Mommy Happy Dance Time

Oh thank goodness the 2008-2009 school registration is done! I lost six plus hours of my life at the high school between three days out there, but it is done. Middle school took me a whole 20 minutes to get done, which then allowed me time to finally get a couple of other errands run today. I'm going to bake a "Thank You" buttermilk pie for Army Guy's supervisor for allowing him to take this morning to go with me and help get our Sweetpea done. If nothing else Army Guy kept me from wanting to take a heavy book and beat someone for their new "streamlined" process.

What is wrong with the new process? Well for the last three years they have had stations set up through out the school which made for a very nice natural flow from place to place. There was also the option of picking your plan for registration, not a set plan. This year they crammed everything into the same space with no markings, and you had to follow their card which just really lead to some major back ups. When you have to guess which line you are standing in because there is nothing that tells you it tends to get irritating really quick. Add to this the fact that instead of having staff working the tables they had students working the tables that didn't really know just what or how things worked, the lines slow to less than a crawl. Then you have the fee line which added a whole different level of frustration for parents and students. No more writing of one check for all of the fees, it is one check for EACH of the different fees. So class fee's are a check, yearbook is a check, parking passes, sports fees, clubs, books, the list can go on and on and I think you get the point. That is a lot of separate checks to write out, which also slowed the fee line down to less than a crawl. The book line which has always been the worst line of registration anyway, was made even worse by being packed into a space that was less than a third of the size it should be. Add on to that the fact that the counseling department is working with only two people in at any given time, you are spending a very long time at the high school standing around waiting.

Now I know that this week has got to be a logistical nightmare for the school. I mean getting over 3000 students registered, there isn't really any good way for this to work quickly. However, the last three years of going there just barely add up to what I did in three days. The good news, or maybe bad news for the administration, was that there was a table set up during all of this just for parents to give their thoughts on the new process. I'm not really sure but I think after spending a good two to three hours standing in line waiting, there might not be a lot of very nice things to be read. My hope is that everyone managed to maintain their adult status while filling on the paper, but even I have to admit that it was a very difficult thing to do.

Once again I will say it is done, and the start of the new school year is now steam rolling up on us here in Arizona. Next step of this process is the last of the shopping. You know shoes, supplies, hair cuts for the two that didn't go the route of major make over already. Oh yeah, and my fight to get Little Bug her immunizations that she needs. That should be another very interesting journey for me here. I'm not sure how I got so lucky to have the child that the immunization clinic doesn't want to give shots to. Wait it is due to the Epilepsy and the fact that they want a doctor to sign permission for them to do it and the doctors think signing is just not needed and they should just do it! Little Bug isn't upset about not being able to get those shots, but since this year there actually are a couple that she should have done I would like for someone to do something!

Alright this bit to long rant about life is over here for the day. I hope that everyone is having a good week and that when your back to school registration time rolls around that is is a smooth process.