Notes Home

Mornings are good for me. For the most part, I am home alone to do whatever makes me happy. Usually, I need an hour or so to send out emails and muck about on the Internet. Then I will read my book for a couple of hours. The panic comes about 15 minutes before I have to pick up Sarah from daycare. I cram a couple of hours of work into that 15 minutes so it looks like I've had a super hard day.

(Dan, I'm kidding. I just said that to be amusing. Really, I do spend my mornings cleaning and dreaming up lovely ways to amuse our beautiful daughters. And oh how it tires me. I need to go out tonight to re-energize!)

Anyway, my day starts getting stressful at about 3:10. My stomach goes into knots. I know what is coming. Ten minutes later, the school bus comes into sight. Big sigh. I have to face the music. And it ain't pretty.

My daughters get off the school bus, smiling and full of cheer. They are so excited to tell me about their day. But all I can hear is the sound of my heart racing. All I can focus on is getting into their school bags...which they have conveniently dropped on the driveway for me to pick-up.

Once inside, I retrieve their agendas and flip to the plastic letter holder in the back. This is where the teacher puts her little notes. Most days it has at least one note in it. And I sigh.

The notes aren't saying that my children are bad...or good. They don't even specifically mention my children. These are letters from the school asking for money! Lots and lots of money.

Brace yourselves! Here's a totally on topic rant!

The following list are the examples that I can think of off the top of my head:

School supplies...$170
Photos...$50
Terry Fox Run (min) donation...$30
Scholastic books (first time)...$12
Scholastic books (2nd time)...$6
Pizza money...$28
Dance class...$120
Martial Arts...$120
Violin lessons...$120
School fair...$20
Movie Night...$8
School dance...$10
Saunder's Farm trip...$26

(Please note that this list is the combined costs, as I have two daughters enrolled in the school)

See why I get nervous?! The girls have been going to school for less than 2 months. By the end of the year, we are going to absolutely broke! The school doesn't care, they hype the children up so they come home announcing that they would be absolutely devastated if they were unable to participate. Thanks. The school holds me hostage. Pay up or they will break the hearts of my children!

Do you want to know which fancy, schmancy private school I send my children to? I don't! They go to the local public school!

Okay, back to the point of the story. The agendas. Yesterday, I opened the agendas and found a little note. I groaned (out loud) as I wondered how much this note would set me back. It turns out that the kindergarten class had painted five pumpkins and they were going to do a draw to see who could take them home. No purchase necessary! After I recovered from my shock--induced heart attack, Dan and I did a little jig in the kitchen. At last we had received some form of communication from the school which did not require a mad dash to the ATM!

The children were excited, too. Bethie and Katie just knew that they were going to win a pumpkin. Dan and I tried to explain that they might not win. They refused to acknowledge that possibility. I asked them what was going to happen if they didn't win? Bethie looked at me and announced that she would pitch a fit. And then I said a word that I probably shouldn't have said in front of the children because I can see how this is going to end...and it ain't pretty!

So off they went to school today, eagerly awaiting the results from the draw. I am sitting here at home wishing that the teacher would have taken the pumpkins back to her own house, or given them to the French teacher as a "Thank You" from the class, or dropped them off the roof of the school to show the kinders that "this is your brain on drugs. Any questions?" (my second favourite commercial of all time!). Instead, I sit and wait. Waiting for the results of the kindergarten draw. Knowing that the draw will decided if we have a good week or a bad week. AHHHH!