Freedom!!!!

Ah, I've always loved the smell of crayons and Elmer's glue in the morning. The kids head back to school and I have time to reflect on how short their summer vacation really was. When I was a kid, all those years ago, I remember getting approximately three months off between Memorial Day and Labor Day. The kids down here now only get just over two months. While I would be totally bummed if I were a school-age kid to only have two months off (the horror), as an adult I have to say that it's not too bad to have the kids back on the bus in two months.

Now it's back to the grind of homework, parent-teacher conferences, and, dare I say it, fundraisers. As Bill Engvall once said, they turn them into little Amway kids. They'll sell anything. I have bought the usual magazine subscriptions, wrapping paper, candy more expensive than Godiva, but was thrown off by the fundraiser to sell Coke. Yep, good ol' Coca-cola that you can get at your local grocery, megamart or convenience store. They sold cases of 20 oz. Coke bottles. While I have to say it was different, I can't imagine wanting to haul around cases of Coke to distribute to the neighborhood. Though I feel dutybound to buy this stuff from my kids, don't want them to be ostracized by being the only kid in class not to get some cheap dollar store prize for selling five bazillion boxes of cookies, I'm going broke. Give us a break.