Ready, Set, Go...

I think I'm all ready to go! Yesterday my fifth grade class (Hi guys, I miss you already and I'm still at home!) went on a field trip to Jefferson City. One of our stops was the museum at the Missouri State Highway Patrol. So while I was there I had planned to get our state background checks done, and notarized, since the ones we did last year had expired. When I asked the lady in the museum where I could get that done, she told me that it was in another building-go around that building and down a big hill, when down to street level again walk around the building to the public entrance. So I did, and they were very nice and did everything I needed. By the time I walked back up the hill I was pretty worn out and hot as it was over 70 for a change! Then I was ready to get 20 papers apostilled and our next stop just happened to be the capitol building! I looked up the Secretary of State's office number, room 209 and headed that way while the class went to sit in on the House of Representatives in action (for those who were wondering, there was another 5th grade teacher there and 22 parents, two of whom teach at our school as well, so we were all OK for me to take care of all the adoption business). When I arrived at the Secretary of States office a nice lady asked if she could help me. When I told her I had some things to apostille she told me that they did not do that in this building that that was (again) in another building. She pointed it out out of her window. It looked kind of far away, but not too far to walk to. I asked for directions and headed out. It was a much longer walk than I had anticipated, but I walked quickly and was sure I'd have enough time to get the things apostilled and make it back before the House viewing and capitol tour were over. Well, they told me it would take about 20 minutes, but at 30 minutes I went up to the front desk to see if they could check on the progress of the paperwork. I was told it would be five more minutes. It was five more minutes, but that meant it was 3:10, the time our group was expected to finish their tour and head back to the bus! So, I ran for about two blocks until it was so uphill that I just couldn't anymore and huffed and puffed walking as briskly as I could until I reached the capitol building again. I saw the bus to the left and picked up running again. Luckily, the class was not there yet; their tour had run over. But, everything is apostilled and ready to go for tomorrow's takeoff!!!
For those of you who are not in our church/school community, I'll share the remainder of the Jeff City trip story.... On our return trip, approximately 45 minutes away from our school, the smell of the bus' bathroom began to spread throughout the bus. My first thought was that a student had opened the door to be funny or something, but no, the radiator on the bus was overheating. The overheating radiator happens to be located just under the bus' bathroom. Its overheating began to "cook" the toilet chemicals. I heard that it was worse in the back, but I'm telling you, I was in the front and had to pull the turtleneck part of my sweater up over my nose. We rode like that for approximately 4 minutes before pulling off in a good spot that had a Walmart. We called spouses of chaperones and others who were expecting to meet us at school to come pick us all up and return us to school to our cars. One mom went to the Applebee's across the street and got us all chips and salsa (Thank you mom of 8W!), and one dad went to Walmart and bought a few cases of water(Thank you dad of 17W!). Then we all sat in the lawn furniture displays outside of Walmart eating our chips and salsa, drinking water, etc. until all were picked up. Hey mom of 10W, make sure I get a copy of that picture for the yearbook please! We were with a great group of kids with really nice parents, so it wasn't too bad. But it was a long day 7:30am to 7:30 pm for me!
I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M REALLY LEAVING FOR RUSSIA IN 10 HOURS!!!!