Back to school.

First, an apology for my neglect of blogging lately. I have been in charge of online registration for the girls' school and have been consumed with processing the data and getting it into reports to send to the appropriate people. Our district has a fabulous online registration system that allows parents to complete all of the usual first day forms (emergency contacts, health, migrant worker survey, volunteer opportunities, etc.) online as well as order yearbooks, school directories, t-shirts, etc. It saves so much time for families with multiple children enrolled in the district because a lot of the basic information is copied automatically onto the other children's forms, but there is a lot of work involved getting the forms proofed and uploaded to the system and then processing all the data afterward. I also had to serve several shifts on the district helpline answering calls from parents during the period of online registration. My responsibilities with that job are almost done, and I look forward to using my computer time to write posts and read other people's blogs again.

Secondly, a disclaimer about the awful quality of the pictures to follow. I don't know WHAT I did to my camera's settings, but the pictures are terribly out of focus. Unfortunately I had such unwilling subjects on the first day of school that had I no opportunity to fiddle with my camera settings.

My kids started back to school on Monday. Everyone except Vivian seemed pretty excited about the first day.

We have another boy living with us this school year. *Friend of Hockey Boy* is playing for a AAA hockey team in Dallas, a level that in unavailable in his hometown. He attended Hockey Boy's high school last year, and they became friends. He is a very polite and appreciative boy, and so far I have hardly known he was here.

I would appreciate prayers and good thoughts for Vivian right now. I have had a terrible time getting her on the bus these first three days. She has a new driver, a new pickup time and a new seat assignment, none of which are making an already stressful task any easier. I am trying to jump through bureaucratic hoops and get Vivian back with her old driver (who is still driving a route in our area and dropping off kids at Vivian's school). If we can't work that out, the district has offered to have Mr. Kemp (Vivian's wonderful aide at school) stop by and help get Vivian on the bus in the morning for a few weeks. Hopefully one way or another that situation will improve soon.


Hockey Boy and Friend of Hockey Boy (I cannot even believe that I am posting such terrible pictures)


The response I got when I called out, "But boys, I don't think my camera was in focus!"


I got an equally helpful response when I told Vivian her bus was here!


Fortunately Robert stayed home to make sure Vivian got on the bus ok. It took both of us to wrestle her on board! Her new driver was not very patient, which didn't help matters


My sweet Dots who was excited about the first day of school. Unfortunately I'd spent so much time dealing with Vivian that I didn't have a chance to fix my camera before leaving to take her to school