My Daughter's First Day of School

Dear World, I bequeath to you today one little girl in a new dress with big blue eyes and a happy laugh that ripples all day long and a head of light brown hair that bounces in the sun when she runs. I trust you'll treat her well.

She's slipping out of the backyard of my heart this morning and skipping off down the street to her first day of school. And never again will she be completely mine. Prim and proud she'll wave her young and independent hand this morning and say "Goodbye" and walk with little lady steps to school.

Now she'll learn to stand in lines and wait by the alphabet for her name to be called. She'll learn to tune her ears for the sounds of school bells and she'll learn to giggle and gossip and look at the ceiling in a disinterested way when the little boy across the aisle sticks out his tongue at her. And now she'll learn to be jealous. And now she'll learn how it is to feel hurt inside. And now she'll learn how not to cry.

Now she'll worry about those important things like grades and which dress to wear and whose best friend is whose. And the magic of books and learning will replace the magic of her dolls.

Today when that school bell rings for the first time she'll learn what it means to be a member of the group with all its privileges and its disadvantages too. She'll learn in time that proper young ladies do not laugh out loud or kiss dogs or keep frogs in pickle jars in bedrooms or even watch ants scurry across cracks in sidewalks in the summer.

Today she'll learn for the first time that all who smile at her are not her friends. And I'll stand on the front porch and watch her start out on the long, lonely journey to becoming a woman.

So, world, I bequeath to you today one little girl in a new dress with big blue eyes and a head of light brown hair that bounces in the sunlight when she runs.

I trust you'll treat her well.

catching up...

I KNEW I wouldn't keep up with this blog like I thought I would. Let's see, where do I begin...June 4th was my last day to keep babies. I am SUPER happy to be employed by Little Saints & Scholars now. I can't wait until preschool officially starts in September. Garrison finished 2nd grade and was promoted to 3rd grade. He received several awards at the end of the year and I was very proud of him. He had perfect attendance, outstanding citizenship, awards for library and computer and then best of all he made the A honor roll! So proud to be his mama. Charley and Garrison both took swimming lessons this summer. Garrison already knew how to swim but learned many more techniques. I wasn't sure how Charley would do but I'm proud to say she finally caught on and is swimming like a fish. We have been swimming a lot this summer so they don't forget what they learned. My mom spent a couple of weeks in the hospital and finally after many tests and cutting her open they finally diagnosed her with Crohn's. She is still recovering and apparently has a long road ahead of her. Garrison turned 8 on July 30 and we took him to Great Wolf Lodge to celebrate. We all had a wonderful time. It's a really awesome place. This week we are spending our evenings at VBS. This is Charley's first time to be able to go and she loves it. They both had a great time last night. The bad news is Matt has planned a camping trip for us and we will leave on Wednesday so they won't be there the whole week.

Ok, I promise I will *try* to keep up with this more regularly. I'll also try to post some new summer pics soon.