Um NO. That’s not true. If you’re going to quote law at me, at least get it right.

Washington state law:

http://apps.leg.wa.gov/WAC/default.aspx?cite=246-100-166
(3)(c) As proof of a child’s immunization status against varicella, schools and child care centers may accept one of the following:
(i) Documentation on the CIS form that the child received age appropriate varicella vaccine; or
(ii) Until July 1, 2008, documentation by the parent that a child has a history of varicella (we provided this information to them last February); or
(iii) Serologic proof of immunity against varicella; or
(iv) Diagnosis or verification of a history of varicella disease by a health care provider; or
(v) Diagnosis or verification of a history of herpes zoster by a health care provider.

Yeah, our doctor confirmed that it was chicken fucking pox. I guess I can ask for her diagnosis (which pretty much consisted of, “oh yeah, chicken pox”). I really resent being told that I have to sign some form like I’m doing something contrary to recommendations, for a whole variety of reasons. I’m certainly not vaccinating for something my kid has immunity to. And frankly, I’ve dutifully reported all vaccination stuff, I’m sorry & annoyed you lost it.

School nurse lady, you sound like a very nice lady, and I know you’re probably overwhelmed with your work because you have to handle more than one school, and you probably have to call 3/4s of all of the kindergarten parents in all schools you handle, but… no. Just. No.

M2 made a new friend who’s name she can’t remember but had a blue shirt, and that a boy named Matthew picked his nose and was caught and the teacher made him wash his hands, but she (M2) was very good and didn’t pick her nose or eat any boogers today. She also washed her hands today before eating lunch.

My parents stopped by to bring up the last of the stuff from my grandparents’ place for us. M2 told them all kinds of things (like the above). We got the potbelly stove (a*freaking*dorable). The mirror. Two big trunks. The sewing table. The sewing table came with a bonus special treat. There was an antique sewing machine inside it. It’s beautiful. My dad said he’d help me fix the electrical cord so it’s safe/r to use. They just don’t make stuff like that anymore. The detail work on both the sewing machine & the stove are just beautiful.

The reading assessment stuff didn’t bother her at all.  Of course, most of the way through third grade, she’s reading at an equivalent to however they determine a sixth grader four months into the year would be reading (I don’t get how they figure that so exactly, but eh).

I dunno.  I don’t know what they’re telling them, or even if they’re telling them anything really, but the stress is really working its way in & it pisses me off.  Apparently some kid in M1′s class told the teacher that WASL stood for Wash All Stinky Laundry, though.  That’s pretty awesome.

Meh.  And double meh.

After dinner the girls got baths because they spent a good chunk of the day playing outside, then I played guitar while we all sang. Except for P who sat and stoically read his book through out the cacophony. M2 wanted train songs. Pretty much exclusively. Towards the end we started telling her all the songs we wanted to sing were about trains. Lorelei was more of a stretch than Jesse James. Didn’t seem to matter. Finally she lay down partly behind me & wrapped around me and was fairly quiet aside from the occasional interjection of “TRAIN!” I got up, fed the fish, came back to get her off the couch & she was fast asleep, sweet girl.

Realized, again, how sloppy my non-classical playing has become. And how weak my left hand is. Clearly need to do this more often as playing chords rather than focusing on individual notes (even if there are sometimes chord structures involved) seem to require more left hand strength. On the upside, my barred chords are ringing better most of the time rather than sounding muted, so some progress has been made.

M1 got her report card — as expected she’s rocking teh school, although, no thanks to us, she runs behind on the “homework packet”. Ok — so in the fall, winter, & spring we get this big packet of stuff-we-can-do & I think ideally we’re supposed to do one thing every weekend (or more frequently) & we always forget. She managed to get the minimum in, but we got the helpful “suggestion” that we try to do one a weekend rather than in bunches. Unfortunately, that’s the theory we’ve been operating under & completely failing at. Bad mommy. Weekends = “where am I going? and what am I doing in this hand basket?”

All in all a lovely day. I don’t know why I’m so tired again, but I seem to be. I guess I could take a bath (now that the wasp in there is dead, thanks to P) since tomorrow is going to be a day of horrific candy abuse & no doubt the attempt to use outdoor toys inside…

That is all.

Oh wait. No it’s not. I remember now. We went to Science Night tonight at M1′s school. They had exhibits, a live lamb, live reptiles (iguanas, tortoises, and a number of snakes), a live skunk, & an Eastern European legless lizard (different exhibit than the reptiles). It was really cool. M2 was fascinated with the big ol’ tortoise that they let wander around the floor. I have to admit, I was kind of fascinated with it myself (go figure). It was a sweet ol’ thing. It didn’t flinch no matter how many kids came at it hands towards head to pet it. It just wandered around exploring stuff casually as though it were well familiar with the forest of little legs that continually followed it. All the little kids were awed by it. I think we ended up going back to it three or four times. If we set M2 down, she’d beeline for it regardless of where we were in the room, and when she got there, she’d hunker down. Sweetest little thing.

The skunk was ridiculously cute & well behaved. The legless lizard actually has legs, but they’re on the inside, vestigial. And they have eyelids. And ear holes. The lamb had a diaper on. I resisted making astronaut jokes. It was pretty sweet too, if substantially more confused & likely to try to bolt than any of the other animals.

Thank you for the valentinr wishes. They were much appreciated. I suspect they did not influence my peculiar dream last night involving Stephen Colbert, Bill Gates, & one of the senior developers I work with. Stephen asked Bill if Vista was good & received a very flat “no” and then they went on to talk about other things intarwebs & computer related. I know — not the most exciting dream ever, but I was amused.

Whoops. Started looking at turtle pages & lost track of time. Time to post this & move on…

I talked to my mommy, the first grade teacher, about it. I’m going to call the school psychologist to find out what she actually tested at just for my own information (why the heck didn’t they just tell us? why do they make us call to get them?) & also just to find out more about the program. She’s a smart cookie, she’s doing so well, and I don’t really feel like I need to push her harder because she’s enjoying learning… but I want to make sure she’s getting all the best possible opportunities too. I feel like the school district let us down a little on this one because no matter where I look there is really no information on what the highly capable program is or what it does, almost as if they’re implying well, if we told you, then everyone would want it & really, then, how are we to preserve social order & hierarchies if everyone gets a good education?

I’ve been so pleased by this school district otherwise. Really excellent teachers, really excellent programs. I feel good about what M1 is learning, and how she’s learning, and how she’s being taught… I just think this little lapse is… well, it’s weird & I don’t know quite what to make of it.

Yesterday I told stories to Marian’s class. There is nothing more humbling than having to listen to 17 minutes of oneself telling children stories when you hate the sound of your own voice. I haven’t been able to do it yet. I put it up online so my Mom could hear it though. The kids were cute at least & they were very well behaved, particularly for the end of the day (or so I hear). But I had a good time, and they seemed to have a good time. One little girl said, “I wish you were my Mommy!” between stories. I know her Mommy. She seems to be a very together, probably very good mother. She did the whole PEPS thing (it’s a local informal parenting support group thing that I never really had time to do what with being a working mommy and all) & has other parent friends and knows all the playdate protocols and stuff that I’m completely clueless about. But she’s nice to me.

I am able to find many zillions of ways to distract myself from the tasks at hand. Today I’ve been poking around weaving sites, looking up domain/hosting information, randomly searching spinning sites, finding fiber stuff, compulsively checking bloglines & gmail, & mamamail, and… I’m tempted to ask my Mommy to bring up her loom on Mother’s Day, but so far I have resisted. Largely because I asked her to hold it for me until after I graduate so it’s not a distraction in the meantime. I’ve been uniquely easy to distract this week. In fact, going out of my way to seek distractions. This is not very productive.

My Mother’s Day gift is two tix to Forever Tango at the Fifth Avenue Theater. We’re way up in nosebleed, but eh. It’s a night without the kids, just the two of us. Shocking stuff right there alone!

Weaving Works is having a Mother’s Day sale this weekend. One more distraction for my conniving mind to fester on.

Whoever designed The Nose did a damn good job of it. I’ve been a mother for what, 7ish years now (if I include part of a pregnancy), and my children have not yet broken my nose. Every time they smash their heads into the bridge of my nose & I hear the cartlidge crack, once the pain subsides, I always have to marvel… M2 got me this morning. Shortly after M1 dropped her head on & dug her shoulder into a full bladder as she was trying to use my abdomen as a pillow. Ah, children. Why do they have to wake up at 6:30am? I mean besides the fact that my alarm goes off at 6 & I’ve been sleeping through it for the past half hour… hour… whatever. Ok. Rhetorical.

Time to stop rambling and tie up any loose ends I’ve managed to create despite my distractions this afternoon. Dinner smells really good.

I’m setting up a time to go in and tell some stories for my storytelling class to M1′s kindergarten class. EEK! But I love the storytelling stuff, though I don’t like practicing as much as I need to to get really good at telling the stories. This weekend will bring many opportunities to practice though.

I did well on my review. I even asked for and got more money than I was initially offered. This is a huge victory for me as I have a tendency to just accept what I get. Now I’m trying really hard not to needle myself for *still* selling myself short even though I actually spoke up & asked for more. I did ok. Now I need to let go & move on.