Can Santa Fix the Gas Prices?

I just got a phone call from Katie, my sister. Brian is coming home from the hospital today. (Most of you may know that he had heart issues and was in ICU after an open-heart operation.) It was nice to get a personal call, despite how busy she is with everything that is going on. Thank any and all of you who have said prayers for them. God Bless.

I have been in a state of denial/depression all week. It was discovered Monday that I lost my digital camera. At first, I was in this place of "oh, it will show up." Which slowly moved to, "I think a janitor or someone wandering around school must have picked it up." Now, I really don't think it is coming back. The ironic part is, I am not upset about the few picutres I lost of my kids. I am more mad at myself for losing the start of our "yearbook" for the kids in my class. In the scheme of things, this is really NBD. I just...the rest does not matter.

James' behavior has been improving a ton lately. I think he is crossing a maturity line. Twice this week some kid at school DID something to James, and he did not retaliate. Today, some boy peed on James. Boys will be boys. Apparently, they were both standing on the stool to reach the urinal at the same time. The boy just turned at the wrong time and squirted James across his shorts. I was actually a bit surprised to hear that Bubba did not aim right back at him.

We had James complete the P.A.T. screening yesterday. Despite my thinking the boy could be a bit ADD, he passed the Dial-3 with average to above average scores. The educator giving the test said she did not think he would be ADD. Let's hope not, but he also took the test one-on-one without any distractions. The boy is smarter than most people know. He scored as a 6 year old on a couple sections. He failed the hearing test in his left ear. We will have that checked out tomorrow.

Not to leave Emma out: She has had great behavior days at school since the day I shadowed her at school. Ten days without having to turn her card. We took her to get her ears pierced tonight. These were actually a gift from the Easter Bunny. I thought we would have to brace ourselves for the crying that would ensue. She did better than me. Not a tear. Her biggest worry is when am I supposed to turn the earrings? How many times a day?

Emma told me in bed the other night after prayers that, "Santa does not exist." Ouch. How does that happen? And why is she telling me this NOW? Four months later she is telling me about how some punk kid at daycare is telling people this story. How rude. She asked me what I thought. Of course, I told her that I believed in Santa. Who else had the power to do all of that work? She answers, "God." Duh, mom. How do you resond to that? She remembers Uncle Paul with the getup on last Christmas. He pulled at the beard enough for my observant little girl to see that there was another beard underneath. oops. oh well. "Well, Emma, you see. These are Santa's helpers. Santa can't leave the North Pole to go to everyone's Christmas parties and to the mall to listen to what the kids want. Santa made them all Santa costumes to wear in order to help out Santa.....it is only a matter of time....my little girl will no longer be a little girl.

Do your kids play on those playgrounds with equipment buried in the miniature rocks? So small they get caught in your shoes like sand pebbles? Everyday, James comes home from school and takes off his shoes. I hear ting, ting, ting. Little tiny rocks all over the floor. Everyday I sweep them up and throw them in the trash. Then one day out of a joke, really, we started counting how many he would bring home in one day. The highest we go to was 64. Sometimes we still count the rocks. Now we are keeping them in a glass jar. At the end of the summer, we will either make ourselves a pit of some kind or give them back to the daycare in exchange for partial payment. (hee hee hee) How much do you think they pay to have that rock put back there? Right now the circumference of our jar is full; not much volume to it yet though.

Here is a question for anyone who can help me:

Last year and the year prior, I received emails from people saying that we should boycott all gas stations for one day to really sock it to them. This year, the email says that in order to put the hurt on the gas companies, we should boycott Mobile and Exxon. With these being the two major gas companies, wouldn't that be hard to do? Where does QT buy from? How about Phillips 66 and Seven-Eleven? And who has researched this? If everyone were to really take part in this, would that really lower gas prices?

I was telling my students not too long ago how when we were kids, we would station hop to find gas that was under .90/gallon....I know some of you have better stories than that. What is happening in America when my tax credit (thank you for that boost) has to go to pay for me to get to work or to feed my kids? No wonder the obesity problem is rising. Junk food is cheaper than healthy.

Healthy eating. Happy May.