Finding a daycare stinks!

The plot grows thicker with our daycare troubles. I actually had to call the place that said they would call us and let us know if they found a spot for him. Of course they didn't, which is probably why they didn't call. Why call someone you can't get money from, after all? I mean, why be courteous or professional and do what you say you are going to do even if you know it isn't what the customer wants to hear?

In desperation I called the other place. Get this. They no longer have room for either kid. So what now? When I was a kid daycares weren't commonplace around our house or maybe we were too old or it was too expensive. I'm not sure. But they sent us to the YMCA for afterschool care--called "latchkey" at the time to indicate the abandoned nature of the children.

So I called them up. And thank goodness they bus to his school. I went right up there and signed him up & paid in full so they couldn't turn me away later. Then they inform me that his application has to be approved. What?! NOoooooOOOooooo! So after a few pointed questions I found the reason he could be rejected is that his bus is full, and that she can find out if it is full by calling the director. I then insisted that she do so right now with me as her witness. And she did, and he said there was room, though it's been two days and I still haven't received approval. Grr. The Girl is now signed up at the place where The Boy is still on the waiting list. This would be because we want to pick them up and drop them off at the same place. Eventually.

In other news, lest you forget that this blog is actually about quilting and sewing:

• I finished the guild challenge and turned it in. I didn't win a prize, but since I basically threw it together in a month and attempted my first free-motion quilting on it, I didn't expect even the nice compliments I got.
• I sewed up three pillow cases. One for The Boy, one for The Girl, and one for The Husband's cousin who was in the hospital. Poor kid. She had some kind of bacterial infection painful enough to require a morphine drip. :(
• I am almost finished sewing up a minky baby blankie for my cousin who had her baby about a month ago. Oops.
• And on the upcoming agenda: winter coats for The Boy, The Girl, and--get this--me! I almost never get to sew for me. We'll see if it gets done. Fabric.com says my fabric should be arriving today. I can't wait to touch it! The Boy chose a royal blue wool that is already hanging from the line downstairs, waiting for me to transfer the pattern & get moving. The Girl chose hot pink wool. And I mean HOT!

Fitness progress

I look the picture of fitness here, don't I? We went on a trek to the Cuyahoga Valley Railroad this past weekend. That's me looking surprised to be on a train. Or that would be the apparent source of my surprise, anyway. Next is a pretty view on a bridge over the Cuyahoga River.
And here's our conductor, punching our tickets. He nicely did not comment on the possibly contraband snacks I brought for the kiddies.

Oh yeah...fitness. This week I got in just a smidge under 7 miles. I was hoping to get in 3 miles tonight but events consipired against us. We went to visit a new potential daycare for the kiddies and then out to dinner and that just blew away the whole evening. When the kids were finally in bed the weather was turning dark & rainy so I did a placeholder lap and that is the end of it.

On the subject of daycare: it is for us a necessary evil. I don't like the idea of anyone other than us watching the kids, but this is the way it is for us right now. Their current center is no longer able to bus The Boy to school so unless we can figure a way to teleport him there we have to find a new place. We have a choice of 2. So I visited one and was impressed with The Girl's new potential room, but not The Boy's room. Tonight we visited choice number 2, and we took the kiddies with us because it was an open house.

We arrive and the asst. director asks some questions, then she talks to the kids. I hear her ask almost immediately, what school do you go to? And The Boy answered (correctly, even.) And we begin a tour. We get to the end of a 30-some minute tour (long because I basically demand a full speech on everything, these are my offspring after all and they must be cared for properly) and I happen to mention why we are leaving our other center. She cocks her head at me and says, oh, I think our bus to that school is full.

What? WHAT??? Full? How can it be full, if your enrollment is not full? And why did you not mention this 30 minutes ago, before showing my children your happy shiny activities and bribing them with sno-cones when my son explicitly answered your question of where he goes to school?

I was quite annoyed. She went and checked the list and, well, yes, the bus is full. We are now on a waiting list. OMG. They will be starting at their new center August 18th...only 11 days away. We could just give up and put them in the other place...but my gut tells me this is the place they should go. She said she would let me know next week. Gah. Can we push it any closer? If this were a cussin' blog, there would be rip-roaring profanity right now.

On a happier note, here is a long-promised photo of one of the sunburst blocks. This one is my favorite so far, and I have 4 of 16 complete. I haven't been able to work on it because I'm working on a guild challenge but that is a secret reveal so I can't show it here yet. At least, I think it is a secret.

Wish me luck on the daycare dilemma. Sometimes I just cannot believe our luck.