Tales of a Bus Driver

New Magnet

Balie must have had trouble with the papers falling on her while driving too. Fancy new types schedule held up by a much stronger magnet.

Ryder Long's grandma approached me about driving Ryder to Lil' Cubs. It sounds like she may start helping over there.

She's from California and is here helping her kids get settled in their new home. She asked about small homes to buy or rent. We may have a potential tenent/ buyer for Mom's house.

Visiting Bear

Alayna's mom picked her up today so Kaci and I stopped at the house to visit Bear with our extra time. Bear is always so happy when Kaci visits.

No Omari. He was sick Tuesday, then rode yesterday, then isn't riding today, but should be back to school on Thursday. 🤷‍♀️

Schneider's planted grass seed. It's sprouting and coming up nicely!

It's picture day. My preschoolers all look so nice and cleaned up in their picture day clothes. All that is except Ronin who got on the bus from Lil' Cubs with his shirt all kinds of colors of lunch. His mom is in for a fun surprise. Kallie's rose colored, ruffle sleeved jumper was especially cute.

Kaci says she had a epic mom fail and forgot it was picture day. She usually has Linlee dressed to the 9s on any given regular day so I bet it's not as bad as she thinks. But she feels really bad about it.

I got a message from Olivia Glass's mom, Dorothy Mead this morning stating that she really needed my help getting Olivia to Alden today. She was home, not working at Lil' Cubs like usual, and she didn't have a car. I told her I was sorry but I couldn't alter the route like that or the entire PM preschool would be 20 minutes late to class. I suggested she call a family member, friend, or neighbor. My heart ached for her the entire route and I contemplated telling her that as an individual and not as an employee of the district, I could pick Olivia up in my personal vehicle and bring her home. The only draw back was that I went straight from my route to a funeral in Hutch and wouldn't be back in town until around 3:00.

My heart broke even more when after my route I found a message stating that she didn't have a family member, friend, or neighbor she could call on. I know how that feels. It helped me see how far I've come and how blessed I am to not be in that situation anymore. Dorothy said she'd call the district office and see what could be worked out. I haven't heard anything so I assume some solution was found.

Homecoming Assembly

It's Homecoming Week! This afternoon there was an assembly up at the high school and the grade school children were invited to attend. They were told to wear Black Bear gear, which I forgot all about. My girls were in their normal non-black bear clothes. I could see from the colors on the playground that they were among the very few who were not in black, grey and white. I contemplated running home after my route and dropping of shirts for them. Or possibly taking them to the assembly to throw on really quickly. As the day played out that never happened, but Vivian didn't care one bit and Isabel never mentioned it.

Aylise was wearing an adorable pre-school sized Black Bear cheer outfit that I'm sure her Grandma Tommer embroidered.

Mr. Riffel reached out to Wendy who reached out to the other drivers about shuttling the younger students up to the assembly. There was text conversation bouncing back and forth throughout the day. I first heard from Ms. Lydia asking if I could bus the preschoolers. Then, Balie and I worked out that she would pick up a big bus and I would take the shorter one, then I'd switch her for her route and go park the big bus for her. Then I called her because I realized that didn't make much sense. I would be better for her to leave the big bus at the school then go park it after her route because she'd have a car parked up at the lot. Then Wendy called saying we didn't really need to be taking four different buses and could I just use a big bus and take preK and kindergarten. That meant Balie wasn't driving a shuttle at all. Since I was still trying to emotionally process everything we learned from Isaac's heart doctor this morning I called Balie and asked if she wouldn't mind driving preK and Kindy instead. So after all that back and forth all day, I ended up not driving at all. Earlier today I had thought to get a picture of the grade-schoolers at the assembly that I could use for this post, but I ended up spending the afternoon at home napping off some emotional exhaustion.

Isabel and Vivian said the assembly was fun. Mostly because Mrs. Beagley dressed in full football gear and tackled her son who is a player. Some of the other football mom's did as well, but Mrs. Beagely is special because she's Vivian's teacher.

Oh, also, Balie left a bag of wire hangers on the bus for us to give to Dani VonV. I believe she's getting clothing ready for the upcoming consignment sale. Just a little something out of the norm.

A Chat with Exum's Mom, The Famous Mustache, Schneider's Tree House.

Exum's mom, Jessica, is picking him up today. She's taking the kids to play with cousins while her brother and sister-in- la go to the funeral home. They had a full- term baby recently who's lungs never would expand. So heartbreaking. It was nice to chat with Jessica while waiting for the kids to come out though. She's always so pleasant.

Everleigh and Jeremiah are both sick today.

Without Exum we took a different route out to Alayna's, going easy on Ave V then North on 22nd. That's the same way we come to town from her house but seeing in from the other direction gives a whole different perspective.

Corn harvest must have stayed over the weekend. Most of the golden fields have been cleared, gone just like that.

We had a bit of extra time but not enough to go into town to drop off paperwork, so I stopped for a few minutes by the tracks on the way out to Kallie's.

Omari is in a good mood today.

Parker is back! He's been struggling with some yummy problems and has been home for the last few days.

Maci is here but not feeling well either. Her Pretty blue eyes look miserable.

Here's a picture of Aveyn and that mustache of her dad's that I've been talking about. It's even better without the hat.

Aylise is hanging out with her Papa, Officer Tommer, today. She was enjoying her te seeing when we pulled up.

Derek was out enjoying his lunch hour in his back yard again today. Schneider's tree house may be the one in my dreams last night.

We arrived at the school just early enough that I drove around the block one. Louis Wenzel was out on the turf with his class and stopped to wave 👋 at us. I miss stopping having a Wendel on the bus this year.

Our Fan Club

Vivian and Laikyn climb the rock wall and wait to wave at the bus each day. Today we stopped for a picture and a whole crew of girls came running.

Olivia Glass must have caught whatever her sibling had because Dorothy was back at Lil' Cubs today, but Olivia was not.

Everleigh is back to living with the Jordans. Yesterday Kyndie and Krystal were out to greet her. Today it was Dale.

Alayna's mom picked her up today so after we delivered Exum to his sweet mama we headed back to town. I turned in all my paperwork yesterday, and Balie filled the bus; so made a stop by my house to visit Bear. Kaci has a super soft heart when it comes to animals. She usually asks now and then if we can stop in to see Socks and Bear. This was her first stop since Socks died. Bear has been feeling down lately. I don't know if he doesn't feel well, or if he's just lonely with everyone back to their school routine. Either way he was super happy to sit on the bottom stair of the back porch while Kaci loved on him. I used my time to grab a snack. For some reason I was incredibly hungry. Left-over potatoes was my snack of choice, hoping it would really fill me up.

Kallie's little sister is out on the back porch with Mom or Grandma when we pull up each day. She has the sweetest little wave and is always sure to share it.

Omari was really slow to come out today. I almost honked. I'm glad I didn't because he was really sad as he walked to the bus and climbed on.

Parker wasn't at Lil' Cubs today. I'm starting think there must be a lot of illness going around.

Ayven's dad has been home to put her on the bus the last few days. He's a super sweet dad and he and Shelby and their kids make a cute little family. I'm not sure if I'll ever get used to his "Goose from Top Gun" haircut and mustache though.

After picking up Aylise we always drive past Derek (Dirk) and Faith Schneider's house. This summer Dirk build his kids a fun tree house. We've been watching the fence around his yard come together the past few weeks. Yesterday when we drove past Derek was sitting on the porch in his backyard having lunch and enjoying his fine handiwork. Today he wasn't there, but for some reason both Kaci and I checked just in case. It things like that we enjoy most on our daily route.

Beautiful September

September has come in beautifully. Temperatures are pleasantly in the 70s, the corn fields have turned golden. And the sunflowers 🌻 are in full bloom.

Olivia Glass's mom, Dorothy Meade, reached out this morning about dropping Olivia off at home in Allen. She's got a sick child so she won't be working at Lil' Cubs today. I had to tell her:

"I'm really sorry. We actually don't physically have enough time to get to Alden and back on our route this year. We've got students who get dropped off daily in almost every corner of the district and I have a set window between morning and afternoon preschool. Every minute we add for additional stops would make the afternoon kids late for class by that much.

With six children of my own I understand how challenging things can be when kids get sick, but you will need to come in and pick Olivia up today if she is not riding to Lil' Cubs.

I wish blessings of health to you and your family."

Olivia's dad was at the school waiting for her when I walked past on my way to the bus. He was super fidgety: changing positions, watching the class through one of the windows, writing a message to Olivia on his vehicles dirty back window. Kaci commented that he must be on something (high on drugs). That hadn't even crossed my mind. He's a little creepy though.

Alayna has alfalfa fields surrounding her home. The tractor was put cutting when we drove by. Freshly cut alfalfa is one of my favorite smells and always reminds me of home.

We also enjoyed Alayna's ewe who was out to greet Kaci today.

I had an intuition thought about stop arm violations just before stopping in front of Ayven's on Broadway. I was extra careful to wait for a decent gap in traffic before activating my stop arm and watched to make sure all traffic, especially oncoming, intended to fully stop. Everyone did with no problems at all. Sweet Ayven was distraught and in tears up on her porch but not taking any longer than usual to board. As she approached the bus I glanced out the driver's window to my left to find the white truck that had been completely stopped well in from of me creeping past the bus. He was going slow enough that I had time to honk, point at the stop arm, and observe his "I couldn't care less" response. I hollared at Kaci to grab his license plate number, but by the time she register what I'd said it was too late. I need to do better at listening to those inner thoughts I have. They're promptings from the Spirit that come so gently I don't recognize or respond.

Everyday when Jeremiah get off the bus he asks, "Where you park your bus?" I respond, "I park it back there behind us." He then answers, "Oh you park it with the other busses. Why you do that?" Then he gets off. Every. Single. Day.

Mr. Hammer, his wife, and their newborn baby were out for a little mid-recess walk. Such a cute family.