Poster Panic

This could easily be one of those "hey, look at this awesome thing my kid created" posts.  But, it's not.  It's a tale of parental panic.

Poster panic.

I knew that the day would eventually come when we "forgot" to work on a project.  What I didn't realize is how soon it would happen.

The first week of school, Nate's teacher sent home a note telling us that we were supposed to work on a poster about our student for school.  The note also graciously gave us several weeks to complete it.

Tuesday morning, as the boys were eating breakfast, Nate asks me, "Mom, what's today?"

"Well, today is September 4."

"My poster is due on September 5! That's TOMORROW!"

"What poster?"

"The poster about me!  Mrs. S has been reminding us, like, every day!"

"Honey, I think you should have reminded me, then.  I forgot.  Where's the instruction sheet?"

"Dad threw it away."

So, I quickly emailed the teacher and asked her for a new copy of the instructions, with a short joke at the end:  Guess I know what we're doing tonight!

While at work Tuesday, I went online and ordered some pictures to be printed to our local Walgreens.  To save time, I asked Tom to pick them up after school with some poster board.  

At 4:25, I get a phone call.

"Did you order the pictures?"
"Yes, at 1:15 this afternoon."

"Well, they don't have them."

"What? Maybe that explains why I didn't get an email confirmation."

"Can you reorder them?"

"Sure, hold on."

I resubmitted the order and let him know it was on the way.  

5:05 pm:  Text message from Tom:  Still nothing.

5:13 pm:  Text message from Tom:  Grrr. 
5:24 pm:  Text message from Tom:  Can you resend order?

5:26 pm:  Text message from Tom:  Never mind, hold on.

5:38 pm:  Text message from Tom:  Getting prints now.  Free.

What should have been a quick 15 minute run to Walgreens had turned into a 90 minute wait.  All the while, I am trying to keep Nate entertained by cutting out pictures from magazines to include on his poster.  While simulaneously trying to get Nile to do his homework, warm up chicken nuggets for the boys, and keep Novak from climbing on stuff.  

At one point, Nile asked me, "Mom, are you frustrated?  Because your voice sounds frustrated."

(Yeah, I was a bit frustrated).

Finally the requested lime-green poster board and pictures arrived (at 6 pm) and we started on the project.  It didn't take us long to put it together, and considering what we went through to finish it, I think it turned out all right.

But I'll definitely be sure not to forget another school project for a long time.