Let me set up the scene. Because Alex's birthday was a day before they went on their week long curriculum trip to Virginia we made plans for the guys in his class, which is now 3, come over this Friday straight after school and trick-or-treat and then stay up watching scary horror movies until late into the night. In return they were going to stay with us Saturday and come to the school with us early to get everything set up for the dance.
So yesterday evening, Alex, who had been socializing both on the phone and via facebook with his classmates/friends, comes up to me and asks, "Mom, could we invite the girls over on Friday night?" with this cute cheesy smile (bat bat with the eyelashes too).
I'm sure some - or possibly most of you are sniggering at this point as I had to seriously consider all the angles on this one. And with some serious ground rules laid down it will be happening - tomorrow night - 9 teenagers in our house. 5 boys (2 of them ours) and 4 girls. Though the girls will be coming over later, around 7:00pm and will be trickling back out of the house starting at 9:00pm up to 11:00pm - but at least 2 - 4 hours of lots of raging hormones with lots of raging horror and gore!
Who needs sleep. By Sunday I think we'll be praying for a freak snowstorm so we can have Monday off to finish recuperating from this weekend. HA!
So yes, the Wiley's are at it again! I think masochism is in our genes, or blood...well, at least I know it's in mine!
We have decided to organize, put together, decorate, chaperone, and supply the loudness for a Halloween High School dance.
Yes - that's right - this time with a bunch of teenagers! Forget the middle schoolers...we've moved to the next level! So we will be bringing our camera and I hope to get lots of photos of the night. It will be happening this Saturday, the day after Halloween. It is a required costume dance (including the chaperon's) and, of course, there will be incredibly loud music, and lots of dim or low lighting to set the mood right!
Everyone in the high school community seems to be very excited and happy that we are having this event. Plus, we invited the alum that would be in our 9th - 12th grades, if they dare! And, to make our school feel more open and welcome we extended and invitation to two other private schools that some of our alum are now attending, in hopes to have a larger social mix.
So, we have absolutely NO clue as to how many teenagers will show up - we could have only 20 or possibly 50 or more - but no matter what, it will be an adventure, and hopefully some worth talking about for weeks to come! (in a good way I hope)
Wish us luck. And if I find the energy I'll be posting again on Sunday - with some photos - and all the buzz of what it was truly like!
Today is Alex's 16th birthday! Happy Birthday Alex!
Who knows what exciting things we will do today - but all of it will be family involvement. Some gifts, some cake (or maybe pudding oh or an ice cream cake ), possibly going out to see a movie - or maybe renting a few good ones and staying home with the comfy fire, and, I think, going out to Bandido's for dinner (unless he'd rather us make homemade tortilla's?). We shall see. But he is going to wait until after his week long curriculum trip to have a party with his friends. Which, will be on Halloween night. I wonder if they've made a list of possible scary movies to rent after collecting some candy that night?? (I know I can give them a few good suggestions if they want!)
Before I go on with what the boys will be doing this coming week I realized that I did not touch on one interesting and great thing that both Alex and Jared have decided to take on at their school! They are training to become "Social Inclusion Helpers". So, from what I understand, they will be going down to the lower school play ground (I don't know how often), to be aware of and help work through, any bullying or teasing with the younger students. This training is a 3 year process and is something new. If you want to read more about it you can go to http://www.thechildtoday.com/SocialInclusion/ to learn more. Their first step is to start listening and noting how many put-downs they hear amongst themselves in the high school - so honing their listening skills. Overall I think this will not only look good on a college application, but will be an important skill for themselves out in the real world! I'll keep you posted on what exciting things they are doing.
Yesterday (Saturday) Alex was back at school from 8am until almost 12noon taking the PSATs. He says it was boring but he thinks he did okay. He made a great comment about how silly it was to put judgement on someone's memory retention as to how smart they are - but he was willing to play along. I have no idea when they find out their scores but I'm sure they'll be another post later on that. :)
So, even though it's Alex's birthday today and we'll be doing some stuff together both Alex and Jared have to completely pack up for the week long curriculum trips - which is the other thing I was going to write about this morning.
Jared's class will be traveling to a place called Sustenance Farm in Bear Creek, NC. The 9th grade trip is an agriculutural intensive for the 9th grade and students will engage in farm work and chores, gardening, and working in nature. This is the same location they take the 9th grade every year - so Alex's class went last year and they seemed to have a blast! (For those of you who I sent the youtube videos of them singing together - that was a piece of it!)
Alex's class will be traveling to the Paradise Campground in Danville, VA. The trip is craft intensive for the 10th grade and students will engage in hands-on experiences with fiber and craft.
So we will be child-free for 5 whole days. 'Nuff said!
Well, I think it's been a couple of weeks since my last post. I keep thinking that something exciting will happen worth writing about, and then, I realize that every day is exciting, as I'm alive and enjoying life. So even though much of this may seem mundane to some - it is my life and for those who are reading this (mostly family and a few good friends) - they'll appreciate getting any kind of an update. :)
So no snazzy pictures and no video's for this one.
I guess I could have taken photos of the house, in the midst of this weeks chaos of "bombing" or fogging, for our lovely flea infestation. But, for those who have had to experience that in their own life, I think that's really all that needs to be said....well...that and I'm STILL doing laundry (day 3 of laundry hell!). Hehehehehe
So this past week has been our first vacation week at our school - Emerson Waldorf School - where both of our boys are attending high school now and where both my husband, who is teaching 2nd grade this year, and myself (administrative specialist) are working full time.
This will be our 4th, and final, Waldorf school in our lives. Which gives many mixed feelings as I have been reflecting, a lot lately, on all of our experiences over the years. Amazingly, each school is different and unique, but at the same time has many similarities as well. What I think I love most about Waldorf is how the education lets children be children for as long as possible - to hang on to that innocence and joy - because the world can be so harsh and cynical when you become an adult. Having Waldorf education helps not only the parents, but even more so, the students remember to see the beauty and joy in life - which I think everyone needs, but doesn't always get.
Okay, so beyond my reflection on our choice of Waldorf over these past 12 years the other fiddly bits of life over the past couple of weeks....
Well, there was the phone problem we were having. For 5 whole days of our vacation, even though we were disparaging over the flea problem and getting through it, I was enjoying the peace and serenity of our phone not working! Mind you, with 54 parents in Shannon's class, the phone doesn't really ring that often, which is quite amazing - I think our teenage son's get more phone calls than their dad. HA! But, after emailing the phone company of our problem. Having them come out and say that the phone line coming into the house was fine - dial tone and all. We had a kind parent who used to work in the tel-com business come to check out our phone lines on Thursday (5 or was that really 6 days later) to have Shannon finally stumble across a HIDDEN 4th phone in Mary's room that was in a drawer and knocked off the handset. Oh the irony and funniness of it all! I would have been happy to continue paying the phone company $50 a month to keep the phone from ringing - but alas - Alex had gone through withdrawls and managed to call everyone he knew (both here in NC and back at Cape Cod) to get his fix between Thursday and today!
Let's see... Shannon still has grand plans to build a hot tub. Not sure where he is with that plan but I know all of us are all for it if he can figure it out!
I've decided to NOT have chickens as I've realized with our teenage sons quickly growing up and possibly, maybe, moving on some day, that beyond our wonderulf basset hound, Tobey, I don't really think I want to be responsible for any other pets (well, there are the 2 cats, which are technically Mary's but, well....) AND I had someone who HAS chickens say, "With chickens comes both the rats and the snakes." Mind you, I love snakes - they don't bother me at all - bring them on! But rats... shudder.. unless I choose to get one as a pet - the wild ones, well, forget that! They bring mites and grossness. Ugh! No thanks! Plus we have a few families in Shannon's class that have plenty of chickens and, at the moment, we are purchase a dozen eggs each week from one who has a real running farm - with happy, healthy, drug free, free-ranging, local chickens. What more can you ask for? $3.00 for a dozen per week for them to deal with feeding and housing AND rats and snakes. Yep! Worth every penny!!!!
Well, I guess that's it for now. I'm hoping to make this a better habit than it is now. I still have grand dreams of becoming a writer which means I need to continue writing ALL the time - 1,000,000 words before you become "good". And, I've realized, with most of my friends moving on and not responding much to emails, and my nanny passing away a couple of years ago, that I've stopped writing as much as I used to. I had the professional "Kelley letters" as some of my friends feared years and years ago (pre-children to be exact) and I should have continued - though not those types of letters. Ah well, I just need to sit here thinking that I'm writing to my nanny and just let it all pour out. Someone out there will enjoy it - I'm sure!
Good night to all and have a good week. Happy Columbus Day (can you believe that we STILL celebrate this day???)
Kelley
