School bus transportation

There will be no more free rides in those school buses. In the new school year 2008/2009 there will be a charging fee for school bus transportation. This was done reluctantly, but was a necessary action given the dismal outlook for education funding in the state budget.

School districts are not required to provide school bus transportation. The costs of transportation have risen so dramatically over the past few years that many school districts have eliminated transportation entirely as school funding has gotten more and more problematic. This year, the budget outlook for the next school year is catastrophic and charging a fee for transportation will allow the school to maintain that service and keep other programs which are more directly related to children's education.

We (the parents) are going to be able to pay bus fees at our school office starting on August 18, 2008 when the offices open for the new school year. We can also pay bus fees at the District Office throughout the entire month of August. The school will be selling annual passes good for the entire school year, semi-annual passes, monthly passes, and daily tickets. If my child rides the bus only one-way, to or from school, the fee for a pass will be half the round trip fee.

Of course, for those families who qualify for the National School Lunch Free and Reduced Price Lunch program will not be charged a fee. In order to qualify for this program, we (the parents) must submit proof of income and various other documents required by the federal government. Which I think now we WILL qualify.

It's just weird to know that to ride the bus we will have to pay and the fees are just... fees. Just, look at the prices!

Daily tickets - $1 each way
Monthly - $40 average depending on the number of school days in the month.
Semester Pass - $170 ($0.94 per ride)
Full Year - $323 ($0.90 per ride)

Now, if I have a second child (or more)

Semester Pass - $150 ($0.83 per ride)
Full Year - $300 ($0.83 per ride)

Charging fees is not something anyone wants to do, but it is the best alternative in these tight budget times. What is there to do?... to go with the flow I think.

Scrapbooking

This weekend, I played some more on the scrapbook thing and I created another one. There's a lot of options and designs. I'm still new at this so I don't know how to do many things but it's cool to play around with the pictures and then come up with something.

Coloring

On Thursday, I decided that it was time to colored my hair after almost six months of not retouching it. Black-blue coloring is just a HUGE mess!! I do tell myself that next time, I will try a different "lighter" color but I keep buying the same color lol. Then yesterday, I TRIED to put some red streaks (and use the last of the red coloring) and the color didn't stayed. The red coloring I got some time ago, the lady in the beauty store told me that red dye was for dark colored hair and that I didn't needed to lighten my hair in order to use it. So, I got the red coloring and some 30 cream developer but no red color on my hair at all. Maybe next time, I'll try a different brand and a liquid one instead of cream (I don't like the cream coloring that much).

This time, I wanted to talk to the lady in the beauty store and asked about the streak color and maybe she could recomend another good one and give me some tips. But, dear Joel wanted to go to the bathroom so bad that I didn't had the chance to look around the store and get more things besides my hair coloring.

This is the one I used for the streaks. Didn't work!!

Break from the heat

Today was a wonderful and beautiful day. We finally got a break from that horrible Heat Wave that was among us over the weekend and yesterday. There was no need to turn the fans on today like we did in the past several days.

Tomorrow, is Open House at Joel's school from 6 to 7:30 pm. There's also going to be an Art Show and a Book Fair. Joel wants to get a book so we're stopping by the Book Fair to get him a book.

Then on Friday, May 30th from 5 to 8 pm, there's going to be a special event called "A Night Under the Stars" and it's going to take place at the Viejas Outlet Center Park. Hopefully, we will be able to go and have a little fun under the stars. The thing that caught my attention was that some teachers are going to be Scooping some ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery and Joel got all excited about it. Of course, Cold Stone Creamery is generously donating a portion of the proceeds back to the PTA and the school.

Today, I uploaded some new pictures I have and shared them to my two sister-in-laws... Cathi and Sue. While I was uploading them, I realized there was some scrapbooking stuff so I started playing with it and this is what I did...

I HAVE to stop here because my two little monsters are driving me crazy and it's already bathtime for the both of them and then bed time.

A hot weekend

Boy, this weekend was a hot weekend. High 90's and low 100's; and to think Summer is not officially here yet. I can only imagine how hot Summer is going to be. Yikes!! Hopefully, we will get a little break from this Heat Wave we are having after tomorrow [Monday].

We didn't do much this weekend because of the horrible heat and hot sun. We stayed indoors keeping ourselves cool. Today, I filled the bathtub with cool water and the kids took a dip and played in the water for a little while to cool themselves off. I, on the other hand, took a shower at around 8ish at night... after my shower, I felt so refreshed and cool. Not to mention that my hair smells wonderful!!!! ;-)