Today was the day I girded myself for battle against the bus company.  As of Monday, all kids need a bus pass in order to ride.  The catch-22 in the situation is:  since my kids live outside of the district where they go to high school, they can only ride the bus if there's room, and they told me they wouldn't know if there'd be room until the end of the month.  I went to the bus office today and parked myself in the seat by the desk until I was sure my kids had riding priviliges, which, after an hour, they got.  But..(and there's always a but, isn't there?) they could not ride the bus from the stops they've been using this school year.  So, they'll be picked up and dropped off at a spot about 3 miles from our house.  This is closer than the bus stop they've been going to now in the mornings, but the bus comes 45 minutes earlier.  So, instead of leaving here around 7:20 to take #4 to school then the older 2 to the stop, we've got to leave here at 7, take the older kids to their stop, then get #4 to school really early.  The afternoon isn't going to be as easy anymore either.  Though they've been getting off at a spot about 5 miles from home, through a series of manipulations, I only have to pick the up about a mile from the house.   Now I've got to get them from a stop 3 miles away.  The crudiest part of the whole thing is that, because of the different bus schedule, #2 can't take the job she was offered at the public library.  She's pretty bummed about it all.  I brought her to a nearby shopping center today and she put in applications at a couple different places, so hopefully she'll get something there.  In the words of Roseann Rosandana "it's always somethin'"

No school for the kids tomorrow, it's Statehood Day...whatever that is.  WE went to spend a couple nights at a friend's, so it'll be pretty quiet around here, since it's the two boys together that make most of the noise in the house.  #4 also has monday off for some reason.  I'm sure when the other kids are hauling their butts out of bed in the morning, she'll be enjoying herself getting her gloat on.