Not as Snarky as Intended

I know it's been a while since I've posted and that's largely because nothing photo-worthy has happened. I have some more great baseball shots of Smunch. But they look just like last month's baseball photos. And I tried to get some shots of the beautiful little chickadees nesting under our eves, but they weren't very cooperative.

Besides that, it's been a weird couple of weeks. See, a while ago, our PTA president, W., tried to recruit me for a volunteer position as the liaison between our elementary school and a parcel tax renewal/increase campaign. It's a cause I really truly support...because I'd probably be drawn and quartered as a PTA board member if I did not. And, because I have two kids in elementary school and I know how bad the buget issues are. But politics really isn't my game. And after talking to a woman who had held this sort of position before, I realized very quickly that this wasn't a job for me. Setting up calling nights, cold calling people. It's just not my thing. I don't even answer my phone when the caller ID says "Unavailable" or "Out of Area". Why would I make those calls to someone else?

So, I politely told our PTA president that I just couldn't do it. She was gracious in accepting my refusal, but she was stressed. "Oh, it's fine," she said. "I'm just stressed because I need to find someone to handle school supplies next year as well."

School supplies? Well, that's the kind of coordination effort that is up my alley. And, feeling badly that I didn't want to help in the political realm, I offered to take the school supplies job. I think W nearly died of shock at her good fortune. Not only did she get someone to take on school supplies, but she found someone else for the parcel tax job shortly thereafter.

So, school supplies... This is a job that requires working with a fantastic vendor, School-Pak, in Wisconsin and with the teachers at school. All I had to do was get their supply lists for next year, then arrange with School-Pak to provide those items for each child whose parents wanted to avoid the shopping trip and pay to have their child's supplies shipped directlly to school. Oh yeah, and to coordinate that delivery and get all the supplies to the different classrooms before school starts. Easy, right?

Well, no, but in fairness, I knew what I'd signed up for. See, before I was a mom, I was a writer, which means I have a lot of experience trying to get documents out of people who have no time for you. And I'm O.K. with the back-and-forth involved. Fortunately, School-Pak is so accomodating and forgiving that at least that part of the job was easy. It's teachers who are difficult.

Now, on the whole, I love our teachers. I've only met one I didn't like and she's long since gone. Fired, actually. But trying to get teachers to agree with their teams on what they're going to need for the next year can be a little daunting.

One wanted different pencil boxes than the others on her team. (We don't know which kids will be in which class, so that's not really possible.)

One grade wanted to make sure all their pencil boxes were the same color so as not to offend the senses when gazing over the classroom. (I could hardly believe School-Pak was willing to make that accomodation, but they were, even though the boxes normally come in assorted colors.)

One class wants their supplies delivered in November instead of August.

No one thought to collect the money from the incoming kindergarten parents with their registration this year (I hadn't been recruited yet), so I'd need to somehow convince them to pay up for their kids' school supplies. (Oh, that's what that "registration fee" was for!?)

And halfway through the process I was deluged with reports of wastage in the supplies program and parents who didn't want to purchase yet another pencil box and pair of scissors that would come home at the end of the year. (A valid concern, but nothing I was prepared for or equipped to address at that point.)

I had to request several samples to ensure the quality was up to par. That was kinda fun. I put lists together. Checked, cross checked and priced things...because oh, not all of this stuff would be purchased from School-Pak. Some needs to be purchased at Costco...and in my infinite wisdom, I decided that much of it would need to be purchased in person because I wasn't willing to have everyone pay for the exorbitant shipping costs for more than 100 cases of baby wipes.

Finally, in the past week, I've been able to get through all the number crunching, set some prices and go over the lists one last time...partly thanks to the fact that Mam came down with Strep on Friday night. As she lay motionless and painfully feverish on the sofa, I pored over spreadsheets and made some final changes.

The Strep was brutal. Three days of fevers over 105 in the midst of a recall on Children's Tylenol and Children's Motrin. Naturally, we'd given her three doses of recalled Tylenol before word of the recall hit my inbox.

And then it was a frenzy to get something she could take. The generic stuff was O.K., but largely swept off the shelves by parents better informed than I. Daddy found the last bottle of generic acetominophen at our local CVS.

After suffering through Friday afternoon's softball practice with a headache (which led me to suspect she was coming down with something), Mam missed the kindergarten tea party, her softball game and her elementary school's night at the ballpark.

She made a midnight visit to the ER with Daddy on Saturday (when he had a hard time getting her fever down and I was at the ballpark with Smunch)...where they failed to test her for Strep.

She missed a good friend's birthday party (for which I'd helped make the cake) on Sunday with another rip roaring fever. I took her to the pediatrician on Monday, where she was promptly diagnosed with Strep and sent home with a prescription for Amoxicillin. She still missed three days of school and now that the fever is gone, she seems to have a cold. Little germ monster.

So, today is a big milestone and perhaps a new start to blogging. All those school supplies lists are live, online for parents to order. Mam went back to school and appears to have an insatiable appetite for food all of a sudden.

Thank goodness that's over!

Going Overboard on a Retirement Cake

It all started with a simple, but silly comment I made at a PTA board meeting. One of the other moms there mentioned ordering a bridge for our new teaching garden...right after my update on the "Spring Celebration", which was a low-key retirement party for our principal in addition to a garden dedication. I chirped up, "We could call it the Bridge to Retirement!" I was kinda kidding, but the PTA president loved the idea and so it happened.

Of course, being a cakey kind of person, I volunteered to make a cake for said Spring Celebration, which I was also co-chairing. Silly me. 'Cause you know what happened, right? Well, actually you probably couldn't imagine the insanity that occurred after that, which included having to reschedule the whole event because of the swine flu...rescheduling it to the weekend Daddy and I were supposed to go away without the children for the first time ever! For a minute, I was off the hook for the cake because suddenly no one was interested in eating home-baked goods. But that was when the swine flu panic was still going full force. If you didn't notice, it became a back-burner issue very quickly.

And then I made the mistake of suggesting that I make a replica of the Bridge to Retirement for the cake. Then I went and visited a bunch of aquarium stores hoping to make my job little easier. No simple aquarium bridges to be found. Turns out I should've gone this route to begin with:Not bad and not altogether difficult. It was a passable chocolate replica of the sturdy redwood bridge they'd installed.

Next, I needed to try and replicate the dry creek bed that runs under the bridge. A trip to my favorite cake supplies store provided not only some really killer cake mix for the 16" cake, but some fantastic "chocolate rocks" that were just what I needed.As soon as I got all the creekbed done, I knew I'd made a mistake frosting the whole thing white. It's a garden. It's dirt! Nothing a package of Oreos (stuffing removed) and a rolling pin couldn't handle!

I had a little bit of white fondant left over from Smunch's birthday cake and used that to fashion a green water pump. I also had some colored fondant I used to make more flowers to make everything more garden like.In a final act of decorating inspiration, I decided to try and make it look like water was coming out of the pump. To my astonishment, it worked...really well!I also used the green fondant for the stars on the side of the cake. I know they look kind of odd on this garden cake, but they are a take on the school logo and were actually more appropriate than you'd think.

The worst part of this cake was trying to write on top of Oreo crumbs. They're somewhat loose, so it's crazy difficult to pipe letters onto the top and make them look neat. In a way, that was good. It meant I couldn't get too creative with the message. It had to be short and simple. Now you have to imagine that I took this giant cake to a school-wide event. The kids were very impressed...so impressed that I ended up having to post Daddy as a sentry to make sure no fingers ended up in the frosting before it was presented to the honoree. He fielded a number of questions. Who made that? Are those real rocks? Is that real dirt? What did you use for the water? And he did it all with good humor...especially considering we'd had to reschedule our trip for this shindig.I'd say it was a grand success. Of course, it wasn't big enough for everyone. And the potluck portion of the event didn't go particularly well. We totally ran out of food. I hid the cake away until the end and those whole helped out or stuck around for a long time got to eat it. That seemed fair, considering. I sent the bridge and a big chunk of cake home with Mr. Celeste. It was yummy...which was fortunate since I never got any dinner!

Catch up

It's been almost a month since I've posted anything. It's not really that I've been so busy. I'm busy a lot and still manage to make time to post things. I think it's mostly been a big case of the blahs. For instance, it's nice to have the kids back at school this week, but BLAH, I'm struggling to enjoy the routine of drop-offs, pick-ups, speech therapy, swimming, gymnastics and baseball sign-ups. I'm really looking forward to baseball season. Sounds like we'll have the same great coaches (including my dad) that we did last year and that means a lot of great moms for me to hang out with too. These are the same fantastic women who got me interested in being on the PTA board...not by recruiting me, just by being cool people who I'd like to know.

And, oh yeah, PTA board. My partner in crime and I need to figure out what the heck the "Spring Event" is...'cause we're in charge of putting it on in May. By all indications, it's going to be a relatively low-key affair.

And then there are the baby shower invitations I need to order for one of my bestest, oldest friends in the world (we met in kindergarten). And the Christmas cards. And that holiday letter I have yet to write. I don't think I've even got paper for it. *sigh*

I even got a little bit of paying work today...which adds to the load, but it's still really good news. I'm always thrilled to have a little work to do on the side...something that makes me feel like I'm contributing, even though my November invoice would barely pay for dinner out at Chevy's.

Anyhoo. I'll be back. I swear. I've got a cute little post planned and some pictures to post. And PIES. Of course. : )