Day 15

Bad:

Today was the much anticipated first day O' school. To be quite honest, I wasn't ready for summer to be over. I love the carefree days, the lack of schedules, the coming and going as you please. BUT.....since all good things must come to an end AND since more than likely I would lose my ever-lovin' mind if I had ALL of my kids home with me ALL of the time, I think I was ready to deal with the fact that school was starting whether I liked it or not. And truly, Zach and Ky were really excited. They were up bright and early(too early if you ask me, but whadda ya gonna do), put on their new outfits, posed for some pictures all spiffy and shiny looking, and hopped on the school bus. Now normally.....I am a crier on the first day of school. (To be truly honest, I am a crier in most instances), so me shedding a few tears on the first day of school is not out of the norm. Not by a long shot. But today, I am proud to report, I was sans tears. Maybe it was because they seemed so excited to go to school and I just couldn't be sad for them. Or maybe it's because I anticipated the craziness that my day would behold(ooooohh.....foreshadowing) and I didn't have the time for tears. Or better yet, maybe I'm just a cold-hearted biotch. You choose.
Anyway, with the two oldest long gone and out the door, I was able to quick pull my house together for the bow making party I was to be hosting. I figured we could bust out some hair bows for a couple hours, clean up the house (again) for a bbq that I was hosting that night, and have time leftover to whip up a quick batch of the best homemade cookies in the world for my kiddos as they came home from school.

Here's what really happened:

We got started making the bows later than we anticipated. We made the bows for longer than we anticipated. (Seriously? I am like a bow making phenom. I picked it up in no time flat and was busting those little suckers out.) There were FIVE extra kids in my house. Add all of those things together and you have this when my kids come home from school on their first day.........a complete and utter pandemonium filled household with kids running everywhere and a ginormous MESS out the ying yang. It was not pretty. In fact, it was borderline atomic bomb-ish. I have NEVER in my life had my house that chaotic. So, when my sweet little chillin's walked through the door expecting a little piece of heaven with a homemade cookie and a cold glass of milk, instead what they got was Dante's Inferno. Seriously, it was like the 7th circle of Hell.....I'm not exaggerating......okay, maybe I'm exaggerating just a little, but you catch my drift. I felt so bad for them. Here, they were expecting a nice calm house, and nice well-thought-out snack, and being able to sit on the couch with me as they talked about their first day of school til their hearts content. What they got was what-ever they could find in the pantry for a snack, a house that looked like it had never been cleaned in it's life, and a Mom who was very well on the verge of losing her ever-lovin' mind! Whew. Can we just pretend like this first day never happened? Strike it off the books and start over again tomorrow? Yeah. That's what I'm thinking too. Who's up for some homemade cookies?

Good:

Well, after I was able to pull my shiz together (with the help of my sister and sis-in-law, Theresa) and we got the house all spic and span and the food all gorgeous and delish we were able to sit ourselves down and enjoy a good old-fashioned bbq. We had family and friends over and had quite an enjoyable evening. Long gone were the thoughts of my crazy day as I sat on our back deck, laughed, reminisced, ate some pretty kick-A food, and just plain relaxed. A perfect ending to a (not-so perfect) day.