First Days

Today was the boy's last first day of school. That's right, he's a senior. I can still clearly recall his first day of Kindergarten. It was raining buckets... like a deluge. He was wearing his shiny blue raincoat with the red and yellow stripes and his first Green Bay Packers Jersey underneath. He carried an umbrella. After his teacher shooed us out of the classroom, Mark and I went to this special room where they served doughnuts for the distraught parents. We each ate a doughnut and went to work. Today he wore jeans and a white tee shirt with an undershirt underneath (since the shirt was kind of see through). He dropped me off at school and drove himself down to the high school. I feel old.

Today was my little pumpkin's first day of high school. She was in a horrendous fury yesterday because we would not let her ride to school with her cousin's boyfriend. You see, in CA, it is illegal for kids to drive other kids around until 1 year after they've had their license, and he's only had his license a few weeks. He's already been pulled over with the cousin in the car and the police had to drive her home. She thought we were being incredibly unreasonable for not letting her ride with him. When I dropped her off at her friend's house this morning (who she was riding the bus with) she answered my "I love you" with a firmly closed door. After school we spent almost $80 on school supplies. I had no luck trying to persuade her that cute binders and pens versus plain binders and pens didn't determine her worth as a person. I feel stomped on and tired.

Today was my 11th first day of school as the teacher. I can't remember any details from my first day of school as the teacher. Except that I had a cute little class of 16 Kinders and I was really excited about putting my room together. Today, I didn't feel at all nervous. I really can't remember the last time I felt nervous about starting school. I had some fun moments with my class, but they sure had a lot of energy!! It will take many sessions with my favorite puppet Herm the Worm, and lots of practice, practice, practice for them to all get "how" to do school. I have many talkers. When we were walking out to the bus they little boy who was holding my hand looked up at me and said, "I had fun." For this, I am happy.

Quick Check In

I am checking in to report how I did on my previous list of items to do for the last month of summer. The goal will be listed first with what was accomplished in parenthesis.

1. Exercise 25 times for one hour or more. (I exercised 15 times. Never over 1 hour... usually 20-30 minutes)
2. Clean 2 junk drawers. (finished early on... and they still look pretty good!)
3. Visit Granny Millie (Nope, didn't even call her)
4. Flowers on Granny & Grandpa's graves (Nope)
5. Pick blackberries and make cobbler (Accomplished... it was good.)
6. Learn to make a really pear martini (Nope... had some great Mango margaritas in Cabo, though)
7. Go to Fern Canyon (No)
8. Go to Patrick's Point (No)
9. Read 10 books (Yep, I read 11.)
10. Make an appointment with the dermatologist (Did it... everything's fine)
11. Clean off the laundry room counter (Yes, it was clean, but I have refilled it with other stuff!)
12. Have guests for dinner once per week (Well, I had people over twice)
13. Work on Homework bags for school ( I did work on them, they are sitting incomplete on the laundry room counter.)
14. Start memory books (Technically, yes. They are assembled in a big box in my garage.)
15. Scrap 40 pages (I got 16 pages completed)

So, I guess I did OK... definitely lacking in outings... maybe that'll be a goal for Fall.... to go on some day trips.

Cheers! Nancy

Stress

Sometimes getting ready for a vacation and getting back from a vacation are such stress filled times that I wonder if it's really worth it to go... BUT NO! I KNOW it is worth it to go, and I am looking forward to it... I have a week of laying by the pool, reading (I am taking 8 books with me), working out, eating yummy food, drinking luscious cold drinks, and basically being responsible for nothing. It will be wonderful.
It's just that I'm already dreading the 7 days after I return... when I will be in a pressure cooker timewise... to get my classroom ready... to learn the new Language Arts Curriculum... to be ready to teach again after such a short break....
That's the clincher... I feel like summer just began, and now it's over.
BUT, I do have a great class coming in with lots of parents I adore... so that should help a thousand fold! Wish me luck... (and prayers, too... prayers really help!)

Crazy

It's crazy how fast time flies when you spend a couple of hours each day reading.. and when you just putter around taking time to do all the things you usually have to rush through, like making your bed and wiping down the counters and scrubbing the sink and flossing your teeth and eating your lunch. It's crazy how good it feels to just float through each day with a list of things both written and unwritten to do, yet rarely feeling rushed or stressed about it. Because it's summer time and there's always tomorrow...

It's crazy how when you've had a day where much of it felt frazzled and hectic because of car accidents and closed roads and scraping machines and changed appointments and PMS headaches and a stressed out son... that a few minutes of time to gather your thoughts and relax and get your priorities straight makes it all better.

I love summer.

finally...

After years of begging for a digital camera, Mark said tonight, "I guess you can go online and buy that camera you want for your birthday." So here I am trying to buy it, and having no luck at all! Won't someone please take my money and send me this camera!?!