Getting Star Struck, Or Not

Yes, it's true.  My kids go to school with kids that have reality TV star for a parent.

I am not going to name names here, and I am not going to even divulge the ages of the kids that I am talking about... because honestly, the kids can be complete nightmares.  To be fair, they have their good moments as well.

One of them sings "I'm Sexy and I Know It" when he changes for gym.  The other?  Well he told all the other kids in gym that if you look at someone while you change, "You're GAY!".  I can't say that I was particularly happy to hear either of those proclamations.

One of the kids constantly bothers one of my sons.  He talks to him constantly during lessons, copies his paper and argues with my son telling him that his answers are wrong.  Surprisingly, my son takes it without punching him in the face, because if it was one of his brothers, my son would have undoubtedly punched him flat out, no joke.

One of the boys calls one of my sons a liar when he had not lied.  It was during a game in class.  My son was actually really hurt by the whole thing, especially since he knew that he was not a liar.  It was during the conversation about it that my son told me that he did not understand this boy.  He would say mean things to him one moment and then act like they were friends the next.  Talk about being confused!  I don't blame him, I admit that it is a hard situation to explain myself.

One of the boys kneed my son in the groin, in front of all the other kids while at football practice.  My son was laying on the ground, not crying but not feeling good.  All the other boys that were there promptly told the coach.  The coach asked the boy to apologize, which he did.  My son did not answer right away to forgive him which, that coach was ok with, and I still don't think that he has forgiven him yet.  Secretly, I am not sure that I blame him!

I know, these kids sound a bit like a nightmare.  And they can be.  But they can also be really nice.

When we first moved here, one of the boys always shared his after school snacks.  He politely asked me first if he could share.  I had no idea about the parents' celebrity status, I was just thrilled that he was being so nice to my son!

At one of the other boys recent birthday parties, both of my kids were invited to stay.  It was a very fun event for my sons.  During the party, which was a skating party, their celebrity parent was very thoughtful and tried to help my boys learn to skate.  I was touched.

When one of my sons was having problems in class, one of the boys was very nice and agreed with him that another kid was not being very nice to him.  This other child was taking things off their desks without asking.  Or asking to switch pencils when they had sharpened leads and his was dull or the worst offense was telling big lies either about himself or about the celebrity kid....

The celebrity family and I have a definitely disagreement on parenting styles.  It makes me laugh when I hear about a story something the celebrity has written, as the parent has their own blog as well!

The parent in question seems to try and maintain a low profile in the car park, which is fine by me.  I try to maintain a low profile (being the token American and all).  I do have to laugh to myself when I hear other mums talk the talk about the blog and other parenting articles have been written.  I also have a giggle when I see that other parents are following the said star on Facebook.  I have no interest in following him.  I am certainly not a fan of reality TV nor am I star struck.

Coming Out of the Haze

It is been a difficult couple of weeks.  For me, it was because I finally hit the proverbial wall.  I miss home.  It has taken 9 long months, but I miss my kitties and the food.  Buffalo Wild Wings is at the top of the list!

It started when we learned our kitties were wandering the neighborhood.  They are looking for attention and seem to have given up on us coming back home.  I was pretty upset about it and definitely shed a few tears about it.  I am lucky that my neighbors were interested in helping to find out who they belonged to and I had at least one offer to let the kitties stay with them.

Things amped up at school for my 9 year old again.  He had a bad week with a classmate that has been bothering him.  So much that I ended up talking to the school again and had to involve another set of parents since both boys were going to be at a birthday party.  I was not sure that I wanted him to stay over night at the party, but my sister in law insisted that if I sent him he should have a cell phone, which I did.  I am so glad that I took her well placed advice.  It provided me with a piece of mind knowing that he had the phone, even though I knew that he would not use it.  The parents at the party were very vigilant and promptly dealt with things that happened and a good time was had by all, phew!

Things then amped up for my 13 year old.  He had been having some small problems with one of his good friends for quite awhile.  Just a small but consistent problem.  My 13 year old has been trying hard to give him space since his friends' comments seem to indicate that it's what he wants.  Things kind of ballooned for my 13 year old when a birthday party for a mutual friend came up and he thought he was the only one in the group not invited.  To top it all off he has been wishing for his friends at home, I suspect because what has been going on with his good friend.  I told my son to back off things totally and go and sit with his brother at lunch, which he did.  Things have blown over about the birthday party, but his friend still seems to need space.  After an outburst at school in which a teacher apparently got involved, I told my son to either talk to his friend or leave it.  Less then two weeks left of school and we are planning to be busy running all over Europe for the summer anyway!

While all this was going on we determined that a ball joint was going in my car.  A friend of mine, that works at the school put me in touch with an excellent mobile mechanic that fixed it for me!   I am so lucky to be surrounded by such kind people.  I am happy to report that the car is working fine!

As all this unfolded around me I definitely had a tantrum or two about it all.  I hid in my house and tried to work through it without getting myself in too much trouble with others.  Now, after it is all over, I really feel like I have come out of some kind of haze.  The world looks brighter and thankfully we have had a pretty good start to the week so far!

Mondays, Hating Them is Universal

You gotta love Mondays, right?  Nope.  I am not sure what day I dislike more, Sunday or Monday.  Sundays are typically filled with dread and preparations for Monday.  Monday, well, Monday is it's own form of torture and today have been a particularly harried one for me.

It started out ok.  We just finished with the half-term break at school and I as I opened the lunches I realised that I probably should have unpacked them all and cleaned them out.  Thankfully, I was not awarded with something nasty and moldy in the boys lunch boxes, take that Monday!

My husband left and on his way out the door he told me there was no way that the boys were going to make it out on time.  Great, I thought to myself.  I glanced at the clock quickly and saw we have 13 minutes left, I held out hope!

We were all ready to go, 3 minutes late.  It was then I realised we had a problem.  My car keys were missing.  I misplace them all the time, no big deal.  But I did not drive the car last, my husband did.  So, my oldest son and I started to sweep the house, checking the usual places with no luck.  We expanded the search to his dresser and jacket.  Still, no luck!  A quick call to my husband, who was en route to work and wa-la they were found, on his person.  He had grabbed them thinking that they were the house keys.  So, now we were going to be late.

I made the notifications to the school and then we waited.  Finally, we got it all sorted and I got the kids to school.  Phew!

The roads on the to the school are not for the faint hearted.  I specifically dislike the road right in front of the school.  It is just barely two lanes.  There is another school right next to our school and traffic get CRAZY!  I figured today it would be no big deal, we were late anyway.  After I dropped the kids off and I was making my way to my next errand, I got the one finger wave from some white van man.  I am still not exactly what I did to deserve his rude gesture.  It was in a spot where cars park on the road and traffic has to proceed around it one lane at a time.  So, it is a give and take process in which the lanes are required to yield to each other and take turns.  The cars were parked in my lane.  As soon as I saw him I pulled over and yielded to him and then put on my blinker to signal my intention to proceed when the road was clear.  I got the one finger wave for my efforts.  Apparently his Monday had not been a good one so far either?

So, on to my next love-er-ly errand.  Dealing with the car.  I have two things to say before I start.  First, owning 4 cars stinks in the biggest way.  Second, I got penalized for having an "antiquated" swipe card.

So, I went to this place that had been recommended to us by people that my husband worked with.  They seemed nice enough and I got what I needed.  When I went to pay, I was told that they don't take swipe cards.  Really?  Because I just swiped my card and it is ready to process.  Oh, you mean you are CHOOSING NOT TO TAKE MY SWIPE CARD.  You say that dodgy people have swipe cards?  Oh.  Oh, well, you will do me a "favor" and take mine, because my face is "honest".  Well, thanks, I think?

Oh, he charged me an extra £5 to take my card.  My husband told me I should dispute it.  Nice thought, but there are two problems.  I never got a real invoice for the work and seriously, over £5.  It was annoying, not highway robbery.

Apparently, today was not just my turn to have a case of the yucky Mondays. In fact, in comparison, I think that my Monday sounds almost stellar.   One of my best girlfriends was just in a car prang aka accident.  She impaled her car on a parking gate and broke the axle.  I admire her as when she was talking to me about it she was remarkably calm.  I would have been bawling, uncontrollably.

Thank you Monday.  See you next week, hopefully on better terms.  Bring on Tuesday.

The Flotilla

Well, me and my oldest two sons made it to London to see the Flotilla part of the jubilee.  It was a cloudy, gray day.  The cloud cover was quite low.  My second son pointed this out to me, so I took the picture!

It was quite an experience!  We caught the train into London around 12:30 and took the tube (or the underground) directly to the Tower of London which was where the flotilla ended.  Once we got off the train, the city was quiet but there was a definite buzz in the air.  The feeling has been very similar to our 4th of July holiday.

I decided that we needed to head up the river to find a spot to a viewing spot that would afford us good visibility.  So, we started walking.  We headed toward Tower Bridge and there we found that we were not allowed on the bridge itself as it was shut off by the Bobbies.  But we stood and watched the Jumbo Tron and got to see the Kate, Wills and the Queen board the Royal Barge.  After that we took a walk.  Sadly, we headed the WRONG way.  Seriously, are you really surprised?  My sons were good chaps and they took my wandering in good spirits and with little complaints, thankfully!

We walked about 15 minutes or so and found a tube station.  I really wanted to watch from Westminster, so we got on the tube and headed that way.  We got off the tube and the excitement was amazing!  All the bells were tolling and we got there just ahead of the Queen, yeah!  Sadly, we were not able to get in anyplace to see her, boo!  All the streets were again blocked off so, we still could not get close to the river.

We walked down to Traflager Square and then as we were walking back to the tube station, passing the London Eye, we crossed paths with the Queen.  So, at least we were close to her at one point even though we could not see her!

Admiralty Arch

We waited for the crowds to die down a bit at Westminster and then hopped back on the train and headed back to the Tower of London.  We exited the tube station to pouring down rain.

With two teenage boys who had been exceedingly patient with their crazy Mum, we grabbed some delicious sugared peanuts from a street vendor and watched what was left of the flotilla with a very limited view from the Tower of London in the pouring rain.    After I decided that we were soaked enough, we headed to catch the tube back to the train to head back home.  Mission was not accomplished, but it was great to be down in London with all the crowds and to feel the vibe of the city.

This was the only trip that we made to London during the Jubilee.  The cool weather and rain was a deterrent.  I had fully intended to go into London on Tuesday, especially when I read in the official Jubliee program that the Golden Carriage was going to be used.  When I read in the news the night before that the Golden Carriage was not going to be used, and with the combination of a few other things like the weather, I decided to stay at home and watch the rest of the Jubilee celebration curled up on the coach under my warm blanket, warm and not wet!