. This is the story I received from my "meeting" with the principal. When children are signed up for school their names and addresses are sent to the bus barn, the bus barn then has the task of deciding if each child is eligible to ride a bus, they put a bus number by the childs name and send that list back to the school, that is how they know who rides a bus. Now OUR address is eligible to ride a bus however since the kids are in before and after school care our address should not have been sent to the bus barn. Because Danny is in 4th grade now they don't so much look at those because those kids are old enough to know what bus to ride and what their after school plans are. However kindergarteners are new to the experience so the teachers find out if they ride a bus, and put a sticker on their shirt with their bus number on it. Apparently on Monday 9 children got left behind, they were not given a bus number and as their paniced parents called from the bus stop when their child didn't get off it was determined that there was a slight hole in the procedure. So on Tuesday morning the principal had a chat with each of the teachers letting them know the importance of getting each child onto the correct bus at the correct time. Which brings us to Tuesday, Annie was given a sticker with a bus number, she told the teacher then that she was a car rider not a bus rider and the teacher said ok. However as the day wore on it was forgotten and at the end of the day she was put into the bus line and walked out to a bus where she again told the teacher that she was a car rider and her brother would not be on the bus. The teacher not knowing that Annie knows exactly what the routine is tells her to go ahead and get on the bus and look for her brother and if her brother isn't on the bus to go ahead and get back off. So Annie gets on the bus, and of course her brother is not on there, but this is where the story takes a turn that the principal now knows is NOT acceptable! She tells the driver that her brother is not on the bus and she is a car rider not a bus rider and the driver tells her that it's ok just sit down. The teacher seeing Annie not get back off the bus goes to the principal and tells him that "the Pope girl" (it is confusing her to other people that her name is Melina but she goes by Annie I guess) said her brother wasn't going to be on the bus but she didn't get back off. The principal knows Danny very well (from a previous incident where he had to take Danny home after school one day) and he knew that neither child was to get on a bus so he runs into the office to get the driver on the radio, with the babysitter right behind him. When they get into the office they hear the driver on the radio letting dispatch know that he has just dropped off "the Pope girl" at 404 Sellers and he didn't see anyone there. This is what pissed me off. I understand things happen, especially at the beginning of a school year, I am completely fine with the fact that she got put on a bus but she should have NEVER EVER EVER been let off the bus alone. She was let off on 33 Hwy that runs through town and had to walk across it, our house is about half way down the road, no way the driver could have seen our house from where he was to know if anyone was home and since no one was waiting for her at the bus stop she should have been kept on the bus and he should have called Dispatch to let them know he was going to have a rider while they tried to figure out where she should have gone. But instead he just dumped her off the bus. The baby sitter rushed right over but of course Annie had no way of knowing Callie was on her way so for 6 minutes my daughter shook the door knob trying to open it, yelling mommy just in case I was home and might hear her out there and then finally gave up and sat on the front steps crying not knowing what to do. The sitter felt so horrible for her that she took her out for ice cream. But this is something none of us will forget anytime soon, nor will the principal after I was done talking to him...and I'm pretty sure from the hints the prinicpal gave the driver won't soon forget it either. Of course I couldn't be told what action was taken against the driver but I do know something was done to make sure this never happens again.
So that was our first two days of summer school, days we probably won't soon forget! :-)

Vacation

So two months later I finally have a free moment to try and write this blog on our vacation. I will try to keep it short...but detail-filled...no promises though.

So for any unaware we got to take a magnificent trip in February that started off as Disney world but quickly turned into our "Florida Trip". Because we did so many wonderful things! Let me start from the beginning...

We left our home on Sunday February 8th, we made it as far as Royals/Chiefs stadiums (which is about 40 minutes for us) and Annie asked if we were there yet....its a 23 hour drive. Our first stop was in Maryville Tennessee, we spent the night with Valerie and her family, and although we didn't arrive until 10 o clock at night almost they were glad to have waited up and visited with us until we were ready to settle down for the night. I must say we were all star struck by their beautiful home and had such a great time exploring it! So thank you to Valerie for giving us a great place to stay and letting us feel so unbelievably welcome in your home to where we almost felt it could have been ours as well. Our next stop was Scottsboro Alabama, to the Unclaimed baggage store. It was something we saw on the Travel Channel at Christmas time and saw that it was on our way and thought it would be fun to stop somewhere we saw on tv! So we stopped and saw some wonderful things but in the end it was really more like a glorified thrift store...however, I can now say we've been somewhere that we saw on tv just because we saw it on tv! The second night on the road we stayed with Gabi and her family in Georgia, they also waited up for us late into the evening and visited with us until the late hours of the night and made us feel extremely welcome in their home and so thanks again to them as well.

Finally on our 3rd day on the road we made it to Florida, our first stop was to Cocoa Beach where Aunt Carla lives, we visited with her for a couple of hours and then she took us to the ocean, the very first time the kids ever saw the ocean and as you can see from the vacation pictures we came from the colder weather since we are standing in the sand with the ocean at our backs, in sweat shirts and jeans. But we all had a fantastic time playing in the sand and water, until it was time to hit the road again...however we finally only had a 3 hour drive and we arrived at Disneyworld! We stayed at a resort called Pop Century, there were several buildings of hotel rooms and each building had a different saying on it, the one we happened to drive up beside first said "Don't have a cow man", the kids read this and both looked at each other and said what does that mean?! I guess I'm getting older than I thought!! We got all checked into our hotel and first thing the kids did was put on swim suits and head to the pool, this would become the theme for the next 4 nights. We went with Dan's family, his mom and dad, brother and family and sister and family. Also Jerri's two sisters and their families. I was worried with this many people how we would make sure and be together each and every day but we managed to make it all work out. The first day our little family went to Animal Kingdom, O I have failed to mention until this point that the day before we left on the trip Dan was diagnosed with Pneumonia and Annie woke up puking in the night. So back to Animal Kingdom we were all still feeling the effects of the stomach flu Annie had managed to pass around and Dan seemed to have gotten it the worst but we knew we only had this day to do once so we pushed as hard as we could. We realized VERY quickly that with two kids this just wasn't possible, so we came up with a different approach-half a day at a park of our choice and half a day at the pool at our resort. This became the theme for the next four days where we saw each of the four parks, Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios and Epcot (and Animal Kingdom mentioned before). It was a trip none of us will ever forget and one of those "once in a lifetime" things people talk about. We made some amazing memories with some wonderful family and we were able to see each of them every day, we would go to the park and then meet by the pool in the evenings to share our stories of what we'd done for the day. Dannys favorite park was Hollywood Studios, where we got to see a car stunt show, Annie's favorite never was determined. :-)

The last thing we did on our trip was a stop by the Daytona 500. The racing itself was fantastic and anyone who knows me knows how much I love racing! However one would assume that after 51 years of putting this event on they would have come up with some better solutions! We sat waiting to park for 2 and a half hours, we became friends with all of the people around us when we all went and stood in line for the "wooded bathroom", then we rode a school bus to the race track where we waited out a couple of rain delays and watched the race to half way at which point it was shortened by rain and called off, then we stood in line for 2 hours to get back on a bus to take us to the parking lot and sat in the car for 3 hours waiting for traffic to even move. Once we finally got on the road it was 1115 pm on Sunday Feb 15th, we drove straight through and got home at 730 pm Monday evening!

But minus that one glich in the trip and the initial issue with the stomach flu/pneumonia we had a fantastic time and I spend most days wishing we could all go back. But maybe some day, for now I am thankful that we all got to go as a family and celebrate Jerri's 10 years of remission from cancer and maybe in another 10 years we will celebrate Christys remission!

Miss. Annie Banannie

Her first day of school went very well apparently, she can't wait to go back! So let me start at the beginning....

I got a call on Tuesday from the school pre-k program, they had an opening if Annie wanted to attend. When we went for the testing at the beginning of the year they told us she was too smart and would never come up on the waiting list. So when they called I was shocked! The teacher said a lot of kids had dropped out and the ones they called on the waiting list changed their minds and didn't want to mess with it. So the spot was Annie's if she wanted it....of course she did because she cried when she found out she wasn't going to get to go to school in August. So we got a backpack and two folders-the required school supplies for pre-k and we got ready for our first day of school. She was in the afternoon program which meant she went from 1215-315, so I took a long lunch break and took her from the babysitter to school. We met the teacher and waited for the remaining students to arrive. One boy apparently still was not comfortable with being away from mom so he screamed and yelled for a good 5 minutes and finally 3 teachers drug him away from his mommy. This was a little upsetting to Annie I could tell so I told her that it would be ok, he was just upset and she looked at me and said, "I know mom! I'm not going to act like THAT!" And she didn't! The first thing they do is get out their journal and write their name in it. And when she did this the teacher was amazed at how easily and quickly she was able to do this! At that point I left her alone to enjoy her first day at the big kids' school.

When I got to the babysitters to pick her up she couldn't stop talking about her first day and how excited she was to go back tomorrow! So I guess we will call this a success and yet another first in her life.

I was proud of myself, I only cried this morning on my way to work, by the time I left again to go and get her and take her to school I had gotten it all out. :) She is getting so big and my little baby isn't a baby anymore. I am so proud of her for all that she has accomplished!

The First

So I thought I'd finally take the advice of friends and family and start one of these silly blogs. People all seem to live so far away but even the ones that live right down the road are just as busy as we are so hopefully this will be a way to keep everyone up to date on our family. I am going to start out with a just a simple "catcher-upper" and will get more specific in later blogs.

So for starters, Dan still works at the mine, he is the "know-all" of rock quarries and I don't think there is a job or a piece of equipment out there that he can't fix or completely overhaul if necessary! Kelly is still at the Pasta Company, working in the Finance Dept. Danny is in 3rd grade and 8 years old...although if you ask him he is going to be 9 this year (yea, not until May but gotta love the simplicity of his reasoning) He tried several sports over the years and while he is excellent at them all he decided sports just wasn't his thing. So I have not forced the issue. Instead he is learning to play guitar. I never realized just how big a guitar case was until I saw him carry it! But he is doing great at it and well doesn't really have a choice, since he comes from a musical family I knew he'd pick it right up. Annie is my little queen. She has the same rules as Danny and any other children that come through our home but she seems to find a way to put her mark on ANYTHING she does. She is 5 now and will start kindergarten in August of this year. She is smart as can be and probably too smart for her own good! I am pretty sure that by October I will have my own seat in the pricipals office at the elementary school where I will learn all about how much my daughter talks and disrupts other students. :) But God love her she has a big giant heart and loves everyone she meets.
Most if not all of you know we are heading to Disney World in a couple of weeks. I think I've pretty much rubbed it into everyone's face that we might get to enjoy some spring/summer weather in February. :) But our purpose for going is to celebrate my mother-in-law's remission of cancer, she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1999 right as Dan and I were beginning to plan our wedding. She went through the chemo and radiation and was given a clean bill of health about a year later. So to celebrate her 10 years of remission they are taking the family to Disney World. The kids are super excited! We are driving down and will be visiting family along the way and taking in sights I've never seen (like an ocean, or that silly little race called the DAYTONA 500!) so to say the least this will be the trip of a lifetime for our family and I am not sure there is anything we can do in the future to top this excersion we are about to go on.
So as time goes on I will get on this here blog and do my best to keep all who read it up to date on the "goings-on" in the Pope household in tiny little Lathrop Missouri.