I'm too tired to think of a title for this post

Daddy has been out of town since last Thursday and he's finally coming home tonight. Or maybe I should say "in the morning". His flight was supposed to arrive at 11:35 p.m. but has been delayed due to Hurricane Ike. He has a layover in Houston and then they will have to fly around the storm. So the current prediction is that he will arrive around 2 a.m. And guess who's picking him up at the airport? Yep! That would be me! Fun times. My grandmother has been staying with me all week and you think I'm hard core Mrs. Clean/Mrs. Organization/Mrs. Got it all Together, well the apple didn't fall far from the tree. She's 87 and could probably work circles around many 20 yr olds when it comes to keeping up with the house. She's a mother of 6. She was a widow and worked very hard outside of the home most of her life, and then would come home and care for her 6 children. So I guess taking care of us this week was like a piece of cake for her. She also read TWO 300+ page books this week....yes, THIS week! I haven't read two 300+ page books in my whole life. Every day when I got home from work, the house was spotless, I mean total perfection, and dinner was cooking. She even cleaned out the girls' closet. I begged and cried, "Please don't leave me. You've got the job! You can stay forever!!!" Needless to say, it's been a wonderful week. I feel like I've been on vacation. Well, not really. But it's been nice to just be able to take care of the girls' needs and get everyone to school and myself to work and not to worry about the rest. Nanny leaves in the morning. I'm sad. I'm secretly hoping her flight to Austin is cancelled due to the storm. It could happen.

This week, I had lunch with Lexi on Tuesday at her school. Very interesting to be "on the inside" as opposed to the person on the other side of the 6 ft tall chain link fence. It kind of gave me the teaching bug again. And today, the school, I mean the automated system, called to inform me that my child was absent from school today AT 2 PM!!!! You wanna see one freaked out momma? I was paniced. I took her to school this morning and dropped her off well before the bell. I called the school immediately and couldn't get through. "All circuits are busy....please try your call again." I tried for 15 minutes while my heart was about to beat out of my chest. Finally, I called Cary to see what I should do. He's in Dallas. That's not gonna help! He happened to have the cell phone number of a lady from our church who works in the media center at Lexi's school, so he called her and asked her to go check on Lexi for us. She called back a few minutes later and said she was just fine, had been in her class all day, and that the teacher checked her records and did not mark her absent today. I kind of figured when the "circuits were busy" that maybe there was a system malfunction and that it had called LOTS of parents whose children were also at school today. And sure enough, an hour later I got another call from the messaging service the school uses saying to disregard the earlier phone call and that there had been a system malfunction with attendance. So all was well that ended well.

We've been studying all week for the first round of kindergarten testing. Yes, already! Testing! I'm WAY more nervous than she is. She doesn't even know what a test is! But let me tell you why I could never homeschool...I have ZERO tolerance, no patience whatsoever, for a wandering mind that does not pay attention and concentrate when I am teaching them. Zero. Zilch. Our study sessions last anywhere from 15-45 minutes per day and by the end I'm about to string her up by her toes! Or string myself up, one of the two. It is so frustrating to me. I know she responds so much better to her teacher or to anyone else but me. I've resorted to an M&M for every single letter (upper and lower case) that she recognizes. It's working. She now knows all but 3 letters...lower case b, lower case d, and lower case p. And I think those are the hardest anyways. She's supposed to know all of them, upper and lower, by next Monday. UGH! She's also being tested on recognizing numbers up to 30. We know up to 11. Gulp. She's also being tested on about 20 high frequency words. We know about 5. Bigger gulp. And she has to write her first AND last name, which she's almost got down pat. It's that spacing between the names that gives her trouble. I know it's just a diagnostic test and the results don't mean much, other than that she might in the black bird group rather than in the red bird or purple bird group. I'm kidding. Sort of. She tells me every week that "this week I'm in the red birds. Last week I was in the purple birds." And of course the teacher in me is analyzing every little thing. So the red birds huh...who else is in the red birds...is he a smart boy? I'm also way too much of a stickler for letter formation. I guess they don't teach that any more??? I know her e still looks like an e, but it makes me crazy that she picks up her pencil 3 times to form the e. You know? My standards are so high for my childrens' education. I just want the best of the best for them academically. I hear that most teachers are harder on their own kids academically speaking. I can very much see how that's true. Relax Heather. It's kindergarten. I know, but it's KINDERGARTEN...the foundation for which the next 12 years will rest upon! Okay, now I'm talking to myself. See, I told you I was too tired to think of a title for this post.

Okay, so I'll stop rambling now. Daddy's coming home!!!! YEA!!!! Who knows when!!!! But YEA anyways!!!!