Rough Start

{Otherwise entitled: First Day of School 2018-2019!}

O M WOWZA was the last 36 hours rough.  Yesterday was the first day of school, and as nice as it should be to finally have some peace and quiet around here while everyone's out of the house, it's almost more trouble than it's worth!

For one thing, we're covering 4 different schools here -- elementary, middle, junior high, and high school -- and each one has a different start time.  For another thing, the bus situation is an enigma that I can't unravel and for which I don't really have the patience.  (By the time everyone was home from school yesterday, it was almost time for Scott to come home from work.)  And to top it ALL off, I'm basically a walking zombie because Jane/Isaac were up from 1:30-4:30 the night before school started, and Isaac decided to give me an extra early wake up call this morning at 5:30.  Aaaaaaahhh!  Those kids.

Making the first day even crazier was the fact that it was ALSO Alex's birthday (which meant my whole day was spent making his cake) and we finished off the evening with a family "party" at Chuck E. Cheese.  Which was actually really fun in the moment {seriously -- it was}, but led to a wicked aftermath of emotional meltdowns from already tired and drained children at the end of the night.

To really capture the first day, I'll go ahead and spotlight each of the kids with their (and my) impressions:

Ethan -- 10th Grade

• Ethan was the one I was the most worried about.  His new high school is HUGE.  Probably twice the size of his old one, and it has the most insane schedule ever.  Not only do they alternate "A-days" and "B-days," but they also have two different start and stop times for the day.  And you kind of don't have any control over what you'll be assigned.  So, for this year, his A-days will start at 7:15 and be done at 2:15 and his B-days will start at 8:50 and be done at 3:50.  He's also doing cross country, which is an after school practice on A-days.  But at least he'll be done at the same time every day because cross country is his last period class on B-days.  I think.  I don't even know -- it's all so confusing.  Thankfully, when he got home yesterday his overall reaction to the school and the day was that it was "fine," so I'll take it!

Grace -- 8th Grade

• Oh Grace.  What am I going to do with this child??  The whole week's lead up to school starting, consisted of Grace begging to be home-schooled and claiming that she already hates her new junior high and that she wasn't going to talk to anyone on the first day of school. Well, she broke that edict before the school day even started and texted me that I should "be proud" because she had already made two friends while waiting for classes to start.  Her day was possibly the most bizarre and aggravating, because they didn't have a locker assigned for her at open house so she had to be there early to get one yesterday. (And then, the lock on the first one they gave her wouldn't work.)  Then, she spent the first half of her day in the wrong advisory class because they accidentally assigned her to a 7th grade special needs class and weren't able to get it straightened out for that morning.  The silver lining (?) to that mix-up was that her teacher told her she could just be on her phone the whole time.  Her lunch was extra long -- and with the 7th graders, so that was not ideal to her -- and her actual classes didn't start until after lunch, and they were only about 10 minutes long each.  To quote Grace, "This is the strangest first day I have ever had."  And to top it all off, the junior high buses were 20-30 minutes late getting there, because of the kerfuffle of a jumbled mess it was at the elementary/middle schools beforehand.

{a sample of some of our text conversations throughout the day.}

Sophie -- 6th Grade

• Sophie possibly had the best first day of the bunch?  But that's only because I can't remember hearing her complain about anything in particular.  She was also able to get to school on time and her bus coming home dropped her off right in front of the house.  {I seriously will go crazy if I think about the bus situation for too much longer -- Sophie and Jane do not have bus services TO school (I think because we live less than a mile from the buildings?), but they have buses HOME.  Alex, meanwhile, (who is in the same elementary building as Jane) has bus services TO and FROM the school.}  She thinks her homeroom teacher is really nice, and is excited for all of the clubs/extracurriculars that will be available at the middle school such as an upcoming musical and Girls on the Run.  She was also extra pleased with her first day of school outfit and the way her hair turned out after sleeping with it in dutch braids while it was still wet from her shower the night before.

 (We also finally got around to getting her some new glasses.)

"Style Icon"

Jane -- 4th Grade

• Oh Jane.  My poor little moonbeam was the child who was the most emotional by the end of the day.  I'm sure it had something to do with her being woken up by Isaac the night before at 1 something and then not being able to fall back asleep for a few hours.  Doh!  I could tell we were in for a rough afternoon and evening when she got off the bus and started crying on the walk home when I told her I hadn't made an after school snack for them because I had been working on Alex's cake all day and hadn't had time.  Bless her precious little heart, though, because she was pleased as punch with HER first day of school outfit as well.  I can't even tell you how long we looked and at how many different stores we visited before we found the perfect romper.  {Insert eye roll -- I think rompers are the most impractical piece of clothing ever for going-to-the-bathroom purposes.}   The good news is that she seems to like her teacher and she's excited about her first week of school assignment to find out what her name means and why she was given it.  That's my girl!  ;)

Alex -- 2nd Grade

• Alex's first day was also his birthday, so I'm sure that colored things a bit for him.  I think his day must have been overall pretty good, because I don't remember hearing a lot of complaints from him either.  The more exciting part of his day was celebrating at Chuck E. Cheese later in the evening, but that will have to wait for it's own separate post.  :)  

 (My cute little birthday boy.)

{His teacher emailed me this picture at the end of the day.}

Isaac  -- "Baby School"

• And then there's this nut job.  Hahaha.  My little buddy.  His first day of freedom from the others consisted of a LOT of time spent on the Wii game pad watching some kid show on YouTube while I was working on Alex's cake.  I think he's going to enjoy having the house to himself.  ;)  He did take a nap for me yesterday (and he's napping again right now), so hopefully his night sleep issues will start to get sorted out once he's caught up on sleep.  In the meantime, he's waiting to go to what he started calling "baby school" yesterday, but since I signed him up a little late, we're just on the wait list for now.

And that's a wrap!  It was almost as exhausting to recap it as it was to live it.  Hahahaha.   I'm hoping that after a week or so of adjusting to our new school life, we'll have a little more sanity around these parts, but for the time being, I just really wish it were still summer!