Back to School: An Epic Tale of Boxes, Bronchitis, Downward Dog and Lockdowns

Today marks the end of the second week of school.  It has been, inarguably, the longest two weeks I've had in recent recollection. Even more so considering how quickly summer vacation flew by.

I wasn't ready for summer to end, but decided to be positive and jumped right out of bed when my alarm went off in the middle of the night bright and early (at 5:30 a.m.) on the first day of school. Other than having to sign approximately 3,236 papers for school and visit Target a whopping 6 times for school supplies, the first few days were pretty great and I was able to get everyone, including myself, in bed by 9 p.m.

First day of school

 Then the weekend arrived.

My mother-in-law sold her house in less than a week on the market, and the time to pack and move had arrived.  Hubby, the kids, and I went over to help.  My job was to go through all of the photos she and her parents had collected over the last 65 years, combine them and store them in plastic tubs.  Actually my job was to pack said photos, but since the majority of them were strewn through dusty, silverfish infested boxes, falling out of photo albums whose sticky pages had long since lost their stickiness, or tucked away in the drug store envelopes they originally came in, I figured this would be a much better option.

Here is one of the old pictures I found at MIL's.
Here are Hubs and I when we were around 19 circa 1995.

Since MIL hasn't found a permanent place, Hubs and I offered to store her furniture and boxes  in our garage, which meant a major, two-day long garage rearrangement.

A good part of my garage was filled by donations for the charity yard sale I will soon be working, so those items had to be hauled to a different storage location. Hubby and I moved things right and left until we finally had the garage looking like I'd wanted it to look since we moved in 15 months ago.  It was a nice 30 seconds until the box truck with MIL's items arrived.  Thankfully, we played a lot of Tetris when we were kids and we able to fit it all in nicely.

The next day, my daughter called me from school complaining of a cough and sore throat. The pediatrician diagnosed her with sinusitis and bronchitis.  Ain't nobody got time for that!  I had to go back and forth to the pharmacy three times until they figured out that the cough medicine wasn't covered by our insurance and the doctor recommended an OTC instead.

Phew...I'm tired just thinking about it...

Last night my buddy Marcy invited me to yoga to try and relieve some of the stress of the last two weeks. This was a great idea since I had been wanting to try yoga for years to relieve my chronic back pain.  It really was a great idea, except that 15 minutes into it I realized this was more Cirque du Soleil in an oven than the chanting, relaxing and stretching I had pictured in my head.  About 40 minutes in I refused to do anymore downward dogs.

OK, I didn't actually refuse. It was more like my brain was spinning in my head, and my ears were ringing, and my boob sweat was rolling up into my eyes, and I didn't know what the heck any of the poses were, and I was getting nauseous from looking around to see if I was doing any of it correctly, and I was pretty sure they would have to call 9-1-1 if bent over again.  Thankfully, the last 10 minutes rocked.

I have not given up on yoga...I just think I will start with the senior citizens class and work my way up to the class set in the Sahara Desert.

So, this morning I woke up, still a little light-headed, but my body felt pretty amazing. Both kids were able to go back to school, and I planned on painting a table my MIL had given me to use in my studio while I listened to my new audiobook.  I ran out of the Annie Sloan Old White Chalk Paint I had been using, and as I went to wash my hands and run to the stockist, the house phone started ringing off the hook.  No one ever calls me on my land line, so when I looked at the caller ID I saw it was my son's high school.

All I remember the recorded message say was "suspicious student", "in custody" "lockdown", "law enforcement", and "safety sweep of the school." I quickly texted my son, got online and saw the newspaper article that stated that my daughter's middle school (right next door from my son's) and a nearby elementary school were also on lockdown due to a student who was wearing a trench coat and claimed to have guns.  I texted my kids, and my son replied that he was in lockdown in his 4th period class but was OK.  My daughter didn't reply right away, but by then the reports stated that her school's lockdown had been lifted and that the students were in no danger.

I decided to drive to my son's school myself, and when I arrived, the street was filled with concerned parents, cars parked on the side of the road and police cars blocking the school's entrance.

My son's principal has a twitter account, and he updated it often. I was able to keep in touch with my son via text while I waited for news.  Three hours after the initial lockdown, after crouching against a wall the entire time, skipping lunch hour, and with only one supervised bathroom break, the lockdown was lifted.  Parents like me flooded the front office to take our tired and hungry kids home. Actually, we went to McDonald's. A situation like this deserves salty fries and a Coke.

Safe and sound.

Later on, we learned that there was no evidence of any weapons at the school, but it has raised a huge concern. How safe are our kids?  How can schools prevent weapons from entering the building?  What if another kid wants this kind of attention? Should the teachers have water and food supplies in their classrooms?

It's all a little much for me to think about this evening.  Tonight I will just think of how thankful I am that my kids are safe and sound.

If you've made it this far, thank you!  My readers always brighten my day!

Guest Posting at Fun Life*Happy Life!

Today you can find me over at Fun Life*Happy Life giving 10 Tips for The New Middle (or High) Schooler.

 

Summer Fashion As the Season Winds Down

While the warm weather will stick around for a few more months here in the Sunshine State, summer vacation is quickly coming to an end.  It's both a curse and a blessing.  I will miss waking up AFTER the sun has come up, our weekday trips to theme parks and water parks and staying up past midnight without counting the number of hours until the alarm goes off. I dread packing lunches, morning traffic and afternoon pick-up line.

But, I am excited to get back to a routine at home and work. Hubby will appreciate the return of regular visits to the grocery store, as well as not having to dig through the laundry baskets for a pair of matching socks. I will be able to dedicate more time to blogging and you will get to see more of my handmade goodies.

In the meantime, I wanted to share with you some of what I've worn (#wiw) over the last few weeks...

For more #WIW and #OOTD (outfit of the day) check out my insta.  There's a link on the sidebar.

Back to School...Back to Work!

It's here...back to school time.  I'd been dreading this since June, but I knew it was inevitable.  In the blink of an eye we were back to 6 a.m. wake-up calls, packing lunches, car lines and homework.

This year, my son (now 13 and in 8th grade) decided to take a "break" from the school band.  Break=quit, I know.  I don't try to block the sun with one finger, like my mom would say. In his defense, he never aspired to be a concert trumpeter (he wants to be a robotics engineer), and there were some technology classes he wanted to take before leaving middle school.  As a plus, he no longer has to carry a 20 lb trumpet case around the school, which I believe is at least partly to blame for his recent referral to a radiologist for a scoliosis survey.

My daughter (now 10 and in 5th grade) has been excited about going back to school and seeing her friends again. More excited, I think, about the possibility of an entirely uninterrupted school year.  In 3rd grade she broke her leg during spring break.  Because she was in a full cast and would need assistance using the restroom, the school recommended home bound instruction. She was taught at home for 5 weeks.   Last year, as you may recall, we moved back to Florida three months into the school year.

That move, in fact, is what pulled the emergency breaks here at AquaSeventy6...good segue, right?  (And, yes, it's "segue", not "segway" like the scooter.  Trust me, I Googled it.)

AquaSeventy6, the blog and the shop have been suffering since my move.  I pop in every few weeks to apologize and promise to do better, only to get wrapped up in life and end up apologizing all over again. But, my friends, this time it's different, and that's a promise. I finally have all of my sewing supplies under one roof again.  The kids are back to school and I am no longer commuting across town.  That said, there are going to be some changes going on as well.

I am first and foremost a writer.  I'm neither Fitzgerald nor Hemingway, but I do think in monologue, and have since I was a kid. I plan on adding more anecdotal and family related posts in the future, which may or may not include anything crafty. (Anyone else get all Grandma's-Crocheted-Santa-Potholder when you hear the word "crafty"?  Trust me, I avoid it as much as possible.  I prefer "handmade" or "DIY" myself.)

As far as my shop, I do plan to reopen it at some point.  I don't like to list special order items, I prefer only to list what I have on hand so my clients can get their goodies ASAP.  This means I have to get on the ball and make inventory.  I love inventory because I have so many bits and pieces of amazing, often discontinued fabrics that I can use to make some truly unique pieces. But inventory takes time, so the shop reopening time frame is currently TBA.

I also plan to get back to featuring my furniture revamps.  These may be items in my own home, or possibly something for a friend or client.  I've been painting and updating vintage furniture for several years now.  Just this summer I've redone 4 or 5 pieces of my own furniture...I just haven't gotten around to photographing any of it! :(  Revamping furniture was my first DIY passion prior to sewing, and sadly I let it fall to the wayside.

Finally, I will continue to toss in some fashion and style related posts here and there. Wow!  I guess I actually AM excited that the kids are back to school, because I truly have missed this!

I will be back soon with a new post, but for now I am hitting the sack!!  It's almost 1 a.m., y'all! 


    PS....what do you think of my new blog design?  

Fee Night, Speaking Spanish and Pencil Cases

Today I took my son to his 7th grade "fee night", which is exactly what is sounds to be.  You look for your child's homeroom on a list taped to the wall and wait in line with 30 other parents and students. When you finally meet the homeroom teacher, you hand her a wad of dough and  leave with a manilla folder full of forms and your child's class schedule.  Fun times.

He's got Spanish this year which is fantastico considering that according to his forms he's "Hispanic/Latino" but doesn't speak a word of it.  That is my fault, I know.  I started speaking to him solely in Spanish as a baby, but as soon as he started talking in English we just went with it. You don't have to tell me how much I suck.  I hear enough about it from my parents, in-laws and grandparents.

Speaking of back-to-school, I wanted to share some super cute pencil cases I've been designing.

This Mustachio Pencil case is for my daughter's friend "A".  She's all about the 'stache, so her mom thought this would be perfect for her 4th grade year.

My friend's son "C" is LOVE the Redskins, and wanted a pencil case with the 'Skins as well as some other NFL teams.  I lucked out to find this print!  It pretty much rocks.

Now this is one of my FAVORITE pencil pouches, because it's going to be used by my friend Natalia from Ma Nouvelle Mode as a cosmetics case.  I adore this fabric and I am happy that she was my very first client to choose it!

Pencil cases are lined in vinyl and measure approximately 11"x4.5".  Email me for more info.

Click here to see where this and my other posts are linked

Back to School and Mini Wet Bags

This is the first time EVER that I have been excited about the kids going back to school.  Maybe it's because all of my Florida friends have been posting pics of their cute kids wearing cute backpacks or in their cute classrooms with their cute new teachers.  Most likely, though, it's because my soon-to-be 4th and 7th graders have perfected the art of hovering over me as I work.  In fact, these last few sentences have taken 35 minutes to write.

Being a work-at-home mom comes with many challenges, especially in the summer.  I'm constantly stopping in the middle of a project to cook a meal, referee an argument, or taking the day off altogether just to get the kids out of the house.  I understand how it feels to be bored. 


To lighten the situation, I try to sneak in a little handmade gift for my own kids whenever I can't step away from the sewing machine.  Last week I tweaked the wet bag pattern to make my daughter a reusable sandwich bag for her lunchbox.

It's lined in vinyl for easy cleanup.  My favorite thing about this bag is the zipper to help contain the crumbs!

My friend J had been looking for a zippered reusable sandwich pouch, so she ordered a couple for her little boy who started preschool this week.  She wanted something that said "back to school" but also said her little guy loves Elmo and instruments.  How do you think I did?

It made my day to get this photo from my little buddy:

If you like these mini wet bags, you can find some now in my shop! They can also be custom made!  Email me for details!

Click here to see where this and my other posts are linked