The first day of school - only 4 days later

Okay, so I have really good excuses.

See, Wednesday night, the first actual day of school was Part I of the So You Think You Can Dance season finale and I was way busy with that. Plus, I was pretty busy after that, rocking my little girl to sleep.

And then Thursday was Part II of the finale and I had to maintain my station in the recliner to make double sure that my girl Sabra won. It's a good thing she did, too, because I was gonna whup someone if she hadn't.

And then Friday night....well, Friday night was the world premiere of High School Musical 2 and the kids and I had a date with Tater and the tots because we don't get Disney on our "family friendly" programming package with DishNetwork, go figure. Then after HSM2, of course, we hung around for Phineas and Ferb and the almighty, most wonderfullest, amazingest teenager we all know and love, HANNAH MONTANA!! I *heart* Hannah Montana.

Then last night I got really busy removing staples in a huge pile of papers that needed to be shredded. It seems that somewhere around 1997, the same year we got a credit card, we used our good credit to buy a stapler and I found it absolutely imperative that I staple every stinkin' piece of paper that I filed for the next five years. Somewhere around 2002 the stapling stopped. Note that was also when I had a third child who was a toddler. Coincidence? I think not.

Anyway, so now it's Sunday and I am now ready to post about the kids's first day of school.

Here's my little Kindergartener - she was up before 5am. Talk about ready for school!

Abby showing off her patented snarl that seems to be part of the 5th grade package. I don't remember buying attitude when I picked up the three boxes of Kleenex and notebook paper.

The big, bad schoolbus.

But I didn't cry here.

Nope. I was strong here.

Sam having milk for breakfast. The didn't have the kind of cereal he liked and heaven forbid he branch out and *gasp* try something new. Fortunately, he had eaten at home in anticipation of them not having "anything good."

Up to this point, I did good. I hadn't shed one single tear all morning. Heck, I didn't have time - getting Paul off to work, the girls ready for school and me ready for work was time-consuming and I didn't have time to think much less cry. But once the bell rang and we left the cafeteria...

There she sat at her spot at her table with her name on it and a color paper just waiting to be colored and her very own name on her very own nametag and a chair with books and a whole class full of kids and I was snapping pictures right and left and doing okay..... until she put down her crayon, walked over to me, hugged me around the hips, looked up at me, waved and said, "Okay, bye now."

That's when the tears started. I knew that was her way of saying, "Okay, Mom. I'm cool here. Now, you go out and do your own thing because I have this Kindergarten thing licked." A mom I had talked to the day before saw the tears threatening to spill and said, "You're okay. You're doing good. Just take a deep breath." I took a deep breath and walked out into the hall at the exact moment Queen Tammy was walking out of the other Kindergarten classroom and she saw me melting down. She grabbed me and hugged me and I cried on her shoulder. I didn't realize it, but she was moving me toward the door while I cried and she managed to get me outside without me clawing the door or throwing myself into the cubbies and insisting that I stay for the day. I cried all the way to my car, but managed to get myself calmed down pretty quickly after that. By the time I got to work I was fine and stayed incredibly busy the entire day, so I didn't have time to sit and worry if she was okay. I knew she was anyway.

Mom and Uncle David came out to the house to meet the bus with me. Mom was kind of hurt that Abby was snarly and hateful, but I assured her that was just how Abby gets when she's overwhelmed. At least I hope that's why she was snarly and hateful and this isn't going to become a real habit. I'd hate to have to kill her before she reached Middle School.

Of course, Mom got the most information out of Kady who was more than ecstatic to tell us about her day. Mom asked if she'd had rest time and Kady nodded her head vigorously and said, "Oh yes! I used my pink towels!" Mom asked, "Did you just rest or did you sleep?" Kady replied, "Oh, I sleeped! And when Mrs. Reece turned on the light, I still sleeped and when I finally waked up, everyone was staring at me!"

And there are my little chickadees running in the 104' heat toward the grape kool-ade and Teddy Grahams that were awaiting them inside the air conditioning.

Because I am still the coolest adult they know.