{Driving Permit, HomeTherapies & Kindergarten, and a 7th Grade Open House}

We have an announcement: {CLEARS THROAT}

Our oldest {Child #1 of 4} started Driver's Ed. this past week- at the beginning of the 2009/10 School year....and promptly received his driver's permit this past Tuesday!!!!

Lord, help me! It is all downhill from here!

Apparently, the first thing the teachers did after giving the kids their permits was to assign 1 hour of "behind the wheel driving with a parent" to be completed by next Tuesday {Sept. 8th}. Of course, Child #1 of 4 felt it was my parental responsibility to complete said assignment with him and do so as fast as possible! That being said, we hopped into the family mini-van that very day, cleared all extraneous materials that I've grown accustomed to from the dashboard/rear view mirror area {handicap placard, hanging baby shoes, notepad & pen set, etc}, turned OFF the radio, turned ON the air conditioning {we BOTH have asthma & allergies and we BOTH were going to be sweating a little, that's for darn sure!} and we went over the basics of what was what in the driver's side of the vehicle.

Finally, we BOTH put on our seat belts and THEN....Child #1 of 4 S-L-O-W-L-Y pulled out of our L-O-N-G driveway and onto the street and we headed S-L-O-W-L-Y for the church parking lot only 2 blocks away...only one problem. It is NOT a straight line from our house to said church parking lot and that made Child #1 of 4, well...a little nervous. So nervous, in fact, that he kept trying to use that pesky left foot of his, in addition to his right, for applying the brakes! I told him repeatedly that his LEFT foot was NOT a foot allowed to be used when driving an AUTOMATIC vehicle...but typical teenager that he is, he had to test his Momma {read attempt to give her WHIPLASH!}. Once we arrived at the church parking lot, rectangular and all, Child #1 of 4 did a pretty good job going around and around, making left and right turns, avoiding yellow lines as if they were real parked cars. Then we got bored of that and decided we should venture out of the parking lot via one exit and turn the corner and come back into the parking lot via another entrance and vice versa. This got interesting as Child #1 of 4 who has NEVER IN HIS LIFE felt the need to wait for ANYONE, EVER, decided he now needed to YIELD for every pedestrian, every pet playing in a front yard, child on a bike, and every other motorist even if a block away!! I had to bite my tongue to keep from yelling, "JUST FLIPPIN' GO ALREADY!"....like he was some old grey-haired lady! So, Child #1 of 4 decides after 40 minutes that he has had enough for his first day of "behind the wheel driving with a parent" and wants to go home. He carefully, but again S-L-O-W-L-Y because {child:} "OH MY GOD!!!!! THERE IS A CAR BEHIND US! WHAT HAPPENS IF IT HITS US???" he is freaking out a little bit, but he manages to stay on the RIGHT....{mom:}"STAY ON THE RIGHT SIDE! THE RIGHT!! YES, THE RIGHT-RIGHT!" and gets us all {him, me and the family mini-van} home, in the driveway in one piece! *SIGHS*

I am very, very proud {and somewhat less stressed} to report that round 2 of "behind the wheel driving with a parent" lasted the remaining required 20 minutes, to equal the assigned 60 minutes for this week...completed last night and went well. Child #1 of 4 and I were in the family mini-van again and we cruising around the side streets of our neighborhood when we "ran into" LOL, Child #1 of 4's buddy, Brian who was with his father, performing the same "behind the wheel w/parent" task! LOL So we decided to follow them. In doing so, Child #1 of 4 and I did some critiquing of Brian's performance as well as our own. However, Brian did lead us out onto two of the major streets of our subdivision which gave Child #1 of 4 the "willies" but I made him follow his friend. After all, {mom:} "If Brian can do it, so can you! RIGHT???? DAMN RIGHT!"

On a much less stressful note, Lil' O's Home Therapies are starting to get organized and resuming each week. We are still waiting to hear that the school district has found an appropriate teacher. We hope that works out SOON! Lil' O will be working hard this year in Kindergarten...don't mistake "Homebound" for "Easy" because we are going to make sure no one skimps!

I attended the 7th Grade Open House for Child #3 of 4 this past Wednesday night. I have been now to three of these. I do enjoy these kinds of functions at the schools. I like meeting my children's teachers, seeing what technology {Smart Boards in every classroom now} & materials the teacher's work with, how the teacher's address the parents as a group, etc. I can say that I am completely comfortable at these types of functions and I really like my children's schools and teachers. I don't always like EVERYTHING the schools/teachers do, but there are very, very few things to complain about. I look forward to a great 7th grade year for Child #3 of 4. She will do a great job, I am sure! She has all of our support and from what it sounded like on Wednesday night, a whole lot of support from some really solid, caring teachers!

It is the beginning of what is predicted to be a gorgeous Labor Day weekend...we hope you go out and enjoy it! We are going to hang around the house, spend time together, maybe visit a Flea Market just to look around and spend time walking together. Pollen counts are not our friend's lately, so we may have to see what we can do about that. *Sighs*

Have a great weekend, everyone!

{Goodnight and Sweet Dreams!}