Before and After

This was me Friday, and a very good likeness it is, if I may say:


This is me today, and it is an even BETTER likeness, I am happy to report!

Tanya and Erin, as well as for anyone else who has wondered if I finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel this weekend, this post is for you. Full disclosure: I'm not sure if you're aware of this but I am actually bilingual. Isn't that awesome??! So the first part of this post will be in one language, and then I'll resume in English to finish up. I should mention, though, that if you don't speak Whinese, you may find yourself a little confused. On the other hand, I think I read somewhere that Whinese is THE most commonly spoken language in the world so you'll probably understand me just fine.

Since I posted my list of things to do this past weekend in my last blog entry, you're up to speed there. So let me just recap quickly:

I could go on and on about the Back to School events at PCA on Thursday and Friday but that would just be boring, but I will say this: Randy totally bailed on me Friday night. Are you kidding me??? That's when I needed him the most! I can say in all honesty that I never felt stressed (though I may have used that word a time or two) so much as anxious (which of course the Bible admonishes us against but hey, I'm all about keepin' it real). And as long as I'm being authentic, I will admit up front that I veered momentarily into "helicopter parent" territory, a fact of which I am heartily ashamed. Long story short: My anxiety would have been greatly lessened if I had shown up at Tyler's back to school event, schedule in hand, and turned to him and said, "Okay Tyler, here's your locker number and combination, followed by a list of your classes, teachers and room numbers. Lead on, young squire!" Instead, just like the other 400 helicopter parents in attendance that night, I stumbled from hall to hall, checking from time to time to make sure Tyler was still with me, and I dutifully located each classroom and introduced myself and my son to the teaching roster. Oh, and while I was at it, I picked up the all-important "Supply List." Six of 'em, to be exact. Yes, and so important were they, the school waited until the last Friday night before the new school session to make them available.

I ask again, are you kidding me??!

I have already broken my vow to keep it brief so I might as well go whole hog, and I sincerely hope you've brushed up on your Whinese! Maybe I can condense the next few days into bullet points:

• Arrived home from school event at approximately 9:00 p.m. Friday night armed w/six middle school supply lists that looked suspiciously similar to the elementary supply list I received WAAAAAAAY back in May when school let out for the summer.


• Left house Saturday at noon (following Darcy's clarinet lesson) to do battle for glue sticks, binders and enough notebook paper to populate the Amazon Rainforest.


• Arrived home at approximately 4:30 p.m. whereupon I dumped 12 bags of supplies in the floor and immediately dressed for the aforementioned wedding. My remaining family members arrived home 15 minutes later, whereupon I commenced to coax five people who were very comfortable in their shorts, T-shirts and flip-flops, thank you very much, into attire appropriate for an evening wedding. Left the house at approximately 5:15 p.m. (for a 6:00 wedding at our church building 7 minutes away--not sure what I was thinking there, but whatever--we got great seats!).


• Went from wedding to dinner reception in neighboring city and boogie-oogie-oogied 'til about 9:45 p.m. Arrived home around 10:15 p.m. Saturday night. Saturday night.


• Church, Bible class, yada yada yada. Stayed for lunch and meeting for Bible class teachers to discuss new curriculum and plans for Fall Quarter. Arrived home at approximately 3:30 p.m.

Time for the almighty confession: I totally skipped church Sunday night. I simply saw no other choice. Sure, some might say if I'd prayed hard enough or had faith enough, perhaps by divine intervention the sun might've stood still for me the way it did for Joshua in the Old Testament. All I can say is I guess we'll never know, will we? What I DO know is that I spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening getting Tyler's supplies organized by class (yep, I was back in helicopter parent mode but I promise I am quitting cold turkey!), and by the time Randy and the kids came home, I was prepared for all of us to have some leisurely last-night-before-school time, rather than being stressed--oh yes, I would most definitely have been stressed--at the fact that it would most likely be pushing 9:00 p.m. and the kids would all still have to shower, I would still have three lunches to make and there would STILL be 12 bags of school supplies sitting in my floor.

Anyway, that's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

Originally, this post was going to be all about the perfection that was the first day of school for the Todd family, but as it is nearing 10:00 p.m. and I am on a new schedule, that story will have to keep until tomorrow. All I know is we must have had some pretty powerful warriors covering us in prayer because I'm not sure we could have improved it if we'd tried!