100 ways to make me crazy

i've been the mom of an elementary school-age child for a while. long enough to have learned how to combat monday morning gumpies, long enough to have learned how to pack an amazing lunch featuring 16 different food groups, long enough to have learned how to deal with head lice...

not long enough, apparantly, to have learned to check the take-home folder before sunday night.

i was greeted by this little surprise when i thought to flip through the folder late sunday afternoon. sunday afternoon following a beautiful weekend (70 degrees!). we were not overcommitted, there was time for laundry and bike rides and spt-ing. i even read half of a book. it had all of the markings of a lazy, yet productive-in-a-good-way, weekend.

until i read the memo about 100th day.



the entire memo reads "Please bring 100 items on Monday, Feb. 4, 2008 to celebrate the 100th Day of School." you know how important this is because the memo is written entirely in capital letters. for lovers of 21st century written language, you know that ALL CAPS means *really. important.*

i had to include my ugly-but-useful $9.00 watch in the photo so you could appreciate the fact that i first found out about this important memo at 5:26 pm. (and for the record, this memo was NOT in the folder thursday night, which means that this very important information was not disseminated to the parents until friday afternoon, leaving us one weekend to prepare 100 things.) (which means, if you're me, leaving us a lot less time to prepare 100 things.)

i groaned. i had just gotten back from the store, and, even if i felt i could get away with sending, say, 100 hershey kisses, i had no intentions of going back out. "oh," i groaned," if i had only known about this earlier, i could have made something totally cute."

from the other room, i heard, "ugghhhh. not something cute, mom." (what IS it with almost-seven-year-old-boys, anyway?!?)

well, whatever. fortunately, i have a computer. and cardstock. and there was actually ink in the printer. and all of a sudden, we had these



with jack manning the paper cutter, me with the embroidery thread, and tom brady struggling to get a first down, we got busy! a few hours and one superbowl later, we had 100 bookmarks.



sorry for the fuzzy shot, but i had to document the time. it should be stated that i was in a multi-tasking frenzy, as i simultaneously made dinner and dessert, assembled another dinner for monday night, showered AND folded laundry. 100 things?!? phhppppt... i probably did 200 things!!

so, i'm thinking, there aren't even 100 kids in jack's school. well, maybe 100. if even half of them manage to bring 100 things to share.... well, you do the math. jack's coming home with a backpack full of *stuff* this afternoon. and if there are any hershey kisses in there, they're mine!