there IS a difference in schools

On Friday, I got 2 different calls from 2 different schools. WE had a cold and stayed home from school - between 10-11am, I got a call from the school, checking up since I hadn't called to report him absent. Actually, I kind of did it on purpose, when school started the principal said that the school would be on absenteeism and checking up on any unexcused absences - I was curious to see if it was true. Obviously it was since the school DID call. So, it's all good with WE for the day. Then, late that same afternoon, I got another call, this time from the kids high school in Hawaii. They'd noticed that Angel #2 and WE weren't there and were wondering if we'd moved or something. School's been in session in Hawaii since August 2 and they're just getting around to noticing that kids have been missing since the first day? I told the woman who called that I'd personally gone to the school to fill out the necessary paperwork for the school transfer way back in July. She said that the school had two different computer systems so she hadn't gotten that information. I find it amazing/sad/pathetic that the school isn't on things like that. It's no wonder that Hawaii is so far down in the National education polls - the schools don't even care if the kids are there or not, why should anybody else?

On a more pleasant note. Sunday afternoon the Daydreamer family went to a nearby church picnic/harvest festival. We don't belong to that church or anything, but I figured since it was within about a mile of our house and it was such a gorgeous day, it would be a fun outing. After 4+ years of Hawaiian festivals, it was cool to be at one in Wisconsin again. As much fun as we had at Hawaiian events, it was just so much more familiar/comfortable to eat brats and sauerkraut and listen to a polka band oompa in the background. Not that I don't miss some Hawaiian food. On hubby's last trip to Hawaii, I made sure he came back with a gallon jug of Aloha shoyu, shoyu chicken just isn't the same with a lame substitute. I also have Spam, nori (sheets of seaweed) and sushi rice in my cupboards - and lemme tell ya, finding nori in Wisconsin is no easy feat.

Tonight is WE and Angel #4's last night of hunter's safety class. They've been learning how to safely handle firearms and the rules of hunting and now tonight, they take their final test and hopefully get their certification. I'm not sure if they're going to go deer hunting this year or not - from my experience, deer hunter's enthusiasm wanes immensely when it's 4:30am and the thermometer reads 20 degrees and they've got the option of crawling out of a warm bed, putting on blaze orange clothes and sitting in a tree in the middle of the woods next to their pee jar or rolling over and going back to sleep. Personally, I can't see where you'd even have to stop and consider your options, but, to each their own. We'll see how psyched up they are come November when the whitetail season begins.