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The meet and greet for the STEAM program at Cordelia's school yesterday was crowded and kind of chaotic. They held it out on the playground where there's not a lot of shade and started out by having each staff member introduce themselves. I couldn't hear most of what was said. I was too far back in the crowd.

The PTO provided ice cream for the kids which went over well. I was startled to see that they had stuff with peanuts, though. The school is supposed to be tree nut and peanut free because there are kids with severe allergies.

After the teachers had introduced themselves, they broke us out into groups by grade level. They had the kids do a couple of getting acquainted games, but the kids weren't very enthusiastic about it (at least not the sixth graders to be. I don't know about the younger kids). After the kids were done, the teachers with our group had the parents do a get acquainted game, and most of the kids took off to play.

After the games, we broke up into smaller, more or less random, groups to talk. I talked a little bit to both of the teachers who'll be doing sixth grade. They seem to know what they're doing. One will teach language arts and social studies. The other will teach math and science. The plan is to have the kids move back and forth from classroom to classroom.

Cordelia was having a grand time, but I wandered around a bit without talking to many people. I'm not good at inserting myself into conversations. I looked to see if I could find the new librarian, but I never managed to locate her.

Cordelia is starting to see positives about staying at her current school. She commented that her class will be the oldest in the school for four years. About half of the kids in her class are staying.

Scott had gotten home while we were out. He was asleep when we got home, poor guy. He had to grill turkey burgers for our dinner because we didn't have anything else. After dinner, we went to Orange Leaf for frozen yogurt. I was disappointed-- They didn't have any crushed Heath bars to put on the frozen yogurt. I really like Heath bars. I took some crushed Oreos instead which wasn't as good but wasn't awful.

It's raining this morning, so I don't know if Cordelia will actually have softball practice this evening. It's too soon to tell, and they might well practice in the rain if it's not too slippery and there's no thunder/lightning. I'm torn because the girls need the practice, but not having practice would definitely simplify our evening.

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The weather cleared up by noon. Cordelia had a friend over in the early afternoon (about 12:30-3:40). The girls played in Cordelia's room mostly. We did take time, around 2:00, to go to the library. The girls started playing with the toys-- a barn, some dolls, and a bunch of animals-- that were out in the children's room. That surprised us because usually Cordelia would pass something like that by as of no interest or as intended for little kids.

We stopped for bubble tea on the way home. Cordelia's friend considers it a great treat, so she was excited. Scott didn't have anything. He's kind of neutral on bubble tea and can take it or leave it.

Around 4:00, Cordelia and I walked around the school to the house of one of the Girl Scout leaders. It was a planning session for the July camping trip. Five girls showed up, out of fourteen in the troop. Cordelia volunteered to organize transportation. Her job is complicated by the fact that there's no phone list for the troop. She and another girl started trying to make one, and that showed that the troop leaders were lacking paperwork on some of the girls.

We met out in the troop leader's yard which had a lot of mosquitoes. I got bitten just under my left eye. Well, I may have mashed the mosquito before it bit. I don't know. I expect I'll know soon enough.

Cordelia and I left before the meeting was quite over because we had to get home and get dinner so that she could be at softball practice at 6:00. That's where she and Scott are now. I was going to go along, but Cordelia said she didn't want me there but did want Scott to stay for the whole practice. Scott and I had been intending to wander Whole Foods or Trader Joe's for most of the practice.

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My mother just called me. I'd have bet on that never happening, but it did.

She's recovering from surgery. The kidney stone completely blocked her kidney so that urine was leaking out into places it shouldn't go. They put in a stent or something of the sort on Thursday to resolve the problem. They'll put her under again to take it out around the 20th. The whole thing got worse than it needed to be because she put off seeking care and because her doctor took extra time getting back to her.

She's sixty eight, and she'd never had a kidney stone before. Apparently, women generally don't get them unless they get the first one fairly young. This is similar to when her appendix ruptured-- She was considered too old for that to happen when it did, so they didn't think that was the problem.

I'll have to watch out because a lot of the health challenges my mother has had have come my way, too. Mom gave me the impression that she was telling me all of this at least in part because she thinks it might happen to me, too.