Day One

12:10 a.m. a voice whispers, "Mom!" "Mom! I can't go to sleep!"

I am not sure which child is saying this. I sit up a little in bed and realize its Rachel. She is pretty much beside herself. She went to bed early, with hopes of getting a good nights sleep in preparation for her first day of high school.

I go into her room and since I am half-awake, I am not much help in instructing her on what to do. After a minute or so, I offer that she can come sleep on the floor next to my bed. Maybe the "change of scenery" will help. She really didn't want to, but out of desperation picked up her bedding and pillow and followed me back into my room.

Within ten minutes her breathing let me know that she had finally fallen asleep. Now I was the one with the problem...going back to sleep after being woken up. Lately, sleep has become hit and miss for me. And all the women said....

6:07 a.m. - my alarm goes off. Yee-haw, the dreaded first day of school is now here. Already. After a few minutes, Rachel's alarm is going off in her room. She gets up to shut it off and then heads for the shower. Matt's alarm is heard a short time later.

Fast forward to 6:40 a.m. and I'm outta bed. Both Matt and Rachel are pretty much ready to go, with the exception of figuring out Rachel's lunch. After packing it together, her and I, we say our goodbyes and the two of them head out the door -- not to the bus -- to the truck! John's truck, because Matt's isn't quite ready yet. This is so strange. My two middle children heading off to school together, without much of my assistance and without the bus. I watch as they go down the driveway. My babies.

Speaking of baby, Alec's instructions to me is to make sure that he is up at 7 a.m. Gotta get that alarm clock working for him. Our goal is to be on time for school this year. Too many tardies last year.

When I walked out of his school after finding his class and meeting his teacher, who is new this year, I left for town to run errands. Just like every first day of school, I am left thinking, "Wow, I can not believe school is here again. Summer went too fast."

Around 2 p.m. I begin to get excited that Matt and Rachel will be coming home soon. To know that they made it home safely and to see how their day went. To know that my little girl survived her first day of school at the big, scarey, full of too many people high school.

2:16 p.m. My cell phone rings. It says "take a call from Matt". Oh. Panic. What is wrong? He should be driving home.

"Mom, I left the inside light on in Dad's truck and the battery is dead!" he says in his own panic.

"What!? Are you kidding me?" I say, half in disbelief, half in relief that everything is okay.

I have to find someone with jumper cables and run to his rescue. Its 189 degrees outside. That will be fun.

And oh what fun it was.

Here is what happened:

Got the jumper cables and went up to school.
Matt, his friend Macken and Rachel were waiting inside the truck with the doors open.
Its hot.
They are hot and frustrated.
Matt is freaked out that his Dad will be mad.
I reassure him that its okay, things like this happen.
It took SEVERAL attempts to get the truck started.
Couldn't keep it running.
We were at the school for about 45 minutes jumping and revving and jumping and revving and pulling the jumper cables on and off and on and off.
Matt's idea was to "jump and run", which is literally, once the truck is running, pull the cables off and me back outta the way QUICKLY so he can run for it.
He made it half way home.
Had to jump it again. And again.
Made it to the light in downtown, just before home.
The truck pooped out on him again.
He is so FRUSTRATED. I'm FRUSTRATED.
We jumped it about FOUR more times.
Keep in mind, he is having to get the truck moving to keep it going.
So we had to time the red/green light and watch out for cars.
Not fun.
It was hot. Did I mention that?
He did eventually make it home.
It was almost 4 p.m. by this time.
Yeah. Good times.
Happy first day of school!

But they were safe. Thank you God.

And Rachel survived just fine. Matt hates school and says its boring. Nothing new for him. Give him a truck to pull apart and put together and he is happy.

His truck should be ready within a week or two.

It was much easier and less stressful long ago when I took Josh, Matt and Rachel to the elementary bus, with little Alec bouncing around in my parked van, waving goodbye.