I am not sure I can explain it but I am going to try.

I feel like something is missing.

At the old school, I did lots.  Everyone knew who I was.  I was at meeting 4 or 5 nights a month.  My phone rang constantly.

Now? I don’t do a darn thing.  I know the people who jumped ship from the old school and came to the new one with us but that is it.

I drop Noodle off and drive away. At old school I was there about an hour every morning.

I told Hubs I wasn’t going to get involved at new school like I did at old school. 

Our old school friends teased me the night we went for Back to School Night when the mentioned there was a volunteer sign up sheet in the back of the room.  I held strong though and  have only commited to a 2 hour time slot at the school carnival in October.

For the most part I was ok with it. We have given more than our fair share of time over the past 8 years. I figured “let someone else do it”.

But…. (you should have seen this coming) then I see “me”.  I see all the moms at the new school doing what I did at the old school and I don’t want to let everyone else do it.

This is not how I ever imagined it being.  I remember when we registered Noodle for kindergarten and the office  lady told us she would be in the “Class of 2010”.  She said “it seems forever away but it will be here before you know it”.   I wanted her to finish school where she started. Maybe its the military brat in me that feeds that desire.  Don’t get me wrong, I am happy that we moved her.  I never would have made it another year at old school, but it pisses me off every morning I drop her off that I don’t get to watch her run off to her group of friends that she has had since kindergarten and that she is the “new kid”.

Bing the new kid is hard, but so is being the new mom.

OMG!

Noodle has a had cell phone for about a year and a half. Her own email at least that long and just recently I let her sign up for Face*book.  The rules have always been and until she is 18 will be that I get to know her passwords and can look at it whenever I want.  Call it over protective if you want.

About a month ago she was showing me a picture on her cell phone. It was of someones new puppy. For some reason I started reading the other texts that she had received on her phone.

I immediately and I mean RIGHT.NOW. lost my mind. 

I will not tell you what they said (there were no pictures) but  believe me it was not anything I would have ever imagined finding on ANY 13 year olds phone.  (I am not even sure at 13 I knew that those things even existed).

I went into her sent messages and she said all the right things to the sender (s).  I let her know she was not in trouble for the texts, BUT she should have told me, and if not me or Hubs, at least another adult.

It was late in the evening (10:30) when this all came about.  I managed to refrain from calling  (there were 2 boys) the first boys parents until about 8:00 the next morning. Boy1’s mom and I are very good friends. She was dumbfounded and was ready to hang Boy1 up by his neck.  It turns out that the boys were together (at Boy2’s house) so Boy1’s mom and I decided to wait for them to get back to Boy1’s house and she would confront them. 

It was more than apparent that they got caught and  knew they were busted and in BIG trouble.  Boy1’s mom explained to them just what kind of trouble it could lead to and so on and so forth.

Later that evening, Boy1 marched his unwilling little arse over to apologize to Noodle and then to Hubs and I.  Judging by his face, it was one of the hardest things he has had to do. 

Boy2’s mom called Boy1’s mom sometime during that same day and told her “Boy2 said he didn’t do it, so I am going to have to believe him”.

I was pissed. She knows us, why did she not call us? Even just to get our side of the story. (Its not like we didn’t have the proof on Noodle’s phone)

Had it been my kid, she would have taken the walk of shame just like Boy1.

I called MamaB the next day to have her check M1’s phone just to see if she had gotten any of the same kind of texts.  Fortunately she did not. I can’t say that I am happy that my girl was the one to get them, but at least we caught it and they did not go any further or back and forth any more than they did.

Well MamaB told PapaB and it sounds like he was almost as upset about it as we were. (Its so nice to know that we have friends who love our kid as much as we do).  In my moment of disbelief in it all, I forgot that PapaB works with Boy2’s mom.  My guess is that she was kicking herself for not calling me, rather than letting him loose on her.

I wasn’t going to share this. Then yesterday there was an article in our local paper (not  our story but about “sexting” as they call it ) about it. I can’t find it on line to link to it but here is what Wikipedia says  about it. Again, there were no pictures in our situation so it is not exactly the same but it sure hit close to home all over again.

A Tip

It hardly ever rains here.

 That would be why they call it the desert…

So last Friday night not only did it rain, it poured buckets. And then the electricity went out.

The very same electricity that you need to open your garage door when you come home.

Neither Hubs nor I have a key to our house on our key chains. 

You would think we learned our lesson and one of us would have made the effort to find a house key so this would not happen again.

Maybe next time it rains.

One Tough Cookie

One of the first days of school Noodle brought a flyer home for a dance that was for the jr. high kids at old school and new school. UUGH!

I immediately told her she WAS NOT GOING.  Then a few more days went by and I really started missing my “mom” friends and then she told me she really missed her friends and it broke my heart I gave in and told her she could go.

We stopped for a quick bite to eat before the dance and I was telling her “the rules” and so on. Then I jokingly told her no fighting with any one from the old school. 

Serious as a heart attack without missing a beat she simply stated “I won’t get into a fight tonight I have my good shirt on”.

(It is the wash now so watch out if you meet her in a dark alley. You have been warned!).

It was a laugh we all needed.

Sometimes I don’t know where she gets it.

( I was not wearing a good shirt and would have been happy to kick some ass had the opportunity presented itself.  Most days I am a do as I say Mom, not a do as I do Mom).

A Letter

To Whom It May Concern,

DO NOT FUCK WITH MY KID! (By my kid, I am referring to Noodle, and all those children who belong to  my friends and friends of Noodle).  

Mark my words… I WILL WIN! It may not be in the next 2o minutes and if it takes me 20 years I will not give up my fight.

Yours,

One Pissed Off Mama

The latest details in the battle of old school vs. new school have set me off yet again.  I tried to play nice. I tried to turn the other cheek.  I tried. I tried. I tried.

You want to play this way? Bring it on.

4 Blocks.

Hubs mother bought a house.

A house 4 freaking blocks away from us.

There has never been a lick of love lost between MIL and I so we know its not me that she wants to live by.

(I am, more so by default I think, the “favorite” of the significant others of her two boys, but if that is indeed the case I would hate to see how she treats the other one. Oh! Thats right… that is why we never see them because she treats them like crap).

From the time we bought our house all she could do was bitch and moan about how far away we were from everything and why would anyone want to live where we did. 

4 blocks isn’t much closer to any of the things we were so far away from. 

They get the keys some time this week.

Last week she was IN our house twice while we were not home.  As you can imagine did not sit well with me. In my opinion she should not come into our house when we are not home without a valid reason.

 One of the days she came by she called Hubs and told him that she had been to the house and did he know that I left the house with dirty dishes in the sink? 

It was the cereal bowl and spoon that Noodle had used when she ate breakfast.

Damn I am a horrible person. 

Did I mention its only 4 blocks away?

3 Days Down…

Well we survived the first week of school.  Noodle was pretty nervous the first day and had a mini meltdown in the parking lot yesterday morning but seemed just fine this morning.

I also seem to be adjusting well.  I was nervous for her the first day and was doing great until my friend starting tearing up. Then, as I said in a text to  her, it was like the first day of Kindergarten all over again.  Sending my not so little baby off into the unknown to face it all on her own. It was almost more than I could take but the smile on her face when I picked her up made it much better.

It is so very different for all of us. Different isn’t always bad though and more and more I am convinced that the decision we made was the right one.

New Beginnings

Tomorrow is going to be a big day for us.

Noodle will be starting 8th grade.YIKES! My baby girl in her last year of jr.high.

Not only will she be starting 8th grade, but it will be at a new school.  I didn’t blog about it too much (although some of you unfortunate souls had to hear more than your fair share of it) but her old school went through some major changes that we just were not comfortable leaving her there to endure.

It was a heart breaking decision, especially to leave with only one year left, but we truly believe we made the one that was best for OUR child and are looking forward to new beginnings.

I was worried about Noodle and how she would adjust (she used to be deathly shy) but we went a day last week for a “new parent” meeting  walked in the door and she was off giggling in the corner with some old and some new friends.  And now? She is upstairs trying on her uniform! A fate worse than death – wearing a uniform – and she willing put it on early all on her own!

We will miss the familiarity of it all.

We will miss the friends who have become like family.

We are looking forward to a fresh start.

We are looking forward to making new friends.

Noodle,

You are turning into a lovely young lady right before our eyes. You are tackling the world by leaps and bounds and we can’t wait to see how you continue to grow and blossom this year.  You are our greatest joy, today, tomorrow and always.

Love,

Mama

Word Travels Fast

You may or may not have noticed that we have been out of town. Noodle and I went to my beloved Podunk (and there abouts) for 9 glorious days.  We were there about 30 seconds when I sent Hubs a text begging him to pack our stuff and move right.now.  Its a different lifestyle entirely, one that I am 99% sure we could get to pretty quickly. (Other than the the freezing cold and snow up to your waist in the winter).

 

Our first day there I asked my aunt what was new in Podunk.  Her response… “Well we got a new stop sign”.  Serious as a heart attack.  Told ya it was small town.

 

Because it was so news worthy we stopped to take a picture by it.

 

From the stop sign we went to the cemetery  to check in on Grandpa and then out to see my aunt who works in town. This took about 10 minutes tops. We walked into her work and the 1st thing she said was “I hear you were taking pictures by the stop sign”.  Again – told ya it was small town.