- Bryant got promoted to Sergeant First Class on Thursday. If you have been reading our blog for awhile now, then you may remember last March (2009) the post "Good Morning". Well finally Bryant's sequence number has come up and he gets both the rank and pay of an E7.
3. The school bus story. Thursday I picked up Nathan early from school so that we could head to Bolling Air Force Base for Bryant's promotion ceremony. On Friday morning we are waiting at the bus stop when he realizes that he is not wearing his Kindergarten necklace that identifies his bus # and who his teacher is. This helps him get to his classroom in the morning and to the bus in the afternoon without any issues. I search his backpack and can't find it in there, then he remembers that he left it at school on Thursday because I had picked him up early that day. We can see the bus in the distance and since it is the first week of school still and there are extra adults helping the kids get off the bus and to their classrooms, I decide that he'll still get to his classroom just fine. We quickly go over his teachers name and the procedures for what happens when he gets off the bus at school. He then gets on the bus and I wait around at home until a half hour after school has started to make sure that I won't get any calls from the school asking where my child is. Everything is fine, so Gracie, Eli and I head into DC to Walter Reed Hospital to return Eli's Holter Monitor. We return back home and there are no voice mails in regards to Nathan so, yeah he made it to his class room just fine! And he really did.... this is where The Bus Story starts.
4:10pm, Gracie, Eli and I walk down to the bus stop to get Nathan off the bus. We can't wait to talk about his day.... what he ate for lunch (it was his first day buying), how the bus ride was in the morning, all the stuff you as a mom just want to know. 4:30, the bus comes. All the Kindergartners get off, then the bigger kids... no Nathan. My heart starts to race a little as I look around at the kids on the sidewalk and realize that Nathan is not amongst them. I tell the driver that my son is supposed to be on this bus, where is he?... she tells me to come onto the bus and look for him, in case he fell asleep. No Nathan. Again I ask her, "where is my child?" and she tells me that he must be on another bus. WHAT?! No, no, no, no my child Nathan Treacle rides this bus, not another bus. I ask her to call the school and find out where my child is... she says she can't she doesn't have their phone number, tells me to call the school. I tell her to call the other buses and find out if any of them have a Nathan Treacle on board. So she's is on her CB radio, and I'm on the cell phone with the school office and there is an awfully long line of traffic being held up in both directions... of which I don't care because my child is supposed to be on this bus and this bus (#9) is NOT moving until I know where my child is! The driver finds out that Nathan is on bus #8 and that driver is on her way to bring Nathan to the correct bus stop... where I'm at.
Why?
Nathan's teacher made him a new Kindergarten necklace and put bus #8 on it instead of #9. He told his teacher that he doesn't ride bus #8 that his mommy and sister and brother wait for him at stop number 1 for bus #9. His teacher tells him that his bus number has changed. (Nathan told us all of this) Can you believe this?! I already had apprehension about the bus before! Regardless, this was clearly a mistake. However, Monday morning Nathan will not be riding the bus, I will be driving him and walking him to his classroom. Where I will not leave until his teacher has made him a NEW necklace with the number 9 on it.
The scary thing...
Nathan tried getting off of bus #8 at the last bus stop with all the other kids... thankfully there was an adult there that checked his tag on this back pack and realized that it was not his bus stop!
The second scary thing...
All I could think about this whole time was... did he even make it to his classroom this morning? And if not where is my child and has he been missing since 9:25 am when the bell rings? I'm not sure if he'll continue riding the bus or if I'll be driving him from now on... I guess I need to decide.
