I want a healthy household please

I got a call about Jake throwing up after his nap on Wednesday which meant Jason or I needed to pick up him. After getting an earlier phone call about his general clinginess in the morning I called for an appointment. Helps I knew he already had HF&M so we just needed the confirmation.

The diagnosis? Double ear infections, strep throat and HF&M. For a child being this sick he spent the rest of the day on Wednesday running around like a banshee. Yesterday was pretty much the same only he was more pissed off in not getting allowed to play outside. The neighborhood didn't need a HF&M infestation going on.

On a wetter note, we got bombarded with water during our fire drill this morning. So woefully under prepared for this annual event. Bear pulled the alarm for our monthly fire drill with a giggle. The trucks were waiting for the kids by the fence to all line up before the onslaught began. No water balloons on our part. No water guns. Nothing but soaking wet kids who enjoyed the hell out of themselves.

It doesn't flood here!

Whoever made that comment to Jason must have been smoking something good because they are full of shit. It was coupled with the phrase 'we're at the widest part of the Mississippi'. This past month's been a doozy with the weather and flooding in our neck of the woods. We're fortunate in missing out a good chunk of what's hit Iowa. Not by much.

Yesterday as we drove off the island more ponds cropped up around the main road on post. The road circling the island by the bridge is under water. Looking across the way to the Mark, you can see how high the river has risen this past week. Steps and walls are completely submerged. Sandbags have grown overnight in preparation for the final cresting of the Mississippi in our area. Davenport's been hit the worst since it's slightly lower then the Moline side. Parents are cursing the new commutes because they change every second. Yesterday it took one parent 7hrs to pick up their stepdaughter when it should have been only 2 thanks to all of the detours.

What's truly frightening about all of this is the worst wasn't as bad thanks to levees breaking up and down the river, doesn't matter which one because it's happened with all of them. Records have still been made even though the 500yr flood plan apparently happened in 1993. Try telling that to everyone whose houses are submerged, their memories gone with all of the water.

People Get Ready,

I'm going swimming. Sort of. It's more of a chaperone deal/extra body there for ratio type of thing. I found out this morning I've been recruited the next 3 wks for the swimming field trips. I don't own a bathing suit. I'm fish belly pale. I have tattoos which aren't easily covered with a small band aid or two. All this means is I sit on the sidelines and play cards with the kids who won't go into the pool.

Randomness squared

A decision was finally made yesterday over who the new commander would be. A few months back this had been decided then a mini-uproar ensued. Apparently something along these lines should have happened when Jason took command because there's not much of a difference from my perspective. Anyways, I'm glad that's been taken care of even though it really doesn't change things for us. We're still leaving here for Ft. Leavenworth. It only means Jason won't have the time in going over the monumental amount of paperwork the newbie will be faced with. I don't even know if they've done the auditing of equipment yet.

In a few weeks Jason will once again be out of command. Seriously, 4 times he's been in command already. A slight break being in school will be nice. We've heard the gamut in school being a slacker's paradise to having one's nose in a book for 10mths. I think it'll be inbetween with more downtime then expected. He's already planning on taking the boys to school next year so I don't think it can be too bad. Or am I already delusional?

The job search continues. The one I applied for back in March has been reposted. I was at the point of being asked for references when they pulled it. I only know this from calling personnel and inquiring about the job and whether or not I should put my name back in the hat. Two more jobs opened up at the hospital down there which I've self-nominated myself. Both are administrative/HR types along the lines of what I'm doing and have done before. I even applied for one down at the jail. Not sure which one but it's for HR so it's not like I'll be contributing to any one's delinquency.

The weather here sucks mightily still.I read yesterday they're predicting record setting shittastic weather in the Midwest this summer. Awesome and we're moving to Kansas. I want to say the line was from Wichita up towards Des Moines in the article I read. Woohoo! More trees and branches were down from the storm early this morning. Yet another tree is being taken down across the street. It wouldn't affect our row of houses but the ones right next to us. Although if it fell right we wouldn't be able to get on our street.

I guess I should actually start working. It's the calm before the storm of summer camp.

No more chocolate

The smell of chocolate syrup is overpowering at the moment. The summer staff had a food fight after the exercises Tina had them going through. Ice cream, syrup, sprinkles and cherries are everywhere. I'm sitting here behind my computer snickering at everyone. They're all a mess with nary a change of clothes in sight.

Welcome to the Midwest

There was a doozy of a storm this morning. As my boss and I were driving back on post we saw several trucks on my street including one which digs up stuff. No, I don't know what they're called. The tree right next to our storage shed came down in the storm hitting the fence of the house behind ours.

Every severe storm we get trees go down on island. I'm honestly surprised this is the first time it's happened with those around our house. There's a copse of trees behind ours which has several trees that came down at some point. They never fell towards our house so it's a non-issue.

No other trees fell down in our area. Not only did we lose a tree, the dahlia's I planted around are now gone. At least they didn't die by the hands of those bloody chipmunks.

The last week of school and possible bus suspension

And what not to do without all of the pertinent information.

The rumor mill started with a phone call from our director informing us 3 kids, including Brendan, were suspended from the bus for eating. This came from one of my coworkers who took the phonecall. I called the director to verify when this happened. She only stated it came from Mr. C who wanted to know when the last day of school is.

I call Transportation so I can find out what happened. This is all related to Brendan's being written up last week for not sitting still or staying in his seat. His inability to do so has been a long standing issue since the first week of school. As I told my boss and Transportation my only issue is why it's being written up now. Transportation will be riding today and I asked her to double check the new monitor isn't shoving the elementary school kids towards the back.

Apparently chaos was the word of the day last Thursday. Kids were eating and drinking. One kid was spitting on another. Nobody was listening to the new monitor. Fortunately Brendan wasn't one of the ones eating. Don't get me wrong, his not sitting still is a huge issue for us. He definitely should have been written up a long, long time ago. Part of the problem stems from having a bus monitor who the kids figured out how to manipulate. Doesn't help there is now only one bus in the afternoon so all 3 schools are together. The elementary kids are on the longest since they're picked up first. Care to guess some of the words and finger gestures Brendan's picked up on thanks to all of this?

I am so glad school is almost out. The bus issues have been a bloody nightmare this year especially with the going down to one bus in the afternoons.