The First Week

Ahh - the first week of school. With all the first-day jitters and anticipation of a new year, there's always ONE thing we don't have to worry about - what to wear! With new shirts and shoes and jeans, it is the only time of the school year when the girls know every outfit they are going to wear for five consecutive days. The new hair cuts are an added plus! Katie & Lacey pose in their "first day of school" outfits . .


And two other outfits for Lacey and Katie from that first week of school . . .




For Lacey, the beginning of this school year means the 2nd of 3 years with her current teachers, making a very easy transition from 1st grade to 2nd grade. She just picked up where she left off in June. Katie started middle school this year, which is a bit more of a change, but still - she is at the same school and with teachers who know her.

On the other hand, Madi's first week of school has been an entirely different experience this year. As a new high school freshman, she had no idea what to expect at the new and much larger (like 15 time larger) school. For Madi, deciding the right outfit to wear for the first day of school was much more challenging and painful than it was for Katie and Lacey. Madi & I spend a good hour in her room the night before school started looking at and trying on every possible outfit combination in hopes of finding the absolute perfect outfit for the first day at a new school where she knew almost no one. And after all the pain and work to come up with something to wear, I didn't even get a picture of Madi on that first day! Since she started seminary too, she left the house at about 5:50 am and just wasn't up for having her picture taken at that time of day. And, honestly, I wasn't up to taking her picture at that time of day either. But, here's a picture of her later that week - after school!


Madi may be smiling in this picture, but after the first day of school, she wasn't smiling. When I asked her about her day, she told me, "It was the longest day of my life." The report was not good. The day was very long and very boring. She was worried that her math class was going to be too hard, and after the homework assignment (on the very first day) that took a combined effort on the part of Madi, me, & Brad, I was beginning to wonder that myself. Here we were at 11:00 at night - still doing review Algebra problems for her Geometry class - and Madi had to get up at 5:00 am the next morning to go to seminary. I'll be honest - I was worried. Was this going to be our life for the next 9 months? I went to bed after that first day of high school, wondering how Madi, and I, were going to make it through the entire school year!

The 2nd day of school I was a nervous wreck, spending those six hours with knots in my stomach. Thankfully, that all changed when I picked Madi up. She got in the car and when I asked her about her day she said, "Today was so much better than yesterday. Oh, and that math assignment that took us all night - well, I was only supposed to do 10 of those problems, not all of them!" I was so relieved! Maybe this year will turn out OK after all, and maybe both she and I will adjust to this life after our cozy little private school of 300 to a public high school of 3500. This will be a year of change and new experiences, that's for sure! I think we are up for the challenge.