I love North Idaho

Had a relaxing Saturday on a train ride in Ion.  Just a few pictures - of home - for those who are missing it.

Heaven

It is a good three weeks when you get to see.....

Georgey  

Maddie  

Sadie  

Grayam 

Jack 

Hallie 

Troy 

Gibson 

Kevin  

Ezra 

Lucas 

....all your grand children.
And all your children too.
More in a few days

Wild adventures

Summer is here.  In case you haven't noticed - just thought I would bring that to your attention.  In my case this means I am out of work for two and a half months.  A very nice thing for the most part.  

So far not a whole lot going on.  Pulling weeds out of my raspberry patch.  Enough weeds to fill six garbage bags.  That is how we do things here in the west.  We measure yard work by the garbage bags.  " I cut the lawn and got 16 garbage bags full of grass.  It was high."  This is helpful if you ever get a chance to talk to my father about his yard.   Anyway - the raspberry plants are weeded and now to the rest of the yard.  

I have been taking my parents to the doctors.  That is our social life.  Doctors and their office staff.  Dad's eye is all better - Mom is going to physical therepy for a while to try and help the pain in her hip.  Mom lost half a tooth.  Dad's diabetes is under control for now - working in the yard is helping that.  I even had my blood work done and all is well.

For fun Matt and I have been trying to use our bicycles.  We got new helmets and Costco.  Printed out a map of the Coeur d'Alene bike trail and off we have gone.  This trail is like 72 miles long.  Going from Plummer to Mullan.  We are presently doing the section by Cataldo.  There is this (maybe) ten mile stretch that goes through a wet land reserve.  It is so cool to ride along and see all these birds.  Cranes - Bullock Oriole - Mallards - and another Duck that I have tried to identify but so far no luck - need a better book - then half a frog and a pile of white feathers - wonder what killed this large bird?  We also saw an Osprey - I was thinking Eagle but I do believe they are gone this time of year.

Then Matt and I came face to face with Fred.  That is what I named him

Matt saw him first - my phone took the first picture.  I think he is saying "cheese".  Looks like it anyway!!

Well, we road eleven and a half miles this trip.  Not bad for two old people!!!

Matt is number one

So Matt is driver of the year - of course!!!!  Who else?  I mean really - who else is as good a driver as Matt.  Actually - when it comes to truck driving there is a LOT more to the job than just driving.  It is nice to be recognized that you are doing your job the best you can.   They - the company - gave Matt a new coat - this plaque - $250 - and a certificate.  NICE!!  That is a nice pat on the back.  Congratulations Matt!!

This past Friday - I had our regional Road-e-o.  For the bus drivers.  I came in third.  Seems to be my place.  I come in third a lot.  I was happy with what I did.

So Matt came in first and I came in third.

Define your life

Go ahead define your life in seven letters or less.  Not seven words but seven letters.  That is what I have chosen to do this past month.  Believe me it is a lot harder than it sounds.

You see - here in Idaho - you have to have a licence plate on your car.  You can choose from a variety of styles - regular scenic , wild life, an air plane, different state school logos - even the armed forces - all can be random numbers and letters or you can personalize them.  My old plates had a school bus on them.

It even stated my pet peeve - cars not stopping for the red lights.  I thought it fit me and even made my husband get them for his car.  These special plates are fund raisers for their different causes or schools.  This campaign was to raise money for student safety regarding busing.  It failed.  Only 90 plates were sold state wide.  So they discontinued these plates and when the time came to get new tags we had to get new plates. 

I didn't want to just get a random number that was hard to memorize and besides - I have grown accustomed to looking at the plate - to make sure it was my car that I was headed for.  You would be surprised at how many white Buick's there are out there. 

So I decided to get a personalized plate.  Since my last plate was a school bus I had a mind set at staying with my job.  I drove "bus 59" - so I thought that would be cool.  But I was not guaranteed to keep that bus so I thought "route 17" would be better.  Turns out just last month they gave me a new bus - glad I didn't get that on my plate.  As far as "route17" - Mandy didn't like that.  She thought that my life shouldn't be defined by my job.  That got me to thinking.

What does define your life.  OK - this is just a license plate - it shouldn't get so philosophical.

So now what?  I started to think of things I liked - crafts - sewing - grand kids - not in that order.  Then there was my faith.  A big part of my life is my faith.  I made the decision to stay away from that for my plate and just keep it light.  "Engage"   "Lv2sew"   "Busdrvr"  "MattSue" Were all ideas that I kicked around.  I looked to see if these were even available - most were not.  Back to the drawing board.

I finally figured it out.  My family was the most important thing to me.  So that is what I went with.

I did wrestle with putting "DCAMGD" on the plate but we never call Mo - Amanda unless we're mad at her and well, Miranda is always in my heart and I didn't want to explain over and over again why the extra "M". - So this is how I define my life in five letters.

I am well pleased with Damon, Cristy, Mandy, Grant and Darren.

19 years six months and counting

This week I have been thinking of all the things that I have experienced in the 19 years I have been driving school bus.  So should I start with the big things or the small?  How about I just put them in the order they come into my brain.  If you don't like that  - oh well - that is what I am doing.

I have always said that you are not an official bus driver until a child pukes on the bus.  I am an official bus driver - at least 4 times over.  I will not give you an account of each time for I do not wish to gross you out.  I will say that I do know of one driver who has been driving for 17 years and is still not an official bus driver.

I have had a child have a seizure  on the bus and a child choke.  The first was not a grand mall seizure but I do remember botching the whole - taking care of the kid - thing.  I was young.  The child who choked - I did help.  Thanks to our training of the Heimlich maneuver.  I had a small second grader come up and tap me on the shoulder - I quickly yelled at her - "what are you doing out of your seat?"  she quietly told me that "Tony" couldn't breath.   UGH!!!!  I helped him - The next day I got this note written on a torn piece of paper that read  "Thanks for helping me to breath"  Cute!

I have been in a couple of accidents on the bus.  Both of them were not my fault.  First one - I was stopped letting off a child when a 15 year old girl put her car into a 360 spin and stopped as she creamed the side of my bus.  The other accident - I was hit by a house.  Yes - I was hit by a HOUSE.  One of those mobile homes -  a double wide.  So actually I was hit by half a house.   That was a fun radio call - "Base - I just got hit by a house"  I was called a home wrecker for months.

I did a 360 on ice in a bus.  Big area - no one around.  Don't really want to do that again.

I sank the bus in mud - up to the step.  That too was a fun radio call too-
"Base - I'm Stuck"
"What do you mean - stuck"
"I'm in the mud and I can't move"
Took three pick-ups to get me out.  The road was closed for two weeks after that and the next year they paved the road.

I have had to chain up the bus 3 times in 19 years.  The first and third times I chained  up all by myself.
The second time it was because I got stuck in the snow going up a hill.  That made me mad because I have been driving that hill for years and I just let some radio talk get to me and - well - it was my fault that I got stuck.  Our great mechanics came and chained me up and I got up the hill after that.  Ice is no fun to drive on. 

I wiped out a mail box once backing up.  We won't talk about that.

I had a kindergarten kid bring a hundred dollar bill to school.  Back when the drivers seats were not tall - this kid was tapping the bill on my shoulder saying -"look at my funny dollar"  I grabbed it and put it on my lap.  As I looked down - I gasped - that was a "funny" dollar.  Turns out this kid wanted a quarter to buy popcorn and his Mom said no.  He just went into her purse and got a "dollar" anyway.  It was rent money and she was thankful I got it back for her.

I have had only one fist fight on the bus that I can think of right now.  And I had a child -"Bill"- threaten me.  Had a second child - "Sally"-offer to pay  "Bill" twenty dollars to do what he threatened.  I never saw "Bill" again and "Sally" learned a lesson she will never forget.  Thanks to her mother.

I have had the news crews come out and film me over a child bringing a scope on the bus.  That has to be the biggest most stupid thing ever.  I had a child - "Steve"- bring a scope to school.  The day before another child brought a pair of binoculars to school and he was the center of attention.  The kids on the bus were all asking to look through them and he was "popular" for that ride.  So "Steve" brought the only thing he had - a scope of a rifle - to show off.  Only the kids didn't pay that much attention to him.  He made the mistake of looking through it as a little girl was getting on the bus.  Her mother noticed "Steve" looking at her daughter.  All was OK until the mother kept thinking of what she saw.  The more she thought, the more her imagination took over and the more scared she got.  She called the school - the principal came out when I got to the school and took the scope.  But the Mother was not satisfied.  She called the district office.  That day the district office were holding meetings of greater importance and she couldn't talk to anyone she liked.  So she called the news station.   Lucky for her it was a slow news day.  Of course, it was only a few weeks after one of the school shootings and this news station went with it.  They filmed the mother standing at her daughters bus stop - me driving up - her daughter getting off the bus - me driving away.  Don't worry - "Steve" was protected through all this stupidness. But that was one boring, hyped up news story.

I am known as the meanest bus driver at my school.  I am proud of that title.  My kids are safe!!

I have been reminded that I have also given blood for my job.  So my two "accidents" left me without any cuts or bruises but I did slip in the bus parking lot - leaving much DNA behind.  I slipped on some ice doing what we call a walk around- checking tires, lights, oil leaks, broken windows, or anything out of the ordinary.  I went flat on my back and my head snapped back.  I never knew what hit me - it was that fast.  I split my head open - lots of blood.  My boss called 911 and a very nice mechanic sat in the snow with me till they came.  They strapped me onto a board-neck brace and all - and off to the hospital we went.  I will say right here and now - that will never happen again!  The board strapping thing.  They strapped my head down onto the board and that is where I split my head - OUCH!!!!   I ended up with two staples and a few days off of work.  Lets here it for workman's comp.  People were nice to me for awhile after that.  I still get offers to help me across the ice.

Out side of all the little everyday things - "Mrs. Durtschi - Tommy's looking at me!"   "Mrs. Durtschi - I'm squished!"  That is my favorite.  Three kindergarten kids sitting on a bench made for 3 kindergarten kids and they are complaining that they are - squished!  I tell them - wait until they are in high school - then they will know what - squished - is.  I wish I could recall some of the funny things I get to listen to.  Guess I'll have to start writing that stuff down.  

I have also been asked to include my bus Road-e-o record.  This is a fun competition that most school districts across the United States participate in.  Ten driving skills are tested - Parallel parking (in a bus of course) - backing up into a narrow area - turning right without creaming anything - picking up kids properly - driving straight - offset alley - railroad crossing - diminishing clearance - curb line - stop line-some of these may sound easy but believe me they are not.  I have earned my first trophy  - ever - by  participating in the Road-e-o.  I have come in third in State and have taken a couple of seconds in regionals.  I even came in first one year locally but because of budget cuts I have nothing to show for that.  It is fun to compete and improves my driving skills in the process.

So now to my latest adventure.  We are two days into spring - spring - you know the time of year when we get rid of snow and things start to bloom.  Well, when you live in North Idaho, you learn that winter doesn't give up easy.  So two days into spring we have a snow storm.  As I am driving on my route I am stopped by a tree.  A tree hanging over the road.

No real place to turn around .  I call into our base - and I am told to wait for the highway district to come and clear the tree.

I only had to wait about fifteen to twenty minutes  - but the hard thing to watch was three cars that just went around me and under the tree and on their way.  This tree would have creamed my windshield if I kept going.  Sometimes being a big rig isn't a good thing.

But you have to admit - snow is pretty.

My first Quilt

So this is my first quilt.  I just had to brag a bit.  Looking for compliments in case you haven't figured that out.  Well...............    :)