Back to School

Back to school time is here, which means the big yellow buses are again rolling down our streets. In the last few years that my husband has been a school bus driver my eyes have definitely been opened. I see the buses everywhere and I can't help but think about the important job these drivers are doing. We entrust them with 50-60 kids lives at a time. One person to drive the bus and supervise all those children. Just think about how consuming it can be to supervise a couple of children in the back seat of a mini-van while you are driving.  Now multiply the number of children by 25 and increase the size of the vehicle by...huge. Seriously, there is NO way I could do it!

One thing that continues to amaze me is other drivers' disregard of school buses. My husband is constantly telling me about people who drive past him while he is picking up children - red lights flashing and stop arm out. One such incident really scared him. He had children crossing the street in front of him and a woman coming from the other direction was looking down at her lap (presumably texting) and showed no sign of stopping. My husband leaned on his horn and she looked up, smiled and waved - completely oblivious. Thankfully, the children scurried out of the street and no one was injured. A parent at the bus stop got her license plate number. After his route my husband called the incident into the local police. When bus drivers turn in these incidents the police will go to the person's house and they can be ticketed.

Please if you see a school bus (and they are hard to miss in my opinion) assume it may be stopping any moment and someone's babies may be in the street. Easily avoided tragedy.

Okay, off my soapbox for a minute to a fun side of bus driving. Every year my husband assigns seats to the students and puts name tags up above the seats. This year he decided he wanted Star Wars name tags. We found some pictures online, then printed and laminated them. 

He cut all 75 of those helmets out himself, attached magnets and hung them in the bus. How cool is that?  He will add the names in a few days when he has a chance to see how the seating arrangement is working.

In other exciting news - trim is happening!!!!!!!!!!!!! Last weekend my husband painted 17 pieces of 12 foot trim. It made quite an obstacle for our DIRECTV serviceman who was there to upgrade our service. Incidentally, he was probably the nicest service tech I have ever let in my house. And in related news, my husband has NFL Sunday Ticket this season - for FREE! 

Back to trim. My father-in-law is an amazing finish carpenter. He brought over this contraption he built to cut trim (not just for our job). The 12 foot piece of trim is laid out on the top so it is completely supported for more accurate cutting. In the middle is where he mounts his saw.

Hallway - even trimmed nicely around the cold air return.

My craft room is almost finished. Another contraption built by my FIL to hold his tools for easy access.

I am not sure how much longer the trim project will take, but I am excited that the end of our flooring project is in sight..

A few odds and ends...

The renovation of the house on our block is coming along. It looks like a completely new house!

I did a little shopping with a friend. Apparently fringe is the trend. No I didn't buy this bag - I couldn't decide if it was a purse or a puppy :)

I have been eating plenty of yummy BLTs. Tastes like summer.

In other exciting news, a cool front has moved in and temps are supposed to be around 80 degrees today. There will be walking...I promise!