more news and thoughts

My more news is this: Ryan in out right now, as I type this, buying wood (and I think rebar) so that he can dig the footings and put the cement forms in! The sprinkler is going again on the dirt so that when he digs, our very sandy soil stays firm enough to get the forms in. Yesterday we put up more string and marked the dirt with paint where he needs to dig. Go footings!

My thoughts are these: I think I'm rich! Ha ha, not really, but I came to terms today with the fact that my kids cannot attend any of the preschools up here because Ryan makes too much money. I know he makes a lot, but where does it all go? We never seem to have any at the end of the month. But that is a personal problem we've have whether we made 50,000 a year or 110,000 a year (our record when we both worked and had no kids...) Anyways, my gripe is this: the ladies at the state run preschool led me to believe that my kids could go there. Every time I talked to them I told them I didn't qualify for income, and every time they replied "don't worry about it". So the week before school starts I run around Bakersfield getting paperwork, spend two horrific hours at the clinic doing TB stuff, and was told they would call me on Tuesday when they worked something out. Today is Wednesday, I called them, and was told "We have to take all the low income kids first. We haven't forgotten you". So I email the big boss at county superintendent (who taught a class I took at CSUB) and told her and she called me and we worked everything out. By that I mean she told me that there was no way my kids can go because of their state funding and our income. I said "Thank you for the straight answer" and that I was led along and wasted a bunch of time. She is going to talk to them tomorrow and set them right, I guess. I hate complaining, but I don't like wasting my time either. Raise your hands if you have ever sat with a crying one year old in a clinic for an hour while your 4 and almost 3 year old tried not to think about the shot that was coming to them. The county lady suggested I do a parent co-op (have a degree in Child Dev)... but I hate the licensing requirement of a director having to take this icky 3 unit class on how to be a manager of a preschool. I've attempted it twice, and the class is soooo lame. I have jumped through many hoops, but this is a hoop I'm not willing to go through. Looks like I'll try to find that playgroup again we tried last year. Maybe I'll put an ad in the paper to see if anyone up here is interested in a play group. I would love to do a playgroup twice a week AT a place. A building. I loved the field trips we took, but the parks could be windy and with little ones it's hard to watch everyone. At any rate, I need to go find my figurative "preschool teacher/child developmentalist" hat and brush off the dust. And wear it. But then again, I never went to preschool, and I took naps in Kindergarten and played and played and I think I'm fine... maybe a little mental, but otherwise fine...