This and That Thursday

This is our 'last' week of summer! School starts in earnest on Monday and, even though the public pools remain open until Labor Day, there will be precious few hours left to enjoy swimming. So we convened a caucus of cousins for a late night swim! Nothing like a little dark to change the routine swim and even 'cooler' to be herded out by the life guards at the end of the night. Of course these two were all over the idea from moment one! This shot turned out so nice that we tried one with as many of the cousins as we could lure to the side of the pool...Mairead proved to be quite elusive! I'm pleased with the result! Then we tried to get some of their antics on film...er chip. By the end of the night Mari finally figured out how to get both legs up while holding her nose with one hand and pushing on the bottom of the pool with the other hand. Peggy got that shot and we've not shared files just yet! Patrick declined to suit up. He wouldn't miss the family time but actually has little fondness for water and avoids it when possible. You should see some of the shots we got on the boat ride in NC with him diving for a life vest the minute his foot hit the deck!! My work-free summer is coming to an end too :( Just thought I'd let you see the swell digs that I've been provided with in order to get to all the nooks and crannies of our county. Had to get it from this angle in order to not get the line of patients waiting patiently for me to clock-in... and I was 45 minutes EARLY!! Times are tougher than I think a lot of my peers realize. The spacious 'office'! Sarcasm is really unwarranted since it's a FAR SUPERIOR work environment than the dark musty church basements or the tiny suffocatingly hot janitor's closets where I've been assigned in years past! This day was reserved for DCFS foster children who, because of their public aid status in an upper middle class county, are denied dental care by the county's private dental practitioners. Without a dental exam the children are denied admission to school. Lovely cycle isn't it? Those self same dentists are the ones I must clench my teeth and listen to at society meeting hissing and pissing about those "lazy, resource sucking, public aid patients"!!!! How do a whole segment of our society make it to adulthood without realizing their complete ignorance on how another segment of our society lives????? The mobile unit has it all!! Root canal anyone?? Just KIDDING.....because those resource sucking public aid patients or HORRORS of HORRORS those who dare to subsist without ANY medical/dental coverage are the only ones we treat on the 'truck' and root canals are not a covered treatment! Like the 23 year old foster mother who we saw....the one who's stepped up and took on her 11, 10, 5, and 4 year old siblings! Nope, she gets NOTHING for the monumental job she's assumed on behalf of the state....coverage is only for the minors! Yeah, I'm always in a cranky state after a day in which I'm reminded of the poverty all around me in one of the wealthiest counties in the country...one where CEO's bring home multimillion's for screwing up our economy and have no money to help keep children fed and healthy but thousands upon thousands of dollars to support their lobbyist of choice. GRRRRR!!!! Sigh, sigh, sigh. Okay, I move on now to my next stress inducer. Today the middle school had a "walk through", a.k.a. orientation, for incoming sixth graders. I'm so not ready to be the Mom to a middle schooler!!! In a vague memory of being very embarrassed by having my Mom follow me around the school on "walk through" day, I offered Mari the opportunity to invite a trusted upperclassman to handle the nitty gritty while I promised to hang out by the PTA table. So the "almost high school" cousin...who's starting 8th grade on Monday... was drafted. It was a good choice!! Alyssa even prepped by studying Mari's schedule ahead of time to make sure she would have the period by period route mapped out to actually WALK Mari through her school day. Something happened this summer to Mari and Alyssa's usual relationship....Mari, the Guatemalan, passed Alyssa (who's oh so done growing!) in height! So here they are with the supplies in tow and ready to head off to the middle school........ okay, so I made her come back for a few more shots! This girl just may rule the school!...and then she asked me to come too!!!!!!!!!! As long as I 'kept my distance' that is! She got a real good feel for how crowded the halls will be during passing periods! Then it happened.....AGAIN!!! She gets another young man (according to this old lady!) as her homeroom teacher. Nothing like her old private school where the only man was the janitor! Alyssa was all over the locker set up! By this point Mari was glazed over and in a deep case of sensory overload. Then the REAL first test of middle school...learning how to work a combination lock! This would be the look I got after the fifth unsuccessful attempt! I got the hint and backed away. While I was reading the poster on her homeroom door she finally took the advise of her practically perfect Aunt Peggy and managed to open her locker by herself.... Ready or not world here comes one little girl in a hurry to grow up despite her Mom and Dad's best efforts!