The Day Before

What a day yesterday.  Back to School Eve.  Not exactly a National Holiday, and usually a day I'm not excited to repeat.  I am certain I could have crammed in a few more things if I would've tried a little harder or lost a little more sleep, but I was pretty much wiped by a quarter after midnight and finally had to give it up sometime close to 1:00.  Actually, I was wiped by 4:30 in the afternoon, but I still had 8 hours to go.  The affirmation of my exhaustion was provided courtesy of the ever-so-gracious Walmart checker who probably innocently asked, "Are you ready for the kids to be back in school?"  When I said, "Yes, I am," she replied with, "Yes, you definitely look like you could use a break."  Hmmm...thanks.

But even though the day seemed eternally long, so much was good:

• Great 5-mile early morning run with slightly overcast skies (love that)
• Meet the teacher with the 3 youngers (all of their teachers are young and hip and cute...and hopefully good educators:)
• Meet the locker and tour the Stapley Junior High campus with Barrett.  She's so excited for today! 
• Impromptu run-ins with Katy Vermillion and Uncle Dale (both teachers at Stapley and fellow Grand Canyon hikers)
• Indulging in mini-gourmet cinnamon rolls during my quick Sam's Club run (which we enjoyed this morning along with our fruit shakes for breakfast)
• Having the kids sort through all of the remants of school supplies from years past and realizing that we already had more than half their lists checked off
• NO MORE dark roots (woot!  woot!)
• Haircuts for all 6 of the Brown family peeps
• Seeing all the backpacks & outfits layed out on the ledge before bed
• The first night all summer with 3 of 4 kids tucked in bed by 8:40 (I was only 10 minutes off goal, which was a success by my books)
• Finished making DVD for tonight's scout court of honor (a recap of all the 2011 outings, hikes and scout camp)
• Chalking up 2 days in a row of our new "streamlining life at the Brown house" system - a whole other post in itself

Tuesday's not-quite-as-good parts:

• Dropping off suburban at Sherwood's for a whole laundry list of little repairs/maintenance that add up to a lot more than a little
• The call from Sherwood at 5:00pm that they still have another day to finish it all up (taking it back in Friday I think)
• Sweating like a pig as we walked all over both school campuses
• Getting super disappointing news from the jeweler that they can't size my new anniversary ring down that far (my ring finger is tiny) without compromising the ring quality and potentially loosening up the bagettes.  Whaaa...whaaa...I know.  Give me some cheese with my whine.  So I had to do the special order thing to get it in a petite size and it won't be ready for 8 weeks!  8 weeks!  Nothing like delayed gratification :(  Ryan was bummed too since we thought it would be done by our anniversary next week.  But I know I'll be thrilled when it arrives.
• Toting 4 kids and a cart to fight the mob at Walmart who, like me, all decided to wait until the afternoon before school to get the ever-so-important school supplies since we just had meet the teacher and got the supply list hours before.  Super insane.  Like crazy masses of insanity in the school supply isle.
• Rushing our crew like a mad woman through our lighting speed dinner that I wonder-womaned to the table (thanks, Sam's Club, for the pre-cooked rotisserie chicken, french bread and salad in a bag) so we could make our hair appointments.
• Staying up way too late doing the audio selection and editing on the DVD and making all the last minute tweaks.
• Waking up too early with a dim headache and an aching for just another hour of shut eye.

But we survived it all.  That's just what we moms do, right?  Just keep swimming...just keep swimming...What would I do without my Dory inspiration?

Good thing my kids are fantastic.  I love them more than anything and am so excited for them to have another great year.  Can't wait for the first day of school reports back from the kids - especially Easton who's doing his first full day of school EVER and who was totally stoked that he had 2 recesses and PE on his first day - and also Barrett of course, to hear how her junior high debut turned out!