If I cried, it was out of SHEER JOY.

So, first of all, let me apologize for disappearing for a few days. My laptop got eaten by a virus. A nasty one. One of those that tries to force you to buy their "security software" to get rid of it, and in the meantime infiltrates everything.

And this is the second time I've gotten one in the past year.

Will now calls me Typhoid Mary.

It's not like I'm looking at porn or downloading things illegally or anything. I'm checking e-mail, reading blogs and paying bills. That's it!

Will is always on shady websites (no, not porn usually) (I'm kidding!) and he's never gotten one.

Anyway, the other computers in our house don't have my stuff. They don't have my bookmarks or pictures, and they're set up differently. (I know. Cry me a river.) So, I took a few days off from the internet. Sorry.

Anyway.

Today was the first day of school. Technically.

It's Friday. And it was only a half day. And there's no school Monday. And Amelia doesn't start school full time until the 23rd. So it didn't feel like the first day for me.

I had to go in with Amelia for her first day of kindergarten. You wouldn't believe all the sobbing mothers in the classroom. C'mon, ladies, it's just kindergarten! It's not like you're sending them off to Iraq for a year.

Maybe I'm heartless, but I've never felt the slightest bit weepy when my kids have started school. I've always felt like, "Yes! One more out of the house for 7 hours a day!" And you can bet when the 23rd rolls around I'll being singing gleefully from the rooftops because all three will be gone all day. I can do things! Alone!

So anyway, here are the obligatory first day of school pictures, which I know you don't care about, but my family will want to see:

Ben, doing the angry tween bit.

Liam and Amelia, who were beyond wound up.
Amelia was up and fully dressed at 6:30 this morning.
By the way, those pants that Amelia's wearing? They're size 24 months.
And they're a little big.

I couldn't get one of all three together because now that Ben is in middle school (yes, I'm old), he has to leave a full hour before Liam and Amelia. So, I get to do the morning routine twice a day. And let me tell you, sullen eleven year old boys are not pleasant when they're forced to wake up at 6:00 so they can catch the bus at 6:45.

So, anyway, that's what I've been up to. I know. I go away for days and I come back with a lame back to school post. I should have just told you about how I ended up covered in biting red ants or about my new, awesome Muslim neighbor (she wears bell bottoms and Chuck Taylors under her abaya), or about how I lured a small child I didn't know into my home.

Maybe tomorrow.