Yesterday was just one of those days. Things started out just fine - good even - but it all went to heck in a handbasket around 4:30. That's when Duane called me at work to ask for the school's phone number. I gave it to him, then asked why he needed it. I figured that one of the boys forgot their homework or backpack or something. Oh, if only. Turned out that the bus was half an hour late and Duane wanted to call the school to see if something had held things up.
"Ok, call me back when you know," I said.
Twenty minutes passed and I still hadn't heard anything from Duane. If you know me at all, you know that I did nothing but stew for those 20 minutes - well, stew and repeatedly try to call Duane and text him. I finally heard from him at about 4:50. "They said the bus will be here in about 10 minutes. I've been on hold all this time with the transportation center."
"Did they say what happened?" I asked.
"Nope."
So I continued to pace at my desk until Duane called about 10 minutes later. "They're here."
"What happened?"
Duane talked to the bus driver for a minute (and the boys) and discovered that the bus had actually been early because some kids at an earlier stop were absent. Since no one was waiting for the boys, the driver wasn't allowed to let them off the bus and they had to go on the rest of the route with her.
"They know what they are supposed to do if no one is here," Duane said. But the driver replied that without written permission she cannot let the off the bus.
Now, that is fine. Honestly, it's great. I love that they won't just kick my kids to the curb, but Duane was at the bus stop 10 minutes early, which means the bus was even earlier that that. He wasn't squeaking in at the last minute or anything and the boys still got stuck with an extra hour on the bus. Turns out Ryan spent part of that time crying because he wanted to go home. Needless to say, we are sending a permission to exit note in tomorrow.
Most of the time the extended bus ride would be an annoyance, but yesterday it was terrible timing. Last night Duane had to be at a new parent meeting for scouts at 5:30. I don't get off work until 5:30, so the plan had been for Duane to take the boys to Grandma and Grandpa H.'s, go to the meeting, I'd meet the boys at their grandparents, I'd have dinner with them and my aunts/uncle from Mansfield, then take Wesley to the rest of the scout meeting at 6:45.
Sounds great in theory, right? But it didn't happen that way.
At about 5:50 I got a phone call from Duane telling me there was no one at the meeting.
"What do you mean there's no one there?"
"I mean there's no one here," he replied.
"You're at (name of local church)?" I asked.
"No, I'm at (name of local school)," he replied.
"Well, the meeting is at (name of local church)."
So Duane was late to that. And then we got a call from my aunts/uncle saying they had also gotten a late start and dinner would be delayed. So I loaded the kids up in the car and took them to McDonald's where I had the worst service I've ever had at a McDonald's. And that's saying something.
But Wesley got to his meeting and Ryan and I went home to get homework done and lunches packed and all the other nightly odds and ends taken care of. We got to visit with the family for a few minutes and the boys went to bed in decent moods.
I guess all's well that ends well, but I sure hope today goes more smoothly.
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