Cool prizes

January 31, 2008 - Thursday

Cool prizes Category: Life So, I open up Ethan's daily folder from school on Tuesday and find this HUGE stuffed envelope, along with a note from the school. Dear Parent, This is our ONE and ONLY fundraiser for the year. Please support the school by taking orders for magazine subscriptions and renewals. (oh...really....one and only fundraiser...so what was all that crap I ordered in October for? Was that just an inside joke? Here, let's send home these catalogs and see which silly parent buys the most junk. And yes, it's ALL junk. I've seen it go through my classroom when I was teaching. The stuff that goes home is so cheesy and tacky it barely resembles what was advertised in the order catalog. Hmmm.....can you tell I HATE fundraisers? Anyway... The letter goes on to say that students are supposed to fill out these postcards with addresses of people they know to ask them to renew or order a magazine. Turn in at least 7 different postcards completed, and you get a prize. Then there are actual catalogs and order forms that we're supposed to send around too and get people to place orders. Then the order forms are turned in to the school. "Turn in days are Tuesday, Thursday, and the following Tuesday." What? What do you mean turn in days are only on Tuesdays and Thursdays? You're telling me you won't accept them on Monday, Wednesday, or Friday? And why 3 different deadlines to turn in orders? THIS is STUPID! It's DUMB! RIDICULOUS! Do you see why I hate these things? So needless to say, I'm not taking orders. I'd rather just make a donation to the PTA directly. Let's see...I would have ordered a magazine for $20, and the school would have gotten 8 bucks. Yep. That's it. I think I'd rather write a check to the PTA for $20. I did, however, have Ethan fill out the postcards to get his prize, so he wouldn't feel left out. No one has to buy anything, he wins a prize just for completing enough cards. Beyond that, he'd have to sell about 2.4 million dollars in sales to win a cheesy slinky or something (the prizes are even junkier than the junk they sell), so it's not worth it! Of course, the money does go to the school, but then again he's not exactly going to school in the 'hood, is he? :) Well, the next day, Ethan gets in the truck and says he got his prize. What is it? He wouldn't tell me. He was too tired and grumpy. So we just kept on driving to meet some friends to play and have lunch. Well, I found out soon enough anyway.... You want to know what Ethan got as his prize for filling out all the postcards? A "Mosquito Prankster". Yes, this lovely little toy makes annoying buzzing sounds, just like a mosquito. Or, if it falls on the floor of your truck while you are driving down the highway, it sounds like someone honking at you..... Honk......honkhonkhonkhonk.....hooooonnnnnnnkkkkkk!! And the boys were in "sleep mode" of course, Sleep mode looks like this: Aren't you impressed I got such a good picture while driving down the highway? Not really...Megan took that one for me after an equally exciting day of glow in the dark lunar mini golf... So we're driving down the highway being honked at, and I had no idea that this was the cool prize handed out at school. So I'm looking around thinking ????? Who the hell is honking at me? There's nobody even around me!! Honk....honnnnnnkkkk....honkhonk...honk!! Finally it dawns on me that it must be us honking at ourselves (somehow)...LOL...so everytime we hit a bump we got HonK!! HOnnnnnnK!! HOnk... all the way until we got to Chuck E. Cheese....but that's another torture story!!