administrivia (with an edit @ the end)

I'm trying to organize all of our paperwork since moving in to this house, and my organizational skills are being severely challenged. It seriously feels like I'm drowning in paper and administrative tasks to complete. I need a secretary. Or a wife.

Or both.

I need to submit an expense report for several of the inspections that were part of our home buying experience, and which are fully reimbursable, I just need to track down all of those receipts and make sure we haven't lost anything. This sounds simple enough, but it will probably consume several hours of my day. So, I haven't done it yet and the longer I wait, the more difficult this task becomes.

I'm typically not a procrastinator, but I also need to submit an expense report for goods that were damaged during the move. Thus far, our list includes the boys' bunk bed, our media center, three lamps, two curtain rods, several pictures, a bicycle and my psyche.

There are expense reports that need to be submitted for duplicate housing expenses that were incurred during the time that we were living in hotels and still paying a mortgage on our California house. In order to complete these expense reports, I need to go dig up all of our mortgage statements, utility bills, hotel receipts, food receipts, and a host of other things which also sounds simple enough, but will take me the latter part of two days and result in much cursing. My new "substitution" word is SNAP!

I learned it from William.



There is DMV paperwork to fill out for securing our licenses in Virginia. We also need to get new license plates. We need to revisit our auto insurance and life insurance and wills and find new doctors for the family. These things constitute To-Do Items #40 through #47, respectively.

Then there are the mounds upon mounds (upon MOUNDS) of paper that my children are bringing home from school. God bless the man that I married, when the children return home from school each day, he takes everything out of their backpacks and piles it up in the middle of the kitchen table. So, the management of school paperwork has been falling under my realm. Now, I've "mentioned" one or two times how my husband might better "assist" with this effort. It usually starts with me saying, "GAH. FOR PETE'S SAKE" and typically ends with, "MUST I DO EVERYTHING AROUND HERE?"

But then I remember that my husband is a huge contributor the success of this household and I most definitely don't do everything around here. Not by a looooonng shot. If I did indeed do everything around here, we'd still be driving cross-country. Stuck somewhere in probably Oklahoma. Warding off fire ants.

However, when I'm buried in paperwork up to my eyeballs and my husband is leisurely folding laundry while watching a football game, I tend to go a little blind with those feelings of OVERWHELMED.

Now, back to the topic surrounding the oceans of paper the school sends home everyday...

This is where some of my greatest frustrations lie. Because everything looks important - and in my quest to be an involved parent - I feel like I should review each piece in great detail. But then, when I review these slips of paper, each one requires that I actually DO something.



And then, I'm stuck on what to do?

Do I have one of the little pictures that my children drew in class, transformed in to an Original Artwork creation that will benefit the PTA?

If so, what do I order?

The mug, the apron, the trivet, the magnet or the Christmas tree ornament?

(Times three.)

I completely neglected to send money to school on picture day and now the proofs are back.

Do I order their Kindergarten pictures?

If so, what set should I order?

The 1-8x10, 2-5x7 and 8-billfolds? Or, do I just toss the whole lot of it out, scan the image and store what I want on my computer? Who, other than a child's mother, really keeps their Kindergarten pictures? Do I honestly need more than ONE photo?

The children are going to participate in a Turkey Trot for their school. The entry is $25.00 per child, with all proceeds benefiting the PTA. So, the question becomes, do I send the children around door-to-door asking that everyone sponsor their run, OR, do I fork over the $25.00 per child and be done with it?

These are the things that I think about when I should be doing expense reports.

My calendar is booking up faster than I can believe because I've signed up for various volunteer activities in my quest to be a part of this whole "school" experience.

Although, oddly enough, most of the activities that I'm partaking in, in no way involve my children. For example, I'm volunteering for two hours, once every six weeks, to help school children make sandwiches for local homeless shelters. It wasn't until after I signed up, that I learned my children won't participate in this activity until NEXT year.

Apparently, the homeless shelters don't want sandwiches made by Kindergartners.

Gee. I can't imagine why?

I'm also baking several dozen muffins for the teachers on one of the days that we have parent-teacher conferences. I'm also volunteering at a book fair. And chaperoning a field trip. The good news with the field trip is that it's actually FOR my children's class. The bad news is that I'll have Henry there which means I'll spend much of the time chasing after a three-year-old, who has received the green-light to attend this particular outing.

Does that sound negative?

It really wasn't meant to. I just think that it's important to dispel the image that it's a carefree jaunt to chaperon a kindergarten field trip when you also happen to directly supervise a three-year-old who runs around ROARING and routinely throws himself on the ground while kicking his feet and yelling, "I NOT DO IT! I NOT, NOT, NOT!"

Charlie would probably contend the strength required to remain sane when outing with Henry, is comparable to the strength necessary to remain sane whilst being married to me.



And I'm afraid he might be right.

****************

Speaking of Administrivia and things on my To-Do list, tonight as I was once again unintentionally postponing my expense reporting I created a spreadsheet with all of the generous contributors to my 3-Day walk and ran the total number through Random.Org.

The winner of the PBK bean bag chair is Ms. Stephanie A. This came as little surprise to me since she donated close to 10% of my fundraising total. Which, by the way, exceeded my goal by close to $500.00. So again, a HUGE thank you to everyone that contributed to such a critical cause.

For those people that wrote they'd like a bracelet, I'll get them in the mail to you as soon as I can. (Soon as I can = January?)

Stephanie, please drop me a line when you have a chance and let me know: 1) What color beanbag chair you'd like and 2) The initials or name that you'd like monogrammed.

Yay!! One more thing is off my To-Do list.

Snap!! Expense reports are still outstanding.