1st week of school and my parent's move

Wow! what a rough week so far. As long as I have been in the transportation department (in any capacity) my first week of school is rough. I worked all summer at leisure and thought I was so much more prepared for this school year start, but no such luck. It's not really "us" though, it's the parents who don't worry about the kids bus schedule until the day they need it. Nevermind the fact that it was printed in the newspaper a week ahead of time. Starting at about 8:00 AM Sunday morning, they start calling wanting to know the bus number, time, etc. for their kid. And they had the guts to leave a phone # for a return call- what's the saying? " a failure to communicate on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part" (something like that) When I called in to check messages Monday at 4:15 am (this is the time I check messages daily to see if I need to call in a sub) I had 23 messages from parents wanting information. Needless to say I did not return any of those calls. In fact, when I got into the office at 5:00 AM until I left at 5:30 PM, the phones (2 lines) rang non-stop. Because of district layoffs this year, I lost my office clerk. Therefore, when I was on one line, a mechanic, a driver, or anyone around answered the other line. Amy dropped by for a quick minute and ended up answering 5 calls and, I should add, did a great job of giving them the info. they needed. My driver trainer is in the office too, but she works an early shift then leaves for 3 hours and works the late shift (supposedly for me to work a regular 8 hr shift and go home- haha!) And Monday was Cami's birthday, so I literally set the timer on my desk to go off at a good time, so I would remember to call her and wish her a happy birthday (and then my niece had her new baby boy that day too!) Anyway, that was how Mon and Tues went, then yesterday got better and today is even better. I may work only 8 hours today.

But in addition to crazy busyness at work, we had a freak windstorm Mon night which knocked down our fences, blew furniture in the pool and just made a general mess around here. And of course, my mom and dad are moving this weekend. Don't get me wrong, I love my parents 2 pieces, but right now they are driving me crazy. Mom keeps finding little things she wants me to have (or my daughters or grandkids or whatever) and wants me to stop by and get it. They also wanted us to take all their leftover furniture to the thrift store and take the big items we are keeping (bed, dresser, dishwasher, etc) this week. Well, besides having no time to drop by and being too tired to do anything after work, we finally convinced them that we will leave all that behind when we move them out Saturday and then we will, at our convenience, move the rest. They wanted to walk out, lock the door, and hand over the keys to the Masonic Home when they got there on Sat. I had to convince my mom that we would go back in and clean after they moved out, so they would allow us to do that. I realize that they have been packing for the last two weeks and are absolutely going stir crazy sitting around waiting for moving day, but I just can't do it their way. And, don't forget, Bob and Linda are the other helpers and Bob is principal at the high school- what do you think his week has been like? So, yes, we will be exhausted on Sat at 6:00 am when we load up and head out for the 3 hour drive to move them. And we will still be tired Sunday am when we get up to go to church with Ray and Brandie (we get to see our grandsons passing the sacrament for the first time) and we will still be tired as we drive home that afternoon. But come Monday (thank goodness for holidays) we can finally catch up on some sleep. Oh, and just to add to the tiredness, I have a stye on my right eye and have been treating it for a week with no results, so by the end of a day I have totally blurred vision and a burning eye. If not better by Monday, I will probably get in to see the doctor on Tues. (and yes to those who are wondering, I have checked my sugar and it's good- not high)

So, hopefully my next post will be something more amusing and fun- until the next time...

Amy's good news/ our future plans

Amy is now enrolled in her Bachlor Degree/ RN classes. She has to commute to Phoenix once a week (for now, it may be 3 days a week when clinicals start) and it will take 2 1/2 years, but she is on the right track. She is very excited and anxious to start Sept. 29. Luckily she has friends in the Phoenix area and can spend the night. The hospital will work with her on her work schedule. The only bad part is that she may not get too many weekends off with needing 2 days during the week, but it is a sacrifice she is willing to make.

And this program fits right into our plans for the future. Ray and I had talked seriously about our plans and decided he would try to retire in Aug. 2010. I will continue to work for awhile so we can adjust to finances and stuff. But then we will purchase a 5th wheel and take off for awhile. We plan to work as campground hosts at least for the summer to see how we like it. We figured this would be a good job for all of us. Ray and Ryan will enjoy meeting new people and I can still do some "paperwork". We hope to hosts all over the country and then may be able to decide where we will want to live. We will then sell the house and buy something smaller somewhere. Ray is still hoping for Mississippi but I still want to stay in California but northern and closer to the ocean. I love California weather and the Pacific Ocean. That part we have not decided on yet. And it may depend on where all the kids end up. Ric and Diona are thinking about Washington (state) again and Ray and Brandie have talked about Oregon. Cami is in Virginia now and looks like she plans to stay there. And Amy will be just finishing school and will be able to go anywhere. So we will see where we end up. But wherever, we will have a 5th wheel parked outside to house visitors anytime. It's nice to finally have concrete plans in place and give us something to work towards. Ray will have worked for 45 years by then and I will be just at 30 years. Time flies when you are having so much fun!

Memories are great

Leave A Memory
I got this from Linda's blog and she got it from Christie's blog!

1. As a comment on my blog, leave a memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you know me a little or a lot, anything you remember!
2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll be sure to write one about you... either on your blog, in my comment box, or I will email you back!
3. If you can't say something nice, don't say nothin' at all ☺....thats not true---go ahead and say it---see if it changes anything!