Thursday, August 14, 2008

A Jumbled Mess

That's what my brain feels like this morning. By next Wednesday, Buddy will be back in school. There are still items on his supply list I need to pick up. So, I've got this running commentary in the back of my mind with assorted school supplies being yelled out. "FOUR Composition notebooks, black and white cover" "Three boxes of tissue to share with class" and "Four report covers". What in the world are report covers?? Anyone care to assist me in gaining that knowledge? Thanx.

There are more items on the list, too.... But, I've bought almost everything necessary or we have things from last year he can use again.

I've ordered and received summer uniform pieces. The shirts have already been washed - shorts are next. He still has a tie from last year (amazingly enough), a belt and enough navy blue socks to get us started.

I'm going to have to get my schedule re-adjusted as well. I'll be getting up just a little bit earlier to wake him up and get him breakfast. After I do that, I'll fix the Evil Twin's lunch and be able to get in the shower before Sissy wakes up.

We've decided that the Evil Twin will adjust his work hours and leave earlier to take Buddy in to school. I'll do pick up in the afternoon, as usual.

This is our first year since we've lived in this house that we haven't carpooled with our friends/neighbors. Their youngest son is going on to Junior High and we don't know anyone else nearby who will have a kid at the same school as Buddy. That's fine - the school is less than 2 miles from our house, but I am so not a morning person.

I was always thrilled that our friends were happy to do morning drop off (they both have jobs outside the home and had to be off to work anyway, so morning drop off was on their way). I don't mind driving Buddy to school in the morning if I can do the "dump n' run" (i.e. I don't have to get out the van, I just pull up on next to the sidewalk and he lets himself out). But, I always worry that someone will need to talk to me or that I'll need to enter the school for some reason and I would hate that if I wasn't dressed for the day, know what I mean?

It's stupid, really, but it's my own little stupid quirk. Y'all, I never claimed to be perfect.

Why do I say that? Because I can already sense that someone, somewhere is reading this, clucking their tongue and saying, "What a stupid, shallow little ninny she is." As if no one else has flaws. At least I admit mine. :-)

Anyhoot, I better get myself in gear and finish up the Back to School things. I like being prepared. And, I really didn't do well in Brownie Scouts, either. Must just be my all natural anal retentive personality! Wheee!

28 comments:

  1. OMG! Summer's over already? Poor Buddy... wait a minute, I had to work all Summer! Oh... yeah it's about the child not me. LOL

    Good luck with your shopping! Oh BTW I've got my mob from 8 little people to near 50 with your website! Woo Hoo!

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  2. I'm so glad that this is the last year that I have to donate a mint of cash to the school.

    With any luck, both of the kids will graduate. Miss A may even have enough credits to graduate at the end of this semester if she doesn't ditch. She makes awesome grades, but they also count for attendance.

    The boy, well, he may end up taking another year of school since he refuses to make any real effort.

    Anyway, last year of supplies and playing school taxi for me, yay!

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  3. In a desperate moment last year, I drove DD to school while wearing pjs after sh missed the bus. I sooo do not do that. I think I wore a hat and coat as a disguise.

    Don't you guys have school buses?

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  4. Ron - congrats on the mob thing. Keep adding. I'm 120 away from 500!

    Catscratch - I'm envious. I've got many, many more years left.

    K - Buddy goes to private school (no bus). But even our public schools are so close, the county does not provide bus service, so we'll still be driving for public school.

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  5. Wait.

    "Three boxes of tissue to share with the class"???

    WTF? (And I guess everybody can tell I don't have kids.)

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  6. Wait.

    "Three boxes of tissue to share with the class"???

    WTF? (And I guess everybody can tell I don't have kids.)

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  7. And I'm doing everything twice today, btw.

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  8. Laura - LOL. Yep, schools don't provide *anything* these days, so parents have to send tissues, wipes, virtually everything. In Buddy's class, there are only 14 kids (that's the entire 5th grade), so what on earth they need 42 boxes of tissue is beyond me. (believe it or not, there are parents who send NOTHING, so the rest of us have to provide for their child, too!)

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  9. Geez...do I remember those days BUT, they kept a running list of who gave what and if you didn't....they upped your tuition bill. That'll teach those efen moochers ;

    Oh, 1 year they asked for 'volunteers' to make copies of the Christmas Recipe Book. My daughter, who was maybe 8-9 at the time, 'volunteered' cuz she knew Dad had a copier at work. Lets see...100 Recipe Books, 20 pages each, uh...alternating red and green pages..thats 2000 copies (1/2 red, 1/2 green) and she told me 2 days before they HAD to be handed in....Geezus. Called the company who does printing for us. $300 but boy they sure looked nice ;)
    Uh...she never volunteered that again ;)

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  10. Yep -- just got back from another run to finish up Mr. Cool's supply list -- and yep, three boxes of Kleenex, two large bottles of GermX, and two packages of Expo markers later, I've helped to supply his classroom. (All he needed for his own use was a package of drafting pencils.) Sigh.

    I 'tweeted' you earlier to explain what report covers are -- did you see it?

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  11. School shopping? Best done at Staples. They even have TISSUES!

    So much better than braving the MalWart crowds.

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  12. Oh my, I am working on a list consisting of a nap mat, extra underwear and a lunch kit for my 3 year-old. I am not ready for anything more complicated at this time. Good luck getting it together! :)

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  14. They still haven't released the back-to-school supply lists at my kids' school. It seems they do this later and later each year, so I don't get them until I'm already teaching and the kids are doing football. By then it's really inconvenient to run to the store!

    And so begins my saga of being eternally a day late and a dollar short. The school year is pure chaos!

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  15. I hate report covers. They're usually a folded piece of clear plastic that has a hard plastic spine you slid over the clear plastic cover after you use it to envelope your paper for your report. They used to make kids use them in school so they would be prepared for college (where your report supposedly should look more profession). Then the kid gets to college and watches professors rip that plastic cover off and hand it straight back to the kid while stapling the report together.

    Professors don't like them because sometimes pages aren't aligned right when the spine's slid on and you have pages fall out of the middle of the report. You should hip the school to the money- and environment-saving properties of a stapler. Hell, you could provide stapler and a semester's worth of staples for the whole class for what those report binders will run you.

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  16. Clearly when you look at my spelling and grammar, you'll see I'm still laboring under the sick head.

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  18. I think haloscan has a case of the burps today too.

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  19. Efen - we're lucky we run a full graphics shop here at home and the Evil Twin knows printers all over town willing to "help" when needed.

    wordnerd - I saw it, but I had to go directly to your Twitter homepage. Thanks!! :-)

    Tiff - thanks for the heads up. I've been buying stuff here n there as I see it (carry list with me everywhere!).

    Gigi - I remember those days!

    Rebecca - I would be producing diamonds from coal out my ass right now if our school waited 'til the last minute. Clearly, I'm a bit OCD.

    BB - I know what they are now (thanks, everyone) but I don't think I ever used one in regular school or college. Hmmm. I'll send 'em. Like everything else, they may get used...they may not. It's a crap shoot there.

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  20. Even if I have to wait two hours in 110 degree heat, I still dress in long jeans in case someone sees me.

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  21. I am producing diamonds, because the new 4th grade teacher has yet to send out a supply list...aargh!

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  22. honeywine - I hate long pants! If I have to wear them, though, it's jeans. :-)

    MEL - honey, if I were you, just knowing that Little Bit doesn't have the previous Shrew from Hell 4th Grade Teacher would be worth the anxiety for me. LOL.

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  23. Nooze goes to public school. Here, the boys bring the tissues; the girls bring ziploc bags. Gallon Size.

    I also heartily recommend Big Lots and the Dollar Tree for random supplies.

    [What IS it with the marbled comp books this year? Nooze needs TWO of them!]

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  24. i clearly remember the one and only day i drove the kids to school wearing my jammies...the car stalled, I flooded the engine trying to re-start it and eventually had to get out of the damn car. No bra, no real clothes just the jammies and slippers.

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  25. Renn - over the years, I've bought my weight's worth in those books. At the end of the year, each might have a page or two written in - the rest left blank! Grrrr.

    rosemary - and therein is the proof of the "what if" of my dilemma!

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  26. Clucking tongue

    What a stupid, shallow little ninny...

    Um.

    LOL

    (running and hiding)

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