What Did I Do?

All of my joining is finally starting to come around to bite me in the butt. Our school district has this voice message system where each family has a voice mail account. It's a great way to get little notices out to teachers (and for them to do the same) or to other parents...you just leave a message to someone's voice mail and they can get back to you. It saves so much on notes going back and forth, potentially getting lost or ignored. I probably check ours on a daily basis since you're only allowed 15 messages total and some days we get 5 or more. Today was no exception.

I dialed in this morning to find 5 new messages in the mailbox. One from the school's new voice mail rep and two from Jacob's teacher giving the weekly agenda (she can never keep her messages under the allotted 3 minutes so she usually gets cut off and has to send a second voice mail). Then, I get this one:

"Hi! This is Betsey and if you're getting this message, you've signed up to volunteer for the third grade Southwestern Day! We're having our first planning meeting..."

Ugh. I press 9 to save it and move on to the last one.

"Hi! This is JJ and if you're getting this message, you've signed up to volunteer for the Family Night Supper and Bookfair next week! 8 me back and let me know which shift you'd like to work..."

Crap. At least Mike gets to take my place at the first grade Native American Day on Friday since I'm going to be on a plane, heading to Sue's! LOL!

I'm Tired

But I think it's a good tired, and I think that it may be because I'm thinking of what I have to do this week.

After I dropped the boys off at school this morning, Hannah and I went inside to go to the room mother meeting. I found the other room mother for Jacob's class, Betsey, and we started talking. It turns out that her son has been really wanting a playdate with Jacob. We think that we're going to do something on Friday, but we wanted to see what the boys wanted to do first.

Unfortunately, we're still known as the "new family." I wonder how long that will last. It is kind of funny, though...introducing myself to people and hearing them say, "oh! You moved in the middle of the year last year, right?" I laughed when I heard them say it to Betsey, too, since she moved here just a couple of weeks before us. I do have to say that it was really nice to be walking out of the school, laughing and talking with other adults. I came out of that meeting feeling pretty good about being here. Maybe it's not so bad after all. Ask me again in another month.

I guess being a room mother also entails being available at Meet-the-teacher Night on Thursday, because we're the "face of Morse, besides the teachers." Whatever that means. Betsey and I decided to break it up a bit, but I'm still going to have to be there later than I had anticipated. Ugh. You should see the packet of stuff I got today. Class sheets, sign-ups, approved snack lists, party info...the list goes on and on. And that's just for co-room mother. The head room mothers got a huge folder full of stuff. If you ask me, it's more work than it's worth, but who am I to say anything?

We came home, I cleaned and set up the crock pot for dinner. I'm actually quite shocked that the house is still pretty clean after 4 days. The laundry's not piled up, the beds are actually made and there's a vase of pretty, pretty sunflowers on the kitchen table. It really is easier to maintain a clean house than it is to get a dirty one clean. I keep telling myself that, anyway. At some point, I'm going to have to tackle the laundry room closet and pantry cabinets. Someday.

We have Tae Kwon Do tonight and the boys should "officially" get their orange belts. Grandmaster Lee gave them to the boys on Saturday, but I didn't get pictures, so I'm hoping that Master Dave will give them again so that I can get some. LOL!

Apparently, I've been yelling at Mike in my sleep. I had no idea. Mike asked me yesterday if he had been snoring and I said that I didn't think so, why? He said that I yelled something about something being "ridiculous" so loudly that he woke up and apologized. I wonder what I was dreaming about.

Yes, I'm a Joiner

We went up to the school this morning to find out who the kids' teachers are and to sign up for PTO stuff. Jacob's a bit upset because his best friend, Zephan, is not in his class. He doesn't know many of the kids and I think that might be a good thing. Kara from down the street is in Daniel's class. I think that Beth and I were more excited about that than they were. LOL! I ran into pretty much everyone with kids on the street at this thing. You know, I really thought that Morgan was the same age as Hannah. Turns out she's a year older and will be starting kindergarten. It's wild to think that next year Hannah will be in kindergarten. How nice will it be, though, to have all three at the same school?

So, the joining part. I had promised Jacob that if no one had already done so, I would sign up to be his room mother. We get up there and I see that there's only one name for his class (there are two room mothers) so I grab a pen and write my name in the second spot. I told Daniel that next year, I'd be his room mother. I'm handed a couple of fliers about various room mother meetings and am told, "see you next Tuesday in the cafeteria!" (that's when the first meeting is) Ummm...okay. I ended up signing up to be on a few other committees...after the first time you sign your name, it becomes way too easy to put your name on stuff. It's not until walking out of the building that you realize just how much you've just committed yourself to. I felt like it was MOMS Club all over again! LOL! I tell you what...this PTO is a huge Moms Club. I think I've found something I can throw myself into! Yay!

We also stopped by the Cub Scout booth. Daniel was mesmerized by the pine cars they had displayed and enthusiastically told the guy he wanted to be a Cub Scout. So, I've committed (Daniel positively and Jacob tentatively) to taking the boys to the first meeting on the 28th. I knew that things would pick up once school started!