CAUTION: Things are not always as they appear

...so, I go pick Markell up from school on Wednesday. And I see all these middle school kids with a piece of paper in their hands. Markell gets in the van and says, "Hey mom! Look at this! We just got this letter from Ms. Perkins (the principal) to give to our parents."

Now the last time we got one of those letters, some 6th grade girl had been caught with a gun at school. But the school "handled" it without incident.

THIS time, the letter was a bit different. It reads something like this....

Dear (name of middle school) parents,
In an effort to continuously communicate with you, I am writing to notify you that a (name of middle school) teacher was arrested this afternoon after an investigation of illegal activity. The teacher was not arrested at school but HR was notified of the teacher's pending arrest by (blank) County Police Dept. You maysee news accounts of this event during the next few days.
......The administration of (name of middle school) was not aware of any problems with the teacher nor had we received any information that related to inappropriate conduct or behavior conducted by the teacher while at school or on school grounds.
This is a very unfortunate event, and you have our assurances that we make every effort to provide a safe and wholesome environment for our students. We take seriously our responsiblity of educating the whole child.

Sincerely,

The principal

Now, needless to say, I was a little...shall we say, disturbed by what I read. So, later in the evening, I happen to see a little bit of the aforementioned story on the news. They showed a quick photo of the teacher, and he looked vaguely familiar. I go to the school quite often...ok, everyday, to pick Markell up as well once a week or so for other reasons. So I do see alot of the same teachers and administrators.

At around 2 the next morning, my eyes popped open because it hit me as to who this teacher might be. I honestly hoped that I was wrong because this teacher, I've actually spoken with on several occasions.

Then yesterday, I went to read the newspaper online. And sure enough, it was the guy I was thinking it was. This is a guy, who coaches lacrosse and football at a local high school, a guy who wears Christian oriented t-shirts, a guy who tells me to have a blessed day/weekend, and a person who, from what I could tell from our brief conversations was a really nice guy. He never knew my name and I never knew his. But we were often times engaged in conversation and were friendly with eachother.

When I read the paper early yesterday, it didn't go into detail as to what he actually did. But when I looked into it again, at the prompting of another parent/friend, I was SHOCKED!!! I won't go into detail here as to what allegedly happened. But I will say that he resigned from the school yesterday.

Today, I can say that I am still shocked. I'd still be a little upset and/or concerned about this if it wasn't someone that I feel I "know". But I DO! Simply because he's from the school my child goes to is cause enough for concern. Fortunately, he taught an older grade than what Markell is in. But UNfortunately, he teaches special ed. This just sickens me!!!

Now, I said all this to say...everyone and/or everything are NOT always as they appear. This is such a sad story to me RIGHT NOW...especially since it closely follows a story with a totally opposite outcome (the one about the pilot and Jayla). I'm glad to say that, other than seeing this teacher in the car pool line every afternoon, Markell doesn't know him.

Am I overreacting to this situation? Should I feel a sense of betrayal even though I didn't REALLY know this guy? How would you feel?

I guess that statement in the side view mirrors is somewhat true, huh?

Time for a ride on my SOAP BOX!

WARNING: This may be a long one. So bare with me!

Ok, earlier today I went to JoAnn's...for SOMETHING...now, I can't even remember what it was.

ANYWAY, I pull into a parking spot right next to a lady that I just so happen to know. She pulled in, like a second before I did. So, I put my vehicle in park and something catches my eye in the SUV that's parked right in front of me. It was a little girl, maybe 12 - 18 months old, strapped in the backseat in a carseat. She had on a big coat, gloves and a hat (it was about 30 degrees out this morning). I immediately notice that there's no one in the drivers seat. I sat there for a second, thinking that maybe there WAS someone with her and they were at the back of the SUV or leaning down inside...or SOMETHING. But I never saw anyone. So I look to my right at the lady that I know, who is still in her vehicle on the phone. I was going to mention what I saw to her just in case I was jumping to conclusions.

I get out of my van and I'm stalling, right? Just waiting around to see if an adult comes to the vehicle with the child in it. THEN...I notice that the SUV is running!!! Now, I'm really concerned. By now, it's been about 5 minutes or so. Keep in mind, I have no idea how long this car had been sitting there prior to my pulling up. So I walk up to the store, still looking back to make sure I wasn't crazy! Then Trish, the lady I parked next to, gets out and walks towards the entrance. I stop her, say hello and ask her if she happened to notice anyone get out of that SUV. She says no. So I tell her why I was asking and she immediately panics. So we go inside and ask to see a manager. There's no one in our immediate sight that looks like that vehicle and child belong to them. The JoAnn's employee takes too long to get someone for us, so I called 911 from my cell phone. I explain the situation to them and they say they will send a car right over. So I wait just inside the store, where I can see the SUV and the police when they come. By now, over 20-25 minutes have passed.

Finally the police come and I go out to meet him. He pulls up behind the Infiniti and gets out to talk to me and Trish. I inform him that I'm the one who called. The officer was clearly upset about this and starts complaining about parents who leave their kids in a parked car so THEY won't be inconvenienced. He takes down my information and thanks me for calling. He informs us that the laws have changed a little and he's not sure if they can arrest people for doing this anymore. But indicates that he hopes that he still can because he WILL in this case. We look in on the little girl and she seems to be fine. Then a JoAnn's employee comes out and asks if the officer wants them to make an announcement in the store to see who the Infiniti belongs to. The officer says, "YES!! Cuz I'd like to talk to them!!"

Anyway, they do that and a few minutes later, this lady strolls outside and looks upset that there are people standing around her car. And not just "people" but the police too. By now, another cop has come on the scene. The first one walks up to the lady and LET'S HER HAVE IT!!! Me and Trish decide we've done our civic duty and walk into the store and we're now out of it. We look out the window and it appears that the lady is trying to EXPLAIN why she left her child in a running car, which, as far as we know, has been 40 PLUS minutes!!! Obviously longer. She and the police "chatted" for quite some time. Neither of which looked very happy.

Now, I'm in the store and have NO CLUE as to why I went there in the first place...LOL! And a few minutes later, I notice that the lady has come in with the baby, makes her purchases and leaves...as if nothing ever happened.

Let me just say, that there is TOO much going on in the world these days to do something as stupid as this. I do understand that sometimes it can be a challenge and yes, sometimes even an inconvenience to take a child into a store. Especially a carseat aged child. But you know what? I'd rather suffer through that minor inconvenience than have something horrible happen to my child. What if she had choked on something? What if someone stole the vehicle? What IF.....

Ok, so I'm done now. But what are your thoughts? Would you have called the police? Should I have left the situation alone and not worry about it? For those of you who have children, how would you have handled this?

Family Time

Is there ever enough of it? Family time that is? Can you ever have TOO much family time? I have been struggling with this lately. It seems that I am always running errands either by myself or with the kids (sometimes just one of them). But it seems that, other than going to church, our family doesn't really do a lot together. I miss that!!! Don't get me wrong, I think it's awesome that our family goes to church together...families need that. But once my DH gets home from work, he doesn't want to leave the house again until the next day. And sometimes not even then if he works from home.

He has this little "joke" he makes everytime we get ready to go somewhere; as he's getting ready, he says, "I'm not goin!" Cute, huh? It never fails though, whenever he says he doesn't want to go somewhere (and you can tell he doesn't), he ALWAYS has a great time. Same thing happens when we have people over. Which by the way, I LOVE to do! I love to entertain.

Not sure why I even went down this road...I guess to some extent, I need to vent. I don't want to go somewhere ALL the time. Every once in while would be nice. But I want my DH to WANT to go. That makes me think of that movie, "The Breakup" with Jennifer Anniston and Vince Vaughn...where she says, "I want you to WANT to do dishes". And he follows up by saying, "Why would I WANT to do dishes?" That's just so funny to me, because it sounds just like my hubby.

I don't think it's that he doesn't want to spend time with us. I just think he's a home body. I, on the other hand, am always gone. But like I said, I'm either by myself or with one (or both) of the kids. Man, when we go on our family vacations, we have SUCH a wonderful time. I just don't see why we don't do it more. Doesn't have to be a vacation, just hanging out sometimes Maybe I'm too needy????

Anyway, I guess I'm done. But I will leave you with a few questions: 1. Does your family have family time together? 2. If so, what do you do? and 3. If you don't have family time, what do you wish you did with your family/spouse/significant other? Who knows, maybe I AM just too needy....