Ready or Not, Here Comes Middle School!

Today we went to Joshua’s orientation at Mason Middle School. (Click on title for website.) It is a school of about 850 students. I don’t know who is more nervous – Joshua or me. I’m kind of nervous because I had 50 students in my class, not 280. Joshua is nervous because it is a new school. However, he felt much better today. Several people from his old school were there as well as friends from church, Tae Kwon Do and the swimming pool.

Joshua’s homeroom teacher is his science teacher. We talked to her a bit today. It sounds like science will be fun. She is even planning on getting leaches for the class this year. I mentioned that Josh loves science and used to watch Bill Nye. She said she once proposed to him. He was engaged and told him if it didn’t work out, she was available! ;^)

Boyhood Friends

Two years ago Jeremy became fast friends with a boy who lives close to us. They played together nearly everyday after school, and often spent the night at one or the other’s house on weekends. They were joined at the hip.

Last school year Jeremy and his friend were in different classes, but still played at recess and after school. That all came to a screeching halt one day. They had a nasty argument at school. You are probably thinking it is over some trivial matter like sports that boys often get into rifts over. Not these two boys. This clash was over schoolwork.

Jeremy had read more books than the other boy. Kids at school get rewards for reading books. The other boy is VERY competitive and told Jeremy he may have read more books, but HE had a higher reading level. Jeremy decided that he wasn’t going to stand for the unjustness of this comment. The boys quit speaking to each other.

Now this didn’t work out at all well for the boy’s mother and me. We often use each other for childcare. Naturally, we didn’t want to give this up. So, after months of strife, the boys have again established a relationship, albeit a tenuous one. (Mostly because it is summer and they have only each other to play with!)
Now the start of a new school year is quickly approaching. (Nine days, eleven and one-half hours, not that I’m counting!) What will happen, I wonder, if they are in the same class and Jeremy gets a better grade than he does? Oh, joy!

Ah, Modern Technology

Our new church secretary figured out that we could have our pay checks directly deposited. We live about ½ to ¾ of an hour away from the nearest branch of the bank. There are some grocery stores that have mini banks in them, but they don’t deposit the checks for 24-48 hours. There was also the option of putting the paycheck in an ATM. While that is ok in a pinch, but once we lost a paycheck in that process. It wasn’t good. A year or so ago our bank started cooperating with other banks as far as depositing each other’s paychecks. That was much more convenient, and made my life much easier. However, I still had to track down Mike and get him to sign the paycheck. That was not always easy.

Yes – modern technology will make this aspect of my life much easier.