Hello You Lovely SMOS People –

Well, I’m off on a whirlwind trip back home to Scotland for a few days, so I thought I’d send off a quick missive while en route.  I’m headed back to Edinburgh to start putting some pieces together for my planned one-woman show at next year’s Fringe Festival – “MARGARET: The Life Of A Queen In Pantomime”.  I’m super excited to share (or mime) my musings on the stage – I mean, I’m a spirit after all, so it’s not exactly like I can use words.  Should be super fun – kinda like Kathy Griffin last week at the Pageant, with less cursing, and more death (I guess that’s my life on the D list – haha!).

This has been a busy month.  I mean, I’m not running off to twelve soccer and volleyball games each weekend, like the rest of you – but I have been taking quite a few trips.  Paige, my assistant who you met two weeks ago, has literally left 1,000 post-its stuck on my computer.  I can’t even see my screen to type, so forgive me in advance, because this will all be a written stream of consciousness.

If you want to skip to the end of the book, I can sum this up in one word – VOLUNTEER.  I know, I know, I sound worse than a PTA (not our PTA of course, I just mean PTA in the cultural sense) mom at pickup.  But of course, this being SMOS, let’s face it, nothing much gets done without some request for parent help at every turn.  I’m sure you’re used to it by now.  So, in no particular order, here are the pleas for help:

First, a thank you to everyone who signed up for Walk-A-Thon this weekend to help out.  That sheet is pretty filled up, especially since the last time I looked.  Way to go!  As per usual though, there are still open slots at the end of the day – so unless you want to make poor Chris Stephens start drinking alone close down everything by herself, please jump in and grab those last spots.  I think I’ve seen Jenny Hill resorting to offering up her firstborn to get volunteers for this in the Adventure Group, so for the sake of her young children, and so she can stop posting on Facebook – we all would appreciate it! #MakeItStop

Second, you probably saw Mrs. Villmer’s message earlier this week about the need for more assistance with playground duty, especially from 11:55am-1:10pm every day – which is when the largest number of children are out on the playground at the same times.  And no, this need for safety has nothing to do with breaking up arguments during highly contested playground soccer matches!  The school has identified three stations of high visibility, and they want to make sure those are covered  If you can take a recurring/regular shift each week, once a month, etc., that would be the best – but there’ll be an opportunity to just grab random days too.  Ideally, they’d like to have at least one parent per day at that time.  And might I just add that grandparents make excellent playground guards – so see if you can, enlist granny and gramps to help us out.  Tell them it’ll get them more face time with their grandkids!  If you can help in any way, please reach out to Mrs. Villmer, and look for an updated sign-up sheet to come soon.  Kickball reffing not required!

And third, if you saw Mr. Holley’s note in the newsletter today, there are some VIP’s headed to our campus next week and we need your help to make everything look spit-spot.  No, we’re not asking you to pour Cristal behind a velvet rope (although I do love the sound of that!?!) – these VIP’s do not require bottle service.  But they are going to be looking at how we run our school, and we want to shine.  So, the request is that if you can sign-up for Crossing Guard Duty next Wednesday, both before and after Mass – we would really like to have all of the corners covered and get a chance to show off our safety!  Not that it’s not important all of the other times too (so grab another slot while you’re at it!), but we especially want to show a parental presence next week when the school improvement team will be joining us for Mass.  And while you’re at it, stay for Mass – it’d be good to have families there with us as well – and, as always.  (This could be especially good for parents with students in Mrs. Clark’s 1st Grade class – since they are planning the Mass next week, and so you’re likely going to go see little Johnny or Susie read petitions or sing in the choir anyway!)

OK – well, I had more to say than I thought I did, but that’s what happens when you let a mime ramble on. 🫢 Sadly, this was only three items, so I still have to take care of the other 997 Post-It’s when I get back to STL tomorrow.  Can’t miss Walk-A-Thon, you know.  Not because it’s a good time (because it is), but because payback’s a B, and if I expect Chris Stephens to come to opening night at Fringe next August, I’d better show up for her gig on Saturday!  Plus, I’m headed off on the party bus to Herman Oktoberfest with all the 3rd-grade parents right after it’s over on Saturday afternoon.  And besides, I wanna win that movie party for reaching 20k!  I hear 4th Grade is voting for Deadpool. #NotSureThatsGonnaHappen  I’ll look for you on Saturday!  I’ll wear my Fitbit and bring the pumpkin-spiced lattes. 😉

— Maggie