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Mexico

Store Bought Pumpkin Pie

pumpkin pie

Today Alexander’s class is having their Thanksgiving feast. Last week the room mom sent out an email asking everyone to volunteer to bring something and then there were eighty bazillion reply all’s and I set up a filter for the conversation so I didn’t have to be involved but I wanted to hijack the whole thread and put it into a form on Google Apps where it belonged.

I ended up being the pumpkin pie mom. I like pumpkin pie. My mom makes great pumpkin pie. Her pie is so great that I never bothered making it and instead spent my early adulthood perfecting my apple pie. If the class mom asked for apple pie I’d be taking out my mixer and chilled butter and those kids would have a kicky apple pie, but since I spent the last four days in Mexico and it’s the wrong kind of pie I sent my son to school this morning with a pumpkin pie from Trader Joes complete with all the plastic and even the price tag.

I didn’t even have enough shame to transfer the not very impressive pie into a piece of Tupperware like a good mom would.

Instead I’m busy getting the last pieces of paper together to refinance the house and I’m going on a crazy search to find the hibiscus liqueur that I brought back from Riviera Nayarit as a gift for my father, but it exploded all over our luggage instead. If I ever find that same brand I’ll be sure to give y’all the details as it’s a lovely shade of pink but still doesn’t stain clothes.

Alexander is totally obsessed with card tricks. He comes home from school, locks himself in his room and watches YouTube tutorials. After about an hour he’ll emerge to show us a trick. Sometimes it will be good, other times we have to pretend we didn’t see the first mistake and use our best judgment about the second time around.

Jane has her first final exams next week and I’m anxious for her. Today is a full day of school followed by soccer practice, tomorrow is a half day of school followed by more soccer practice and then a fright night sleepover. Fright Night sleepovers are a trio of girls who spend the night at each other’s houses watching scary movies. Thursday is Thanksgiving and then on Friday they play soccer at 8am, 2pm and 5pm. I’m not sure if there are games on Saturday but final exams begin Monday. Jane has an A in every elective and a B+ in every core subject, my hope is that the exams can bring up some of those B’s.

The real overload comes from the fact that Alexander is applying to a different school for 6th grade. It’s incredibly sad in every way because the kids go to a school that’s K-8 and I wanted both kids to have the experience of being in one school for an extended period of time but the fact of the matter is that Alexander had three bad years in a row. His teachers in second, third and fourth grades were let go at the end of each year with him. Jane had those same teachers but she had them in good years. I just can’t risk another year of teacher meltdowns.

There are a million great schools in our part of town but there is only one that appeals to us as a family that has a natural entry in the 6th grade. Alexander has an interview there next week and, being ten, he has a brand new dental appliance that acts as a permanent retainer so the boy now talks like he’s three years old. Totally unintelligible. When I first started exploring new schools I wasn’t firmly committed to making a change, but something happened when I went to this new school. In addition to finding the kids utterly charming, the campus itself is beautiful and there was no religion. I know it doesn’t matter for my kids, but I’m sick and tired of sending them to chapel three days a week. It’s not a real complaint, but it’s something I’m looking forward to closing the door on.

I never thought that this would be a chapter in my life. I never thought a handful of B+’s and a retainer would give me this much anxiety, but it does.