Getting Ready

I have spent the past few days gathering the school supplies needed for the *two* students in the house. Let me just say that I have had it UP TO HERE trying to find some of the very specific items on Zach's supply list. When you are ordering number 2 pencils off the internet, you are at the brink of losing your mind. (And don't even ask how many places it took to find an orange plastic folder with two pockets and brads.)

I have to admit that gathering my very A-type personality of color-coded supplies* for my semester has been a mixture of excitement and nerves. I am ready, I think, but I am also well aware of how rusty my study skills and my memory of math are.

(* since my freshman year of high school, I have purchased for each class a spiral notebook and folder in the same color for each subject. It has been one of the best things I have ever done because it is a snap to get my hands on the right supply very quickly.)

We are trying to cram all of the fun we can into the last two weeks of summer. We have been having Zach's friends over, even for sleep overs, going to the pool and went to see "The Karate Kid". We are also planning Zach's 9th birthday party, which brings tears to my eyes to even type. It has been a few years since we did a big friend party so this year we are doing it up big. I figure that he will be outgrowing this in no time and I want him to have at least one last memorable party.

I have taken great pleasure in putting the suitcases away in the closet, and although our many travels out of town were fun, I am glad to be settled back at home for a while.

Speaking of home, we have been in our house four about three months now. If you are wondering if I am completely unpacked, the answer is no. That is another thing I need to get done over the next two weeks. For the most part, we are unpacked. But there are still pictures with no home stacked up in my dining room and a few random boxes of stuff that I have more than once threatened (to myself) to just throw straight into the dumpster without looking through. I have set myself a deadline of getting all of that kind of stuff cleared by the end of the month. I do not want to see a single cardboard box inside my house after September 1st.

So we are getting very close to the school year and the changes that will bring for us all.