update

 I just called the PW Co police department.  I talked to Officer Hernandez, who is the Information Officer.

She told me that not only did no one go in the building, there was NO ONE on the grounds.  According to her, a woman contacted the school and indicated that she wanted to come get her kids from school that day, but did not have custody.  And I guess the school was worried that she might show up.  And that everything else is fabrication.  She also suggested I call the school board because the school is causing such an uproar about this because they are unwilling to give out any real information.  The officer repeatedly said to me that at NO time were the kids ever in any danger.

What a relief.  I am hoping that this is finally the truth, and we can put all of this behind us. 

Not a happy post

Around 2:00 today we get this call from the school- an automated call telling us that an unstable individual was spotted "on the school grounds" and, in order to take every precaution to enforce security, the school went on lock-down, and called the police. They canceled after school activities, and walked every class of students to the bus one by one.  

(I'm thinking gee, that's a lot of caution, for just spotting someone on the grounds who may have looked suspicious)

Then around 5:30 we get another call- automated- thanking the parents for doing a wonderful job being patient at dismissal time, and also telling us that there are a lot of rumors floating around right now, and that we shouldn't believe them because they are only rumors, with no truth to them.

So at this point, red flags are popping up for me.

So I asked a friend of mine, who subs in the school.  This is 3rd hand information, but supposedly she talked to a cop who lives in our neighborhood who told her that what REALLY happened was that a mom came to the front desk and asked to pick up her children.  The front desk lady told her, I need to see your id (We have this computer system, that checks everyone for criminal records and also for custody purposes)  I don't know what exactly happened at this point, but she ran from there into the main office and PULLED OUT A GUN and demanded her children.

The office and clinic and speech rooms are all right there.  There were several children in the office area. (my kids went to the speech room today, earlier in the day)

They called 911 and at some point she took off and at this point, has NOT been apprehended.  The school was covered with cops today, and the plan is to have school tomorrow, on lock down, and with cops present.  

Assuming this information is true- and it may not be, but the school certainly isn't giving out any useful information at this point- 

This woman has a child in 1st grade.  Just like mine.  What if she had run to the classroom- rather than the office? She also has an older child, but I don't know what grade.

Connor's class is out in the trailer, and had to come inside, and will again tomorrow.  He is upstairs totally freaked out, refuses to sleep, has his game boy and ipod and every light on. And he doesn't even know what happened.  Just the general atmosphere was enough to freak him out, and his imagination has probably taken over.

And I am totally freaked out too.  Totally freaked.  I may just keep everyone home tomorrow. Although this may be a rumor and have no truth to it.  Although they could possibly catch this woman over night. Although if it is true, and they don't catch her she would probably not ever dare to go back to the school.  However, just thinking that some mentally imbalanced woman was THAT close to my children with a gun in her hand.  Oh my God.  

This is crazy that the school expects to conduct school tomorrow, business as usual, with the shades down, doors locked and cops all over the place. People say it all the time, but seriously, what is this world coming to? And by what right does the school withhold this kind of information from the parents and community?  Maybe it is all a rumor, after all.  I am sure the truth will come out eventually.  

More surprises!  

Yesterday Devin and Lauren had their 7 year old well check (a little late, they were 7 in February).  As we were sitting in the doctor's office, I realized that I was wearing the same clothes  I was wearing the day before when I was in the office. Embarrassing, yes.  But hey- when you have to make 3 trips  to the pediatrician in 4 days, and you haven't done laundry... well. Things happen.  So, we are sitting in the exam room.  Devin is on the exam table and Lauren is on my lap.  While she is sitting there, and I am answering doctor questions I notice that she keeps scratching her head.  So, as I am talking, I start to check her hair.  And, sure enough, she has lice.    And so do Devin, Connor, and Declan.  And me.  Gee, just a little embarrassing. This is our first infestation, and I hope our last. I'm starting to feel a little bit like Job here... with the lice, the strep, and the plague of ants in my kitchen.  And if someone doesn't clean up around here soon the "dung-heap" description will certainly be appropriate.  

I guess I've moved on from pee and vomit stories. I'm up to parasites.  

But on the plus side, I just got an email that the bath store has room freshener on sale, and they have my all time favorite scent- lemon!  I am going to drag the boys over there after their gym class this morning.  Talk about bulls in a china shop- all that glass and two crazy little boys.  I plan to ply them with candy and shop quickly.  I need some air freshener!  The honey suckle was obviously not a success.

Warning!  We have cooties!

The beauty of life is that it is filled with new experiences and surprises every day.  For example, yesterday my daughter was complaining that her ears hurt.  (Actually, she got up at 2:30 AM with an ear ache but that is another story).  So off we went to the pediatrician.  The nurse came in first and was asking Devin all the routine questions.  When she asked Devin if her throat had been hurting Devin said yes (to my surprise, I hadn't heard about that) so the nurse decided to be thorough and do a strep culture.  So, she gets out the long culture q-Tip.  (they come in grape and cherry now.  How clever is that?  Although I am not sure how much tasting your tonsils do when they jam that thing in the back of your throat.)  So she begins to take the culture and Devin makes a serious gagging noise.  Uh oh.  I am sitting on a chair, buried beneath two 3 year olds and a bead coaster, but I try to express to the nurse- who is very young, and very cutesy, all fixed up with, what do you call that stuff?  Make up?  And Jewlery?) that she may want to wait a minute and let Devin catch her breath when back in she goes with the grape flavored mega Q-tip.  And of course Devin barfs all over.  All over.  The nurse, herself, the floor, the bin of books under the exam table, my shoes, the bead coaster.  Maximun chaos ensues.  So, rather than opening the cabinet and handing her the handy emesis basin, the nurse decides that the best course of action would be to take the top off the lidded trash can, and give her that.  It takes a while to get the top off the can, and by this time there has been quite a bit more barfing. I probably should have done something, but at this point I was in duck and cover mode.  The nurse realizes she has a little barf on her smock and runs from the room.  A few minutes later an older nurse comes in and says, "yeah, these girls never know what to do.  They have to send the mom in."  We didn't see the perky nursey for the rest of our visit.  I think our picture is posted up under the front desk with a strict warning to not let us in again, under any circumstances.  Oh, and + for strep, as was her twin when we took her later in the day.  

Okay, gross I know, but at least it wasn't another pee story!!

For years I have been buying these air fresheners from Bath and Body works.  You plug them in, and they smell good until you need to change the little bulb filled with the scent at the end.  They are ridiculously priced, but if you wait for a sale you can get them 1/2 off.  So I usually try to stock up during the sale.  Well, I got to the last sale a little late, and they didn't have the scents I usually get. I didn't want to miss the sale price so I tried a couple of new ones.  One of these was Honeysuckle.  Sounds great, right?  I love the smell of honeysuckle in the evenings.  The problem is, this air freshener is much, MUCH too potent.  This morning, as I was getting the boys ready to go to their kiddie gym class, I decided to unplug it, because it was just too much.  Then I walked into the next room to sit down with the boys and put their shoes on.  Declan jumps up and says he has to go potty before we leave.  No problem.  He comes back a few minutes later and sits in my lap to put his shoes on.  While he is sitting there I notice that he smells rather strongly of honeysuckle.  So I ask him "Declan, were you playing with mommy's thing in the bathroom?"  "Oh yeah," he tells me, "I had to do some pee pee into that smelly thing."  Darn Y chromosome.

You can see that the top does have a rather inviting design.  Nice and cup like.

A few weeks ago we got a letter that our daughter Lauren had been selected as one of the participants in the All County Art Fair.  She was very excited about it.  So I decided, that even though we had 4 other functions that Saturday, and my husband would be gone all day with my son's soccer team at a tournament, we were going to go to this art show.  So I loaded the kids up in the car, got a quick lunch at McDonald's to eat on the way, entered the address into the GPS and got entirely lost.  After an hour of driving around we finally found the school where the art show was located.  It was PACKED!  We struggled through the sweltering building,like salmon swimming upstream, to try to find the exhibit for her school.  We were given a handy map, which indicated we were in section 51, in the orange group.  We followed the helpful signs on the walls to... nowhere.  Apparently they'd been put up incorrectly! I finally saw one of my neighbors who pointed us in the correct direction.  We found her art work, snapped a picture, and then found a restroom, and left for the next activity. (Girl Scout cookie booth sale) Luckily, we got home in only 40 minutes!

The following Monday I went to the school to pick up a sick child.  And what should be in the hallway?  The art exhibit.  Right there, conveniently located!  Oh well.  It made Lauren happy, so that was all that mattered.

Then tonight she is doing some homework at the table.  She is writing a book report about a book about a fox.  As part of the assignment she has to draw a picture.  She asks me three times to draw a fox for her.  I insist that I am no fox-drawer and any fox she can draw will be 100 times better than what I could do.  Eventually she wandered off to play with her brother, so I check the book report, assuming she didn't finish.  But she had finished, all on her own.  Now, I know I am biased, but really, isn't this an amazing picture of a fox playing a guitar???  Not too shabby for a kid who puts her shoes on the wrong feet EVERY day still.

I was out shopping yesterday and my husband sent me this picture on my cell phone.

I haven't asked him yet what it is all about because, really, I don't think I want to know.