Mamma Mia...Here I Go Again

So, yesterday was the first day of school. Danni has to leave much earlier than the other two, so I'm never able to get a pic of all three of them together for the first day. It was nice of Danni to let me take a picture, even though she has tonsillitis mono. She had been at the urgent care the day before, and was still feeling crappy. Still, she didn't want to miss the first day of her junior year.


Kylie was very excited...

and also very cute. I may be biased, though.

Surprisingly, Shannon let me take pictures. I think she just wanted to show off her new haircut. First day of 8th grade. And she thinks she is the shiz, dog. At least, that's what she told me. Wait until next year when she's a freshman, then she won't be so...shiziful? Shiztastic? But right now, she is so the shiz. Dog.

After that, the two of them just started getting silly.

Of course, I continued to take pictures.

Looking at these pictures, you would think that they like each other. I can assure you, that is not the case. Mostly.

Yeah, that's more like it.

Awwww, now how sweet is that? In case you're wondering, Kylie is standing on the toy box. They're not actually the same height.

And we're off...



What'd I tell you? Little tiny frame, white blond hair and the Hannah Montana backpack walking away from me. Doesn't that just break your heart? Well, it did mine. A little.

The first day was not nearly as bad as I'd built it up to be in my mind. Shannon and I walked Kylie to her classroom. Shannon goes to the jr high, but it's right next to the elementary school, and they start half an hour later. When Kylie's teacher opened the door, I was way too distracted by Shannon's whining about her hair and asking if we could go to Starbucks to be too sad. I gave her a quick hug and told her to have a good day, and that was it.

I spent the rest of my first day of freedom grocery shopping, and fighting an ant infestation. You see, when I got home with my groceries, ants had invaded my pantry. And I was grossed out. Ants have just gone to #2 on my list of most-hated insects. Roaches, of course, will always have that top spot. It took me the whole rest of the day, practically, to totally clean out the pantry and kill all those skeevy bastards. Bleh. Those little black ants show up every summer, but this summer seems to be particularly bad. They've never been in my pantry before!

So then, today. First day, it seems all the parents were walking their kids inside. Today we all used the drive up circle. The gates to the building that were open yesterday were closed today. This confused me. Then I noticed that all the kids getting out of cars were walking along a side walk that went around the side of the school and to the back, where the playgrounds are. I asked one of the teachers standing there if the kindergarteners were supposed to go that way too. She said, Yep, the one of the K teachers will come out and get them all.

So Kylie got out of the van with her Hannah Montana backpack on, carrying her Tinkerbell lunchbox, and followed the stream of kids headed out to the playground. As I was starting to pull away, she turned around and waved at me, and I could see her lips form the words,

"Bye, Mommy!"

*Sob* She looked so very small walking away. I think this is so hard for me because of my evening job. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, when I have to be here (work) at 3pm, I will drop her off at school at 8am, and then I won't see her again until the next morning. Today was the first time that happened. And I don't know about her, but today was hard on me. I think sooner, rather than later, something about my job situation is going to need to change. Not sure what yet, though. I might spend tomorrow researching some options.

After dropping Miss Shiz off at the jr high, I went home and got busy. Did a load of laundry, swept the floor, vacuumed the living room, did dishes, cleaned the girls' bathroom (I know, they should be doing this, but I was damned sick of looking at it), made my bed, and straightened up my room. I was on a mission, because I was meeting a friend and her mom at 11:15am to see Mamma Mia. I can do things like that now. Like just go to a movie during the day whenever I want to. It's not all bad, this schedule, but I think missing the kids in the evening is going to outweigh the daytime freedom thing.

So we went to see Mamma Mia. Can I tell you that this movie was one big cheesefest? It was a fun cheesefest, but Pierce Brosnan singing was a little much for me.

This was my favorite part:

Ok, this scene was just fun and made me want to get up and dance. And Meryl Streep? Yeah, girlfriend is 59 years old, bouncing on that bed like a teenager. Fun stuff!

We also saw a preview for High School Musical, or HS3, Senior Year. We had fun deciding where they were going next with that. Like College Musical, years 1-4, then ... what, Thirty-Something Musical? They'll finally end up with Geriatric Nursing Home Musical, and the walkers and canes will be dancing props. I mean, dear Lord...talk about taking something that they didn't even even know was going to be such a hit, and then beating it to death. Enough already. But of course, as long as Disney continues to make that merchandising money, they'll keep cranking them out.

So, my Monday was full of grocery shopping and ant battling, and today was housework then a movie and browsing Borders until it was time to go to work. Tomorrow, I actually have nothing planned. Maybe a little job hunting. Because if I don't have some sort of plan, Lord only knows what kind of trouble I could get into.