Still haven't cleaned off my desk ...

... because I am GOOD at procrastination.

It's like an ART, y'all.

So, since we last chatted (Ha. Most like, "since I last chattered away at you and you pretended to listen, nodding and smiling placatingly"), what's gone on ... Hmmm....

Monday afternoon, I got a call from L (a gal from church. I VT her. Our kids ride the same bus home. In fact, her son gets off one stop after mine).

L: Are [Bruise] and [Bucket] already home?
Me: No, not yet. *checks clock. It's about 15 minutes past when they normally get home* I suppose the buses are running late again.
L: Well, [her son] just got home. He said that there was a lot of commotion on the bus and that the bus driver missed the stop, couldn't turn around without getting stuck, and that [Bruise] and [Bucket] are still on the bus, crying.
Me: Well. ... I'm going to call the bus garage and see what's up. Thanks for letting me know. Thank [her son] for telling you.

So, I call the school. The office worker I talked to called the bus garage. The driver had also called the garage, telling them that they'd missed the stop and he'd drop the kids off after the route's done. The gal at the school asked me to call her back when the kids got home.
(Which I did. I also texted L to let her know, too.)

Bruise and Bucket came, half an hour later than normal, RUNNING down the street, CRYING.
Like crying so loud and hard that I could hear them halfway down the block.
Bucket was worried that they'd NEVER get home.
Bruise just told me, "MOM!!! I MISSED YOU!!!!"

I got them calmed down ... (reported back to the school that they were home now) ... and shared a story about when I was in first grade. (I rode the bus, like, once a week to go to my aunt's. Once, I got on the bus on the wrong day. I told the driver, as soon as I realized it, and he just told me to hang out while he drove the rest of the kids home. Then he took me back to the school and I ran home from there. No biggie.)
They felt better that I'd been there, done that. (So has Michael, in full disclosure.)

I called the bas garage yesterday to get the full story. I was told that the kids forgot to get off the bus.
Which is odd, since THAT never happened before. And that NONE of the six-or-so kids that get off at our stop remembered.
And that L's son, when I've talked to him, is not one given to overexaggurate.
I quizzed Bruise and Bucket about it after they got home.
No, they didn't FORGET to get off the bus. (Theirs is the first stop. That makes it difficult to forget, no?)
And all of the kids were on the bus for the whole trip.
What they reported was that kids on the bus were being REALLY LOUD. Some were using inappropriate words (Yes. "Inappropriate words." That's a direct quote.) One kid was screaming.
The driver drove past the stop. Then he called in to the garage, went through the route, and swung back around to drop off the first-stop group.

Ah! On the answering machine is the response from the bus barn. Not only were kids loud, but the windows were REALLY steamed up from the rain and all the kids' body heat. It was an accident.
And I need to let my kids know that as long as they're on the bus and the driver's there, they're safe. And that sometimes a wrong turn is made and these things do happen.
(For the record, my kids have already experienced a driver making a wrong turn. They can handle that. It's when the bus barrells past their home ... I'd be a little worried, too. But it all ended well enough.)

Besides that, I've tried a few recipes from Pinterest. Most have been great.
I'll warn you that making mac 'n cheese with cooking the noodles in milk ... the sauce gets REALLY THICK REALLY FAST. The flavor was fine. The texture wasn't so great.... since it was done before Michael got home from work. So the noodles were really mushy in a THICK sauce.
I'll give it another try sometime ... I'm giving it the chance that it was totally MY fault, not the recipe's.

We finished reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Monday night. I got through it without crying ... too much ... this time. (It's Michael's favorite of the series. I still like Goblet of Fire ... plenty long without too many people dropping like flies. *sigh* Between Joss Whedon, Steven Moffat, and J. K. Rowling, I should have embraced the fact that every character I've ever loved will DIE. ... But, hey, I'm an optimist. I go into every book thinking that every character will come out alive. Well, unless it's a murder mystery. Then someone will die. And I always hope it's the most repugnant character in the novel.)
We've started Half-Blood Prince ... Then it'll be Deathly Hallows ... Then .... I'm going to have to figure out what to read to them next. Maybe The Little Prince and some more Roald Dahl... Such choices.

I cleaned the fish tank (well, most of it) today. It was getting gross.
Let's hope that I haven't given the fish a death notice by removing the grossness of their tank.
I did squirt some StressCoat in there ... Let's hope they make it through.

If not, Bucket's asking for neon Tetras for her birthday. Or another goldfish. Since, as I told her, I'd worry that the goldfish she has would nibble on the Tetras.

Bubbles has started waving. And she'll give high-fives ... especially to my face. *rolls eyes*
But, overall, she's still her affable, sweet self ... even though she's not sleeping as thoroughly as she could.
Someday, hopefully soon, she'll start sleeping through the night on a regular basis. Instead of falling asleep around 8 and waking up at 2 AM. Or midnight. It depends. But I'd like for her to sleep from around 8 PM until ... how about 6:30 AM? I could settle for that. I'd prefer 7 AM ... but 6:30 would be nice. I'd even be willing to get her for a dream feed around 10, if she'd consistently sleep until 6:30.

Well ... I can't think of anything else to write ... So ... yeah.