Approaching MELTDOWN!!

I’m venting this at nearly 2am in the hopes of staving off the nervous breakdown that I badly need, but don’t have time for. Mind you, I am extremely grateful for the recent windfall of blessings that have come my way. But, at the same time, they have come with them MOUNTAINS of paperwork, time-constraints, and a lot of money. This is a long, and exhausting read, but I just have to get this all out. Allow me to explain…

I had to wait to register Hannah into Kindergarten because she needed a screening first, which could not be done until the middle of August. Not to mention having to order a copy of her birth certificate (that got lost in the several moves we’ve been through since), which cost $45!! Right after that, I had to get shots updated for all of the kids. I had to have THAT done before I could even enroll Hannah and Taylor into school. For THAT, I needed to fill out pages upon pages of documentation. Lest we forget the small BOOK of forms that I needed to fill out for EACH child for daycare (8-10 pages AT LEAST, for each one), at which time, I had to come up with $120 for the enrollment fee alone.

THEN, I had to go to the teacher “meet/greet” to further validate their enrollment and see what class they were in. Once I was there, I had to attach my hand to Riley and Hannah, with Taylor following closely as I rubbed shoulders with the WHORDE of parents (usually as PAIRS), teachers, and kids doing the same thing. In each class, I was directed to stations which had, guess what?, MORE paperwork to fill out. So, I’m cramped into a tiny desk doing this, and separating school supplies, while my kids are running all over the room, embracing old friends, playing in the water fountain, and showing me all the cool stuff I could barely pay attention to, all at the same time. I’m also being hailed by other parents that I know (in between fussing at the kids to PLEASE leave other kids’ supplies alone and the carpet area is NOT a playground!), and trying to find an opportunity to at least say hi to the teachers.

After that, I went back to the daycare (to give Riley a chance to acclimate, while I asked some questions), and found out – this was just last Friday before I start work on Monday – that Riley had to have a physical done before he could attend daycare. They accepted the shot records for the girls just fine, but for Riley, that just wasn’t good enough for some reason. So, I had to haul ass over to a walk-in clinic that afternoon to make sure I’d get the form filled out before Monday.

All during the last two weeks, I’d been trying to contact my financial aid advisor about what my new part-time student status would do to my grant (which I count on for the kids’ seasonal clothes). Could NOT get a hold of him, and I was still waiting to see if I got into the class I was on the waiting list for, which would seriously impact my loans. I JUST got a hold of him this last Friday (in between the meet/greet, daycare, and clinic fiasco). Classes start on Monday, and I don’t even have my books yet b/c he has to approve my loans first, which he couldn’t do because I was still on the waiting list for a class!! At the 12th hour, I found out that I DID get the class, but he won’t be able to assess my financial aid package until Monday, which means I won’t get my books until the end of the first week of classes!!!!!! AAAARRRRGGGH!!!!

TONIGHT, I checked my mailbox and discovered  my paperwork for the child support modification. “YAY!” was my INITIAL reaction. Until I looked a little more closely. Ok, so I am to fill out 4 pages of income information etc, fine. I also have to submit documention of proof of insurance, income, and daycare expenses, ok! Then, I saw I only had 10 days to do this, otherwise the whole modification is called off and I have to wait another 3 years. Oh wait. It gets better. The “10 days” is from the mailing date filled in at the top of the letter – it read 8/18/08. I JUST got the freaking thing TODAY, the 23rd!!! Which means that I have to have all of this crap back IN their hands BY this Thursday!! Tomorrow is Sunday, so I have to wait until Monday before ANYTHING can be done. And I have to come up with SOMETHING that says the kids are going to be covered under my insurance, their daycare costs this much, and yes, I make this much money – BUT, I won’t get a paycheck for 3 weeks, my insurance doesn’t kick in for another month, and I won’t even pay the first week of childcare until Friday!

WHAT THE HELL????!!!!

Ok, I need to go to my Zen place…I am a leaf…Life is a cookie…*inhale, exhale*

Oooooooooooooooommmmmmmmmmmmm…