I thought it would never get here - school that is....

OK, we survived hurricane Fay which turned out to be a "tropical depression" by the time it got here. It was windy and rainy for several days straight. Not a good combination for a mother who is on the verge of a breakdown praying for school to start. We were to start last Friday and they pushed it off until today. The good news is that Jacksonville and St Augustine did have localized flooding and power outages, but we managed to escape the worst of it. Sooo.... after much anticipation, the kids got up today and headed out for school. Nathan was up before the crack of dawn, ate breakfast and then went back to bed. Lauren sat up in bed looked out the window and told me "It's not time yet, mom. It's too dark." She is sooo her father (complete crab-apple in the mornings) After getting everyone ready, I packed up the baby (can I still call her baby even though she's 20 months old now?) in the jogger stroller and headed for the bus stop. It will be difficult for the next few months as Nate and Lo are at 2 different schools and thus have 2 different buses. We are zoned for a new school that does not have the k-2 classrooms ready until December.

I was doing OK with sending them off for another school year until they saw their friends at the bus stop and started running down the street. In the block we had to walk down they just kept getting further and further away. I thought to myself, "Isn't that they way it goes?" I once heard a great quote that said something like "From the moment of their birth, we raise them to leave us." Ouch. It's the truth though, isn't it? Everything we do for them (and to them) shapes them into the little humans walking those school halls. I gave Nathan a pep talk last night about being brave enough to make friends (he can be quite shy in new situations). On the other hand, I gave Lauren a pep talk about being good and not to disruptive during class (she's still my firecracker). They came home happy and exhausted. I spent the day with Brooke not doing much of anything. It-was-great.

Nate insisted on riding his skateboard to the bus stop. Lauren just couldn't wait to go and be with her little girlfriends.

Some of the bus stop kids. We are so lucky to have nice kids in the neighborhood!


And there they go. Can you see them hanging out of the bus waving frantically goodbye to me? No? That's because they could have cared less. They were excited to finally be on the bus away from their mothers. Boo-hoo.