The Joys of Yearbook

Its been so busy the past few weeks, due mostly to yearbook.

The week of our final deadline (the end of March I think it was), Mr. Baker told us that we weren't going to be able to use Jostens because of some financial problems and that it was up to me to find something else. They said they'd found a couple places that we could look into. I looked at the websites and wasn't all that impressed so suggested using Blurb, a company that lets you download their software for free, make your book, submit your book and pay, and the rest they did. This option costs at least half of what Jostens charges.

Andrew broke the news to the editors and I informed them a couple days later which company we'd be using. The girls were extremely bummed and really upset about having to do the book from scratch again (after completing about 90% of it). I told them to let me know if they needed me to do anything. I kept checking in with them and wasn't getting many answers to my questions. Finally I gave them a deadline that I had to have it by in order to proof it and send it in so it could be here in time. I got the book for the weekend but it wasn't finished. So I worked on it and made my edits. Then a couple days later they told me they had the book pretty much done, they just needed a couple more pictures to put in. I was flabbergasted! We now had 2 books (you can't work on the same book from two different computers) which meant everything I had done over the weekend was pointless! I got the book a couple days later and went through it again. It was a Tuesday by the time I was ready to upload it to Blurb.

I came to work, had faculty meeting, had advisories, and then came straight back to the office to upload the darn thing. I got less then half way done (which at the time I thought was almost finished) and it quit and gave me some sort of error message. I tired for a couple hours to no avail. Andrew told me we would come back early from lunch and unplug the cord and plug it straight into my computer so I'd have more bandwidth... and no one else would have internet on campus. We figured it would take about a half hour and we should be done right around the time classes started. Alas, we were wrong. It took a good hour and a half to upload this thing! But we got it done and it would be her right in time for this past weekend.

But the bad news came later that afternoon. I was working on some stuff and saw I got an email from Blurb. I quickly opened it expecting good news. But the email said that we had a bunch of pictures and stuff that were too close to the edges of the pages and would need to be moved about an eighth of an inch in. So I went through and tried to refit a bunch of the pictures and spent another hour and a half uploading. And again the same thing happened.

The third time (on Wednesday), I was in town printing out some reception pictures and doing some errands. Andrew called me and said he had just gotten a call from somebody named Jackie and she'd be calling me within a couple minutes about the yearbook. I waited in the Walmart parking lot for a few minutes and the call didn't come. So I moved on to Taco Bell, went in, ordered, went back to the car and debated if I should wait there or not. Finally, I decided to go. I was about half way back when my phone finally rang. I told her that I wouldn't be able to talk right then because I was driving and asked if I could call her back in a half hour. She said that was fine and I just needed to make sure to have the file with me and to set aside enough time to go through the entire thing with her... all 104 pages!!!

On my way back, I swung by the house and picked up my laptop and then rushed to the cafe. I got my workers going and informed them I would be in the office on an important phone call if they needed anything. I spent about 15 minutes on the phone with Jackie having her point out issues. We got through a little over 60 pages when she asked if I wanted her to keep going. I told her I thought I could handle it from there since I knew what I was looking for now. We hung up and I spent the rest of the afternoon editing between getting supper ready and serving. Then I sped to the farm to do chores for Andrew and Kim, sped back to my house, and spent a couple more hours on the yearbook. I uploaded it again and got to bed a little after midnight hoping all was well.

To make a long story short, I ended up getting two more phone calls before they finally accepted the book. In total, I edited and uploaded the book FIVE times! And the books were not here for the weekend and will probably not be here by the time all the kids leave. We paid for two day shipping which means they SHOULD be here on Sabbath but with the way things have been going... I'm not holding my breath.