Wednesday, December 26, 2007
merry christmas & I'm in Florida!
Monday, December 17, 2007
The mean old bus driver was right!
Reality check time. My junior high group this year is a group of perfectly normal teens. Mostly skater (sk8r!!) boy types who on occasion will bring their skateboards on the bus and have learned to hand them over to me for safe keeping or face a long cold walk home. Some wear tight ripped jeans (rumor has it they shop in the girl's section), have long hair with bangs, mostly harmless lads who just wanna skate and have fun. Last week I observed (bus driver lingo) a few of them on a pond near the bus stop. I scolded them and told them that they had no idea how thick the ice was yet. And I did not want to fish them out before my morning coffee.
Flash to this past Friday evening a 19 year old fell through some ice in a town near mine. The current dragged him to the middle of the pond trapping him...his body was not found for two hours. He was gone.
Flash to this morning, of course me being a mother (nag, "I told you so") I asked if said skater boy had heard the news. He said yes...thought for a moment and said, "yeah but that ice was deep, our pond is only 2 feet deep!" WOW! the young!
So cute yet so stupid!
Also, the bus Gods have been pleased with me, I no longer am doing a alternative school route, I now have an extra 2 hours break in the afternoon. Yippeee!~
*** we are driving to Florida, my hubby used to drive over the road and we once made it to Los Angeles in 36 hours, we will be leaving Christmas evening & heading home on January 4th***
I am open to any J-land meetings!!
Sunday, December 16, 2007
where's the time gone?????
Neither snow nor sleet nor rain, nor dark of night has kept this bus driver from her duties. That being said this is actually the first day since the Thanksgiving break that I have had time to come here...to J-land. Please forgive my absence, I miss you all.
I have been one busy girl Along with my regular bus duties, I have had a few extra trips added, along with our Christmas party for work last Saturday. This year Liz and I have also chose to make many of our gifts. Great for the soul plus the added benefit of sitting down and creating.
Things are well here, Mark has found a winter job hauling mail for a nearby company. He worked there a few winters ago and they have great respect for his work ethic. This is good news for this job is an answer to much prayer. He loves his regular job, but construction being as it is, slow, we must think of ways to keep an income going during the slow times. He plans on going back to his regular job in April. He starts this job in January.
Our plan for the holidays is to leave Illinois for Florida on Christmas evening. We will be gone for 10 days, I long for the sun and the sand, not to mention the time spent with my dad. He is still a young 70 and is very excited about our coming.
Otherwise every one is fine here. The grand kids will be here next weekend, my son Eric is thinking about taking a job in Wisconsin traveling for Menards, the older sons are laid off also, but have a stand by job for a company that plows snow for O'Hare airport. Having children in their twenties is like watching a play, you sit and watch, clap, sigh and hope for a happy ending.
I am glad I am the age I am. I tend to look at the bright side of my life now. When I have a situation at work I tend to look for the humor, especially with kids. Just last week a group of 8 th grade boys were out on an icy pond at their bus stop...I told them to pleeeeeeeease stay off as they did not know how thick the ice was. I did not want to fish them out of the cold water so early in the morning. They gave me a hard time, but stayed off the ice at least in the morning.
I know there are many who are feeling great loss and sadness this time of year, but please please remember you are loved, there is always something to be learned each day and this too shall pass, God bless!
