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I'm enjoying a couple of treats that I picked up for myself when I was buying candies for the kids during vacation. Tourist-y areas seem to have specialty candy stores, don't they? For the record the faves I bought myself were Mary Janes and chocolate bulleyes. Just in case you're at a loss come Christmas-time or my birthday... *grin*

I just tucked the boys in bed with their prayers. I could sense that feeling in them. I remember it well when I was their age: The knowledge that summer freedom was coming to an end and tomorrow would start a new school year. In our prayers we thanked God for the nice summer and asked for his help as we started another school year tomorrow.

I couldn't help but think of those few more recent times when I was transitioning jobs. I've been exceedingly blessed in that I've never gone a day without employment. My employers have always given me enough warning when termination was coming that I had time to line up a new opportunity, and with one exception, the new job always broadened me and was more fulfilling than the last. And even with the exception, I learned what I don't want to do.

I'll never forget those times when it was the last day of a job. Out-processing from the USAF, leaving Sanders, leaving J-Squared, leaving my Nashua job when the whole office was finally closing its doors, transitioning from AMD/ATI to Qualcomm. It's that surreal feeling as you pack your stuff about to start on a new endeavor in the next day or two. Saying goodbye to co-workers and knowing soon you'll have to meet a whole new set. Nervous, hopeful, exciting, the unknown...

So tomorrow starts another school year for Abby and the boys. Claire starts on Thursday. We get back into the morning routine of chaos as papa and five kids drag themselves out of bed and get ready for school and work. The roads will be crowded again during my morning commute. Leaving at precisely the right time window will be important again. And each morning I'll have that bittersweet feeling I always do when I drop Claire and Abby off at school, each day watching them grow a bit more into fine ladies. One in eighth grade and the other a sophomore.

Michelle has a followup appointment with her surgeon early tomorrow morning. He'll likely take out her stitches, assuming things look well. He'll also check to see if any fluids are building up, since the drain was removed last Thursday, just before our vacation. It'll be my job to do the things she usually participates in: taking the "first day o' school" pictures, seeing them off, etc. I haven't decided if I'll drive to work after seeing the boys off or just work from home.

There's the running joke that Michelle channels a bit of Andy Williams and sings “It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” on the morning of the first day of school. Vengeance is the school's though when they get home as that first day has all sorts of forms that Michelle needs to fill out, over and over, in quintuplicate. Every year it's the same gripe: “Can't I fill out one set of forms and let it apply to all five children?!?” Policies, waivers, contact info, emergency procedures, etc. If more families had a larger brood of children, the schools might think about simplifying it, but these days it's the exception, not the rule. So tomorrow it's fill a form, lather, rinse, and repeat.