Parent/Teacher Conferences

I met with Helena's and Will's teachers a couple of weeks ago, at mid-term.  It seems like school just barely started and we are already looking at the end of term 1 in just a few weeks!

Both kids had mostly good reports from their teachers, with only one bad grade to deal with (Will!).  Every teacher said that my kids were nice, pleasant, attentive, and good.  The seminary teachers especially had wonderful things to say.  Helena's seminary teacher thought she was a senior because of her maturity level and participation in class (last year's teacher thought the same).  Will's seminary teacher told me that Will has been made the desk partner of a girl in class who is deaf, because he knew he could count on Will to be a kind and good helper to her.  In fact, Will recently asked me for a couple of dollars so he could buy a Milka candy bar for her.

Parent/teacher conferences for my school happened over the past two nights.  For the first time, I  was able to simply stay at the school, rather than hurrying home to be a mom before hurrying back.  In the past, I was needed to pick up from school, drop off at ballet/football/whatever, and then rush back, missing the PTA provided dinner.  Now, my kids are old enough to take care of themselves!  Helena can drive, and Will can ride his bike or walk on the days that Helena stays after school for ACT Prep class, preventing her from picking him up.

Dinner was pretty fun both nights.  The PTA provided soup and salad on Wednesday night, and deli sandwiches on Thursday night.  It is fun to get the entire faculty together for a meal, because you get a chance to chat with people who are not on your lunch rotation.

I decided to stay for the entire time on Wednesday night.  I don't have to.  I am a part time teacher, so I am only paid to stay at p/t conferences part time as well.  I had a pretty steady stream of parents come in, too.  When there weren't parents in my room, I spent my time reorganizing my files (which have gotten shockingly bad over the years).  The other specialty teachers told me they had very few parents come in.  In fact, the computer teacher didn't have a single visitor BOTH nights!  I am very glad the parents want to come in to see me!  Still, it made for a LONG day!  I was at work from 8:30 am to 8:00 pm.

Thursday night, I only stayed at p/t conferences until 6:30 because I had to stop at the store, pick up refreshments, and hurry home and get ready to host my book club at 8!  The book for this month was And Then There Were None, by Agatha Christie.  Each lady takes turn hosting and I had been scheduled to host in October.  It was just perverse luck that it fell on a p/t conference night.  I was pleased that most of the ladies came.  I think there were 13 of us there last night.  We spent about 45 minutes talking about the book, then another hour and 45 minutes just visiting.  The ladies finally left at 10:30!

I have to give a great big thank you to Bill and the kids for making sure the house was clean and ready for my book club!  It was so nice knowing I could count on them!

Now, for the oddities that happened behind the scenes...

Bill told me that Matt called on Wednesday night from an Anonymous listing and asked for Paul's phone number.

I need to back up and fill you in a bit about Matt.  He got married last February, on Valentines' Day.  He didn't bother telling anyone.  His mother found out at the same time we did, because he changed his Facebook status to 'married'.  When we called to get more info from him, he was very reticent to tell us anything about her, other than her name (Kimberlyse).  Other facts we were able to pry out of him are that she works as a physical therapist assistant, and she is older than him... but how much older, we don't know.  Angelina, Matt's sister through his mother, Michelle, is the one family member he is closest to.  She is under the impression that Matt's wife is closer to his parents' ages than his own!

Since his marriage, Matt has continued to isolate himself from all family by canceling his cell phone, Facebook, and MySpace accounts.

Now he calls using the 'Anonymous' code to prevent us from getting the number he is calling from.  And he wants Paul's number.  Paul is Kirsten's husband and he is a lawyer.

We don't know why.  There really is nothing we can do about it, too.  He is an adult and it is his right to shut himself off from his family if that is his choice.  Bill is really sad, though.  And his mom, Michelle, and I are very worried about him, too.

On Thursday evening, Helena called me during p/t conferences to tell me that our street was swarming with ambulance, police, and fire trucks, and that smoke was billowing out of a neighbor's back yard/house! She didn't know what to do and sounded really worried. I suggested that she let Will wander over there like he wanted to, because he'd find out the answers to what was going on. BTW, there was already a crowd of neighbors gathered on the street.

He did go over, but we never did find out what was going on. This particular neighbor is kind of an odd bird; hoarding junk and big HUGE containers of "bio-diesel" in his back yard. He has recently been seen hauling most of that away. We've speculated that either he's moving, been evicted, or was forced by the city to clean up the yard. At any rate, by the time I got home, the excitement was over.