Pass the Oinkment

I have just about given up offering apologies for allowing so much time to elapse between blog posts. This is my life . . . it is what it is. Every once in a while I daydream about how much fun I had writing when this blog was first launched; and then I want to cry because that was back when my kids were younger and our life didn't have quite the format that it does now, meaning they had more time to say or do something silly or crazy that might eventually make it into my blog.

I began this blog post on Friday afternoon at 3:49. Ordinarily I would be walking in the door right about that time after picking up at least two kids from school and making sure the others were wherever it is that they needed to be at the moment. And while I did just walk in the door at about ten minutes to four, it was not following a trip to the school. No, Darcy, Peyton, Sawyer and I returned from a trip to Party City because Darcy needed a new Halloween costume this year and heaven forbid we should wait another day to purchase one and risk every other 11-year-old in the city choosing on this very day to be a Candy Corn Witch, thereby denying her the apparently exquisite pleasure she is anticipating at the very thought.

Perhaps you're wondering how we squeezed in a trip to Party City when school (for one of the aforementioned kids, at least) doesn't get out until 3:30. Well, let me tell you . . . it all started with Wilbur. You remember Wilbur, don't you? The "terrific" pig in Charlotte's Web? He and his compadres have been very busy lately, spreading their porcine germs all over the place and causing the administrators of Pantego Christian Academy to throw up their hands and say, "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em!" You see, 48% of the student body was reported absent as of Tuesday, a percentage that had been climbing steadily since the previous week until it was decided that the progression of classes was impossible. Therefore, all of the remaining students NOT stricken with the swine flu were instructed to stay home for the rest of the week, so my kids have enjoyed a Fall Break that the administrators did not envision when they drew up the school calendar.

I, for one, feel like we are dodging so many bullets. Darcy was on a 6th grade field trip from Monday through Wednesday and three of her classmates had to come home early due to fever and flu-like symptoms; and it is the Secondary Building (where Tyler and Darcy have classes) where most of the absentees were being reported. Sort of makes me wonder why our number hasn't been called yet. The irony is that PCA was planning to host a Flu Clinic on Wednesday of this week--the first day of the impromptu fall break--but because of the school-wide shut-down, those of us who have not yet succumbed to the swine flu (or any other flu for that matter) were denied our chance to be vaccinated.

Kroger, here we come.