15 Candles

Well, this is it. I am officially over the hill. The Doll took Megan out shopping for her birthday, not lunch since she still feels toothless, and I happen to notice the card. It said, "Happy 15th." And I thought, "No! That just can't be."

But it is. Fifteen years ago this moment, I was in the labor and delivery 'recovery' area at Winthrop University Hospital, being fed pound cake by a woman who had tortured me for hours leading up to that moment. Her name was 'Fitzy'.

And so Megan is 15. I have no card for her, and no present! We don't know what to get her, although we have tossed around a few ideas. Luckily, part of being 15 is sleeping until 2:00 in the afternoon, so I have time to sneak out and get something, at least a card. Plus she is having a few friends over later on to swim and have pizza. Which is why this was the only day with 'isolated thunderstorms' in it for the week.

Today also marks our second-to-last day as a family of four. I can't help but think how strange it must be for E, to be at home in Denmark thinking, "today is my second to last day living here, until next summer!" She is getting excited. I'll be happy when we have her schedule set on Friday, then I will feel like all of her ducks are finally in a row.

The sports physical form totally confused her, and of course, I can't begin to tell her about the ridiculous visit we had to the school. I decided to stop by to pick up the packet that I would need to register her. While there, we encountered much idiocy. First, we met the secretary, who tries to be helpful, but really doesn't check with the right people before telling us what we have to do. So I was told I have to have ANOTHER form notarized, to state that E is not our legal child, but that she is living with us, we take responsibility, and to prove our residency in the township. Note here that I also will require two proofs of residency AFTER I have this notarized, which, in order to do, I must present a notary with two proofs of residency. Also remember that I have two children in the district, and I have already submitted piles of paperwork and notarized documents in order to obtain board approval in the first place.

In this district, every endeavor is a clear case of the right hand not knowing what the left is doing. Only it is actually more like the pinky finger doesn't know what the ring finger is doing.

But then they told us that there was a notary in the main office, and she could probably do it on the spot. Excellent. I'll fill in another form, if it means I don't have to drive to the bank and wait for a notary to finish filing her nails. But the woman said no, she didn't want to do it. She said we should go to the bank, where the people actually know who we are and where we live. Huh? What? What bank does she think we go to? Mickey's Main Street Savings and Loan, where everybody knows your name? But off to the bank we did go, and coincidentally, I did know the notary, but that had nothing to do with her working at the bank, our kids are in school together.

And now we're ready. We also found out that E's guidance counselor is NOT the swim coach, but a nice older man who knows his stuff, but has a hearing problem. Like when his phone rang, he looked around and said, "is that mine? oh! it is!" But he also offered to come in just to meet with us at 10am Friday. Which was nice.

The guidance counselor also told us that the schedules are being mailed out tomorrow, which was of interest to Megan, but he answered a few questions and read us her brutal schedule, which starts with honors geometry and ends with honors chemistry, with the teacher she had hoped not to get (but expected to, he teaches all but possibly one section of the chemistry honors classes). She was also disappointed because she had hoped to have the old swim coach for History, and she got someone else. We also met her new guidance counselor (the old one retired) and he seemed very nice.

In other news, I did not accomplish much around the house yesterday. I really need an incentive, and having a house full of kids tonight will provide that. I'll focus on the downstairs today while Kevin puts the bathroom back together, and then tonight, to keep me busy, I'll straighten up the upstairs. Megan actually has a lot of summer reading and work to finish up, and I suggested she might want to do this before E gets here - although E will have summer work of her own, I don't think they exempt her because she 'just found out' . Megan wants to go to the beach, since it's her birthday, but I told her that once you're 15, it's the hard-knock life for you.