Think A-B-C order

You have GOT to be kidding me!!!

I know I said that the sewer plant would be my next post, but something happened today that just has me floored!!!

So I picked up my kindergarten kids. I leave the school at 11:05 am. I just got a new student on my route. She was going to a daycare in town, but now goes to a different "day care" (or rather don't care). It is not an offical one, like with a sign outside that says "day care" and a pushbutton lock on the door. Rather it is someone's house. It sits back off the road a bit, but I can see the front door from my bus.

So, this girl is the second stop off. I am at the "day don't care" at 11:10. She gets off the bus, runs up to the door and tries to open the door. Locked. She rings the bell and pounds on the door. Nothing. There are two cars in the driveway but nobody comes to the window. She kept ringing. After a minute, I called her back to the bus. We have a very strict policy about kindergarteners. If no one is home or comes out to meet them, they don't go home. They go back on the bus till someone can be reached and if needs be, back to school. I radioed in that she was back with me. Since this is a new "day don't care", the phone number is not in our system. I was told to continue on with my route and stop back by her house after I was done.

ONE HOUR LATER I'm back in front of the "day don't care". If anyone had called in looking for her, I would of been notified. I had not been notified of anything. Again, two cars in the driveway, ringing of the doorbell and pounding and nothing. So she is back on my bus. I radio in again. "Base" is aware of what is going on and starts calling all the phone numbers on file. Finally, they got ahold of Mom, who is home sick (across the road from "day don't care") and asked if I could bring the girl over to her. When I dropped her off, Mom looked be all of 17 years old.

ONE HOUR LATER, at home, now 1pm. I get a phone call from the dispatcher asking where the girl is. Seems that Dad is just getting around to looking for her TWO HOURS after she was supposed to be dropped off at "day don't care".

YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!!!!

I replayed the whole story to my dispatcher. When I talked to her later, she said that Dad tried to push it back on us (the bus driver and transportation) saying that the "day don't care" provider was standing outside waiting for me and I never showed up. BULL!!!! I was sitting in the road for almost 2 minutes the first time and almost 5 mins the second time.

It just makes me sooooo MAD that it takes 2 flippen hours to get around to looking for a 5 year old. If my child didnt' show up 10 minutes after the scheduled time, I was on the phone tracking her down. I know day care has a purpose and that some parents have to work, but TWO HOURS?!?!?!?!

So much time has passed

and so much has happened since school started. I feel guilty for not updating, but that biggest thing I have been doing is adjusting. I am NOT a morning person. Never have been, never will be. Yet, I ASKED for a route that leaves at 6:30 in the a.m. I must of been nuts!!! (actually I was wanting larger paychecks). Nathan would have to walk to the high school this year so he has to get up with me. That actually should say I have to drag him from his bed at 5:30 to go with me. Eric also rides with me. My hubby got the okay to come into work 30 mins later so he get the girls out the door to their bus stop.

My route this year is a double route. I drive clear out to Timbucktoo to pick up high school and middle schoolers. If you go out to the farest point on my route and kick around in the dirt you will see the diveding line between ours and the next district LOL! After droping the high schoolers (and my son) off at 7:30, I swing by a gym in town and pick up the middle school girls basketball team and take them and the remaining middle schoolers on my route to the middle school. Than I stop at 5 different day cares in town to pickup elementry students. I drop them off at 8:05 am and than some mornings, my sister is waiting for as I watch her daughter while she works two days a week. I only have Brooklyn occasionaly and she rides the bus with me on those days. I also do a kindergarten route mid day than take home the same kids that I picked up in the morning.

I also pick up 6th grade band students on Tuesdays and Thursdays and take them to the middle school for band practice. We have 4 elementry schools and one middle school so they converge to the middle school for band. One day I overheard a student make a threat against a teacher. I don't think he realy ment her harm, but it is my job to report such items. He cried when I talked to him about it, but the teacher who was there thinks he was just upset about being caught and not sorry for what he said. I don't know if anything came of it, as he still goes to band, but at least I did my part.

I'm not doing field trips like I did last year. I was trying to make up for some lost hours last year and my family paid the price. I was gone so much it just wasn't worth all the chaos at home. I have done some trips this year, but they have mostly all been during school hours so I'm not losing time at home. I will make a post about my most favorite trip so far this year.

So, to wrap this up, I was tagged by Jamie. 'Cept I'm going to break the rules and NOT pass this on, but I will post 6 random things about me :)

6 Random Things

1. I hate spiders. I refuse to step on them as the crunch of their bodies makes me sick. I have worked in a nursing home, cleaned up poop, pee, vomit, blood, and packed wounds (including my own) yet I will not squish a spider. It about sent me thru the roof when I ran over a snake with my bus and I could hear it's body crunch under my wheels.

2. I wanted to be a truck driver when I grew up. My dad was a long haul trucker. So I comprimised LOL!

3. I love foods that are pickled. I have never tried pickled eggs or the worm in a tequilla bottle (nor will I ever) but if it is pickled, it is a safe bet that I will love it

4. I have a thing for socks. Not plain socks, but fun socks. I have socks for every major holiday except thanksgiving. I have had Betty Boop ones that everyone thought were cows, I had socks from the Hard Rock hotel in Las Vegas ( I found them at a thrift store), Right now I'm wearing socks with cute bugs on them. I also have some toe socks, but my big toe is too fat and they bother me.

5. I split my face open in the seventh grade while riding a snow mobile. It takes real talent to do that. That same talent is what made me break my arm the first time I ever played floor hockey. If you ever wonder why there is no more women's floor hockey at TVBC, just thank me!

6. My girls were all born on Thursday. My oldes on a Wedensday and youngest on a Friday. Megan messed up our month thing. My birthday is Feb. Melissa's is March, Chuck is April, Nathan is May. We had a number thing going on too till Melissa came along. My birthday is the 24th, Nathan the 25th and Chuck the 26th. Chuck and I got engaged in May and married in December so I say we have a May to December romance.

Was that random enough? Stayed tuned for the super exicting story of the field trip to the sewer treatment plant!!!!

Buster the Bus Cat

So, the first full week of school has come and gone and now even the kindergarteners are in full swing. Things have gone pretty well for me and my bus. I am getting into the groove and figuring out times. The first week of school, all bets are off and they expect the buses to be late at least once. I had to readjust my route by 5 minutes....4 to be exact. I had a stop added on and if I leave the shop when my route sheet tells me to, than I am getting back into town when traffic gets heavy around the high school and than the middle schoolers are getting to school just when the bell rings (which means they don't have time to eat breakfast or get to their lockers before class) and than I am pushing to get the grade schoolers to their school before the bell rings. I used to take minutes for granted. Being 5 mins late was not a big thing, but now, being 5 mins late is HUGE! It is the difference between early and almost late and phone calls pouring in from concerned parents because the bus hasn't come yet.

I love how rual part of my route is. Things are starting to get harvested. This past week was the mint harvest. The mint ripening in the sun smells so yummy and it clears up the sinuses. Durring the harvest though it smelled like a toothpaste factory. The last cutting of hay has been baled and the corn will be chopped here in a few weeks. Just subtile signs that fall is comming, that and the need for a jacket in the mornings.

This morning, one of our drivers and her aid resuced a cat! They saw 3 kittens dead in the road and a fourth standing on the side of the road. So they stoped. The cat is now named "Buster the bus cat" and the aid is the proud mommy of a new cat. A super cute grey kitten, not more than a few weeks old. He fit into the pocket of her sweatshirt perfectly and was properly loved on by all the women bus drivers :P

All dressed up and ready to go

The signs are over the back door and say "Step into a great school year". The blobs on the ceiling are foot prints. I traced my 4 yr old's shoe and cut them out of construction paper. Mollie was my helper and she did great considering it was about 200 degrees on the bus!

Wanna see my bus?

Here she is!!! Bus 22 all cleaned up and ready for the first day of school. That was one dirty dirty bus. Some of the windows were left open over summer and each seat was coated with dirt and dust and even sand. Each seat had to be wiped, the floor swept, each window was washed. I even wiped down the ceiling and the rails over the windows. I also tried to get alot of the grime off the window frames. Than it got a good bath in the bus wash and decorated up!

This type of bus is called a transit. The engine compartment is inside the front of the bus, and the driver is sitting in front of the wheels. I really like this kind of bus. It turns sharper than the conventional (nose in front) buses.

I recieved my route lists too and HOLY CAMOLY I have 86 middle school/high school passengers!!!! Last year, not all of them rode, so we may be okay, but if they all come, it is going to take a crow bar to get them off. The route is basically the same as it was last year with a few extra stops. My kindergarten route is really different but I was expecting that. With the cost of fuel rising up and up, routes have been condensed and consolidated to maximize fuel efficency.

So, one more free day than BACK TO SCHOOL!

What goes around comes around

One of the things that I did in my youth, and still do and still love is playing the flute. I started in the 5th grade. I remeber is was hard! Learning to put all your air into a little hole than also learning how to press down the right keys so it all came out.....it was HARD! But, I stayed with it all thru high school. I play in our church orchestra now, but I do love it. I even bought an intermediate flute for myself.

Well, now my going into 6th grade daughter is learning how to play. Plus, my freshman son is a snare drummer (but is doing base drum for marching band). Melissa had "band camp" all this past week. Basically, it was teaching them how to put their instrument together, clean it and basic music reading and learning how to make a sound. Each group of instruments came at a different time each day and on Friday they had a "concert". All the groups came together and they played "Hot Cross Buns" , "Clair de lune" and 2 other songs. For kids who have only been playing for 4 days, they really did sound great.

Every time I have had to sit thru one of Nathan or Melissa's concerts I always call my mom right afterwards and thank her profussly for the years of torture....er....band concerts that I put her thru. All the sitting on of bleachers in a gym with horrible accustics and worse air conditioning, the butchering of familiar songs. The freezing football games, watching me march or do flags, traveling to other towns to watch, getting up at 3am to pick me up from school after a way out of town competition. The getting me to school early for zero hour practice than picking me up again after 6pm. It has come full circle. I have listened to bad renditions of 80's songs, seen horrible posture and the football games will be starting next month.

I CAN'T wait!!!

The Last Days

Yes, summer vaccation is winding down. In a little over a week, school will be back in session. Back to early bedtimes, early wake up times, moutains of paper sent home from school. Lunches and field trips and life keeps going on.

I can tell my own sweet precious children are ready for a change. They have been at each other's throats! They bicker over the stupidest stuff. Needless to say, it doesn't make for a very happy mama when the young'uns are fussing!

What did you do this summer? We stayed home alot. We did take a trip to Lagoon Theme Park in Utah. That was fun. We traveled with my parents and my sister's family. The only ones missing were my brother's family who deserted us to go to Bible School in Pensacola FL. I can't be too mad at them though, Kinnereth just gave birth a precious little guy named Greyson.

We also did summer school, me driving and Mollie attending. I have no clue if it helped her or not. There were no grades, no communication from the teacher nada. Just a large stack of paper that came home at the end of the session. For all the enviromental c-rap that public schools spout, they sure use a lot of trees!

My oldest son if following in my footsteps and is now a member of the high school marching band. He is a bass drummer this year and wants to play snare next year. I am very proud of him! It seems to be something he enjoys and being a band geek is not all bad :)

So, not much humor in this post. I'm tired.

Children of the Corn

There is a large cornfield right across the street from the bus garage (I LOVE country life!!!).

My middle daughter, Megan, has been comming with me on my summer school routes.

She had decided that when she grows up she wants a cornfield.

Yes, a cornfield.

Actually, she wants us to buy on NOW!!

I asked her why she wants a cornfield

"We could play hid and seek and you can walk out into the middle of it and lay down and dad could get a tractor and it just sounds like so much fun!"

I kept my big mouth shut and did not talk about how expensive a corn field is to buy, how easy it is to get lost in one, how the corn plants are actually sharp and will cut you and how many bugs live in cornfields and how wet a dirty the ground is. I just wanted to let her have a bit of dream without me ruining it. I'm amazed that I became such an adult and such a fun sucker outer.

Maybe I should buy a cornfield. Or at least go find one to get lost in

Too Much fun on the bus

Here is my son Eric and my neice Brooklyn on the bus.

Okay, it has been awhile

but I am still here. School is over (YEAH) and I have been driving a small summer school route. I get to drive the short bus!! It is a very nice bus actually. Only a couple of years old and has a lot of bells and whistles. One of those "bells" is the "No Child Left Behind Alarm". It is designed to make the driver walk to the back of the bus to check every seat and make sure that there are no sleeping or hiding children still on the bus. After turning the bus off, the beeping starts and you have 45 seconds to get to the back of the bus or the system makes the bus horn honk and all the lights flash.Well, only the new buses have this. I don't normally drive a new bus. I drive a transit (flat nose) bus that is at least 10 yrs old. I went in to the shop the Friday before my route was to begin because I knew I wasn't familliar with the bus. So I played around with the lights than decided to pull up to the fuel station to top off. If the student loading system is activated at all, the flashing amber and reds on the top of the bus, than the alarm is armed.

I pull up to the pump, turned off the bus. The bus starts beeping. My 8 yr old starts freaking

I think I just left on the headlights. Flip them off. Nope, still beeping

Right at 42 seconds I said "Oh shoot" and made a bee line for the back of the bus.

Too late

HONK, HONK, HONK, HONK, HONK

New buses have very loud horns that are just as loud inside the bus as the outside.

After a frantic 10 seconds, I figured out how to turn off the alarm. It ment turning the bus on than off again, which takes about 15 seconds. Thankfully, the mechanic wasn't in the shop or I would still be remineded daily of my mistake.

But, I am thankfull. Another sub driver had picked done a elementry route than went over to the high school to pick up. We are suposed to turn off our engines at the schools. He did and didn't know how to disarm the alarm. So he got to sit at the high school, after school, fully loaded with a honking bus. He had to call on the radio to ask how to turn the alarm off and we all could hear the honk over the radio.

It doesn't seem quite so funny now :)

It means STOP

I had my first ever stop arm violation yesterday! I 've had people blow thru the stop arm, but if I don't get a license plate number, I can't do anything about it. But, I got lucky. The car that ran my sign was going slow enought that I caught the plate and a description of the driver. So, when I got back to the shop, the paperwork started. I had to have a light inspection done than 3 sheets of paper work, basically telling the story on each one. It took almost 45 minuets to fill out. The paperwork is turned over right away to the local sheriff. He called me and gave me a choice of actions. I could insist that the driver be ticketed or, if I didn't want to mess with going to court, the sherriff would track the driver down and talk to them, giving a warning. If the driver turns out to be a jerk about it, he will get the ticket.

Stop arm violations are $75. $300 if it goes to court and judges have no compassion on drivers who blow thru the stop arm. I mean, it's a big yellow vehical and when it is stoped in the middle of the road, something is happening and you best see what you need to do. I even gave plenty of warning that I was making a stop. Law requires us to activate the amber warning lights (on the top of the bus) 200 ft before the student stop. I was on a busy roadway with heavy traffic, so I activated mine at least 300 ft and even waited for a break in traffic before opening the door which activates the red flashing lights and puts out the stop arm.

I really hope it doesn't go to court, but it would be interesting too...I'll update this when I knw more.

I didn't drive off the face of the earth

but I have about driven to the end of it LOL!

May is field trip month. Every teacher gets 2 field trips a year and they all pretty much squeeze them into the months of April and May. Plus, add spring sports of track, baseball, softball, tennis and golf. Plus band festivals and academic decathalons. It has been BUSY BUSY BUSY! In 2 weeks I have logged over 25 hours just in field trips and almost 50 hours of regular routes. If I'm not driving a field trip, I'm covering for a driver who is. I'm hopping for a super good pay check. I haven't made 4 figures (in a month) but I want to be pretty close. I won't get a regular paycheck again (after May 25th) untill October 25th.

Sickness ran thru our famly. Eric came down with the chicken pox and he had them really bad. He still have pox marks on his back almost 3 weeks later. But Mollie still has not come down with them. That worries me. Chuck, my hubby was 30 when he got them and I have never seen someone so sick outside the hospital. He had a fever for a week and missed almost 2 weeks of work. Not to mention how lovely he is when he gets sick :)

I had an interesting incident yesterday. I had a bus load of grade schoolers and one of them was stung by a bee. I asked him if he was allergic and he said YES! All sorts of bad scenarios ran thru my mind, including having to do CPR. I radioed in and the head of transportation was being "base" that day and I think she had all the same thoughts as me. Thankfully, he had NO allergic reaction, but all the kids were late getting home due to me stopping every few minutes to check on him. Of course his mom was not home, but she had just pulled up when I got there and explained to her what happened. She was not worried in the least so I'm thinking he is NOT allergic to bee stings, but of course I had to treat him like he was.

Did you know that a bee flying a bus is license for all girls to start screaming at the top of their lungs??? Did you know that buses have a pretty good echo effect? Did you know that girls screams could shatter glass? Well, they didn't shatter any glass, but my nerves were shattered pretty good.

I should of worn lip stick

This past week, I subbed in as a special needs aide. That bus picks up special needs middle school students first than preschoolers after that.

The middle school kids were fine. One boy, with Down's, did something to throw me off a bit though. To look at him, you wouldn't know he was Down's. In fact, he was down right good looking. Very nicly groomed and well manered. I had to sit behind him to observe another student and the young man turned in his seat and had his head reasting on his hands on the seat back. Than he let one of his hands fall and his fingers were brushing my leg. I moved my leg away from his hand. Than he looked at me, winked and put his hand on my knee. I picked up his hand and placed it back on his seat and said "please keep your hand up here".

I don't think there was anything sexual in his behaviour. I told the driver about it and she said that he is an affectionate boy. But it was just a bit werid, especailly when he winked at me.

But the funniest thing to me was the preschoolers. I had a healing cold sore on my lip, but they all seemed to focus on it. Each one of them (11 in all) had to be buckled into a car seat and when I bent down to do that, they all stared, poked or made comment about my sore. The next morning when I was on that bus again, one little girl took one look at me and said "I remember you! You have a sore on your lip!"

We Survived!

Yes, finally, spring break is over. I am not one of those moms who can't wait to get her kids out of the house, but rather, I like the return to a more scheduled and orderly lifestyle.

Plus, on top of all the sickos in our house, Megan came down with the chicken pox

Or rather, "chicken pops" to quote Eric.

I have 2 kids now that have NOT had them and they should be getting them soon. It may mean that Mollie will miss her field trip on the 10th.

Oh well. Life goes on

GAG!

Yes, this has been one GREAT spring break.

I've been sick and now have pink eye.

It has rained everyday

Now, my oldest daughter has been throwing up since 4:30 this a.m. Thankfully, she made it to the bathroom, but anything hitting a vinyl floor at a high rate of speed has a high rate of splatter. I made my hubby get up and help me clean up the bulk of the mess as I couldn't be in there more than 30 seconds without a chain reaction retching.

I just hope no one ever throws up on my bus.

Field Trip Day!

Thursday was field trip day.

I so remember how much I loved field trips and how few I got to go on. I went to private school from the 2nd thru the 5th grade. 6th grade was in public school but I don't remember taking any field trips at all. We did go on one my sophmore year in high school. Bowling to compliment our unit on bowling in PE.

This trip was for 4th graders. The Boise Philharmonic put on a "children's concert". It was EXCELLENT. As a musicain, it is hard for me to just sit and listen to music. I want to be playing it, but the concert was enjoyable, was free and I got paid to do it. What more could you ask for?

Count Down to Spring Break

and better yet, payday!!!! One of the few, and I mean few drawbacks of my job is the once a month paydays. But, I have learned to adjust. I also have to adjust my budget around for a small small June check (school lets out May 30th) and no check again till September 25th. I had kicked around the idea of finding a small part time job, but decided that my kids are more important. Especailly, with my 4th, Mollie who has some learning issues. She has language deficit issues as a result of undiagnosed hearing loss that lasted almost a year. The girl had NO and I mean NO ear infections. It wasn't till she started putting her ear up to the TV speaker that I got worried. Up till that point, I thought she just wasn't paying attention and was bit of a late bloomer. She also has convergance insufficancy, meaning that her eyeballs do not work together. She also overfocuses when she is doing close work which fatigues her eyes for distance work. The school psychologist feels that she is also ADHD/ADD but I am not so quick to jump on that bandwagon. There are several studies that show that convergance insufficancy can lead to a false diagnosis of ADD. I am also going to try an elimination diet that has shown promise with ADD kids. If anything, improved nutrition will not hurt anyone. So my summer will be spent helping Mollie with her learning issues. She is poor in reading comprehension and math. She also has poor spacial reasoning. It is hard for her look at something that is broken into peices and put it togther to make a whole (like a puzzle). Each evening, she and I play a children's game, do a puzzle and do some flash cards, sometimes a worksheet. She has come to treasure her evenings with mom and I have too. It is hard for me sometimes because it is easy to become impatient with a child who cannot do a simple puzzle. But I also refuse to put her in a box labled ADD, throw in some pills and hope all comes out fine. Thankfully, too, she has a great teacher who has put up with alot from Mollie (she is easily distracted and requires alot of redirection) and has really helped up in our quest to get help for Mollie. I call Mollie my "crack child" because she was never bad enough or tested low enough to trigger any red flags. She didn't qualify for preschool by 8 points! (if we had been low income that would of been diferent). She didn't score low enought on her reading assesments to get placed in Title 1 reading programs and so on and so forth. Had I not pushed for the testing for learning disabilities, we would still be floundering, wondering how to reach her and she would of gotten worse, especially with her eyes. She would of kept falling thru the cracks.

What this all has to do with bus driving? Nothing, but since I have mostly family reading this, I think you will appreciate this. I have some misplaced guilt over this and more heartbreak, but I am also clinging to hope. Many people who have changed history were considered not normal children and learning disabled. Please pray for us as we try to help her discover her strengths and talents and help her with the school subjects that she needs.

Thanks all!

Did you ever feel like this?

The Horn on the Bus goes Beep Beep Beep

This didn't happen to me, but to a veteran driver I work with.

She drove a high school group on an overnight trip to Idaho Falls. But there was some type of electrical short that she didn't know about. Driving down there was fine. The problem came every time she turned a corner.

BEEEEEEEEPPPPPPPPPP!

Yep, her horn honked every time she turned the steering wheel. She said that the high schoolers really got into it, yelling and waving at people on the street every time the horn honked. The folks in Idaho Falls must think that our school district is either very friendly or very touched in the head!

Gotta love those high schoolers!

They are a wealth of mis-information. One girl is planning on going to the gynecologist every MONTH! YIKES!!

One boy thought you had to have good credit to get a credit card LOL!!!!! When I told them that people can get credit cards in their dogs name, another girl piped up and asked "How would a dog use a credit card?"

One 18 yr old boy informed us that he may not be aging gracefully, but at least he was getting maturity. He had to shave almost every day now!

Some of the conversations are sad too. I get so sick of hearing about their parents love lives and how many boyfriends/girlfriends have been in and out of their home. I also hate hearing about how their step parent doesn't like them very well. Since when did the kid ask for the divorce and remarriage?

school bus DRAG RACE amazing!!!!!!

What I want to do this summer

I'm a bus drivin' mama

Yes, I drive a school bus and here is the really weird thing. I LOVE it. It is a challanging, yet satisifing job. But above that, I am a mom to 5 kids of my own. So, I guess that I started training to be a school bus driver before I ever sat down behind that big 20 inch wheel.

This blog is to talk about what happens on the bus and issues related to driving the bus. I drive for a small school district in Idaho. No real names will be posted to protect people who may not appreciate being mentioned in the blogosphere.

First, a bit of background. I started out as a special needs bus aide. Actually, I started out as a crossing guard. I needed a way to bring in some extra income to our family without having to place our youngest child in day care. A friend from our church drives for the same school district and mentioned to me that they were looking for aides. I put in my app and they only had a spot open for crossing guard. I worked as a guard for about October and November--very cold October and November--when I was brought on as a aide on a preschool route. Many of the drivers encouraged me to obtain my CDL. I thought they were crazy and I thought there is NO WAY I could climb on board a bus and turn my back on 60+ kids. :) By May, I had decided to become a driver. My trainers were excited and 6 weeks after prying my sweaty palms off the wheel and bracing my shakey knees, I now turn my back on lots of kids! The school district did issue me an extra set of eyeballs in the back of my head LOL!

I now drive a kindergarten route and drive a group of high schoolers to a technical training education center. I also drive field trips and sub on any routes I can pick up. My family has been so supportive of me and best of all, I can take my 4 yr old on the bus with me. He has a special car seat and has fun with the high school students.

Stay posted for more bus driving fun!