My first experience as a Chaperon

Ralphy came home the other day with a permission slip for a field trip to the zoo.   My first reaction was "my baby has a field trip already? His only a baby."   He is not a baby.  He is a big boy and I have to accept it.  Anyways,  after  I got over that, my second reaction was " I have to chaperon, I can't miss my baby's, I mean my big boy's first field trip EVER.  Hubby laughed at me.

I wanted to chaperon because I wanted to be there with him, I wanted to see him having fun with his friends, not because I didn't think he was not going to be okay.  I knew he was ready. He is a big boy after all. I spoke to the teacher and told her  that I wanted to participate and she was thrilled to have an "extra pair of hands" like she put it. She told me that I would be with Ralphy and one other child. There were  seven kids in our group.

I started getting a little nervous because hello this was Ralphy's first field trip and I didn't know how he was going to handle all of the walking and well if you have ever chaperoned any of your kid's field trips, you know that kids get separated and you have to watch them carefully, very, very carefully.

Well, I am proud to announce that Ralphy was  great. He held my hand the whole time, listen to the teacher and her  instructions, he didn't complain he was tired, not even once.  He didn't even ask me to carry him, which I was totally shocked by.  I was so proud of him.

I will be chaperoning whenever possible.  Hubby and I made a deal that we would alternate so that we could both enjoy these moments with him.   I will never forget the look on Ralphy's face when he realized that I was going with him. It was priceless.

 Do you remember your first chaperoning experience? Do you Chaperon? Please share your thoughts.

My biggest pet peeve EVER

Want to know what my biggest pet peeve  is? I mean, this makes me crazy,  this makes my heart beat fast and my hands sweat, ready? Tardiness! I hate to be late anywhere. My mom tells me that when I was little, I would always be the first one up in the mornings and the first one ready for school,while my brother on the other hand, not so much.  She literally had to drag him out of bed.

My mom also says that  she has no idea where I get it from. I don't think its from her.  I can not and will not be late. I  rather not go if I know I will be late. I wake up extra early in the mornings just to  make sure I leave the house by 8:30am. If its  8:31am and we still haven't left, its like I start hyperventilating. I can't help it, its something that's completely out of my control. Thank goodness that my hubby is usually pretty good about being on time to places because if not, we would have a problem.

This does not just apply for work. I don't like to be late for church, appointments, parties. I don't like to be late period. I  will start getting ready hours before. I have how long it takes me to get Ralphy ready down to the minute. Hey, I'm a planner. People always tell me, you can't plan for things like traffic and my answer to that is, only people that are always late say that.  I always "plan" for extra time and the amount of time really depends on how far we are going.  For example, I always plan  for heavy traffic, no matter what day of the week it is and for other unforeseen things.

Everyone has a pet peeve and this is mine. I hate to be late and I hate it when other people make me late. Some people might say I'm a little nuts when it comes to the whole tardiness thing and I will have to agree. I actually think its a good thing. Maybe, if I  wasn't so psychotic about it then it wouldn't be too bad, oh well, its not happening.

What are you biggest pet peeve? Is anyone else out there psychotic about being tardy like me? If there is, I think we should get together asap.