Almost!

Around here the 'New Year' begins when the new school year begins! And this year BOTH girls are in school! GEEEEE!!!

Emma will be entering Grade 2 and Zoe Kindergarten!!!

Again, GEEEEE!!!!

This doesn't really get to start up until the week into school as Kindergarten has three intro days (three different groups for this), but I'm excited!

Yay!

THEN Emma is registered with the Boys & Girls Club to give her something to do after school (esp. on cold winter days.... She'll need this!).... The best part? They help with homework! Phew! *L*

Zoe has KinderCare three times a week... So yes, I'll be picking her up at the end of a regular school day and not Emma... But really, who cares??! *LOL*

What, you may ask, will I be doing with 'all this spare time??!'.... I'm not sure. Maybe a class.... Probably a lot of housework (time to get that basement ready for another winter).... And a whole heck of a lot of volunteering!

Again this year I'm the Chair of the Schools' PA (Parents' Association) and on a hundred different committees.... As well, I'm on the Board for the Figure Skating Club that the girls are with (I'll be running their yearly 'Carnival')... And I offered to help decorate and plan activities for the Boys & Girls Club instead of paying the non-volunteering fee (that might change depending on how much time they need....).... *L* So I guess I'll be slightly busy.

Anyhoo, just thought I'd do an update of our household, it's been awhile!

More another day!

LATE!

So I have worked very, VERY hard at making sure Emma is not late for school. Very hard.

I've had her eating ("more") lunch as we're buckled in the van just to get her there on time.

I've created a routine with her that gets us up, fed, ready for school, then play time...

But this week has nearly killed us... And it's only Tuesday!

Today got the better of us... I had her in the van at 12:13pm (class starts at 12:15pm)... If we had just driven away then she may have been considered 'not late' as the attendance would not have been done then.

Instead I had to scrape our van windows (I'm short... I always find this a challenge! *L*), make sure my wipers were done being frozen together, drive behind a huge truck hauling two beds of dirt who decided to pull over at the stop sign and then turn on his blinkers after a bit (I honestly thought he was going to turn right, just like us!)... Wait for the never ending long light and then head to Emma's school.

And because I'm one of those parents that refuses to park in the marked off 'yellow' area (Means "DO NOT PARK HERE!") as I have the wrose luck and that's when the Bylaw Officers would come! *L* I had to park across the road and run carrying Emma to class.

12:20pm

I sent her to class with no socks on (they got stuck in her boots and I refused to let her put them on in the doorway in hopes that she would get to class before attendance was done). I then noted that another Mom was getting a late slip for her child in Emma's class.... So I did the same. As soon as I stepped out of the Office there was Emma with another child from her class (who was holding the dreaded attendance book)... I guess Mrs. Kerr had sent Emma with her to get a late slip.

UGGGGGGH!

Hopefully tonight goes much better! *L*

Snow, Snow, Snow Angels.

Quick thing...

We were late getting Emma to school as it started to randomly really snow today. After brushing off the van I had all the kids get their jackets, boots, mitts, hats, etc. on while the van warmed up....

And then we started to drive.

This is a whole other blog, believe me... But back to my main story.

By the time we got to Emma's school all the parents were leaving (which means all of her afternoon class had already headed in! Ack!)... I'm quite proud of the fact that we have no (yes, NO) lates so far! Bah! Or missed days! None!

Anyhoo.... I tell the kids to double time it to the front doors (as there's no parking in front of the doors so I had to park even further away!) while I'm carrying the dayhome child.... I turn for a second to look behind me and by the time I look ahead again Zoë is on the ground in the middle of the crosswalk making a snow angel!

IMAGINE!

*LOL*

Yeah... Emma was the last one that I saw heading down to her class... Gosh I hope she doesn't get a late. We've worked soooo hard! I'm sure kids were still putting their stuff into their lockers when she walked in.... *fingers crossed*

I did realize about an hour and a half (enough time to clean and make fudge brownies) later that we forgot to take her library book with her to school. Today is her only library day of the week....

UGH!

Not sure what happens with this... Is she banned from taking a book out this week? I'm taking it with us to pick her up... Can she get a new one then? Oh dear, I may have a very heartbroken little girl on my hands.....

Off we go to see what drama may have happened today... I'll keep you posted!

I know, I know....

You're all on pins and needles waiting around for me to write the blog about Emma's first day of school (well, aren'tcha??!! *L*)....

I promise you, I'm working on it! Chelsey loaded all of the photos that she took of Emma yesterday morning and handed them over to me this morning! Geee! They're wonderful so now I'm trying to choose my favorites to place on here.... Or else you'll end up wit 55 photos! *L*

But for now here's this!

I came across this site today called Happy Worker.... Here's some info I got off of it!

Key Mom Stats:
2 billion in the World (82.5 million in the U.S.)
First-time Moms: Average age of new moms is 25, vs. 21 in 1970
Kids: Modern moms average 2 kids (1950s: 3.5 kids; 1700s: 7-10 kids)
4.3 babies are born each second

Working Moms:

72% of moms with children over 1 year old work (about the same as childless women) , vs. 39% in 1976
55% of moms with a child under 1 year old work, vs. 31% in 1976
Moms with a full-time job spend 13 hours working at the office or at home on family chores

Baby Chores:

Diaper Changes: 7,300 by baby's 2nd birthday
Diaper Changing Speed: Moms take 2 minutes, 5 seconds (adds up to 3 40-hour work weeks each year!) , vs. 1 minute, 36 seconds for dads
Giving Attention: Preschooler requires mom's attention once every 4 minutes or 210 times / day
Taking Care: Preschooler moms spend 2.7 hrs / day on primary childcare, vs. 1.2 hours for dads

Household Chores:

Chores: Women average 2.2 hrs / day, vs. 1.3 hrs / day for men
Laundry: 88% is done by moms, totaling 330 loads of laundry & 5,300 articles of clothing each year

Least Favorite Chore: Vacuuming the stairs

Bathroom Multi-Tasking for Moms: Reading is the most common activity, followed by talking on the phone, meditating, watching TV, drinking coffee, eating and balancing the checkbook

Mommy Records:

Most Kids: Mrs. Vassilyev of Russia gave birth to 69 children between 1725 and 1765
Oldest Mom: Rosanna Dalla Corte gave birth to a baby boy when she was 63 years old in Italy in 1994
Heaviest Newborn: Signora Carmelina Fedele gave birth to a 22 lb 8 oz boy in Italy in 1955

Mother's Day:

1st Mother's Day: May 10, 1908; Founded by Anna Jarvis; made a national holiday in 1914 by President Wilson
Busiest Phone Day: 68% of people plan to call Mom on Mother's Day, totaling 122.5 million phone calls
Card Giving: 50% of households give Mother's Day cards, totaling some 152 million cards

Misc Mommy & Baby Facts:

Most popular birth month: July
Most popular birth day: Tuesday
Most popular birthday: October 5
30 Pounds: Average weight gain during pregnancy
Baby Gender Gap: 105 boys born for every 100 girls
First Year Baby Costs: $7,000 of baby items before 1st birthday
Cost of Raising a Child: Middle-income families spend $242,070 to raise a kid to 18 (not incl. college!)
Most Popular Names of 21st Century:

Baby Girls: Emily, Madison, Hannah

Baby Boys: Jacob, Michael, Joshua
Research suggests that moms who give birth later in life, live longer
Having kids may make you smarter

...........................................................................

When I read all of this I just had to share it with you all! Made me giggle... Especially when I realized I was born on a Tuesday in July! *LOL* Oh dear.....

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On a whole other random topic, I watched one of my neighbours wash every inch of his car today... And I mean every inch of it! It took him between 1.5-2hours to wash this thing (and it's not a huge car!)..... I think he's been done maybe an hour and it's started to rain! *LOL* Oh goodness, isn't that always the way? So in a few hours it'll be rained on and dusty from the wind (as we have no protection from weather behind our houses, only farm land!)....

*giggle*

(Note: I didn't actually sit there and watch him the whole time... I had to much to do with writing this blog and working on Emma's School Blog! But I did check in on him from the comfort of my warm home!)

S-C-H-O-O-L!

Well as I write this Emma will have been at her first day of Kindergarten for about an hour and a half....

On her own....

Without me....

Or Zoë....

*L*

Funny thing, I'm actually really excited to hear all about he first day (aka: Intro day of about 5 students)!

I'll write a blog about Emma's morning with ricephotography here (thanks Chels!) and how I got lost later on....

Once I hear about her day.

I'll also add in the part where Zoë expressed her feelings about this whole school thing....

More later!

SHE GOT IN!!!!!

I'm ecstatic!

Emma got into the Kindergarten that we REEEEEAAAAAALLLLLLLY wanted her to get into!

I called today to confirm that the Kindergarten Orientation meeting was still happening out in Leduc and that's when the Principle informed me that they had made a class for our area of Leduc....

PM Kindergarten here we come!!!!

YAY!

*L*

Okay... Now to explain... The zoning for the new neighborhood that we're moving into had been rezoned for the 2007-08 school year.... Which meant that Emma was going to a school that we weren't....fond of. It's a great school... One of the top in Alberta... But it wasn't the right fit for Emma.

Awhile back we took tours of both schools... We started with the one that she's supposed to go to (an automatic in with busing) and then after lunch we checked out the other school.... And we loved it from the second that we walked in the front door! It was funny, both Tyler and I had the exact same feeling... 'This is the one!'

When the end of our tour came we were asked if we'd like to go home and think about placing her on the waiting list... Nope, we knew we wanted to do it then and we did!

And it paid off!

*L*

So Emma will be attending the school that we're all very excited about which has a more open, free, theatre feeling....

YAY!