Last Day of School
Let me just say, before my longwinded account of the day starts, that I think, overall, my boys had a great school year. They go to such a nice school. All of their teachers were really excellent and caring and every, I repeat every, experience that I had at the school this year (and, yes, there were quite a few experiences there for me) was a positive one. So, yay school! Yay teachers, staff and administrators. Y’all did a bang up job.

Now, on to the last day of school. Ahh, well, let me just say that it was much more exciting than I had planned. And, you know what, next time I’m going to plan for excitement and then feel a maybe a little deflated when I have a mundane day instead of planning for the humdrum and getting sirens and flashing lights, you know. Life with this crazy bunch. I mean, really.

So, at the end of school today, I went to get the boys and was busy trying to get all of them together while also trying to tell lots of different people good-bye, have a good summer, etc. Now, one of the boys was supposed to go over to a little friend’s house after school to play. But first, he was supposed to meet me and get my cell phone. So, as I’m chatting with my oldest boy’s teacher, I figure out that my other son is nowhere to be found. So, in the midst of what was supposed to be me thanking everyone for all their help with my crazy sons I had to start running around trying to establish where my 2nd son was. It was like he had just disappeared. The mother he was supposed to be riding with helped me look all over for him. We were getting alarmed. I ran to my van to see if he was there. He wasn’t. By the way, running really fast to my van while majorly stressing out has convinced me that I’m out of shape. Anyway, nearly all of the schoolchildren were gone and I still hadn’t found him. So, I called Jon and then I called the police. I was just about to panic. Do you know what it is like to look at a clock and calculate how long your child has been missing? If not, I hope that you never find out. Bless everyone at the school, they were all so helpful. One teacher was watching my youngest, another was talking to my oldest and still another was entertaining the 3rd son, who, by the way, was hoping the police would have to come so that he could see them wear their hats. (Whatever that means. Clearly he didn’t get the gravity of the situation, but what else is new?) Everyone else was beating the bushes for my missing son who turned up where? That’s right, at the house of the little boy he was supposed to go home with. They just decided to walk without telling an adult. Whew. This is what beer is for, people.

So, for me, the moral of this story is that a predictable, responsible child will, on occasion, do unpredictable, irresponsible things. Also, it is important to be really, really clear with your children — which I thought I had been. I think that he’ll listen next time because I’m going to say, “So, you’ll meet me after school to get my phone, right? I don’t want to have to call the police again.” Another lesson learned is, it’s always a good idea to wear your lipgloss and fix up a little when picking up your children at school. You never know when you’re going to get the opportunity to see EVERYONE who works there. Well, at least I got the chance to wish them all a happy summer.

I’m hoping that we will have a happy summer. It is certainly started with a bang. It can only go up from here, right?