First Day of School 2017

August 17, 2017.  The First Day of School is always an emotional roller coaster.  For everyone involved!  Who is my teacher?  What should I wear?  I don’t want to be late!  When’s lunch?  Do I need my backpack?  Do you have a pencil and something to write on?  I can’t believe you are in (insert grade here) already!?!  Do you know how you are getting home?  The list goes on and on and on. And this year, honestly, was no different.  I know I experienced about 25 emotions – all at once and then over and over throughout the day.  Here is a glimpse into how the day went.

I’ll start with the boys.  They get up early and go to school early and start early.  For #3 child, this is fine.  He sleeps hard and is ready to get up and go when the time comes.  For #4 child, this is not OK.  Lots of repeated trips to the room with back rubs, and bright lights, and bribes.  And that’s just to get him out of bed.  This ritual repeats for getting dressed, ingesting SOMETHING for breakfast, brushing the teeth (this is actually the easiest part) and combing/styling the hair.  And, I wanted them ready a few minutes early for pictures!  But we made it!  Then, Britt and I walked the boys the 4 blocks to Westwood for their first day of 5^th grade and Kindergarten.

Once we were there, Finn said we should go to Jake’s class first.  Easy enough!  He is excited to have Mrs. Stuever for 5^th Grade, and he has several friends in there.  After a selfie with mom, we were on to the Kindergarten hall way.  Finn had been in a good mood since he finally woke up “fully.”  He did great with pictures, loved walking to school, was a perfect little brother as we got Jake settled… And then as we neared his classroom he dug his heels in, and I basically had to drag him to class.  The next 7-8 minutes of my life left me sad, frustrated, and extremely sweaty.  With Dad’s help, and the Mrs. Edward’s (not the same Mrs. Edwards from last year – a different one.  That’s not confusing at all!) help, we were able to leave him in the classroom for circle time and go on about our day.  It was TOUGH.  There were tears all around.  I even texted my friend in the office 30 minutes later to check in.  She sent the Vice Principal on a re-con mission for us, to find that (of course) he was fine and happy and doing great.  WHEW!

After we got back home, it was time to take the #2 child to her first day of OFFICIAL High School!  I had told her if she would get up early for a quick pic with her brothers (at the top - no make-up), I would take her to get breakfast on the way to school.  She chose McDonalds.  After a quick stop there, we were off to Stillwater High School for her first day of Sophomore Year!  Drop off was a bit chaotic, and this is the pic we snapped as she stepped out of the car.

Later when the boys were dismissed for the day from Westwood, they came up to the 3^rd floor of the Student Union to see me for a moment and tell me about their days.  It was SO MUCH FUN to hear them talk about the first day.  I would say both days were a success.  Jake said he was ready to go back for Day 2.  Finn, well, he’s Finn.  Not only are Jake and Finn complete opposites, so are their first day of school end of day emails from their teachers!  See below…

Emma and I texted a little bit early in the morning as she prepared for her school day.  She promised me a picture or 2, which I *FINALLY* got around 2:00 in the afternoon! LOL!  She did her ½ of the traditional Emma and Lara back to school pic.  I, however, had forgotten to do Lara’s!  So, we did Lara’s side after dinner (in her trainer clothes instead of her cute FDoS outfit, and I got to merge them together in the name of tradition!

Lara’s school day didn’t end until 5:30pm when Football Practice was over. #TrainerLife Finn had wanted to have dinner with Nana and Grandpa.  It was their 49^th wedding Anniversary, so we all decided to eat at Joe’s!  Eskimo Joe’s, that is.  The big kids got their traditional First Day of School Milk Shakes for dessert, and it was the best way to end our First Day of School in 2017!

Happy 49th Wedding Anniversary Mom and Dad

Here’s to a great year, Little Dream Weavers!

End of Day 6

I will be going to bed soon, so I say Day 6 is over, and again a success!  I did have one *tiny* lapse, but I’ll describe that later…

We have presented ourselves with a few challenges the past few days.  Thursday night, the kids wanted to eat at one of their favorite places, Chick-fil-a.  My husband figured we could handle it, so off we went.  And we DID it!  They had their nuggets and strips, played in the playground, and a couple of them even traded the toy inside the kid’s meal for ice cream!  He and I shared a large fruit bowl, and drank our water!  Friday was relatively uneventful (except the power went out in my building for the 2^nd time this week and I again went home early).  It was the 5th anniversary of our wedding, so my husband and I wanted to go out and be a couple.  In our culture in this day and time, that usually means going out for dinner.  Well, that was out of the question!  We had babysitters lined up, and pre-purchased movie tickets, so we popped our own popcorn, grabbed some water bottles, stuffed it all in my over-sized purse, and enjoyed a few hours of each other’s company.  It was an early movie, so we wanted to go do something afterwards, but couldn’t come up with something to do… Typically we would go get a drink or dessert somewhere…  This left us both feeling a bit empty – and there was a very short discussion about throwing in the towel.  But, we just picked up the kids, came home, went to bed early, and knew that today was another day!

Today was FULL of challenges!  We had a full day planned – 50 miles from home!  At 9:30, we loaded up the car with the kids, the coats, a movie for the road, bananas, cutie oranges, nuts, and bottled water.  And it worked!  We went to a pre-inauguration event hosted by Mary Fallin for Oklahoma families at the Science Museum of Oklahoma.  They served us all lunch there, courtesy of McDonalds.  The kids all got nuggets and apple slices, apple juice or water.  The adults were offered a salad (or nuggets).  We decided we could do the salads; we would just have to pick off the tortilla strips and cheese.  Plus, only one of our kids likes apples slices, so we got those as well.  Picking the stuff off the salad was tedious, so we didn’t eat too much of that – besides, there was a WHOLE museum to explore!

After a few more stops, we decided we needed an early dinner, and headed to Souper Salad.  My husband thought this would be a good choice for us, but it was harder than we expected!  Lots of salad and fruit choices, but also pasta salads, breads, pizza, and more!  We both did well!  My favorite thing I found to eat was a baked potato, then there was a vegan soup on the line today, so I poured the soup over my potato!  YUM!  Our next stop was church, and I had eaten red onions on my salad.  And they were STRONG.  I needed SOMETHING to get rid of my dragon breath.  I fretted about it all the way to church, every time someone spoke to me and when we dropped the kids off at their classes, and I didn’t want to SING with that taste/feeling.  Worship is my favorite part of a service, so I HAD to do something.  I prayed about it, and found some Extra gum in my purse.  So, I chewed it for about 10 minutes, felt SO MUCH better, and threw it away.  Definitely not on the Daniel fast, but it got me through church without any more stress!

We headed home – security! – after attending church, and we both feel revived and ready for another week!  I am excited that at this time tomorrow, we will have been on this journey an entire week.  I am stronger than I thought I was, and God provides.  2 truths I should know, but that are being sharpened by this experience!