This past Sunday, Isabella and I went to Meijer to purchase her school supplies. I was dreading it, imagining aisles packed with irritable parents and whiny kids, all fighting for the last pair of Fiskars pointed-edge scissors (NO SUBSTITUTE).

But to my surprise, there was absolutely no one in the back-to-school section on Sunday (which is a whole three days before school starts, I might add). And the inventory was completely picked over. This means that most parents purchased their kids’ school supplies ahead of time instead of at the last minute. This is a concept that I am not familiar with. I’m new to the area, so I’ve concluded there must be an unwritten rule in Lake County that parents are to be punctual and responsible. I must have missed the memo.

I do have a good excuse for my latency. After all, I’ve spent nearly every waking minute filling out paperwork, taking Isabella to doctor’s appointments, changing my address, dropping off forms, signing her up for after-school care, reading manuals, and calling the school to find out what the HECK is going on because I am ABSOLUTELY CLUELESS.

Sorry, I needed to vent there. I’m just not a big fan of red tape, and I had no idea that enrolling a child in school involves miles and miles of the red stuff. And when you combine that with a move to a new city? There’s tape flying all over the place. It gets in my hair and my mouth and my dreams, and that makes me crabby.

But in the end, I suppose it was all worth it. Just to see how cute Isabella looks in her first-day-of-school outfit—complete with a brand-new pair of Sketchers, a gaudy High School Musical backpack, and a smile that will make all the red tape in the world disappear.

Happy First Day of School, Isabella!

P.S. I still need a bottle of Elmer’s Glue, a big pink eraser and those impossible-to-find Fiskars scissors. Can anyone hook me up?