Sunday morning I took the kids to school as I always do. I decided that since I was always late to school, maybe taking them a bit earlier would help. Boy, was I right about that. It seems if I leave 5 minutes earlier with the kids, I cut almost 15 minutes off my journey. Crazy!
We had implemented a new duty schedule, and we had made it very clear that all teachers were supposed to be visible by 7 am, yet no one showed up for duty. It was frightful!
During the day, I tried to make sure people were at their posts. Everyone was doing as they like. Im beyond excited for the local senior leaders to show up. When that happens, this lackadaisical behavior will stop immediately. We are hoping this happens by the end of the week.
After school Sunday, I picked up the kids from school. As soon as we were home, homework started. They had actually done some on Saturday and were starting to get into the swing of things. It's still a bit rocky, but I think they are starting to figure it out.
I had a snack and then fed the kids. Our house was cleaned on Sunday by a new cleaner, Tina. She did a phenomenal job. She was Sean's cleaner at his old house, and we were not happy with our old cleaner so it worked out rather well.
I went to the club and decided I needed to start working out on Sundays and Tuesdays while the kids practiced. It seems my butt has fallen and it can't get up. I weigh the same as I did about 7 months ago, but it is obvious to me and my clothes that my muscle tone is not nearly what it had been. So back to the exercise regime for me. When we got home from rugby, it was showers and a snack for the kids, then bed for all.
I got up and walked with Lara. School was a mess, as it is with a new school. We never have enough hands on deck, nor do we have enough man power to get everything done in the day that we need to get done. We decided to have a parent meet and greet. It was hectic, but necessary. I walked the building with the head of assessment management. We walked around and decided on what was needed to make a complete building. The assessment of furniture was absolutely no fun. I'm not sure if we made progress or not.
I got to my to school on Tuesday and as far as we knew all teachers were in school, until we found out they weren't. Three didn't call in. Since we have to rely on other teachers who don't have full teaching schedules to cover in these cases, we had to rush around to find teachers to cover the classes. It's not a nice job to have, having to tell another teacher they need to cover a class that isn't theirs.
I left school exhausted but knew I had to go workout at the club while the kids practiced. I really didn't want to but was glad I did once it was over. When we got home the kids showered, had a snack and went to bed. Naturally I fell asleep on the sofa.
Wednesday morning we were all up and off to school. My school continues to be beyond hectic. Stuart has been told he is teaching 15 periods of grade 3 this year, which doesn't please him. Needless to say, the start of the year has been a bit difficult for both of us. Since my Vice Principal found out she was being transferred she's done nothing. That has left everything up to my principal and myself. There is still so much to sort out at this school that we often don't know where to begin.
After school I picked Jack up and took him to Eleanor's. Millie wanted to stay but couldn't. They wouldn't have had enough room in their car to bring her home. Plus, it was Jack's play date, not Millie's. After dropping Jack, we went to sign the papers for my car. I dropped Stuart off to pick up Sean's car which we had taken in for a service. It seems for the last three weeks we have done nothing but play 'musical cars'.
Millie and I stopped at wine shop and then headed home. Stuart was going to get Kayleigh's car cleaned, but I had her keys in my bag so that didn't happen. I was frustrated a bit because the plan was to go to Dubai for the weekend and I wanted to get the car back to Cathy before we left Thursday. So it was decided that we would attempt to leave school early on Thursday to get everything sorted out.
Stuart went to rugby and Millie and I got a cab to the Ford dealership to pick up our new car. We then went to collect Jack from his friend's and headed home. Millie went straight to bed, and Jack followed shortly after her. I wasn't far behind either of them.
Thursday morning it was a bit windy when we went to walk. We left the house earlier to get to school and decided we would do that from now on as it allows me to actually get to school about 15 minutes earlier, so I'm not THAT late.
I had two more observations on Thursday. We had initially been told that all new teacher observations had to be completed by the end of the first week of October. Once my 5 observations were scheduled, we found out that actually they had to be completed by the end of October. Since I had already scheduled them I decided to just stick with what I had planned. I left school around noon to get home and get the dogs to the vet for the weekend, as well as get Kayleigh's car detailed.
We picked the kids up from school and left for Dubai around 3:45 pm. Because we took my new car, we had to stop and get a toll ticket in order to go into Dubai. Because I didn't have the registration card it was really quite difficult. We finally found a petrol station that I could whatsapp the copy of the registration card and they could process the toll ticket that way.
We got to the hotel and checked in to the hotel at 5:15 pm. We went to the room and waited for Scott and Clare to arrive. When they showed up they came to our room and we ordered room service. The kids played cards and the adults chatted for a few hours.
Friday morning I woke up around 6:30 am but just laid in bed. Finally I got up and met Clare at the gym just before 8 am. We worked out and were down for breakfast by 9 am. After breakfast we came back to the room to get changed for the pool. We stayed at the pool until around 2 pm. Stuart left us around noon to go to his rugby match. We had lunch at the pool and a couple of happy hour beverages.
Once we were back in the room we had a bit of downtime before heading to Kite Beach to go to the skate board park. Sadly, we forgot to bring Jack's tennis shoes which meant he couldn't go into the skateboard park. As a result, no one else went in either. I really didn't pay attention when we decided to add this activity to our agenda, which is why my kids didn't bring tennis shoes. Oops.
In the end, we walked along the boulevard while the kids rode their scooters. We then stopped for an ice cream and everyone was relatively happy, oh except for Jack who stated that 'we never do anything fun'. He's at his ungrateful stage in life I think.
We caught the hotel shuttle back to the hotel. We arrived at about the same time as Stuart. They lost their match, but he didn't seem to upset about it. He was upset by the refereeing. Apparently they filed a formal complaint.
We went to the pool and let the kids swim for about an hour, then got dressed and walked to Pizza Express for dinner. We were then back in the room and everyone went to bed.
Saturday morning we were up for breakfast just after 8. We then went to the mall. We were looking for Halloween costumes, but came up empty. There were costumes, but they were super expensive. So we went to plan B, making costumes for the kids.
On our drive home Stuart discovered the breaks on my new car were not so hot. It seems that they shuddered as you put pressure on them. So once we were home I took the car to the dealership while Stuart and the kids went to get the dogs. A curtesy vehicle brought me home and I finished up laundry from the weekend. We went to Scott and Clare's around 5 pm and had curry.
The kids played outside for a while, then after we ate they had showers and settled down a bit, watching television until it was time for us to leave. Millie was terribly cranky. I suspect she's coming down with something. Time will tell, I'm sure. It was a busy weekend, but terribly relaxing and needed for all of us.
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