School starts in less than 3 weeks! I bought all of the school supplies last week....what an ordeal. The school the boys go to sends out a supply list in a spreadsheet format, separated by grade, but for some reason, it is excruciating for me to trace down the column for each grade, figure out if a value pack of whatever (glue sticks for example) will yield enough idividual sticks to meet everyone's needs.....maybe I am just taking it all WAY too seriously, but it is always a stressful shopping trip for me!

I have done a lot of work in my classroom, and I have even been able to go through the files and pick out some music for the upcoming year. It feels like such a luxury to have this time to prepare compared with how it was last year. I will have one less "prep" this year....instead of three different choirs singing three different sets of music, I will have an 8th grade choir singing one set of songs, and two sections of 7th grade choir (there are 77 signed up) singing another set. So it *should* mean that I will spend less time preparing for each day....I hope so!

DH has gotten some good financial news from work regarding a bonus....trouble is, he doesn't know when his company will be disbursing the money. He is working his first in-house shift this weekend, and is hoping I will bring the kids to have dinner with him....which I will, unless he is busy. I am kind of looking forward to having the evening to myself after the kids go to bed, without being interrupted all night long by the pager and phone calls, etc.

One good thing about the start of school is that my children start before I do, so I will be able to pick up DS#3 after his first day of kindergarten and hear all about it! I can't believe he is starting school.

Well, I have meat loaf "muffins" (my kids love it when I put bake meat loaf in a muffin pan) in the oven and they are about to be done....I need to get the rest of dinner ready! As usual, DH isn't home yet and the "togetherness" of being at home all day with my kids is beginning to wear thin!

Sally[/QUOTE]