What can I say? I just adore new, unsharpened pencils. (why is this? Is it the romanticism of untapped potential?) I love clean new composition notebooks. I love buying new backpacks and lunch boxes. We now have in our house tons of glue sticks and colored pencils (the twistable kind, which I didn't know existed until they were required this year. Very cool, this twistable colored pencil thing.). Every sense of me feels these collections of school supplies with the same anticipation I felt when my mom went with me to buy all the necessary items for my elementary school days. These sensory memories are forever bored into my psyche.
The beginning of school here is eminent. (as in, this coming Tuesday, 6 days from today). We still have a lot of school shopping to do. I can't find the black and white speckled composition notebooks ANYWHERE (and E needs 7 of them and they must be black and white). E still needs a lunchbox, and Q needs - well - just about everything since we only got his supply list tonight. I've had a weird work week because I needed time to prepare for my first PTA board meeting (as president) and had to speak to all the elementary school teachers today at their luncheon (and convince them that becoming a PTA member was the best thing since sliced bread). OK. Pause for a
REALITY CHECK!!!!When did I (meaning me, myself) become a freakin' PTA president? Seriously. Me? Does anyone who really knows me feel comfortable with this?
Anyway.
Then my son had his open house tonight. At his new school. Which is a Middle School. Which is not an Elementary School. Which makes me hyperventilate.
My daughter has her open house tomorrow. Which thank the universe is still at elementary school, which keeps me sane. And she has the same teacher my son had in 3rd grade, whom he absolutely loved and became a vegetarian for (only briefly - he loved hot dogs more) , and whom my daughter has been CERTAIN she would have when she reached 3rd grade. And as always, she was right.
I bought Q a calculator tonight. (The specific and exact correct brand required by this state). I am beginning to sense the smell of campfires and the burning of leaves burning and pumpkin pie. E has joined Girl Scouts and participates in her first GS activity on Saturday. School is starting, which means a "new year" is starting, which means fall is peeking around the corner at me, which means the seasons continue to turn and turn. And it also means that time continues to march onward. Children whom you put on the bus for Kindergarten just a split second ago are suddenly in the hormonal throes of Middle School. And this is something that makes me happy and sad at the same time.
Smell the change of seasons. Life it good.
11 comments:
My baby, whom I put on the bus for Kindergarten just a split second ago is now driving to high school as a senior.
And I read in your blog something about the smell of leaves and burning pumpkin pies. Yep, that's me. That's fall! :)
Nice sensory descriptions. I still enjoy walking thru Office Depot and touching all the supplies. Kind of an organizational thing perhaps.
Boy, I'd love to have a real change of seasons! One of these days, one of these days. I had to walk my step daughter to her class on the first day and if you know me, I was hyperventalating as well.
Trouble.
Have I mentioned that my autumn actually includes colored leaves? :)
Don't hate me.
La - LOL at the burning pumpkin pies!! I'm just not thinking about the fact that Sean is a senior. Fingers in ears, "LALALALALALA"
Mom - have you been to the Container Store? I think I have some weird issues related to organizational items that I must have inherited from you. I buy baskets and organizers and notebooks all the time. And hardly ever use them.
Trouble - Your seasons change!! You go from hot to less hot, don't you? What grade is your stepdaughter in now? Is she still playing baseball? E stopped with the baseball and started with soccer and Girl Scouts.
Hey Mare - I'm guessing you weren't directing that "don't hate me" taunt at me, since I live in colorful autumn *heaven* here. :-)...In which case you must be directing that at my family and friends who live in Texas, in which case I have to ask "Are you TAUNTING my peoples?" May I join you?
Hey - the leaves change here. Around November or so, the leaves change to a beautiful shade of brown right before they fall off.
Brown is a color...
Middle school makes me hyperventilate, too.
Ha,ha,ha,,, hardy, har har! Hot to less hot, Yes, you would be correct, J! LOL... I'm just waiting for the kids to get in college. I'm so biding my time here! LOL... Hey, I've got a question for Mrs. Atmospheric(did I butcher that one too?) Scientist... I was thinking that I knew just about all there was to know about hurricanes just because I'm obsessed with them.... But I was enthralled with the new one, Felix. They were saying that they were going to fly a reconnaissance plane in there to measure the barometric pressure of it and they aborted the mission due to flying ice and dangerous conditions. I knew that obviously the surface temperature of the water would indicate that the lower extremity of the storm would definitely be warm so that it would allow it to "breathe", but I didn't think that the upper levels of it would be cold or much cooler and never heard of hail during a recon mission. Is it rare or did I learn something new? Okay, so the learn something new was a stretch! LOL...
C is in 7th grade this year and is looking forward to fall ball.K-man and her are in the same grade. D-Boone is in 3rd. Remind me to fill you in on his skin condition whenever you have a few days! LOL...
See ya!
Trouble.
Boy, do I feel humbled! LOL... I haven't really read that much on what I was asking you about and there is soooooooooo much more information now than whenever I read about weather phenom.... I just thought I knew a thing or two! LOL... Anyway,,,, if you have any information that you think is pertinent or interesting, I'm always up for a good read. Sorry if I'm being a pest! LOL...
Trouble.
Trouble, of COURSE you're not being a pest! I've been busy up at school and driving kids to places so I haven't had much time to write back. Yes, hurricanes are very cold up several miles in the atmosphere. They're basically an organized system of thunderstorms. Up near the tropopause, it's below freezing and the updrafts and downdrafts take pieces of ice up and down, resulting in layers of ice forming like an onion - this is how hail is formed.
It's possible I may experience a tropical storm (or maybe hurricane?) this weekend. This one snuck up on me, probably because it hasn't been named yet. Will be checking weather underground all weekend to see if I need to worry about trees falling onto my house. Eep.
Jen
Oh, do I know that feeling, J... I sure as hell wouldn't want to trade with anyone, though. I love "getting" to take my boys to school. They're so much different than I was as far as that goes! LOL. Daniel Boone is quite a handful, though. He's had a couple of "meltdowns" regarding having to wait for his Mom and whenever they saw him explode, of course, they want to do all kinds of behavioral studies and all that kind of nonsense for an 8 year old. I guess they aren't allowed to get pissed off! LOL. anyway, that's another story. Kenneth is havning a blast getting to "legally" clean the clock of a 3 boys that jumped him and beat him up. He asked me... "Dad can I knock the fire out of them on the football field?".... I told him "is that one of the boys playing QB?" whenever he answered me "yes" I assured him that anytime that he plays linebacker(which is every day) it's his job to pummel the crap out of the QB and that if he just happens to be one of the kids that beat him up, hit him extra hard! LOL... He lit up like a Christmas tree at the thought of that one. I sure was all for it.
I knew most all of the stuff that you were explaining because I got a chance to take a course in college about Earth Science and believe it or not, I actually paid attention! LOL... very fascinating.
Yikes! Gabrielle snuck on me as well. This morning whenever I was watching the news, I thought that they were talking about Desperate Housewives! LOL...
I loved your Grandparent story, J... I was very close to Mom's, but my Dad's treated me and my 2 brothers like outcasts. I never met Mom's Dad(he was murdered in New Orleans) and my Dad's Dad, I met him only once. The 2nd time that I was going to meet him, we called ahead of time and he wasn't there whenever we got there and I never heard from him again. He passed away not too long after that.
Cya
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