School's on

There is no way I haven’t written in over a month. Things have been so busy, but I thought that surely I stopped and wrote down some things.

The girls are in school. The house is a DISASTER as I am (and should now be) working on putting Jeff’s office back together after I’ve pulled it all apart, painted (almost all of it) and put up new shelves (two to go) and redecorated (still looking for a good table). Mostly the overflow has ended up in the dining room, but I had to build a little home office for myself off the kitchen in the nook, and the shelves from his office have ended up in the TV room, which I also spent a day on.

The clincher in all of this is we are hosting Thing 1’s birthday party on Saturday. I can put most of everything out on the patio, but it would be nice if there was some order to things by then. I have three days to work a miracle. Judging by the past two days, it’s going to take me a couple of months to get everything done.

Thing 1 is in first grade and enjoying it. I have been sweating which teacher she’d get, and who’d be in her class, but they wouldn’t announce it until the day before school started, a Monday before the first Tuesday of school. Then on Friday they released the information. We had all taken a special family day to Lagoon, so we couldn’t go check, but at a baby shower the next day, someone told me that Thing 1 was in Miss Hames class. Everyone else we knew was in one of the other two classes. I was distraught, I hadn’t heard much about Miss Hames…

Then on Monday, my folks came down to help me organize the house and my life (that’s how we got through as much in the TV room as it is) and so I couldn’t go check out the school. But when I went to pick up Thing 2 for dinner from the neighbor’s, she told me that Thing 1, and a passle of other kids including her son, (Thing 1's best friend) were all together in Miss ***'s first grade. My friend had told me the day before that her neighbor had had her and just loved her. Suddenly it seemed like things were looking up. I practically danced back to our house, where I bubbled the news to Thing 1 that not only was her teacher supposed to be fabulous, she was sitting next to Wytie!!!

I worked Thing 1 up into a frenzy. By bedtime she was so excited to go to school she couldn’t stand it. “Can I not wear pajamas?” she asked me. “I just want to sleep in my clothes. Please?” And so far so good, it looks like she’s enjoying it. She is just growing up so fast. I remember thinking how far off it sounded to have a five and seven year old… and as of tomorrow it’s official.

Thing 2 has been over the top excited to go to Kindergarten. She had to wait an extra week after 1st grade started while they did testing, and she seemed to think it was my fault that she couldn’t go to school. Then on the first day she bounced out of class SO excited that she’d made a new friend. The next day her heart was broken as she said her new friend didn’t want to be friends anymore. She was inconsolable. “I’m sure it was just a misunderstanding,” I say. “NOOO!” she sobs. “What is her name?” “I don’t know!” she wails.
The third day, she had found a new friend, and oh, yes, her friend of the first day was her friend again. They are having a playdate after school today and both are so excited.


----- later

I am so mad I could spit. I have spent two hours WHICH I DON’T HAVE trying to get a stupid stupid stupid stupid piece of scanner software to work. It tells me it hast to have a service pack 2 or higher installed. I install it, which takes a while and requires me to carry my laptop to the office to plug into the modem because the wireless connection is so slow. Then I get a message that Service Pack 2 cannot run until I am connected to an AC power source. So I walk it back and plug in the laptop again. However, apparently I’ve done something to the modem because now I get no internet at all. I try to install the scanner again and it still insists I must have service pack 2 (WHICH I ALREADY INSTALLED) (AND REBOOTED FIVE TIMES). So I’m stuck. In the mean time, it occurs to me that until I can convince Jeff’s fancy scanner that I already freaking installed Service Pack 2 and since I can’t scan from the FREAKING FANCY new laser printer, my only hope to scan in receipts and paychecks and all those things that I must scan in for accounting purposes is our stupid old printer, which is currently sitting on the front steps to be picked up in the charity pick up tomorrow. I just went and rescued it. I am so terribly angry I’m just moments away from crying. So much for going to bed early. So much for spending the evening getting more work done organizing the office. So much for having the least bit of internet connectivity until Jeff gets back. STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID computer.