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. :)

Tristian

Tristian is a unique child. I've been told that he is helpful more than once. He got the award in Kindergarten for the most helpful. I've also been told he has "an old soul". I truly believe that. So, this blog is about him and may be ongoing, if I can remember to keep it up.

By 1 year old, Tristian...
had flown in a plane from Indiana to Florida twice.
could clean up his toys into his toy box with very little help.
could drink from a cup.
had been walking for over 2 months.
had been swimming in a pool.
had been camping, sort of, but hated it, so we returned home before falling asleep.
had rode a horse with Mama.
had tubes put in his ears.

By 2 years old, Tristian
had been to his first amusement park, Holiday World in Santa Claus, IN;
.... and spent the whole day in the water park part.
moved houses for the first time.
slept in a real bed, not a crib.
went camping, for real, in a tent (on the hottest week of the year, so we ended up in a hotel).
visited Squire Boone Caverns in Southern Indiana.
had his first febrile seizure and scared Mom and Dad to death.
...which led to his first ambulance ride.
went to his first of many RV shows.

By 3 years old, Tristian
could look at one side of a truck or trailer and tell you the TOTAL number of wheels on it.
could help dad set up the pop up camper. His job was to put the legs down. Although, he was was caught trying to "hook up" the camper to his "Flintstone-type" car!
had his 2nd febrile seizure in the baggage claim of the Orlando airport. Mom remained calm.
had another tube put in his right ear and came out of the surgery smiling, being carried by the recovery room nurse! Such a church baby!
knew the names of all the types of campers: 5th wheels, travel trailers, pop-ups, class A, class C.
had been to Dollywood and Splash Country in Pigeon Forge, TN.

By 4 years old, Tristian
became a big brother.
"fixed" a bottle for his baby sister by pouring water in a new can of formula.
got his sister out of her crib, strapped her into her car seat and declared her "ready to go"! (I immediately called the pediatrician and she assured me that babies were more resiliant than I thought, but watch her for a couple of days anyway. She was FINE!)
was finally potty trained! (closer to 3 years old, but not before)
had a new job on a new camper: legs on the camper again, but also helping Daddy back up the van to the camper hitch. Dead on, every time!
had seen the arch in St. Louis, MO.
had been to Six Flags in St. Louis, MO.
saw over 3 feet of snow fall in less than 24 hours!

By 5 years old, Tristian
was learning to read.
had learned to ride a bike without training wheels.
wanted to be a Wal-mart truck driver.
had been to Magic Kingdom, Gatorland, Busch Gardends (Tampa) twice, Sea World, Florida Aquarium, Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure.
had been to the Air & Space Museum in Dayton, OH.
had been to the Newport Aquarium in Newport, KY - other side of Ohio River from Cincinnati.
had been to the Children's Museum in Indianapolis, IN.
had been on a real train ride (Amtrak).
had rode the Tri-rail (South Florida) to the Metro rail (Miami) to eat dinner in Miami at a Cuban restaurant.

By 6 years old, Tristian
had been on a rode trip, without a hotel stop, from Avon Park, FL, to Seymour, IN!
had spent 7 weeks in South Florida with his grandparents! A long stint without parents!

By 7 years old, Tristian
had played drums in a choir concert at school.
had received the "Most Helpful" award for Kindergarten.

By 8 years old, Tristian
had saved enough money to buy his own bike.
had rode on the Metro into DC to see "the city" and visit a Smithsonian.
saw the White House, the Washington Monument and walked around DC.
was being evaluated for the gifted program at school.
had gone to his first indoor water park.
learned how to send a text message.
moved from Indiana to Virginia.