Trisha Sheffield, of Castle Hills, works part-time for the Lewisville ISD Education Foundation. She has been married to husband Doug for 14 years and they have two children, Lauren, 11, and Mason, 10.
6:15am Alarm goes off . . . Snooze! Morning is such a mental negotiation for me. A perfect day would really begin no earlier than 9:30.
6:45am Get the breakfast routine going. My culinary specialties: frozen waffles for Lauren and cereal for Mason.
7:16am Kids leave the house to wait for the 7:20am bus pick up, which gives me about 35 minutes to do hair and makeup before I have to leave for an 8am meeting. Of course, had I gotten out of bed when my alarm went off the first time, I wouldn’t be rushed for time.
8-9:30am Breakfast to clarify expectations for the Advisory Council which I co-chair and discuss positive changes for the future. Planned to remove myself from leadership but will keep the commitment for another year. One of these days, I’m going to learn to say “no.”
9:45am I have about one hour at the office to make phone calls and check e-mail before I have to get back on the road for another meeting.
10:45am Back in the car … it’s always better to leave early when you have to travel Hwy 121; you just never know what the traffic will be like.
11:30am Great meeting with representatives from the Carroll Education Foundation. We are revamping our annual fundraising event, and they gave us some great ideas and tips.
1:15pm I have about 90 minutes left at the office before I have to pick up Lauren from school. Prepare recap from meeting and make copies of documents for Monday morning meeting. Since I’m not in the office on Fridays, I have to get all my ducks in a row before leaving.
2:45pm Make a mad dash from the office, so that I can get to Castle Hills Elementary by 3pm to pick up Lauren. Mason is in an afterschool science program, so I’ll have to come back in an hour to get him.
3:05pm Back home with Lauren in tow. I have a PTA commitment tonight, so I have about 50 minutes to take care of home and kid business. I hope that I can find a few minutes to make myself look presentable for dinner, but given the pace of this day, that might be a stretch!
3:15pm Head to my home office to check personal e-mail and am so glad that I did. Got an e-mail from the President of LISD Council of PTAs; she couldn’t open the attachment that I sent her with the Appreciation Certificate for tonight’s speaker. Create a PDF of certificate for her and send. Sign school planner and check papers that came home with Lauren.
3:50pm Head back to school to get Mason from Learning Launch. Have to squash a playdate that Mason appears to be arranging with his friend, Jacob, as they head to the pick up line, so he’s not too happy.
4:15pm Back home to repeat “afterschool” routine with Mason – sign planner, check graded papers. Both kids are doing well in school, so that is a blessing. Make sure Lauren is getting ready for dance, since we need to hit the door in 30 minutes.
4:30-4:40pm Yea! I have a few minutes for me! Spend it freshening up for the PTA Founder’s Day Dinner. Sadly, my hair is a lost cause due to the crazy winds we had today. Thank goodness for barrettes. The lipstick and powder are going to have to take a road trip; I’ll apply in the parking lot when I get to the hotel.
4:40pm Yikes! We have a ballet emergency! We need to leave in five minutes, and I just remembered that I never sewed the elastics on Lauren’s new ballet shoes. Eight minutes later – mission accomplished. Not the best job, but it will do.
4:48pm Tell Mason “good-bye” and “I love you” since I won’t be home until after he’s in bed. Jump in the car to take Lauren to dance in Coppell. She likes to get to dance early. However, the ballet shoe incident put us a few minutes behind “her” schedule, so she is uptight the entire way to dance worrying that she is going to be late.
5:10pm We made it with five minutes to spare. After dropping her at the door of the dance studio, I call Doug to remind him that he has pick up duty this evening because I’m on my way to the D/FW Marriott. Check! Check!
5:40pm Traffic is heavy so I stop at 7-Eleven for a Diet Coke, bag of nuts and some gum.
5:45pm So I was closer than I thought. Although I’m a little late for my volunteer duties, I spend five minutes in my car putting on the makeup that wasn’t done at home. Now I’m covered in powder (perhaps sitting in my car to apply loose powder over black pants was not the smartest move), but hopefully I can dust most of it off and then be thankful for dark ballrooms.
5:55pm I get inside the hotel and find out that we are having a PTA crisis. Apparently, there was a problem printing the nametags, so we have the troops mobilized to hand print names of the 350+ guest that will soon be arriving. Check-in begins at 6:30pm – YIKES!
6:30-7:10pm We finished most of the tags before everyone arrived – whew! Work registration desk. I’m relinquishing my Executive Board position on the Council next year. However, I think I would enjoy planning this event. Decide to volunteer for the position since the current chair is moving on. I try to be less involved, but it just doesn’t work. After all, I wouldn’t know what to do with myself if life wasn’t being lived at breakneck speed.
7:15-9:10pm Founder’s Day Dinner is a success. Motivational speaker Christine Cashen gave a great speech about attitude and she encouraged us to BOOGIE – Be Outstanding Or Get Involved Elsewhere. I love that.
9:35pm Finally home after a very long and busy day. Say “hi” to Doug and peek in on sleeping children before heading to my home office.
10:45pm Take a break to go wash my face. I’ll finish sending e-mails in bed, so that I can at least share space with Doug, who I’ve only seen for a few minutes of this crazy day.
11:45pm Hit send and go to sleep.
11:55pm Sit up in bed, remembering that tomorrow is cleaning day and no one has picked up the clutter. UGH! I’ll just save it for the morning. Thank goodness tomorrow is my day off.
