Go Team!

Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6

I just don't know where the time has gone. My babies aren't babies anymore. Tomorrow, it's middle school. Next week, it'll be high school. Man. It makes me relish these days with Annie even more. (Thank goodness something makes me remember how precious she is! After days like this, I'd like to FedEx her to Dr. Dobson and let him figure her out)!

Today has been emotional. I knew it would. This is one of those milestone kind of weekends that I never thought I'd have to do alone. However, tomorrow morning, I will put on my best happy face and put the two big kids on the bus toward their new middle school careers. As for Annie, I will cheerfully drop her at the sitter's house tomorrow morning and RUN! Fatima has more patience than anyone I know and she sees Annie only as a blond little angel. I don't think she believes me when I tell her about Annie biting me or screaming at the big kids. Oh well. I don't care what she believes as long as she has the front door unlocked and ready tomorrow morning at 6:30!

My blog definetly hasn't been my major priority this week. It hurts to type, I've been exhausted, and my emotions are all swirling around and hard to pinpoint right now. I've had plenty of meltdowns and resorted to writing things in my journal in the middle of the night but those are the kind of things that are borne of frustration and desperation that I would really regret ever being published. (Um, yeah. The kind of thoughts that would definitely get me locked up in a nicely padded room)! It kind of goes against the blatant honesty that I'd wanted to portray here but just as we have to learn to think before we speak, sometimes, I have to learn to calm down before I type.

I thought I'd go ahead and log my entry for today while Annie napped but the whole time I've typed, I can hear the springs on her bed squeaking which means she's been jumping on her bed for the last 20 minutes! Seriously! The girl is going to wear me out before she ever even makes it to school! Speaking of Annie and school, I had to run to Office Max to get a few last minute supplies for the big kids that WalMart didn't have (of course). As we walked the aisles looking for tabbed dividers and protractors, Annie decided that she had some needs to fill, as well. She told us that she needed a notebook to write her clues in (Blue's Clues) and a pencil (Blue's Clues). Then, she saw the school boxes and said she needed one of those to keep everything safe in so Ally (the cat) wouldn't get it. There are some days I wish I could mute her! We always thought Grant had an extremely complex vocabulary when he was a toddler but his vocabulary doesn't begin to compare with Annie's! She now strings sentences together and throws in very vivid adjectives when she's passionate about something. Basically, I'm trying to justify why I didn't argue with her and I just bought the pencils, notebook, and school box. I was surprised to find out that if you spent $15 at Office Max, you got a free book bag. The big kids quickly relinquished the freebie to Annie and she packed her bag just like everyone else. So, tomorrow, all three kids will head out with their book bags packed!

I will stand beside proudly as I send them off onto the next chapter of their lives knowing that I've given it everything I have to make sure they're prepared in every way. I know that middle school is where the "rubber meets the road" and the kids will have to put everything into practice that we've taught them. If you hear someone screaming, "Go team," at the buses as they pull away in the morning, it will be me.  You'll know that I'm praying that everything the "team" has done over the last years will be remembered and put into practice.