Formerly Known As 'Crank'

Something turned on my cranky switch today and I had trouble turning it back off. I was fine up through lunch, and then when we sat there for an hour before we ate, I felt cranky. Normally I'm pretty laid-back on that kind of stuff... I left lunch and took Kaylee to the park. Her summer is almost over, so I wanted to give her some play time. She came up to me and said "Mommy! That lady over there is from my school! Can I go say Hi?" I said "Sure, go ahead." She hesitated, felt shy, paused, thought about it, and finally walked over to the woman and said "Hi!" with a big smile. The woman turned, looked at her, said "hi." and walked away. Kaylee came back over to me kind of sad and said "I don't think she recognized me." I said "No problem hon. Go play!" But Kaylee kept watching her, and finally came back to me and said "She keeps looking at me Mommy, I think she's trying to remember who I am. Is it okay if I go tell her who I am?" I told her it was up to her, and she decided she wanted to. She chased her down across the park, and I saw them talking for awhile, and then the woman walked up to me and told me that she had decided that because a little girl shouldn't be coming up to strangers and saying 'hi', she'd decided not to talk to her because she didn't want to encourage her to talk to people where something 'bad' might happen to her. I said "Kaylee recognized you from school and asked her parent permission to go say hello. I said it was fine." She said "Oh, I know that now, but I didn't the first time. I just didn't want to encourage her to talk to strangers." Well, thank you for making her feel about a foot high for awhile there instead of being polite and giving her a chance to tell you who she is, and for teaching her a lesson for me. (See, I'm cranky.)

Then she stood there for 45 minutes and talked to me about suicide, abortion, baptism, how God feels about it all, and all other manner of things that I found myself at a loss to discuss. What an odd, odd interaction that whole thing was. One thing I did find out was that Kaylee's former first grade teacher is being moved to a 5th grade teacher. This is an excellent move, because she was Not a first grade teacher. She treated first graders like fifth graders, so I'm glad she's being put in a more appropriate teaching environment for her personality. I wish it had happened last year instead, but at least the next generation is getting the former Kindergarten teacher, who is gentle and much loved. Kaylee did learn a lot from that year, and maybe in the end it will have been of benefit for her.

After we left the park, we were home for a little under and hour and it was time to go to ballet and then her first week of Hot Shots, or the actual little cheerleading group that does the high school basketball game half-time shows. She had 30 minutes to get on her ballet outfit and pack her cheer outfit, and it took her 40. We butted heads over every little thing. Her tights were too small. She couldn't find others. Her shoes are too small. She doesn't like those shorts. She doesn't like that shirt. She doesn't want her hair up. She's not allowed to speak to me in that cranky whiny voice. Yadda yadda. We arrived late, and now we're BOTH cranky. She did pretty well at ballet today. Her class is down to four kids because of summer, and with a smaller class size she tends to pay more attention and do better. So that's good.

We left ballet/tap and I took her next door for an ice cream, which certainly improved her mood. :) I took her to Hot Shots next for her first day back in there, and then I got in line to pay for the class and her next round of gymnastics. I was in line for FORTY MINUTES. There were only five or six women in front of me in line, and it took me 40 minutes of standing there to get up to the window and pay. By the middle of that, my cranky was now showing on my face, as evidenced by a friend who walked in, walked past and said "You look thrilled." Lol I probably had that little black thundercloud with little lightning flashes right over just my head. My own personal thundercloud...

Anyway, from there I decided that I was sick and tired of my own cranky, so over dinner with the three of us at a Mexican place and beyond I've worked on improving my disposition, probably much to the relief of others. I was supposed to take a trip to Cleveland tomorrow morning with someone new, but that was just cancelled, unfortunately. It would have been a quick trip with easy weather and decent income, but it didn't work out on his end.

Now, on to something actually important, I have to throw out a prayer request for my friend Anita and her son Garrett. Anita was walking home from a graduation party with her husband and four children, when her son was hit by a car. What a scary, frightening thing for a family to see happen. Last I heard Garrett didn't have internal injuries best they could tell, though he did have a probable concussion and some other injuries. He just got back from the hospital after a one-day stay, and is holding up like a little champion. If you'd like to stop reading about whining and read something written in grace and faith, read what happened for yourself.

If I were going to turn all my crankiness things into thankfulness things, what would they be? Let's see:
1. I spent that lunch hour waiting for food with friends and family, relaxing and hanging out, in air conditioning with drinks and a restroom, and nothing more pressing to do right that hour anyway.
2. I'm thankful that Kaylee is persistent enough to try again after being a little rebuffed. I'm thankful she is confident enough to go up to an adult and introduce herself and have a conversation with them.
3. I am thankful that Kaylee can go to ballet, tap and cheer. That we can do that for her for now, and that she can learn teamwork, flexibility, strength, and gracefulness along with just plain old having fun.
4. Instead of earning money, I can spend a little extra time with Kaylee prior to school starting. Maybe get school supplies or get her hair done or something girly and fun that she wants to do. :)

I'm also thankful that Garrett is home and doing okay, and for a beautiful, cool, bright day and the time to go do this...