A benefit of being retired.

I am visiting my parents in my hometown. I haven't had the time in many years to really stay and enjoy time with my family. Usually we would come in on Saturday and leave on Sunday afternoon, but now that I am retired I decided I would stay through Monday. I told my niece and nephew that are in lower elementary I would bring them lunch today. Of course they both wanted McDonald Happy Meals. How could I say no? Then Kamille, who is in Junior High, begged me to come pick her up and take her to lunch. So I told all of them I would. Sa*antha's lunch time is 11:00 so I left at 10:30 to go get the Happy Meals. I dropped Da*on's off at daddy's shop so I could microwave it and warm it back up. Cold McDonald fries are so gross. So I got to the school and signed in at the office. I was a little early so I just went in the cafeteria and sat down to wait on Sa*antha. Three of the other pre-kindergarten classes came in before her class and as they filed by me, all the little kids had looks of jealously because Sa*antha was getting McDonald's and they were getting "Monday Surprise." I did ask one of the kids what they were eating and they said they didn't know what it was. I couldn't identify it either. It looked like enchilada-spaghetti. Sa*antha was so excited I was there. She wanted to show me her classroom, so we walked down the hall, but the door was locked. By the time we got back her class was gone, so we walked around for a few minutes until we found them. I told her bye and jetted off to go get Da*on's Happy Meal. My sister had already rewarmed it and brought it out to my car. I quickly drove back to the school and Da*on was already in the cafeteria waiting on me. We again had to endure the pitiful stares of "Boy you sure are lucky." One of Da*on's classmates asked me what my sticker on my shirt said. The teacher in me couldn't give him the answer, so I said, "You're learning to read, you try it." He said, "Guts?" I told him, good try, but it says, "Guest. You know like when you have a visitor at your house. They are a guest." I thought that was cute. Those are things I do miss about teaching. Then at 12:00 I told Da*on I had to go so I could pick up my mom and sister before I went to get Kamille for lunch. We got back to the school about 10 minutes before Kamille could leave, so I decided to drive over to where the original Primary School was. It was the building I went to school in and also was the first school I taught in. The part I taught in had been torn down and they use the other part for storage. It was kind of sad, but I guess that's progress. By this time, it was 12:20 and Kamille could leave. We decided to eat at a local diner that serves home style cooking. It just happened to be mom's birthday today , so we decided it was her birthday lunch too. After a fast and furious lunch we got Kamille back to school and then decided to go back to the Elementary as they were having a book fair. We all found some things we just had to have. I got a couple of Christmas presents. We made our purchases and left. I took DeAnna back to work and mom and I came home. Mom took a nap, but I started working on finding pictures for this photo clock mom had gotten for her birthday. Kamille was playing in her last volleyball game of the season, so I decided to stay and watch her. Another bonus of being retired. I have never been able to attend any of her games or programs. Their team lost but it was nice to get to see her in action. By this time I had decided it was too late to return home so am staying another night. It's been really fun getting to enjoy my nieces and nephews activities. It was a wonderful day. I have pictures, but forgot my cable. I'll repost tomorrow after I get home.