After ANOTHER Trip to the Store for School Supplies

Dear Teachers of America,

Please do not wait until the 2nd day of classes to add additional school supplies to the list of supplies sent out mid-summer. Some of us hate do not do well with crowds & purchased the supplies on said list a month ago, and should be home enjoying the spoils of their planning, not fighting with idiots parents who wait until the last minute.

Dear Stores That Sell School Supplies That Means YOU P.ublix, W.algreens, C.VS & Target,

School just started yesterday, your Back to School display sections should still be being maintained and restocked.

Dear Makers of School Supplies,

Not every student needing school supplies is either a) a pre-teen, M.iley Cy.rus loving girl or b) a T.homas the T.ank Engine loving pre-school boy.


Dear Idiots Parents Who Wait Until the Last Minute to Buy School Supplies,

If you are looking for, let's just say, a BINDER, the polite thing to do would be to park your EMPTY cart at the end of the aisle, then quickly & efficiently check out your choices, pick one & get the heck out of the way. DO NOT park your empty cart right in front of the very small binder section of the office section & stand on the other side of it leisurely perusing your choices the 4 binders they have left, blocking not only the very small binder section but the whole aisle of traffic going both ways for 5 minutes.


Dear Self,

Grow some cajones & learn to stand up for yourself to said idiots parents.

That is all.

Back!

The kids are back to school, thus, I'm back to the blog. I could lie to you & tell you I have been remiss in my blogging because I'm such an awesome mom & I've been busy taking the kids to the amusement parks, movies, beach & swim parks, but no. I've cooked a little & cleaned a little, done laundry & Facebooked. That's about it. Oh! And I've watched a lot of the Food Network. And found some new recipes. So maybe I SHOULD say I've been busy "researching". Oh yes. I've been swamped with "research".

We took Megan up to Gator-ville on Friday. It was a quick trip, as we had to get back for Ben's "Meet the Teacher" afternoon at school. If this were an anonymous blog, I would have a great story to insert for you here, but alas, I have shown my face to you all... it would've been a doozy though & you all would lose all control of your bodily functions if you heard read it. I guarantee!

Anyway, she's there. We're here. I neglected to take pictures that day & her internet isn't functioning properly so she can't send me any of her new digs. She's living off campus with some friends & started classes yesterday. We all miss our Gator Girl terribly & her room is sad, as this time she took all of her furniture. Rest assured there will be no empty rooms in this house though, Michael will be moving his office in there any minute now. I'm thinking he should leave the purple paint with big pink, purple & blue flowers, he's thinking we need to paint it a more neutral color, as he doesn't think that would look very professional when he's skyping with his boss or a client. Maybe we'll leave the paint & just make him a backdrop. :) I'll keep you posted.

The other kids started school this morning. Jordan is a SENIOR! I can hardly believe it... just yesterday Jordan started Kindergarten & Megan started 2nd grade...

Now she's a sassy Senior! Is there anything that can stop you on your first day of your Senior year of high school?! The world is at your feet... (and yes that's a WELCOME TO SUMMER! banner that I made & hung on the LAST day of school, along with my 4th of July decorations. DON'T JUDGE ME!)


The first day of college will hit her soon enough. I hope she has a great year!


And now onto this guy... I was trying to ambush him this morning, but he got wind of it.

As you can see the prospect of starting middle school & wearing a uniform for 3 more years thrills him to no end...
Do you notice anything about that picture? Look closely. (But please ignore any dust bunnies, they AREN'T relevant). Anyway, he knew I wouldn't stop snapping away until he smiled so he gave me one of these...


Then, he & Jordan took a break from all the fighting they've been doing lately to celebrate the fact that they wouldn't have to see each other again for 8 whole hours...


And with that, Ben & I set off on for our 1/2 hour trek to the new school. Too bad the damn paparazzi snuck into our car.


Upon arrival at the school, that earlier picture comes back into play... did you find anything (besides the dust bunnies & the air freshener) out of place?!

Here's a hint...
Yeah, so the Capri-Sun sprung a leak that we didn't notice. Ben goes to grab his lunch as he gets out of the car & WHAMMO!

The bottom blew out of it. Welcome to Middle School Little Man. Welcome to Middle School.

I didn't see the Secret Service, but I'm sure they were there.

I just put my boy on a plane to Cape Cod to visit his favorite cousin, Jack (& his very generous Aunt Amy & Uncle Gary).

I think he'll be safe as an unaccompanied minor, since Obama was putting his son on the same plane.

I am thinking...

that there may be some future bloggy material in this here bag...

Megan was cleaning out the junk drawer in her room today & found a couple of rolls of undeveloped film. Which reminded me of the box in my closet full of disposable cameras from back in the day that I never developed. I imagine most of them are full of pictures that the kids took. Santa always brought them one in their stocking to capture Christmas with & I always sent one along on field trips. Does Costco still develop film? I know that I've heard that some drug stores have stopped offering film development & only do digital now. I'll have to check...

While digging through the box of disposables, I also found this beauty.


I vaguely remember that this was my last point & shoot before I went digital. I don't remember what year Michael bought me my first digital for Christmas but I know it was in this house, so it's been within the last 10 years. This baby still had 18 shots left on it, so I started snapping pictures of Megan & Ben, who were near by. And then I looked at the back of my camera to see what the shots looked like...and got sad because there was no little screen. Megan thought that was pretty darn hysterical, tears of laughter streaming down her face, laughing at her dear old mom. So I went in for the zoom. And the camera started changing before our very eyes...

um, yeah. Needless to say, those shots probably won't be of the best quality.

It's a beautiful day in the 'hood

Michael says that last post was cheating. Whatever.

Ben is going to a Math, Science & Technology middle magnet school in a few weeks. In the ghetto. That's the thing about magnet schools. When Ben & I did a "drive by" of the school, he made note that it was right next door to a coin laundry. The girls also attended a magnet middle school, but in not such a bad neighborhood. It also wasn't such a great school. Not enough research our part,as far as the school goes, but we had a nice carpool & Megan, in particular made some lifelong friends. Ben's new school, however, has a great reputation & we think that the Math, Science & Technology focus will be right up his alley.

When we got home from our cruise, there was a letter from the school informing us of an Open House at the school, 2 weeks before school starts. That's unusual for this area, as all of the Open Houses are usually the night before the 1st day & we end up running around like fools trying to make it all of them. I was so excited about this, but disappointed when I realized it was on a Wednesday night & I would have to rearrange Ben's drum lesson.

Ugh. You see, I hate, hate, hate calling "people". I will call my friends every day, especially if I need to clean my house. (I think I've mentioned before that I love to clean house while I talk on the phone, but I can't find it right now & if I EVER want to get this post written, I'll have to forgo a link to it...), but "people", ugh no. Appointments? Tech Support? Reservations? Placing To Go Orders? Parent/Teacher issues? Lawn guy issues? Nope. If there is any way out of it,
I. just. won't. do. it.

Unfortunately, his drum lessons are at a small local music shop that "doesn't do" online appointments. So after putting it off for about 10 days or so (and, I know it sounds crazy, but I really stressed about it), I finally called Monday morning & had his lesson pushed up an hour. No big deal. Really. (Except that I have to also change next week's appointment, when Ben will be out of town...but that's a nervous breakdown for another day)

Meanwhile, I've nagged the be-jeezus out of Michael for the past 2 weeks, to make sure that he had no appointments this evening & that he got home in plenty of time to escort his boy & I to "the hood".

And I ironed a nice outfit, so as to make a good first impression.

And I straightened my hair.

And I made a casserole for dinner so that Megan could heat it up, no-fuss while we were gone. (Jordan had soccer practice)

And, for a reason that really doesn't matter, we had to make a stop at Joanne's, where Megan was babysitting her brood, to trade out cars.

All went as planned. We even made it to the school with half an hour to spare...which is great because I didn't know if parking or finding a seat would be an issue.

You know where I'm going with this, right?!

The gate was closed. The sign on the school looked something like this...

So, it looks like we're heading back to the 'hood tomorrow. At least I don't have to call anyone about it.

I keep checking...

...this blog & there's never anything new!!! What gives?

What?! You say I'M the one that is supposed to be updating it?!

Hmmm... I'll have to get on that.