Snow

Walked outside to go to school and all the Carrasco's and Hindman's were out playing in the snow. Yep, more snow over night. Cameron immediately started playing. They had a snowball fight and were having a blast until we said it was time for school. They all wanted to skip. Sorry kids.

Early morning fun.

Snow Ball!!

All the kid doing their own thing in the snow.

Don't worry, this was staged.

In the van we saw our new sub driver...Antonio. I thought he looked familiar but as soon as he said "ok, are we ready? Lets go." I knew him immediately. He has driven for us once before. Every time he starts to leave he says those words. So funny. Luckily he speaks English.

It was slow moving to school. The roads were just slushy but surprisingly everyone was driving carefully. There were all kinds of workers using brooms to sweep the snow. I did see shovels too. I also watched a group scooping snow off the sides of the road and filling their little carts with it. Not sure where they were going to dump those carts or why they weren't just piling it up on the grass. Weird. There isn't that much snow on the ground.

Dropped Cameron off and went back home. The Carrasco's were still standing there. Leo didn't show up because he thought there was no school or work. Really? They weren't too happy. My driver took them which wasn't a problem.

Carrasco's decided to get out of town early since the snow was causing problems. We didn't get to go to lunch. They left at 1:00 and she sent me a message saying road was open but foggy. We were leaving at 3:00 to go to Beijing.

I went to school to get Cameron. As I was walking in I heard Paul and Rachel talking. He was saying they couldn't find a way to the Beijing airport. They do not have a car and the fast train wasn't running. Their flight home to Australia was leaving at midnight. I popped up and said "We are leaving now to go to the airport to get Todd so if you want to ride with us you are more than welcome". He called Claudia and of course she said yes. Paul asked if I knew where they lived. I told him I did but I wouldn't know how to tell my driver. I asked how he was getting home and he said a taxi. I told him to ride home with us and it would be much easier. Duh!

As we were walking to the car Cameron told me he got in trouble. WHAT? He said after recess Ms. Williamson, the principal, came into his class and asked to talk to him. He said he was immediately scared. She said to him "I was looking out my window and was completely horrified at what I saw. I saw you throwing a snowball at a little child". Of course I  immediately was sickened. She went on to explain the rules to him and then walked out. When Cameron told me it was Alejandro he was having a snowball fight with I didn't think twice about it. I then was thinking 'and she was horrified at that?' Horrified was quite a strong word to use. We got in the car and I fired off an email to Ms. Williamson. It said:

Cameron told me you were upset with him today for throwing snowballs at Alejandro. I'm sorry. They were all having a snowball fight at home before school this morning so Cameron thought it was fine. I talked to him and told him not to do it at school.

Thank you.

Shelly

We got to the Peet's apartment. The kids ran in to change and the luggage started coming. They had 2 big suitcases, 2 small suitcases, 1 other bag, a back pack, 2 sets of golf clubs, Paul, Claudia, Owen, and Lily. We were packed to the rim but we made it work and it was no problem. The Peet's were very appreciative that we took them. We were going to the airport anyway so it made perfect sense for them to ride with us. 

A few minutes later I received the following response to my email:

Thanks for the email, Shelly. What concerned me about it was that it's obviously a larger child throwing snowballs at a younger child. Even though Cameron can be counted on to use some judgment, I have to make it a guideline across the whole PS to make it safe fun for everyone. Our snowball rules are 1. Only throw at someone who wants you to 2. Only shoulders down 3. Not at younger children.

Cameron was very respectful and understanding.

Thank you,

Yvonne Williamson
Primary Principal

I decided then I wouldn't respond anymore and let it go. I told Cameron thanks for telling me and told him he was not in trouble. It was "brothers" playing. He was not picking on a younger child. As we were talking Cameron said he didn't even know where the Principal's office was now since she moved it. Owen, who turned 8 today, immediately said "oh, I know where it is". Claudia told him that wasn't a good thing. We laughed.

We finally got to the interstate. The roads we were on hadn't been plowed so our driver was being careful. Plus we went a little out of the way. As we were driving towards the toll booth a ton of cars were coming at us. Three lanes...left and right cars coming at us which isn't suppose to happen,everyone else driving in the middle. Freaky. Get up to where there are a ton of trucks stopped. My driver had already called to see if the toll was open and they said yes. He pulled into a bunch of trucks and Paul was telling him not to get boxed in in case we needed to turn around. Otherwise we would sit there forever if no one was moving. Again my driver called. Yep, open. Why is no one moving? People were out walking around, trucks turning around, it was a disaster. The truck that turned around my driver rolled the window down and asked if the toll was open and he said no. What? We finally saw a traffic cop kind of guy. Driver asked him and he said only one lane was open. That explains the back up. My driver made a sweet move around the outside, passed all the trucks, jumped in behind another car, and we were in the toll booth finally. An hour after we should have been. We finally realized no trucks were going through. It was VERY foggy so we think they were limiting the number of big trucks or something.

Finally open road but it was so foggy we couldn't go fast at all. The driver stopped at the first rest stop because he needed Oreo's. Lily really needed the bathroom so everyone was happy to stop. Everyone piled out and hit the toilet. Back in and off again. We didn't go very fast because the fog was so thick. We were about 30-40 minutes from the airport when I started watching the drivers eyes. He would drive, then go real slow, step on the gas, then back off. I asked Paul, who was in front, to watch him. He said in his Australian accent "Yeah, he's showing signs of being tired isn't he Mate?" Then Paul started talking to him. The driver rolled the windows down a few times and took a couple drinks too. He kept saying "no problem".

Finally around 7:20 we arrived at the airport. Todd and Matt landed at 6:00 so by the time we arrived they had decided to try and take the train into the city. We unloaded all the luggage, said our goodbyes, and headed towards the hotel. Todd and Matt stopped at the Kro to order pizza. Cameron and I arrived at the hotel around 7:50. We checked in and went to the room. We then went up to the lounge. About 15 minutes later Todd walked in with 2 big pizzas. We ate and then went back to the room. Cameron stayed up later because he wanted to watch You Have Been Warned. He has missed it every other time it was on.  He's been dying to see what the show is about.  Everyone off to bed.