Kindergarten Orientation -- The Best Friends Ever

P and I took L for his Kindergarten orientation on Friday morning.  Wow!  It was quite the experience.  I think he will truly love and thrive at school.  But, what will the motivation be?  Learning to read?  No, it's going to be this little paper treasure chest that the teacher has put incentives in to reward the kids for good behavior.  If he earns 5 green checks, he will get to pick something from the box.  This is the only thing our son mentioned about the day and the only thing that really seemed to excite him.
As a mom, I was impressed by the sheer amount the students would be taught in their first year of school.  I was happy to see that L knows 2 boys in his class, though barely, he still knows their names and feels comfortable around them.  I was surprised to see that though we spend most of our time outside the world that is our local borough, I recognized or knew many of the other parents and kindergarten students, though most were in the other classes.  I did finally feel like we might just fit in in this small town.

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To say that life has thrown me a few curves balls lately would be an understatement.  For instance, the YMCA has been part of our lives for the last 2 years.  My children feel extremely comfortable there and so do I.  It is where and how we met and connect with most of our friends.  We have been truly blessed to have felt a true sense of community there.  Unfortunately, with the welcoming of our most precious little Q, we have now become unwelcome at the Y, at least for the next 4 to 7 months.  I will not get into it, but you can imagine it was quite a surprise for me.  With all of the stress I have been working through, this truly was the straw, the one that just broke me.  But, what do the best friends in the world do?  They pick you up when you are down and help you stand back up, on your own 2 feet.

After kindergarten orientation, I had some things I had to do, but then I met up with 3 of my girlfriends at the park.  I brought the birthday cake that P and the kids made me the day before to share, or really, to get rid of it so that I didn't eat the whole thing by myself.  Yes, I would.  Scary.  

When I arrived, everyone met at the picnic table and started passing around party hats for the kids.  My immediate thought was, "Crap!  Its one of the kids' birthdays and I didn't bring a gift.  How could I have failed to have known this?!"  Luckily, it wasn't anyone's birthday, it was mine!  I was so incredibly touched.  They had brought stuff for sandwiches, fresh veggies, fruit and brownies.  Yum!  They even gave me gifts: workout clothes, a buff moms dvd, candle, and stuff to manage my disgusting feet.  Boy, do they know me well.  

The kids had so much fun playing with their friends and so did I.  

My friends are the best because they make me realize that life is good when there are people out there that love you, not because they have to, but because they want to.  Thanks, ladies!

Planning new beginnings

A busy day today, all focused around new beginnings: kindergarten and a new playground.

Seriously, if the military wants to learn methods of non-violent torture, they should really take a lesson from our school district.  Today, it took me over an hour to register my son for Kindergarten, and I still have to go back to the school to drop off a utility bill to prove we live at our house.  Here's the thing.  I called the school on 3 previous occasions, and receive no information as to what needed to be supplied at registration, and if you don't get the newspaper, you don't get the knowledge.  Luckily, my girlfriend called me this morning to give me a heads up as to what needed to be brought.  Problem: last week, I took care of my paper clutter.  This means that I didn't have a single utility bill in my house, they've all been shredded.  I brought 9 different forms of proof of residency when 3 were needed, but since none were utility bills, my son's registration is on hold until one is supplied.  If you know me, than you know that I just can't handle stupid people or stupid policies.  This is a stupid policy.   Of course, I had to call the superintendent and complain.  Grrr!

I also took the kids to help plan our local YMCA's new Kaboom! playground, sponsored by our favorite major corporation, MetLife.  The kids each drew a picture of their ideal playground and shared their wishes.  L wanted a castle/dragon playground with lots of spinning pieces and things to climb on.  J wanted her's to look like an airplane (don't ask me why cause I don't know) with swings.  I thought that was it.  The kids shared their visions and I thought we would just come back on build day, but of course, there was more to this deal.  The sucker I am, ended up signing up to do the recruitment of the 16 Build Captains, 250 volunteers, safety staff, and prep staff of 30.  Let us not forget the 30% drop rate, so those are just the base numbers I need to have.  Didn't I just say a couple of posts ago that I needed to reduce my schedule and simplify my life.  Hmmm...guess that will have to wait until June.

With all I vent on here, though, I must say, I really do love my life.  I love my busy schedule, though I often have dreams of simplifying it.  Let's just say this venting is cathartic.  If I didn't do it, someone might die, and it wouldn't be me ;)  hehehe...j/k