The Spirit is Gonna Get Ya

Oh.my.word.

Spirit week is over.  Hallelujah and Amen.

It has been an intense week and I was just not prepared.  Not prepared for all the hoopla and drama and five million extra things to remember to send in.  My boy and I are tired. We're slap out of hound dog spirit.

It all started on Monday.  If you're friends with me on facebook you know this story already.  Drew was PUMPED for red, white, and blue day.  He was so pumped that he wanted to have red hair.  And paint his whole face.  I'm a fun mom, y'all, so I went to Party City and picked up a can of red hair spray.  And some face paint.  I knew that his sensory issues would not mesh well with a full face painting, so I talked him out of that.  But, I thought the red hairspray would be a blast, so we did it.  Well.  When we got into the drop off line that morning, he started to notice that no one else had red hair.  He panicked.  However, one minute before you're getting out of the car is not a lot of time to reverse the situation.  We had a quick pep talk about how to be yourself, and how if you think it's cool, then it's cool.  And if another kid makes fun of you, just punch him in the throat.  Alright, fine.  I didn't say that.  I watched that little body trudge up the sidewalk and I didn't know how on earth I was going to make it through the day.

I'll tell you how I made it.  I emailed his teacher.  Yep.  I was that mom.  I needed to know he was ok.  She was so sweet to email me back and assured me other kids were dressed up and he was just fine.  And he was.  Only, we didn't really think through what would happen when he started sweating.  By the time I picked him up red had spread all over his white shirt, on his hands, his face.  It was a complete nightmare.  I'm sure teachers all day long were cracking up.  Rookie mistake.  We survived, and while he now has pink hair (and is not AT ALL happy about it) I don't think I ever need to worry about him doing something funky with his hair.  Lesson learned.

The rest of the week, we faired pretty well.  Until today.  Today was what they call the "Hound Dog Run." It is like a little race where the kids get sponsors and run some laps and then have a popsicle.  (For a quarter.  That I forgot to send.  Don't worry, it gets worse.)  I knew there would be some parents there, but there was just no way for me to make it.  I don't work at a job where I can take a lunch break.  Or any kind of break for that matter!  I already got a sub to go on a field trip with him next week, and I just couldn't justify getting a sub to watch him run for 15 minutes.  However.

He got in the car today and told me he had a great time.  And then he said, "But there was one thing mom."  I told him to go on and he said, "At the end of the race the teachers said, 'Go find your mom', and I couldn't because you weren't there."  And then he burst into tears.

Awesome.

So, I did what any sane, grown adult would do.  I burst into tears, too.  Which freaked out my daughter who also burst into tears while she said over and over, "Are you happy yet, Mommy?"  This should give you an indication as to the amount of tears I've shed in her short life.  We were quite a sight.  It was one of those days when I was feeling the weight of not being enough.  I'm stretched so thin and the pressure is super high.  And the truth of the matter is, the only thing I really want to be doing is going and sitting at things like the Hound Dog Run.  I kept thinking all day that I just needed to have a good cry.  I just didn't plan to do it in the pick up line!!

Thank goodness we were able to turn things around.  We went out to dinner as a family and then took the kids to the school for the big PTO give us all your money jamboree.  They had a blast.  Big Dan and I tried not to go over the edge at the crowd of it all (we're not exactly big crowd people).  I should mention that when we arrived we ran into two of Drew's friends from class.  They had sprayed their hair blue.   As we were leaving, Drew looked at me and said, "Thanks for letting us come tonight, Mommy. I had a lot of fun. And it's ok you couldn't come today."  That boy.  He slays me.  Every time.

This chapter of wacky elementary school antics has come to a close.  I'm really hoping this is the big push for the year, and we can be done with hoopla for a while.  And if you could say a prayer that they would schedule some special events for a Tuesday or a Thursday, I'd definitely appreciate it!