Am I too old for this?

Long day today, part of it spent at drill. Another part taking care of family business that isn't my story to be told.

I really do feel that I am getting too old for the Guard. I have blisters on my heels! My boots are just a little too big so they rub my heels. My heels have gotten tender after a break from wearing the boots. The Guard did give me another pair of boots but they are too small.......figures.

Tomorrow I will take off at 4:30 am for Greenville. Since we drilled on Thursday we do not have to drill on Sunday. That will be nice since John will be home and we can go to church together.

I got home today and found my parking pass in the mail. It is getting real for me that at the ripe old age of 47 I am going back to school.

I have questioned myself a lot lately if I am too old to go back to school. I expect to graduate when I turn 50. Did you get that? 50!! Why does that sound so old to me?

We have to chose an area of specialization and I am going with Severe and Multiple Disabilities. I picked this speciality because it contains autism and I have an interest in that field. My classes this semester are The Nature of Mental Retardation, Nature of Students with Autism and Human Growth and Development. I am registered, have my parking pass and orientation on the 12th. I just need to get my books and I will be ready to go.

I wonder how many of the students will be young enough to be one of my kids!

Commitments of a Different Sort

Does that old momma look funny in a uniform? Actually, I have been doing this off and on for years. The National Guard has been good to me.
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These boots have taken me many places.

A few years ago they even took me to Egypt and I got an opportunity to see the pyramids. That was a dream of mine that I thought would never happen.

I've had the opportunity to travel, meet new folks, gave me a fulltime job, receive training in several fields and even shoot M-16's (which I actually do rather well in).

However, I find that I am growing away from all of it. I don't feel that I have much to offer the National Guard anymore. My field that I work in is administration. I actually enjoy it. However, my unit changed and did away with all admin positions. So that leaves me adrift. I have been through several schools already (combat medic, military intelligence, psyops, and admin). I don't want to go to another military school. I just don't have the time.

My unit deployed while I was away which leaves the soldiers left behind with a mess. We have to travel 120 miles one way to drill at the HQ's. I am drilling locally for two days and then on Saturday morning I will leave the house at 4 am to make it to drill, not fun in my book.

I have requested that they find me a local job, I want to paint a mural on the armory wall. Hopefully that will allow me to stay closer to home many weekends. However, I know that I will have to travel for weapons qualifications and such. We will see, I hope to talk to some folks on Saturday and talk myself into a job here.

Wish me luck!

Many Faces of PVT Larissa

Oreos and milk....................

followed up with cleaning up.

She couldn't get a dirty spot out.

Now, I need to find the rest of my gear. For some reason I only have three combat boots.

At least the uniform fits!

Mission Completed

Early this morning I was at my desk reading blogs and I hear Larissa upstairs climb out of bed. I hear her come down the stairs. She walks into the room still half asleep and says, "ballet shoes!" That child is persistent.
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So we head to town. A friend suggested Payless so that was where we went.
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Score!!
Of course, she also found some Hannah Montana sandals in the clearance section. She didn't take them off. The sales associate was nice and cut off her tags.

And Anthony found some shoes he had to have. (I do wonder what size pants he put on today.) He didn't take his shoes off either. I was surprised because his feet had grown by 1 1/2 sizes. Makes me wonder if his other shoes fit him!

Then we sat and played with the camera....Joselin was looking at shoes. She is not a quick shoe shopper.

She is also short, 4' 8 1/2" so she was looking for some heels. I think I would break my neck in those, at the very least sprain an ankle.

Sarah didn't even look, she is totally a Vans girl.

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Kids are happy and so am I, 5 pairs of shoes for right around $100.

Next, lunch.

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It is nice of Moe's to have a Wednesday special. We got 20% off of our meal.

We ate well.

Naturally, as soon as we got home Larissa had to try on her new shoes.

We are heading to church tonight and then I have to come home and look for my uniform. I have drill Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Joselin and Sarah are going to Carowinds tomorrow so Jason is coming over to babysit.

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Boy, I sure hope my uniform still fits!

Progress

I did it, I got Larissa enrolled in school today! She has meet the teacher night next Thursday 5:30 to 6:30. Oh, Anthony also has his meet the teacher night next Thursday, same time, different school. That should be interesting. Now I get to figure out transportation. With two little ones in two different schools driving them myself is just not possible. The schools are not close together at all.

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I also enrolled Larissa in dance classes. Naturally the only nights that they had beginning classes were on Monday and Thursday evenings. Uh, guess who is signed up for classes those evenings? I picked Monday since John has many of those days off. This will be the first time I will not be there to take a kid to classes, it feels odd to me. Actually, makes me kind of sad.

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She is going to take ballet and tap and she is so excited. We were able to find her the leotard and tights locally but not the shoes. She pouted for quite a while because I wasn't willing to head into Columbia tonight to buy the shoes. However, she was willing to try out her new clothes.

(Dad, she says that this spin is for you)

Overall a good day today. I guess that tomorrow I will be heading into Columbia to buy some ballet and tap shoes. I can already hear the tap, tapping that will be going on around here.

How to ALMOST enroll your child in school, the SC way.

Well, I am still trying to enroll Larissa in school. The following are steps required for enrollment:
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Go well in advance to the district office and fill out all paperwork and give copies of every required document and a drop of blood. OK, maybe not the blood..... yet.
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Wait a month for the callback that was promised the "next day".
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After waiting a month call the district office so you can be told that they have no record of your child and don't remember meeting you at all.
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Wait 3 days for the return call that was supposed to come that afternoon.
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Listen to the director of special services as she tells you that, ooops, she lost your paperwork on her desk. Also listen to her as she shows her ignorance on the issues that your child is dealing with.
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Believe her when she tells you to go to the school on registration day and they will have your child's name and information.
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Go to the school on registration day and watch as they look up your child and don't be surprised when they say that they have no record of your child. However, you can go into the long line to the side where you can do all the paperwork again.
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Tell them that you will come back the next week, they will tell you that would probably be best.
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Go to the school the next week to register your child.
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Be patient as they tell you that their registration hours are from 9-11 only. Be appreciative that the lady didn't inform you of that last week because then you would have missed this opportunity to make this drive.
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When the lady hands you all the paperwork and tells you to fill it out and bring it back don't act surprised when she says that there is no record of your child.
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Oh, wrong title, should be how to ALMOST enroll your child in school. I will try again tomorrow.

That pretty much sums up my day. How was yours?

Looking for a Church

The little ones were dressed and ready for church this morning. They are really enjoying the "new" church that we have been going to the last few weeks.

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Actually, we were members of this church for almost two years and the children attended when they were much younger.

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At the time we always had at least six children with us, ranging in age from baby to teenagers. We realized that the minister avoided us. I asked his wife if he was uncomfortable around children and she stated that he was just shy. I didn't think that you could be a minister if you were shy, seems like it would be hard to preach. However, we liked his preaching style and message. We also loved our Bible study teacher and the rest of the congregation.

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We became members of that church and were happy there. We thought it was odd that the minister wouldn't talk with us but we looked past it. We were happy there, until the day came that we actually needed a minister. We had assumed that if he was needed then he would take the time for us. We were wrong. Shortly after that we started searching for a new church.

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A few weeks ago the kids and I were out to dinner and we ran in to some folks from the old church. They invited us to come on Sunday and mentioned that they had a new minister who was really nice and talked to folks.

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We decided to go for a visit three weeks ago and have been going ever since. It is so nice to actually have other church members talk to you when you come. We feel like we are really a part of the church body at this church. We haven't made any decisions yet, but I think we will become members there again.

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On Thursday the girls are going with the youth group to Carowinds. I hope that they make some friends. Many of the kids are the same ones that attended when we were members, they just weren't teenagers yet.

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I am amazed at how hard it is to find a church where we feel like we belong. We found one in San Antonio easier then here in SC. It is surprising since there are churches on just about every corner in this town.

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We really tried at the last church we attended. We volunteered at the church and attended regularly. However, we couldn't get anyone to talk with us. It is not so much fun to attend church and not feel like anyone even cares if you show up. I know that attending church is about worship, but I also feel that it is about fellowship. We haven't heard from that church after missing almost a month so I guess we aren't missed.

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A group from the new church is coming for a visit tomorrow. We haven't had a house visit from a church in a long time. I am looking forward to it.