This didn't take me so long

Hi
Today is Monday September 10th. It’s the first day of what will be our first full week of school. We have a lot going on this week. I am trying not to panic, but how successful I will be remains to be seen. Today Samantha and I are going to make a test run of driving to her pre-school. I hear that the parking situation can be very dicey in the morning and I want to get a look at what I am up against. I should have done this last week. In my defense I did not realize that the other kids did not start before Thursday when Emily did at her school. And on Thursday I had to wait for the milk man and then was off to meet one of the only people I know here at an indoor play place. On Friday, well I think that was just laziness. I was really tired and didn’t want to have to rush. Actually I was really bad and let Samantha watch a show so that I could lay down on the couch for a few minutes. I was right there with her, so it was not like I just left her. Anyway, Samantha is up and dressed so we are going to try it today. Sam and I also have our Jo-Jingles class this afternoon. It is a sort of music/dance class that we started in May. Today is the first day back for that too. The new part of that adventure is timing getting out of that, and getting Emily from school. Is it worth coming back home? I’m thinking that we would get there much too early if we went right to Emily’s school. Guess we just have to wait and see. I have to go to the office at her school when I get her this afternoon to hand in some papers, and I have to talk to her teacher. This is not something I really enjoy doing. I prefer to just pick her up and go, but you gotta do what you gotta do. I still have a hard time “reading” many of the British people I come across. They seem so serious, and I don’t do well with serious.
Samantha starts pre-school tomorrow. She’ll be going three days a week, for three hours a day. Which with driving home and then back to get her will mean I have about a half hour of leisure at home, but that’s OK. After nearly six years of never being home along, I will take what I can get. Plus will also have my time in the car alone each way. She is excited. We don’t know many kids her age, OK…we know one, so this will give her a chance to be around her peers. I do not anticipate separation problems. Last night at dinner she was talking about how I am going to leave her and she gets to stay there without me this time. It will be a little hard for me to leave her. Knowing me, I’ll sit in the car the whole time and wait. When Emily started we were so much closer to the school than we are now. I’ll be nervous, but I gotta let her go sometime.

Hour and half later
OK…I have started to panic. Samantha and I did our little test run. We are going to have to walk a bit. In the winter it will be a royal pain, but all in all it is not too bad. Sam was mad that she did not to stay. I am pretty sure I know where to go in, I did not want to go poking around too much. She was already starting to get a bit upset about not staying even before we went back to the car and I didn’t want to make it worse by getting too close to the door. Anyway, the cause of my panic. I thought she, director, said that with the 12 pound deposit you get one of the t-shirts with the school name on it. Yellow shirt and blue pants is the play uniform. We don’t have a shirt yet. I figured that she would get it tomorrow on her first day. Now I am starting to worry the I remember incorrectly or was suppose to have gotten it somehow before now. When we did our visit there was a little girl that was just starting and I remember Jenny, the director, giving her a shirt then. I don’t care about needing to pay more for the shirt. I am just afraid now that she will be the only one without the proper shirt. Not that I think it will matter much to her. I am probably over reacting. But hey, I have done pretty good so far. She has one yellow shirt. Not exactly what I would call a play shirt because it goes with an American Girl outfit Dee got Emily and Sam not has. I had been planning in just putting her in a regular outfit for the first day because I thought she got the t-shirt when she got there. I saw a couple kids with the school logo stuff, but I am guess, or hoping, that they attended last year or something. I guess we will see tomorrow. Atleast Samantha will get to stay and wont have to cry all the way home like today.
I just got a call about getting the ball rolling for Emily and speech therapy. The panicking is increasing. I now have to get a referral from out GP. She has never seen Emily so I am not sure if she will do it with out seeing her first. More fun! I had better call now, waiting is not going to make it any easier.
Laters!