Another day in the kitchen

This week is Teacher Appreciation week and my friend Melissa (who is a teacher) gave me some advice on what was her favorite thing parents did for her class when she was teaching. She told me about a time that they all made dinner for her for a week and delivered it to her home. She said it was so nice to not have to worry about cooking and it was fun to see them outside of school. I thought this was a great idea! I'm always cooking a meal for someone who needs it because they just had a baby or are sick (or have family members who are sick), but never for someone just a sign of appreciation. I sent an email out to the parents in Morgan's classroom and we've arranged for Morgan's teacher to receive breakfast at school every morning and to have dinner delivered each night.

I signed up for the first night, and it was a tricky one because Morgan's teacher's daughters both had softball games in the evening. So, I planned to do pulled pork, oven fries and tomato-cucumber salad to bring to them at the ball park. Lance had even baked cranberry walnut chocolate chip cookies for them! I thought it would be fun to see the girls play, to give Trish an opportunity to show off how much she's adored, and it would be nice for them to eat dinner before they were starved after the games were over. I loaded up the food, some plates, napkins, utensils and condiments into my bags and Morgan and I took off to deliver the meal. Trish loved it and I couldn't have been happier to see the big grin on her face as she sat there eating pulled pork while we all watched her girls play softball!

Besides getting that stuff prepped today, I also took advantage of some of the chicken meat I had from the roasted chicken I made for dinner last night to come up with a new lunch time creation. Mango Chicken Salad Lettuce Wraps. Basically, it was the roasted chicken, some celery, mango, salt, poppy seeds, and mayonnaise. I mixed up the salad and served them on romaine lettuce leaves. They were good, but needed a little sweetness added (finally added some Splenda) and maybe a little kick next time.

Honoring mothers!

This morning was the annual mothers day brunch for the moms club. Unlike the past few years, I did absolutely nothing to contribute to this brunch. I felt a little guilty, having not participated in the preparation, but it was nice to just go and enjoy it! Sure, I had to get up and say some things and help hand out the raffle prizes, but that was just a small part of the overall event and the event went off without a hitch!

We tried a new venue this year since our previous spot closed down. We went with a place this is still developing, trying to get in on something good from the beginning and it totally paid off. We agreed to hold our brunch at The Callippee Preserve Golf Club vista dining area, overlooking the golf course. We had the entire covered patio (with heaters) to ourselves and even though it was raining, everyone kept commenting on how nice it was to have it outside with the fresh air. The decorations were fabulous, as a couple of the board members had taken time to plant fresh flowers as place settings and there were large potted hydrangeas in the center of the tables. There were little goody bags of chocolates, an envelope with donations for a free sitting fee at a local photographer, free bowling, etc., and wrapped up Bay Area Mama books for everyone! It was definitely a sight! The food was outstanding, the champagne flowed, as did the laughter and chatter.


Many of the board members solicited donations from local businesses for raffle prizes. I had done this on previous occasions, and pretty much refused to do it this year. :) That didn't stop the dedicated board members, however! We had everything from gift certificates for Dinners Galore, a tea room, bowling, quilting, scrapbooking and stamping, a chocolate store, and a spa to candles and kitchen gadgets as well as raffling off the centerpieces. Everyone walked away with something; it was fabulous!

It was wonderful to sit and talk to these women for as long as we liked. We were there from 11am until 2pm and we didn't have to worry about children running off or cutting up food. We just had to sit, eat, drink and relax. What a way to honor mothers!

Exhausted

Exhausted.

I think that word pretty much sums up today. After another cold and fitful night of sleep for both myself and Morgan, we woke up even earlier than yesterday for a morning "sunrise" ceremony called "Scouts Own". At least we were allowed to wear our jammies! The girls were asked to not speak from the minute we left the tents until the ceremony was over. When you factored in that many of the older troops had overslept and we had to wait for them to start, the ceremony went much longer than anticipated. Especially for sleepy girls. Who can't talk. :)

After the scouts own ceremony, we headed down to the dining hall for our last meal of Camporee. Pancakes, fruit, bacon, and yogurt awaited us as well as the hot chocolate and coffee from yesterday. Morgan was too exhausted to talk much while eating and before long, it was time for us to pack the cars up, take the tents down, and head home.

We got home around 11ish, just in time for Morgan and I to get showers before lunch. We ate lunch and then napped for a little while until it was time for me to get ready to go work Bingo for the school. Yes, I think I deserve a medal for this! ;-) A mother's work is never done.

How's this for all over the place?

Wow, what an interesting day it's been.

First off, I woke up this morning and broke my routine of going immediately to the gym from school. Instead, I dropped Morgan off and then came back home before heading to the gym. I got there a little after 9 this morning and was trying to decide what I wanted to do. I missed the 8:30 cardio & core class, so I put my iPod on and decided I'd just hit the track for some running. As I was making my way to the track, a friend of mine came in and was on her way to the 9:30 kickboxing class. Only problem was that it was one of the instructors I didn't care too much for. I decided to suck it up and go to the class anyway since my friend was going. As it turns out, that instructor was sick and my favorite instructor was teaching! I felt redemption for my disappointment on Tuesday night!! And I can assure you that it will be redemption that is kicking my butt in the morning!! :)

After the gym, I came home and ate a quick lunch, packed up a lunch for Morgan and went and picked her up from school. We made the speediest exit we've ever made from school and sped on over to the Dublin library where we met some friends from the moms club where they were making valentines for some seniors at a local senior center. Morgan was surprised and delighted by an unexpected trip to see friends with just me and especially happy that the trip included crafts! When we got in the car, I hit "go" on my GPS and it started to direct me on which way to go. Morgan asked me how it knew where I was going. "I told it where we were going", I said. She looked at me funny and said, "That's kind of weird. How can you talk to it?" I told her that I didn't talk to it, but told it what to do by pushing buttons. I told her how I had punched the button for community attractions, the one for libraries and then picked the Dublin library from the list that came up. She nodded her understanding. I said, "Then my trusty little friend tells me how to get there". She says, "I think you mean trusty little kid". I questioned why she thought it was a kid. "Because you tell it what to do. Like me and Bennett."

On the way home from the library, we were driving through downtown and Morgan commented that someone still had their Chinese New Year decorations up. I laughed a little and let her know that we had just passed a Chinese restaurant, so it probably wasn't decorations for Chinese New Year that she saw, just decorations for the restaurant. She said, "Oh. Well I'm glad you told me that. I don't want to go there!" I asked her why not. She told me that she was scared to go in there with all those Chinese people (as if there were only Chinese people in there anyway). I asked her why and her explanation was, "because I wouldn't understand what they are saying!" I explained to her that while they may speak Chinese, they also probably speak English, which is what we speak. So I think we'll understand each other and there's no reason to be afraid.

Which totally reminded me of a story my mom tells about me on a trip to Vail, Colorado. I was convinced that we were leaving the country for some reason. Maybe the long flight? Anyway, I kept talking about us going to a different country where they spoke a different language and my mother repeatedly told me that we were not going to another country, we were going to a different state and they would speak the same language that we did. She finally got me to understand and then we got off the plane in Colorado. Where I proceeded to witness a conversation in another language by some random people at the airport. "SEE!! I told you!!"

But back to today. Tonight was Open House at Morgan's school. She was so excited to take us there and show us (mostly Daddy, of course), all of her hard work. It was a little chaotic tonight, especially having Bennett there when he was up super early this morning and had very little sleep today (short napper). Plus there was some awkwardness with me introducing myself to another parent and then there's the whole issue of the basket we worked so hard to pull together being RAFFLED off instead of being AUCTIONED off, which is a huge difference in my opinion. Seriously, we got GYMNASTICS BIRTHDAY PARTY, worth over $300 dollars donated as just ONE of the items in ONE of our baskets. And you're just going to raffle it off for a dollar a pop? I guess they "don't have the man power to do an auction". Very disappointed at that. Plus, we put a lot of time and effort into these baskets, even splitting them into two to earn more money for the school. I see some auction management in my near future. But you know what, this is supposedly one of the biggest fundraisers for the school. Might as well do it right!

Yeah, I'm all over the place tonight.

Nothing to do today

I guess I'm losing my mind, because ever since Friday, I've been thinking we had nothing planned this weekend. Except soccer yesterday. And the harvest festival (that we skipped out on) and then church today. Oh, and then the park. Oh yeah....I almost forgot! Today was my first time to volunteer to be the banker at the Bingo game for the fundraising arm of the school. OOPS!

I got home from the park after church, we had lunch and then I had just enough time to get my week planned and hollow out one pumpkin before it was time for me to go over to work the Bingo game. I got home at 9:30 tonight and right now, I'm too exhausted to give the full download, but suffice it to say that those Bingo people are one of a kind!

This week is stacking up to be another crazy one. Is it Thanksgiving yet?

The sad part is that this was really the only night to carve pumpkins with the kids....so Lance did it with them while I was working Bingo. That stinks!

The Fall Festivities continue!

Yesterday was a lot of fun, but certainly crazy. Morgan dressed up as a scarecrow for school. She looked very cute! The fall festival started at 9:30 and the kids were busy busy busy until it was time to go home at noon. Lance was home, so he was able to take Bennett to Tot Drop and then come join us for the festivities. There was a pumpkin patch, a wagon ride, apple fishing, face painting, and an old fashioned water pump. There were pictures and scarecrows and lots and lots of hay! They staggered having the kindergarten classes out there, so it wasn't too chaotic and the kids really had a great time.

After the kids picked their pumpkins, they rolled them back into the classroom, where we had various activities to do with the pumpkins. We weighed them and measured the circumference in blocks. We dropped them in a bucket of water to see if they would sink or float. The kids colored scarecrows and drew faces on pumpkins. And they even got to watch a Garfield movie, which I knew would please Morgan to no end.

Here are some pictures from the fall festival yesterday morning. The scarecrow is the one the kids did during centers last week when I helped in the classroom. You can't see it, but there is a Diet Coke can in the apron of her pocket. The kids loved that finishing touch!











While the kids were finishing up their pumpkin stuff, we were able to put the finishing touches on the door for Trick A Dooring last night. Morgan and I went home and then while the kids were napping, I finished getting everything together for Trick A Dooring. Around 4:30, Morgan and I went over to Kristin's house to help her finish wrapping candied apples that she had made for the kids in Morgan's class. Once we were done there, it was time to go to the school to set up for Trick A Dooring. We put out a touch box with eyeballs (peeled grapes), ears (dried apricots), teeth (unpopped corn kernels), brains (scrambled eggs), and fingers (Vienna sausages). Once everything was set up, Lance and Bennett met us there for the festivities. We went from classroom to classroom, getting candy at each stop. I thought our door was good, but these other doors BLEW OURS AWAY! We didn't think about using the hallway at all, and some of these other classrooms had elaborate tunnels and canopies set up. WOW! I was taking mental notes for next year, now that we know better! It was pretty crazy at the school, with a ton of the kids and their parents and siblings there (this school is K-8!). But, we had a good time and then had to go to eat dinner and get the kids to bed.


After dinner, it was time for a moms night out to the fondue restaurant for dessert. It was fun to hang out with some friends, drink a glass of wine, and unwind over chocolate decadence! I even managed to come home at a decent hour and get to bed at a decent hour. Which is a good thing after a week like I've had!

Busy Bee

I feel like I've been going non-stop since my parents left on Tuesday morning. After getting the BOO out on Tuesday, I spent Wednesday running around a bunch. I met my friend, Kristin, for coffee after dropping Morgan off at school. We drank coffee and chatted for a while and then I ran home to do a few chores before heading off to playgroup. By the way, it is cute that Bennett grabbed some baby wipes and started wiping up the toilet while I was cleaning the bathroom. It's NOT sanitary, however, and no matter how many times toddled in with a baby wipe in hand, I couldn't bring myself to allow him to wipe it down.

We went to playgroup, where we ate our lunch and then headed over to the school to pick Morgan up after her reading group was over. We went straight home, kids were put down to nap and then I spent the entire nap time catching up on all the things I DID NOT do while my parents were in town. I actually got a lot done, which is making me feel a little better. The pile of laundry alone is enough to make my chest get that tight feeling.

When the kids woke up, we ran over to the hardware supply store to get a huge bamboo pole for me to use to tie the scarecrow we made in the classroom last week to. Back home to cook a dinner that I had to, in turn, stuff down my throat in the span of five minutes because OMG! I'M LATE to decorate the classroom door for Trick A Dooring. I got there at 7:05 and we got to work. We finished up at 10:30. That includes the door and the scarecrow, thank goodness. And there were FOUR of us there! I had to come home and iron Morgan's shirt for today since it's BLUE day and also class picture day, so I had to pick something that was not only BLUE but also looks decent. And that sometimes requires an iron. I think I finally went to bed somewhere around 12:30 by the time everything was said and done.

This morning started early again, as I had to get up and showered and actually dressed (somewhat nicely!) for MOPS. I woke Bennett up just as we were ready to walk out the door to go pick up Colin. I walked the kids to class because I wanted to see their reactions to the door. The kids LOVED it! They loved the finishing touches we put on the scarecrow (which is made to look like their teacher) that included a Diet Coke in her pocket since that's what she likes to drink. :) After I soaked in all their cute faces and expressions, it was time to head home to feed Bennett and tidy up before heading to MOPS. I was able to get the downstairs dusted and vacuumed before we left, thankfully. MOPS was nice and relaxing and then before I knew it, it was time to pick Morgan up from school. We were bringing her friend Kaitlyn home with us, so I gathered all the kids and off we went to go home and have lunch.

I managed to impress upon the girls the need for them to be quiet during Bennett's nap time and they were absolute angels. They watched Cinderella and a little Mickey Mouse before it was time to go to playgroup. I was able to vacuum upstairs, fold laundry, and do a few other odds and ends while the girls were entranced with the one who wears a glass slipper. We were lucky to have Kaitlyn join us today and the girls had a fun time at the park. When we were leaving the park, I got a call from Kaitlyn's parents that they would be home a little later than expected, so we came home and I fed the kids and got ready to go to Bible study. The minute Lance walked in the door, it was time for me to go and I was dropping Kaitlyn off on my way there. I got home from bible study around 8:45. And now? I'm watching TV. Because I'm pretty sure that's the only thing I can do right now. I'm that tired. So I should probably be going to bed, right?

Tomorrow? Just as busy. Dressing Morgan as a scarecrow/farmer for school, Harvest Festival in the morning, working in Morgan's class, Trick A Dooring tomorrow night and then a moms outing to get chocolate fondue for dessert. At least there's that, right?

TGIF

We had a pretty good morning, getting out of the house on time and picking up Morgan's friend Colin for school while dropping Bennett off so I could work in the class. I figured out how to keep Morgan and Colin from getting too wound up in the car on the way to school. We play a game that I made up with Morgan a couple of years ago, called the animal game. Basically, we take turns thinking of an animal and then the other people ask questions and try to guess what the animal is. It's normally a fun game, but I have to admit that now that it's part of the morning ritual when we bring Colin to school, I'm officially DONE with the animal game. I'm tired of brown and black animals with fur who live in the forest. I'm tired of naming all the animals that are on the tables in the classroom. I know kids live for routine, but it has a way of grating on my nerves. :)

We had a great time in the class today, all the kids have really come a long way even just from the month and a half that they've been in school. After school was out, I took Colin and Morgan to meet Colin's mom, his sister Natalie, and Bennett at the park. It was chilly out and the kids didn't want to sit and eat, but that's somewhat to be expected. Bennett was super happy and made me smile when he went and picked a flower and gave it to Natalie, whom he is totally enamored with.

We had to leave the park abruptly when Morgan had to go to the bathroom and there wasn't a bathroom at the park. We got home and Morgan went potty while I got Bennett washed up and diaper changed. And then he LOST it. I don't know what he lost it about, but he totally started screaming and didn't want to be held. He was doing the whole arms straight up so he slips out of my hands when I'm trying to pick him up. The whole time he's literally SCREAMING "MAMA!!!" I tried to redirect him with books or his blanket and nothing was calming him down. Finally, I had no other choice than to just walk out of his room and leave him in there. I came into the living room and asked Morgan to go get her book so we could read before nap time. Suddenly, Bennett walks out of his room, TOTALLY FINE. Not a tear shed. Face not red at all. TOTALLY FINE. ???? Whatever!

They are both down for naps now and after I finish getting stuff ready for tonight, I'm giving myself permission to skip any chores and just rest. We have the in and out board dinner for the moms club tonight. There's going to be a martini bar. We might be in trouble! :)

Make new friends, but keep the old...

Tonight I attended a parents meeting for a new Daisy Girl Scout troop that is starting. Morgan's first meeting is next week and I'm so excited for her!

I remember doing Brownies and then Girl Scouts and the friends that I made. I remember going to camp and earning badges. Selling cookies and making crafts. If you were ever a girl scout, you know the song "Make New Friends" and you can sing the heck out of it in rounds. :) We had so much fun and I hope Morgan enjoys it as much as I did. I had a lot of those girls as friends in my life for a long, long time. I think my mom still keeps in touch with some of the parents of those girls! I've even reconnected with a few of them on Facebook recently.

Speaking of Facebook, when I got home from the meeting, I updated my status to "Paige just got home from a parent meeting for Girl Scouts!" and the following happens:

My former college roommate instant messages me to ask me if I've lost my mind. In fact, her exact comment was "thank goodness...you need to take on some more responsibilities!!! Are you the leader?"Then my friend Tara comments something about me being a super mom. At this point, I felt it was necessary to clarify that I am NOT the leader. To which my friend Karen from my high school days comments "...just yet!". A few comments later, and it ends with my friend Melissa chiding me with, "It's just good to see you finally getting involved in something."

See how much crap I catch for NOT volunteering for something?? ;-)

The quiet before the storm

It's quiet around here today. I was up earlier than I wanted this morning because I wasn't sleeping well. Bennett decided to wake up at 4:30 and was babbling and singing some unrecognizable song. I got up and got the upstairs bathroom cleaned and then came down to start breakfast for the kids. I unloaded the dishwasher and packed up the car with my gym back and diaper bag. After dropping Morgan off at school (and delivering her well-earned potted mini rose plant to her teacher!), I went to the gym. I did 30 minutes of weights and then took the first 30 minutes of the spin class. I felt obligated to tell the instructor that I had to leave early at the beginning of class so she wouldn't make a scene when the time came. So much for that! When I got off my bike and started stretching, she's all "BYE PAIGE! I WANT TO LEAVE NOW, TOO!" The class was packed (in fact, I got the last bike). So, I was a little embarrassed. But I'm still glad I went - it was a good way to spend 30 minutes! She is tough!

After I got showered up, I picked Bennett up from the nursery and we headed upstairs to the Terrific Toddlers class. He definitely enjoyed it more this week than last week, but when "free play" time was almost over, he took my hand and showed me to the door. :)

Today was an early release day for Morgan, so I headed straight from the tennis club to pick her up. We came home and had lunch and then the kids played for a good hour and a half while I finished cleaning bathrooms, dusting, and vacuuming. I have a good head start on this week's chores already, that feels great!

I ended up wasting away nap time working on some favors for the in/out board dinner for the moms club. I finally have the design nailed down, now it's just the tough part of printing, cutting, gluing, etc. I can do that while I'm vegging out in front of the TV tonight, though.

Because now the kids are up and I need to run to Target to look for stuff for the class' door for Trick-A-Dooring. And I need to find the stuff for the scarecrow and schedule the time in the class for the kids to help make it. Oh, and I also need to find time to go solicit raffle prizes for the pumpkin patch party. Not to mention decorating my own house (Morgan is feeling jaded about the fact that EVERYBODY has their decorations up EXCEPT US. She's so deprived!) Seems like all this stuff is hitting all at once! :)

I guess it's a good thing today is quiet and I can get a head start. Because after tomorrow, the week's pace picks up drastically. And then next week my parents will be in town. We are so excited! :)

My first responsibility as room parent

So, as you may recall, I was lured into signing up to be one of the room parents for Morgan's class. While working in the classroom last week, I inquired about what our responsibilities entailed. The teacher let me know that our first duty would be to decorate the classroom door for the "Trick-a-Dooring" night at the school, where the kids go door to door for candy. And, in her words, "It needs to be good. It's a total competition!" She mentioned possibly using music and making it a little scary, but not too scary for the Kindergartners. Hey - no pressure!! Especially for someone who was clearly blessed with all the creative talent of a slug. So, the panic began to set in.

Now I'm nearly a week CLOSER to the date that this is needing to be completed by, and I'm no closer to an idea than I was when she first explained it to me. I'm heading over to the craft store tonight to look for favors for the moms club in and out board dinner and thought I could also check out their Halloween decorations to see what I could come up with. I'm explaining all this to Lance and he's all, "So, it's like Pimp my Door?" Yes, but only in a scary way I tell him. But not too scary. So, this sick-o that I'm married to, comes up with this idea. "You can get a noose, and hang a large Barney from it and play garbled 'I love you, you love me' music". The witch and broomstick idea that I had seems like Holly Hobbie next to his deranged Barney idea. He's a sick puppy, I tell you.

So, if you are reading this and have your creative juices flowing, please share your ideas with me. Maybe you've seen something somewhere else I can recreate and call it my own?? I'm all about reusing (it's a form of recycling, isn't it). :)

Boys and girls

Morgan has been talking about bringing flowers to her Kindergarten teacher for almost a week now. Yes, I do realize that she started school a week ago. Yes, that's pretty much when she started talking about it. Well, I've talked to her about possibly doing that sometime later, when all then newness of everything wears off, but she keeps asking every day. Today, she was actually making plans for when we would go, where we would go, and what we would get. The girl is determined! She told me that today they were given time to draw ANYTHING they wanted. She drew pictures of flowers for her teacher.

Fast forward to tonight at Back to School night. The parents are all sitting in tiny little chairs and checking out the workbooks and stuff the kids will be working on this year. One is a writing journal and they've completed the first page. It's where they've drawn a picture at the top and their teacher wrote what they told her about the picture underneath it.

There are two boys at Morgan's table. To the right, Joey, who had drawn a picture and the caption said, "I trapped a pink coyote". To the left, John, with a picture of a snake and a caption, "I saw a snake when I went shooting with my Dad."** I open Morgan's and there is her picture. Two stick figures, one with longer hair (which always indicates an older female), with flowers in the middle. Her caption? "I'm giving Ms. A___ flowers". The other moms are all "awwww". I'm all "teacher's pet!". Ooohhh, the difference between boys and girls!

Back to school night was a big success. With every day that passes, I'm positive that we made the right decision on the school for Morgan. The teachers are so excellent and the stuff that they are doing is top notch. The kindergartners get music and PE each week (starting this week!)and get to go to the library once a week. The music teacher told us that they'll start talking about how to keep a steady beat this week and to expect to hear a lot about it at home. They start Spanish, Art and Sciences in the first grade! The curriculum for kindergarten looks to be really awesome and I'm just so impressed with what they have planned for this year. I'm so excited for Morgan. Her little brain is going to be buzzing with all the new information.

It was sign-up time for helping with our teacher. I think I did okay and only volunteered for a couple of things. Working on Fridays, particularly helping out with stations, and to be Room Parent/Party Planner WHATEVER THAT MEANS. It was totally peer pressure, too. After the teacher's presentation, a group of us moms go to see what is left over at the sign up sheets. Nobody had signed up for Room Parent. One of the moms looks at me and says, "I'll do it if you do it". How can I say no to that?? Yeah, I know it's a fairly easy word to say, but somehow SURE! came out. It's a sickness, I tell you. We also signed up to bring the teacher some supplies off her wish list and Lance signed up to help build a fence around the school's soon-to-be garden. At least I know I'm not the only volunteer in the family.

**I got the FULL disclaimer from John's Mom. She was a little reluctant to show me what he drew and his caption at first. She made me show her ours first. Then, she gave me the disclaimer that "they are locked up and unloaded". Just in case I ever decide to send my daughter to her house, I suppose.

Where's the cleaning crew?

One of the things that they've been pushing for at the school is for people to volunteer time over the weekend to do clean up. They had a bulletin board up at the barbecue last night, where you could pull a card for the activity you wanted to do. I was there with another Mom from Morgan's class and we both pulled cards to clean up the Kindergarten playground. Mine was to wash the play structures and hers was to sweep it. Seemed like it would take us, what, like an hour?? Try nearly FOUR! There was so much that needed to be picked up, cleaned up, swept up, etc. Of course, it didn't help that we are both kind of perfectionists. :)

Anyway - we got there expecting SOMEONE to be there, maybe at a table with coffee and donuts?? I'm not sure what movie I was stepping out of, but the stark reality hit me when it was us, one other mom who was weeding, the principal who was cleaning the hallways, and the janitor. And then it dawned on me. Similarly to the moms club, where 10% of the people do 90% of the work, it's going to be that way at the school, too. I know cleaning parties aren't everyone's cup of tea. I also know that people may be coming at different times all weekend long. Or maybe they are the ones who signed up to hand out sno-cones at the barbecue last night. But if you saw the building that the school district gave the charter school, you'd understand why I was anxious to go clean. Also you can understand why they want to break ground on the new school next summer and have it open by the time school starts in 2010.

Even though there weren't that many parents there, I feel good knowing that come Tuesday morning, I've cleaned every square inch of those play structures with vinegar and water and the yard is all swept up. And Morgan even helped, so I'm sure she'll be telling everyone of her good deeds to make their environment a little nicer. Plus she got to play with her friend until they were sick of each other. Maybe they'll be able to listen to the teacher come Tuesday morning.

Kids are napping and I'm nasty. Must go get showered. Birthday party tonight. I'm running myself ragged....