OSHA and you

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is going to be visiting our district. Yay. Not. Apparently last week a teensy little fire occurred at our high school. Something involving a gum wrapper thrown accidentally into a garbage can that had a chemical in it from a science class. This caused a chemical fire when the glue from the gum wrapper touched the chemical. Kind of unbelievable. The science teacher reacted quickly and bagged the problem and immediately took it outside. BUT, at first they didn’t know what happened, so fire and police, and the fire marshall, and home land security, and OSHA were called…..yeah. Do you see where I am going with this? Parents got an emergency message on their phones stating “there has been an explosion at the high school”. Are you kidding me?? Is this the right words to tell a parent for a tiny fire? Uh, no.

Anyway, it ended up being a very minor, harmless fire that was contained in about 2 seconds and no one was hurt. The kids were all assessed. BUT, since OSHA was there, they decided to do a little investigating while at the high school, and some things were not in compliance. SO, they are thinking they should visit all the schools in the district. We are in clean up mode at our school and the teachers are in a tizzy. You wouldn’t believe the things that need Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) – sharpies, markers, white out, glitter……besides all the chemicals. We have to keep these sheets with the items in our rooms. It is completely insane. Our office staff is busy trying to put the booklets together for each classroom/room and it is a huge job. I feel for them. My office is no picnic with all of the chemical stuff and medications. We can have only 20% of our walls covered. Uh, this is elementary school. That is not realistic. The list is huge and kind of unreal, so I will spare you the details. Anyway, hopefully they will come soon. I am already missing my favorite little space heater. I hate being cold.

To make matters worse, today the high school has a small mercury related fire and they had to evacuate the whole school. Yeah - if OSHA wasn't coming before, they are comin' now.

Mat is in Florida right now. Well, he is actually on his way home, which is good. He was there yesterday and today. My friend, Mindy came to stay with me. We stayed up until midnight talking, and we were both feeling it this morning at work after only 6 hours of sleep. But, it was okay. Well worth it! And she survived the three crazies kids. She is going to be a great mom! She found out today she is having a BOY! Her husband is so excited. I am very excited for her.


The kids are doing well. Arlington is still being a bit of a drama queen when it comes to reading. She reads words like “impossible” without breaking a sweat, and then she gets to “went” and she cries about trying it. Weirdo. Whatever. I get such joy out of listening to her read that I want her to love to do it 24 hours a day. Just kidding. Today in the car she was talking about my friend Mindy and wanting to know when she would be coming back to play again. She knew she was having a baby and when I told her she was having a boy her only question was “will she be having the baby at your school?” Yep. That's right. These new fangled public schools are part education/part birthing center – didn't you know?


Finley is being her ornery self. Yesterday I was being gracious and letting them color with markers. I don't normally let the babies use markers without stern supervision. I......should have taken my own advice. I set them up at the table to color with markers and Arlington and I were working on a workbook. I was engrossed in her activity and I look up at the babies and Finley is sucking on a marker. They are non-toxic – no need to panic grandmothers. I go over and take it for her and tell her “only food in your mouth” for about the one billionth time. I look at the once blue marker – it is WHITE. She has sucked ALL of the color out of it. I hope it tasted good. Her mouth was really blue and so was a few other things later. - if you catch my drift. What a goofball. Finley has now proved that non-toxic really is non-toxic by sucking an entire marker dry in about 30 seconds. She could work for crayola as a tester.


Cainan is our only sane child, and is doing very well. Potty training continues to be a success. I can't say that enough because I am still so amazed how well he is doing. He always amazes me. Next week is his evaluation. I am looking forward to that being completed. He has been doing somersaults all over the place lately. He will just do them over and over all over the carpet. It is really cute. Cainan also has been into kissing his toys goodbye in the morning before going to school. In his case, this means he kisses his train set and his match box cars. It is pretty funny to watch him kiss an 18 wheeler goodbye.


Another busy week ahead. Thursday I have a nursing conference and dinner and Friday I FINALLY have my nurse's get together. Yay! I was supposed to be having a family picnic committee meeting for Arlington's school, but due to the nursing conference, I can't go to that. I am hoping it can be changed to another date. This is also Arlington's last week of indoor soccer. Then there will be a break for a few weeks, and outdoor soccer will start. She is also going to start swimming lessons at the end of April for once a week for 6 weeks. We go to a Lake house for a week every other summer with Mat's family, so she needs a refresher course before we go. Since we aren't swimming as often as we used to when we live in the south, I want her to be comfortable in the water before we go to the lake.

So, Arlington is going to have Daisy Scouts, swimming, soccer, and T-ball. Huh. Probably a bit much. Daisy's would be my first drop, but I guess we will stick with it until the end of the year. It should be interesting once all three kids start activities. I think I am going to have to cut back a bit.....

So that is it. Sorry for the lack of pictures. I will try to do better! See you Saturday!