Time Just Slips Away

Well, sir, I just blew the whole month of June off with the blogging deal. It definitely wasn't on purpose, people.



Summers are good. I truly like spending time with my kids. I love sleeping in a later and not having to rush to get people dressed, papers signed, and out to the bus on time. I am not a morning person. At all. I rush around sipping a cup of coffee and my anxiety goes out the roof because Paige is so SLOW moving and she can't miss the bus because the other two take a different bus and I start hollering up the stairs for her to hurry up and then I get louder and louder until we end up hollering at each other as she runs out the door to catch her bus. Most mornings end up with us texting "I love you." to each other so we know all is cool for the rest of the day. See? Summers can be a lot less stress in The Edge household.



Then, we moved.



You'd think if you move your children from one school to another in the same state, the school would be on the same education page. Nope. Not in Georgia. Paige is in summer school this summer because one county rolls differently than the other. She is a credit or two ahead of her class, but behind a half credit in math. Oh, math, how we hate thee. Her guidance counselor was nonchalant about it and said she would just take two maths in her Senior year. Uh....no. Paige is a gifted child but math is her nemesis. She can do it and do it well, but she has a block about it. I wasn't going to take the chance of stressing her out her Senior year with TWO maths. Senior year is supposed to be fun! I told her to go ahead and get it taken care of since she really wants to work next summer and I surely don't want to stop her.



Now, I'm getting up in the mornings so I can take her to the bus stop. There are something like six high schools in this county and they take turns hosting summer school. This summer's host is about 30 minutes (traffic-wise) away. They run buses that pick up kids at certain points. It could be worse, though. I have to have her at the bus stop by 9 a.m. and pick her up at around 1-ish. Her first day, she came home and was all "Woe are we! Our teacher just graduated college...we'll never make it!" Yeah, about that. She has the highest grade ever in math because she GETS this teacher completely. Her teaching style clicks with Paige and she is breezing through math like never before. To the tune of a high A, my friends. She has come home with amazing papers that go immediately on the fridge to be proudly displayed. I kid you not. I'm all about displaying the good stuff. I have begged her to get this teacher's name, number, email, and address so if she has future problems, I can bribe this teaching genius to maybe tutor a little bit. I want to stalk this woman who has given the love of math back to my child.



We now see a light at the end of the tunnel as summer school ends next week. She has full confidence about her grade and almost looks forward to going each day because she's going to be able to do her work without stress. Man, I love that.



Did I mention she went to driving school this summer, too? She sure did. Thirty hours of driving school goodness. For six days straight (starting on a Sunday), she went to driving class from 1-6 p.m. That meant rushing to pick her up from summer school at 12:35 to have her clear across a lunch traffic infested town by 1:00 p.m. Those were some busy stressful days. She hasn't quite finished her class yet as she has to do her six hours of driving with them to receive her certification. We have to get her new glasses first. That appointment is Wednesday.

Does it ever end???

I hate my TomTom, too. That son of gun has let me down more than it has helped. I live in a new place, Sir TomTom. I NEED you to know where we are specifically because I DON'T. I can't tell you how many times I've called my husband at work rantin' and ravin' and carryin' on about that blasted TomTom. If we had a nickel for every time I have threatened to throw that blasted thing in the trash can?

*Deep breath because I get really upset over that little piece of technology.*

If there is one thing that'll send me over the edge? It's being lost. I get so angry because I don't know my way around and I just lose my cool because I really didn't want to have to learn a new town at this stage in my life. I want familiarity, okay? I want to know the streets and landmarks in my life.

Poor Makenna. She has been such a trooper. All she's asked for is to go to the library. No joke. That baby of mine loves to read more than her next breath. She has done nothing but read books online all summer long. She begged and begged to go to the library because, as she puts it, "There's nothing like holding a real book in your hands." After I dropped Paige off at driving school one day, I decided to try and find the library. Stupid TomTom. While on the phone with my husband and trying to figure out where the heck the TomTom was taking me....we found it.

*Cue heavenly angels singing, please*

My girl was in heaven. She would have stayed there all day if I had let her. I could probably drop her off at opening and pick her up at closing and she would be perfectly content. The Boy and I picked out some books for him while she got her limit of 12. They were all read by end of weekend. I kid you not.

She's really stepped up this summer helping me out around the house. With Paige being gone most of the time, she's helping me clean and not complaining a bit. Should I wonder what she's building up to ask for? My bet is it will be a kindle. Being eleven really is a growing year. She has a quirky sense of humor and loves to tell you in full and complete detail about the book she's reading. To the point where your eyes glaze over. I've learned to nod alot and say, "Seriously??" It's a good working situation for us.

My boy. My sweet little boy. This has been the Summer of Meltdowns. I like to be a cool Mom, you know? Sleep in a little later...stay up a little later. It's worked wonderfully for the girls for many years. Then, we have The Boy. Evening meltdowns were becoming a norm. Bad meltdowns. To the point where I was sure the neighbors were going to call the law because of the screams coming from our house. I got to the point where I'd rehearse my speech if the law showed up. I'd offer to let them take my son for an hour with the smug knowledge that they would bring him back home QUICK. It has been that bad. I started fretting over his medications. Were they not working anymore? His appointment with the new psychiatrist isn't until August and that was the first available we snatched up. Hello, rising stress level!

Finally, I told The Man that maybe we needed to just put him back on a schedule. Here we go to bed again at 8 p.m. (ish) with a book read in his bed. It hasn't fully solved all the problems, but it has helped tremendously. Bless his little OCD heart. He just has to have routine and order in his small world. He plays so well by himself during the day that he is a pure pleasure to watch. I keep the t.v. on educational channels and he flits from the DS to board games to his action figures. He really hasn't even bothered with the Wii, which has shocked me. I noticed the other day that when he plays his DS and gets to a screen that has words (like directions on what to do), he is reading it out loud. Score for reading! My fire place has a stone front and it's the perfect mountain for his action figures to climb and play rescue to those stuck up on the mantle.

I wish he could go outside more but it is HOT in Jaw-ja (Georgia) this one summer. It's like when your body hits the front door...it says "Sweat Glands: ACTIVATE". I can't believe how miserably hot it has been. To the point where you go to the pool and the water is hot. Therefore, we hang out inside and try to do yard work in the evenings. Before the magnificent thunderstorms hit.

We are now counting down to our first real vacation since The Boy was 3 months old. Hey, vacations cost money and we didn't have much of it the past few years. When Paige finishes her summer school, we are heading to God's Country. That would be Nebraska. The Man's parents live there and we haven't had a chance to visit them since they moved there. I'm excited over a road trip and seeing a couple of new states. Even Miss Prissy is going with us!

That dog of ours. ~sigh~ I love her. She loves me. She has personality and spunk and loves to go for a ride. I can't get over what a good traveller she is. She rides with me to take Paige to the bus stop and pick her up. If I have to run another errand and leave her at the house? She is just heartbroken and will literally cry and mope around. Even The Man has a soft spot for her. He's off on Fridays and will give me a break taking and picking up and what do I hear as he walks to the door? "Come on, Prissy! Let's go!" Yep, we have all been suckered in by that sweet little face. She snorts and does her best to talk. She's not a barker at all unless she's playing. She'll lick you to death if you walk in our house. If you take a nap? Make room because she's coming, too, and will snore worse than any old man in a nursing home.

I told you aaaallllllll of that just to show that I truly haven't been neglecting my blogging duties. It's hard to sit down and write a cohesive blog post when you have a six year old lurking around waiting for you to get up and go do something so he can play a game on the computer. Drives me crazy to no end when I get up to do laundry or another chore and that boy will jump in the seat right behind me and pull up his game sites to play. It wouldn't be so bad if he wouldn't close my windows to do this! Therefore, I can't move once I start writing because sure as I'm sitting here, the auto-save feature won't work that one time.

I know I still owe you the second part to the YardWork post. I got the pictures downloaded and promise to do that soon. I just had to let you know how busy Summer 2010 has been around The Edge and how I'm looking forward to school starting back so I can get back on MY schedule!

You go on now, and keep it cool. I know I have and have the electric bill to prove it!