Thursdays are early release days here in Central Kitsap School District. This means the kids that I normally get at 330, get here at 2 on Thursdays. A half hour later, I need to load everyone up in the van and go to the school and get Paige and Ben (they catch a bus at THEIR school, ride for 40 minutes and get dropped off at the school near our house). All the kids were lined up getting ready to go out the door and one of my daycare kids POWER puked all over the front entryway. LOVELY. Thankfully he managed to get it mainly on the area rug, which means I tossed it outside, hosed it off and will throw it in the washer tonight. State regulations require that children who puke at daycare need to be picked up ASAP by their parents and cannot return for 24 hours. Keep in mind that this is the 'problem' child I have. He is fourth grade...nine years old. I have been asking his parents since September to have him tested both mentally and physically by his pediatrician as there is something going on. As a mother and as someone who has worked with kids for years, I KNOW there is something wrong. He doesn't have the basic academic skills every fourth grader should have. He is incapable, or unwilling to follow directions. His parents could really care less quite frankly. No testing has been done. These are the parents who asked ME to show up at his parent/teacher interview...and these are the parents who made a dental and medical appointment for the younger child and then told ME I was taking him ( I said no!). So I call up dear old Dad and say 'C has just power puked. He has no fever, but the State requires that he be picked up ASAP'. Dads response? "Oh just lovely! Just wonderful! I'll call J (his wife) and see what we can do. I'll get back to you". It isn't that he has a tough boss (he works for his dad as a mechanic!) or that his wife can't get off work (she is a bus driver and her routes can be taken care of by other drivers). It's that they just REALLY don't want to be bothered. It breaks my heart.
They are the kinds of people who should never have had kids. Just because you can doesn't mean you should.
I can't WAIT to close daycare at the end of June and head back to college! Yup, I am headed back to get my bach...YAY!
Hugs to all,
Jaye
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Season of giving up....
The Lenten season is upon us (that's the fancy way of saying Lent!). For those of you who don't know..or who knew but have forgotten, Lent is the 46 (40 not including Sundays) days before the Easter season (and you thought there was nothing beyond 'don't wear white past labour day'!). We've been going to our church, Newlife, for about five years now..they have always celebrated Lent but I was always 'eh..not this year...not for this girl'. And so the years passed by. I've grown into my spirituality considerably in the past five years.
Having come from a hard core, bible thumping, do it our way or get out religion, I spent a good 10 years not a part of anything religious after I left a 30 year career in previous stated religion. Until we started going to Newlife. Mark wanted to go. Lets get that straight right from the get go. He suggested it several times in fact "hey..heard about this great church some of the guys on the boat go to, we should try it out'. Uh huh..sure..THIS Sunday? But we have plans THIS Sunday...and so it went. Until ONE Sunday we made the leap to go. Looking back, I think..no, I know it was God holding me back until this particular Sunday, because He DOES have a sense of humour! So we start out for Church and I have a laundry list of things "I better not hear from the Pulpit!". If they tell me 'if you aren't one of us then you are going to hell' I am OUTTA there. Ditto on the whole 'we are the ONLY true religion', 'women are lesser beings' etc etc. I am surprised I even made it out the door! I walked in and was actually EAGER to find a reason to leave! I'd show organized religion! Oh yes I would! Don't fail me now moral high ground!!
The sermon that day was 'The Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse'. If you aren't a 'religious' person, this means nothing to you. If you are, then you know that having come from a bible thumping religion to hear a sermon like this was like a KABLAM from God himself. I had never heard this teaching taught quite this way! I sat, mesmerized for the hour that we were there. Barely breathing...just listening. I forgot my list of 'they better not say' s. I left there feeling encouraged and uplifted and HAPPY! Even on a GOOD day, discussing a relatively MILD topic like 'WE are the good guys and everyone else is going to die, when they do who's house do you want' in my old religion, had left me feeling down and depressed and guilty for all I HADN'T done that week. Here I was...having heard one of the most doctrinal topics in the bible discussed and I was HAPPY! What the junk? Is THIS what religion...no, SPIRITUALITY was supposed to be about?? Mark asked me on the way home what I thought and all I could say was "I think we need to go back next week and see what ELSE they talk about". Like I said, that was five years ago! And thus is how my spiritual life has grown...how I have gone on a walk with God that is truer and more meaningful in five short years than the other 30 years I'd spent with the other folks ever was...and that is how we get back to LENT!
So this year, I was actually WAITING for them to announce the start of the Lenten season! I was all prepared. I knew how I was going to 'help out' and I knew what I was going to give up. I am giving up alcohol. Makes me sound like a raving drunk...to 'give' up something like booze, you'd have to be right? Nah...but I DO enjoy...REALLY enjoy my cold crisp glass of wine on a Saturday with a good SVU marathon on! So..gone is the wine for the next 40 (46 if you count Sundays,and I kind of think I can't drink on Sundays but not the other days if I want to count this as 'giving something up') days.
Now Mark is giving up Coke. Soda in general actually. No wine, no soda. Should make for an interesting time over the next month and a half! lol...now, I sorta feel guilty when I sit down with a diet coke in front of Mark...note, I said KINDA. Cause I am giving up WINE, I don't have to give up coke too, just because he is. Not my fault that he isn't a drinker of any kind and can't 'repay' me by sitting down with a nice cold crisp glass of white wine. Anyways...I look forward to 'giving up' something, even for a small fracture in time...I figure it's the least I can do for a God who so HUMOUROUSLY showed me the way back to his path...
Hugs to all,
Jaye
Having come from a hard core, bible thumping, do it our way or get out religion, I spent a good 10 years not a part of anything religious after I left a 30 year career in previous stated religion. Until we started going to Newlife. Mark wanted to go. Lets get that straight right from the get go. He suggested it several times in fact "hey..heard about this great church some of the guys on the boat go to, we should try it out'. Uh huh..sure..THIS Sunday? But we have plans THIS Sunday...and so it went. Until ONE Sunday we made the leap to go. Looking back, I think..no, I know it was God holding me back until this particular Sunday, because He DOES have a sense of humour! So we start out for Church and I have a laundry list of things "I better not hear from the Pulpit!". If they tell me 'if you aren't one of us then you are going to hell' I am OUTTA there. Ditto on the whole 'we are the ONLY true religion', 'women are lesser beings' etc etc. I am surprised I even made it out the door! I walked in and was actually EAGER to find a reason to leave! I'd show organized religion! Oh yes I would! Don't fail me now moral high ground!!
The sermon that day was 'The Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse'. If you aren't a 'religious' person, this means nothing to you. If you are, then you know that having come from a bible thumping religion to hear a sermon like this was like a KABLAM from God himself. I had never heard this teaching taught quite this way! I sat, mesmerized for the hour that we were there. Barely breathing...just listening. I forgot my list of 'they better not say' s. I left there feeling encouraged and uplifted and HAPPY! Even on a GOOD day, discussing a relatively MILD topic like 'WE are the good guys and everyone else is going to die, when they do who's house do you want' in my old religion, had left me feeling down and depressed and guilty for all I HADN'T done that week. Here I was...having heard one of the most doctrinal topics in the bible discussed and I was HAPPY! What the junk? Is THIS what religion...no, SPIRITUALITY was supposed to be about?? Mark asked me on the way home what I thought and all I could say was "I think we need to go back next week and see what ELSE they talk about". Like I said, that was five years ago! And thus is how my spiritual life has grown...how I have gone on a walk with God that is truer and more meaningful in five short years than the other 30 years I'd spent with the other folks ever was...and that is how we get back to LENT!
So this year, I was actually WAITING for them to announce the start of the Lenten season! I was all prepared. I knew how I was going to 'help out' and I knew what I was going to give up. I am giving up alcohol. Makes me sound like a raving drunk...to 'give' up something like booze, you'd have to be right? Nah...but I DO enjoy...REALLY enjoy my cold crisp glass of wine on a Saturday with a good SVU marathon on! So..gone is the wine for the next 40 (46 if you count Sundays,and I kind of think I can't drink on Sundays but not the other days if I want to count this as 'giving something up') days.
Now Mark is giving up Coke. Soda in general actually. No wine, no soda. Should make for an interesting time over the next month and a half! lol...now, I sorta feel guilty when I sit down with a diet coke in front of Mark...note, I said KINDA. Cause I am giving up WINE, I don't have to give up coke too, just because he is. Not my fault that he isn't a drinker of any kind and can't 'repay' me by sitting down with a nice cold crisp glass of white wine. Anyways...I look forward to 'giving up' something, even for a small fracture in time...I figure it's the least I can do for a God who so HUMOUROUSLY showed me the way back to his path...
Hugs to all,
Jaye
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Is there a greater sacrifice...or does it ALL count....
Ok...gonna ramble a bit here....bear with me! :)
I friended a friend of Moms on facebook about a year or so ago. Mom worked with this gal..I really don't know her...but we 'seemed' to have a lot in common...both about the same age...both with younger kids..and her husband was about to be deployed for his first 'real' time. He's national guard...which means that for one weekend a month..and two weeks in the summer he 'played' war. And. Got. Paid. For. It. ONE weekend a month. TWO weeks in the whole summer. And. He. Gets. Paid. Don't get me started on that.....anywho...so I was being all supportive of her..and sent her a huge packet of materials dealing with deployment. Some of it was the 'reality' stuff..pay issues...where to go for answers etc...and some of it was the 'emotional' stuff...cycle of deployment...stuff for her two girls to have to deal with a parent being deployed. All the good stuff that as an Official Navy Ombudsman I can get my hands on and hand out to families...even if they aren't Navy! Good stuff....
Good enough....he goes over to the sandbox (as we military folks affectionately call 'over there') and he gets shipped back after two months. Why you might ask? Because he couldn't FREAKING HANDLE IT. He gets paid for YEARS and YEARS to 'play' war...a PAY CHECK people. Then when he gets called upon to actually DO what he's been paid for for years, he can't 'handle it'. Not only that, he ends up not going HOME and becoming a productive member of society once again...nooooo..he lands in a VA hospital in Texas with PTSD. He's STILL THERE. Eight months later! Who's paying for this you might ask? WE ARE. Tax payers! His wife posted that 'yay, he might be coming home soon'. YAY indeed. Wanna talk sister? MY husband is retiring after twenty YEARS of standing up and doing what he's been paid for. While your husband was doing his 'real' job and PLAYING at war (meaning pulling in REAL money while ALSO getting a pay check from the Gov't for his 'hoo rah he man warrior weekends'), MY husband was pulling in shitty money, sacrificing holiday after holiday with his family...spending MONTHS without contact with the outside world and his family...and guess what? No PTSD..no hospital...nope...nadda...
But what REALLY pisses me off????? what this post is REALLY about? She just posted this morning that she got a new fancy coffee maker AND got a military discount!!! WHY??? She gets a 'military discount' because WHY???? Because her husband 'pretended' to be a hero?? I say she should get a pretend military discount and let us REAL Military wives reap the benefits!
Ok..I gotta get off my soap box now before I get all Holier than thou...after all, this IS the first day of lent...and I HAVE given up alcohol for it. Maybe all I really need to do is stop reading posts like HERS and I won't WANT to drink! :)
Hugs to all!!
Jaye
I friended a friend of Moms on facebook about a year or so ago. Mom worked with this gal..I really don't know her...but we 'seemed' to have a lot in common...both about the same age...both with younger kids..and her husband was about to be deployed for his first 'real' time. He's national guard...which means that for one weekend a month..and two weeks in the summer he 'played' war. And. Got. Paid. For. It. ONE weekend a month. TWO weeks in the whole summer. And. He. Gets. Paid. Don't get me started on that.....anywho...so I was being all supportive of her..and sent her a huge packet of materials dealing with deployment. Some of it was the 'reality' stuff..pay issues...where to go for answers etc...and some of it was the 'emotional' stuff...cycle of deployment...stuff for her two girls to have to deal with a parent being deployed. All the good stuff that as an Official Navy Ombudsman I can get my hands on and hand out to families...even if they aren't Navy! Good stuff....
Good enough....he goes over to the sandbox (as we military folks affectionately call 'over there') and he gets shipped back after two months. Why you might ask? Because he couldn't FREAKING HANDLE IT. He gets paid for YEARS and YEARS to 'play' war...a PAY CHECK people. Then when he gets called upon to actually DO what he's been paid for for years, he can't 'handle it'. Not only that, he ends up not going HOME and becoming a productive member of society once again...nooooo..he lands in a VA hospital in Texas with PTSD. He's STILL THERE. Eight months later! Who's paying for this you might ask? WE ARE. Tax payers! His wife posted that 'yay, he might be coming home soon'. YAY indeed. Wanna talk sister? MY husband is retiring after twenty YEARS of standing up and doing what he's been paid for. While your husband was doing his 'real' job and PLAYING at war (meaning pulling in REAL money while ALSO getting a pay check from the Gov't for his 'hoo rah he man warrior weekends'), MY husband was pulling in shitty money, sacrificing holiday after holiday with his family...spending MONTHS without contact with the outside world and his family...and guess what? No PTSD..no hospital...nope...nadda...
But what REALLY pisses me off????? what this post is REALLY about? She just posted this morning that she got a new fancy coffee maker AND got a military discount!!! WHY??? She gets a 'military discount' because WHY???? Because her husband 'pretended' to be a hero?? I say she should get a pretend military discount and let us REAL Military wives reap the benefits!
Ok..I gotta get off my soap box now before I get all Holier than thou...after all, this IS the first day of lent...and I HAVE given up alcohol for it. Maybe all I really need to do is stop reading posts like HERS and I won't WANT to drink! :)
Hugs to all!!
Jaye
Tuesday, February 02, 2010
So much for Blogging!
So I had good intentions in staying on top of my blog. That failed miserably..I see my last post was December 28th....yay me! :)
So a quick recap of whats happened since then to bring you all up to date and then I PROMISE (ok, my fingers are crossed!) to be better with this! :)
Our Christmas holiday was fabulous! My brother and his son came and it was our very first Christmas together ever! As Aaron and I didn't celebrate the holidays as kids due to our mothers religious choice, we have been looking forward as adults to celebrating together and this was the year that our schedules were clear to do it! YAY! We plan on doing it alot more often!
Paige turned 11 in January..I can't believe she is 11. Time has flown....wayyy too fast!
My laptop screen went Kaput...so Mark took the screen off of it, got a free OLD (think big boxy thing!) from a buddy and hooked the two up and viola! Ben now has a perfectly functioning computer....we did our taxes and VIOLA, Mommy has a new MacBook! YAY for tax returns!
Sam is working at Target and doing a great job...really nice to see him being responsible on a regular basis...even if he HAS locked his keys in his car twice! Ahahhahaha....
Mark goes on Terminal leave in mid April..and retires fully from the Navy July 31,2010. We are SO excited about what lies ahead..and as of this moment, we have no clue what that will be. He's looking for a job and we are very confident he will be doing the civilian version of what he does now...which means I'll still have no idea what the man does to bring home the bacon (he's probably a pole dancer at a sailor bar!).
Mary is now 'officially' divorced for the third time. What a winner...or loser..depending on how you look at it! :)
Mark and I both traded in our old cell phones and bought the new Droid. LOVE. IT. We can not only call people on it, we can do email...go online..you name it! :)
I am going to start school in June!! YAY!! The Navy is paying my tuition...paying for my books AND paying me what I make doing daycare..YAY me! I'll be getting my bachelors in Psychology...my long term goal is to work with kids within the court system. And YES, I am quitting daycare! :) It was a GREAT job to have while Mark was out to sea so much..but now I can get back on track with my own career goals!
And THAT folks, is it!
More on a regular basis, I promise (crossing knees and toes now!)
Hugs to all,
Jaye
So a quick recap of whats happened since then to bring you all up to date and then I PROMISE (ok, my fingers are crossed!) to be better with this! :)
Our Christmas holiday was fabulous! My brother and his son came and it was our very first Christmas together ever! As Aaron and I didn't celebrate the holidays as kids due to our mothers religious choice, we have been looking forward as adults to celebrating together and this was the year that our schedules were clear to do it! YAY! We plan on doing it alot more often!
Paige turned 11 in January..I can't believe she is 11. Time has flown....wayyy too fast!
My laptop screen went Kaput...so Mark took the screen off of it, got a free OLD (think big boxy thing!) from a buddy and hooked the two up and viola! Ben now has a perfectly functioning computer....we did our taxes and VIOLA, Mommy has a new MacBook! YAY for tax returns!
Sam is working at Target and doing a great job...really nice to see him being responsible on a regular basis...even if he HAS locked his keys in his car twice! Ahahhahaha....
Mark goes on Terminal leave in mid April..and retires fully from the Navy July 31,2010. We are SO excited about what lies ahead..and as of this moment, we have no clue what that will be. He's looking for a job and we are very confident he will be doing the civilian version of what he does now...which means I'll still have no idea what the man does to bring home the bacon (he's probably a pole dancer at a sailor bar!).
Mary is now 'officially' divorced for the third time. What a winner...or loser..depending on how you look at it! :)
Mark and I both traded in our old cell phones and bought the new Droid. LOVE. IT. We can not only call people on it, we can do email...go online..you name it! :)
I am going to start school in June!! YAY!! The Navy is paying my tuition...paying for my books AND paying me what I make doing daycare..YAY me! I'll be getting my bachelors in Psychology...my long term goal is to work with kids within the court system. And YES, I am quitting daycare! :) It was a GREAT job to have while Mark was out to sea so much..but now I can get back on track with my own career goals!
And THAT folks, is it!
More on a regular basis, I promise (crossing knees and toes now!)
Hugs to all,
Jaye
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