For reals...

This time it's for real.  I'll write more.  HA!

Okay, so who wants to know about my day yesterday?  It was a normal, boring Tuesday.  Michaela did run her first light, but I'll spoil the surprise and tell everyone I forced her to do it.  Yep.  Michaela is driving.  I really do need to write more....

I feel like Michaela driving in and of itself needs some explanation.  Here in lovely New Hampshire a CHILD can drive the day they turn 15 and a HALF.  So on the half birthday during their 15th year of life they simply put their birth certificate in their pocket and WHALLA, instant driving permit.   This means Michaela has been driving with Happy and me since May 10th, a day when the roads of New Hampshire became a little more dangerous.  I'm also pretty sure my usage of bad words has significantly increased during this time.

Not true.  :)  For the most part Michaela is pretty good ...especially considering she has been learning how to drive a stick shift.  That's been all Paul's doing so far.  He has a level of patience that simply doesn't exist within me.  I can hardly handle the stress of easy driving on the back roads of Hollis in my automatic, let alone shifting and stalling and grinding gears...  I can honestly say she is getting better though.  I can also honestly say that 16 is crazy young to be allowed to drive around one of the most dangerous things on earth!!

Back to my day yesterday...  and the running of the red light I'm sure everyone is dying to know about.

5:55am
I woke up, made four lunches, and sent four kids to school.
I took the dog to doggie day care.
I went to work.
I worked ...which entailed hiking 4.3 miles on a fitness hike.
I worked more doing random office things.
(PS.  I've upgraded from just being a teacher at Beaver Brook; I have my own desk!)
I went home and painted some walls, which I am desperately trying to finish in 40 minute increments.
I picked up Andrea from school.
I picked up Scotty from school.
We went to the pet store to get Blue a present and some pretty cookies; it's his birthday today!
We went to Andrea's dance class.
We picked up Sierra from volleyball.
We picked up the dog.
We picked up Michaela and a friend from crew.
We dropped off Michaela's friend at the library because we didn't have enough time to take her home.
We went home.
I fed everyone dinner in eight minutes.  Go leftovers!
I left Sierra, Scotty, and Andrea at home and took Michaela to her driving class.
I got coffee.
I went to my college class.
I finished at my class and went to grocery store for an 18 minute shopping spree to get bread and milk.
I picked up Michaela.
We got home at 9:30 and was thrilled beyond belief that Sierra had picked up the house and the kids were asleep.
I went to bed.
11:45pm

Oh, I didn't mention the red light anywhere did I?  :)

When I picked up Michaela from her driving class (she was driving) we came to a light on the edge of town that was red F O R E V E R.  We must have sat through four light cycles of being skipped.  The line of cars was backed up for days and now everyone was starting to honk.  I thought it would be a good time to learn how to honk so I told Michaela to join in.  Thankfully there was one car in front of us that was feeling most of the pressure of being the first to run the endless red light.  I told Michaela that if the first car went we might need to run it too ...or sit there forever.  She just stared at me.

The car before us decided to go for it so I told Michaela to follow him and pay attention to everything around her.  So we ran it.

Now that was an anti-climatic red light story wasn't it.  HA!

First thing Michaela said to Sierra when we got home was, "Mom made me run a red light!!"  Super.

I guess Michaela's excitement at the event made me feel the need to record the event in history so that in eight years Michaela doesn't alter any of the facts to make it seem like I was some crazed and impatient mother in a hurry, forcing her to risk our lives and run a red light through a busy downtown intersection  ...even though that's kinda what happened.  :)