Tales of a 6th-Grade Drama Queen: Vol. 2

For those of you who remember the drama that happened with my daughter's bus on the first day of school, I have another volume to add to our seemingly increasing (seeing as how we are only on week 4 of the school year, and there are still more than 8 months left for the drama to accumulate) Tales of a 6th Grade Drama Queen.

We made a special crown for her to don in honor of her official title. ;)

Against my better judgment, my husband and I had decided after that first day of school that we would continue sending our 6th-grade daughter home on the bus in the afternoons. We soon found out; however, that there is another flaw in the bus system - the routes are so over-crowded with students that there is not room on one bus for all of the students at each stop. So, instead of adjusting the routes and the bus system accordingly, they only allow the first twenty students on the bus at each stop, and then send a late bus around for the stragglers. I know - it's ridiculous. I didn't want her to have to fight her way onto the bus every morning, nor did I want her standing around at the bus stop after the first bus took off (leaving her unsupervised for an unknown amount of time, and exposing her to who knows what else), so we started driving her to school in the morning.

I would pick her up in the afternoon as well, but she gets out of school right in the middle of the babies' nap time, and I hate to disturb their MUCH-needed sleep - just to pile them in the car and drive over to her school. And according to my husband, "it builds character" for her to persist in riding the bus after what happened on the first day. So, basically, she has still been taking the bus home in the afternoons - and yes, the drama just keeps on coming.

Anyway, the Las Vegas valley got hit really badly with a horrible rain storm one day last week, and there were flood watches all over the county. That afternoon, I drove to the bus stop to pick her up, thinking she wouldn't want to walk home in the rain. When the first bus showed up and she wasn't on it, I just figured she had to catch the late bus home and that it would be arriving shortly.

I waited and waited, but the second bus never arrived. I thought maybe I had somehow missed her, so I left the stop and drove back to the house to see if she was there. Naturally, she was nowhere to be seen, so I started to panic, thinking to myself, "Not again!"

As before, the stinker did not have her cell phone (she had left it at my mom's house across town the previous weekend), so I couldn't call her. I figured I would get back in the car and drive up to the school to see if I could find out more about her whereabouts.

As I was on my way out the door; however, a car pulled up to the front of the house and Madison got out. You can imagine my relief (and my curiosity as to why in the world she was getting out of a car and was not on the bus) as she walked across the yard in my direction.

Apparently, the bus had broken down a few blocks from the school and was smoking so badly that the driver pulled the bus over and told the kids to get off. So, there the kids were - standing out in the rain - and I guess some of them decided just to start walking. ::smack my head::

I guess at that point, the bus driver was no where to be seen, and she (my daughter) didn't know what the protocol was from there - if there was another bus coming, if they were supposed to walk back to the school, or what. She decided not to walk back to the school; though, after her friend commented on how flooded the school grounds had been when they left, so instead, the two of them started walking home - in the rain - with no phone, and really no certainty as to where they were even going.

She said her friend knew how to get to the bus stop from the school, so they were planning to walk there, then continue on home from the stop. Let me just say; though, that they would have passed both of our houses (her friend's and ours) had they actually had the opportunity to execute that plan, not to mention how nuts I would have been in not knowing where she was for all the time it would have taken them to walk the two miles (in the rain, where the flooding was so bad in some spots that the water was up to their knees) from the school. I mean, come on! I thought we had learned not to leave the bus when 1.) it's not your assigned stop; and 2.) you aren't 100% certain where you even are, or how to get home. ::sigh::

Luckily, a friend of mine (whose twin boys go to her school) was driving home and saw her walking. Knowing how far it is from the school to our house, he pulled over (thank heavens) and asked her if she wanted a ride home.

I AM extremely grateful that (once again) we were lucky in the fact that nothing bad happened, and that she is safe, but I certainly do not remember being so oblivious at that age, nor do I recall there being so much dysfunction with regards to the school's bus system - and I rode the bus to and from school from 4th - 6th grade.

The moral of the story is that the convenience of having her ride the bus home is just NOT worth the agony - and I am currently in the process of arranging a car pull with some friends in my ward whose kids also go to her school. Also, I don't know what needs to happen, but something MUST transpire in order to knock some common sense into that child's head. ::sigh::

related link:

Middle School Mayhem: The day my heart stood still!

Tales of a 6th-grade drama queen

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It's just not a new school year without bus drama.

I don't know what it is with the bus system here in Clark County, or maybe it's just this side of town, but today is only the second day of the new school year, and we already had another encounter with the oh-so-reliable (hope you can sense my sarcasm there) bus system.

So, L (my three-year-old son) started preschool with the school district yesterday, and he is so excited about his new teacher, his new friends, his new classroom - but most of all, he is excited about the five-minute bus ride that he gets to take to the school. Maybe he sees it as a little adventure, a way for him to exhibit a sense of independence. 

Because the pre-school program is considered special ed (he qualified on account of his speech delay), they bus him to and from school, even though the school is only five blocks away. It's pretty neat too, because they come right to house to pick him up, they strap him into his little car seat, and then they hand-deliver him to his teacher at the school, who comes to the bus every morning to retrieve him. His pick-up time from the house in the morning is 8:51 a.m., so we've been going out front to wait for the bus at 8:45 a.m. to ensure we are ready when the bus arrives. 

This morning, we went out at the usual time and waited, and waited...and waited. But the bus never showed up. We waited around until about 9:10 a.m. (thinking maybe there was a delay because it's still the first week of school), and then tried calling the transportation line. I tried calling them several times, in fact, but the line just continued to ring busy. I finally called the school to alert them of the situation, and they informed me that they too had been trying (unsuccessfully) to get through to transportation. The office attendant asked if I could drive him to school, but I told her that I didn't have a car (Z took it to work today), but that I could walk him - it would just take me a half hour or so. 

So yeah...I got the awesome privilege of walking my three-year-old (and the baby, who is 15 months old) to school in 100 degree weather, and he was 45 minutes late. Yay. Not to say that I didn't need the exercise, but it would sure be nice to get through an entire school year without any bus-related drama. 

When we finally did get to the school, I popped into the front office to notify the staff that we were there, and the administrator who I had spoken to earlier informed me that she had finally gotten ahold of transportation, and that she was told the bus had, in fact, stopped by the house, but that we weren't there. What a load of garbage. I have half a mind to make a call into the supervisor tomorrow. 

Source: twowritingteachers.wordpress.com via The Purple on Pinterest

Related links:

Middle School Mayhem: The day my heart stood still!

Tales of a 6th-grade drama queen.

Singing Praises of Thanksgiving (2)

Photo by Photo by The Purple Lady.

So, it's week two of our 2013 Thanksgiving gratitude challenge. For more information on this year's challenge, or if you missed last week's list, check it out here. 

Now, on to my list. This week, I am thankful for:

1. Book club - being a stay-at-home mom while we only have one car is sometimes difficult because I don't get out of the house much - nor do I have the opportunity to visit with other adults regularly, and the isolation can really pull on my sanity strings a bit. I can't tell you how many times I have left book club after an awesome discussion with my fellow LDS book club gal pals, and have felt truly edified and uplifted. It's an awesome group, and I am grateful to be a part of it;

2. Uplifting music - music is such a beautiful gift from our Heavenly Father. I have been feeling a little overwhelmed lately with the stresses of life and parenthood, and as I sat down with my family in sacrament today, the two babies started fussing and being irreverent. Almost immediately, I felt myself thinking, "Why am I even here?" And I started feeling frustrated and discouraged, as I knew I would have to take them out of the chapel. But then two wonderfully talented sisters in my ward performed an instrumental rendition of "Come Thou Fount" (a piano and flute duet), and as I sat there listening to the music, my soul was uplifted and I felt the spirit whisper to me that I am a daughter of my Heavenly Father - that I am loved, and that I matter. I then felt a reassuring confirmation that I was in the right place, and that I was pleasing the Lord through my obedience, despite the challenges of having young kids who can't seem to sit through an entire sacrament meeting - ever. Naturally, the tears began streaming, and I said a silent prayer of gratitude to the Lord for knowing what I needed, and for blessing me in that moment with encouragement, comfort and peace. It's amazing what you can get from a beautiful hymn, even when there are no words being sung;

3. Chocolate - enough said. ;)

4. School buses - despite all the drama that we have experienced over the last two years with the school buses here in Clark County,  I am truly grateful for the bus system. As mentioned previously, we only have one car right now, and I can't imagine how much more stressful my life would be if I didn't have a "reliable" form of transportation provided for my two children who are in the school system. L's bus comes right to the house and takes him to preschool; too, so that makes my life tremendously easier;

5. Visiting teachers - mine are AWESOME! ;)

6. Resources that allow us to put our 3-year-old in preschool. His speech has been improving by leaps and bounds, and it warms my heart to see him making new connections on a daily basis;

7. Clean water for bathing, cleaning, and drinking;

8. Airplanes, because I really want to make it back to Hawaii again some day. ;)

9. Education; and

10. My laptop :)

Please feel free to comment below on what you are thankful for this week. If you are participating in this challenge on your own blog, be sure to post a link below so that we can all share in the spirit of Thanksgiving. :)


Related link:

Singing Praises of Thanksgiving (1)

The Not-So-Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

So, things have been a little out of sorts lately, and I haven't been able to get my mess of a brain together much in the last few weeks. Hence, the lack of blog posts.

In my defense, I do have a monster of a toddler who keeps life extremely interesting (to say the least), and a five-month-old baby who is teething - both of which have been extremely high maintenance of late - not to mention my now 12-year-old and her 6th grade drama, AND the fact that (counting this weekend) my husband has had three concerts with The Las Vegas Philharmonic in the last month. I have thereby basically been left to my own devices in trying to maintain control of my sanity. I simply can't stress enough how thankful I am that I have managed to keep it together well enough to ensure that my my poor children have been bathed and fed properly. ;)

Anyway, I digress. Tomorrow is Halloween, and with my husband's crazy schedule, he wasn't able to join us for Family Home Evening (FHE) last night (he had to do a make-up lab class that he usually has on Thursday night, which he can't make this week due to a rehearsal with the Phil).

I realized yesterday morning that we still hadn't carved pumpkins, so I picked up a few at the grocery store so that the kids and I could carve them for our FHE activity. Also, I had decided that for dessert, I would make Zachary's favorite fall treat (chocolate pecan pie) and would have it ready early so that he could eat it with us when he woke up before going off to school.

For dinner, we had homemade Zuppa Toscana soup, which turned out super yummy (I've made it several times before and it's one of our family faves). Everything was going as planned. My family was fed and dessert was a hit.

After my husband left for school, the kids and I busted out the pumpkins and chose the pattern we wanted to carve from the kit I bought at the store. Madison chose one that says "Eek" and I chose a pattern that said "Wicked." I know that neither of those patterns seem too ambitious, and Madison and I were both talking about how awesome our carved pumpkins were going to look once we were finished and the candles were lit inside.

In hindsight, I am realizing that there must be some sort of Halloween amnesia that kicks in as soon as I get the idea to carve pumpkins. There I was with all of these ideas of grandeur, but once I started in on the cutting process, I was quickly reminded of the reality of how horrible I am at carving pumpkins.

Usually, Zach is there to help us with the really difficult sections, but since he was at school, I had to really focus hard on not cutting the letters too closely, or pushing the wrong part of the words through the pumpkin.

So...

This is how my pumpkin was supposed to look:

A pic I took of the sample on the carving kit.

Cool, right? Yeah...

This is how MY pumpkin turned out:

Haha. As you can see, it does NOT say "Wicked." I got so frustrated after pushing both the "i" and the "c" through the pumpkin on accident that I turned the pumpkin to the backside and just carved out a simple face (which I drew on first with a black marker. haha). I know. Epic fail.

The night wasn't a complete bust, though. There was enough Zuppa Toscana soup left over to freeze for another night's dinner, AND the chocolate pecan pie was super yummy. And Madison and I did have a ton of fun carving the pumpkins, even though she ended up following suit and carving a face in the back of her pumpkin as well. Haha.

This just goes to show how valuable Dad is in our pumpkin carving endeavors. Hehe.

This debacle does put me in the mood to watch The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown though. Oh, how I LOVE this time of year! ;)

Happy Halloween!

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2012 in a Nutshell: Blues Clues, Tubas, and Babies, Oh My!

Wow - 2013! I can't even begin to express how quickly this last year has flown by. So many amazing things happened though. Our oldest daughter turned 12 and started the Young Women's program. She also started middle school (I am sure you remember all of her interesting 6th grade drama. Haha), began playing the tuba, and also joined the Civil Air Patrol. She has become quite the busy, little gal. Our two-year-old son started speech therapy and has been increasing his vocabulary and interacting skills by leaps and bounds. We also welcomed a new addition to our family this past year. Our beautiful baby girl is now 8 months old and is already pulling herself up to her feet, trying to walk along the couch. I seriously feel sometimes like you blink and time just flies right on by. They are all growing up way too quickly.

My husband opened up The Smith Center with The Las Vegas Philharmonic to Mahler 2 back in March, 2012. He also successfully coached another student through the audition process of the U.S. Army All-American Marching Band. Said student was his first tuba student to audition and be selected for the program. He continues to attend classes at UNLV, and plans to graduate with a Bachelor Degree in Interdisciplinary Studies in the spring of 2013.

Aside from giving birth to my third child (a Vbac, I might add - it was absolutely amazing) back in April 2012, and doing the whole mom thing - all while trying to adjust to how different life can be with three kids, I have spent these past several months of 2012 building my baby - The Luckiest. Though my blog is still in its infancy, I have had such a stellar time learning the ropes, sharing in some incredible blogging experiences (the Thirty Days of Gratitude Challenge, Slice of Life, etc...), and exploring the inner most reaches of my soul in order to share my thoughts, dreams and aspirations with my readers. It has been an amazing journey thus far, and I look forward to all that 2013 has in store for my writing ventures, ;)

Blues Clues...Yay! :-P

Unfortunately; however, New Year's Eve 2013 was not all that exciting around our house. My husband worked a 12 hour shift at his "day" job, and I was home sick (with walking pneumonia) with both of the babies. {M} is in Oklahoma visiting her dad, so the babies and I basically just lounged out in the living room all night, flipping back and forth between episodes of Blues Clues and Army Wives on Netflix. Haha. {L Bear}, my two-year-old and I had an understanding - an episode for an episode. That's how we roll. hehe. He's hard core too, I tell you. The minute the credits start rolling on my show, he jumps up and down, popping his fingers open and closed shouting, "Blue Blue." For a kid who doesn't talk a whole lot, he sure knows how to get what he wants. His cuteness factor plays a huge roll in that too, I am sure. ;)

I hadn't even planned on staying up to ring in the new year, but because of a late nap (L Bear didn't wake up until 8pm yesterday evening), he was still wired at 11:30 p.m. when I was starting to crash out. I ended up just turning off all the lights, bringing him into bed with me, handing him my iphone, and crashing at about 11:40 p.m. lol. I have no idea what time he finally went to sleep, but he was quite the party animal, and partied on way past midnight without me. :-P

Anyway, there are some fun and exciting things to look forward to here on the blog in this new year. I hope everyone had a safe and awesome New Year's Eve, and I wish you all a happy 2013! :)

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Thirty Days of Gratitude - Day 26: Patience

I don't necessarily pride myself on being someone who comes by patience easily. It's something I pray for on a daily basis. But man...am I grateful for the patience that I was able to muster tonight after finding my 2-year-old on the living room floor with a black, permanent Sharpie marker. Not only did he take it upon himself to cover his lips, hands, legs, and arms, but there are now giant squiggle marks all over a huge section of the carpet in our living room and on the area rug. It was all over his building blocks, on one of The Drama Queen (my 12-year-old)'s sweaters, and as I walked into the kitchen with my jaw on the floor, I discovered that it was all over the tile AND on the kitchen wall as well. The most annoying part is that I was in the room with him while he created his masterpiece. I had just been preoccupied with Christmas shopping on my lap top. Doh!

Let's just say that the boy is lucky to be alive. He IS alive though - and it is only due to the patience, which I had to harness with every ounce of energy I could muster. He is lucky that I love him so much. For real. Oh, the joys of motherhood!

Photo by The Purple Lady

Terrible TWOSday!

Have you ever had one of those days where your child did something that was just so unfathomably frustrating, that after you were finally (somehow) able to overcome the initial urge to beat the living daylights out of him, you wanted to just sit on the floor with your head in your hands and cry? Yeah...today was one of those days. I am sure that anyone who has ever raised/lived with/cared for a toddler (particularly one of the ripe old age of TWO - they don't call it "the terrible twos" for nothing) can not only sympathize with my pain, but can also attest to the fact that sometimes, these precious little creatures in our lives just do things that seriously make you want to rip all of your stinkin' hair out...

Well, over the weekend, during a visit with my mother on the other side of town, we started watching Gone with the Wind on VHS. I know, I know...you are thinking, "What? VHS? Really?" She has owned it for forever; though, and refuses to buy DVD versions of movies she already owns. Anyway, I somehow had neglected to watch the movie until now, and was really looking forward to it, as I am a huge enthusiast of the old classics (Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, The Wizard of Oz, The Blue Bird, and Fiddler on the Roof are a couple of my old favorites).

Unfortunately, as we got about three-fourths of the way through the movie, I noticed that it was about 8:15 p.m. and we had to stop the movie, as it was getting late and I needed to get home in time for my husband to leave for work. My mom asked if I wanted to take her VHS tape home and finish watching it, but I told her that since we don't have a working VHS player (courtesy of our dear little Logi monster - he broke it a few months ago by shoving random crap into the tape slot. He jammed it so badly that you can't even insert a VHS tape anymore. <<sigh>>), I would just finish watching it next week when we come back for our weekly visit. She then offered to let me borrow her extra VHS/DVD combo player that she keeps in the play room for the grandkids. She knew that I had really gotten into the film and was anxious to see how it ended, and since she was so willing to be so accommodating (hehe), I accepted her offer and took the VHS tapes and the player home with me.

So, that brings me to this morning. I got up pretty early and the babies were still asleep, so I decided it was a perfect opportunity to finish the movie. A few minutes in; however, Little Mister (my two-year-old son) woke up and came out into the living room with me...not a big deal, right? He could just sit on my lap and watch it with me. Ha! After a few minutes, he started whining that he wanted something to eat, so I stopped the movie and went into the kitchen to make us a quick fruit smoothie to share for breakfast. Not five minutes into my preparations, I heard this loud whirring sound coming from the living room. My first thought was, "What in the heck did that kid do now?" Sure enough, in the few minutes that I had left him to his own devices, he had managed to get his hands on a DVD and then proceeded to stick it into the tape slot of the VHS player while the tape was still engaged in the machine.

I quickly slid my fingers into the tape slot and grabbed hold of the DVD, then carefully removed it, trying to avoid causing any further damage to the DVD or tape player. I hoped that once the DVD was removed, the player would continue functioning properly and I'd be able to continue watching the movie...and then it would be a beautiful, sunny day with puppy dogs, butterflies, and rainbows. Yeah...it is never that easy. The stinkin' VHS player powered off and I couldn't get the VHS tape to even eject. I tried turning the power back on, but the machine just made a low whirring sound and turned off again within seconds. I tried shining a flash light in through the slot opening to see what was happening, but all I could see was that the tape was stuck with the film flap open. I went ahead and unscrewed the top cover of the player to get a better look at what was going on inside, and this is what I saw: 

I don't know if you can tell from the picture or not, but the VHS film was still actively engaged in the machine so I couldn't eject the tape, but when I'd turn the darn machine on, it would just make that soft, whirring sound and shut itself off again. It wouldn't stay on long enough for me to push the eject button. 

I tried calling my dad to see if he coud talk me through a quick solution (there seriously is nothing that he can't fix), but he wasn't answering either of his phones, which just frustrated me further. Not only was I right in the middle of some serious drama in the film and wanted to find out how it ended, but they were my mom's VHS tapes and player, and I didn't want to have to tell her that her precious little "angel" had broken them. haha.

So, I called both of my brothers and finally got ahold of my older brother. He said it sounded like something was jammed but that it was hard for him to know what was wrong since he couldn't see it to assess the damage...great. My husband worked graveyard last night, so I knew he wouldn't be up still for several hours. At that point, I was seriously so frustrated that I wanted to strangle my son. I literally had to muster every ounce of self control NOT to bend him over my knee. Then, he came over to me with his big, beautiful, hazel eyes, and his sweet, innocent smile, and I couldn't help but hug him. It was better than beating him anyway. haha.

After a few minutes, I decided to concede defeat and turned the tv to PBS for my son so I could start cleaning the kitchen to get my mind off of everything (something that needed to get done anyway). A while later, my brother-in-law walked into the living room and we got to talking about what happened. Apparently, we own the movie on DVD and we had it in our DVD case the entire time. Doh! I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. The whole thing could have been avoided had I just known that one, small detail. The upside to this story; though, is that I got to finish watching the movie after all...even though the ending was UBER lame and I was so disappointed. I found out, though, that there is a sequel, so maybe this isn't entirely a sob story - I'll have to keep you posted. My mom lent me the sequel on VHS too, so maybe if we are able to fix the machine, then I will have a happy ending to this story after all. :)

Anyway, I finally got ahold of my dad (hours later) and he told me that I can bring the player over to his house. He's going to take the player apart and get the tape out for me. So yeah...I am sure that when all is said and done, my mom will get her VHS tapes and player back, and the world will be at peace once again. :)

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An Ode to Poop . . .

Okay, so this isn't really an ode in the traditional sense, but it’s just too good a story not to share. Let me first put this disclaimer out there (in case it wasn't made obvious by the brazen title. Hehe) that this is a post about poop. So, if you get a little uncomfortable with this topic, or if you still have yet to be exposed to the less glittery parts that come with having children, then this post may not be for you. I know, I know . . . children are beautiful, wonderful angels, sent from our Heavenly Father to bless our lives and bring us immense joy - and I am so grateful to have four of my own - but let’s be real for a second . . . being a parent is messy. I am sorry to dampen the illusion here, but any new parent will come to this realization the very first time a newborn poops on them. lol. 

I know that this is still somewhat of a tabu topic, but come on, Dinosaur Train has an entire song dedicated to the subject, and I think it’s time we all get a little more comfortable talking about poop. That being said, can I just state the fact that I am not a fan of potty training! I will even go so far as to say that I LOATHE the topic completely, and I have plenty of logic to justify my rationale here, but this experience takes the cake . . . or should I say, the poo! 

My two-year-old has been potty training for a month now, and for the last few weeks, I have had to leave her completely “butt-nakey” while at home because she’s gotten to the point where she will go pee pee in the potty when she doesn’t have any clothes on (from the waist down), but will pee in her pants if you put the even slightest piece of clothing on her (even a pair of panties). 

So yeah, we’ve had a little nudest in our midst for the past few weeks, and she has been doing really well during the day in the potty area. Still, she refuses to sit on the toilet and go poop, so I’ve been a little nervous to take away the Easy-Ups at nap time and bed time, or any time when we happen to be out and about running errands - for fear that she might have an accident when a clean bathroom and/or shower are not readily available. Then, she started doing something super naughty. She would continuously tell me that she did not have to go poop (in order to avoid a trip to the toilet under my supervision), but then would sneak an Easy-Up out of the nursery, put it on all by herself, then proceed to poop in said Easy-Up.

I finally got to the point where I felt like her over-all progress was at a stand-still, and if she was becoming aware of her need to poo to the point that she could put an Easy-Up on to relieve herself, then she was definitely just as capable of telling me she had to use to restroom so I could take her to the potty. 

Anyway, at this point, I was completely fed up with the whole process, and I suddenly had an epiphany: I had been allowing her to use the Easy-Ups at nap time/bedtime, etc. to avoid an accident, but what I was really doing was enabling her to use them as a crutch to avoid any real accountability in the #2 department, and It was stalling her progression. As long as I made the Easy-Ups available, she knew that she had them as an option.

So, a few nights ago, I decided to take away the Easy-Ups (altogether) cold-turkey. The first night, she did really well and actually slept through the entire night without a single accident. She woke up the next morning completely dry, so I took her right into the bathroom and she went potty (Yay!). I was feeling so proud and even posted about our victory on Facebook. 

She stayed dry pretty much all day - even when we were out and about running errands. I thought to myself, “Yay! Maybe taking the Easy-Ups away finally did the trick. Maybe, since she no longer has them to lean on (or pee in), she has realized that she HAS to go in the potty . . . all she has to do now is figure out the poop part." Right?

Then came the night. It all started when she wet the bed (in MY bed, mind you) in the wee hours of the morning. I was lying there one minute, all cozy under the covers, having a nice, comforting dream, I am sure, about something warm and dry . . . and then I rolled over onto the pee-soaked sheets. Now, those of you with children have probably encountered something delightfully similar to the pleasurable experience of being ripped from your sleep only to realize that you are suddenly lying in someone else’s urine, so I am sure you can totally relate to the gaggle of thoughts that raced through my only-partially coherent mind. It was only pee; though (I  can assure you that as a parent, I have come into contact with much worse), so after my initially annoyed reaction of, “REALLY?!?” I just got a towel and laid it down underneath her. Don’t judge. lol. I figured that if she could sleep through lying in her own pee, then there was no point in waking her up to change the sheets. Besides, the baby was also in the bed, and I didn’t even dare risk waking THAT beast. There’d be no getting back to sleep for sure. 

Now, before you get too concerned about our lovely, new-ish, EXPENSIVE mattress, please take comfort in the fact that the mattress protector WAS on the mattress when all of this went down. So, at least I can praise the heavens for that little saving grace. That mattress protector, my friends, is seriously one of the best purchases we have made to date. You cannot survive parenthood without one. 

So, after all of that was said and done, I had nothing but hope for a more productive day on the potty-training front. B-Boo slept for a few more hours, then woke up dry and went straight to the potty. She even did really well throughout the morning, notifying me when she had to go, and she didn’t have any accidents - but then came the terrible, awful . . . 

Not long after lunch, she started to complain that her bum was hurting, and from past experience, I had come to realize that this usually meant she was cooking up a nice #2. I asked her several times if she needed to go “poopy", but she kept assuring me that she didn’t. I even tried to get her to sit on the potty at one point, and she absolutely refused, so I figured maybe her bum WAS just hurting. After all, she had been a little constipated, so I thought maybe she had a mild case of hemorrhoids, poor thing.

I should have just followed my instincts and MADE her sit on the potty; though, for just as I allowed myself to get preoccupied with putting away some laundry (heaven forbid I try to be productive while my child is potty-training), she walked into the room with a look of discomfort on her face, stopped a few feet away from where I stood, distracted, and sort of bent her knees awkwardly, reaching down between her legs. I thought at first that she was just trying to convey that her bum was hurting again, but instead, her expression turned to one of repugnance as she stood upright and held out a handful of poop. 

She then stood there wailing, “Ew ew ew ew ew ew,” as if she hadn't realized previously that pooping in her hand would be so repulsively grotesque. After my initial exclamations of shock and horror, I marched her to the bathroom and made her dispose of the abomination in the toilet, then proceeded to wash her hands profusely and made her sit on the toilet until I was absolutely certain that she had vanquished the stuff completely. 

Afterward, when the reality of it all sunk in, I just sat shaking my head, thinking, “WHY?!? Why does this have to be so hard?” I hear all these stories about how easy it was for some parents to potty-train their kids. Why can’t I have ONE child that just gets with the program without a long, drawn out procession of potty-training drama?

Maybe someone with a background in child psychology can apprise me of what it is that I'm doing wrong, or can at least give me some tips on how to make the process less painful? In the meantime, heaven have mercy . . .  

Tales of a 6th-grade drama queen.

*If you are reading this, please take note that this blog post is a continuation from an experience that was posted yesterday. If you haven't already read the backstory, please click here to do so, or you might be a little confused. ;)

Anyway, I promised you last night that I would fill you in on the details as to how our daughter, Madison, ended up 2 miles from our house after school yesterday:

So, she said that after school let out, she asked a faculty member where she was supposed to go to get on her bus. She told him/her the route number and was instructed to stand at a specific spot at the bus pick-up location.

A few minutes later, she saw the bus pulling up to the ramp but the driver just continued driving through, never stopping to pick her up. She said there were other kids on the bus at that point, so she doesn't know if she was sent to the wrong pick-up location or what happened, but the bottom line was that she missed her bus.

She returned to the faculty member she had spoken to before and explained that the bus had driven off without her, and was told to get on another bus. I guess because the bus system was so chaotic on the first day of school, the bus drivers were instructed to take kids to their regular stops if they missed their intended buses (they were basically just putting kids on any available bus and having the bus drivers drive them to where they were supposed to be?).

She was also told; though, that it may not be her actual stop, but might be a mile or so off from where her usual stop is located? That is one thing I still don't fully understand. Did Madison misunderstand what she was told, or was she just so confused that she misconstrued the instructions? Either way, she went to the nearest bus and heard the bus driver asking kids what their cross streets were so they could be taken to where they needed to go.

This is another part that baffles my mind. Madison said she didn't know her cross streets (which she does. I think she was just so confused and freaked out by the chaos that she just shut down and couldn't think logically), so instead of just admitting as much to the bus driver, she hopped off that bus and went to the next one.

The bus driver of the new bus said he was going to a certain cross-street location that Madison thought sounded vaguely familiar, so that is the bus she chose to take. When the bus driver pulled up to the aforementioned stop, Madison got off the bus to look around and see if she recognized her surroundings (which she didn't). Before she could say anything to the bus driver; though, he closed the door behind her and drove off.

Upon hearing this, my first reaction was to become absolutely furious with her. I couldn't figure out why, if she didn't know where she was, she didn't just tell the bus driver, instead of getting off in some strange place, with no idea as to which direction she was even supposed to start walking. And why, when she missed the bus in the first place, did she not just call me immediately to come pick her up!

Her response broke my heart. She said that she had considered going to the office and calling me when she first missed the bus, but thought to herself, "I am a big girl now. I can handle this myself." Bless her heart for trying to be independent, but I was so frustrated at the fact that the whole thing could have been avoided had she just gone to the office instead of getting on that bus.

Anyway, the fact of the matter was that she was now stranded in some neighborhood that was completely unfamiliar to her. She had no water (and it was well over 105 degrees out yesterday at that time), no phone, and no idea where she was in relationship to the house (which, she actually ended up being in a neighborhood about 2 miles south of us), so she decided to just start walking until she either saw something she recognized or found a public place where she could go to use a phone.

She ended up walking about a half mile south to the next major street, and then turned right and headed west for another mile and a half or so. That particular neighborhood is mostly residential, so there weren't any businesses along the road anywhere until she got to a major intersection (after she had walked about two miles) and went into a business to use a phone.

The first place she went into said they didn't have a phone. I told her that she should have explained the situation to them and someone probably would have let her use their cell phone. It is what is is though, and at the risk of looking silly and completely out of control, she left and tried finding another business with a phone (poor kid).

The next place she went into was a bar, so she quickly turned around and left (although I am sure they would have let her use their phone as well). The third business; however, was next door in the same shopping center, and when she told them the situation, they offered her a chair to sit in, a glass of water and, of course, a telephone. That is where she was when she finally called me.

Though I am eternally grateful for the fact that she eventually made it home safely, I have a mix of emotions at this point about this whole ordeal. A part of me wants to call the Superintendant of the school district and file a complaint, or at least call and have a chat with the principal of her school. I do know that we, as parents (and Madison, as a middle schooler) are partly to blame for the events that transpired yesterday. Perhaps we didn't prepare her sufficiently for what to do if she ever missed the bus, and perhaps she should have just done the wise thing and asked for help from the very beginning.

Either way, one thing that Zach and I ARE grateful for in all of this is the fact that some serious delinquencies were brought to our attention; both on Madison's part AND ours. Thankfully, we got a wakeup call and still have the opportunity to make some changes before something more serious happens.

First of all, we know now that we need to help Madison to not only to be aware of her surroundings and become more familiar with our neighborhood, but we also need to let up a little more in general with regards to how much we shelter her - allow her to spread her wings a little and become more self-sufficient.

I am not going to lie. This is going to be very hard for me. I already had to fight the urge this morning to just pile the kids in the car and start driving her to and from school myself. I know if we give her this room to grow; though, she might not be so afraid to take control and won't shut down in the midst of a catastrophe again, but instead will have the coping skills necessary to think logically and minimize the damage if a similar situation should ever occur again.

We sat down with her last night and had a good heart to heart about some positive changes that need to take place. We talked about maybe taking her for bike rides in the neighborhood, with the sole purpose of familiarizing her with street names, and where things are located in relationship to our house. Maybe we'll even take her to a certain location (like the public library, which is only about 5 blocks away) and have her tell us how to get home from there.

I think it was definitely a testimony-building experience for her too. Maybe that's another positive consequence that can be attributed to this horrifically traumatic experience. She said that as she was walking away from the bus stop where she was dropped off, she didn't recognize anything in her surroundings and just kept praying that heavenly Father would guide her feet to safety. Thankfully, He did and she is home safe.

Man, being a parent is so stressful. I guess this is just another one of those curve balls that I was talking about once upon a time. Let's just pray that life doesn't throw us anymore like this one. ;)

Source: twowritingteachers.wordpress.com via The Purple on Pinterest

Related link:

Middle School Mahem: The day my heart stood still!

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