Fundraising Already! and other more serious stuff

Let me just start with a shout out to my dear friend Alison, who gave me a window air conditioner when I was visiting her in Wyoming last year. On days like today (it's currently 99 degrees outside), I am extremely grateful for that gift. I think of her every time I walk into my cool living room from outside.

Now, onto the subject of my posting. The school sent home a fundraiser packet yesterday (the second day of school). Their idea is that we'll sell more stuff if we're the first school doing the fundraisers. Could work. So, if any of you want to buy stuff, let me know. There's a bunch of stuff (including chocolate, gift wrap, magazine subscriptions and kitchen stuff) in the catalog. One thing about this fundraiser that I thought was kind of cool is that I was able to register Ruby online and people can buy stuff online and have it shipped directly to them, but it still gets credited to Ruby for prizes and the class party and stuff. I thought this was great for those friends and relatives who live far away but still want to support Ruby. The only downside is that the chocolate (which is what pretty much everyone wants) is not available online because they don't want it to melt in the mail.

For those of you who would like to order something online, here's the link. If you follow this link, the purchases you make will be credited to Ruby. You can shop online through September 19. Orders placed through the school are due Sept. 12.
http://www.westcoastfundraising.com/store/brochures.php?sID=tra8508

Another fundraising method that they are doing is escrip. I think it is awesome because it is painless and doesn't end up costing us a penny beyond what we normally spend anyway. You go to the escrip website and register your grocery club cards, credit cards & debit cards and then when you shop with those cards at participating merchants a percentage of your purchase price gets donated to the school. Safeway (and affiliated stores like Von's and Pavillion's) participates in it. A lot of online retailers (like Amazon.com) participate, too. The thing I thought was great is that even if you don't want to register your credit and debit cards, the grocery club card works. And that still works even if you pay cash! I thought that some of you who don't have kids or whose kids are beyond the school stage or have not reached it yet might want to participate. And for those of you who have kids in school, you should try to get your school to do this. I've been told that in just the month of May over $2000 was raised for the school through escrip. If you'd like to sign up to help out Ruby's school, go to www.escrip.com and sign up.

The registered group name is:
Trace Parents & Teachers Organization
The group ID is: 141574827

I've still been walking to and from school with Ruby. Yesterday I pulled the kids in the wagon again. It was a really hot day, though, so by the time I got home from the afternoon trip I was completely exhausted and not good for much of anything for the rest of the day. Today we were running a bit late getting out of the apartment in the morning. It was really hot last night and none of us slept very well. I had some trouble getting Ruby out of bed this morning. We were about 20 minutes later leaving than I wanted to be, which left me 25 minutes to get to the school before it started. That is approximately the amount of time it has been taking to get there with the wagon (we have to cross a lot of streets, including one major one at which we have to wait at a light). Luckily, Ruby had requested to go in the double stroller today. It's easier to maneuver and go faster with the stroller, so that was a good thing. I walked very quickly all the way to the school and managed to get there with a few minutes to spare. I was sweating, though.

This afternoon I decided to do the car instead. It was just too hot to walk. Also, there was a special assembly at noon that they invited the parents to attend. I left Russell with my brother Jacob so I could go to it. The assembly was just for the Kindergarten classes (the have a separate campus area from the rest of the school) and was about a little boy that will be their classmate. He's not actually in Ruby's class, but is in the class next to hers. He came to the end of the assembly, but won't actually start school until Tuesday. He was severly burned over most of his body in a car fire last year. Apparently the gas tank caught fire and he was strapped into his car seat and they couldn't get him out before the flames reached him. Every parent's nightmare, right? So some people from the local hospital's burn unit where he gets treatment came and did a presentation about burns and what happens and how much they hurt. One of the nurses that spoke was a burn victim herself. She had burn scars over half her face. It happened when she was about 7. They talked about how he looks different on the outside, but he's just like them on the inside and he wants to play with the other kids. He doesn't have the gauze wrapping and stuff anymore, but does still have to wear some pressure bandages. He also has a trache tube, so they need to be careful about playing with water with him and if they notice him having trouble coughing or breathing they need to get an adult. He doesn't have any sweat glands anymore, either, so he can get overheated easily and might need to rest a lot. He's missing three fingers on one hand, too. He's just a very smiley, cheerful, energetic kid, though. He said he'd rather have the kids ask him questions than stare at him and he seems like he's really excited to go to school. I was crying when I saw him. He's the kind of kid you just want to hug. His mom was there with him and she was teary-eyed. (I understand she's like that a lot, and who can blame her?) We're all hoping that since the kids are all so young and have not formed prejudices yet that they'll be able to accept him and be friends with him and they'll all end up being more tolerant people when they grow up.

Ruby said she thought it seemed kind of scary and she would be very sad to be burned like that, but she seemed open to the idea of being friends with him. I'm don'tthink they'll have recess at the same time, but they might interact before and after school.