My Daughter's room

I'm currently redoing my 7 year-old's room. She first wanted a Tinkerbell room, but then changed her mind to an "Under the Sea" room. I'm not talking Finding Nemo or The Little Mermaid, but she wants sea creatures.

I painted her room 3 shades of blue and bought some decals from Amazon.com. I knew I could not paint fish. However, I did paint a scuba diver because I was not going to pay $26 for one scuba diver. My daughter thinks the diver looks great and that's all that matters.

All her furniture is wood. So we are installing wall shelves, buying a lighter desk and I'm painting her bed and dresser white. White goes more with a little girl. I had stripped the foot board and headboard to her bed YEARS ago when I thought I would just varnish them. Since then, I've thought everything would look better white. So I wasted countless hours taking off-white paint off the bed pieces just to paint them again! However, they are now white and look pretty darn good, IMHO.

Her dresser is my dresser from when I was 10. It's in decent shape and all wood. I'm still in the process of removing all the varnish to paint it white. This is tedious. I can't imagine 'wanting' to do something like this for fun. I've put a lot of time into this project, as well. I still have to do some minor repairs to the dresser, too, which required me taking the top off of it. I'm hoping gorilla glue for wood will help with the repair. My husband is doubtful.

So, when all is complete, I will post pictures. This is just a teaser, I suppose.

First Day of School & A Missing Child

Yes. My daughter was 'missing' on the first day of school. She was fine and actually turned out to be in a safe place, but I didn't know this for about an hour and a half!!

I am a teacher at an elementary school, but my children go to a different elementary school. Their school has before and after school care right there at the school run by a daycare conglomerate in our county. I can drop them off in the cafetorium as early as 6 am and pick them up as late as 6:30 pm. Long time, but they are NEVER there that late.

My son participated in this program last year and LOVED it. They play on the playground, have parties, do homework, have barbies and hotwheels.

So I dropped the children off there in the morning and they get breakfast and go to school. After school, my daughter doesn't show up. The director of the after school program calls me on my cell, as does the principal. I literally run out of my school on the way to theirs, the longest 20-minute drive of my life. While driving back, the after school director is driving to my house, the house where we used to live (just 4 house away) and our neighbor's house. Our neighbor says my daughter was in the car rider line with them and her and her twin daughters waved good-bye to her as they left.

I get there and there are about 8 people in the office and they all look at me as I was in. The principal has me sit in her office after explaining what went on. They are calling the staff that was helping the children in the car rider line, since that's where my neighbor and her twin daughters saw my daughter. The staff doesn't recall seeing her.

Soon after, they say they've called 9-1-1 and I have to stay there until the police arrive. Sometime in the midst of all this they ask me for a picture of her. I had to run out to the car to get the camera, as I took pictures that morning of the children. When I return, there are about 20 people in the office. One of our neighbors walks in and asks if there's any word yet. She's still dressed in her airline uniform from work. I tell her no and she turns around and heads back out the door.

The principal starts downloading the pictures onto her computer and the bookkeeper was calling off-site daycare centers that had picked up children from the school. This was at the suggestion of one the ESOL staff members that was in the car rider line.

That's where she was....at a daycare center. Apparently, the line for the daycare vans is right next to the car rider and my neighbor actually saw her in the daycare van line. She wasn't even supposed to leave the school!!

We had a neighbor on a four-wheeler, our pastor and his daughter on bikes, two neighbors in cars, some neighbors on foot all looking for her. Wow! What a mess, but I think the entire school knows here now, as well as that she is supposed to STAY at school after school. :)

The Letter Game

My daughter came up with this game we play in the truck. We play it on the way to and from school or anywhere that we are driving to/from around town. It's very simple, but it keeps her busy. Keep in mind, she's 4 1/2.

The game is called "The Letter Game". This name she came up with herself. She announces, "Let's play The Letter Game." And usually, we agree. It starts by her saying a letter and everyone has to come up with words that have that letter in it. When we started this game several months ago, we came up with words that began with whatever letter. Now, it's more challenging, in a way: You have to come up with words that you hear the letter. Everyone takes a turn saying a letter. We go 'round and just shout out words and when there seems to be a lull in words, we move on.

So, tonight, we're playing the game and the letter is "d". Several words are said and my daughter yells out, "Dammit". My husband, very seriously, explains to her that she shouldn't say this word. I am in the passenger seat silently laughing my ass off. Then we are having a very quiet conversation about what if the letter was "f" or whatever. Oh boy!

Maybe you had to be there, but we were dying.