"Thanksgivings will pour out of the windows; laughter will spill through the doors. Things will get better and better. Depression days are over. They'll thrive, they'll flourish. The days of contempt will be over" (Jeremiah 30:19 Msg)
It's Friday. I'm tired. I'm ready to head to bed in hopes that Annie will sleep until at least 7:00 a.m.! Somehow, I've managed to cram enough drama, tears, and foot stomping to fill an entire year into this week! I just always seem to forget how exhausting the first week of school is. Year after year, I find myself surprised. I guess it's kind of like the pain of child birth. If you remembered the pain, you'd never have another ankle biter. If I remembered the exhaustion of week one, I don't know that I'd keep coming back! Whew!
Traditionally, Friday has always been the morning that we try to leave the house early and drive through somewhere and get a bagel or something different for breakfast. You can only eat so much oatmeal before your insides begin sticking to themselves! Ugh. Anyway, I knew I needed to run by the bank before heading to grab breakfast. As usual for the first Friday of the month, I drove through the bank and tried to make a $400 withdrawal. I use that money to pay for the sitter for two weeks and gas. Except, this morning, after I entered all of the codes and PINs and waited for the magic machine to shoot the cash out at me, nothing happened. I tried again. Nothing. Crap. I quickly drove to the bank next door and tried the same maneuver knowing that I'd owe the bank at least $2 for the pleasure of pushing the buttons on their ATM. The screen simply said that I'd reached my withdrawal limit. Really? But I didn't get any money! By now, there were tears involved. It wasn't even 6:30 a.m. and I was already feeling defeated!
I drove through Chick-a-Way (per Annie), handed Grant the grub to pass around, and started trying to log into my bank account from my phone (yes, while driving) to see if the money had been deducted from my account. Of course, there it was in black and white. The money had actually been deducted twice. But, wait! I didn't get the money!!! How could this be? I scrambled to call the bank and leave a frantic message that the stupid machine stole my money and wasn't working properly! I wondered if the next person to pull through the ATM would get an $800 "It's Your Lucky Day" treat when they tried to get money out, compliments of my bank account.
Anyway, once I got to school, my attention was on keeping my head above water and I didn't check my phone until this afternoon. The bank's fraud department had called to tell me they tagged my account. What? Seriously? I think they had it backwards! Their stupid ATM should have been reported to the fraud department! It lied about giving me money! When I finally was able to call the bank back from Shawshank (our school building is so dang secure that you can't even get cell service unless you hang your head out of a door), the nice little old lady told me that she'd email a form to fill out which would initiate an investigation. She said that they would have to pull the records from the ATM to determine what had happened. Basically, she said that they were going to hold $800 of my money hostage until they were sure that it was their ATM that was lying and not me and that my account would be frozen. Crud.
After making that phone call, I had to figure out how to get some moola. Thankfully, I'd stashed some cash away to pay for Grant's band instrument next week. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that those crazy folks will find me to be truthful and hand my money back!
When we got home, I just wanted to collapse on the sofa and have someone enclose me in cement for a few hours. No luck there, either. The big kids wanted to tell me all about their day. That's fine and I absolutely want them to share but I just needed a minute to get my breath. They didn't see it that way. Grant started telling me about a video that they watched in Earth Science about the creation of the world. Before he'd even started his story, I had a feeling I knew what he was going to tell me. Yep. The science teacher had shown a video which only presented the Big Bang Theory and Darwin. The creation story has always interested Grant so we've taken great care to walk him through the verses in the Bible that prove that God created the Earth. However, we've also been careful to tell him about what other people believe. So, he wasn't surprised at the video's information but a bit of his innocence was taken today. He was so upset that the teacher didn't even preface the video as someone's opinion or note that there are other theories. (Can I note that this is the same teacher I deemed "Neanderthal" several years ago when he worked in the Little River building? He just gives me the "uh-oh" feeling)! Anyway, Grant was aggravated with the whole situation. Then it hit me. Dasha has the same dang science teacher. Curiously, I called her over and ask what she'd learned in science today. She reported that she now knew how the Earth was made. She restated parts of the video in great detail. (She can't remember not to eat deodorant but she can remember how old the Earth is and the first living things on it)? As Grant overheard her conversation, he went nuts. He came blazing into the living room and told Dasha that God made the Earth and everything on it. It was one of those paralyzing moments. I didn't know what to do. I did reinforce what Grant had said but Dasha just stood there. Her first comment was, "But, that's not what the video and the teacher said." She believes absolutely anything she's told. So, I'm now looking back through all of our toddler books to find the ones that I bought for Grant about how God made the world. Hopefully, I can undo 30 minutes worth of muck that was inserted into her brain. (Heck, why are they watching videos the first week of school. Shouldn't he be teaching)?
After trying to piece everyone back together after the creationism vs. evolution debate, the kids went to video chat with Eric. I don't ever attend their chats. I just can't. Yesterday, Grant got upset about Eric making salsa for her. Today, I guess Eric told him that they were going to a ball game tonight. It completely put Grant over the edge. He came out of the office in tears and rewarded me with a troll-like, "NOTHING!" when I asked him what was wrong. Finally, after he cooled off, he just said that he wanted to get to do all of those things with Eric. The poor kid is harboring such deep feelings and I just don't know how to tap into them and I sure don't know what to tell him. He doesn't want to talk to a counselor (or anyone else). Heck, he hasn't even talked to me until the last couple of weeks. What do you tell an 11 year old boy that just wants to be with his dad?
So, tonight, I'm going to bed with a heavy heart for Grant. When all is said and done, it won't matter if the bank gives me my $800 dollars back or not (ok, maybe it will matter) but what really matters to me right now is making sure that Grant starts spewing some of what he's thinking. He's always been an old soul and tried to protect others' feelings at his own cost but this has reached a point of excess. I wish he was like Annie and I could just kiss it and make it better.
Ha. I just wish that would work for me, too.
Good night, all.
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