Monday

Today is cleaning day! Hurrah! Clean the bathrooms, vacuum the floors, fresh towels for all, mop, mop, mop! For 2.5 hours my house will be fresh & clean & have that NOT lived in look. Ahhhhh.....

Whew!

First week of school is OVER. In numbers, that's 4 lunches (today is a half day), 8 snacks, 2 tries at getting new school shoes for Dagny, 3 very relaxing mornings, if you count cleaning, cooking and running errands relaxing. (I do.)

Things that have gone easier than I thought:

• Getting up at 5:40 a.m. - my clock just seemed to reset itself
• Anders using the bathroom at school
• Homework (so far)
• Making snacks - they both love fruit, so this has been easy. But we're about to see the last of the melons 'round here.
• Getting everyone out the door at 7:40
• "Big kid" carline

Things that have been harder to do than I thought:

• Lunches - aargh! Why can't my kid eat sandwiches like everyone else?!
• Getting chores done while Anders is at school - I'm used to taking my time (or not doing them at all)
• Getting to bed earlier
• Finding uniforms/shoes/socks that fit Dags - we still haven't found shoes that fit. She's wearing her shoes from Kindergarten still

Anyhoo. Our fall activities will start soon - sports, Brownies, etc. This will be my first fall without swim lessons since 2005. Since Dags learned to swim this year she opted to do ballet instead. We have a complimentary class tomorrow morning to see if she likes it and then we can go from there. She might do some tennis too, but not until it cools off a little. Anders fall activity is Hanging with Mom. We've been having fun playing games and doing puzzles. We play Indiana Jones for hours! He is too young for any organized sports and declared he "wasn't ready" for swim lessons. I learned my lesson with pushing the pool on Dagny, so I told Anders he could wait until the spring session to start. NO WAY am I going through months of crying and carrying on and wasted time again. Dagny waited until she was good and ready and then just did it on her own practically. She's a fish now.

Now I'm counting down the days until Football Season starts and the weather cools off a little. And by the way..... How 'bout them Gators?!

Empty nest?

Today was the first day of school! Woohoo!

Anders is in preschool three mornings a week and today was his very first day. Despite the slightly apprehensive look on his face in the picture, I am happy to report that he went off to class without a single tear or complaint and came home bubbly, excited, exhausted and singing "new" songs. I guess he forgot that we've been singing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" together for as long as I remember. And best of all, he came home wearing the same clothes I sent him in which means NO POTTY ACCIDENTS! I mean, he is completely potty trained but he has never gone in public without me right there. I guess he IS a big boy now, as he insists so often.

Dagny doesn't get out for another 2 hours, so I won't have her report until tonight. But since she's with all the same kids that she's been with since SHE was 3, I'm sure she'll just pick up where she left off last year.

And I? AM RELAXED. I haven't had a whole morning all to myself in 3 years and 1 month. Even Mr. J knew enough to clear out and give me some breathing room. Ahhhh.....

Blog-cation

As adults, we're all aware of how swiftly time passes the older we get. But even though I know this, it still amazes me when suddenly what seemed like 10 boundless weeks of fun and relaxation and sleeping in is now down to two weeks of back-to-school shopping, learning to wear shoes again, and trying to cram in as many activities as we can handle. So I'm declaring a two-week blog-cation here at Three's Company and am going to try to stay off the internet as much as possible. So much to do, so little time to do it!

I'll catch back up with y'all when school starts.

NO! This is just wrong

This is so wrong that I almost feel like calling Nine West and asking them what the heck they're thinking:




I found this coyly lurking at the top of a webpage and almost fell off my chair. Holiday clothing ads in AUGUST? Don't they know that they have to at least wait until the Halloween stuff is put away before advertising Holiday stuff? Really. Unless of course they mean we should be thinking about our Labor Day Holiday outfits, but I have never thought of a pair of mesh cut-out black heels as appropriate Labor Day material.

C'mon people.

Into the Wild

Have you ever heard of this film or the book by Jon Krakauer that it is based on? Have you ever heard of Emile Hirsch the amazing actor who stars in it? Did you know Sean Penn is a gifted director (whatever you might think of his acting talents)?

I did not know about any of the above until I saw the movie "Into the Wild." It is one of the most amazing stories I've ever seen on film. I can't wait to get the book from the library as well. It has a very Thoreau-ish quality to it, so if you're not a fan of navel-gazing idealism and/or naturalism you'll have to swallow hard to enjoy the first taste. But stick with it, because there is something about the story and the main character that will stick with you. I had a hard time getting to sleep after I watched it because I just couldn't stop thinking about it. It almost has that quality where you think.... did I see that? Did I miss something? Did that really happen? I didn't agree with everything he did (some of his actions seem naive, some self-centered, some just dumb) and I certainly don't think I'd survive 16 hours let alone 16 weeks in the wilds of Alaska with nothing but a sleeping bag, gun and 10lbs. of rice, but something about the movie made me want to believe I could -- or that at least I should try.

Anyway, it's Just Amazing. Rent it or catch it on one of the movie channels (I think it was on Cinemax) as soon as you can.

I still can't stop thinking about it.