School Woes

So, yesterday was Parent Teacher Conference for Sister.

The book fair is also going at the same time.

When Marc and I left the kids with Lindsey to attend the meeting and the book fair, Sister had a pretty good sized melt down because she wanted to come with us so she could show us the book she wanted. I kept reassuring her that we would find a book she loves and she would actually survive.

After peeling her from my extremities and quickly escaping from the house before she could grasp onto me again Marc and I jumped into the car and were off to PTC. (For all those who may not know "parent" lingo, PTC is the cool way of saying Parent Teacher Conference. OK, proceed...)

We got to the school a little early just so we could go to the book fair and find the ultimate LEGO Star Wars book they had there. We took a picture of it and sent it to Lindsey instructing her to ask Sister if that, was indeed, the book she had been dreaming of.

It was!

All right!

On to PTC.

Talking with Sister's teacher was actually very enjoyable. Sister is doing so well that it was just exciting to talk about how she is doing and all she has been accomplishing. We tried not to focus too long on her anxiety, because, well, that just gets us all anxious...

So, we brought back the book and all was well.

Until...

Marc left with Brother to Scouts and I was home with the girls who were enjoying looking at the new LEGO book.

Then I had a friend come to the door and we talked for a while and then said our goodbyes.

I saw Baby sitting in front of the new book, thoroughly engaged...

... wait ...

is that a pen in her hand?

Yep.

And yes, she is drawing in Sister's brand new, pricy-for-a-school-book-fair book!!

And the wailing and gnashing of teeth began.

But, all was well when I announced to Sister that she could take her book to school the next day and show it to her friends and no one would even care about the scribbles.

That was such a good a idea.

Too bad I didn't remember to get it down off the fridge to send with her this morning.

Then Sister came home from school with 2 woes. 1) she for got her LEGO Star Wars book! and 2) she now wanted "A new Lineus (Phineus) Ferb" book

I had to say "no" because we already got her one. It wasn't pretty at first but she seems to have accepted the fact finally. Of course she is asleep now, so all seems pretty well for now...

Now for my school woes:

I never help with school things. It's not that I don't want to. I do. It just seems that with the situation of our children, volunteering to help a lot at school just doesn't end up happening.

Well, today there was an opportunity to help for a PTA thing going on at Harmon's Grocery Store. I had signed up for a30 minute shift to serve ice cream. Well, I get there and we are not doing ice cream, we are doing apple slices poked with a toothpick flag and a tooth pick with a couple of grapes to poke into the apple and "voila!"

The first girl I worked with was very nice and we talked for the few minutes we were there together until the next shift volunteer cam along.

She had brought a friend.

There was room for two people.

So the two friends sat and talked about nothing I could relate to, nor could they even try to involve me because they hadn't even looked at me yet and they had been there for 10 minutes. I helped a small rush of kids make their apple boats while the girls continued to chat.

I thought now that the crowd had died down I would try to jump into the conversation and get to know the ladies. After all, I was only going to be there 5 more minutes.

After making a few unnoticed efforts to talk to these ladies the one standing and talking to the sitting one turned to me... I actually got a little happy thinking she was finally going to act like I exist, and she said, "You can go, I'll just stay." And then she sat down and they didn't even take a moment from their conversation to reply a "goodby" when I gave one.

...

I felt like the new girl in high school.

Sheesh!

Maybe I just don't fit into the volunteering parent realm.

In all honesty, even if I could join in on their conversation, I wouldn't have had much to add. They were in a whole other league than me.

You know the league of "My kids are perfect, we have money to do whatever we want, and don't even ask if they're real!"

So, my first experience volunteering for the PTA was not exactly the best half hour of my life, but at least I can say I helped once.