It's that time of year again. This county sends kids to school way too early. August 22nd...really? People are still on vacation, summer is still going, pool fun is still meant to be had! Either way, they started so we sent the kids.
This time it involved C! He is a big five year old and so ready to go to kindergarten. I do feel bad for the kid cause I have been told that kindergarten work can be done in about an hour at home and he is gone from 8am-4pm! He's five not 15!
We woke up bright and early, had everything laid out the night before (or so I thought). Planned on making the kids a nice breakfast to start them out right. Then we realized that we couldn't find C's brand new school shoes. Nope not anywhere. He could wear his old ones (i think) but he was so excited to wear his new ones. Still couldn't find them anywhere after 25 minutes of searching. Finally K found them still in the box next to the garage. Ahh...first day of school is fun. They ate cereal and I took them to school. C made me promise I would let his dad know that he would miss him during the day. Ahh...too cute.
Several hours later K picked the kids up from the bus stop and they all seemed to have positive things to report. No one cried, or got lost or lonely. C said something about how school was the best thing ever since he only played, took a nap on his towel, and listened to stories. Sounds good to me too.
Later that night when I asked C to help me start making the lunches for the next day.
This is our conversation:
Me: Hey C, can you help me get the lunches made for tomorrow.
C: What?!! Why? Do we have to go back?
Me: Um yea. What did you think? We got all that stuff for one day?
C: Well, how many more days do I have to go until I'm in first grade?
Me: oh boy...it's gonna be a long year!
When I tucked him into bed, he told me he didn't want to go back to school. I said that's fine, you can clean toilets tomorrow. I said I would let him think about cleaning toilets or going to school and to let me know in the morning his decision. I told my husband about the conversation, and he said" if the kid was smart he would realize the toilets would be done in 10 minutes and choose that!
Day 2
Everyone went to school as planned. All had shoes, no one chose to clean toilets and no one even mentioned being sad about going. Around 2pm I'm putting little T down for a nap. I turn on her white noise machine and then start to hear and feel a really loud pounding noise. I immediately think my washer has completely gone mad. I leave my two year old in her room and run as fast as I can downstairs to turn off the mad machine and realize it's not the one making the motion and noise. That's when I hear T screaming and things starting to fall off the walls. I had left her alone with things falling in her room. I really did think I was leaving her in a safer place and it turned out to be probably the worst place. I then knew it was an earthquake although I somehow thought that maybe it was only in my house or something. When I could finally text my sister since I couldn't call my husband, she did confirm others in Va were saying stuff on Facebook about it. Whew...I'm not totally crazy...and it wasn't only my house! It was frustrating that cell lines were down for quite sometime and I couldn't reach my husband to let him know we were okay. Same with the kids...couldn't get through to the school.
Luckily everyone was fine. No major damage and the kids got home just a little late. They came running off the bus telling me their was an earthquake at their school but didn't seem too upset by it. C just seemed annoyed that it meant he didn't get P.E. this week. Little T was must more clingy after her nap and kept saying..."it's skary...it's skary" My older boys thought it was hilarious to make things shake in the house to freak me out. We felt a tiny aftershock around 8pm. I for one wanted the house quiet cause you can hear them coming better. Freaky!!!
Day 3
School is canceled until they can evaluate all the school buildings and their safety.
We go to the pool and I'm pretty sure C thinks he is in 1st grade now. Quickest kindergarten year ever!!