Monday, February 2, 2009

Free-Be (how many e's are in that "word"?)

This morning when my alarm went off at 7:28 I hit the snooze button. Nine minutes later, I hit it again. Nine minutes after that, I hit it again. Finally, at 7:46 I turned off my alarm and laid back down for "just a few more minutes". At 8:05 I sat bolt upright and said, "aw crap!" My kids need to leave at a certain time in order to catch the bus, so when I realized they weren't going to have enough time I just figured I'd drive them to school. Giving us 20 extra minutes to get ready. So we leave for school 15 minutes before it starts.

As we head down the hill I don't notice the lack of traffic. At the bottom of the hill, where the school is, I do notice the lack of flashing yellow lights by the cross-walk. Which was also missing something...a crossing guard. There were no kids walking down the street. No kids on the playground. No buses. No notice on the marquee saying anything about school being out. No one answering the phone in the office when I call to see what the heck is up. I drive to the other elementary school down the road from ours and see their marquee..."no school Feb. 2nd". Huh.

No kids. No bus. No cars. No school? Yep.

Turns out it's the end of the term and the teachers were having their prep day. Or as my sister, Jill, likes to call it "teacher lazy-ass day". (Sorry, Kim. Those are her words. Not mine.)(Kim's a teacher.)

You know that feeling when you wake up and you're all panicked because the sun is way too high in the sky and you know you're going to be late for work but then...you realize...it's Saturday?!?! That had to be what my kids felt this morning. Avery wasn't convinced at first, though. As I sat there in the parking lot I said to them, "I don't think there's school today."

Kids: "Ya right. Bye mom!"
Me: "No really. Look around. Where are all the kids? Where are the buses? Where are all the cars? (There were a few cars but only about half the normal amount.) I just called the office and no one answered."
Avery: "You have to be patient, mama."
Me: "Avery, I called twice."
Hayden: "Maybe we're late."
Me: "No, we're ten minutes early."
Avery: "Well, why don't we just go in and see if there are any kids in there and if there's not, we'll call you and you can come back and get us."
Me: "No, munchkin, I'm pretty sure there's no school today. That other school is out and we're always on the same schedule as they are."
Hayden: (Turning back-flips in the back seat.)
Avery: "Why don't we try calling my teacher?"
Me: "Avery, we're going home. There's no school today."
Avery: (Finally!!!) "Wooo-hooo!!!"
Me: "Sheesh! We could have slept in!"
Hayden: "I'm going back to sleep when we get home!" (which he didn't, of course)

It was a fun day. I wasn't even bugged by the fact that I couldn't watch my DVR'd stuff. No one was pretending to be sick so I didn't have those rules to enforce. It was just chill. We even watched HSM 2, which was brutal, but I survived.

These days are so rare with my babies and I just loved it!

2 comments:

Casey said...

They seemed like they actually WANTED to stay at school, weird! I'm glad you guys had a fun free day.

Unknown said...

I love those moments. But I'm truly sorry you didn't figure it out until you were all the way to the school! All that energy expended by 9 a.m.? I need a nap just thinking about it!!