Wow, do you ever have days where you feel like everything you touch is not going to work out?! That's how I'm feeling today!
Today is our co-op day, and it was the day the kids were going to do the run for the Presidential Physical Fitness test. They would do the run during the non-teaching part of the morning for each of them, so for Nathan and Luke, that meant they ran first, then came back for teaching. So I decided the girls and I would go watch them run. They were running on a portion of a wide, nicely-paved bike trail (used to be train tracks) that's not too far from the church where we meet.
When we got there, the lady in charge was giving instructions--the fourth graders had a choice. They could either run to the first lady and then turn around and run back (making 1/2 mile total) or run to the second lady, turn around, and run back (making 1 mile). The 6th graders all ahd to run the mile. This was explained several times for emphasis, and then they started off. Luke (4th grade) and his friend Caleb were #1 and #2 in the half mile, and everything seemed great. But there was starting to be a bit of a commotion with the timing people and the lady in charge, and when the first 6th graders crossed the line, those people started shouting at them to start running again--they needed to turn around and do it again! Keep running! It was very confusing, but they started off again, losing a bunch of time though. Nathan was 4th in the 6th grade group, and his time ended up being right around 8 minutes. He needed 7:32 to be presidential, however. But it was all very confusing, and I couldn't figure out what had happened. Obviously something was very wrong, though.
Then the girls and I left to go to Wal-Mart. I needed to buy a bunch of t-shirts (80 to be exact) to make tunics with for our medieval unit. Since we're associated with the church, we are allowed to use their tax-exempt number on purchases, so armed with that info, the girls and I set off. Of course, Wal-Mart had a terrible selection of boys t-shirts. They still hadn'[t restocked the boys extra-large ones of the cheap brand, so it took me forever as I tried to figure out what other sizes could work for the different grades. Finally I took my cart full of t-shrit packages up to the front to pay. When I said I had a tax-exempt number, the cashier wanted the actual paper from the church. I said I didn't have that--they told me I just needed the number, as well as the church's address and phone number. The lady tried to enter the number several times, but it always came back as invalid, so obviously something was wrong. Very frustrating! I ended up just paying for all the t-shirts, because I knew if I left them and came back later, they would probably all disappear, and I had taken all the packages of cheap t-shirts, so there weren't anymore on the shelves to get. All this took forever, though, and so we ran home, I threw together sandwiches for the girls and me, and we leaped back into the car to eat them because it was already time to pick up the boys. Whew!
Back at co-op, I got the piece of paper from the leader, so I decided we'd head back to Wal-Mart after leaving the church. We were already out, and we didn't have other plans or schoolwork this afternoon, so it just made sense.
I also discovered that Luke was out rerunning the half mile with Caleb McC and Craig, Caleb's dad. Odd, I thought. Plus, it was really hot out there--in the 80's. He had to run a second timed half-mile in less than 3 hours in the heat, and after eating lunch? And what was the deal with making the 6th graders go back again? Well, it turned out that the lady in charge had totally hosed up the distances (duh). She had originally thought that the little guys (1st-2nd), who only have to run 1/4 mile, were also going to run on the bike path, so she had measured out 1/8 mile, so they could just go there and back. Then the second line was actually 1/4 mile out. But somehow (? She is a mom of 9, so I'll give her the benefit of the doubt, but still . . . ) she forgot she ever did that, so she basically told the 4th graders to run 1/4 mile, and the 6th graders to run 1/2 mile. When Luke and the other 4th graders started crossing over, the timers realized the times were way off, and not 1/2 mile times, so they told the 6th graders to turn around and do it again, so they would have the right distance. Of course, when you think you are coming to the end and you start printing, then pull up, only to be told you are in actuality only halfway done and you need to start running again . . . . well, that's not really right. So no one in Nathan's class was Presidential in the run, which was very disappointing for people like Nathan, who pretty much just needed the run to be Presidential overall (and he still lacks the shuttle run).
When Luke came back, we all piled in the car, and Luke immediately started crying. He was so upset. His time was 3:48, and he needed 3:30, so he didn't make it. They told him he had "done it wrong" the first time and only gone 1/4 mile, so he needed to run it again. Well, that is true, and I know they said they TOLD him wrong, because the lady in charge was very clear that it was her fault, but he was still devastated. He was hot, tired, and full from lunch, and he didn't understand what had happened--he had done exactly what they told him to do, so how could he have done it wrong?! This is the only event Luke lacked to be a Presidential award winner, and he's a good runner, so he wasn't anticipating a problem.
They are trying to work out a time for Nathan's class to rerun the mile of they want to, and I am hoping they will let Luke try it again as well. I'm going to email the lady in charge, anyways. I hope she doesn't think that should be his only chance, when it was their fault. Anyhow, it was a frustrating day at co-op for Nathan and Luke, who had both been looking forward to the run, as well as training for it.
So we went off to Wal-Mart again, discussing the run over and over again until everyone understood what had happened. When we got there, I brought all the t-shirts back in to the return counter, where I proudly displayed my correct form from the church, and asked for have the tax taken off. Well, the lady said I needed to fill out another form to put it on file, and there was no one there who could help me with that--I needed to come back some morning. Really?! No one who could help with that?! Obviously the lady I was dealing with couldn't help me. She was one of the many non-native English speakers who work at returns, and it was hard to even get her to understand what I was talking about. But there was nothing I could do except turn around and head back out to the car with everyone in tow. And now I have yet a third trip to Wal-Mart to look forward to, this time during a morning when we should be doing school. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr. So now I'm wondering what else I should attempt today, just to see if it turns out as poorly as everything else has.
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