Miles of Smiles

It was a good thing that everyone was wearing a smile today. I can honestly say that this was the hardest first day in 13 years. I was off to a bad start when the alarm didn't go off.

The secondary route went fine, great kids and more or less on time. Most of the seniors are driving. The new kids are a great group. It was good to see the other kids again. Only 19 miles and only one turn-around!!

The elementary was tough. The kids were super excited to be back and it was a battle to get them buckled up and keep them out of the aisle. With that many hyper kids the noise level was way too high. At least four moved away over the summer but eight (so far) moved in. Every time I went by the time clock there were several new post-it-notes; call with pick up time, so & so needs to go to this address today only, pick up Billy at Grandma's but remember to drop him off at Aunt's, etc, etc. My dash board is covered and that is not safe, I'm trying to read and sort out 45 kids while the cars back up behind me. Many of the new kids parents drove them this morning so I had no idea who the kids were or where they needed to go. One kid got on to go to a sitter with no pass so I had to wait for the school to verify where she needed to go. The school put one kid on my bus, with a pass, but his parents were waiting for him at the sitter's on another route and when they caught up to me they were very angry. The mother of three new students was waiting at the stop before her house with the other moms, but since I didn't know her I made the kids ride down the block to their house; another pissed off parent.

After I got parked I found two of my kids playing on their scooters right in front of the garage. I read them the riot act and sent them home before one of the 20+ buses that still had to come in had a chance to hit them as they came around the corner.

Tomorrow the kindergartners start. This is always a tough day, mostly because of the parents. I spent a long time this evening adjusting the seating chart and updating my student list. Thirteen new smiles to look forward to (hopefully no tears, at least from the kids!)

I'm ready, I can do this. Pass the tylenol.