Is It Friday Yet?

What a week and it's only Wednesday! I spent all day Monday cleaning my house because, for some reason, it's everyone's goal to trash it over the weekend. And they always make their goals. The messier, the better. My couch cushions are covered with unidentifiable stuff so I've been washing slip covers this week. What are the chances the couches will stay clean until Christmas when everyone comes over to my house? LOL! I just crack myself up.

I've been finding poor amputee gingerbread men all over the house too. Not even their M&M buttons were spared. I've given up cleaning my floors. With all the snow and salt being tracked in everyday, there's no way to keep up with it. Speaking of snow...

Yesterday, Jackson went on a field trip to a museum downtown. They left the museum at 2:00 PM and didn't get back to the school until 8:00 at night! They were on that bus for SIX hours! Although I was worried about my son and their safe arrival home, I think I was more worried about that poor bus driver! You know how nerve wracking it can be to drive in a snow storm. Add rush hour traffic, a huge bus full of fourth graders who haven't eaten or gone to the bathroom in hours, singing 9,999,999 bottles of beer on the wall... I think I would've driven off a cliff. She deserves a gold medal.

The school, however, gets a flunking grade from me. They made one phone call about the situation. I had just gotten a phone call from the junior high saying that after-school activities were canceled so when the grade school called with their message about the cancellation of after-school activities, I listened for a minute and then hung up. I guess at the end of that message, they mentioned that the fourth graders on the field trip hadn't gotten back to school yet and wouldn't be there in time for dismissal. That was my fault for not listening to that message in its entirety. However, the school never made another phone call after that. Not one call from 3:00 to 8:00 when the kids finally made it back to the school.

At 4:30 I called the school to get an update. "What's going on? Are they almost home?"

I was told that they were fine; just stuck in traffic and should be back to the school by 5:30. "Between 5:30 and 6:00," she added.

5:30 came and went. 6:00 came and went. 6:30 came and went. When I still hadn't heard anything at 7:00, I called the school again.

"I'm calling for an update on the fourth graders."

"Oh they're fine. They stopped to let the kids use the bathroom so that took a little extra time, but they're back on the road and should be arriving soon."

"OK, I was wondering about the bathroom. Those kids have got to be really hungry now too."

"Yes, they stopped for a bathroom break because that could get really uncomfortable if they didn't."

"OK, why you aren't using the AlertNow message system to update parents."

"Well, we made one phone call."

"I haven't gotten any phone calls. Not one. And by 7:00 at night, there should have been several calls made!" (I realize now that I did indeed receive that first call, but didn't listen to the message until the very end so I missed the part about the fourth graders being late.) Still, that was the only call made all evening. And that initial call only came to my home phone, not my cell like alerts usually do. I feel really bad for the working parents who weren't home to get that one phone call.

Finally at 8:00 PM, I got the call that Jackson was back at school.

Now I know, living in Chicago, bad weather happens. It's unavoidable. You deal with it. What I don't understand is why the school didn't keep the parents informed of what was going on. We were sitting at home worried, as we heard reports of crashes happening during that awful commute yesterday. There's just no excuse for the lack of communication. And it's not even like we have to use a phone tree with volunteers calling a dozen people each. Oh no, we spent a bunch of money on this AlertNow system. All the principal had to do was record an update and it could have be sent out to everyone. Ta da. We could have received hourly updates, but no. They didn't do that.

Not only that, but when I asked Jackson about the trip, he said, "They never stopped for us to use the bathroom! They stopped a couple times for the driver to clean off the window. That's it." I doubled checked with a friend who was a chaperone on the trip and she confirmed Jackson's story that they never took a bathroom break. I don't think the secretary just lied to me, but clearly there was some miscommunication happening.

Let's see, what else has been going on? Clay had his Christmas program at school today. I forgot my camera. I ALWAYS have my camera! I bring it everywhere! And today, I forgot it. And do you think I got teacher's gifts in time? Last night, as I lay awake in bed, following my routine which goes a little something like this... Pray, remember something I forgot, pray some more, think about another ball I dropped, jump out of bed to switch loads of laundry one more time, go back to praying, remember a few things I have to do in the morning, push Brooklyn over to the other side of the bed, remember another ball I dropped, jump out of bed to write a check out for lunch money, make a mental list of stuff I need to finish this week, remember something else I screwed up, move Brooklyn's feet off my spleen, then finally fall asleep about 2 hours before my alarm goes off. Anyway, as I lay there last night, I realized I never got any teacher gifts. Ugh.

Oh and the projection lamp went out on our TV. Do you hear me? I have 2 more days until all 6 kids will be home every minute of every day for a solid 2 weeks and the TV isn't working!!! A warning had flashed across the screen every day for about a month, alerting us to the fact that the lamp was about to go. Do you think we paid it any heed? Oh no. Well, actually, that's not entirely true. We looked up how much it would cost to replace the lamp and decided that clearly, the warning was wrong and the lamp couldn't possibly burn out soon because it's too expensive to replace.

On the bright side, we do have a small TV in my bedroom and the kids have gone in there to watch it a couple times. Unfortunately, that also means, they've trashed my room, but hey, it's worth it to have the little ones occupied for a half hour, right?

Oh yes, and 2 nights ago, Lexi lost a tooth. Amazingly the Tooth Fairy remembered to come and take her tooth. On the first night, no less! Last night at bedtime, however, Lexi lay awake crying her eyes out. "What's wrong?" I asked.

"I miss my tooth!" she wailed. "I want it back!"

Oh for crying out loud. That's a new one for me.

Now I hear my washing machine hopping across the floor with an unbalanced load and I have to go pick the middles up from school. Gotta go!

*****Edited to add - I have another giveaway over HERE. It's for a Word World Moon Sand Set.*****