The First Day of School!!

The date was August 27, 2012. It was just another Monday by anyone else's standard, but for me, it was my first child's first day of school.  (insert bawling here)

We did pretty good at getting up with enough time to get ready. Dixie actually came and woke me up (good job princess alarm clock- 6AM!), she got dressed, I did her hair, we had scriptures (albeit I believe it was rather a shortened version that morning!), family prayers, breakfast... she just went down her checklist of things she needed to do and made sure they each got done.

I was doing a good job of holding myself together until, while I was doing her hair, she started to cry and said how much she was going to miss being home with us. That was it for me. I broke down too. But I tried to quickly put on a brave face so that she would too.

She had gotten a Father's Blessing the night before and we felt very confident this would be a good experience and a good year for her.

And then the time arrived. Time to don the backpack and head for the curb to wait for the bus.

We enjoyed some small chat while we waited, and then got all excited when we saw the bus round the corner. Mr. Brian brought the bus to a stop right at our house. Hugs and kisses all around and onto the bus she went. Then, as she got settled into her seat, I think a bit of panic set in and my last view of her was in the bus window waving her arms like she'd just realized she'd made a big mistake. (Can you see her expression in the window below??) My heart did a nervous flip flop and I was tempted to run onto the bus to check on her.

But the bus pulled away and all I could do was pray that she would be alright. And then I went in the house and cried. And cried. And cried. :)
Summer and I had fun at home with Austin. I got her some new fingerpaints so she would have a fun surprise for the day as well and we enjoyed the time together.

And might I also add, that it was Jim's first day of school that day as well! ...but as a teacher instead of a student. :) There's more details to come on this story (it's a long one!), but suffice it to say that he was headed off to Rogers Middle School in Pearland to teach PE to the 5th and 6th graders there. Woot! Woot! Go COACH!

{haha... I made Jim take this second picture because I wasn't sure why he was holding those things up in the first one and wanted a better shot. But apparently he wasn't interested in taking more pictures. His eyes are clearly saying 'I'm going to hurt you if you don't hurry this up'. Love you Honey! :) }

Anyway, the day went well. Dixie came off the bus that afternoon and the first words out of her mouth were, "It. was. AWESOME!" Yea for little miracles and fun days of school. :) And she's been loving it ever since. We're still working out the kinks in the morning system and trying to settle into a good routine, and there has been a day or two where Dixie struggled in the morning with actually not wanting to go (it was the start of the second week of school... I think the reality finally sank in that this was an all-the-time type of deal), but we're working through each day and she always comes home loving it.
Life is good, we are blessed, and we hope you are too! Loves!