Why I rock

I’m kind of proud of myself.

Yep. I said it. I’m proud of myself. I’m not trying to be all boastful and tell you I’m all that and a bag of chips, but I am proud of myself and some things I have accomplished. I think as Mormon Women, we are taught not to put ourselves up there, evils of pride and all that (who doesn’t remember that famous talk from President Benson?). But I’m not being prideful here, I’m just being pleased, and I think that’s ok.

This week I was invited to an “Awards of Excellence” luncheon at the school district office. My friend Brittney (also the PTA president this year) had told me she had nominated me for an award, and that’s all I knew. Luckily, she texted me that morning to see if I was going. Good thing she did, because I had put it on my calendar for Thursday, not Tuesday. I had actually planned to go to lunch with some ladies in my ward, and had to flake on them. Pretty rude of me, seeing as I’m the one who organized the lunch outing for that day. Doh!

When I got to the luncheon, I could see on the program that there was a volunteer, a teacher, and a student from each school getting an award of excellence. It was fun to sit with Jenna’s teacher, the principal, the PTA president, and a cute 6th grade boy who used to be in our ward. I saw people I knew from the other schools, too. It was a nice lunch, and then they presented the awards. I won’t put in the whole thing that she wrote about me, but I like the sweet last paragraph, where it says,
“The PTA and Highland Elementary would literally not function the same without Paige Erickson there to lend her support, enthusiasm, and knowledge to our children. WE appreciate her and all that she does for our school.”

I wasn’t lobbying for an award, but it’s very nice to be told you are needed and appreciated.
And now I have a plaque to prove it.

I also saw my kickstarter project reach the goal this week. What a relief! I really have written so many grant applications and proposals that have been REJECTED, I was losing confidence in my abilities and somehow my worthiness. I know that doesn’t make sense, and I shouldn’t let those grant rejections get to me, but it was quite disheartening, especially when I got two big NO letters in the same day. Oh, and did I mention that not one but TWO of my friends who have chime choirs had gotten grants through one of the organizations that turned me down? I don’t know if it’s the fact that I’m not a real teacher, or my email address doesn’t have the name of a school in it or what, but None of those things came through. So just when I thought I was never going to get funding, I got that kickstarter campaign going (which was also not an easy thing to do..they rejected me a couple of times and I had to refine the project to be more about the concert and less about purchasing the chimes, even though everyone knows I really just want the money for chimes and materials), and right about that time, the principal came to me and said there might be some school money or some PTA money, and together we would work to get chimes for next year! Hooray for me! I felt so validated!

There was another little matter about a check from Kohl’s. You see, if you fill out a request for Kohl’s to come and help with an event, and if 5 of their employees come and work for 3 hours, you are also awarded $500 as a mini grant. Well, I invited and got Kohl’s to come to our Hawk Walk in SEPTEMBER, and never heard anything about the money. After checking with the school secretary, the PTA president and treasurer, no one had seen a check from Kohl’s. I started to email my contact at Kohl’s in November, trying to politely ask “Where’s my money?” without sounding ungrateful. She told me that money had been sent to the school and that was all she knew about it. So, since then, I have sent many many emails back and forth with her and finally with corporate, even calling corporate to see if we could figure out why we hadn’t received our check. Finally, the corporate people sent me a picture of the back of the check, and told me it had cleared on November 20th. In trying to read the back of the check and see where it was deposited, we realized that was NOT the PTA’s stamp, nor was it our bank. It was the SCHOOL’s stamp. Someone in the office had opened the check and deposited it into the SCHOOL’s account, and never let us in the PTA know about it. They were kind of embarrassed when I went in with a copy of the back of the cleared check, and the lead secretary got us a check from the school to the PTA the next day. That may not be a huge victory, but it took a lot of time and effort to track down that check, and I hope I get to use it for my chime choir, as that was the intended use from the start.

I also did a scary thing this week. I’m not going to go into the details because … well, I’m just not. But I was brave, and even though I thought I might throw up from nerves, I did it. And I’m proud of myself. No matter the outcome, I was brave. In the movie, “We bought a zoo”, the dad says to his son, “All you need is 20 seconds of insane courage. Just literally 20 seconds of embarrassing bravery, and I promise you, something great will come of it.” Well, whether or not something comes of it, I’m proud of myself.

I also sewed up Larissa’s prom dress. She bought a size XL when she’s really like a Small or something. She showed it to me and said, it’s a little bit too big, can you fix that? Because, yes, I did take in a shirt and a skirt for her, but a prom dress? That’s a different thing all together. I was quite nervous taking that in, but it seems to work ok. Now I just need to find some matching fabric for straps or something.

So, there you have it. Why I am proud of myself this week. I may need to bookmark this so I can come back and remind myself that I DO rock.

What have you done this week to make yourself proud?