I've died and gone to housewife heaven.

Before I gush too much about the coolness of the day, let me outline the last few days for ya'all.

As we all know, I met with the Director of the school on Wednesday and officially enrolled the kids. I was given a list for each of the kids filling an entire 8.5''x10'' sheet of paper in size 8 font. I immediately set out to find each of these items, the majority of which I had never heard of in English or Spanish.

My first task was to translate the list for myself. I knew I would have a harder time locating these items if I couldn't at least put myself in the right area of the store (hardware vs. paper supplies, etc.) After only 3 trips to Walmart, 2 trips to the shoe store, 2 trips to Office Depot, and 2 trips to the uniform supply store (actually, it will be 3 because I have to go back tomorrow for their P.E. clothes and Adeline's sweater.) I finally found myself able to cross off the majority of the items on the list. I was feeling pretty proud of myself for accomplishing all of this, and my friend quickly reassured me that most of the kids probably wouldn't have everything on their first day anyway; no worries, right?

My original appointment to meet the teacher and entregar mis utiles was Monday - one flat tire, one crying tantrum (on my part. . .Sully was really calm about it ;) ), one heroic husband, and one whole day later - I found myself sitting down with Adeline's teacher, Miss Monica. Imagine my horrow when she whips out a CHECKLIST to make sure I've got all the supplies. This means that it will be blatantly obvious that I failed to obtain *Everything* on my list - the entire size 8 font, letter-sized page of it. I was pretty grateful for my gringo accent and U.S. citizenship at this point - I used both as an excuse for my lameness. I left the classroom with a list of the remaining items I needed and armpits full of sweat. This kind of thing just REALLY stresses me out.

Of course I had to repeat the torture in Guthrie's classroom. Now I could feel the sweat actually dripping down my back.

It turns out they have a bookstore upstairs at the school - so we venture up. $350 USD later I have obtained all the books the kids need and have miraculously managed to scrounge up almost the rest of the supplies. (Thanks a lot American Academy for offering me that useful bit of information earlier. . .who knew you could buy most of it there?????)

I proudly jaunt back downstairs to turn in the items I was missing before. Of course I'm about to leave my piles of books on the teacher's table when she informs me that I can't leave them because they need to be covered in plastic. I learned last year that this is something that schools here are completely anal about. All books, notebooks, folders, etc; MUST be wrapped in a protective plastic. The small paper stores all have signs up offering this service for a fee - but of course I am thinking I can do it quickly and save us all some money. 2 trips to the papeleria later (the first time they were out and asked me to come back later.) and I'm ready to begin. It took me over 2 hours to cover their books in this crap. Seriously, 2 hours! And, will someone please tell me why Kindergarteners need 10 books EACH! OY!

In addition to the forrando (your spanish vocabulary word of the day) of the books; I also hemmed two pairs of pants, made brownies for our lunch group, made lunches, washed dishes, and packed grocery bags with the LAST of the FREAKING supplies on the list. It was a little after 1 a.m. when I crawled into bed.

It was soooo worth it all. We were able to get ready quickly this morning, and even had time for a pancake breakfast courtesy of our in-house cook. (me ;) ) I dropped the kids off at 8:30 and they hardly looked back to tell me goodbye. I think they were actually more excited than I was. As I walked out of the school (normally I don't have to go in, I can just pull up to the curb and they have attendants who unbuckle the kids and take them in - but I, incorrectly, assumed the kids would want me to be there on the first morning.) I felt a small pang of emotion choke me up. Its rediculous that I should feel weepy over them going to school this year. After all, they went all last year, right? But, I did/do.

I spent the morning cleaning, Sullivaning, and attending our lunch group. I left straight from there to pick the kids up. I totally love their pickup/dropoff situation. I didn't have to get out of the car (which is a total pain because I would have to unbuckly Sully to go in and get them.) I just pull up and they announce into a microphone that "Kyle and Addie" need to come to the curb. They even buckle them in!!

The kids talked excitedly for an hour. I gathered that they like their teachers, they both have friends and the kids speak Spanish, even though the teachers speak English.

I'm seeing a pretty good year ahead of us.

On a side note: my eye has been twitching for hours. What the heck???